Left 4 Dead
Chapter 2: Dead Hearts Still Beating New York, Syracuse
Dead Hearts Still Beating
"Man saw its first of the pale horse, and upon it, the pale rider.
The horse is known as pestilence, and the rider, Death."
The streets are empty. I looked for someone, but nothing was in site. "Hello? Is anyone there?" Not a sound. "Is anyone ALIVE?" nothing. I could only hear the wind. I looked around. There was paper skidding across the pavement. I looked up. The carrier dome, Syracuse University College has their own football team and they have their own dome. The thing is HUGE. And I mean big. I closed my eyes, picturing the top of the dome. I felt wind hit my face. When I opened my eyes, I was touching the clouds. I seen the whole city, I was on the dome, not in it.
There she was. The girl in my dreams, grey hoody, jeans, and still a mystery that she was. "What are you doing up here?" The wind was making it hard to talk. Even yell. She stood there, hands in her pockets, looking at the city, posing. She spoke in a regular voice; I could hear her clearly over the wind, no matter how soft she spoke. "The city is dangerous..." she said, as if it wasn't obvious."They're coming, Hunter. And they know your here..." She was starting to make me worry. "Who's coming, and who are you?" I didn't understand what she was talking about. She said "Always so curious, Hunter. Just like a baby. There's so much to learn, but so hard to understand. It will come to you soon." I started to walk towards her. "It would've been so hard for you to understand. But it's easy, really, since you're one of us, now..." I grabbed her arm, my hand felt cold. She turned around and her face was still dark like it was before. I can't even see her nose. "They are coming." She pointed to the left. I saw helicopters coming for the city. I replied "Help? This is great! We can rescue the survivors!" She turned her head. She answered, "Watch." I looked at a chopper landing on a rooftop. Survivors rushed out of the building to the chopper. The unbelievable happened, the 'help', opened fire on the survivors with a minigun. Limbs, equipment, blood, guts, and more flew everywhere. I yelled "Holy shit!" I had my hands over my eyes, but yet I could see the whole thing like I was on the rooftop. A survivor, missing some limbs started crawling away, blood dripping. Then a soldier, wearing a gas mask, combat armor, and equipment that doesn't even look military walked up to the survivor. The survivor muttered "W-why?". The soldier, without mercy, stomped the survivors head into the ground. He then scraped his boot off the ground, brains, blood, and human flesh covering it. He waved his hand forwards and the squad moved down the stairwell. "What's happening?" I asked her. "It's The Revolution..." I watched infected try to take the soldiers down. Blood, flesh, and items hit the floor. It took only two of these soldiers to take down a tank. "What do I do?" I asked, since she knows everything. She walked up close to me, making me step backwards, almost falling off the roof of the dome onto the field. She leaned closer to me. "Run." With that in mind, she pushed me off. I was falling, plummeting to my demise. The light, or dark, flashed as I jumped out of, or off of, the floor. The witch, who apparently has a friendly bond with me, sat up, rubbing her eyes. I looked at her. I noticed it wasn't as dark as it was before when we first arrived.
The witch, who can't speak, but understands what people say, was awake, but she looked asleep. I squatted down next to her, softly grabbing her arm. "Do you have any friends? Any other infected that are like you?" She looked at me funny, and then pulled away, like she was sad all of a sudden. "What's wrong?" She looked like she wanted to say something, but was stopped since she can't speak. She looked around the room, like she was searching for something. She walked over to a desk and picked up a piece of paper. Making a scribble like gesture on the paper to ask me for a pencil, I looked around the room. There was a pencil in a drawer, along with a few other things. I handed her the pencil, she started writing almost immediately. Once the witch was done, the note that she handed to me went something like this:
'I didn't want to be this way. The infection brought me back, and I just don't even feel human anymore.'
When I was done with the note, she looked like she was about to cry. I wouldn't blame her. She is dead, but yet here she is. I can't imagine what it feels like, to be dead but still be alive. She started to cry, so I brought her in close. She hugged back, wiping the tears off on my hoodie. Suddenly, I remembered the dream, and felt a strong pain in my legs. I instantly dropped to the floor, crippled by the pain that was rising. It felt as if there was a fire in my thighs and calves, and like one million charley horses. The witch kneeled down next to me. She was still whimpering slightly. The pain started to go away, but it felt like it surged through my muscle. All throughout my body, pain. I brought myself to my knees, feeling tears, but I still didn't cry. One thing that I have learned is that I can get tears to come out eventually, but never cry. The pain finally left, and I was back on my feet. The witch supported me, helping me stand.
"Ouch." I said, panting. My jaw hurt from clenching my teeth down. The witch looked at me in a funny way, as if she knew something. I thought about it, and then let it go. I remembered the part in my dream when the survivors tried to get to the helicopter; I had to warn the others before something horrible happens. "I need to get back to the others, can you wait someplace for me when I get back?" The witch held her hands out and looked around, making me feel slightly stupid, looking like she's telling me 'Uh, where else dumbass?' I nodded and headed back to the safe room. I remembered that I dropped my weapon, which is not exactly great considering there's infected wondering about. I walked carefully walked through the hallways, looking for movement. When I arrived, the door was shut, just like how I left it. The bad part is that when I went inside there was no one there."Shit…" I said to myself. I looked for a weapon. There was a pistol, a first aid kit, 4 clips of ammo, a flashlight, and a note. Taping the flashlight to the pistol, grabbing the first aid kit, and reading the note as fast as I can, I was ready. The note told me that they left to a super market a few blocks away, and they drew a map how to get there.
The note didn't look like it was meant exactly for me, but it had that feel to it. I looked at the wall; someone left an industrial marker and cleaned off the wall. I went over to it, thinking of what to write. I thought of all the love notes and reminders and tips others write on the walls of the other safe rooms, and then I started writing. I made sure that I wrote large enough so the writing stands out, but small enough so others can have room to draw and write. When I was done, I checked it over.
"They have hearts, but they don't beat. Don't like her crying? Give her a hug. Hugging a crying witch isn't that bad."
I'm not exactly Steven Hawking, but that looks good enough to at least be on a wall. My skills in literature were interrupted when I heard a noise outside. My gun snapped forwards. I knew there was probably just one infected at the most outside. You can hear a crowd. When I went outside, there was nothing there. It seemed as if I imagined the sound. I knew there was something out here. There were two hallways; one going left and one right. There was a light at the end of the hallway on the left. The other was darkness. I had to go right, to go find the witch. I started to jog for the corner, but when I turned; I was oh so kindly swept off my feet by the love of the witch. In other words, I scared the living shit out of her and she punched me in the face, knocking me on my ass. I felt blood coming out of my nose; the witch had her hands on her face as if thinking 'Oh my god, I'm sorry I decked you in the face'. I looked at her like I was thinking WHY? Then she helped me up. I brushed the blood off my face. I noticed the witch wore a hoodie now, and some jeans. I was surprised she wore shoes too, so I asked her, "Where did you get those?" She turned around and pointed at a body that was missing its clothes.
"Why did you come for me? You could have been killed by one of the other survivors." She pulled her backpack off that I now noticed. She pulled out a sheet of paper and a pencil. She used the wall to write the note.
"I saw a helicopter on one of the other roof tops through the window."
Well, that gives me the heads up that I should start moving. "There was no one there when I got back. But they left me a note." I pulled the note out of my pocket, and she looked at it. She used her pencil to highlight 'super market', and then wrote Wal-Mart next to it. She started to lead me in a direction when an infected walked around the corner. I pulled up my pistol, but the infected paid no attention to me. The thought of this was bouncing off the walls of my head; I just had to know what was happening.
"HEY." I said with a grunt. The infected raised its head, looking drowsy. It stared at me, and then walked away. I lowered my weapon, still curious why it's ignoring me. The witch shrugged when I looked at her, being as clueless as me. Walking over to the infected, I waved my arms violently. It looked at me as if I was the stupid one, smelled the air, and then plopped on the floor. As if waiting for food just like me to come to it. I felt lost in a maze. I told him "Lazy bastard." The infected drooled all over himself as I walked back to the witch. "C'mon. We got to get to the next safe room. You look good in your new close by the way." She made something like a bow to say thanks. I looked at the note. We had to cross roof tops to get to the safe room. How could that be? Do I have to jump, or is there a conveniently placed stack of plywood waiting for us? I don't know why or nor do I care. Just as long as I don't have to climb a dumpster to safety, I'll be fine.
We started walking down the left hallway to the next location. Strangely, we were able to waltz past the infected. The witch can because she's a witch. I can because I apparently am not that tasty. I didn't want to waste time by asking trivia questions when I can just move on and make life easier. I definitely have questions for the others when I find them. We walked a ways and passed other infected; still the reason for this eats at me. Why don't they attack me? Why do they ignore me? I stopped wondering about this when we reached the top floor. There was a door, and it looked as if there was someone outside. It was definitely an infected. The noises it made though were not the same. It growled, sounding sick. It also made me feel like I had flem and a nasal infection. It burped like the large people that hang out at burger king. A boomer, a large infected that vomits on other survivors. It's very fragile; it can burst when shot and then spray vomit and leave a cloud of nasty gas that actually attracts other infected. It's a terrible thing to get up close to, but can easily be avoided do to its constant belching.
I slowly approached the door, readying for what might happen. If the same thing happens with the boomer that happened with the common infected, I can just go on my way without pissing something off. Reaching for the door knob, I had my pistol at the ready. When I opened the door, it spun around and looked surprised. Its face was deformed due to the infection. The left eye was gone and some sort of boil was growing in its place. The right forearm was torn off and rags of skin dangled from the rest of its arm. It had short hair, and it didn't smell so pleasant. The boomer stared at me for a second as if thinking of what to do. Once it heard a noise coming from the alleyway, it quickly turned and went to see what made it. I moved over to the part of the building looking over the street, to get a look too. A small dog ran into the street, running with something it must have gotten from a trash can. The boomer seen it too, and hopped down only to fall flat on its face. It only jumped down to another building, meaning it would have to do the same thing down the other rooftops. Once it reached the ground, it got up and oriented itself, going after where it thought the dog went. The dog actually went in the complete opposite direction.
It made me feel good, knowing that the dog was safer. The boomer never would have caught up to the dog, though. I grabbed the witch's hand and led her with me to the edge of the building where there were items and other things placed about to signal something. When we looked over the edge, I grinned. We were about to go building