Me: Chapter 9... wow I've never hated what I've done in stories until this.

Zero: Lemme guess, we've gotta read to find out.

Me: Yep. Anyone wanna handle the disclaimer this time around?

Gimpy: Let me! Let me! Azard doesn't own Left 4 Dead or the types of infected, all he owns are the characters and the plot!

Me: Thank you Gimpy.

Gimpy: S'what I do.

Me: Ok, everyone read, review, but most importantly enjoy.


Chapter 9: A Present Need and a Lost Home

We stared at Will as his horrified face showed no signs of recovering. I walked up to Will and led him into the kitchen with the rest of the group following. I sat him down at the table and he pulled the radio close to him. He began to mess with it as we heard the end of a song and the ensuing static.

"What's wrong lil' b?" I asked. He stared at me and continued to mess with the radio.

"Just listen," was his response. The static continued for three seconds.

"–elcome to a new future!" Came a voice over the radio as the static cleared. The voice itself was masculine in origin. "Let me be the first to congratulate all those who've survived this horrifying experience. This is a special report to tell you all of the scientific breakthrough we've had in the war against the infected." That's not good. "We've developed a new type of weapon by using the infected genes from Project A to create not only a weapon against the infected, but also a cure that will only harm the infected!"

"That's bullshit!" Ash shouted. "I was Project A and they tested their vaccine on me! They never took any genes from me to make an antidote! They're lying about the cure part, I just know it! This thing they have is a weapon that will not only kill infected, but it'll also kill innocents!" I cringed. Could they really be that damned stupid?

"That's not the worst part," Will continued. We huddled closer to the radio.

"This is a special message to all those who live in Mercy City!" Our home city? What are they planning? "We will be dropping these miracle bombs shortly on the city and its surrounding areas, by the weeks end at the earliest." I looked at the calendar. Friday. I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head. "To all those uninfected out there, you may be at peace in the knowledge that this war is close to being over! You need not live in fear any longer!"

"I... I can't believe it," I said. "They're going to kill every human in the city."

"Worst of all, there's nothing we can do about it," Will added. "Well, no short of finding a radio tower and broadcasting ourselves but they'll never listen. One message on that thing and everyone will be hunting us down." Dammit dammit dammit!

"So we can't do anything?" I questioned.

"We can escape," Will replied. "That's all we can do for now." There was sadness in his voice. No one could blame him. Now we had to escape from our own home before we died.

"Ok then," I began, "Will, get Erin and tell her to pack her things." Will nodded and rushed out. I turned to the rest of the group. "We'll be moving quickly so Bear, I need you to carry Sarah, Will and Erin."

"You can count on me," Bear chimed in.

"Ash, you'll take the food and take the front with me, Sarah you keep a lookout from Bear's shoulder." They both nodded and packed the stuff. "Gimpy, you cover the rear." He looked at me questioningly.

"Is this another ramming joke?" He queried.

"Yes, yes it is," I deadpanned. Even in times of crisis, morale is important. "We're leaving ASAP so move it!" Three months is nowhere near enough time to come up with a cure to this disease, let alone a weapon that can only harm us. We all met up outside the house and set off as fast as we could. I looked at the sun as we ran; it was starting to set. We were really running out of what little time we had. Bear's earthquake steps drew a lot of attention, but thankfully it was only infected and they left us alone.

"Where to now guys?" Sarah asked sadly. "We just had a home and lost it so quickly... Where are we supposed to go?"

"I don't know," I admitted. This was painful for me too. "Right now we have to get away from here, until we get safely away we can't afford to stop. Will, you and Erin try and locate a suitable dwelling once we get out of here." Will nodded and translated for Erin.

"This sucks," Ash complained. "I was hoping to settle down and have a family."

"A family?" I questioned. "With who or what?"

"I was thinking perhaps a nice witch," Ash said then pointed to me. "Or I might go your route and find a nice normal girl."

"Will you get off of that? It isn't like that."

"Suuuuure it isn't," came the group response. Will and Erin however remained silent. Erin was confused and Will had a hand over his mouth to keep himself from laughing.

"Shut up and keep moving," I said, now annoyed. We continued on our way until we made our way up a large hill that had a full view of the city and its suburbs. We stopped to rest there and watched our home. I looked up at the sky and saw the moon's position confirming the fact that it was midnight. Then something happened that none of us could have expected. The air was suddenly assaulted by the sound of jet engines as several planes flew overhead and dropped bombs on our home. When they said the end of the week they weren't kidding.

The bombs exploded on contact, leveling hundreds of buildings and sending debris flying into the air. Within moments, the city itself was a torch. The fire covered the entire city as bombs continued to fall upon the unsuspecting city. Jets constantly flew overhead and leveled the suburbs next. The home we were living in was one of the first homes hit. None of us could move from our spot. This was like a train wreck; you can't bear to watch it but can't look away. I heard soft crying from someone in the group. I turned and saw Erin and Sarah hugging each other as tears were streaming down their faces.

I couldn't blame them. This city had been our homes for so long that it hurt like hell to watch this happen. Bear rubbed one of his gigantic arms across his face as he wiped a few tears from his own eyes. Will, Ash and Gimpy watched along with me, just letting the tears fall. Granted we didn't always have the best memories here, but it was still our home. As I watched my home burn, I couldn't help but think of the things that happened here, even after becoming infected. More memories returned to me.

I took my first steps in the city park. My grandparents took me there to play and I ended up walking back and forth between them the entire time. The grammar school, where I met my family. My real family. I remembered how the clique was formed and chuckled. We'd gotten into a stupid fight over who was supposed to use the glue next. After that, we were inseparable as a group. We did everything together, hell we even jumped in the small lake in the city park much to the annoyance of the authorities just for fun. Looks like the glue did its job.

We were menaces in this city, at least to anyone with authority we were. We drove our teachers and our principals up the walls with our antics. I remembered my first football championship. Since my parents were too busy my real family threw me a surprise party at the hangout with all of our friends there. I remembered the first time I saw Erin and much to my annoyance I had that pink tinge on my cheeks then too. She was cute though, hell she still is. I can't believe I knew her since grammar school though.

Will's championship was another fun time for us. My parents kept their 'too busy' attitude and we threw a party for him too. We invited the entire basketball team as we had a party at the local pool. We had everything: punch, some congratulatory gifts, pizza, snacks, the pool and a hot tub that had recently been installed.

I remembered the high school and remembered meeting Sarah. Bear was smitten with her on first sight I think. We could barely have a conversation after she joined the group that he didn't mention her in some way. I chuckled more at the memories. I remembered helping Sarah with some school work one time and Bear got jealous. I think he thought I was stealing her from him. The memories were nice, but painful at the same time. I thought of everyone that made some type of difference in my life, even my parents. If they hadn't been the way they were, I'd never have learned to stand on my own.

I remembered meeting everyone all over again after becoming infected. I remembered the joy I felt in knowing that they were alive. But I remembered the pain in learning about Razor's fate. Being family had its benefits, but it also had its cons. We all felt the pain of a lost family member that day.

I remembered some of the bad times too... and boy were there a lot of them. I remembered having to watch Sarah in that... position before I saved her. I don't think I'll ever forget that image again. I recalled the fight between my parents and myself on several occasions, most often for something stupid like, why I failed my test when they kept me up all night the day before the test and I didn't get to sleep. I ended up sleeping through the test. One of the memories that bothered me the most was the last thing I remember my grandfather telling me before I died.

"No matter what happens, we'll always be proud of you. We'll always be proud to call you our grandson," he told me. I wondered if he'd still be proud of me knowing what I've become and what I've done. I never told him of my court date, instead telling him I'd spent the week with a friend. He was always an inspiration to me. In a way, we were alike. Just like me, he'd overcome the shortcomings of his own family to make a man out of himself and did a damn good job of it. He taught me just about everything I knew. He taught me how to be a man, how to own up for my own wrongdoings, honor and virtue. The code I lived my life by and I always will. He disappeared shortly after I'd fallen ill and died. I found myself returning to wondering what happened to him.

I shook that thought from my head. Perhaps it was best I didn't know. It was always a possibility. Thinking about it, I realized I wouldn't want to know if he'd died when the outbreak occurred, and I certainly didn't want to think he was still in the city as this atrocity was occurring. I sighed in defeat as I took another glance over the city. I think what hurt the most, is that we couldn't save anyone. We're not superheroes. We can't save everyone. The most we can do is watch out for each other and make the best of everything.

"Are you okay Zero?" Gimpy asked. I looked at him and saw the tears still dropping, ever slowly from his eyes.

"Yea, I'm fine," I replied.

"Don't hold it in," Ash told me. "If you want to cry, just cry. We won't think any less of you."

"I know you won't," I informed him. "But, I don't know if I have any tears left." They looked at me and nodded. This was painful for all of us and I was trying to be the one to remain strong through it all. Someone had to.

We stood there and watched the city burn, from the skyline on top of the hill, 'till there was nothing left of her. We watched our city burn as the sky turned red and ashes filled the air. We watched our city burn as screams echoed across the land of unfortunate normals that remained in the city and were now being killed by the very people they'd trusted to protect them. We watched our city burn to the ground, the corpses piling up in the streets. There was nothing we could've done. We stood there and watched the buildings collapse. The bombs kept dropping and buildings kept falling.

"I can't believe it," Erin cried out in between tears. "Our home... it's gone."

"I can," Will said. "People can't seem to leave things like they are and let nature take its course."

"Welcome to the world we live in," Bear added.

"Population: A shit load of retards," Ash finished.

"Can't do shit with them, can't do shit without 'em," Gimpy joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"This is horrible," Sarah said, her eyes still filled with tears. "Did they know? Did they know this was going to happen?"

"I have a feeling they did," I revealed.

"Yea, they knew there was no cure," Ash continued. "They went through with this as a type of purging. They're purging the illness from the world, even if they have to nearly wipe out the population to do it."

"Son of a bitch," Gimpy spoke. "Why the hell would they do this?"

"They're stupid," I deadpanned. "There's no other explanation."

"Everything we knew and loved is gone," Sarah cried holding onto Erin.

"That's not true. We still have our family," Bear consoled her.

"It's something we'll always have," Gimpy began.

"No matter what happens," Ash continued.

"To the very end of time itself," I finished. Sarah looked toward us with tears in her eyes and nodded.

"Now we just have to find a new home, new memories and a new beginning," Ash said hopefully.

"We'll find it too," I said. "We just have to look hard enough." We turned one final time to look at our former home burn. Just as we turned away, I finally allowed a tear to fall.


Me: So did I succeed?

Zero: With what?

Me: Making you guys seem more human than infected.

Ash: Appearance and abilities aside I think so... but damn... now what?

Me: You'll just have to wait and see. Also, the chapter about them watching the city burning is a re-worded excerpt of "City" by Hollywood Undead which I also don't own.

Bear: So it's all gone...

Me: Yeah... Well, I'll see you next time everyone. Be good and be safe.