Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Left 4 Dead or any of its content such as the infected, its characters, etc. The City of Kelowna and its associated places are real, save for Morningwood Retirement Home. The main characters are loosely based on different real people, albeit with changed names, but any resemblance to real people from other characters is completely coincidental. The events in this story are completely fictional and do not reflect the respective institutions and organizations included as they are purposely exaggerated for the purpose of satire. Left 4 Dead is a copyright of Valve and all firearms, vehicles, etc. are copyrights of their respective designers.
This is written for chapters like this one…
Chapter 5 – The University
The G-Wagen sped along the roads, powering through intersections and aggressively turning as we headed to the university. Corpses littered the streets; some simply bludgeoned and beaten to death by the infected, others eviscerated, smashed, or outright shredded. Fires burned in several buildings and the smell of smoke and corpses filled the air like a thick haze. Wind howled past my open window as I kept watch with my 417, the weapon's buttstock pressed tightly against my shoulder and my hands cradling it in the cramped passenger compartment. I saw the occasional infected roam the streets; some paid no attention to us while others noticed but didn't pursue as we sped past. We decided that nobody would man the C6 on the vehicles' roof in case an unseen Smoker happened to get a good shot at us and manage to drag us out of the hatch. At the speed we were going, falling off would prove to be fatal, and we needed everyone alive to get out of the city.
I looked around the vehicle at my friends. We kept quiet during the trip and watched our sectors. Jared had his gaze glued to the road in front of us, taking care to dodge any obstacles we faced. Lando watched out his window, his shotgun concealed and pointed to the floor. Randy rested his 417 on the window rim, left hand on the pistol grip. A few minutes later we hit the highway leading to the university. As we got closer, the highway got packed with cars, with lanes in both directions crammed full.
"Son of a bitch," Jared hissed as he took in the surroundings after slamming the breaks. I almost went face-first into the back of his seat. We had stopped almost a kilometer from the exit ramp leading to campus.
Lando agreed with his own profanities. "Looks like we'll have to hoof it from here."
I looked out my window. I didn't see a single person, infected or otherwise. The only thing keeping us company was the low growl of the idling engine.
"I don't see anything," I said. "Randy, how's it on your side?"
"All clear, foo." Randy replied.
"Let's go," Lando said. "If we stick to the cars we can stay covered. No telling what the fuck's out there."
"All right," Jared said as he turned the G-Wagen off. "It was fun while it lasted."
"Let's dismount from the left," I suggested. "We'll be able to stay between the lanes and take cover behind the cars." I figured it'd be safer to cover the buildings to our left than the trees to our right.
Lando nodded. "Good call, yellowface."
Opening my door, I shoved my backpack onto the pavement and slid out. As soon as my feet hit the ground I threw my bag on, stumbled a step under its weight, and sprinted over to take up position behind a blue sedan. Jared followed and took position behind me. I heard Lando and Randy slide out of the G-Wagen and run up to take cover behind the car. For a moment we stayed, watching, listening. I scanned the warehouses and businesses to our left with my scope, seeing nothing but flickering lights, abandoned cars, and derelict buildings. The only noise was the gentle wind that caressed the surrounding trees. When we all agreed it was clear to move, Lando got up and led us away.
We walked quickly in a line between the cars. I kept watch, looking for any shapes, any movement, that could be hostile. Darkness had fallen, and my flashlight only let me see a few hundred meters or so ahead, but the lights left on from abandoned cars illuminated objects in the distance. Lando kept his shotgun forward, looking into every car we passed to make sure no infected sat inside. As we walked, the buildings and trees turned into open fields on both sides as the highway started to bend and rise. We crouched slightly lower to reduce our profile. That made me feel a little bit better.
Off in the distance, I heard the sound of helicopter blades cutting through the air. Followed by gunfire.
"You hear that?" Lando asked.
"Heard it, dawg," Randy replied from the back of the stack.
"That's coming from the campus, isn't it?" Jared asked.
"Maybe a pick-up run by the army," I said, listening. "Maybe survivors fighting off infected as they extract?"
"Well we won't make that one," Lando said. "The guy told us to radio them when we got to campus. Let's keep going."
I heard the helicopter blades again, this time growing distant as we approached campus. The gunfire had stopped too. Lando led us up the curving highway without incident and onto the exit ramp leading to the university. Even the exit lane leading to the campus was packed with cars. By the time we made it through the roundabout at the southern edge of campus, my joints ached. I felt 40 rather than 23. Judging by the looks on everyone else, they were just as tired as I was. Thankfully, Lando had us stop as we came up to the first intersection. Going west would take us to a different school's campus. Going north would lead us onto the university's main road and transit hub.
"China Pants," Lando said. "See anything?"
I looked through my scope and surveyed the area. We had knelt down behind a sandbag roadblock that had been set up at the intersection, with a swinging gate painted in alternating black and yellow to control entry. A C6 machine gun sat behind the sandbags on the right. The parking lots to our left and right were packed with vehicles – mostly military – and the sports field to our ten o'clock past Parking Lot B was packed with tents. Barbed wire fencing ran the perimeter of campus. Farther up, a line of city buses with their windows boarded up had been parked across the road, surrounded by barbed wire and sandbags. The barrier blocked off the road as well as the Campus Administration building to the left and the EME building to the right.
"Nothing," I replied. The campus was eerily still.
"Why don' we git somewhere higher up and survey da place?" Randy suggested.
I saw Lando nod in the dark. "All right. Let's keep moving. We'll get to the roof of the Admin building and get a better hold of the situation."
"I don't see any way around the barrier," I pointed out. "But the stairs leading up to the cafeteria balcony look accessible."
Lando followed my scope.
"All right. Let's try that out."
With that, we got up and rounded the gate one by one. I slipped under, the weight of my gear weighing me down and making me heave myself up as I cleared it. As we walked down the campus' main road, I got a better idea of our surroundings with my flashlight. The campus was almost completely blacked out but I could see corpses littering the ground. Infected. Soldiers and contractors. Civilians. The infected had been shot, their bodies riddled with entry and exit wounds. The soldiers and civvies had been beaten, mauled, suffocated, or eviscerated. I had gotten used to the smell of death by now, but the amount of blood and gore still made me cringe. Thankfully, it was the middle of May; school was out and it was a good bet none of the corpses were students or staff. I hoped.
We climbed the concrete stairs on the south side of the Campus Admin building to a small patio. At the top of the stairs, another sandbag position had been set up with a C6. More corpses lay on the concrete behind it, all of them with their stomachs and intestines spilling onto the ground. Two dead Hunters lay among them.
"Jesus," Jared whispered. "What the fuck happened here…?"
I swallowed. "I'm noticing a lot more dead here than the Apple Bowl."
"God damn," Randy added. "This be worse than Rutland, yo."
"All right, stop whining," Lando said. "Let's get going."
We climbed over the sandbags and inspected the area. I knelt down beside one corpse and saw it was decked out in the black gear and kit of OBRU contractors. I noticed the other corpses wore the same.
"A lot of contractors," Lando said.
I nodded.
"But we can't worry about that now," he said. "Let's move."
I jogged up to the blue double doors leading into the cafeteria as Lando covered. I tested the handle and gave him a thumb's up when I found it unlocked. When the guys acknowledged they were ready, I tore the door open and we all filed in.
Our flashlights parted the darkness, revealing tables and chairs that had been turned over and thrown every which way. More corpses littered the floor, and pools of slick, sticky blood almost flooded the room. The far windows were boarded up, blocking our view of the campus.
"Quiet!" Lando whispered after a second.
"What is it?" Jared whispered back.
"Listen!"
We all froze, straining our ears. After a few seconds, I heard footsteps. Not the shuffling feet of infected. Nor the clack of claws on linoleum that a Hunter would make. They sounded…human.
"Follow me," Lando said, creeping towards the tiny food court to our left. With slow, deliberate steps we advanced in a line, Lando and I covering our front while Jared and Randy covered the far doors to our right. When Lando got to the opening of the food court, he pied the corner, taking small steps around it and leading with his shotgun. When he signaled it was clear, we flowed in and around the island in the middle of the food court. I heard a door open, somewhere in the kitchen to our left. Some shuffling and banging followed.
"Fuck's sake!"
Definitely human.
"Hello?" Lando called. He kept his shotgun at low ready and aimed at the door leading to the kitchen.
Silence.
"Who's in there?" Lando called.
No reply.
"We're coming in," Lando said. "We have no intention to fight, but we are armed."
"Can we trust whoever's in there?" Jared whispered.
"Only one way to find out," Lando replied. Whoever was in the kitchen was probably armed like us. I quietly wished I had kept the ballistic panels in my CIRAS vest.
Lando led the way into the kitchen, quietly pushing the swinging door open and sweeping left and right with his shotgun. I followed, watching our left side and sweeping my light towards the far wall, past the deep fryers and grills. We followed the direction of the noises and stacked up beside a massive steel fridge.
"We're coming around the corner!" Lando explained. He repeated his earlier warning.
"O-okay…"
Lando stepped around the corner, sidestepping to give me room to move in. Our flashlights lit up a storage closet ahead. I saw what looked like an arm to the right behind the doorway. I knelt down when I heard Jared step around, giving him a clear field of fire. I heard Randy slide up against the fridge to cover our backs.
"You can come out," Lando said. "Keep your hands up as you come around."
"All right."
The voice sounded…familiar.
The person in the storage closet came out. Our flashlights lit him up, forcing him to squint and turn his head away. But there was no mistake who he was. He looked like a five foot-tall bearded teddy bear wearing a bright blue toque, jeans, and a white t-shirt with a gigantic dollar bill on the front. It was Mikel – or as I called him – Money Mike.
We all lowered our guns.
"Money Mike!" I exclaimed.
Money Mike opened his eyes and grinned.
"Asian Persuasion!"
Lando snorted after he gave Money Mike a look-over. "You look like you just came out of 8 Mile!"
Money Mike walked up. I noticed he had an M4 shotgun slung over his back and a USP in a thigh holster but lacked a vest. Electronic earplugs were jammed into his ears.
"Oh shit!" I said, fist-bumping him as he walked up. "What the fuck are you doing here?"
"I ended up here trying to get away," he explained. "Tried getting out through the Westside but I heard this was some kind of pick up area."
"Well we could always use another gun," Jared pointed out. "Why don't you come with us?"
"Did you hear the helicopter and gunfire earlier?" Lando asked.
"Yee, dawg," Money Mike replied. "It came from past the Library. We thought a helicopter had come to pick people up but we ran into a horde. Couldn't make it in time after fighting them off."
Lando puffed on his smoke. "You been on campus long? What's the situation?"
"I just got here a little while ago," Money Mike said. "The guy I was wit' wanted to get onto the roof and see if he could signal a choppah or sometin.' We couldn't find a roof access so we started searching places for a ladda.'"
"Where's he at now, dawg?" Randy asked.
"He died from one of those Smoker things," Money Mike said. "Fucking thing got him when that horde of zombies attacked us."
"I'm sorry to hear that," I said.
Money Mike shrugged. "The guy was a bit of an asshole anyway."
"Did you find anything useful in there?" I asked, motioning towards the storage closet.
"Yeah man," Money Mike said. "I found a ladder in there so we can get to da roof. Don't know why the kitchen would need one…"
"Regardless," Lando said. "We radioed the army from the Apple Bowl. They told us to get to the UNC building but we were headed to the roof to scope the area out."
"Sounds money," Money Mike said.
"Yee, dawg," Randy said.
Lando looked at me. "I can barely understand a fucking word they're saying. Probably all that awful rap music. Back in my day…"
"Back in your day music hadn't been invented yet," I finished for him.
Lando just cussed as Money Mike went back and grabbed the ladder.
"Let's get going," Lando said. "Money Mike, fall in behind Jared. Let's use that ladder to climb up from the patio."
"Aight."
We walked back into the cafeteria, slower than before as Money Mike lugged the big ladder, banging it on walls and the floor every few steps. I cringed, hoping nothing would hear us. Lando whispered a chain of profanities, and Jared slung his Mk.48 to help carry the ladder. Once outside, Randy and I watched our surroundings as Money Mike extended the ladder to its fullest length and braced it against the red bricked wall.
"I'll go first," I volunteered.
Lando nodded in the dark. "All right. Stay on the top rung and let us know what the situation is."
I slung my rifle and scurried up the ladder, taking care to be as quiet as I could with the pounds of gear I had on. When I got to the top, I braced myself against the wall, unslung my rifle, and gave the roof a sweep. A camo net tunnel had been set up, making a covered pathway over the raised angled roof above the building's main entrance. A small 'room' made of camo netting led into the tunnel and there was presumably one on the other side as well. To my right, a security position had been set up, with a small pile of sandbags on the southeast corner of the roof. And two dead bodies.
"All clear," I said. "I'm going up. Stay on my ass."
"Won't be hard with how big it is," Lando replied. I heard him start up the ladder.
I climbed onto the roof and dashed to the netting, staying low. I took a knee at the opening and covered the EME roof as Lando scurried up, followed by Jared. It only took a minute before all of us were on the roof. We stayed low and watched our surroundings. I was thankful – and not a little surprised – that we hadn't encountered any infected yet. The rooftop looked like it was used by marksmen to help secure campus. The camo netting was probably used to cover the men on the roof as they moved. Quite the foresight given the presence of Smokers.
"Let's go," Lando said. One by one, we funneled under the camo netting, our feet crunching the gravel rooftop. The building had a large pointed roof above the main entrance, but footholds had been bolted onto the roof panels. We climbed over the steep roof, through the camo net tunnel, and came to the exit of the camo net 'room.'
"All right," Lando said. "No telling what's on the other side. We'll move in and clear the roof like a room. Once you clear your sector, get the fuck down in case any Smokers see us. You guys got it?"
We all gave thumbs up.
Lando barged through the opening, going left. I stormed through behind him, going right as the other three flowed into their sectors. I knelt down and swept the east side of the roof, out to EME, and found nothing.
"Clear!" I called.
"Clear!" Lando acknowledged. "Everyone keep your asses down and get over to the far ledge."
We dropped down and followed the old man to a short L-shaped sandbag stack on the roof's northeast corner. He crouched over a corpse that lay propped against the sandbags, beside an opening where the stacks converged. I crawled up and shone my light on the body, revealing a man wearing OBRU gear and kit. His neck had been crushed and his ghost-white eyes stared upwards.
"Smoker probably got him," Jared said quietly.
"Fuck," Randy whispered.
I looked around the corpse and found his gear: an HK 417 with a twenty-inch barrel, a pair of night vision binoculars, and a pair of two-way radios. The 417 had an AN/PVS-22 UNS night sight mounted on its top rail in front of a 10x scope.
"Sniper position," I said. "Probably to cover the bus loop and parking lot."
"I wonder why?" Money Mike asked.
Lando pointed east, towards the parking lot designated E.
"See those?"
We followed his finger and saw two shapes – half-cylinders emerging from the concrete – in the distance. With most of the lights out in the parking lot, they were mere shadows. While most of the campus was blacked out, I noticed a few – just a few – lights on the surrounding buildings and parking lots were on. Tents dotted the parking lot.
"Willing to bet they're generators?" Lando asked.
"Looks like it," Jared said, nodding.
Money Mike grabbed the binoculars and verified through its night vision.
"Yup," he said. "They look like generators."
"We gon' into da dark over thurr to get to dem?" Randy asked.
"It's the only way we can light up the place," Lando pointed out. "We'll have to go turn them on. Bet it'll make a fuckload of noise."
"I'll stay up here and cover you guys," I suggested. "Money Mike can spot for me."
"As much as I don't like losing a gun on the team," Lando said after thinking for a second. "It makes sense for you to be up here. Cover us against those goddamn special infected."
"Money Mike and I will both have night sights," I said. "We'll make sure you guys don't get caught."
"We'll head back down the ladder and go out the main entrance on the first floor," Lando explained.
"Gotcha," I said, putting my bag down in the opening of the sandbag barrier. "I'll handle anything in the distance. You guys just worry about anything up close and getting back."
"All right," Lando whispered. He took a radio, swapped an earplug for the radio's earpiece, and clipped the mic to his vest. "I'll be on the radio, channel 1. Money Mike, you take the other and keep us updated on things."
"Got it, playa," Money Mike said, readying the other radio. I noticed it didn't have an earpiece.
I fished a box of machine gun ammo and a box of shotgun shells out of my backpack.
"Here," I said, passing the bullets to Jared and the shells to Lando. "I won't need these."
"Thanks, man," Jared said as he stuffed the box into an empty vest pouch.
I noticed my shirt was soaked with sweat after I had taken my bag off. I quickly pulled my vest and shirt off and wringed my shirt out. I felt someone shine a light on my back.
"Seriously, China Pants," Lando said. "Why the fuck do you have a full-back tattoo of RUTLAND 4 LYFE?"
I pulled my shirt and vest back on and shrugged.
"Straight outta Rutland, sucka," I said with a grin. Lando rolled his eyes as Randy and I fist-bumped.
"Is everyone ready?" Lando whispered.
"Wait," I said.
"Gonna profess your love?" Jared asked.
I snorted. "No. We need a way to clear the area out first."
"How we gon' do dat?" Randy asked as he kept watch towards the west.
I pulled two grenades out of my vest and set them down beside my bag.
"Money Mike can throw a grenade to the south," I explained. "Throw towards the theatre, far past the main entrance. The first one will attract the infected. After they've gathered in the area, he'll toss a second one to kill them, then we'll give you the go-ahead to move."
"Good thinking, China Pants," Lando said. I could see him grin through the dark. "Let us know when. We'll be moving out to the EME building then we'll stick to it as we head to the generator."
I nodded. "All right. Good luck, guys. Come back alive."
"Those fuckers can't get us," Jared said as we fist-bumped. I smiled as the three crouched down and headed back towards the ladder.
At least our tactics are getting better. I put my 417 down beside my bag and took the dead contractor's marksman variant, lying prone and using my bag to stabilize the rifle. It would be too hard to reach magazines on my vest so I laid out several of the dead man's mags to my left. Money Mike sat down to my right and watched through the night vision binoculars. I gave my newfound weapon a quick functions check, turned on the night vision scope, and took in the eerily calm world around me. I faced northeast, overlooking Lot E. The library – red-bricked like Campus Admin – was to my left, its south side obscured by a patch of trees. To my right, the yellow-bricked EME Building hadn't been opened yet, its interior still untouched after construction had finished. Trees dotted the area, including the lawns on Campus Admin's and the library's east sides and the gentle hills and fields past Lot E. The only noise was the quiet howl of the wind as it breezed through and gently caressed the tree leaves. Five years ago when I had gone to school for music production, the class had been challenged to find perfect silence. My hometown and university gone to hell was the closest I found.
"So," Money Mike whispered, breaking the silence. "What did I miss in second semester Geography?"
"So basically," I explained. "I started saying 'life's like a box of chocolates. You never know who you're gonna hook up with in Mexico' after I heard Gumper's story."
Money Mike and I both laughed into our sleeves.
"What about Joey Fatone?" Money Mike asked after taking a breath.
"I think he went bye bye bye before the exam in first semester," I said.
We both laughed until our stomachs hurt.
The radio chirped.
"All right, you fuckers," Lando's voice crackled through the radio. "Let us know when you toss the shit."
"Gotcha," Money Mike replied. "Hold on a sec." He looked to me. "Pass me the grenades." I handed them to him without taking my eye off my scope.
"First frag out," Money Mike said into the radio.
"Copy."
Money Mike quickly shot to his feet, tore the pin out of the grenade, and threw it south, far past the exit where Lando would lead the team out. As he ducked back down onto the roof, I heard a clink – surprisingly loud in this silence – as the grenade hit the pavement. A split second later it exploded with a loud WHUMP, sending a cloud of fragments tearing into the darkness and shattering several windows. A thick cloud of smoke slowly rose into the air.
"Wait a sec," Money Mike advised. I scanned our surroundings through my night sight, watching for infected. A few seconds passed before the first ones moved into the open and lumbered towards the blast site.
"Infected moving!" I whispered. Shadows moved out from behind EME's north side and from the trees by the library. "I count a dozen moving towards the blast site, coming from north of the library and from EME's west side." Money Mike relayed the info into the radio.
"We see them," Lando's voice crackled back. "We're holding."
I watched as more infected slowly came out of the shadows. After a minute, a large crowd of infected had gathered around the blast site towards the theatre entrance to the south. I told Money Mike that nothing else moved from my sector.
"Second grenade out," Money Mike said. Lando acknowledged and Money Mike threw the hefty metal ball. The grenade landed close to where the first had gone off. When it exploded, it tore apart the nearby infected, the hot, jagged fragments tearing into decayed flesh and splattering the pavement with slick, black blood.
"We got 'em," Money Mike said. "You can go."
"Make sure the chink doesn't shoot us," Lando said. "We're moving now."
I heard the door squeal open several meters below. I went back to my rifle as Money Mike got on his binoculars. I watched through the ghostly green and black of the night sight, scanning the bus loop, the parking lot, the rooftops and walkways. Lando had moved the boys out in a line, with Jared in the center. Jared kept watch forward as the other two covered their flanks, their flashlights moving left and right. They moved quickly, making a straight line towards the west wall of the EME building, then hugging the building as they moved towards the generators in the middle of Lot E.
"What's the situation?" I heard Lando say through the radio. I gave Money Mike the thumb's-up.
"You're good," Money Mike replied, keeping watch through his binoculars.
"All right," Lando replied. "Hope you fuckers are ready 'cuz it's gonna get loud. Cover us as we haul ass back to the main entrance."
"Got it," Money Mike said.
I breathed deeply. Several times. Then I turned my night sight off.
When Lando hit the switch, I saw the generators shudder. Then, one by one, the floodlights around the lot came on with loud SHUNKS, lighting up the entire lot and surrounding area. As the generators settled into a low growl, the streetlights around campus flickered on and off, then back on and held steady. The cry of the infected howled through campus.
The three guys started sprinting back towards Campus Admin as fast as their gear would let them. At the far end of Lot E, I saw infected run out from the trees. More came barreling out from behind the library to my left, and still more from EME. My friends got barely twenty meters away from the generators when the lights that had come on died, leaving only the few flickering lights strung around the buildings and the handful of dim parking lot lights on.
"What the fuck?!" I spat, turning my night sight back on.
Money Mike hit the radio. "L-dawg, you got a huge horde on yo' ass right now!"
"No shit! Stop yappin' and start shooting!"
I swept across the parking lot, sighting the closest infected. Squeezing the trigger, my 417 let loose with a single 7.62 round and put it straight into the infected's stomach. Through the night sight, all I saw was a man-shaped shadow stagger and fall to the ground, a pixelated splash of black blood spraying out. I shifted left, putting down another infected, then to the right, killing two more of the grainy black shadows running toward us.
"Fuck! Where'd he come from?!" It was Jared. I didn't hear him through the radio but back down towards the building's main entrance. I was concentrating on shooting down rushing infected, but I heard the scream of a Hunter coming from the same direction, along with a long, rippling burst from Jared's Mk.48.
"Hold them off!" I heard Lando yell. "I'll get the door open! How the fuck did it close?!"
"I see one by the generators!" Money Mike advised me.
Behind the generators I noticed a tall, thin shape stalk, then jump onto one of the generators. Wisps of smoke surrounded it, barely visible through my night sight. I put two rounds into it, watching the infected – a Smoker – explode with a raspy cough. My rifle went dry.
"Reloading!" I called, tearing out the empty mag and slamming a fresh one in. I hit the bolt release and went back to hunting.
"Goddammit!" Lando yelled. I heard him open up with his M4, its bellowing report shaking the red-bricked pillars by the main entrance.
"Take my gun!" I said, handing my shorter 417 to Money Mike. I didn't take my eye off my scope, sighting a fat, slow infected come around the north corner of EME. Money Mike tore the gun from my hand, flicked the safety off, and started firing into the horde below. As the large shadow waddled towards Campus Admin, I fired a single round into its stomach. The round exploded the infected with a loud WHOOMPH. All I saw through my night sight was a pixelated black spray that left splatters on the EME walls.
"Fuck me!" I heard over the gunfire.
I glanced to my right. Money Mike had been entangled by a Smoker and was getting dragged away, back towards the roof above the main entrance. I rolled to my right, bringing my long-barreled 417 to bear towards the roof and saw a faint shape cresting its peak. I fired off two snap shots, both of them missing and shooting into the sky. I cursed, adjusted my aim to the right, and landed two rounds into the Smoker. Money Mike dropped to the roof, coughing. After a second, he picked himself up and jogged back to my position.
"You good?" I asked, rolling back onto my stomach and unloading another torrent of fire into the horde.
"Yeah," Money Mike coughed. "Fucking thing wrapped…around my chest."
I saw another black shape stalk among the generators, crawling behind them and vanishing from sight. I followed it through my scope and saw it jump from the parking lot to EME's north side, then resume its crawl. There was no mistaking it.
Hunter.
Money Mike reloaded and continued firing into the horde. I put my crosshairs on the Hunter and took up the slack on my trigger. As soon as I squeezed it, the Hunter pounced towards the main entrance.
"FUCK!" Jared cried, his Mk.48 going silent. A few seconds later I heard the squeal of a Hunter and saw its corpse tumbling towards EME. More infected rushed Campus Admin as I slapped a new magazine into my rifle. There were so many I didn't have time to get proper aimed shots. I simply put my crosshairs on a running shadow, fired, and moved to the next one. Most were hits, but I didn't have time to confirm them as kills. I just trusted the bullets' power.
"WHERE DA FUCK THEY ALL COMIN' FROM?!" Randy cried.
I heard glass break.
"GOT IT!" Lando yelled. "LET'S GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!"
A second later I heard the door slam closed, followed by the infected slamming into it. Through my gunfire, I heard them thump on the heavy door with their fists. Fewer and fewer infected rushed from afar and I picked them off one by one.
"Where the fuck are you guys?" Money Mike yelled into the radio.
"Almost at the cafeteria!" Lando called back.
"All right, we're gonna clear those zombie fucks out with grenades!"
"Kill the cunts!"
I ripped my remaining grenade from my vest and handed it to Money Mike. He slid over to the edge of the sandbag stack as I kept watch over the campus, killing another Boomer and another Hunter. Money Mike called "Frag out!" as he threw the grenade into the growing crowd of infected. The mass of decaying bodies had piled up, punching, kicking, or throwing their bodies into the door. They didn't notice the grenade land in the middle of them. With a WHUMP and the CRASH of shattering of glass, the infected disappeared in red mist, their soft, rotten flesh dissolved by hot, jagged chunks of metal.
The campus went back to its stillness. Money Mike went back to his binoculars and we scanned the area, finding nothing but corpses. A lot of corpses. The generators in Lot E still hummed and shook.
"Yo," a voice said behind me. I almost jumped.
Lando had trotted up and knelt down on the roof. Jared had collapsed to my left, tearing his vest off and pulling his shirt up. Randy had sat down near Money Mike, keeping watch toward EME, leaning on the sandbags and struggling to breathe. Lando and Jared both broke out their first aid kits.
"You guys okay?" I asked. Blood trickled down Lando's right arm. Jared had taken a nasty swipe – probably from a Hunter's claws – across his left side. Blood poured from his wounds.
"Holy fuck," Jared wheezed as he patched himself up. "Never expected…there'd be so many of them." He gasped as he wiped his wounds clean.
Lando frowned as he disinfected his arm.
"We'd left a rock to prop the door open," he explained. "Several infected had rushed us as we got towards the door and it must've closed as they came out. I had to break the glass and reach in and open the goddamn thing."
"Why tha fuck did all they lights stay out on campus?" Randy asked.
It wasn't until the fighting had died down that I looked to my left towards the campus courtyard. All of the buildings and most of the lights remained blacked out. Except for the Science Building. Every single light was on.
"Was the Science Building on before?" I asked Lando. Earlier he had cleared the sector of the roof that faced the building.
He shook his head. "No. Everything was blacked out."
"I wonder why that's the only building with power right now?" Jared said, spitting off the roof as he put his kit back on.
"Regardless," Lando said. "Looks like we can't get a good overview of the situation here. Our best bet is heading to UNC through the Science and CEF Buildings. Better to stay inside than out in the dark."
"All right," I said, picking myself off the roof. I took my 417 from Money Mike and loaded a full magazine into it. "Let's get going." Jared and Randy groaned as they got up. Lando's recovery was several long drags on his cigarette. I had made sure to swipe the night sight off the marksman 417 and stuff it in my vest's side pouch. Money Mike kept the binoculars.
It didn't take long to get back across the roof. I felt warm and safe under the safety of the camo netting. As I watched my sector, I couldn't help but notice the hordes were getting bigger. We were fighting more Smokers. More Hunters. Though we carried a hell of a lot of firepower, we had gotten closer to dying over the last few minutes than we had all night. The thought stayed in my head as we climbed down the ladder and entered the cafeteria. When I grabbed the cafeteria door for Lando, my look must've given my thoughts away.
"What's on your mind, China Pants?" he asked.
I shrugged. "I'm just noticing how much more intense the fighting's been getting since we got to campus. Why are there so many infected here?"
"This was a quarantine point," Lando said. "Doesn't surprise me there are a lot."
"And all the special infected? I wouldn't expect something that caused abnormal mutations to be so…common here."
"Well, it's not our mess to clean up," Lando said. "Now shut yer trap and open the goddamn door."
I grinned. "Dink."
"Chink."
The journey through the death-ridden cafeteria was uneventful, although I noticed several new corpses – probably infected gunned down by the guys as they ran back to the ladder. The far doors led us down a hall towards the high-ceilinged foyer with the building's main entrance, one floor up from the AV department and where Lando had led the team out to the generators. The yellow linoleum floors had been stained with blood and littered with more corpses. My flashlight found the body of an OBRU contractor, his intestines spilled out, pelvis torn apart, and sitting in a pool of blood, piss, and shit. A mask of pure pain adorned his face. I held back a shudder as I passed him.
Stacking up at the end of the hall, with the bookstore to our left, I looked back and the guys nodded they were ready. We were starting to act like professionals. Funny how it was the real professionals that had gotten killed so quickly. I reached out with my left hand to pat Lando's shoulder to…
"Shh!" Jared hissed.
I stopped my hand just short of Lando's shoulder.
"What is it?" Randy asked.
"I hear something."
"What is it?" Lando asked. "It better be something important."
"It sounded like crying." Jared explained. "Back towards the washrooms."
I listened carefully in the darkness. I strained my ears to hear what Jared described. Then I heard it: it was definitely crying. Soft weeping from a woman, coming back from the washrooms by the cafeteria.
"Shoul' we go see who it be?" Randy asked.
Lando looked over his shoulder. "How far away do you think it is, Jersey Shore?"
Jared listened for another second. "Pretty close, asshole. Probably right behind the door."
"It's not that far," I said. "If we take a quick peek in the washrooms we can be in and out in under a minute." I stopped myself from pointing out that their exchange of words rhymed.
Lando nodded. "All right. Go with him."
I nodded. "Of course. Watch our asses."
"I'm not into that sort of thing."
Jared got up and went to the door, covering it with his machine gun. The other guys took up position covering our rear. I snuck up to the door and pressed my hand against it. Jared nodded, signaling he was ready, and I pushed the door open for him. He went through and stopped short of the entrance into the washroom proper. Nothing. The door swung closed behind us.
"Ready?" I whispered.
Jared breathed. "Ready."
"Your go," I said. "I'll cover you."
"Got it. Going in!"
Jared slammed into the door and propped it open with his body. I charged up, 417 at low ready.
"Huh?" a surprised voice said from inside the darkness.
Our flashlights pierced into the darkened washroom. On the floor sat a female infected wearing tattered clothing, her body engulfed in the light from our flashlights, making her appear as clear as day. Her skin was a pale white with some patches of grey. Her deathly white hair fell in front of her face. Her hands were formed into enormous claws, twice the size of a Hunter's. She looked directly at us, her glowing orange eyes brilliant and visible through the darkness and past the hair in front of her face. In them I saw anger. A desire to kill.
Us!
She let out a scream, a wall-shaking, soul-shattering wail that tore through my earplugs and into my eardrums. She got up and rushed us, too quick for us to sight and gun down at this distance.
"Shit!" Jared cried, his eyes as round as full moons. "Run!"
I ripped open the exit as I hauled ass. I was surprised I didn't rip it off its hinges. Jared was right on my tail. We ran as quickly as we could to our left, our feet hammering into the linoleum.
"What the hell?" Lando called after us.
"Infected coming!" I yelled. "Run!"
The boys got up and ran after us. We hopped over the corpses on the floor and splashed through the puddles of blood forming below. I heard the infected scream as it yanked the door open. Its hands were outstretched as if it wanted to hug us. Her scream pierced my ears as she pursued us. Fuck she ran quickly. We charged down the hall, past the bookstore and through the foyer.
"Keep moving!" Jared said. I kept running for several meters then got ready to turn around and fire.
"Let's take her out!" I called as I spun around, brining my 417 up. I didn't bother to get a good bead on the infected with my crosshairs; she was close enough to empty an entire magazine into. Jared spun around and took up position to my left, bringing his Mk.48 up. Lando, Randy, and Money Mike spun around and brought their weapons up. We stood abreast, taking up the entire width of the hallway. She kept coming at us, her orange eyes charging at us like freight trains. Her scream got louder, more intense.
"Light her up!" I bellowed.
We opened fire. The 417 shuddered in my hands and its stock drove into my shoulder as I let loose with round after round into the charging infected. The bullets tore clothing and flesh from the infected's body, sending them flying in every direction. Jared's big gun filled the hallway with lead and earth-shattering bellows, his rounds climbing up the infected's legs, her midsection, and into her chest. My weapon climbed as well, scoring a few hits to her face and head. Lando and Money Mike fired shell after shell in quick succession, gouging out flesh with buckshot rounds while Randy fired off his 417's magazine, sending blood spraying all over the ceiling and floor. We started to walk backwards to give us some extra distance while we fired away. She kept coming at us as we fired but got progressively slower as our gunfire took its toll on her.
Die die die die die die die die die die!
The last round left my 417's chamber and slammed into the infected's face as my friends emptied their remaining ammo into her body. The infected staggered and wailed as our rounds tore into her, blood spraying from her wounds and pouring out in sick crimson streams. She took one last staggered step, stopped, and fell to her knees. She looked up at us with her orange eyes and let out one last moan. A second later, she collapsed face-first onto the floor, sending a splatter of blood out towards the walls and onto my boots and pants.
I breathed. Hard. I focused on the infected's corpse and looked for any possible signs of life. She didn't move. At all. I ejected my empty magazine, slammed a full one into my weapon, and hit the bolt release. I spun around and shone my flashlight down the hallway to make sure nothing came up behind us. Stillness and silence greeted me.
"Holy fuck," Jared said.
"What da hell was dat?!" Randy asked as he reloaded his 417.
I kept my weapon trained down the hallway. "Whatever the fuck it was, it sure as hell took a lot of punishment before it went down!"
Lando laughed as he finished thumbing shells into his shotgun. "Never thought I'd see China Pants and the douchebag haul ass so quickly like that."
Jared and I both shot him a drop-dead look.
Lando shook his head. "All joking aside, you guys startled a Witch. They may have gotten their name from the shrieking, but I didn't know they cried like people."
Jared finished sliding a new box of ammunition into his Mk.48. "Well we'll know for next time."
"Next time there's crying, ignore it." Lando said.
I tore a bottle of water out of my backpack's side pouch and downed it. The other guys took their turns doing the same. I let out a deep breath. First we had Smokers and Hunters, then Boomers. Now we had Tanks and Witches to deal with. How the hell were people being turned into these things?
Money Mike's voice snapped me into my senses. "What say we get our asses to our destination?"
Lando shrugged. "Fine by me."
With our reloading complete, the five of us moved out towards the foyer exit. We were one step closer to getting the fuck off this campus and out of this living hell.