Disclaimer: I don't own Left 4 Dead, yadda yadda yadda. Didn't I put this in the first chapter? I think I did. Whatever. Not mine.
A/N: Okay, stupid idea, I know. But ever since I saw that the Hunter kinda throws the blood from his victim's in the air like confetti or something, I haven't been able to get the image of cute little Hunters out of my head. I mean, look at them! They toss that blood up there like there's a party goin' on! A party of blood and guts and terror, sure, but a party nonetheless!
So...I hope this turns out okay despite the fact that it's a downright stupid idea spawning from my love of cute little Hunters.
All of the survivors perked up as they suddenly heard a soft whimpering noise, similar to that of a kicked puppy.
"Is that a Witch?" Zoey asked, poking her head out of the alleyway to get a look around. Nothing to the left, nothing straight ahead, nothing on the roofs...
"I don't think so," grumbled Francis, shotgun at the ready just in case. "It sounds more annoying. Like Bill going down stairs."
"Francis...." Bill growled, but was quickly interrupted by Zoey, who had found the source of the noise.
"Aww, it's a Hunter!" she exclaimed, though sounding more concerned then afraid. She dashed out of the alleyway at the speed of light towards the crouched figure. Her teammates rushed to keep up, shooting all the zombies that ran after her as she went along.
However, as she got closer, she noticed that something was clamped around the Hunter's ankle. It looked sort of like a...
"Is that a bear trap?" she asked, continuing forward and kneeling down by the infected. Hunter stared at her through it's hoodie, sniffling and whimpering like a lost puppy. "Aww...How'd you get caught in this thing, little guy?"
"More importantly," Francis growled from behind her. "Why are you talking to it like it's some little kid? Bear trap or not, it's still one of those damn vampires."
"Zombies, Francis," Louis corrected. He moved up to Zoey and helped her work on pulling the bear trap apart to free the little Hunter.
"Why are you letting it go?" Francis whined.
"Why should we leave it here to suffer? He never did anything to us!" Zoey asked back, giving Francis a pouting face.
"Why the hell is there a bear trap in the middle of the street, anyway?" Bill wondered, continuing the asking spree with the question that was secretly on everyone's mind.
Louis continued to fiddle with the bear trap, but couldn't seem to get it open. It was tighter than glue. He dropped his arms to his sides with a sigh. "I can't get it, guys."
Zoey was about to express her disappointment and have them continue on when she accidently looked over at the Hunter. It stared right at her, gave her the puppy-dog-eyes, and sniffed. It seemed to wordlessly plead for her to not just leave it here. It was the spitting image of one of those dogs in the commercials for places about animal abuse or adoption.
And suddenly, Zoey was reminded once more of her pet dog, Skitters. Except in far greater force than ever before. She felt tears come to her eyes, and she fiercely pushed Louis aside and went to work on prying the bear trap open.
Her teammates watched in awe as she used strength she never knew she had to open up the bear trap and free the infected. Hunter gasped, stared at his now-freed leg, then pounced forward to give Zoey a great big hug.
The others nearly shot it off her before they realized that it was only hugging her and growling in contentment. Zoey seemed quite pleased with herself. Pushing it back off her chest (but allowing it to sit in her lap), Zoey looked over to her teammates with a hopeful glint in her eyes.
"Can we keep him?" she suddenly asked.
"Hell no," Francis snarled fiercely, glaring down the poor little Hunter. "It'll kill us all in our sleep."
"I dunno, Francis..." Louis mused. "It looks alright to me. We did save him, after all."
"I'm with Louis," Bill mumbled. "As long as it doesn't tear our throats out, I say we can let it stay."
Zoey beamed, and wrapped her arms around her new pet. (Now you see the point of my puppy references.) However, one person was still not pleased.
"Whatever," he grumbled, glaring right at the Hunter. "But I've got my eye on you, you little abomination of nature."
The Hunter shrugged, grinned, and then promptly spat in Francis' face.
"Awww!" Zoey cooed, wrapping her arms around her new pet while drool dribbled down Francis' face. "I think he likes you!"
---
"Alright, so you got to keep the darn thing..." Francis piped up as they continued on their way to the safe house, inching past the alarmed car. "But what are you gonna name him?"
"Thumper," came Zoey's immediate reply. She reached down with a smile and patted her new friend on the head. "You like that name, don't you?" she whispered to it. Thumper nodded and growled excitedly. (Louis swore he saw some sort of deformed tail wag around it's lower back, but when he blinked there was nothing there.)
"What, you're not going to name it Skitters, like that stupid dog of yours?" he scoffed, lifting his shotgun and blasting the brains out of a nearby zombie.
"Skitters was NOT stupid!" Zoey yelled, causing some of the nearby zombies to glance nervously towards the red car that flashed with an alarm.
("Did it go off? Did they hit it? Can we rush now? I am really in a mood for a good spasmodic rush right now, you have no idea," Zombie A frantically rambled to Zombie B. Zombie B shook his head sadly, crushing the hopes of Zombie A.)
"Well then why is this walking piece of crap named Thumper?" Francis snarled, though he kept his voice much quieter and kept an eye on the zombies down the street. They hadn't moved so far, but were simply watching, as though waiting for one of them to walk over there and get eaten. It was really unnerving.
"He's named after that rabbit in Bambi, since he jumps a lot like a rabbit would," Zoey remarked, storming on ahead and shooting the two zombies in front of her. "It's an adorable and cute name and you're just jealous that your name isn't as cute." She strode past their corpses, and moved on while shooting any zombies that happened to be in her path.
However, they weren't the only zombies around.
("Wait for it..." Zombie C muttered to the nearby Smoker as they hid behind the car. "Wait for it...Okay, GO!")
Suddenly, a pink tongue shot out from nowhere and wrapped around Zoey's waist. She gasped as it dragged her off towards the car, and her teammates raced forward to save her. But it was all in vain.
The moment Zoey's back hit the car, a screeching alarm filled the air, and hundreds of zombies that had nothing better to do than sit around corners and wait for someone to hit that alarm swarmed out from their hiding spots. They came out from around the corner, down the stairs, behind the subway tunnel, through the building...Hell, a few of them even took suicide dives off the roofs and wormed their way out of air vents.
"Everyone to the safe room!" Bill yelled, pointing towards the tunnel. He cut the tongue and set Zoey loose before making an immediate beeline to the tunnels, Louis close behind. Francis and Zoey took up the rear, shooting behind them as they ran in the hopes of diminishing at least some of the zombie ocean that ran towards them with the enthusiasm of children on a sugar high.
Francis raced down the steps two at a time, but turned back when Zoey screamed for help. The Smoker from before had apparently managed to gather up its lasso of a tongue (Well, that's what I think they have to wait to charge for. Either grow a new one or untangle the old one) and had re-constricted Zoey. Already, multiple zombies had surrounded her and started clawing at her like a scratching post.
"Sorry, Zoey!" He yelled back to her before continuing down the stairs. There were too many zombies up there. It wouldn't be worth going back to save her. He wouldn't be surprised if she was already dead...
He felt a pair of teeth sink into his ankle, and moved to shoot the thing off. Then he noticed it wasn't just any old zombie. It was dear little Thumper, latching onto his ankle with a growl and glaring at him with a demonic pair of eyes that could make children cry. The Hunter started pulling him back up the stairs, causing Francis to trip and fall to the ground and be dragged back up the stairs to the chaos above.
"Hey! Cut it out you damn vampire!" he roared, whacking the thing with the butt of his shotgun. However, Thumper didn't release his grip one bit, and dragged him far enough up the stairs that some of the zombies stopped clawing at their human scratching post and went to go poke at Francis.
The biker blew off the skulls of the nearby zombies (no easy feat, considering he was being dragged across the floor by an angry pet Hunter), then decided to shoot some of the ones around Zoey. After all, if he was gonna be stuck here, he might as well try to save her. It might even make her damn dog let go. (He would have shot the thing if he hadn't known that Zoey would find a way to come back from the dead and shoot him back for it.)
Bill and Louis soon joined the two when they noticed no one else had reached the safe room, and they mowed down quite a few zombies. Gunshots filled the air, and corpses dropped like flies. The moment Francis saw the Smoker's head, he took aim and blew the thing's head off, letting Zoey fall to the floor and take deep, gasping breaths.
Once she was free, her Hunter pal stopped gnawing on Francis' leg to trot over to her side. It dug into a nearby first aid kit and fumbled around with the white bandage rolls inside in an attempt to help bandage all the scratches covering her. Louis snickered, and walked over to help. Bill, meanwhile, picked Francis up off the ground and started wrapping up his bleeding ankle wound.
Surprisingly, Zoey was patched up first, and she made her way down the stairs with Louis and Thumper. She yelled back to the other two to meet them in the safe room once Francis was better.
"That was nice of that thing to help Zoey out like that," Bill commented, finishing up Francis' ankle.
"No it wasn't!" exclaimed the biker, causing Bill to raise a brow in confusion. "That damn vampire stole my first aid kit!"
A/N: I hate that ending.
Oh, crap. I'm copying Francis.
Nonetheless...I was going to go a little further and get Thumper out of the way so he doesn't interrupt any future chapters, but I think I'll let him stick around as a side character. To pop in every once in a while. Because he's so darn cute.
Side note here: The bear trap idea is from Fallout 3 and this one Cyanide and Happiness comic (at explosm .net) where this guy sees a bear trap and he says 'Is that a bear trap?' It's my favorite comic, and I love that line.
Oh, and I was originally going to name the Hunter Brownie instead of Hunter, so if it says Brownie at any time, it means Thumper. (I don't think it should. I read it over twice, so hopefully I didn't miss any.)