A/N: Okay, I'm getting a late start on this chapter. Just got finished watching my basketball team….Mississippi State win the SEC Championship, so I'm pretty damned pumped right now! I found this awesome song by a group named Elbow…it's the song in one of the Left 4 Dead TV spots….gave me great inspiration!
OclairbearO: Yes finally a man with a brain…Ha-ha….yeah he doesn't like anyone messing with Zoey.
RosesfromDemyx: Ha-ha….He is only a softy towards Zoey, everyone else he will kick their asses if he has to! Glad you liked it.
Zhadist: Thank you so much for the review! Yeah Bill has great timing!! I think he just does it to fuck with Francis. He-he I love Bill.
AlleFreya: I'm sooo glad you liked it and thanks for reviewing!! Doesn't Francis just make you melt! He is everything in one package…..a bad ass but also a guy that will do anything to protect Zoey!! Love him.
Dekiller: Neither did I actually. I started writing the story and just felt it was the right time. It was unexpected and soooo what Francis would do. I agree with you about the cliff hangers but if I wrote everything out there would be nothing to look forward to!!!
TetraLink17: I'm thrilled that I could make your day!! It helps me get excited about writing when I know people are reading and waiting on the next chapter. Congrats on the crowned achievement by the way!! I'm honored that the story made you happier than that…..that's awesome!! As for Francis killing for Zoey it just all depends on if Joey and the gang can behave themselves….I think anything he does will set Francis off at this point.
itachirocks31: I know….Francis is actually being smart for once!! Good for him. As for them getting a breather…hahahahaha!! What's that?? Is there such a thing as a breather in Left 4 Dead? They can have there breather when they die! Thanks for the review and glad you liked it!
Faces of Evil
"Everyone just calm the hell down. You really didn't think the power would last forever did you?
Zoey turned in the direction of Bill as what he said sunk in. She had not even thought about the power going dead. This was the worst timing for it to happen now.
She let go of Francis' shirt and bent down feeling around blindly for the backpacks. They had to be somewhere near them but she couldn't remember where.
Crawling to her right a little she felt the fabric of the backpacks and opened the one in her hand. She felt around till she recognized what she was after.
Zoey pulled out the flashlight and turned it on sending rays of light out into the darkened room.
She showed the flashlight around the room to see where everyone was standing. The five guys were huddled in a corner, covering their eyes, as the light blinded them.
Francis came up beside her and searched in the backpack for the other flashlights and handed them around to Bill and Louis.
"That scared the shit out of me." Daniel said as he walked back to the table and sat heavily on the top of it.
"Yeah, no shit! I thought it was one of those damn bosses." Paul said.
"Bosses?" Louis asked confused.
"Yeah that's what we started calling the ones that are unique. They are totally different from the dumb ass infected. Its like some of them evolved or some shit like that." Tom, the older man said.
"Evolved, how?" Francis asked.
"Well you got the regular infected like the ones chasing you all earlier. Then you have ones that actually can think. They have skills that will tear your ass up. For instance the hunter, that's what we call it because it pounces on its prey and tears into them with no mercy. I've seen only one and he ripped the guy apart."
Zoey knew exactly who Tom was talking about. She had seen the hunter on the T.V., in her dreams and attacking Francis.
"There's the smoker….affectionately called smoker because of his rattled cough and when you shoot it, the damn thing bursts into a puff of god awful smoke. Don't let that fucker get ya though. He grabs you with his damn tongue and pulls ya away from everyone else."
Zoey felt a shiver run down her spine as she remembered all too well what a smoker could do. She thought she was a dead person when she was grabbed.
Francis put his arm around Zoey, seeing her visibly shaken remembering the incident.
"I can tell you've run into them." Nathan said to Zoey.
"Y.…yes, we had a close call" She said low.
Zoey allowed Francis to take her back to the mattress.
"Hey, get some sleep okay. I'm not really tired so it'll be safe." Francis said caressing her cheek.
She was so tired but didn't know if she could get any sleep here.
Zoey watched Francis sit down on the mattress as he pulled her down, laying her head in his lap. He grabbed the covers and brought them up to her as she slowly drifted to sleep.
The first thing she was aware of, as she came to, was the fact that her head wasn't in Francis' lap anymore. In fact she was aware that Francis wasn't anywhere around her.
She could hear voices but they were foggy in her semi unconscious state.
Zoey opened her eyes blinking rapidly to clear the sleep from them. She noticed that she wasn't in the safe room anymore. The apartment that they used for the restrooms greeted her as she came fully awake.
She jumped to her feet and turned around expecting to have to fight her way out of this room.
Zoey's eyes looked around rapidly at her surroundings trying to find the best way to escape.
There was no danger around. Francis, Louis and Bill stood in the kitchen talking and didn't seem to notice her panicking.
Her body went rigid as she took a deep breath to steady herself. She really wasn't sure how many more times her heart would be able to handle waking up like that. It seemed as though every time she woke up she was freaking out about something.
Zoey slowly sat back down on the couch and rubbed her shaking legs.
"Hey." She looked up to see Francis walking towards her speaking softly.
"Hey." She whispered in response. Her voice wasn't strong enough to sound anything more like a whisper.
He came and sat down beside her putting his arm over her shoulder, bringing her to lean on him.
"Sorry if you were startled. We had to use the bathroom and didn't want to wake you." He said.
"I'm ok, just a little off kilter."
"Well the good news is the horde of infected are gone so we should be able to leave as soon as possible." He said smiling at her.
That was very good news to her. She was ready to get as far away from these strange men as she could.
"Zoey we found some breakfast if you're hungry. We got pop tarts, pop tarts and oh look here more pop tarts." Louis said holding up the boxes for her to see.
She was starving so she wouldn't be picky right now.
Standing up, she and Francis walked to the kitchen to grab a pop tart.
It really wasn't that bad. She loved pop tarts, even though this one was pretty old.
Bill sat some bottled water down beside her as she finished the last bite of her breakfast.
"I'm going to the bathroom." Zoey said standing up and walking towards the hall.
She closed the door and emptied her full bladder. She stood up and looked at herself in the mirror again. She didn't really look any better than she had a couple of days ago but the bags under her eyes were not as visible.
Taking the rubber band out of her hair she ran her fingers through her matted hair. She was in need of a hairbrush in the worst way.
For a moment Zoey wondered what Francis saw in her. She really didn't think she was that attractive. Her face, hair, and clothing were a mess and there was no telling how bad she stunk right now. She was almost embarrassed to walk back out to the guys.
"Shit." She said as she dropped her rubber band on the floor.
Letting out a sign, she bent down to get it when something caught her eye.
In front of her on the floor was a woman's gold necklace.
Zoey picked the light weight chain up to study it and its heart shaped locket. On the back of the heart was a woman's name.
"Valerie." Zoey said out loud to herself.
Turning it over in her hand, she noticed that it had a latch. She pressed it and peered inside to see two pictures on each side of the locket.
The first picture was of a woman with dark hair like her own. She was laughing at something that, she assumed, the person taking the picture had said. Judging by how the woman was laughing it must have been funny.
She turned her eyes to the second picture and was surprised to recognize the face. It caught her off guard for a moment but she definitely recognized Joey smiling back at her.
The smile on his face was nothing like he gave her the night before. This smile actually looked half way human and decent.
Zoey looked back and forth at the pictures and wondered who Valerie was and where she was at. Why was so not with Joey if they were a couple?
He could have lost her and that would explain his odd behavior towards her. The woman sort of resembled Zoey who had dark hair and high cheek bones as she did.
There was a knock at the door and Zoey jumped back in surprise. Closing her eyes, she shook her head as she slowly stood to her feet.
"I'll be right out." She called.
"Just checking on you. You ok?" Francis' voice called through the door.
She reached for the door and opened it. He was standing there watching her with concern.
Zoey gave him a reassuring smile as she wrapped her arms around him.
He slowly bent down and kissed her softly on the lips. She found that she could get rather used to kissing this man.
She took a deep breathe after Francis broke the kiss.
"So you still want to put up with me?" He asked her teasingly.
She chuckled lightly as she stood on the tips of her toes and whispered in his ear.
"More than you know."
She felt him shutter and grab her tighter.
He kissed her again with eagerness and it made her feel dizzy.
She groaned again as he cut the kiss off.
"Why do you always do that?" She said whining.
It was Francis' turn to chuckle.
"Because darlin, if I don't stop myself now….I won't be able to stop at all." He said looking at her intensely.
"Who asked you to stop?" She said seductively.
"Zooooooey!" He said miserably, dragging out her name.
She laughed at his poor attempt to look mad because she was teasing his self preservation.
She turned to walk back to where Bill and Louis were waiting.
"Damn!" She heard Francis exclaim softly.
Turning her head, she saw that his eyes were staring directly at her ass.
"You think my ass looks good in these jean now…....you ought to see it without the jeans on!" She said winking at him.
"Holy hell!" He said loudly as he stopped in his tracks.
To think that such a tiny woman could have such an effect on a bulky man like Francis stunned Zoey every time she thought about it. The bigger realization was that she was the one with that kind of power. It just blew her away.
Coming into the living room Zoey stopped.
Joey and his goons were standing in the doorway of the apartment.
Francis slowly walked to stand in front of Zoey with a hard look on his face.
Looking over at Bill and Louis she noticed their tense faces.
Something had gone down while she and Francis were in the bathroom.
"Is there a problem guys?" Francis asked.
Joey looked past Francis straight to Zoey. She averted her eyes away from his stare and looked at Francis' back.
She felt Francis reach back and grab her hand walking her over to where Bill and Louis stood beside the window.
Zoey felt as though they were in a stand off. The five guys stood facing them, most of who were looking at her.
"You know I'm getting about fuckin tired of all you staring daggers at her. She isn't any of your concern, so do you mind looking somewhere else?" Francis said angrily.
"Now that the horde is gone we will be on our way. Thank you for your help and good luck guys." Bill said trying to eliminate the escalating situation.
"We want to come with you." Joey said finally looking away from Zoey to Bill.
"What the fuck ever!" Francis said letting out a humorless laugh.
"Your chances with us will be better ass hole. Don't you realize that?"
"Yeah, but the chance that I kill you along the way is higher."
Zoey watched as Joey's enraged face grew ten shades of purple. He was about to explode and she was afraid that it wouldn't be good for them. They all stood in the way of getting out of this hell hole.
"Fine! You can leave……but she stays." Joey said pointing at Zoey.
Zoey felt her blood drain from her face and her heart racing ninety to nothing. This was what she was afraid would happen.
"You know that isn't going to happen." Louis spoke.
"We'll give you whatever you want. We have guns, ammo, food….anything you need it's yours. Just give us the girl and you can be on your way without any harm." Paul said.
"I'll take my chances with being harmed before I turn her over to a bunch of lunatics." Francis said gritting his teeth.
Joey's smile was as cold as ice as he looked at Francis. Zoey was frantically trying to think of a way out of this.
Before she could think of anything, Bill, Louis and Francis pulled their guns out, pointing them in the direction of the men.
She reached for her pistols, following the guys lead.
She couldn't help the gun from shaking in her hands.
The five men stood their ground without the slightest flinch. Either they knew something that Zoey didn't or they were crazy enough not to care if they died or not.
Zoey watched as one of the men from the back walked towards Joey. He was smiling the same evil smile that Joey was as he stood beside him.
Looking down to his hand, Zoey's breath caught in her throat. 'Oh this is bad…..this is really, really bad.' Zoey said to herself.
She watched as the man picked his hand up waving the small device at them….taunting them with it.
"Fuck." She heard Francis whisper.
Zoey did not dare take her eyes off of the thing in the man's hand to look at her comrades. She was freaking out at the moment and was afraid to see the same look on the other's faces.
"Now we tried to do this the easy way, but you obviously wanted to make it hard for yourselves. You have no idea what a commodity you have in her. If you haven't heard, a woman is a scarce thing these days. Seeing as you have one, you are one of the lucky ones……until now."
Zoey swallowed hard. Oh this was definitely bad. She felt Francis backing her up against the window. For the first time since she had met him, he looked at a loss for what to do.
"You see the last woman we had really didn't work out. She wasn't up to the task of keeping us happy." The smile on Joey's face was one of utter evil. My God what did he mean by that?
"Victoria." Zoey said wide eyed.
Joey looked at her confused. "How did you know?" He asked calmly.
She pulled out the locket from her pants pocket and threw it at him.
He caught it without a problem. He opened it and she watched as he smiled bitterly.
"Yes, Victoria. She was my girlfriend and a whore even before the end of the world. It was only fitting that I shared her don't you think?" He said without looking up from the necklace.
Zoey felt sick to her stomach. If he could do that to his own girlfriend then there was no moral fiber in him to stop from hurting her as well.
"Now, if you would be so kind as to put your guns on the floor and kick them over towards us please." Joey said in a chipper voice.
Zoey stared at a man who had lost his mind. She didn't know if he was always like this or if it was a result from the trauma of going through an apocalypse.
She now realized that there was nothing separating humans from infected. They were one in the same, both horrible beyond understanding with no care for their fellow man. Joey and this roaches were willing to kill the only other humans they had met to get their hands on a woman. Zoey just couldn't understand it.
"You must need proof that I'll use this." Tom said.
Zoey watched him lift the device's protected cover and press the on button. The red light from the top of the pipe bomb flashed in the darkness of the room. The beeping bounced off the wall, sounding loud in Zoey's ears.
"We aren't afraid to die. If you think we care that we will be blown away as well, then take a chance…..shoot us." Joey taunted.
Louis was the first to lower his gun. She watched him glance at her with a helpless expression. Bill and Zoey followed Louis' lead and kicked their guns over to the group of men.
Francis stood his ground, cocking his shotgun aimed right at Joey's forehead.
"Francis, put the gun down." Zoey said through tears.
He didn't seem to hear her. His attention was on the men making their lives worse than what it already was.
"Five…..four….three…" Joey counted down slowly.
"MOTHERFUCKER!" Francis screamed as he threw his shotgun down at the men's feet.
Paul walked up and gathered their guns, turning to take them back to the safe room.
"Zoey….come here." Joey said grinning.
"Fuck you motherfucker!" Francis' low deadly voice barely registered in her mind.
There was no way out of this. She was trapped and the guys were in serious fucking trouble.
She had one of two choices, either tell them to go to hell and be blown to bits along with Francis, Bill and Louis, or she could walk over there with those men and pray to God that the guys find a way to survive and come get her.
Tears were streaming down her face as she was forced to make a choice between the lesser of two evils.
"Zoey we don't have all day." Joey said impatiently.
The beeping of the pipe bomb was making her go crazy. She couldn't think straight as her head was pounding with every beep.
Francis' hold on her had not let up. Even if she wanted to move, she could never get past his strong body.
It wasn't fair! He had just told her how he felt and now they would be torn apart yet again…..maybe for good.
"For Christ sakes men we are human beings. This is no better than what those things, out there, are doing to us! You mean to tell me that you all are no better than they are?" Bill screamed.
It did no good to reason with these men. They had lost their humanity a long time ago. They did not care what happened, even to each other.
"Francis move." Zoey tearfully whispered.
She felt him start to shake as he realized what she was saying. He turned his head to look at her and she saw the horror in his eyes.
"No!" He said frantically.
She heard Joey let out a harsh breath and nod his head at Tom who activated the bomb.
"NO! Oh God Joey no. Okay, okay I'm coming." Zoey screamed.
She tried to wiggle her way out of Francis' grip but he held firm.
"Francis please let me go. Save yourself and the others before it's too late." She begged him.
"Shut the fuck up Zoey. I'm not gonna do that!" He said angrily. She wasn't hurt by his harsh words because she knew he was hurting. He was the type of guy that was always in control and now he had to stand there and let her walk into the hands of evil.
He didn't understand that they were all fixing to be blown to pieces, and if he did understand….he didn't care.
"If you don't want to be pulling bits of her brain off of your shirt….you'll let go of her now."
Zoey slowly turned to see Joey holding a gun aimed at her head.
She watched the dazed, horrified face of Francis turn to see the gun and where it was pointed.
Slowly, she felt his grip, on her, loosen. He turned to face her, pain etched in ever crevice of face.
"Zoey!" He whispered as she backed away from him, not taking her eyes away from his for a minute.
"I love you." She whispered to him.
She felt a hand roughly grab her and pull her back against him.
"You can leave now. In fact we will walk you out." Joey said smiling.
Zoey felt herself being pushed out the door by Nathan as they all gathered in the hall.
She watched helplessly as Francis, Bill and Louis walked ahead of them to the stairs.
"You try anything and I mean anything at all, I'll put a bullet through her head understand?" Joey said to them.
Francis turned and watched her the whole way down the stairs until they reached the outside door.
"I swear to you motherfucker, I'm gonna kill you slowly!" Francis said deathly.
She heard Joey laughing and looked over to see him shaking his head. She would be the one to kill him first chance she got! She was sure of that.
Zoey looked back at Francis, Bill, and Louis…..her family. All of them were looking at her desperately.
"Survive!" She whispered to them.
"Move." Joey said as they opened the door to the outside.
Zoey let out a relieved sigh as she saw they alleyway was empty. At least they had a chance to get to safety. They would be okay as long as they headed for the hospital.
Her comrades moved outside and turned to look back in at Zoey and her captors.
"Here's a parting gift from us to you." Joey said as he threw out what looked to be like some homemade alarm.
As she heard the door close, locking out her family, she watched Joey pull a remote control device out of his shirt.
Zoey's eyes widened as she realized what he was doing, but before she could fully wrap her brain around it, she heard the piercing sound of the alarm outside.
"NOOOO!" She screamed in agony as she reached for the door.
Her fingers only skimmed the door handle as she felt herself being pulled back.
Anguish flooded her system and she screamed out for Francis, Bill and Louis.
They turned her around and pushed her back up the stairs.
All of them froze as they heard the sound of the screaming horde making their way to the alarm that disturbed their nightmares, but that wasn't the sound that made her totally fall apart. It was the sound of Francis banging on the door to get back in.
Zoey snapped. She wasn't going to let this happen. Bringing her elbow up, she hit Nathan, as hard as she could, in the nose sending blood squirting everywhere.
He let go of her, reaching for his broken nose, long enough for her to get away from him.
She ran as hard as she could down the stairs towards the door where her loved ones were.
She was almost there when she felt a hand push her. Loosing her balance she started to fall the rest of the way down the steps.
Coming to a stop at the bottom of the stairs, she cried out in pain.
Turning over on her stomach she started slowly crawling her way to the door.
She felt a sharp pain take her breath as Nathan's foot made contact with her side. He reached down and pulled Zoey up by the hair.
"You're gonna pay for that bitch!" He spat.
OHHHHH!! They are in some serious shit now! That was actually a fun chapter to write. I had writer's block for a minute but when I went to write it….it all just came out! Hope you enjoyed it and PLEASE leave me a review! You don't know how much I love and appreciate them. Hope everyone has a great night. I'm going to start on the next chapter but I don't think it will be done until tomorrow! REVIEW!!!!!!!