Author's notes: since I still ain't heard nothing back about writing stories for the games ill keep it as an idea in my head so for now continue to enjoy the current story in all its glory.

Chapter 25 Lowering the drawbridge

As the infected began to charge at the survivors screaming in anger and uncontrollable rage gunfire soon rose up to challenge the disease ridden former humans making them topple over like a set of domino's, the automatic weapons sliced gracefully into the infected leaving small but fatal holes will the shotgun and sniper rifles made much more mess of the infected horde leaving chunks of flesh riddled all over the floor as they tore through infected bodies. "God damnit that bridge is loud!" Rick shouted over the firing of weapons, the angry screams of infected and the horrid teeth grinding screech of the metal bridge slowly lowering. The shadow man's AWP made loud booming noises as it fired off its high powered rounds exploding heads and making large holes in any infected unfortunate enough to be in the crosshair, Heavies minigun sending many rounds in rapid succession into the horde, reducing the infected hit by them into bloody heaps on the floor.

Sian and Dave were now both standing outside the truck the sounds of gunfire and screams of fury more than enough to tell them that their colleagues were on the other side of the bridge, that and the site of the giant bridge lowering as well was also a dead give away. The bridge was now at least a third of the way down and that was not a good thing, if a bridge was taking this long to lower then that meant that it was either a slow bridge or that perhaps something was going faulty with it, the survivors ignored the cursed bridge for now and simply continued defending their positions. The man with the AWP was now casting worried glances in between firing, he knew the angles of death were coming and he knew that if that bridge didn't hurry up and lower then it would be bad news for the survivors.

As the survivors continued to fire, timing their reloads so as to not allow the infected opportunities to close the distance, Jake was becoming increasingly impatient with how long the bridge was taking, "is that stupid bridge even moving?" Jake said casting a glance back and cried out as he turned forward again and quickly shot at an infected that had noticed his blunder and charged at him. It was then however that the situation got a lot worse as the unthinkable happened, the bridge stopped lowering and went silent, they all looked back in disbelief as the infected seemed to sense the survivors dilemma as they all at once a large mass of them came charging out of the darkness. In the end Jake tossed one of his Molotov's and a large fire burst into existence and incinerated any infected foolish enough to touch its deadly flames, "the god damn bridge has stopped" said Jake. "Cover me ill go try and start it again" said Whitaker running back to the stairs and back into the small control room, he then banged his thumb down on the button, "come on you loud, slow, annoying piece of shit!" he shouted as he continued to jam his hand on the button.

They were almost relieved when the horrid screeching occurred again as the bridge began to lower once more and Whitaker re emerged from his place inside the building, "maybe the stupid pile of crap jammed or something" said Sam as the older man returned to her side, "who knows" he said in reply. He didn't really care what happened to the stupid bridge the only thing he cared about was getting it lowered and getting everyone safely back in the truck and on the other side, "come on damnit lower already" he muttered no one hearing him other the roaring gunfire. The bridge was now almost lowered and the shadow man sighed as he continued to fire his AWP in aid of the survivors, the infected were now dying down and less and less were revealing their ugly snarling faces. Finally the least infected fell and now they just waited for the bridge to completely lower to the ground, "thank god that's over" said Gary and Whitaker frowned 'that was almost too easy' he thought. He was then cut off as a gun shot rang out and Gary collapsed to the floor in pain clutching his arm now having a bullet inside it, "what the fuck!" Rick cried out as Sam bent down to tend to Gary and they all turned to face all too familiar faces.

The angles of death now stood before them in all their glory their guns pointing straight at them, the men had sinister snarls while the woman had a chesire grin, "going so soon were we?" said the leader, "what the fuck is wrong with you assholes?" Jake shouted raising his shotgun and aiming it straight at the leader himself this in turn caused the angles of death to redirect their aim at him. "Ill tell you what are problem is, we don't appreciate scum of the earth coming into a neighbourhood and not paying up and then having the cheek to shoot us and cause us harm" he spat in anger as the rest of the survivors raised their weapons, Jake being unfazed by the weapons now pointing at him. "Let me tell you something, we ain't giving you scumbags nothing, but I tell you what if you harm us anymore than you already have then we will take you down" said Jake his voice full of anger and spite. The angels of death merely laughed at his threat and this made the male survivors more angry than they already were, Sam nervously backed away towards the bridge but this did not go unnoticed.

"Where you going sweetheart the parties all over here?" said the female member of the angels of death, "you leave her alone" Whitaker said stepping forward causing the weapons to be focused on him, "or you'll what gramps?" said another member provoking more laughter. "You ain't so tough when you ain't got your little sniper man to come and help you and now your outnumbered" said the leader smiling as if he had already won, I don't think so!" came a loud voice as Sian and Dave stepped forward their weapons raised. "Well would you look at that they bought us another woman to play with" said a member and Sian scoffed and stood next to Sam who gulped at the situation in hand, "you ain't touching anyone else you got that?" came a voice and they looked up and scowled as the shadow man was now aiming right at them. The survivors found themselves grimly smirking as they realised they now had the man advantage, "now your outnumbered, leave us be and we will let you go, stay and resist then you will die" Whitaker said his voice low and dangerous and everyone was taken back by how blunt, sharp and cold his reply was.

The angels of death had stopped smiling and were almost shocked at the realisation that they may have messed with the wrong people, "I've shot you pieces of shit once, don't think I wont do it again" said the shadow man pulling the bolt back on his AWP as if to prove the point. The angles of death all scowled in anger before the leader stepped forward, "well it looks like we have done and gone ourselves lost this one" he said and the rest of his group looked at him shocked that they were backing down and all were equally shocked when a snide smirk appeared on his features. "But be assured next time we meet we take what we want or you die" he said and let his threat hang in the air before he signalled for his team to retreat, "yeah will just remember that the feeling's mutual mother fucker!" Jake shouted raising his middle finger once again but gained no reaction from the horrid people who merely went back the way that they came.

The survivors merely returned their attention to their wounded companion Dave having a look of shock on his face, "Gary you alright?!" he shouted without realising, "Dave im ok, they just got me in the arm, don't worry once we get the truck moving im sure heavy can get me patched up" he said trying to calm the younger man. "Im afraid its not gonna be as easy as that" said Whitaker surprising everyone, "what do you mean" said Rick, first we have to get the bullet out and to do that will require some sterile tweezers and second your gonna have to seal the wound, which the only current option would be to cauterise it" he said bluntly and they were surprised that sounded like such an extreme thing. "Are there any options?" Heavy asked, "well if you find some medical wrapping you can dress the wound but the best thing would be to cauterise it" Whitaker continued. "Why that seemed like such an extreme thing" said Jake, "because young'un in case you forgot there's a virus going around, if he's not immune then he could get infected via the open wound" Whitaker said and finally his questionable judgement made sense to them.

"For now the only thing we can do is give you something for the pain until we find the tweezers to get the bullet out" said Whitaker, "well what are we waiting for, the bridge is down and those assholes are gone" said Dave rather impatiently but Whitaker merely pointed above them and they now all stared at the shadow man. "You there thanks for all your help, don't suppose you wanna come with us?" he asked but surprisingly the man declined with the nod of his head, I appreciate the offer, but you guys wont be the last ones to come through here and anyone who has to face those assholes again wont be as lucky as you" he said. "I understand, thanks for the help and please keep yourself safe" said Sam, "hey don't worry about me sweetheart ill be fine, now go on get your asses out of here before those crazy bastards change their minds or something" he said and they all nodded and waved as they returned to the truck, Heavy and Rick helping Gary along as he clutched his shoulder. They then got back in the truck and Dave went into the drivers seat and the truck roared to live as he floored the gas and it sped across the bridge and off into the distance as the as the afternoon spring son bathed down on them, the shadow man stood there for a minute more before sighing and retreating back inside the building.

...

At least half an hour had passed since they left the scene of the bridge and Gary had now downed half a bottle of pain pills and was feeling much better, "don't you think taking too many could lead to overdose?" Sam asked jokingly smiling as he sighed and shrugged his shoulder, I have never overdosed in my life but id be lying if I said those pills didn't make me feel better" he said. Sian and Dave sat in the front Dave driving and Sian simply staring at the front at the scenery around them, despite the fact that a virus was ravaging the whole of America the trees still had green leaves and the sun still made the area look somewhat pleasant. "How much further before we get to this forest place or whatever it is" Sian asked and the man chuckled lightly before speaking, "well to be honest Allegheny national forest is a pain to get to because its quite a distance away, as long as nothing more interrupts our journey it will take us a week or week and a half, that's not including stops for gas and toilet breaks" he said and Sian sighed. "Hey don't worry about it, once we get there we can find the military holdout and they will take us to safety, your gonna be just fine" he said smiling and the woman beside him smiled warmly. Although he was no guarantee of safety hearing him say that made her feel somewhat better.

Rick sighed and checked his watch the time was now 1:37pm, they still had plenty of time to go before sunset and then something else crossed his mind, "wait if this journey's gonna take us a whole week at least where are we gonna sleep at night, I mean don't you think this trucks a little small?" he said and Heavy chuckled. "Up along these city outskirts there cabins and houses we can stay in, and maybe even other places, like dinner's, bar's you know that sort of thing" he said and Rick nodded in understanding. The truck continued on down the long highway and the survivors in the back grunted every time the truck was thrown to the side violently, "what the hell you doing up there young'un?" Whitaker, "sorry but I've gotta dodge the other cars and you know the zombies" he said and Rick grunted in annoyance. "Sam turned to Jake and her smile faded into a look of sadness when she noticed his facial expression, he had the same frown she saw on his features a while earlier but she felt it would be better if they were alone before she asked him what was wrong.

A little while later and they were all surprised except Sian when the truck slowed to a stop and Dave climbed through into the back, "you folks might wanna take a look at what's outside" he said and they looked at him confused as Sian climbed into the back and the man I question opened the back door. They all climbed out the back and were all surprised when all around them were tents of varying colours and varying sizes, they then all noticed the familiar logo which signalled who the tents belonged to, CEDA. "Well was wondering when we would run into these useless assholes" Gary muttered before grunting in paint, the stinging sensation in his shoulder still present even after the consumption of the pills, "why what's so bad about them?" Sam asked and Heavy coughed before speaking. "To put it simply they think they have all the answer's but in fact they know nothing and aren't actively doing anything to help people like us" he said and Sam nodded, "well seeing as we are here we may as well look around for anything that could be useful" said Dave and the survivors all nodded before Dave closed the back door to the truck and they began to walk around exploring the CEDA site.

End Chapter

Author's notes: A very interesting question I got since the last chapter from the user Isaiah was "is rick baced off nick?", to be honest in some ways they could be considered similar, e.g. they both hate dirt and are a bot over excessive about clean suits but they are intended to be polar opposites, Nick comes from a more criminal background where as Rick is more pro happy family, good job kind of person and a upholder of the law. With this in mind if you have any questions that you wish to ask me please don't be hesitant to ask me, I have also considered creating a separate fanfic that will be for doing Q+A's for this fanfic so if you would be interested in that do tell me.

I have also considered doing a fanfic that is based off of the 1982 film directed by John Carpenter the Thing, since I think its a good film and a have a few ideas for a story on it, if you would be interested in something like that or perhaps a crossover between the thing and left 4 dead then please do tell me what you think.

Once again thanks for reading and ill see you all in the next one.