Lol hi guys! :P What's up? See, I got a chapter up quicker this time! At least, that's what I thought when I finished writing this, put then it took me forever to post. D: Oh well, at least I got it up. ^^ And it's even a little tiny bit longer than usual! :D …I think. XD Wait, no it's not. D: Well, anyway, once again, I don't have much to say about this chapter. Lol it's the middle of the night and I just want to go to bed. XD
I have a notice for you guys! :3 Now, in this chapter and the next one, some new OCs are going to be showing up. Don't freak out about it! XD These OCs were accepted waaaay back when I was still accepting them. Don't think that I've started accepting new characters again, 'cause I haven't. XD And you'll notice that they come from people who were on our super disclaimer already. :3 Soooo…yeah. XD
Note: OMG! I actually did some proofreading on this! Yaaaaay! XD
Disclaimer: I don't own Left 4 Dead or Left 4 Dead 2 or the characters in Left 4 Dead 2 in any way, shape, or form! I only own Taunter, Noir, Tai, the personalities that I have given to the already existing special infected, and the plot of the story. Commander of the Rabbids owns Sam and Blake. Sorrowsnow owns Calli. Zipper Whippersnapper owns Jeffry. Foxstar-Nukiu owns Valery. Coheed17 owns Claire and Markus. Breaking Ground owns Mike. Scorpion 123456 owns Clawer and Healer. TwilightSymphony owns Cole, Gina, and Granny. MirrorDemonNema owns Angel and Kaylee. Uros Osium Tokker owns Alan. Kynmarcher17 owns Hammer. Dance in the Moonlight owns Ivy. ZombieFreak owns Mauler. KrystalDot owns Jojo. Dodgerjoey owns Eric. Tyrant Wolf owns Shawn. Awsomedacious1 owns Lurker. A Little Help Here owns Spectre. Butters321 owns Echo. Golden-Gargoyle owns Cat.
Super disclaimer has become even MORE super! Bow down to super disclaimer! o3o …if you feel like it. XD
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"Now, what the hell is this…?" Sam said quietly, looking out from the edge of a rooftop. Hunter, a few roofs ahead of him, stopped.
"What are you staring at?" he called. "We've gotta go find Echo and Tai."
"Look over there," Sam replied, pointing out towards another roof a long distance away. Hunter looked in the direction Sam had indicated, and that was when he saw it. The helicopter.
"Survivors…" Hunter said in confusion. "But…they haven't been around here for weeks now!"
"It's not the same ones, either," Sam added. "You know, those three guys and the girl we gave the baby to? It's not them."
"Yeah…" Hunter said as he watched several people in heavy looking full body suits pulling a huge metal crate out of the helicopter that they had just exited. "What's that thing supposed to be?"
"Beats me," Sam paused his talking for a moment to leap over to where Hunter was. "But that box is probably nothing but bad news."
"Great. That's just what we need." The two Hunters were about to leave when suddenly, they saw the metal box pitch a little bit, the suit-clad men having to hold it down. "Well…that can't be good."
"We really need to go find Echo and Tai," Sam said, sounding concerned and not waiting for a response before he jumped down into the alleyway below. Hunter took one last look at the new arrivals and their mysterious box, then jumped down after Sam. Something big was about to happen…
…...
He coughed once. Then once again. He felt flaky and dry, and most of all extremely sore. His vision was blurry, and he couldn't make out the two faces looking down at him.
"He's waking up!" came a voice, sounding as if it came from a whole mile away. "He's really waking up!"
"We did it! Yes!" there was another voice, this one sounding equally as distant. He opened his mouth to speak, but all that came out was an exhausted groan. He blinked a few times, finally able to bring into focus the two above him. Echo and Tai.
"Get out…" Clawer rasped, lifting up a charred hand to shove Tai away, but found himself unable to summon up the strength. "Get out of…my face!"
"Clawer, he just saved your life!" Echo said, suddenly looking annoyed. "You should be thanking him!"
"I don't…know what you're talking about," Clawer coughed again. "I was just beating the crap out of Cole. I didn't need saving."
"Yeah, right! Come on, Cole beat you, and you were dead! D-E-A-D, dead! Tai used that thing to bring you back to life!" Echo said this in hopes that Clawer would understand exactly what Tai had just done. Clawer glanced over at Tai, who had backed up a bit. Presumably to get out of Clawer's face, like Clawer had said to do. And Clawer realized that Tai was indeed holding a defib unit. Had Tai really…?
"You're kidding, right?" Clawer asked, unable to believe the fact that one of the ones he had considered an enemy had saved his life.
"Why would I be kidding about something like this?" Echo frowned, now looking a bit sad. "You were really dead. It's a good thing that we got back here before it was too late."
"Yeah, but I hardly did anything," Tai shrugged meekly. "You found this thing, Echo. I just used it on him. If you hadn't found it…"
"Well…we both helped," Echo nodded. "Anyway, we should really get Healer over here…"
"Oh, right!" Tai exclaimed, having completely forgotten that they in fact had someone who could perfectly heal Clawer on their team. "Uh…so, which way is back to the base now? Have you guys moved at all?"
"It's fine, I'll get her," Echo said, standing up. "You stay here with Clawer, and we'll get back here as fast as we can."
"Okay," Tai agreed, and Echo ran off down an alleyway. The two remaining Infected were quiet for a moment, and the only sounds that could be heard were the gibberish-babbling Commons and an odd whirring noise…What was that whirring?
"So," Clawer said, distracting Tai from his attempted investigation of the strange whirring sound. "You. You really saved me?"
"Well…yeah," Tai said after a moment. "Why wouldn't I?"
"Because you work for Cole," Clawer replied, attempting very slowly and carefully to get himself into a more comfortable position, wincing from the pain emanating from the burns he had received in his scuffle with Cole.
"I don't work for Cole," Tai sighed, fairly sure that he was never going to convince Clawer anyway. "I've told you that a lot now. But you're not going to believe me anyway, so I guess there's no point in telling you that anymore." There was another long silence.
"So then," Clawer continued, still trying to adjust his position so that he would somehow not be lying on top of one of his burns. "Why would one of Cole's lackeys save my life?"
"Forget it," Tai turned away, feeling one of his rare bouts of being fed up. "If you're just gonna call me Cole's lackey all the time, I'm not gonna talk to you. And I don't see why I would have saved your life if I was working for Cole anyway." Tai fell silent, not wanting to look at Clawer. Why wouldn't this guy just believe what he said? Yet another long, drawn out silence hung in between them.
"You're…saying that you're serious?" Clawer asked after a while.
"Yeah, I am!" Tai turned back to face Clawer quickly. "Me and Eric really are on your side! Both of us hate Cole! I just don't see why you won't listen to me!"
"It's because they've told us that before," Clawer said, his voice suddenly quieter. "You probably know about it already."
"Know about what?" Tai asked, any signs of annoyance or anger completely leaving his voice.
"So, they kept you out of the loop?"
"What loop?" Tai persisted with his questions. Clawer sighed, then spoke.
"Back when I was with my old group, a few new Infected joined us. We thought we could trust them. They were our friends, right?" Tai nodded slowly as he listened. "Wrong." He flinched a bit as Clawer said the single word, sounding harsh and cold. "Those guys turned on us. They had been working for Cole the whole time. They're one of the reasons that all of my friends except Healer died. All because we were betrayed. So, now do you see why I didn't feel like trusting you guys? I didn't want a repeat. Get it?" Tai nodded again, this time more quickly. He hadn't known about that part of Cole's plan back at the factory at all. So then…who were the traitors that Clawer was talking about?
"Well then, do you think I should trust you because you saved me?" Clawer asked suddenly.
"Huh?" Tai said in surprise. "You're asking me?"
"Yeah. I am. So, what do you think? Should I trust you?"
"Well, I think so," Tai answered. "I sure like your team a whole heck of a lot better than my old team. Plus, Riley is on your team."
"Riley?"
"My sister."
"Oh, right…Taunter." The two of them were quiet for a moment.
"Well, alright then," Clawer finally spoke once again. "I guess I'll just have to trust you, then."
"…Really?" Tai asked, his response a bit slow due to surprise.
"Yeah. But listen," Clawer turned to look at Tai right in the eyes. "If you ever betray us, I'll be sure to see you dead before the day's over. Got it?"
"Got it," Tai nodded, not wanting to think about how that scenario would turn out. "Trust me, I won't betray you. I want to get rid of Cole as much as you do."
"We'll just have to see, I guess," Clawer said. And as if on cue, Echo and Healer came running into the area.
"That was fast," Tai said, astonished at how quickly the two girls had made it there.
"Like I said, we came back as fast as we could," Echo gave a bit of a smile. "Everything's gonna be fine now."
"Oh, Clawer, what happened?" Healer asked, kneeling down next to him, worry lacing her voice.
"I got in a fight with Cole," Clawer told her.
"Well…that's a bit obvious," she began what appeared to be her healing process, and Tai and Echo walked away to leave them alone for a while.
"Clawer," Healer whispered. "I need to tell you something."
"What?" he said quietly, sensing the worry in her voice. "What happened?"
"When I was following Echo here, I saw a helicopter. With a bunch of survivors in it. And they had a big metal box with them."
"Survivors? Now? Great."
"But it's not just that, Clawer. These survivors…we've seen them before."
"Seen them before…?"
"Yeah. It's those guys, Clawer. The ones in the white coats. And the full body suits. It's them." A small spark of recognition flashed in Clawer's mind, his fading pre-infection memories fighting to surface into his thoughts.
"Those guys…" Clawer repeated what she had said, trying hard to remember, but found himself unable to make the memory fully surface. All he could remember was one thing: Those men were bad news. End of story.
…...
Everyone was exhausted from training. Even Spectre seemed a bit tired, having had to shout directions to everyone all day.
"Take a break, everyone!" he called before sitting down onto a crate to rest.
"Phew. Man, I'm beat," Smoker said, sitting down on the ground and reaching into his pocket for a cig. He pulled one out and stared at it for a moment but then put it away, deciding that nobody was going to like even more smoke floating around, especially when they were all so worn out. Just as everyone was getting ready to settle down, Boomer and Jeffry entered the area, grim looks on their faces.
"What's wrong?" Angel asked, seeing their troubled expressions.
"Did something happen?" Cat inquired, joining in on the questioning.
"We've got trouble," Boomer replied. "A helicopter landed in the town, and there were survivors on it. We have no idea what they're doing here. It can't be a good thing."
"That does sound bad," Alan muttered. "Do they look dangerous?"
"We couldn't tell from down on the ground. They were up on a roof," Boomer explained to him.
"Well, what are we going to do about it?" Valery asked, frowning. "We've already got Cole to worry about. What do we do about the survivors from the helicopter?" A long silence ensued. Nobody knew what they would do. Survivors on one side of them, Cole on the other. There was nowhere to go. Nowhere to run. And nothing they could do about the events that were about to unfold.
…...
"We're almost there," Mike said, leading the trio behind him down the road.
"Sounds like you guys have it pretty bad back there," Claire said, frowning. "You should have come got me sooner."
"Well, at least we're going now, right? We can still help them out," the Smoker walking next to her said.
"Yeah, that's true…you're right, Markus. Oh, and don't trip in that pothole, Kaylee!"
"Huh? Oh, thanks!" the other Smoker, this one a woman, said. "I would've fallen flat on my face, huh…?" Mike began to phase out the conversation behind him. He only focused on the city approaching them on the horizon. What had happened while he had been gone getting help? Had they beaten Cole? Or had they all…? Mike shook his head, ridding his mind of the thought that his friends might have been killed. He told himself that he couldn't think of that. Because when you begin to lose hope, you know that everything will be lost with it eventually.
…...
The men, still wearing their full body suits to protect against infection, surveyed their work on the roof. The devices still in the helicopter whirred and blinked.
"Is it ready?" one of them asked, his voice muffled due to his suit.
"It would seem to be so," a second one replied. He lifted the top off of the metal crate that they had heaved out of the helicopter, allowing a single moment to pass, then absent mindedly tossing the lid behind him, not caring where it landed. "Project Fusion will begin…now."
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I wrote this all in one sitting. BOOYA.
Lol anyway. XD Sooo, bad guys, first off! You guys haven't gotten much screen time lately. D: You'll get more soon, I promise! XC Just wait until you see my next plot twist~ :3
And also~ Question time!
For the good guys: Sooo…you guys are in a tight spot, huh? XD You've got Cole and CEDA to worry about. What will you do? D:
For the bad guys: Have you guys noticed that CEDA is around yet? If so, what do you plan to do about it?
And another note: Th-The romance is coming I promise! D: Patience is a virtue, after all! :D …that's no excuse, I'm sorry. XD