Author Note: To all of you who have reviewed thank you so much. I hope you enjoy this next chapter. As always I don't own Left 4 Dead just play it a lot (:
After several hours of sneaking and killing their way past the infected, Carina, Keith and Danielle found themselves happily secure inside a safe house. The heavy barred doors were enough to keep any of the infected at bay. Finally able to let their guard down, the exhaustion and fatigue quickly sat in.
"Dear Lord, I aint been this tired since me and my buddy Ellis bet each other who could go the longest without sleep. I won of course, three and a half days straight. And then there was this other time…."
Keith was cut off by a glare from Danielle. "As much as I love your stories, I think we all need some sleep. You can finish this one in the morning before we leave."
Seemingly satisfied with the compromise, Keith walked over to the heavy door and checked one last time, ensuring that it was indeed secure. With a contented nod the country boy walked over to one corner of the small room and lay down. A few minutes later, soft snoring could be heard as the country boy fell into the peaceful bliss that only sleep could provide.
Carina smiled, and looked over to Danielle who was quietly forming a bed out of some blankets she had found. "Who's Ellis?" Danielle let out a frustrated sigh. "He's Keith's life long partner in crime. You'll see, a day won't go by without another story about some crazy adventure that Keith and Ellis had."
"Did….did he survive?" Carina asked, unsure if she wanted to hear the answer. Danielle smiled sadly turning her gaze towards the sleeping man.
"He has no idea, Keith was here visiting some family when the infection hit. He has no idea what state his home town is in. If you ask him, he'll tell you there is no way in hell that Ellis died."
Carina nodded, "At least he still has some hope for now." Danielle nodded and then flashed a warm smile. "We still have hope you know. Even if your old loved ones are dead or zombified, doesn't mean we can't start over, make new friends, build new families."
Carina smiled. "Yeah…that's true." She said with a yawn. The girl across from her mirrored the yawn and both let out a small laugh. "I can't keep my eyes open any longer…night Rina."
"Night El." Carina muttered as sleep overtook the young girl. Peaceful sleep enveloped them all.
"WHAT THE HELL!"
Carina awoke with a start blindly reaching around for her shotgun. As she wrapped her hand around her weapon, she looked up to see Keith standing at the barred door staring out into the dark.
"What's wrong?" El asked quickly jumping to her feet rifle in hand.
"There…..there's one of em creepy clawed chicks outside. She was right next to the door and her crying woke me. She stumbled back into the dark when I jumped up to look out."
"Well shit, it's not good to have a witch around." El muttered, shaking ever so slightly. She had seen a witch carve up another survivor once. It was quick and bloody and hardly anything was left after the sobbing infected girl had snapped and sank her claws into the poor man.
Carina looked at her two friends by the door. 'A witch…why would….' She thought. "Oh crap." She muttered as she walked over to stare outside.
"There she is!" Keith said quickly pushing his shotgun through the bars and taking aim.
Carina stared out trying to see what the country boy saw. At first she didn't see anything, but then the thin sickly body of a witch could be seen as she limped her whimpering self towards the door.
"Is…is it her." Carina muttered out loud causing to Danielle to look over questioningly.
Then Carina saw it, the bandages and the green piece of cloth tied around the infected girl's neck. 'She followed me?'
"Now your close enough." Keith said.
"NO!" Carina screamed jumping towards Keith. The scream caused the witch to look up. As the blonde girl slammed into the red neck, Keith pulled the trigger sending a large blast of buck shot towards the witch.
Carina's last minute dive caused Keith's shot to push to the right. Instead of blowing a hole straight through the witch, part of the blast grazed her in the side. The witch dropped to the ground huddling into the fetal position, her sobbing becoming painful wails.
"What the hell Rina, it's a witch." Keith yelled angrily as he picked himself up off the ground.
Carina didn't even answer. She quickly grabbed one of the med packs from the safe house and quickly pulled off the metal bar that was securing the door.
"No Rina get back here…SHE'S INFECTED!." Danielle yelled as the blonde girl sprinted a few yards into the dark skidding to a stop over the witch.
The two survivors stared in horror truly expecting the witch to tear the new girl apart. The loud moans of the common infected rang out as they were drawn in by the gun blast and the witch's wailing. Keith chambered another shell. "Come on El…we got to get her back inside before the hoard comes."
Carina skidded to a stop and knelt down next to the witch, tears pouring down the college girl's face. She quickly pulled open the med kit and began applying bandages trying desperately to stop the bleeding coming from the witch's side.
Feeling the pressure on her side, the witch looked over noticing the girl standing over her. Though she was in terrible pain, the witch managed a small purr like growl. She was no longer alone. The witch began to cough spitting up some of her rancid smelling blood. Her red eyes began to roll into the back of her head as she started to go into shock.
"No….no don't die. I know you're different." Carina cried as she frantically tried to stop the blood from leaking out of the infected girl's body. She was too caught up in her work to see the hoard bearing down on her.
Author Note: Kinda short, but this was a great place to leave the chapter. Good news is I have the next chapter already finished so it will be up hopefully a day or two after this has been posted. As always thanks for reading and please review. I'm loving the feedback so far and it does get me motivated to keep pumping out chapters.