Tears on the Dawn

*I do not own L4D or any of its characters*

(Italicized text means infected thoughts/speech)

Chapter 4

The four survivors made their way down the destroyed, desolate highway. Dawn followed cautiously, despite being sighted already. Dawn's feeling for one survivor, a young, tall male with medium length, brown hair, told her to follow. So she did.

Dawn kept her distance, but keeping the survivors in sight, hiding behind a car or other piece of cover, waiting for a while, and then quickly advancing forward again. The survivors walked quickly and cautiously. Well, most of them did.

The survivor Dawn was following, the one she felt so strongly about, began to look around every now and again at first. Then it became more frequent. His pace slowed down too. It was now more of a leisure stroll pace.

The first three survivors came upon a destroyed overpass, with the fourth still lagging behind. The three paused for a few seconds then steadily crossed a thin strip of concrete to the other side, the fourth survivor noticed the procedure briefly then continued to space out. The fourth survivor reached the overpass and began to walk across the concrete strip. Dawn was closer to him than she had at initially anticipated, only about seven car lengths from him.

The survivor had barely started across when the concrete strip lurched downward. He quickly spun around and leapt for the side he came from just as the strip gave and fell, leaving him dangling above a mass of mangled cars. Before Dawn could put reason before feeling she had closed the distance between her last position and the survivor in seconds and was pulling him up. With her frail structure and the survivor's bulkiness, Dawn was surprised to see the survivor yanked up onto the concrete by her thin arms. Seeing he was safe she bolted from the survivor and ran several hundred yards and hid in an alley behind one of the stores located next to the highway before the survivor could see who had pulled him up.

I hadn't made it far across the concrete strip of what remained of the overpass before it fell, so I had grabbed the edge of the overpass from which I came, therefore I was still on the wrong side. A sea of mangled cars separated me from my companions on the other side, so I had no choice but to jump from roof to roof on the hundred car pileup.

I took one look behind me before beginning my roof-island hopping excursion over the sea of metal, looking for any hint of the person who had pulled me up. Still nothing. I guess it was my imagination and the adrenaline. But I could have sworn I felt the warmth and smoothness of human skin…

As I was jumping across car roofs, the others just stood around casually, surveying the surroundings. Not that concerned for my welfare I see. I began to smell something. Something foul, a spoiled-meat-sitting-out-in-the-sun-for-days kind of foul. Then I jumped off the top of a white Suburban onto a shorter car and slipped to the left and down the car's windshield, slamming down on my right elbow. Another bruise to add to my list of grievances. Then I looked up and found out what smelled.

I was staring into the face of the corpse of a mid thirty's secretary-looking woman, her corpse somehow flung onto the roof of the car. It was the smell of decay.

I then proceeded to stand up on the hood of the car, being careful not to touch the woman's corpse. When I stood I then took a look around the sea of metal. Bodies were laying everywhere amongst and on the wrecked cars, some thrown out the windshields of their respective cars, some thrown by cars after they had hit them, and some just laying there, large chunks missing from them from being nailed by high caliber bullets. I saw a couple of military humvees here and there throughout the sea, some with the gunner's nests empty and coated in blood and some with their gunners slouched over their 50 caliber mounted guns. It was a massacre. These people must have been in the midst of evacuating when they were attacked by a horde of the infected. People would have panicked and tried to plow their way through the traffic jam. Then the soldiers would have panicked.

My jaw was hanging open and I was apparently holding my breath. I gasped in a mass of air, inhaling the stench of death, then doubled over and hurled my brains out onto the sea of metal.

After about a minute of consecutive hurling I finally raised myself back up and wiped my mouth off with my hand. My hand is wet. I examined my hand. Blood. I looked at the hood of the car and the woman's corpse. More blood.

Great.

I let my head droop and I found myself staring into the face of the corpse of the driver of the car, a teenage cheerleader type, her face frozen in shock, head leaned back against the driver's seat, no blood left in her face, it was on the windshield.

I hurled again.

After another minute of blowing chunks over the windshield I rose again, wiped my mouth, on my sleeve this time, blood coming off along with vomit, and resumed hopping over cars, and bodies, towards the others.

Dawn waited.

The survivor most likely noticed her running away, but if he was looking for her, he hadn't found her yet.

Dawn listened quietly for any signs of movement. All she heard was a thump every few seconds. Then it was quiet for a while, then retching. Dawn risked peeking around the corner of the store to see the survivor off in the distance, slouched over with his hands on his knees, throwing up. He eventually stood back up, wiped his face with his hand, and then looked at his hand blankly. He then looked around briefly, looked down at his feet, and threw up again.

After a few more minutes he stood straight again. He stared ahead for a minute then proceeded to jump onto the hoods of neighboring cars, continuing down the street to rejoin the other survivors. Dawn began to walk towards the survivor again, her legs in control and taking orders from something else inside Dawn. A feeling. This feeling moved through Dawn like a separate life form, in control of her, yet her own will at the same time. The feeling flowed in her veins and made her feel warm and her heart beat faster. It was a human feeling, not an infected feeling.

Dawn didn't know she was infected anyway. She knew she was like others. She also knew those others kill and were killed by the ones they killed. She knew the ones that weren't like the others were fighters, fighters for their lives. Survivors.

I finally regrouped with the others after a few more minutes of car hopping. Bucky gave me a quizzical look when I walked up to them.
"You look like crap, what did ya see out there?" He asked.
I shot him a look that should have killed him on contact. "Like you've had a good day." The Corporal laughed at that one.

We resumed our walk to the supermarket. It was quiet that day. It was unusual to hear such a quiet after living in a world of sound. Cars driving, people talking, machines working, and the birds. Not even birds were around now.

There were cars everywhere, along with bodies. We passed several groups of bodies where soldiers had made their last stands and where hordes of the infected had been mowed down. We caught sight of our first infected since the pawn shop a mile from the supermarket. A lone male without a shirt wandering through the streets. Bucky took him out before he saw us. We continued onward, only encountering eleven more infected spaced out from each other. Each was taken out before we were spotted.

By the time we reached the supermarket it was 12 o' clock and, despite all that had happened, I was hungry. I put the nagging feeling in my stomach away for the time being. We were all hiding around the corner of a restaurant across the street from the supermarket, assessing the situation. There were about fifty infected loafing around the parking lot and street, some standing, some leaning against something, and some even laying down.

"Ok here's the plan: we clear the parking lot, and then proceed inside. Got it?" the Corporal announced. We all nodded in agreement and then rounded the corner of the restaurant. An infected leaning against the front of the restaurant jerked upright before getting its head blown off by the Reverend's Spas. All heads turned towards us.

Ho-ly crap I am truly sorry for the year long wait . .

I have been grounded most of the year and just haven't gotten around to writing. AP Biology is a horror.

I'm going to be bed ridden for a good part of Summer so I will be able to get a lot more writing in.

Well anyway I hope you liked the chapter even though it was a little uneventful. The next chapter is in for some action.

Sorry for the wait