A/N: Chapter 14. Short, but pretty information-dense.

Don't own Left 4 Dead.

I let myself calm down for a few minutes, before turning to Gatling again. "What's…going to happen to him?" I asked, quietly.

"Tests are underway." He said. "I must, however, ask you…what happened?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused. At this point, Gatling seemed to know more than I did about this.

"Our initial discovery of your…outpost, so to speak, was a coincidence." He said. "The helicopter that crashed nearby contained valuable scientific equipment, along with several confidential notes and files." Heh. I though. Not so confidential anymore.

"While we were aware of an infected invasion of the chopper being the cause of the crash, an easy mop-up was expected." He said. "A dead infected, perhaps, or even simply a mangled corpse. Instead, we found…"

"Us." I finished.

"Yes." He confirmed. "A known infected communicating, socializing, and interacting on a friendly basis. One that seemed almost…human."

"So you spied on us."

"Certainly. Our intel team kept their distance, to avoid confrontation, and returned to base soon afterwards. After some deliberation, they decided to call for backup—"

"And perform a kidnapping."

"Such strong words, Miss Walker. We prefer the term extraction."

No, you extract a tooth. You kidnap a fellow human being. I thought, but I kept it to myself. I was ticked off at the spying part, to no end; they were spying on me, on my own damn property, ferChrissakes! Even worse: I wasn't able to catch them.

Gatling continued, despite all my rage.

"However, when the team arrived, you were nowhere to be found. We eventually tracked you down—"

Dead bears will do it.

-"And found you apparently ready to shoot your friend. When approached he seemed feral; we weren't sure exactly how this happened. All we know is he was still infected for the duration of his time with you, yet still, to an extent, tame."

"So he's an anomaly? A mutation that's partially immune?"

"Not quite. He bit you, yes?" Gatling said, nodding to the bite mark on my arm again.

"Yeah. Hurt like hell."

"It bled, didn't it?"

" 'Course it did. What are you getting at?"

"Did he have any open cuts in his mouth at the time?"

Oh. Hm. That would explain it, wouldn't it?

"So it's a reverse zombie thing?" I asked, incredulously. "I get bitten, and the zombies turn into, I dunno, me?" (That was a pretty scary thought. A world full of Marcy's would be a dangerous place.)

Gatling actually cracked a smile at this. "No, but we theorize that a donation of blood could serve as a cure. We're still testing it, of course."

"Will it work?"

"We don't know."

"What's going to happen to Den, then?"

Gatling looked confused for a moment, and I realized that I'd never told him Denver's name. "The zombie." I clarified, and he got the message.

"We actually are conducting some of the tests on him, though it's too early to tell at this point."

I wasn't sure whether to feel relived or worried, so I didn't say anything.

"But right now, Miss Walker, your only job is to wait, and comply with our requests.

And if it does work…"

"Den would be fully cured." I finished.

Waiting sucks ass.

Waiting when you're there against your will sucks even more ass.

I guess, technically, I was there by consent, but I didn't have much choice, did I? When the fate of a nation in in your hands (And arms, and legs, and feet, and where all the major arteries are) it's kinda hard to say no.

Gatling was nice enough to update me on affairs over lunch.

"So, it's been about a month after the first infection, yeah?" I asked. The cheese sandwich they'd given me was fairly passable; it beat having liquid calories pumped into me to prevent me from fainting. Gatling sat on his Chair of Authority, shuffling reports.

"The first case was reported on September 30, in Mercy Hospital, Pennsylvania. That's all we know; The city was overrun within days, and Pennsylvania itself was overrun within two weeks. At that point, the virus started…changing."

"Mutating? Like, the genetics changed, so you couldn't track it?"

"Not quite. The virus changed the nature of the infected, themselves."

Ok, this was getting pretty freaky. "How so?" I asked, dreading the answer.

"Infected that spit corrosive acid. Infected that can tear a man, limb-from-limb, in one or two swipes."

Shit.

"Infected that can leap several times higher than the average man."

"So that's what Denver was. Is."

"Correct. Interestingly enough, the mutationed infected seem to be more…coordinated. Intelligent, so to speak. There have even been some reports of them working together to kill uninfected, though they seem to be exaggerated…"
"So the infection…It just makes them want to kill?"

"Yes."
"And you don't know why."
"No."

Aren't you awfully helpful. I thought. Maybe it's just as well the military took over.

Gatling left me be soon afterwards to do whatever the hell it is Directors do (Besides giving exposition and looking smug), leaving me with a solitary attendant to watch my vitals, and several more questions in my head. (E.g, how did Gatling know my name? For all I know, he raided The Cabin and stole my driver's license. Either that, or the FBI is more thorough than I thought.)

"I've only met him for about 15 minutes." I muttered. "And yet he still manages to drive me nuts."

The attendant taking by blood pressure laughed. "God and Gatling work in mysterious ways." She said. "You get used to it. Feeling dizzy?"

"No." I replied.

"Good. I'm just glad I'm posted up here. I heard all the other outposts have been destroyed, especially the one in Washington."

"What happened there?"

"Well, apparently they took on a group of carriers, but they managed to escape. In the process, the facility was overrun, and the whole operation was lost."
"Damn. Must've been some gang."
"I'll say. It's most likely the reason they decided to tranquilize you, instead of confronting you outright."

So that was the pain in my neck. Feh, can't blame them; I'd probably've raised hell if they tried anything else.

"So, what exactly is gonna happen to me?"

The nurse straightened up. "Basically, we take as much blood from you as we can, without putting you in immediate risk. This, of course, means extensive bed-rest; you need to take it easy from here on if you don't want to put yourself in danger."

Awesome. This was going to be a fun however-long-they're-keeping-me-here.

A/N: Chapter 14 is done! Only a few more to go until the end, so keep holding on.

Thank you for all of your reviews! Keep coming back and checking every few days. If you liked this chapter, spread the word and recommend it. Thanks for reading!

-Author