DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the L4D2 characters or anything from the GOW universe, they belong to VALVE and EPIC.
"C'mon! We've gotta move faster!" he shouted back at the huffing Lieutenant. She wasn't too far behind the boy, but she wasn't right next to him either.
"Right behind you!" she shouted ahead to him as he continued to sprint forward as she focused on her breathing. That was the key when wearing the metal plates. Breath, a machine wouldn't be able to function without the turning gears, so she kept her breath even, breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth. She briefly wondered why she couldn't keep her stamina as her steps quickly grew heavier, her breathing harder.
All of that time in the Hollow…
Keeping a wary eye on the boy as he continued to sprint and move even further up ahead, she stopped her run to a slower jog, the sound of manic laughter piercing her eardrums against the distant gunfire.
"What the fuck is that?" she gasped, catching her breath, finally giving into her bodies exhaustion protest and stopping in the middle of the swamp. She glanced around the empty bayou as the laughter continued to vibrate around her. She unhinged her lancer from the plates on her back and picked her pace back up to catch up with Ellis.
"Reloading!" Rochelle shouted at the top of her lungs as the giant spider made another wild dash towards one of the men driving it away.
"FUCK! Are we even hurting the damn thing?" Nick shouted as he dodged one of the legs that slammed down in the dirt next to him.
"Too old, I'm too old for this!" Coach roared unloading the remaining bullets from the shotgun he had found into the giant spider, now heading his way.
"Coach!" the voices of Rochelle and Nick were in unison as the small corpser slammed down into his leg, breaking the skin and crushing the bone.
The team had run out from the small safety they had in the convenience store at the sounds of Ellis's earlier screaming when he was getting attacked by the smoker. Running out into the middle of the square shouting out the boy's name had startled the corpser digging into the ground into a frenzy, causing it to instantly rush them, and unsure if their teammate was even still alive or well the team had begun to try and take the corpser down with what little ammo they still possessed.
The second he got to him, Nick had his arm around Coaches' waist and started to pull the older made from the area as Rochelle kept the corpser occupied to the best of her abilities. Suddenly the giant spider started to make a screeching sound as Rochelle focused on what was left from her gunfire on the creatures eyes.
"Nick, the eyes, shoot the fucker in the eyes!" she screamed as the corpser turned and headed back towards the men's direction.
"Ellis?" she turned from her position, no longer being able to hear him, just the maniacal laughter that was continuing to send chills down her spine.
The Lieutenant gripped the weapon in her hands a little tighter as she slowly pushed forward.
Just get to that town.
She told herself over and over again, one rapidly paced step at a time, get one task accomplished and then focus on the rest later.
Suddenly, just as it had started, the laughing stopped, and froze her jog to a stop. She raised the lancer, pivoting in a small circle, alone once again, separated from the civvie who was dashing back to his team. She sighed whatever had been terrorizing the bayou with its laughter had either been killed or spotted an opening and was waiting for the moment to strike.
The bayou was dark and silent, as the insects slowly came back to life around her, proving to be nothing more than a false sense of security that everything was all clear. Briefly she wondered how long ago the sun had set on the bayou, or were they just back in the heart of the swamp, and the thick trees were blocking out the light?
Chest still heaving, focusing on her intakes of breath and the sound of the water swishing at her heels she wiped the sweat from her brow she continued forward.
Ellis could feel his heart beating in his throat as he pushed forward, ignoring the pain in his legs, ignoring his ragged breath, ignoring the noises coming from a nearby Jokey as he ran as fast as he could to get back to that town.
He'd been separated from the others maybe an hour, maybe a little bit less or more he wasn't sure, but one thing he was sure of is that the sun that provided what little light the bayou swallowed up, was setting at an alarming rate.
He could hear shouting as he neared closer to the town, tightening his grip on the heavy weapon in his hands he continued onward.
"Where's Coach?" Rochelle panted as she ran over to Nick's side, the spider that had nearly taken him out was wildly thrashing around in the middle of the square. They had both started to pace their shots, waiting for the right moment when the creature opened its grotesque legs and unshielded its face.
"I put him up in the shop we were just in…" Nick started but they had to move again as the corpser moved back towards their position. "Ro, he isn't looking too good!" he shouted as he moved behind one of the shops for a brief moment of cover, he watched as she did the same. They were blinding the spider, blinding, but not killing it, the thing was still reacting to their movements and sound.
Mutation, like the zombies maybe…
Nick thought as he reloaded the rifle in his hands now down to his last fifty shots, this was going to be close.
With our luck, a fucking tank will…
He stopped his thought right there, not wanting to test their chances, the shrieking coming from the spider alone probably had a horde of over a thousand corpses tearing towards their position.
"Nick! Rochelle! Coach!"
Ellis' voice rang out so unexpectedly Nick nearly fell over as he turned around, unluckily enough, just as he was turning around, the spider that was nearly across town was moving back towards Ellis' position or at least, the position in which his voice was ringing from. Nick watched in dismay as the boy seemed rooted in place and boldly raised the weapon in his hands, firing off small-quick burst of ammo.
"OVERALLS! MOVE, NOW!" Nick heard himself bellow out to the younger male and could make out Rochelle yelling something similar as the spider covered the ground fast, faster than it seemed possible.
What happened next, Nick would keep locked away in his memory forever.
The gun that Ellis had been using seemed to jam, he watched the boy fiddle with the ammo for a brief moment then look up at the impending foe as Rochelle continued to scream, trying to divert the spiders path. Just like a Charger kid, move! His voice caught in his throat as he tried to scream out, a flash of the legs diving down into Coach's calf and tearing the skin, cracking the bone…
He watched as Ellis closed his eyes and dropped the seemingly useless weapon, a look of defeat upon his face when suddenly he was heaved out of the way and sent flying off to the side. The person whom pushed him was still in the path of the spider that was now right on top of them but they didn't move either. Raising the rifle in their hands Nick heard the sound of a chainsaw revving to life as they suddenly crouched low to the ground but charged forward to meet the blind spider running senselessly towards the ripping sound. They both collided, the whirring blade seemed to cut clean through the legs of the spider as the person carved the giant insect from the bottom up, gutting it right through the middle, and down the back of the beast.
When it was over, just as fast as it had begun, he watched as Ellis' savior kicked the corpse, stomping their boot into its lifeless body crushing the downed enemy further into the ground.
"Well, I'll be damned," he chuckled as he watched Rochelle run and land next to Ellis as she threw her arms around him.
A/N: Two updates in two days? SORCERY!
But yeah, here you go, the gangs finally all back together again(kinda)!
Coach will be returning and bit more background story for our ever dramatic Lieutenant in the next chapter... maybe.
Well, Coach will be back, that one you can count on.
Leave a review for our fallen baby corpser?
