Author's notes
To the guest reviewer: I am aware of that in the canon Left 4 Dead, the relationship between Bill and Zoey are that of father-daugher. Just as the title implies, this is a what if story after all. Still, I should have said it better at the beginning of the first chapter.
Chapter 2: Aftermath & The Savannah Survivors
Rayford, GA – November 24th 2009
Bill opens his eyes. He's not sure yet where he is now, but soon enough, the warm body snuggling up to his gives the answer. He is back in the house, with Zoey, in a bed no less. That's when he remembers. After their impromptu make out session, the both of them had headed towards the house again. It seems Francis or Louis or both had taken out the ramp in order to link the bridge and the house again, this time using wood planks to do a makeshift bridge. From there, both Bill and Zoey had made their way into the house where… things had progressed beyond what they expected, but not unwelcome. The older man chuckles softly to himself when he sees their clothes are all over the bedroom they found there. Well, at least Francis gave us privacy. Thought the old war veteran with humor. Bill look down at Zoey's head that is on his chest, with a small content smile on her face. His hand is on her shoulder, rubbing it in a loving and soft manner in order to not wake her up to no avail. She muttered something that is incomprehensible to Bill, but while he feels guilty for waking her, it didn't made his smile drop from his face. Zoey muttered something again, then opens her eyes. Like Bill earlier, she is confused for a moment, but it pass just as fast as Bill's confusion did, a smile breaking out on her face.
"Hi." Zoey says softly, looking at Bill with love in her eyes.
"Hello darling." Bill reply just as softly.
"How long were you awake?" She asks.
"Not long." Comes the answer from the older man.
The former college student gives him another smile before kissing softly, which he returns. After a moment, they separate for air.
"Need to find the others, don't want to leave them alone, considering what almost happened earlier." Bill says.
"Yeah, you're right." Zoey responds. "But first, I need to say something else." The last was said with a little tremor in her voice, which tells Bill that whatever she wants to say next is important and makes her feel nervous.
"Okay, I'm listening." The old veteran says.
"I… I wish to apologies for how I reacted when you abandoned that doctor behind at Millhaven." Zoey says in a broken voice. "I know now that you were thinking of our safety and I was thinking of not leaving the doctor or anyone else behind. I'm sorry, Bill. I'm so sorry!" By that point, the former college student had burst into tears.
"Zoey, listen to me." Bill starts, taking her in his arms. "First, do not apologise for caring for the life of others. You shouldn't apologise for that. Second, the reason why I left him behind, well it may seems selfish in appearance, but actually, it's the fact that my initial plan was to take him with us, the number of infected that swarmed us at the time was, while not the same as we just battled through, it was still a significant number, one that I was sure not all of us could come back from had we decided to help the doctor out. I was thinking of your safety, along with Louis' and Francis'. While losing Francis or Louis would have been tragic and sad, I would have been able to move on, but losing you? Losing you would have broken me, Zoey darling." Bill finish his explanation, his voice breaking towards the end of it.
Zoey's eyes are still shining with tears, knowing now that his feelings for her are what prompt him to make that decision that day.
"I… I'm not worth it." Zoey says in a broken voice.
"Yes, you are, do not think any different. You. Are. Worth. It. Darling." The older man says to her, kissing her forehead lovingly.
That's when she starts to sob into his chest, feeling loved for the first time since her parents' death. Bill's hand is once again in her hair, moving his fingers through her tresses in a soothing manner. After a few moment, Zoey calms down, rubbing her eyes to get the tears off.
"Thanks, Bill. I love you." She tells him, kissing him softly.
"I love you too, darling." Bill responds after the kiss.
The older man then gets off the bed, putting his clothes back on. Zoey follow suite, and the two of them take their weapons and get out of the bedroom, making their way towards the bridge. Once on the bridge, the pair makes their way to the other two survivors, seeing Francis and Louis talking, or rather throwing barbs at each other.
"Hey, hey, looks who decides to show up at last." Louis says cheerfully to the couple.
"And here I thought that you would be worn out old man." Francis says with a wry smile on his face.
"If I didn't know any better, I'll say that you're jealous that I've gotten some while the only company you had was Louis and the infected." Bill retorts with a smirk, making Francis' mouth fell open at the innuendo directed towards him. Louis looks away, but there is a smirk on his face. Zoey smacks Bill's arm playfully, a blush apparent on her face for his comment of getting some. She then makes her way to the other end of the bridge, with the others following her. Thunder is rumbling in the sky with the rain starting to fall not long after. Zoey goes to the ramp, putting her hands on top of it and look down. There are common infected down on the road, but they weren't a threat for now. That's when Zoey starts to reflect how far the four of them have come since Fairfield. On top of the zombie horde, they survived through a helicopter, truck and plane crashes, being imprisoned in a military jail because they are infected but asymptomatic and people who abandoned them on the shores of Newburg after stealing everything the four of them had gathered. She feels arms wrapping up around her waist from behind. She smiles softly, knowing the owner of those arms that she's now familiar with.
"What'cha thinking, darling?" Bill asks softly in her ear.
"About what we went through. And also how much I'm lucky to have met you." Zoey answers the older man.
Bill gave Zoey a small smile while both Francis and Louis put a hand on each of her shoulders. It's to this picture that a sport car makes its way to the bridge. The four of them look at each other in surprise and hope of that would mean. Indeed, out of the car came four people. The first of them is the oldest and largest member of the group, a middle aged black man who wore trainers with grey colored trousers with a purple and yellow short sleeved shirt with the letters FHS on it, his is bald and a stubble growing on his face. The second person is the youngest of the four, a young white male who wore work boots on his feet with overalls on that he tied around his waist instead of wearing it fully with a yellow bull shifters shirt on underneath and finally a forward facing blue cap with a truck symbol on it on his head. The third of these new people is a man not much older than the one before him. He's wearing a full tailored white suit with a blue shirt underneath with designer shoes on, his jet black hair rather neat as head a few scratch marks on his neck as well a multiple rings on his fingers. Finally, comes out the only woman of the new survivors. She's in her late 20s, has dark skin color. She wears blue jeans with brown boots that went just below her knees, a pink Depeche Mode shirt that is short sleeved and has wavy black hair tied back into a bun. They are now standing in front of the raised bridge, trying to find a way to get it down.
"Shit, the bridge is raised, we need to bring it down if we want to go across and continue to New Orleans." Says the black man.
"Yeah. Problem is, I don't see anything to activate the bridge here." Replies the youngest of the group.
On the bridge, the survivors looks down at the new ones.
"Francis, you and Louis should go back, Zoey and I will handle this here." Bill tells the biker.
"Yeah, sure thing old timer." Francis replies, putting Louis' arm around his shoulder in order to help him reach the other end of the bridge.
"You did that on purpose, aren't you?" Zoey asks coyly once the two survivors are out of earshot.
"Maybe." Came Bill's coy answer, making Zoey rolling her eyes while her cheeks turn pink.
She turn back to where the new survivors are down on the road.
"Hey ho! You guys need help?" Zoey hollers down at them.
That got their attention. The four new survivors look up, seeing Zoey and Bill on the bridge.
"Well, I'll be damn. Other survivors, people!" The large black man says jobially to his group.
"You said it, Coach!" Enthused the younger woman at his side.
"Oh wow, she's so beautiful." Says the younger man with them with a dreamy look.
Zoey immediately sees the dreamy look on the younger man and could only shake her head inwardly. He just saw me for like five seconds and he's already in love. Zoey thought to herself in amusement. It's not that she didn't found this young man attractive, he was, but he isn't Bill in her opinion. Not that she didn't find Bill attractive. He was to her. It's just that she had been on the receiving end of crushes while in college, and it never ended well for her at the time. While she has no doubt this young man down there could be one with a good heart, she had her heart broken too many times in the past because of young men like him. She simply didn't want to take another chance. Besides, it's a moot point anyway considering she is in love with Bill.
"Wow, I thought I was the last woman alive." Exclaims the black woman.
"Yeah, I know that feeling." Zoey responds to her.
"What's your name, people?" Coach asks.
"Name's Bill. This is Zoey." Bill introduce.
"Well, I'm Coach, this is Ellis, Nick and Rochelle." The large black man responds, indicating each survivor with him.
"So, do you guys can get the bridge down?" Rochelle query.
"Sorry, no can do since the generator is out of gas. You guys will need to get to the other side of the bridge in order to gas it up." Zoey answers.
"Okay, see you guys on the other side." Rochelle replies.
"Alright people, let's get to the other side of that bridge." Coach says. "I've heard there's an under the river tour. Maybe we can get across through there."
"Ah Christ, an under the river tour means going into the sewers. Ugh." Nick's complaining is the last thing that Bill and Zoey hear from the bridge.
The two of them rolls their eyes at the conman's complaining, then they make their way back to the other side of the bridge where Francis and Louis are.
"Alright, listen up. We've decided to help them get the bridge down so they could pass through." Bill starts. "Let's see if we have enough provisions and ammunitions to survive here for the next few hours."
"Bill, it's not that I don't want to help them, but the last time we activated that bridge up, we attracted a lot of attention and because of that, we almost lost you because of it." Francis comments matter of factly.
"Francis, we know that. Yeah, I don't like it either, and I'm sure Bill doesn't too, but we can't let these people being stuck there when we can do something about it." Zoey replies.
"Yeah, yeah I know." The biker answers.
"Should we tell them what we also learned in Millhaven?" Louis asks his friends.
That brought the other three survivors short. Should they tell them that basically everywhere they go they risk to infect people that are not asymptomatic to the Green Flu?
"They do deserve to know." Zoey adds softly.
Bill sigh, knowing that the former college student is right.
"I think we should." Bill concedes with a nod. "I'm not too thrilled about it and not because I don't want to tell them."
"Then, what do you mean?" Zoey asks.
"It's just… I just don't want to crush their hope for them to reach a safe zone, you know." Bill says softly.
Zoey seems to get what the older man means now. He didn't want them to lose hope, like the four of them did at one point. She wraps her arms around the older man, knowing how much it hurt him knowing that he almost made the three of them lose hope after what happened in Millhaven.
"We'll get through this, Bill. I know we will." Zoey told him softly.
Bill smiles softly, looking at Zoey with his love for her in his eyes.
"Yeah, we will, won't we?" Bill answers in the same tone she did.
His hand found its way on her cheek, his thumb caressing her cheek softly before he kisses her softly. He pulls back shortly with a smile and Zoey is also smiling although her cheeks are pink.
"Alright people, let's see what supplies we have then let's prepare ourselves for when those four comes here." Bill orders.
"Since I can't move much, I'll man that big ass gun up there." Louis says, pointing to the mounted gun on the bridge.
"Good idea. The three of us will then search and secure some supplies that we'll find. Hopefully, we can throw some of those supplies to them should they need it. Holler if you see infected coming up to us, Louis." The old war veteran says.
"Will do. I'll shoot them down if you guys can't get out in time." The former manager tells him.
While Louis makes his way to the mounted gun, Francis, Bill and Zoey makes their way into the house to assess the ammunitions and supplies they have.