Chapter 7: In which the Hunter makes a friend?
Disclaimer: I do not own L4D. Ark is mine though.
Yeah, so I got banned from the comp for a few days so now I can answer your reviews and emails again. Long story, Don't ask.
Apocalypse Sundae:
You will need;
14 scoops of ice cream (2 weeks after infection, 14 days, 14 scoops, get it?)
A bowl large enough to hold it in (The city)
Syrup, if desired (smoker)
Banana, if desired (Tank)
Chocolate chips, if desired (Witch)
Chocolate turtle shell covering, if desired (Boomer)
Cherries, if desired. (Hunter)
Combine as you see fit and enjoy with three other people. (survivors)
I, once again, thank you for all the reviews. *Faints and cannot be revived*
No, for some reviewers, I did not make a fake contest just to piss you off, I actually intended to use Zeke, suggested by Curse Pen, but when my friend moved away, that was that. Another reason I admire the guy was that he was the only guy on our block with an Xbox and L4D. Now I have to go to another part of my town to play L4D because I don't have an Xbox. I will get one eventually!
Please read this chapter fully and read the notes at the end.
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"Wake up, Hunter." muttered Francis, nudging Ark awake. "Get up, or else we'll eat your share of breakfast." Ark sat bolt upright at the mention of food and yawned, shaking his head from side to side. He had slept rather well on the floor, despite Francis snoring through the night. Louis was the only victim of the snoring monster, and hardly slept a wink through the night. He refused to stir from his bed, even when Francis shook him like a rag doll. Louis covered his face with his hands, trying to block out the light of the room and give the illusion that he wasn't awake.
"Guess his share is up for grabs." shrugged Bill, staring at the plates that contained some of the leftover food that they had taken from the restaurant and the nearby vending machines. Ark stared at Louis, who still refused to budge, and took his share of the food and picked up Louis's portion with it. Francis glared at him. "Stop stealing for one minute, will you?" Ark ignored Francis and crawled over to Louis. He offered the plate to him, nudging the blanket off of him. Louis opened one eye and glanced at the plate Ark was trying to give him. "That's mine, isn't it?" he mumbled, still trying to adjust to the bright light of the safe house. Ark nodded slightly and set the plate down before returning to his bed on the floor and starting to eat.
Zoey smiled as she ate her portion of the food, which was some bacon and a few candy bars, and then laughed when Ark expressed difficulty with the candy bars. To her, Ark felt like a little brother who would get into trouble if not watched carefully. But whenever she was about to treat him like one, he quickly reminded her that he was a Hunter, and a dangerous one at that. She reached over to him to help him open the wrapper when he tore it open with his claws, ripping the candy bar in half. The filling of the candy bar spilled out onto his wrist, like the blood of his prey. She drew her hand back and continued eating her food.
Louis sat up and began to eat finally as Bill went through the medical kits and slung one onto his back. Ark patiently waited for Louis to finish his food before staring intently at Francis. Francis backed up, a common sign by anyone being stared at by a Hunter. Ark looked him over before looking away; Francis had already eaten everything worth stealing. He lifted himself off of the bed and then waited patiently by the door as they finished eating and preparing for the next trip ahead. Francis took a moment to shuffle through his bag and then signaled that he was ready to leave as soon as Louis was ready. Zoey stopped to switch out a pistol for a hunting rifle and picked up some ammunition for it, putting the ammo in her pocket. She had been unlucky the last trip, accidentally wading into a horde with only a pistol, so this time she wanted more firepower. Louis picked up a second pistol and held it tightly while Bill lit a new cigarette. Bill put his pack back into his breast pocket and frowned. He was starting to run out of cigarettes.
Once everyone was fully prepared, Bill cautiously opened the door that led to a very long hallway that seemed to have no end. Louis's face fell as they began to head down the hallway. "I thought we were done with the buildings..." he moaned. Bill opened a door and then closed it again. "As long as we don't find another Screamer, I'll be happy. Even with Francis shooting everything that moves. Hey! Save it for the infected!" Francis looked at Bill, smiling. "I was saving it for the infected. Do you see that Boomer in the window over there? I got it." he smirked again as he pointed at a shattered window.
Everyone looked out the window and saw that there was a Boomer, or at least half, in the building directly next to them. Francis began to brag openly about his kill and the rest of the group, including Ark, rolled their eyes.
"We're on the ground floor, right Louis?" Zoey asked, ignoring Francis. Louis had spent part of the night in the safe house memorizing a map to get to the hospital. "Yeah, we go through this hallway into the hotel across the street and then down into the subway. From there, we follow the sewers to the hospital exit and then work our way up. Not going to be easy, though. There's still a lot of ground to be covered. I just hope that radio is still working when we get there." Ark followed only half the conversation; the rest he couldn't understand. Why was the hospital place so important?
Ark shook his head and continued ahead while Francis continued to brag about his kill. "Don't get cocky, Son. Some things have a way of coming back to haunt you." warned Bill. Francis stopped laughing long enough to look at him. "Being with you is already haunting enough, thanks." Zoey and Louis shook their heads and followed after Francis, who was quickly retreating from the angered war veteran aiming a gun at him. Ark opened another door and sighed in disgust when the room was empty. It was times like this, when everyone was fighting or in a bad mood, that he partially wished for something to happen. Not that he was asking for a Tank, though.
As they got further down the hall, Bill and Francis continued to exchange insults; some referring to age or manhood. Several times Bill threatened to kill Francis, but Francis retorted back until Zoey said something to make them both mad. With the lack of action from the infected, one would think that the survivors, accompanied by Ark, were just a bunch of travelers armed to the teeth with a severe dislike of each other. When they reached the end of the hallway, they shot open the glass doors to enter the Hotel from the building they were in, but stopped dead when they stepped out into the street.
Infected lay everywhere, each missing several limbs, including the head. "What walked through here, Chicago Ted?" muttered Francis as he stepped over the remains of the massacre. The rain fell heavily; the smell of the rain overpowering the scent of the infected's rotting remains. Ark covered his nose as Zoey looked at some of the parts lying about on the ground, shivering slightly. When she had holed herself up in her dorm room, she had watched movies with this scenario all the time and speculated on what was going to happen next. There was a very fine line between the movies and real life, and she knew that she had crossed from the movie line to real life. Ark uncovered his nose and started to sniff around, ignoring the powerful scent of rotting flesh. Bill kicked an infected aside and muttered to himself intently, calling the others over and pushing the infected corpses out of his way.
It was faint, but Ark detected a sweet smell was in the air.
Louis and Bill cleared a path through the carnage, pushing infected aside gently, making a pathway for everyone to follow. Francis ignored the path and stomped through, stepping on everything between him and the hotel. "The path is here so we don't step on them." Zoey called out. "They're infected, but we can at least give them a little comfort in death by not stepping on them!" Francis ignored her and stopped in front of the door as Zoey followed Bill and Louis's path and came next to him in front of the door. Louis carefully opened the door and ducked quickly as a small Hunter leaped where his head was, landing on Francis, screeching. Ark crushed the Hunter's head in his hand and tossed it aside, a look of amusement on his face as Bill roared with laughter. Zoey couldn't help but smile at Francis's sudden misfortune as well; Karma for his earlier bragging had come back to bite him on the ass. Hard.
"I told you things have a way of coming back to haunt you." smiled Bill. Francis growled at him and glanced at the others. "He warned you." Louis pointed out. Zoey jumped backwards when she heard a loud snore, crashing into Francis, who was getting off the ground. "What was that?" she yelped. Louis jumped as well. "Oh, god. A new infected that snores! Quick, where is it?" Bill ripped open a door and aimed his gun inside before rushing to the next room, rolling his eyes the whole time. The odds of finding a new type of infected that was sleeping was almost as rare as finding another infected that could talk. Still, they had encountered the never before seen Screamer and that alone was enough to make them cautious. Zoey and Francis took the doors on the right while Louis followed Bill to the left.
Ark headed for the door straight at the end of the hallway, leaving the other rooms to be checked by the survivors. The snores got louder as he got closer to the end of the hall. Exercising caution, he opened the door carefully and peered inside. The television set was on, showing a news show about the spread of the infection with a map of the spread. Ark ignored the set and searched the room, sniffing the air. Several beds littered the room, some knocked over, and some broken in half. The bed closest to the window that overlooked the outside was well kept and occupied. The blankets were on the bed, wrapped around a snoring individual.
Ark lowered himself to the ground and approached the bed carefully, pulling on the covers. The odds of it being an infected were too great for him to take any chances. The covers fell to the floor as a man rose off the bed while scratching his head. A cigarette dangled from his lips as he ran his left hand along his right arm, which had been crudely bandaged. The man appeared to be around Francis's age, with unkept black hair and brown eyes. He took a deep drag on his cigarette and exhaled a thin stream of smoke, the sweet smell filling the room. He glanced over the side of the bed and saw Ark, who was still sitting there, and leaped off the other side of the bed, screaming loudly.
"Ahhh! Don't kill me, I'm harmless! And I'm stringy! Really! Plus, I- Hey, you're an infected." he observed. Ark lifted an eyebrow and watched the man with a confused look, his mind full of questions. Who was this? The man climbed back onto the bed and sat cross-legged, eyes watching Ark. He took a drag on his cigarette and extended his tongue, far beyond that of a normal human, letting his tongue rest on his arm. "Smoker." Ark hissed. The man held his cigarette in his left hand letting the smoke circle about the room. "Hunter. But your smell is different. Pounced on some perfume or something?" Ark glared at him, thinking about the shampoo Zoey used to clean his hair with. "Ark." He growled. The smoker lifted the corners of his mouth in a smile. "Ark? Is that a name? Mine's Sion." Ark took a quick glance at Sion. He stood at 5'8 with a military jacket over a faded black T-shirt and brown pants. Sion lowered his eyes and let out a sigh after Ark was finished examining him. "I've been in this place for days."
To anyone but Ark, Sion would just have been partially coughing and wheezing, but to Ark, it was the language of an infected with some intelligence. Ark closed his mouth and growled, varying between a snarl and a deep whine. "Were you the one who attacked the Boomer and the Screamer?" Human tongue was still new to Ark, the tongue of the infected was much easier to use, though any human couldn't understand it. Sion yawned. "Boomer? Is that what the fat one was called? I just called him the vomiter. He was getting too close to me, so I got rid of him. As for the other one, He woke me up." Ark ran his claws along the ground and growled deeply, no meaning in the noise, just a threat. Sion spoke much too clearly for an infected who just barely managed to regain some sense of humanity.
Sion panicked and corrected himself. "Uh, I- guh. I'm sorry. For lying, that is. I wanted some company; the tv isn't much of a companion. All I've learned from it is how to talk, but not much else. When I saw you following the humans, I followed you, but I didn't stop at night." Francis barged into the room, startling Ark and sending Sion into another wave of pleas, retracting his tongue quickly. "Don't shoot me, I wasn't the one who attacked you, honest! It was the other smoker!" Francis lifted his eyebrows and looked at Ark, who just stared at him.
"Who are you?" Francis asked. Sion shoved his hands into the pockets of his army jacket. "Just a person looking for some company." Ark growled at him and he began to sweat. "Come on, Ark, I'm harmless, honest!" he pleaded. "If anything, I can help you!" he waved his hand about as he spoke, a faint jingle from the dog tags on his wrist. Ark continued to glare as Bill, Zoey, and Louis came into the room, making it much more crowded. Francis and Bill moved closer to the door, allowing Zoey and Louis to take a look at their odd discovery. Zoey looked him up and down, making Sion feel uncomfortable until she spoke. "How have you managed to live here all this time?"
Sion shoved his hands back into the pockets of his jacket. "Uh…" Ark reached up and grabbed Sion's cigarette and pulled it out of his mouth, revealing that Sion's distended tongue was always firmly wrapped around the cigarette to prevent loss. Also revealing that he was a Smoker. Louis jumped while Francis and Bill aimed their guns at him. "Rare Smoker with a non-distorted face…" thought Zoey as she watched Ark playfully tug on Sion's tongue. Sion looked at the ceiling. "Guess the Tank is out of the building…" Ark got bored of playing with Sion's tongue and started to play with the dog tags wrapped tightly around his wrist. Sion forcefully ripped his arm away from Ark and shouted, "Don't touch that!" before settling down and apologizing.
Zoey approached him and took one of the dog tags in her palm as the men continued to aim their guns at him. "Sion Severent, infantry division. Is this yours?" Sion lowered his eyes to the floor. "No. I just… carry them. They belonged to someone else." His eyes failed to hide the intense sadness hiding within, a tale of regret. Looking up, he made eye contact with Zoey, Bill, Francis, Louis, and Ark, staring at each one of them in turn. "May I go with you? I have something I need to do. I promise I won't attack anything you guys don't tell me to; I'll be just another weapon in your arsenal. But I need to go with you. Please."
Bill and Francis looked at each other, confused and skeptical. Never before had they met someone who was practically begging them to go with them. Ark came because Zoey forced them to keep them, but here was a smoker asking to go with them for no obvious reason! Louis, being the second most compassionate of the group sense that Sion was really desperate and needed their help. He knew that Zoey must already sense that, for she was petting Ark on the head and asking him to look after Sion. Bill looked at Louis, who had walked over to Sion, and dragged Francis outside to talk for a few seconds.
Francis crossed his arms and glanced into the room where Ark was leaping around the room, playing a game of keep away with Sion's cigarette. Sion chased Ark around the room, occasionally trying to pin the playful Hunter. "What are you trying to get outta me?" Francis asked. Bill took a moment to glance into the room as well before answering. "We're going to have to take this one with us too." Francis looked at him with a look of shock on his face. "What?!" Bill dropped his cigarette and crushed it underfoot. "See that?" he asked, pointing into the room. Inside, Sion was talking to Zoey and Louis and all three of them began to smile. Ark was lying on the bed next to him and playfully batting at Sion's dog tags, fascinated by the glittering metal. Bill turned back to Francis. "Even if we protest, it's three against two."
Francis grunted in disgust and kicked at the ground. He was in no mood to adopt another infected; the food-stealing Hunter was enough trouble as it is. Throwing his hands up in the air, he mumbled "First a Hunter, now a Smoker. What's next, a Screamer or a Witch?" before re-entering the room. "All right, you smoker," he said to Sion. "You can come with us as long as you listen to the Hunter over there. I trust him more than you, got it? But if I see anything suspicious, you'll be smoking through a hole in your face."
Sion brought his hands up in a swift salute. "Yes, Sir, Hunter's the boss. No problem here. None whatsoever." The tags jangled as he continued to salute Francis. Ark rolled over and leaped off the bed into the hallway. "Go." Louis patted Sion on the shoulder as he left the room after Ark. "Welcome aboard, pal." As Zoey passed him, she chirped."Come on!" Francis glared at Sion until he darted out of the room yelling "Wait for me!" as Bill brought up the rear.
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All right. Before certain people get started on me: no, Sion doesn't remember his past life, this will be explained in a later chapter. Yes, Sion's speech ability will be elaborated on in the next chapter. Yes, I know there wasn't much action here, but bear with me. And yes, I am sorry for spelling errors. I'm also sorry for this chapter if it's boring anyone. But I did my best in trying to introduce my new character.
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Sion: Hey, what's up with my name?! It sounds weird!
Chibi-Sama: I'm unlucky. The guy who's Xbox I'm now using, because my friend Ark moved away, just died. Now I can't play L4D! Woe is me…
Ark: ?
Chibi-Sama: Sion was taken from the guy whose Xbox died, and Severent was just a random thought, I don't know what it means. I'm planning to release two special one-shots later about what Ark and Sion were doing before they met the survivors.
Ark: *Growling*
Sion: Oh yeah. Since I'm here now, we can start taking questions about the fanfic: story related, PG-13, please! If you want, you can email the director at with the subject relating either Ark or me. We'll try and answer as many questions as we can, but they will be answered on basis of story relationship. See you next chapter!
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