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Disclaimer: I do not own Left 4 Dead.

Chapter 5: Breaking Point

Hunter's POV:

His pace quickened as he sped through the airport searching for the anything that could satisfy his hunger. Every day it was getting harder and harder to control the urge to dine on anything that was edible. Anything…

He had tried to tame his hunger by eating normal foods such as can goods and vegetables, but he had quickly vomited them up unable to keep them down. Sweets had been his second choice and he had actually enjoyed them until he realized he had eaten all of them that were probably left in the city.

Now his urge was stronger than ever and the only thing fresh around were the humans he was currently following and he didn't have it in him to kill in cold blood. Though just the thought of blood sent his head reeling and he felt his mouth begin to salivate. A harsh growl tore through his throat as he shook his head vigorously to expel the thoughts from his now food-deprived brain.

"How long has it been since I ate?" His memories were jumbled as he couldn't even remember how many days or weeks he had been like this. "Three…four…" The frustration was growing inside him and as he passed by a stumbling zombie he took out his aggression.

His claws found purchase in the helpless zombies decaying flesh and he let loose. Tearing and slashing it wasn't long before the zombie was being tossed around like a rag doll and the Hunter was panting from his crazed frenzy.

Slowly the adrenaline began to leave his body and shuddering breaths replaced his frustrated growls. Staring at the now unrecognizable corpse his eyes showed regret for what he had done. His anger was gone, but disgust, toward his loss of control, had replaced it.

All thoughts were quickly lost on him however as the most extraordinary smell in the world filled his senses and sent him spiraling out of control. If his pace had been quick before, it was unmatchable now as he sped toward the aroma.

The white floors and the high ceilings of the airport sped past him in a blur as his whole being burned to sink his teeth into the source of the smell. Coming to a skidding halt outside the parking garage he considered going in, but quickly diminished the idea. Instead he leapt to the second level opening of it and then rebounded off the wall and busted through the window of the sky bridge.

Glass tore pieces of his midnight-black hoodie and his flesh, but he didn't care because he could smell that smelly smell that smelled smelly (in the good way) coming from right down the sky bridge hall. Moving at a slower pace he inched toward the rusted-red door at the end of the bridge.

His senses heightened as he smelt not only the strong smell of cooking meat, but also of humans and his ears perked as he heard their audible voices and he wasn't surprised the first voice that rang through the door he recognized. It wasn't a pretty sound as he could hear the fight that seemed to have just started.

"Francis get your nasty hands away from the fucking burgers!" Zoey yelled as she angrily swatted Francis' knuckles with the plastic spatula. Francis let out a startled cry which was quickly replaced with a look of fury as he looked as if he could ring Zoey's neck.

"You're cooking them too much you dumb bitch! They're gonna burn!" Francis' voice was furious as he pointed toward the burgers that were actually looking quite unburned. The room became deathly quiet except for the sizzle of the hamburgers. The Hunter swallowed the growl that had come to his throat when the Francis person had referred to the girl as a "Dumb Bitch."

"Don't you ever call me that again." Zoey stated calmly as she turned toward Francis and her cold blue eyes met his angered, almost black, ones. Francis' lips curved into a nasty smirk as he leaned toward her face and calmly stated "Dumb bitch."

Suddenly Zoey's fist came around and slammed into Francis' jaw and his head swiveled sideways with a look of shock on his face. He had been in enough bar fights that her punch didn't really faze him, but boy did it send him over the edge. These last two or three weeks had been hell enough and no way was he going to let a woman punch him and get away with it.

Francis raised his hand in a threatening manner and this is when Bill decided to intervene by stepping in-between the two.

"Woah Kiddos! Let's just calm down!" Bill said as he put his hands up and shook his head. "Francis you're not going to strike a lady when I'm here and if you do you can consider yourself dead." Bill said as his hard eyes stared at Francis with a deadly edge to them.

"I can fight my own battles, so get out of the way." Zoey said as she stepped around Bill and back toward Francis.

"Yeah right. Women can't do anything right and that includes defending themselves." Francis egotistically stated as he laughed at her mockingly.

"Oh really?" Zoey asked laughing "How's this for protecting myself?" Her foot swung out with every intention of connecting with Francis' unmentionables, but luckily, for Francis, Louis had expected her next move and swiftly caught her leg.

All hell broke loose in the room and soon they were all yelling and fighting until smoke began to cover the room and Zoey ran to turn off the stove and remove the now burnt burgers from the skillet. The Hunter could hear her sigh of defeat over the rest of the survivor's argument and he felt his heart clench, something about it worried him.

Still more importantly the once heavenly smell was now gone and replaced by the smell of thick smoke. However when Francis tossed the burnt burgers through the safe house door the Hunter realized this was the best he was going to get without killing someone.

So reluctantly he grabbed one of the burgers that were on the ground and bit into it. He gagged, but slowly chocked it down and the seven that were left on the ground. Feeling his stomach churn he curled into a ball outside the door and his eyelids began to droop….

Thirty minutes later he was startled awake by the sounds of screams from a horde of common infected. He quickly stretched his muscles and looked in the safe house, only to realize they were gone and the other door was open. Luckily they had unlocked the door he was on the other side of incase any other survivors made it this far. Pushing the door open he made his way through the safe house and out the other side.

As he looked over the side of the ledge and into the terminal below he could see zombies pouring into it and three of the survivors moving through the horde with barely enough ammo to clear a path. His heartbeat quickened as his eyes searched frantically for the final member and he finally found her lone figure in the shadows of the terminal corner kneeling next to a corpse with infected sprinting toward her.

His muscles tensed as he pushed of the railing and jumped down into the horde and made his way toward the girl, Zoey. As he broke through the front line of the horde his heart skipped a beat…

Zoey's POV:

The weather had taken a turn for the worse so they had been forced to travel through the airport. Even in the safety of the building they could still feel the thunder shake the ground and see the lightning light up the sky.

They had entered the airport through the back where the main generators, and all other accessories, that powered the airport were located. It had taken awhile for them to reach their actual destination, at least two hours and they were all tired.

Zoey had begun to be more and more on edge as the day went on. She was ready to snap if one person said a thing wrong to her and she knew the rest of them all had the same attitude.

Zoey was getting tired of looking at them and sick of listening to Francis complain about how he hated, "Airplanes, Stairs, Vans, Vampires" and everything else. All day everyday it consisted of Shoot, Run, Shoot, Run, and it was getting old fast.

The airport had seemed devoid of all life when they had first entered, even the infected, but that didn't last long. It almost seemed as if all the infected in the area had decided to come to the airport to avoid the rain because they were scattered everywhere in the vicinity.

When they entered the part of the airport right before the parking garage their moods instantly became bitter. A plane similar to the one they had seen early had crashed into one of the sky bridges and had barely avoided the other one. The wings were separated completely and were located all the way across the area. The cockpit of the plane was resting in front of the door they had just exited from and other pieces of the plane had set luggage and walls on fire. Concrete and flooring had been torn up from the impact and the metal gate had been completely ripped down.

Zoey stared at the destruction in front of her with downcast eyes and began to make her way through the rubble. None of them were talking since it was too dangerous to do so without alerting any of the infected. Only their footsteps were heard and a few random gunshots that were fired at the infected who did notice them.

They were all drenched after only taking two steps into the airport. The skylights had been busted out so there was no protection from the turret of rain that was pummeling down. Zoey tugged her red jacket tighter to her and gave a shiver from the ominous feeling that was growing in her stomach.

They barely managed to make their way around the alarm-rigged car, right before the parking garage, without setting it off and they all relaxed slightly when they entered the garage. Bill took the lead and rounded the first corner of the garage and cried when the hunter jumped on him.

"Shit!" Bill cried out as he was thrown to the ground by the force of the hunter and the breath left his body. Zoey and Louis, who had been watching the back, swiftly turned around and looked toward the direction of Bill's shout. The hunter was just about to begin his attack when Francis' cracked the butt of his shotgun against the top of the hunter's head.

The hunter gave a yelp of pain as he pushed against Bill's torso and leapt away. However as he jumped around the bend in the wall there was a deep grunt followed by a roar and the hunter's limp body slamming against the wall. A Tank barreled around the corner following the hunter's body and immediately set his sights on the survivors who were helping Bill up.

"Ah Fuck!" Francis yelled as he began unloading into the Tank with his pump shotgun. Eight shots later he was trying desperately to reload and Louis and Bill stepped in to deliver cover fire with their UZIs. Zoey shot the last five rounds of her Sniper she had left and then dropped it on the ground when the Tank swung a fist at her. Only centimeters were between her body and his fist, but somehow he missed.

As she sped further away from Tank he slammed the car that was in the center of the garage and sent it flying toward Bill and Louis who were firing bullets at him. The car slammed into the wall beside them and sent pieces of glass flying in every direction and got Louis and Bill's butts moving away from the wreckage. With a few more shots the Tank went down and the survivors took a breather.

All their legs were shaking from the intensity of the battle and none of them were sure if they wanted to continue on. "I'm glad we're all together and okay." Zoey said as she looked at them with slightly teary eyes. Louis, Francis, and Bill all nodded their heads in agreement.

"Maybe we should be more careful next time." Louis said looking over his shoulder and into the darkness of the back area of the garage.

"Yeah, that was to close that time and I've had a lot of close calls in my life." Bill said laughing and continuing on to the second level of the parking garage.

Zoey smiled as they began to walk again. "I'm glad we can always put our differences aside. We're almost a family…we'll a dysfunctional one…" Her laughter filled the room as the rest of them joined in, even though they had no idea what they were all laughing about.

It didn't take long for them to reach the safe house across the sky bridge and for everyone to get back in their grouchy mood. Zoey entered the safe house first followed by Francis, Louis, and then Bill. As they entered the first thing Francis ran for was the refrigerator, in the corner of the room, and threw it open. His eyes filled with delight at the perfectly good hamburgers sitting on the top shelf.

Somebody must have just recently been here because they were still slightly frozen, but Francis didn't care as handed the package to Zoey and told her to cook them. Zoey's eyes narrowed at his demand, but not wanting to start a confrontation she opened the hamburgers and threw them on the skillet.

Finding a plastic spatula she flipped the burgers every so often as they all chatted about nothing in particular. The burgers only needed about five minutes to cook when Francis decided they were done enough and reached for one. Zoey saw his movement and slammed the spatula down on his knuckles.

"Francis get your nasty hands away from the fucking burgers!" Her voice was angry as she stared at Francis' filthy hands that he probably hadn't washed since the apocalypse started. Francis who had let out a cry of pain glared over at her.

"You're cooking them too much you Dumb bitch!" His eyes were angry as he issued a challenge to her in a sense. Zoey stopped everything she was doing at his words and turned toward Francis with a look of death on her face.

"He did not just call me that! That sexist pig!" Her thoughts were angry and so were her words a she spoke. "Don't you ever call me that again."

Francis smirked at her with the most irritating look in his eyes. "Dumb bitch." Zoey couldn't control herself as her fist came around and clocked Francis in the jaw. She was so tired and sick of this whole situation that she had finally had enough; though when Francis suddenly raised his hand at her she was slightly shocked that he would do so.

Bill took that as his cue to intervene and Zoey was so mad by then she wasn't even sure what he said. "I can fight my own battles. So get out of the way." Normally she would have just let it go and listened to whatever Bill said, but not today. She stepped around him and toward Francis only to be met with his smart remark.

"Yeah right. Women can't do anything right and that includes defending themselves." Francis' eyes dared her to step up to the challenge and she did.

"Oh really?" Zoey asked laughing "How's this for protecting myself?" She had already made up her mind as her foot shot out searching for Francis' balls, but Louis managed to catch her leg and stop her. At that the whole room erupted in to yelling and she found herself in the middle of it until the burgers began to burn. She quickly ran over to the stove and turned them off and gave a sigh of defeat at the now black, crispy, lumps.

It didn't take long for them to all start moving again because they didn't want to all be in the same room together. They headed through the offices in the main part of the building and down the escalators into the terminal with no problems whatsoever.

As Zoey stepped off the escalator she swiveled to the left toward the odd noise that came from the corner of the terminal. Old suitcases and pillars blocked her view so she slipped around the pillar, making sure to keep her back against it. She searched the darkness with her eyes looking for any movement and she finally saw it in the corner in front of her.

"Is…that a child?" Her thoughts were confused as she stared at the small form crouched in the corner holding its head. "What are they doing here by themselves?" A frown creased her lips as she took a step closer to the human-like figure. Someone's hand suddenly came through the darkness and grabbed her arm. Turning her head she saw Bill shaking his head, but she ripped her arm away and continued on. She was sick of being treated like a helpless little girl.

Speaking of a girl she realized that's exactly who was crouching in the corner; she couldn't be no more than six years old with her short, blonde, ringlet hair that was currently being mashed down by her hands. The dress she wore appeared to once be pink, but was now smeared with browns and greens and tore up the side of the bottom and on the sleeve. Her shoes were absent from her feet, which were covered in dirt.

Zoey's voice broke the silence that had filled the large room. "Sweetie, are you okay?" Trying to soften her voice away from the usual rough one she had these days seemed to work as the little girl slowly lifted her head.

All that met Zoey's eyes were milky, white, orbs on a child-like face. Her voice caught in her throat as the little girl's infected eyes stared at her with no intelligence. Her eyes bled with hunger and her foaming mouth screamed it.

"No, I….this….please God no…" Zoey's hand shook as she tried to keep a grip on her pistol. She was breaking down and there was no way to stop it. Weeks of malnutrition, sleepless nights, and horrors had finally taken their toll. The final rope that tied her to sanity had been severed at seeing this small child's terrible fate.

It was over. Her will to survive left her at that moment and chances were she would never recover it. A shot rang out through the terminal and the girl made a gurgling sound before collapsing to the ground. Zoey stared at her pistol as she watched it smoke from the barrel. Her eyes slid to the girl's body and then back to the gun clutched in her right hand.

A shout from behind made her glance over her shoulder. A horde was racing toward them and the amount of zombies it contained was unimaginable. They stumbled and swiped at each other as they piled through windows, down the escalators, over suitcases, and through the skylight. Francis' voice was barely audible over the screams.

"We…got…go…FUCK….son….ugh!" Zombies were being shoved away as he spoke as Bill ran to help him keep them at bay. Louis grabbed Zoey's bicep and began pulling her toward where Francis and Bill were shooting through zombies. She stared at his hand before she pulled her arm away. Louis' head whipped around as his frightened eyes met her hopeless ones.

"Zoey, please don't do this!" We're so close. We can escape. You can't die now Zoey, you're family to us!" Louis' eyes pleaded with her, but her mind was set. She managed one last smile as she clutched his hand in hers.

"I died a long time ago. I just didn't realize it till now." She turned her back toward all of them and walked toward the corpse of the little girl. Louis' eyes filled with tears as he turned toward Bill and Francis and yelled at them to keep moving.

In seconds they were lost in the crowd and Zoey was left alone. The horde surged closer to her as her fingers lightly brushed over her pistol. She wanted to face what she was ready to leave forever. So, as she placed the barrel to her temple, her eyes stayed open.

People say pulling the trigger is the most difficult thing to do. Zoey did it with both eyes open and a steady hand.

I know. I know I'm a jerk! Such a cliffhanger! Can I just say this is one of my favorite chapters? I really hope you enjoyed it. Please review!