It's been awhile, my sincerest apologies.
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Disclaimer: I do not own Left 4 Dead.
Chapter 10: Interruptions
Once the group of four felt the immediate danger of being attacked by the unknown infected had passed, they began to relax and fell into a comfortable silence. The rain had let up and only a light drizzle remained.
"You know?" Francis paused as if expecting someone to answer his question, but when no one acknowledged him he continued on, "I hate rain."
Zoey walking to his right rolled her eyes and shoved him lightly, "Big surprise."
A chuckle rose from the two, but was soon interrupted by Louis' sudden question.
"Are we just not going to talk about it?" The dark man's voice rang out to the rest of the group as he looked at each of them.
Francis' and Zoey's laughter died and an uncomfortable silence surrounded the companions. They all stayed quiet for quiet sometime before Bill broke it, "Well, do you wanna tell us what happened, kid?"
Zoey moved her pistol from hand to hand as her nerves stood on end. She shuttered in a breath before she began, "I don't know, I thought maybe it was easier to just give up. After everything I've seen I didn't want to see even more of the terrible things that were happening." She gave a brief pause before continuing.
"I guess in that moment I had the choice. When all those infected were coming at us, I had the choice to live or die; I didn't realize that till right then. Every time I've run from those things or killed them I've always thought that's what I HAD to do, survive. That's what my mind was telling me to do, until it wasn't anymore. Just knowing I had that choice, that I could end it before they did it, I guess it brought me peace in my decision…" Her voice drifted off as she stared down the street at nothing in particular.
All was silent once again and then in a move so unlike himself, Francis put his arm around Zoey's shoulder and pulled her into the side of him. She could feel tears warm her eyes and she quickly blinked them away and smiled softly up at the biker.
"Well, we're glad you changed your mind and didn't go through with it." Louis smiled at her softly from his place on the other side of Francis. Seeing the relief in his eyes Zoey hesitated before correcting him.
"Do they have to know? I know that I've already hurt them enough, maybe I should just let them think that I realized my mistake on my own." Zoey battled with her inner self. "They're my friends, my family; I shouldn't have to lie to them."
"I didn't."
All three men turned their heads toward her when she spoke. Some time had passed since Louis had last spoken.
Bill glanced at the others and then back toward Zoey, "You didn't what?"
Zoey glared at the ground and her hand clenched around her pistol. "I didn't change-" A loud crack of lightening interrupted her and a hail of rain followed it, literal hail.
The survivors cursed at the sudden ice balls hitting them harshly and they all looked around for shelter. Most of the buildings surrounding the street were boarded up from people who had hoped to wait out the infection.
"Here, come on!" Bill's words carried over the rain and hail as he waved them over to a building further down the road. The three of them could just barely make out his figure as they made their way toward the veteran.
The rain and hail picked up harder and the street they hurried across was already beginning to flood again. Hail was now falling so hard that they were desperately trying to cover their faces from the painful impacts. Reaching the building a sign that now lay on the ground read, "Antiques." The bell chimed as each of them hurried inside and out of the storm.
Once they entered the shop their flashlights came on and they made a quick sweep of the area before deeming it clear. The sales floor part of the shop was packed tight with merchandise and shelving, which made it a dangerous place to be if anything decided to attack them. Zoey skimmed through some of the items as they made their way deeper into the store. She came to a stop when she reached a shelf that was full of glass figurines and she frowned slightly at the very last figure on the shelf. A small figure of a Cheetah in full sprint rested on the shelf, the only color on the clear figurine was two black lines that ran down from each eye. Seeing the tear marks on the animal brought a memory floating to the forefront of her mind.
Flashback:
"What about this one Mommy?" Innocent blue eyes stared up at the young woman standing over her. A small chuckle left the woman's lips as she pulled a chair out and sat down in it next to her daughter. She stared down lovingly at the brown-haired girl and gently reached out to tousle her hair.
"Now I've already told you the story of that one. Why don't we try a different one instead?" The woman smiled at her daughter when she poked her tongue out at her. Little hands flipped through "The Book of Animals" before coming to rest on a random page.
"How about this one?" Zoey looked up at her mom as she pointed to the animal on the page. The smile on her mother's face grew bigger and she looked down fondly at her little girl.
"This one's my favorite." She gently placed her fingers on the image of the Cheetah and traced the black lines running from its eyes. "A long time ago the Egyptians; do you remember who they are?" Zoey nodded her head enthusiastically and she stared up at her mom, "They're the ones who built the pyramids!"
Helen nodded softly at her daughter and continued, "Well, a long time ago they use to have much respect for these animals and they even trained them to hunt for them." Helen laughed as her daughter's eyes widened at the information. "The cheetahs and Egyptians grew so close, that they formed a bond with each other. After years of being together the Egyptians began to notice that when the cheetahs had babies of their own, that they rarely ever got to grow up-"
Zoey gave a gasp and covered her mouth, "You mean they died?!" The young mother nodded softly down at her daughter and gave her sad smile. "That's so sad, the cheetahs must have been sad."
Helen reached out and touched her daughter's hand, "Oh, they were sweetheart. Do you see these black lines here?" She pointed down to the lines on the Cheetah's face she was previously tracing. Zoey nodded at her mother and then reached out to trace the lines herself.
"When the Egyptians saw that the cheetahs had lost so many babies, they began to say that the two black marks on their face were from dark tears of sorrow they cried from losing their children. Today's cheetahs move through their life knowing the truth of losing something precious."
The six year old looked sadly at the cheetah on the page before turning questionably to her mother, "Does it have a meaning Mama, like the others?"
"Of course it does, Sweetie. They are a reminder to grieve, cry, express, and release your sorrow and know that you will move on."
The blue eyed girl stared confused up at her mother. "I don't understand…"
"And you won't now, love, but you will when you're older." Helen laughed again when her daughter crossed her arms and began to pout.
"That's what you always say Mommy."
The world came swarming back to the blue eyed woman and she gently reached out to grab the small figurine. "I haven't thought of those moments with my Mother in years." Carefully she tucked the small trinket in her jacket pocket and frowned at the memory.
"You were right mom…" Her realization was met with silence.
The group moved to the backroom of the store, just behind the counter, and decided to set up there. A door led out to the back alley and they had two ways of escape if the need arose. They all were taking this moment as a much needed rest and trying to relax the best they could.
Bill set idly on a worn, wooden table cleaning his assault rifle while Francis appeared to be dozing against a file cabinet in the far corner of the room. Zoey and Louis sat next to each other on the floor, across from Bill and chatted quietly about their life before the infection.
"So, you gonna tell me what the deal is with the Hunter?" Zoey didn't seem surprised at Louis' question, but still shifted uncomfortably.
She couldn't tell them everything or there was no way they would trust him, especially if they heard he tried to kill her. "Even if I want to completely trust him, I'm still a little weary myself."
Damion had saved her multiple times, but that moment on the roof of the airport had terrified her. She knew that there was a chance it could happen again and that unnerved her.
"He got me away from the Horde in the airport." Her answer to Louis was vague, but she didn't want to get into the suicide topic again. "Then we ran into that monster you saw earlier and ended up holing up in a safe house for a while." She conveniently left out the part where she had to tie him up in case he tried to kill her again.
Louis gave pause to take what she said in before firing another question at her. "Sooo, do you trust it-I mean him?" He was quick to correct himself when Zoey shot him a sharp look. "Sorry, it's hard to imagine one of them possibly having some humanity in them."
Zoey nodded her head in understanding and then paused to contemplate his question, before deciding to answer honestly, "I want to, but I don't know myself yet. Never get attached, remember?"
A length of silence passed between them before Louis' sudden chuckle broke it. She turned her head toward him in question.
"It's kind of nice, even if we don't know if we can trust him yet. It's like a little slice of hope in all this chaos going on. Maybe there's a chance this infection can be cured, or that we can adapt."
Zoey smiled softly at Louis' words and she saw Bill nodding his head in agreement across from them.
"So does this Hunter have a name?" Bill joined in on their conversation as he rested his now clean rifle on his lap and reached for his clip.
"Yeah, Damion…"
Louis smiled at Zoey's words, "Hey! One of my cous-"
"Hold on!" The harsh whisper from Bill brought Louis' mouth snapping shut.
Bill silently popped the clip back into his assault rifle and moved to the alcove that led out to behind the register. Francis, who had fallen asleep quite a while ago, suddenly gave a loud snore causing the other three individuals in the room to nearly jump out of their skin. It wasn't just them that seemed to be startled though, because a loud crash came from the front of the store. Glass crashed and shattered on the store floor, but soon it was silent once again.
The veteran spared a glance at the rest of the group and then raised his hand in an order for them to stand up and be ready. A bleary eyed Francis looked around at the three of them before coming completely awake and realizing what was going on. With a roll of his eyes he followed Zoey and Louis in standing up and equipping themselves with their weapons.
The only good thing that came from the rain was that most of the time the infected seemed to stay away and hunker down in buildings and covered spots across the city. Unfortunately it seemed that one of them had thought the antique shop was the ideal place to get out of the rain.
The store continued to be deathly quiet and Zoey could feel her heart thumping heavily in her chest, she wasn't sure how no one else could hear it. Nervously, she shifted her pistol around in her hand, a habit she had formed since the start of this ordeal. "Have we not been through enough? We can't even have a little while to rest."
It seemed that Francis had, had enough of the quiet game because before any of them could stop him he had shoved past Bill and proceeded to turn on his flashlight and move it across the room.
"Alright, come out you little shit!" His voice echoed off the walls and was met with silence. A crunching of glass brought his light flashing to the edge of the counter. A slim figure stood at the end staring at him. Matted, white hair hung loosely over a face that had four fresh, bloody claw marks across it and a blazing orange iris stared back at the biker. The growl started emitting from the Witch's throat and Francis cautiously took a step back inside the doorway.
"Turn your damn light off!" Louis hissed as the rest of them began backing up as well.
"I think it's a little late for that." Zoey responded.
The Witch took a step toward Francis and her clawed hand flexed out to the side. At the same time, Zoey felt herself back into the door that led outside and she quietly turned the knob and pushed the door open. The special infected let out a snarl at the sudden sound of rain entering the room, but was momentarily distracted when the bell from the front of the store sounded. Her head swiveled backwards in that direction and the survivors took that moment to rush out of the doorway and into the downpour.
Nearly falling over each other to get out they split up in two's and headed in different directions down the alley. A scream from the Witch rang out over the storm and they each pushed themselves to run faster.
Francis and Zoey ended up running side by side down a tight alleyway. They could hear the angry screams of the special infected following close behind them. Visibility was basically zero the rain was coming down so hard and they felt themselves blindly taking turns and trying not to fall over objects in their path.
"Would you get away from me?!" Zoey's question rang out through the rain and Francis looked over at her bewildered.
"What? Why?!"
Zoey glared at him and then threw her hands out to the side, "She's after you!"
"I have to take someone with me." Francis laughed when Zoey shoved against the side of him.
For a moment it felt like they weren't in a dire situation, but instead just playful banter between friends. Things almost seemed okay.
Until they crashed into the brick wall and found themselves at a dead end.
Francis crashed into the wall first and found himself on his ass from the force of the impact. Zoey followed him crashing into it, but threw her palms up when she hit it. She instantly regretted the decision when she felt her wrists scream in protest and jam up. Luckily she had opted to drop her pistol so it wouldn't take the full force of hitting the brick wall.
"Christ, my ass." Francis stood up stiffly rubbing his bruised backside and then quickly retrieved his shotgun from where it had skidded off to.
The Witch's screams sounded over the rain once again and appeared closer than they were before. Zoey looked around them in the alley, but the rain made it difficult to see any form of escape. She rubbed her sore wrist uncomfortably and then reached down to pick up her abandoned pistol. Both of them were soaked to the bone, but currently the adrenaline was keeping them from feeling how cold they actually were.
A scream from Zoey's right brought her whipping around and aiming her gun at her teammate. Francis' face was terror-stricken as he jumped away from the window located down by his feet. The window suddenly rose again and Louis' head popped out.
"Hurry, hurry!" He quickly ducked back inside, while Francis grabbed the edge of the window and lifted it, and then nudged his head for Zoey to go ahead. She bit her lip to stop herself from laughing about his girly scream and dropped down onto her stomach to slide into the cellar.
She pushed herself halfway through, when suddenly the pain in her right wrist caused it to give out and she felt herself fall forward and let out a frightened cry. Two arms were suddenly wrapped around her waist and she felt her chin fall against a rain soaked shoulder. The individual took a step back and pulled her the rest of the way through the window.
Once her feet were resting on the ground the arms remained wrapped lazily around her waist and she felt her cheek resting against a chest. A familiar scent of pine and blood filled her senses, the latter being a scent she had grown quite used to since the Green Flu broke out. A soft growl resonated from his chest and she felt a face nuzzle against her wet hair.
Looking up her blue eyes found crimson ones and her breath hitched at the animal-like desire she saw in his eyes. Hearing her sharp intake of breath he closed his eyes for a moment and then released his hold on her.
"Damion…" Her voice came out slightly breathless and his eyebrows rose under his hood. Seeming to snap back to her senses, Zoey's cheeks flushed and she looked down and fidgeted with her pistol.
A clawed hand reached up and caressed her check, before moving under chin and raising it so she was looking at him. The Hunter opened his mouth as if to speak, but was interrupted by Francis cursing and tumbling down from the window.
Bill and Louis quickly made their way to help him, not seeming to notice the moment between Zoey and the Special Infected.
A scream came from right outside the window and long claws appeared against the window.
"Think she might have seen me crawl in here."
"Man! Are you serious?" Louis punched Francis in the arm and glared death at him.
Zoey felt Damion touch her hand and usher her toward the stairs that led out of the store. She smiled at him and he seemed startled when she linked her arm with his and pulled him along.
"I'm starting to think it's a good idea to just let her have you, son." Bill shook his head at the biker as he turned to follow Zoey and Damion upstairs.
"You know you love me too much, old man."
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