Author's Notes - Here it is! The Confrontation! Reviews are what got me this far, keep em' coming! :)
Disclaimer - Nope, still don't own Left 4 Dead.
After raiding the house for all it was worth and patching the two Infected up as best they could, the four survivors ventured back outside, mindful of the traps that could still be laying around. After about fifteen minutes of making sure there were no more bear traps hidden on the ground, Bill turned back to the front door of the farmhouse, where both the Smoker and Hunter had stayed the entire time watching all their movements carefully. With a nod of his head, Bill motioned for the two Infected to come out indicating it was safe.
The Smoker stepped outside first, wary of the barbed wire fence that still held it's old tongue hostage within the barbs. The survivors watched as he wandered over to the trail and looked down the road the truck had gone down, sniffing the air before giving off a short cough and immitating Bill by nodding his head down the forest trail.
The Hunter was a bit more hesitant to leave the house, but managed to limp out and get back on all fours, careful to not put any weight on his stitched up ankle. He crouched low to the ground, the tell-tale sign he was going to jump, and leapt from behind the group over to a sturdy low hanging tree branch. The landing was a bit awkward and almost cost him his balance, but he managed to right himself and follow the Smoker from the relative safety of the trees.
"Alright people, let's move out!" Bill commanded.
"Yeah, and don't lose sight of the Infected that could turn around and kill us at any given moment. We wouldn't want to lose our guides."
Zoey gave Francis a hard shove from behind, ignored his 'Ow! What was that for?' remark, and followed the Infected out of the perimeter of the farmhouse and into more wilderness.
After about two hours of walking and listening to Francis complain that he 'Hated walking' and hearing the 'Are we there yet?' question for the tenth time in the last hour, the group finally had to take a break, if only to shut the whining biker up.
As soon as they caught their breath though, the Hunter's growling brought them all back to attention and they quickly looked around, trying to find where the Hunter had stalked off.
The Smoker's coughing brought their attention to up in the trees, where both the Hunter and Smoker were perched on nearby branches and communicating with each other through a series of low growls and snarls.
"Great, I bet they're trying to decide what would be the best way to kill us. Or who they should kill first. It had better be you old man, since letting them follow us was your idea."
Bill ignored the remarks Francis was making and focused on the expressions of both Infected. If he had learned anything in his life, it was reading facial expressions was the key to figuring out a person's true intentions. What these Infected's faces were displaying were not signs of malice or aggression towards them, but rather fear and uncertainty towards whatever was out in the clearing up ahead. Bill guessed they were 'talking' to each other about what they should do. Attack or stay back?
"Stay close people. I have a feeling we're not gonna like whatever's in that clearing up ahead."
It only took a few steps into the clearing to realize two things: The Hunter and Smoker weren't following them anymore, and they weren't the only survivors. Someone was banging on something metal a few yards ahead of them.
Louis leaned in and whispered, "We couldn't have reached the safe zone yet right? We would have seen the army by now."
Zoey nodded and pointed in the direction of the banging, "It sounds like only one person is here, not an army."
Bill pulled the safety back on his assault rifle, readying for anything that might be lurking down the short hill that seperated them from the source of the Infected's fear.
Before they could reach the top of the hill though, a voice called out to them, "Hey, is anybody up there? I could really use a hand with this here engine!"
When they finally made their way to the top of the hill, they all looked down to find a pickup truck with its engine giving off noxious clouds of smoke, and a human waving away the smoke with a dirty rag. An cooler and a few empty beer bottles were scattered throughout the area and a sawed-off shotgun lay discarded near the human's feet, numerous empty ammo shells also depicting a recent battle with a horde most likely.
"Hey there folks!" The man called and waved the group over to him. "Do'ya think ya'll could help me fix my truck? She overheated when I tried runnin' her through a horde." He pointed to the lake behind him. "Had to dump all the bodies in there before any of them special Infected sniffed em' out and came gunnin' for me."
The survivors quickly glanced at each other before making their way down the hill towards the stranded survivor. He seemed decent enough, but there was something...odd in the way he spoke about the horde. It almost sounded like he had enjoyed throwing the bodies into the lake...
"So, what brings ya'll down this trail? Not many people know about it." The man said, making conversation as another plume of smoke shot up from the engine.
Bill didn't put his gun down, but directed the man to pour some of the melted ice from the cooler onto the engine. "We just wandered down this trail looking for the safe zone. You don't happen to know where it is do you?"
The man stopped dumping the cooler's contents onto the trucks engine and looked at the group with mild skeptisism in his eyes, "The safe zone is about ten miles straight ahead, just keep followin' the trail and ya'll should eventually come to the army's outpost. Pretty secure there last I heard." He closed the hood on the truck, picked up the discarded shotgun and slung it over his shoulder, obviously at ease with the newcomers. "Hey, you said yous all came down this trail? Did'ya happen to pass a couple of tied up Infected along the way?"
Bill's distrust for this man was growing by the minute. Before he could answer though, Francis cut in, "Yeah we saw em'. A Hunter and a Smoker right?"
The man grinned and nodded, "Yep, that's them! Heh, they were tryin' to sneak up on me the other night, so I turned their little ambush against them with an ambush of my own. Set up bear traps and a barbed wire fence and just let em' come to me! Ah, felt like the good ol' days when the game around here were dumb enough to fall for traps like those." He let a brief haze pass over his face, a sign that he was thinking about the past, before asking, "Did ya'll leave them there, or didja shoot em'?"
"We, uh, we didn't shoot them...and we kinda didn't leave them there..." Zoey stammered.
It took the man a few seconds to realize, "Ya'll let them go? WHY? I mean, they'll just be huntin' for ya anyway, why bother lettin' em' go? Do ya'll have a death wish?"
Before anyone could reply to the man's questions, Francis surprised everyone by speaking up, "Listen bud, I might not like those sweatshirt wearin' wusses or those walking smokeclouds, but even I'm not gonna let them die there all tied up. If a man goes down, he goes down fighting, not tied up to some fence."
There was a statrtled silence from everyone, especially the group, for a few moments before the man started chuckling quietly, gradually getting louder the more he laughed.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA! Wait, so you're tellin' me that you still believe these...these things to be somewhat human? HA! That's a good one! Listen kid, these beasts don't give a shit if you save them or not. They'll still come for ya and when you're pinned down and got no help around, they'll tear ya apart and kill ya. That's the way it is now, so ya better start gettin' used to it."
This time Bill stepped forward, intent on giving this man a piece of his mind, "Now you listen here kid, these Infected aren't beasts. They're humans like you and me. All their suffering from is a bad case of Rabies, or in other words, a disease. Just because its corrupted some of their brain, doesn't mean they aren't any less human. I believe that if we can convince them that they're not mindless savages, society might have a small chance to correct itself."
The man just stared at Bill for a few seconds before bursting out into fits of laughter once more.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Has old age made you mental old man? These here freaks are all that's left of our screwed up society! There ain't no savin' it by feelin' sorry for these things. The best thing we can do now is shoot all these monsters and make this world somewhat safe again."
"Then how 'bout we start with YOU?" Francis said as he, Zoey, Louis, and Bill all raised their guns.
The man quickly pulled his own gun off his back and started backing away, only to be blocked by his own truck. "Whoa now, no need to bring out the big guns! Let's just slowly step away from each other, and part ways and we won't have to deal with each other anymore. Sound good?" He was already starting to inch his way to the driver's side.
Bill glanced behind him before turning back to the retreating man with a small smirk on his face, "Alright, we'll part ways. But don't expect us to help you if you get snatched by a Smoker."
"Or pounced on by a Hunter." Zoey said catching Bill's drift.
"Psh, I can take care of myself just fine thanks. Now if ya'll excuse me..." He climbed into the driver's seat and shut the door. "...I got a safe zone to get to." He turned the key to start the ignition.
Nothing happened.
"Wh-what? What's going on? The engine ain't overheated no more!"
The group of four started backing away from the car, all of them now knowing what was about to take place.
"Oh, maybe I forgot to mention that you shouldn't pour ice cold water onto your engine directly, or else it'll freeze the inside and you'd have to wait til it thaws out."
"So your truck ain't overheated. Just frozen." Francis laughed, actually impressed with's Bill's knowledge of engines.
The man just stared at them in utter shock before his expression morphed into one of rage. "Ya'll just crossed a line ya never shoulda crossed by messin with my truck. NO ONE messes with my truck!" He yanked the shotgun off of the passenger's seat and aimed it specifically at Bill.
Before he could pull the trigger, the shriek of a Hunter filled the area with a Smoker's coughing following close behind.
"What the-?" The man turned to his left just in time to see a dark figure soar through the air and crash through the window directly onto the passenger seat next to him. He couldn't even contemplate what was happening before a Smoker's tongue shot out from the trees and wrapped around his neck. With a sharp tug, the shotgun went flying out of the window as both of his hands grasped the tongue, trying desperately to stop the appendage from strangling him.
Bill walked close enough to the truck so the man could hear him, "You remember these two don't you? They're the Smoker and Hunter you thought you had left for dead back at your farmhouse." The Smoker's tongue wrapped tighter around the man's neck, his face already starting to turn a shade of blue due to lack of air. The Hunter growled threateningly at the man and started flexing its claws. Bill turned and motioned for his team to follow him towards the main trial so they could continue onward to the safe zone. Before proceeding though, he looked to the Infected and calmly said, "Show the monster no mercy."
"HEEEEEEELP!"
The monster's scream was overshadowed by the Hunter's furious roar as he dug his claws into his prey's throat, chest, and stomach. The Smoker even getting a few good punches in to the head. The attack going on until nothing but a gorey mess was all that was left of the man in the seat of his own truck.
And all the while the Survivors continued forward, not daring to look back once.
Author's Notes - And that was the confrontation between the survivors, the Infected, and the man that started it all! Hope you all enjoyed this (slightly longer) chapter! And now stay tuned for the last chapter, coming soon!
-RulerofFire