Left 4 Dead: Gemini Strain.
Chapter XVII: Don't ask for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for me – Adam
Before Lucy even had finished her word I was already
repeating it in my head at an alarming rate, almost in sync to the
ringing of the bell.
We
are going to die. We are going to die.
I was beginning to panic.
"Adam!" Latvia yelled
out at me as she grabbed my arm. "Are, you listening? I said
hurry to the station!" she yelled forcefully, waking me from
that stupor as I noticed that our group had already begun to make it
to the police station. I also realized that she was dragging me
before I noticed that I was making no effort to run. I gathered all I
could from within myself and ran with her to the station's entrance.
It seemed that the station had its own fair share of
attacks and riots from the massive amounts of sandbags, bodies, and
mounted guns that littered the area. There were not an abundance of
bodies to leap over to get there fortunately so we made good time. My
senses seemed delayed once my feet were near my friend's own. There
was a small throng of survivors around us. Some were wide eyed, their
own weapons poised for the eminent attack that was bounding along the
road towards us. Others were grabbing conveniently placed weapons and
taking point on the minigun turrets. My senses were numb but my words
came without thinking. Maybe they did come with thought, just not a
conscious one.
"Robert, take Lucy and find some place
inside to hold down." I told him in a voice not my own. "ANYONE
ELSE INJURED OR YOUNG FOLLOW THESE TWO!" I yelled to the crowd
as I pointed my assault rifle in the air to indicate my presence. I
have no recollection of when the hell I picked it up over there at
the police station entrance, or how I had a managed to fit three
handguns in my cargo pants without memory of it. Talk about one's
own desire to live. Robert looked at me incredulously for a moment,
then took Lucy and hurried inside. I could trust Robert.
Russ seemed to be at home in the chaos oddly enough. He was already
taking point with a weapon of his own, instructing all those that
would listen on methods to hold out. I vaguely saw that he was
talking to someone familiar, but attention was drawn away as I
noticed a grenade sticking out of his pants pocket. Ready for
anything like always. Hopefully it would work as effectively as
anyone amongst us here would presume.
"Adam!" I
heard Latvia say to me again, waking me from yet another daze. Her
face was intense as she stared at me, commanding all of my attention
to her. She took precedence over the gunfire that was coming from
everyone. "I got a small group to go take out that bell!"
She yelled through the din as she brandished her free hand to two
other individuals. I have no idea how I managed to hear her.
She looked at me expectantly, fear hidden away and replaced with an
adamant calm. Was I supposed to be the leader of this group?
I
don't want to be, I want to hide. I want to escape.
"Alright
everyone, follow me!" I shouted to them as I quickly made my way
towards the bell tower. This way was not free from the Infected. The
horde was not coming from this direction but the numbers were enough
to bring renewed fear of being so close to that which would cause
death.
We
are going to die. We are going to die.
As each infected human fell from our bullets as we raced to the bell
tower I thought of Cassius. That bastard was the receiver of every
bullet from my weapon. That bastard was every zombie that fell. What
was the point of trying to kill us? Was all this just a sick game to
him? An excuse to play God? Was the closing of the bell tower's
entrance door behind us just an allusion to him shutting the door to
our tomb?
Oh how I would learn a lot of Cassius upon the
course of that nightmare in the city. His desire, his longing, his
twisted ideas. How he would save me. How he would try to kill me. How
he would try to love me. How this man would do anything as long as it
compelled him. And after all that which he had put all of us through
I would learn why in the end I chose to save him. Why I would save
that son of a bitch from a fate that he deserved.
All I knew at this moment with Latvia and myself was that this man
was beginning something...and we intended to stop it at all costs.
With Russ taking the entrance with its support fire or Robert
consoling Lucy and the other young or injured that we would all make
it out alive somehow gave me strength of my own. They were counting
on us four in this tower as much as we were counting on them holding
off the horde from such heaven in hell.
We
will make it. We will make it.