Pairings: I may pair characters later in the story. Keep your eyes open! ;)

Warnings: This story will contain coarse language as well as references of violence not suitable for younger readers. Adult themes maybe present.

Disclaimer: I do not own Left 4 Dead nor any of the characters. My story does not follow the game's storyline (Well, for those who are familiar with the "Sacrifice" campaign)

Hints: AGAIN! Just to make sure, italicized words are just words that are emphasized when a character is speaking. Italicized phrases are the thoughts of characters. Well anyhoo...

Hey there! I have read over my past chapters, and I have realized that I didn't really see the small grammar/typing errors I made! I'll make sure to double check from now on. I'm still new to the fanfiction website, so I have to figure out the way to edit my story (is that possible?). But anyways, thank you all for your views. I hope I get more reviews later, as I always appreciate feedback.

Hope you enjoy this chapter! :D

Another Warning: Oh I forgot to mention, sometimes I use italicized phrases for when I write about the dreams/flashbacks of characters. I try to make it clear when the phrase is a dream or a flashback. Note that dreams/flashbacks are A LOT longer than the phrases I use for thoughts. I think it's a bit obvious, but just a heads up to you guys! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 4

Past Recollections

Red stained the world. Screams from every corner. Rotten corpses littering the ground. Street lamps indicated that it was a street, and yet nothing was there to be seen under the weak, dim light.

All that was left was a lone man unsure of where or even how he got there.

"Whe...WHERE AM I?" screamed Bill. "Is anybody there?!"

"What the...? I was with those kids just a minute ago..." Bill ran around the street yelling.

Am I alone?

How did I get here?

"Bill...Bill." came a soft voice.

Who said that? Bill turned around and saw a sight he never imagined he would ever see. Screaming, grunting, drooling, moaning. A tidal wave of infected rushing towards him.

"BILL! WAKE UP!" came the voice again, although this time it was much, much louder.

Hundreds of hands and mouths were getting closer and closer. Infected screaming, as they got closer and closer to another meal.

"N..N...Nooooooo..." groaned Bill as he tossed and turned on the floor.

"Dam it! Wake up! WAKE UP OLD MAN!" Benny stopped shaking Bill and slapped him straight across his grizzly bearded face.

Bill gasped, waking up in a fog of fear and pain. He instinctively pushed Benny over, grabbed him by the neck and put his rifle onto Benny's throat.

"Morning." Benny managed to choke out as Bill regained his senses and let Benny go.

"You were having a nightmare." Benny coughed as he rubbed his neck.

He has a heck of a grip for an old man.

Bill didn't answer and lit up another cigarette. Shaking a little from the vision of hundreds of zombies overrunning him.

"Wanna talk about it? I mean the others are still asleep and we still have an hour or so before its night." came from Benny as he looked over the shaken veteran.

"No thanks." snapped Bill, a little angry that a soldier like him was being comforted by a college kid over a silly dream.

Benny pursed his lips and walked towards the red door.

"I woke up an hour before. Couldn't sleep. I mean who can? With this shit happening around us, I'm surprised we're even alive." said Benny thoughtfully.

"Trust me, I can understand if you have nightmares. If you don't wanna talk about it, then don't. But you can talk to any of us. We are friends right? I mean you did kick a lot of zombie ass out there and even saved us! I would consider anyone who does that to be my friend." Benny gave another one of his smiles at Bill.

He smiles too much. Bill took another puff of his cigarette.

Friends, huh? All of mine died years back. "Listen kid, don't worry about me. You need to worry about that lazy friend of yours and that girl."

Benny sighed as he looked back into the room after a brief look outside the door's small opening. After hesitating for a moment, he let it all out-

"Zack is my best friend, known him all my life. I mean he isn't cut out to kill anything, even if it's zombies who are out to eat his guts. He probably just needs time to get over that fact before he could improve on shooting." Benny continued as Bill listened attentively-

"Chloe, I don't know. She's still shaken from her parent's deaths. I mean she's my girlfriend since freshman year at college. I know that I should protect her and everything, but I can't look out for both of them! Not when I can't even tell if I could keep this up".

Benny slumped down the door and sat down hard on the ground, sighing. Bill took a moment to study the teenager. He could tell that Benny had thought about their situation, well, more than Bill had caught on at least.

"Did your friends tell you that you ramble on a lot?" Was the veteran's answer.

Benny smiled at the comment.

"Heh. I dunno. It's just that I feel as if I can talk to you without holding back. I mean it's weird.

Minutes passed by in the room. The only sounds were Zack's loud snoring, Chloe's soft breathing, and Bill's puffing on his cigarette.

"Hey." said Bill, shaking Benny from his thoughts as he sat in front of the closed door as he looked up to Bill.

"Yeah?"

"Why do you want to go the University? I mean I doubt anyone would be alive there." Bill was curious as to why they would want to go to a caged up hole. No doubt that the students were all either dead or turned into an infected.

"We wanted to make sure of something. Well, I wanted to make sure of something at least." Benny bit his lip as he answered.

Bill raised an eyebrow at Benny, which made the teenager go on.

"Well for starters, we checked my house too." Benny began in a low voice as he scratched on the hard concrete floor.

"There was no one there. No blood, no break-in, nothing. You see, I wanted to know where my dad was."

"Your mom?" Bill asked, noting that Benny didn't put his mom into that sentence.

"My mom left us years ago, probably because of the way my father acted when he came back from the 'Nam war."

This piece of information surprised Bill enough for him to stop puffing on his cigarette.

"Really?" Bill asked as he gazed intently at Benny. Benny looked surprised at the veteran's sudden interest in his dad.

"Yeah. I guess all the gore and blood got to him in the end. He was never really the same since he came back. Used to be the life of the party. When he was back, he just...sat there...if you know what I mean? Was like a ghost."

"What was his name?" Bill was becoming curious.

"Jeff Gunsman." Benny said as he put down his rifle on the ground.

Jeff? Why does it sound so famili- It was almost as if an electric surge went through Bill as he remembered the time his leg was hit by shrapnel.

BOOM!

Fire and explosions razed the landscape.

A younger Bill marched across the jungle with his group of fellow soldiers. Less wrinkles, auburn beard, with piercing blue eyes. Yet nothing was more evident than the grim expression he wore as he surveyed his surroundings.

BOOM!

A sudden explosion came right by the group. Men yelled as pieces of earth, both large and small, suddenly rained upon them.

Silence.

"Are you alright?" came a voice.

Bill groaned as he woke up from his daze.

"Wha..What happened?" Bill mumbled towards the fellow soldier. He tried to get up, but couldn't for some reason. Huh? Bill looked at his legs-

At that exact moment Bill felt a colossal amount of pain coming from his right leg.

He began to scream. Never in his life had he screamed as loud as he did right there and then.

"Your going to be fine! Just calm down and let me bind your leg!" growled the soldier as he struggled with Bill's thrashing.

It was a tense 10 minutes before the soldier finished. Bill panting and groaning, the pain becoming a dull throb.

"Here. Take my radio." The soldier handed him the heavy, cold box as he got up.

"Call for emergency medical help. I gotta get back to my group. I ran to see what happened when the explosion came so close to us. Hope the leader of my group doesn't put that as desertion." The soldier grinned at Bill.

"I hope I live this through. Gotta get back to the miss and my boy. We decided to name him Benny. Nice name, huh?" The soldier began to march towards the distant explosions.

Bill was still panting, but managed to yell out-"HEY! At least give me your name, gotta return the favor." He clutched the radio tightly as the soldier turned and gave him a cocky smile.

"The name's Jeff. Jeff Gunsman."

Author's Note: Thanks for reading this chapter! You know, the game never really mentioned what happened when Bill was in the Vietnam War. I just thought it would be a nice tie-in to have a bigger connection between Bill and Benny. Tell me what you guys think! :)