Many A Damned Soul.
*Why hello there boys and girls! Welcome to another tale of MADS. This one details one of my personal favourites (there are four), The Listener. OH GAWD SAVE MEH! Buahahaha! You will never sleep at night! EVER! AAA HAHAHAHAHA! 'Ahem'… Gentlemen, let us begin our tale.
(Oh, right, and I do not own L4D, L4D2, or anything in the L4D universe, these are property of Valve. I do own the Infected and CEDA Guy (still do not have a name yet :\), so ask before touchy! Enjoy)*
God did I hate noise. The doctors say it is from some sort of brain condition that causes intense migraines very loud environments. I don't care what it was, all I wanted was to either be fixed, or move to somewhere quiet, but because the only doctor who could fix me lived in the city, and was not up for house calls. What an ass. So I had to stay in this shit hole of a town, my head hurting every second, almost overdosing on pain killers. It was always so damn noisy. Sometimes I just wished the world would go away, leave me to my own, no nose, no people, just peace, and quiet. Well, you get what you wished for. Sometimes.
Everything happened while I was at home, all I know is that for hours there was nothing but screaming, gunfire, explosions in the distance. I have no idea what happened, but I don't care, could be a riot or something. This Green Flu was causing quite a panic. My headaches picked up like they never had before, and just when I thought it would get worse, I heard screaming coming right towards my door. Man these people were going at it. With my trusty baseball bat I got from my dad before he realised my condition, and got hit by a bus a week later, I crept to the door, bat up and ready. Why do people never read? The sign said do not knock hard, and what did this dumbass do? Almost like he was using a battering ram on my door. And the screaming. Why was he screaming?
"Get off my lawn! I don't want you damn rioters ruining my evening!" I yelled to this bastard.
"No man please! Open the door, help me man before they get me! God! GOD! Save me!" That's the last words I heard from him, from there it was just screaming, yelling of fear and panic, and what sounded like, was that a dog? This is not rioters I think.
What possessed me to open the door, I will never know. When I did, I wish I never even got up from the couch. The sight that assailed me was horrific. The man who was attacking my door was well, everywhere know. All that was left that was identifiable was his upper torso, his face almost looking at me, asking me why I didn't open the door. As for what did this, well, there were two people, a guy and a girl, both with very pale skin, and eyes that almost shone yellow. They were picking up pieces of this guy and, swear to god, eating them. What bothered me the most was the sounds that they made doing it, and I hate noise. So, deciding to do the world a favour and get rid of these freaks, I brought my bat up, and smashed it down on the guys head. I guess it caved in his skull or something, and he went down like a sack of potatoes. His companion though, well she looked up and saw me, snarling and shrieking.
That was my queue to run, and run I did. Yet she was faster, and caught up to me quite fast. Without an effort in the world she jumped on me, and bite my shoulder. The pain was horrible, what with my massive migraine and now some crazy bitch chomping on me. I managed to shake her off, and head inside my house. Once in there, I looked for anything to stop her, and the bleeding, just not in that order. I didn't get long though, as she was inside already. A shriek, a charge, and she was on me. She started scratching at my face, making a god awful racket while doing so, and I didn't help as I was in pain, and yelling out so. It got worse, as she was clawing my face, she got my eyes, my vision swam, and suddenly, I couldn't see. I screamed even louder, and threw her off me with a burst of adrenaline, swinging my bat wildly. I felt the bat connect with something, and I heard a slump. Might have been me, as I ended up on the floor, curled up in a ball, crying like a baby. My eyesight was so important to me, it didn't cause me pain, and let me have at least a normal life. Now that was gone.
I realised that if I wanted to live, I would have to get the bleeding stopped, so I grabbed my shirt, and ripped it up. Easier then it sounds cause it was already torn up. With a long strip of cloth, I tied it around where my eyes once were, the blood already soaking it, but my shoulder was more important. I patched that up as best I could, and felt my way to the couch. There, I slumped. I lay there for god knows how long, and gradually, things got quieter. The sounds of death seemed to ease away. There was still the random shriek here and there, an explosion. About ten or so minutes later, there was a massive explosion, sounded like someone was having a fourth of July apocalypse party. I cared only to the extent that it worsened my migraine.
After that I am not too sure what happened, I just passed out. But when I awoke, I knew something was wrong. My body seemed different. The first thing I noticed was I could see, and I almost started jumping up and down with glee had I not noticed my sight was different. Everything seemed to vibrate, and it was all red. Things that were making noise seemed to vibrate even more. The next thing I noticed was I was taller. My legs had became skinnier, but they showed signs of new muscle that had not been there. My arms were also longer, and at the end, very large claws, that seemed to be able to shred anything. My skin was a very pale ashen grey. I walked to a mirror, but it was just a solid surface, no reflection. I noticed nothing really had detail, it was almost like I could see through echolocation. Now it made sense. I touched my ears, and found they were gone, just holes in my head. My mouth was a little bigger, the jaw seemed to have taken up more of my face. And my rag was still around my head, blood-soaked. I don't know if this was just a dream, but I was scared none the less. The only thing that gave me comfort was the absence of sound.
But my moment of peace would not last long. I noticed a thing pulling at the back of my mind, telling me to eat, that I was hungry. I ate dinner not too long ago, I should not be hungry this soon. Well, Still, to the kitchen I go, and searched through my food supply. As soon as my eyes fell upon the steak I was saving, I grabbed it, ripped it out of the package, and slammed t in my mouth, shredding it up in my mouth. Every bit of meat in my house, I devoured. But the hunger would not go away. The pull in my head seemed to tell me to go outside. So I followed it, through the empty streets, past the mounds of dead bodies, the cans set alight, the cars abandoned on the road. It was eerie. Way too quiet for a city like this. But I counted that as a blessing. Yet it was a blessing not too last for long. I saw two figures charge out of an alleyway. They looked like the crazy people from before. They were beating each other, punching biting clawing. And shrieking.
Something inside of me screamed up at the sound, and the migraines that I had before were nothing compared to this pain. I let out a roar, and charged at them, clawing and shredding them apart. These new claws of mine went through them like butter, and soon, all that was left was me, and some new piles of gore on the ground. With the noises subsided. My pain went away. The hunger crept back up on me, and I looked at the bodies, and began to feed on them. It satisfied my cravings, but I knew it would not last long. I kept going.
For about a few hours I walked, killing, or for a more better matter, obliterating anything that got in my way and made any noise. Eventually all the Noisy Things, the name I gave them, left me alone, and seemed to avoid where I was. I decided to stake out here, where it was peaceful and quiet. Some things were missing, like food, but I could ignore the hunger, and I could always go kill some Noisy Things if I needed. Today was not my day, and a few hours later, I heard some noises coming from down and alleyway. I was happy and annoyed. On one hand, I might get better food, on the other, I was enjoying the peace and quiet. I had to investigate.
What I saw was something that was a little surprising, I saw a group of people get roasted alive, by some sort of T Rex like creature. Three of them ran off, straight into my territory. And they brought a few of the Noisy Things with them, so I had to clear them out. With a very loud shriek, I sprinted back inside my territory, hoping to get them before they got to far in, and brought too many Noisy Things with them. They seemed confused, and lost, but they clued in on the silence, and kept themselves down. That is, until one of them fell down a small set of stairs. He yelled out in surprise, but was really fine, and like an idiot, started to roar with laughter. That is what I was waiting for.
I screamed out my tell tale shriek, and ran at the guy. His eyes bulged with terror, and he started to scream. That made me more mad, as the pain in my head threatened to make it explode. His companions were helpless as I started to tear him apart, ripping his limbs off and slicing him up. He didn't scream for long. All I left for his companions was a pile of scraps. Lucky for them and not me they wised up and stood there silent, not making a peep. I couldn't summon up my strength to kill them, only glare at them, and begin to feast on the remains of Mr. Idiot. Eventually they managed to sneak away, I didn't care, I was satisfied with this meal. My curse from my previous life might actually be a blessing in this one.
Silent reading section here, Keep your voice down… Or never use it again.
P.O.V Shift, CEDA Guy.
I am not sure to call myself lucky, or unlucky. After just narrowly escaping the last monster, we practically ran straight into another one. I knew something was wrong the moment we stepped into this area, it was way to quiet, the only other Infected we saw were the ones that followed us, and even then, the ones we didn't kill actually ran away. The others thought this was a good thing, but I knew otherwise. When the small fish are gone, that means a bigger one is nearby. I told them to keep their voices down, we might be able to sneak by without alerting whatever spooked the unspookable. That was, until Jarred fell down a small set of stairs, and made a big noise. That might have been fine, aside the fact when he got up, he started laughing. Kayla almost started laughing with him, but when I heard that shriek, I grabbed her mouth and pulled her into the corner. Good thing too, as just a second later, a new creature tackled Jarred and began to tear him apart. The thing was screaming too, and so was Jarred, but he was soon dead. It kept going, like it was in a rage, until only bloody ribbons remained of him. And as soon as he was dead, it swivelled its head at us, and I almost began to shit bricks. Its face was just a massive jaw on an almost mashed in face. Its eyes were replaced by a blood soaked rag. No hair sat on its head, either it was bald in life, or it lost its hair during the transformation, and it showed no ears, just big holes where they should have been. It was tall and lanky, but it showed signs of muscle. Its hands were massive claws, that I hoped I would not ever be near. It was a terrifying sight to behold, I almost began to cry, and so did Kayla, but we managed to hold it in. What startled me the most was it was almost in pain when Jarred was screaming, and that was why it was attacking him I think, but now it almost dared us to make a sound. It was listening for us, a real listener it was. Yet it ended up ignoring us, and began to eat what was left of Jarred. That was the queue we took as the time to leave.
Kayla looked up and me, and asked in a whisper, "What was that thing?" I had no answer, I just had to keep my knowledge of what it was, so I could spread the word. This apocalypse was starting to look more terrifying by the second. This new terror needed a name, and so, The Listener was now its title.
*Whull thurr yurr gurr! I hope you enjoy The Listener. I find him so fucking scary xD. I shall have another one up soonish. So write a review or add to favourites! AND I STILL NEED A NAME FOR CEDA GUY! Lol, anywho, let me know if you wish to use The Flamer or The Listener for your stories. Please don't just take them.
Enjoy! And have a wonderful day! Next one will be the 'OH SWEET JESUS!' The Rusher!*