Hey everyone!
A new chapter, finally! :'D Even so it's rather short. I have the feeling my chapters are getting shorter and shorter, but if I write longer chapters it will take longer until I update this fanfiction again... What do you guys prefer? Shorter chapters and therefor (maybe) faster updates or longer chapters and therefor a even longer waiting time?
Either way, enjoy the chapter! And please forgive me my English, which has suffered a little bit ^^;
Disclaimer: Left 4 Dead isn't mine, but my OCs are
Chaper 18_For Science
"STOP!", the loud voice of the little girl brought everyone to freeze in their tracks.
"What the…?", one of the men muttered under his breath, while he searched for the origin of the trembling voice.
"Don't hurt my Daddy!", Chiara pleaded loudly. Still dangling from her father's teeth, she stared with watery eyes at the gun, which was still directed at her father. Shortly after her words she could hear a low growl, followed by a barely audible whimper coming from behind her. Her daddy had to be scared. Survivors killed the bad people if they had the chance, hunters included.
"Is… is that a kid?!", the man who wasn't holding the gun exclaimed. For the first time the five year old looked up from the gun, only to look into two very shocked looking faces. Both men looked very rough, like they had been through a lot.
"I thought that was a hunter pup or something...", the taller man, who was holding the gun, muttered confused as he slightly cocked his head.
"What should we do? What is that hunter even doing with that kid?", the smaller one asked his companion at a loss what to do in such a situation.
"Don't know...", was the only answer the gunman gave.
Chiara looked nervously between the two men forth and back. She didn't know what she was supposed to say or what she should or even could do. All she knew was that they hadn't shot her daddy yet, which was a very good thing.
It was deathly silent for some long seconds – neither party knowing how to proceed – till the gunman finally broke the silence.
"Grab the kid."
Chiara's daddy jolted violently as he growled in warning. But before he could have done anything a shot rang out and a pained scream could be heard.
The little girl yelped as she was accidentally released when her father screamed, but before she could have met the hard ground, two big and strong hands caught her. The smaller man had grabbed her hurriedly and was pressing her against his chest.
"No! Daddy! Don't hurt him! Let me go! Daddy!", she cried in a panic, while she tried to twist around to see what happened to her father.
"Calm down kid! That's a hunter, not your daddy!", the man who was holding her tried to reason with her.
"Daddy!" But the five year old wasn't listening, instead she couldn't stop the tears from welling up. She hiccuped loudly as she heard a furious sounding growl, followed by a second gunshot.
Finally she succeeded in twisting around enough to be able to see her father. She blinked several times, before new and more fat tears rolled down her small cheeks. Her daddy was lying on the ground, bleeding from his left shoulder and his right leg and glaring hatefully up at the two men. She could see that he was still trying to get up, even though it had to hurt a lot.
"Stop! Daddy, please, don't move! Y-You're bleeding so m-much!", the little girl stuttered frantically. The hunter froze as his gaze wandered from the gunman to his pup. He whined lowly, before he shook his head and tried again to get up.
"Please Daddy. I d-don't… I can't… You're hurt!", she stammered anew desperately. This time the hunter with the brown shirt frowned, but stopped his attempt to get up. Her daddy looked up at her, lying on the ground and trembling slightly.
"Did that hunter just do what the kid told it to do?", the smaller man asked in wonder but still with a skeptic undertone in his voice.
"Not sure. Could be a coincidence. Hunters, heck all the infected, are too stupid to understand us", the gunman argued uncertainly.
"And now?", the other man asked his taller companion, who just shrugged his shoulders, before he shook his gun slightly – the silent answer that they could just shoot the hunter.
Before anyone could have done anything else footsteps could be heard, followed by a shrill voice.
"What is taking so long? And what is all this ruckus? Are you two brutes too stupid to kill a mere infected?!"
All parties turned their heads in order to look at the new arrival. A tall woman with short brown hair was coming through the underbrush, before she stopped next to the two men. Her gaze quickly shot towards the still bleeding hunter on the ground, whereupon she grimaced. Chiara couldn't really tell what that facial expression meant. The woman looked neither happy nor unhappy too see the wounded hunter.
"What is the meaning of this?"
"Well, you know that the alarm sounded, so we went looking. We saw a hunter and shot it", the smaller man started to explain and pointed at the corpse of the bigger hunter, before he continued with his explanation: "But there was a second hunter, who had a kid with him. We thought it was a pup or a corpse or something, but then the kid started talking. She pleaded with us not to hurt her Daddy, but we had to immobilize the thing somehow. The hunter still wanted to attack us, but it stopped when the little girl told it to. At least that was what it looked like..."
"Did you just say that this hunter understands the human tongue?", the woman asked sharply, as something sinister flashed in her gray eyes.
"We're not sure. It just looked like it. But it could have been a coincidence", he informed his female companion.
"Well then, let's find out!", the woman exclaimed with an unsettling smile on her lips.
Chiara yelped out of surprise as the female grabbed her out of the smaller man's arms and held the little girl in front of her with outstretched arms. The five year old gulped nervously when those nerve-wracking gray sharp eyes stared at her. She felt nervous, scared and confused. She couldn't really comprehend the situation anymore. The only thing she knew was that she had to keep her daddy somehow safe, no matter what.
"Could you be a dear and help me out? I want you to tell this hunter… no your Daddy, was it?", after a hesitant nod from Chiara she continued: "Right. I want you to tell your Daddy to roll on his back and then he shall clap his hands."
The woman turned the little girl around, so she was facing her Daddy, before she looked at the hunter herself. The infected was glaring at her hatefully and was growling lowly.
"Uh… Daddy? Please roll on your back and clap your hands", Chiara told the hurt hunter with a trembling voice.
Her Daddy seemed to hesitate, before he rolled on his back very slowly and with a pained hiss escaping his lips. New tears started to well up in Chiaras eyes as she saw in how much pain her daddy had to be. Grumbling fiercely to himself the hunter with the brown shirt clapped his hands weakly, while he panted harshly. It had to hurt to move with a bleeding hole in his shoulder and leg.
"Fascinating!", the brown haired woman whispered with awe and an anew unsettling smile.
"We can't kill such a rare specimen! We have to take it with us and study it!", the exited woman announced, while she stared at the miserable hunter on the ground with crazed eyes.
"But Emilia-"
"Doctor Emilia! I'm still a scientist, apocalypse or not", the woman interrupted her companion harshly, who just rolled his eyes.
"But doctor Emilia we don't have the means to transport the hunter much less to study it. It's not like you still have some lab or something similar", the smaller man argued critically, before he exchanged a wary glance with the taller man, who was still pointing his gun at the hunter.
"I don't need a lab to study something. Besides I will never get a chance like this again!", the scientist insisted on her decision. "If I remember correctly the former owner of the hut we're staying at had a dog. I saw some accessory of the like. We can use those items to restrain the hunter."
"Fine...", the taller man sighed heavily. Both men knew that there was no arguing with that woman and that it was hopeless to change her mind in most cases. The taller man gestured with his gun for his friend to pick the hunter up.
The smaller man scowled but bent down nonetheless in order to grab the wounded hunter. Instantly the infected snarled and slashed at the survivor, who jumped back hurriedly.
"Fuck! I won't risk getting infected for your damn studies!", the smaller man cursed.
Emilia frowned as she looked between the hunter and the little girl back and forth. The kid wasn't infected and also not injured in any way. So that had to mean that she meant something to the hunter. A hunter who understood the human language and seemed to be keeping a little human child by his side, who kept calling the hunter Daddy. A sinister grin appeared on her lips, as she crouched down to the still snarling hunter and cupped the kid's cute face lovingly with one hand.
"Hey, hunter or Daddy. It would be too bad if something unfortunate would happen to this little innocent child. I tell you what: you will behave, so no biting or scratching, no aggressive motions and no harm will come to your child, or should I say pup", the scientist said in a sickly sweet voice.
The kid's father growled and bared his teeth at the woman, who dared to threaten his pup. Emilia arched her eyebrow, before she squeezed the small face in her hand, whereupon the little girl flinched. The hunter froze immediately and stopped his growling rather reluctantly.
"So we seem to understand each other. Good. Now be quiet and don't struggle if you don't want your pup to be hurt!", the woman warned with an evil looking grin on her face.
This time when the smaller man grabbed the hunter the infected didn't dare to move, even so he was still glaring hatefully at the woman, who by now had taken out a gun, so that she was holding Chiara in one arm and holding the pistol in her other hand.
The five year old glanced nervously at the gun in the woman's hand, before she turned her head and looked over to the man who had grabbed her father's vest at the back of his neck and was dragging the hunter along.
"W-where are we g-going?", she asked quietly, even though she wasn't sure if she would get an answer.
"You will see. Just stay quiet", Emilia replied, walking briskly through the underbrush.
Chiara bit her bottom lip worriedly, while she slumped down and looked at her father. Her Daddy was grimacing out of pain and twitching every now and then, but other than that he wasn't moving much. The hunter looked up – like he felt her lingering gaze on him – and their eyes met. Worried and scared gray-blue eyes clashed with pained and angered crystal blue eyes.
The little girl just hoped that they wouldn't hurt her Daddy any more, wherever they were going now.