-x-
Almosttherenow. Closecloseclose. . NestMINE.
That thought was all that kept the Hunter still going. His body protested his every move, but he needed to keep moving. Before it was too late.
There. There was the entrance to his nestplace, a few drops of the womanprey's blood leading right up to it. He snarled at the proof of the intruder in his nest, but cut off into a yelp when his legs failed him again. There was black in the corners of his vision.
Nonono, notnownotnow!
He wanted to whine in fright, but he couldn't; his brothers would kill him if he showed how weak he was now. They would kill him, and he wouldn't be able to take what he needed.
Please, please let him be strong enough to take what he needed. He didn't want to die, but at least he could die with fresh blood on his coverings and food in his stomach; at least he could die as a Hunter.
It was harder to get himself back up again this time, but finally he managed it. In; in through the open crawlspace. The pain flared in his gut sharper than ever when he forced himself to climb but soon he was inside and landed on the floor with none of his usual grace.
He growled softly, looking around at the space surrounding his nest. Where was the womanprey? Her scent was everywhere, sharp and delicious with fear, but he didn't see her anywhere. He raised his nose and started sniffing, searching.
Then the sound of movement from off to the side caught the attention of his sensitive ears, and there she was in his nestroom, her firestick pointed right at him.
He'd been right about badly hurting her, he saw. Her eye and chest were covered in wrappings almost like the ones on his arms and legs but he could still smell her blood through them, and from her breathing he knew that she was tired. Good. She would make easy prey, if he could just get on her before one of the firestick's stings hit him again.
Hatewomanprey, killnow, pounceripeat!
The Hunter reared back to pounce, his kill-screech building in his throat as the womanprey readied her firestick-
And then his limbs went dead under him, his sight fading out almost completely, his body giving even though he was raging inside.
NonoNO! UPGETUPGETUP! KILL!
He tried to rise again, tried to thrash, but his body just wasn't listening to him. No! This wasn't what was supposed to happen! The Hunter shrieked his defiance at the womanprey, at his own body for failing him now, at… He didn't even know what; now he was just shrieking. He was as weak and helpless as prey.
And now he was going to die like one.
-x-
Skyler kept her assault rifle trained unwaveringly on the struggling, screaming, and rather bloody heap of grey-hooded Hunter collapsed onto the floor. Of course, it was the same damned one that had mauled her; just like a leaper to track her down even with a point-blank shot from her pistol in its gut. Not that it was going to be doing much of anything now.
She scowled and risked a few steps forwards, causing the creature to snarl with increasing ferocity and redouble its efforts to rise and get at her.
"Persistent little bastard, aren't you? Came back to finish me off, did you?"
The Hunter's growls increased in volume at the sound of her voice. The sound cut off into a startled whine when Skyler took the safety off of her rifle, but it quickly stopped itself and resumed snarling at her, turning its pale face upwards to glare balefully at her with concealed eyes. Trying to make itself look threatening, probably. From the way its gaze kept flickering to her gun and how it was practically hyperventilating, she didn't buy it.
The sight was pathetic, really. As she watched the Hunter again attempted to get back on all fours, only to fall defeated. An uncharacteristic spark of pity for the wounded infected welled up in her. Curious, she warily approached a little closer to get a better look.
It was different looking at the thing when it wasn't tearing the living shit out of her. It… Skyler sighed internally. He wasn't such a big boy, she realized now that he wasn't on top of her, it wasn't so much his height as her lack thereof that made up the size difference. He was probably around eighteen or nineteen if she had to guess; a kid, practically. His build was lean and muscular, but at the same time a little on the thin side from lack of food. Across the heaving back of his hoodie, barely visible through the extensive bloodstains, was an elaborate Celtic knot with the band logo 'Breaking Benjamin'. Breaking Benjamin, huh? They were a decent enough band. She wondered if he'd been a fan before, but that thought soon made her uncomfortable.
And he was most certainly not happy about her presence. The Hunter was now shifting back and forth on his limbs as though in some kind of delirious attempt to decide whether he should fight or flee until, with a pathetic whine, he simply collapsed. Whimpers now mingled freely with his assorted snarls and hisses as he continued staring up at her. She'd seen that look before, on the face of one of the younger men she'd fought alongside who'd been gored by a Witch; he was waiting for death.
What was making him so desperate, she wondered? Even the infected usually would've given in and died after losing that much blood. Then she thought of that nest of blankets under the bed and it hit her: It probably belonged to the Hunter she was looking at right now; he'd probably crawled back here to die or something. Well, that thought was depressing.
"Is that what it is, Benjamin?" she muttered, hardly aware of using the band name. 'Ben'. Christ, had she seriously just put a name to a freaking Hunter that had tried to rip her to shreds hours before? She must've been out of it from blood loss. Or maybe it was the fact that it was a pretty safe bet that he wasn't long for this world that was making her soft.
'Ben' gave no response other than growling at her, but she was fairly certain that she was right. Skyler remained where she stood for another few, dragging moments, before scowling, slightly disgusted with herself at what she intended to do. She walked across the rest of the room until she stood directly over the injured leaper.
"Well, hell. I can do that."
-x-
Nonono. Nowomanprey, nowomanpreykill. Run. No, norun. Kill. Can't. Pleasepleaseplease. Nokill.
The Hunter's already warped thoughts swam with weakness, but he still had enough sense left in him to fear the womanprey standing over him with her firestick. This, this was wrong. She had no right to be stronger than him; she was his prey. It was his nestplace. Wrong, all wrong.
Why, why hadn't she just killed him yet? Was she going to toy with him first, like he was the prey instead of her? His head throbbed with confusion, which she only made worse with her strange prey noises.
Headhurts, pain, stop. Nomore.
He wanted to claw the pain away, but he didn't dare take his attention off of the womanprey, certain that death would come as soon as he did.
The anger surged hot inside of him when she crouched near him and he growled in one last try to intimidate her, but it was useless; he'd already accepted that he was going to die without even the pleasure of sinking his teeth and claws into flesh one last time. He didn't understand why she hadn't killed him already, but he knew it was coming. Fading, he was fading…
Nonono, please-
Then hands were firmly latched around either of his ankles, pulling hard. The Hunter's mind launched into a blind panic.
Preytouching, preytouching, nonoNONONO!
He screeched until his throat was raw from the strain and dug his claws into the floor-covering to resist the womanprey's dragging, tearing up long, ragged strips of it but slipping in his weakness anyways. There wasn't enough strength left in his legs to manage a successful kick.
What was she going to do to him? He didn't know what was worse, this or if she'd just killed him right away. He had no understanding of what was happening, and that was terrifying. The womanprey was backing up towards his nest?
No! Nowomanpreyinnest! Mine, nestMINE!
The Hunter shrieked, somehow finding the energy to twist madly in an effort to break away though it made the blood start soaking into his coverings again. All it succeeded in doing was to make her pause for a moment and make angry muttering noises before she started pulling again with strength that a Clean One that small shouldn't have. Eventually the pain made him stop. He squeezed his eyes shut under his covering, not even wanting to see what she was going to do to him.
Then, as suddenly as it had started, the dragging stopped. A few seconds passed before he cautiously opened his eyes. When he did, he was met with the sight of the low crawlspace with his nest inside next to him.
Nest!
As soon as he saw it the urge to crawl inside and curl up into himself struck him. But wait. Not yet. Something was still wrong.
Freed, the Hunter turned his head to snarl at the womanprey, but was dimly surprised to find that she was already backing away. It confused him badly, but he wasn't going to protest it now; he was too hurt and tired.
Calling on every bit of energy he had left in him, he managed to drag himself forward enough to get inside of his nest and curl up in the soft things he'd made it of. The dark and the close space comforted him and he immediately felt safer, even with the womanprey still in the room. He still kept a wary eye on her, though, watching until she walked to leave his nestroom.
Through the pounding of his head and the fog of weakness, some kind of thought was trying to force itself into his mind.
Womanprey. Nest. Womanprey.
Whatever it was, he lacked the ability to really pursue it.
Content with the fact that he was safe for now, the Hunter slowly relaxed and let himself drift into a daze that wasn't quite sleep.
-x-
As soon as she shut the bedroom door behind her Skyler leaned back into it, breathing heavily from a combination of fatigue and anxiety, and closed her eyes to catch her breath. She really didn't want to think too hard about what she'd just shut in there, but there was no avoiding it. Christ, had she really just done what she thought she had?
All right, Skyler, calm down. No changing what's already been done.
She took a deep, calming breath to clear herself. Then cautiously she took her weight off of the door, almost expecting the Hunter to come crashing through the second that she did. Fortunately, nothing happened. She supposed she should've thought as much; he'd been in pretty rough shape from the looks of it. That bullet had probably hit something important.
With that, she took up a brisk stride across the room, stopping only to pick up her dropped assault rifle on the way. There was no way in hell that she was staying locked into the flat with a Hunter, half-dead or not. She was less liable to collapse now that she'd patched herself up, and she could probably find the safe room before morning and actually get some undisturbed sleep provided she didn't get pounced again or something. If she left her flashlight off she stood a good chance of avoiding most of the horde...
Her thoughts trailed off at the sight of bloodstains and long, dragging gouges torn out of the carpet, a tangible reminder of the ordeal she'd had to go through just to get the Hunter across the room. The infected had seemed so distressed that she almost felt sorry for her part in it. She wondered if he was going to make it through the night…
What? No! She wasn't having any of that. She wasn't some bleeding heart crying over every zombie she happened to kill; she was Skyler, Theodora Skyler, the one her men always counted on to be hard when she needed to be. It was what had kept her alive, and there was no need for it to change now.
Thoroughly fed up with herself, Skyler walked over to the armchair blocking the door to shove it out of her way. She tactlessly pushed against it for a moment, moving the heavy piece of furniture maybe a couple of inches. Then she abruptly ceased her effort, groaning her exasperation and planting her boot firmly in the side of the chair.
Screw it, she thought hastily. Screw it; she was tired. She was tired, and she didn't feel like moving the damned loveseat. It could wait until morning. She was just too fucking tired.
Angrily she trudged over to the dusty couch against the wall and climbed onto it fully dressed, with her boots still on, before pulling down the throw blanket (the only one in the flat that wasn't under the bed, probably) and lying down with her head on a sofa pillow and her rifle at her side.
She was out of her goddamned mind.
In the silence that followed, a broken sort of whine reached her from the bedroom. Skyler scowled at the sound and sat up just enough to grab one of the other pillows, chucking it at the door hard enough to hit with a solid thump that made the whimper cut off into a startled yelp.
"Shut the hell up, Ben."
Forgot to say this on the last one. Left 4 Dead belongs to Valve. Breaking Benjamin belongs to, well... Breaking Benjamin. Skyler and 'Ben' belong to me.