Left 4 Dead
Chapter 4 The Street
Bill began to unload as Infected began to round the corner behind him and gun for the juice covered biker as Zoey and Louis were caught between a rock and a hard place, the hooded infected screeched loudly before lunging itself towards the office worker, however at the last moment he ducked pulling Zoey down with him as the figure flew above both of them and collided into the bloated infected causing them both to stumble back into the biker who yelped as he was knocked back and crashed into Bill knocking them both to the ground. "Get off you big dumb ape!" He yelled kicking him off before turning his attention to the two special infected crumpled on the floor, Bill aimed his M16 at the bloated figure who bellowed as the hooded figure screamed loudly.
Bill fired at the infected whose fragile looking body exploded in a foul mix of red and green mist and fluid, Francis got back to his feet noticing his vision was clearing and the fluid was evaporating off of him as well and the smell appeared to be fading, "Jesus that fat prick puked on me!" he cussed as Bill smirked, "that stuff made all the infected fall in love with ya to" he laughed as Louis and Zoey were in the process of gunning down common infected who were... running past them and ignoring them completely, what they saw next confused them all to no end, the hooded figure was now covered in the green vomit as a result of the fat zombie being exploded all over him, the common infected were attacking him causing him to flail his clawed hands and hiss and screech in fury as he fought back.
"Everyone out back now!" Bill yelled as the survivors left the hooded infected to fend off the horde as more and more attacked it, its slashed and clawed at many but more and more pilled at it eventually it was knocked to the ground and common infected began to punch kick and bite at it as it continued to scream and yell in a mix of anger and pain as its blood was splattered every by the onslaught, it flailed it arms a few more times before giving a pathetic dog like welp as its hands gave as its injuries became too much, the common infected tore it apart and devoured pieces before settling down... their orange filled eyes of rage turning white and lifeless as the light upstairs switched off again leaving them to slump to the floor again and mumbled and groan in a brainless language that only victims of their foul illness could possibly understand...
...
They emerged back out into the alleyway turning to their right they saw the remains of the stairwell and the body on the giant monster that had pursued them before, blood pooling underneath as large lumps of metal now embedded itself in its rotten flesh, Francis saw Zoey's dropped handgun in the wreckage and plucked it out tossing it back to the young woman, "merry Christmas" he said sarcastically as she chuckled, "what a charming man" she said as they shared a chuckle as Bill and Louis looked down the alleyway the rain pouring above them, they could hear some kind of growling from nearby... but it didn't sound like the same infected that had previously attacked Louis... it sounded more animal like... almost like a canine. Louis and Bill looked at each other, "the infection only affects Humans right?" Louis asked as the old man shook his head, "hell if I know but they don't sound human... watch yourself now" he said putting a reassuring hand on the younger man's shoulder, "come on kid's the subway station is just around the corner" the old man finished as the other two members of the party nodded and fell in line. Bill marched down the street with the others quickly falling behind him as the rain continues pouring down, crows watched them from the rooftops as they were running Louis noticed a door in the wall to his left, he turned and ran over to the door opening it and shinning his flash light inside, he found another rucksack on a box near to the wall and also noticed a crate slightly ajar with some tins of fruit and beans in them, he began loading the sack up before zipping it up and putting it on over his shoulder, now Francis could have a backpack of his own.
Louis had failed to notice the corpse in the corner of the room being tossed around by something on four legs as it growled and snarled tearing meat from the bone, he quietly got up and began backing towards the door, only to step on a shard of broken glass causing the figure to stop its assault on the corpse in front of it... or a moment it didn't move a muscle, and then suddenly rounded on the office worker... confirming his worst fears.
The creature before him appeared to be some kind of German Shepherd, except now its fur was all tattered and almost green coloured with large parts of it missing, including half the fur on its face and part of the flesh on its face had now withered away... showing part of its skeleton, its claws overgrown and a sickly green colour with tattered blood around them and its fur on its legs... a hole exposing bone and internal organs on the underside of its chest, and overly grown but sickly yellow teeth tattered with fresh blood, its eyes, one a horrid red colour that didn't have any other flesh around it bar the skeleton and the other still covered with fur a horrid green colour... "Holy Shit!" he cried at the top of his lungs.
He turned on his heel and ran for the doorway as the dog howled in unkempt fury and gave chase, the beast quickly gave chase as Louis run for his fellow survivors, the dog jumped only to be met with the barrel of a shotgun ramming into his mouth, hanging off the end of the barrel it continued to make the most horrific noises they had ever heard as Francis pulled the trigger blowing its body into several pieces.
For a moment there was complete silence, Louis dropped the backpack next to Francis silently fist bumping the bigger man for the save, "it's got food in it" he said quietly as Francis nodded putting it over his shoulder and nodding, the office man looked at the older man, Zoey looked utterly horrified her hands over her mouth as Bill solemnly lit another cigarette, "Bill... we were right... the infected changes other things as well... it's not just humans" he managed as Bill simply nodded Francis took a moment to bow his head in silent prayer, "not even man's best friend was safe from all this shit... rest in peace doggy" Francis said surprising the older man, "we have to keep moving... at least it will finally know peace" he finished as they nodded, he then looked to Louis, "good find kid... but next time stick with someone else when investigating" he said nodding as he lead the way down the alley and out towards the main street.
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Out into the main street bodies and abandoned vehicles and fires for all around with blood and other nasty imagery all around as far as the human eye can see... "come on not far now" Bill stated as he led them up the street, a building was to the right, "Francis take a look in there" Bill said quietly as Louis followed him up the street as Francis and Zoey marched into the building, Bill and Louis rounded the corner ahead of them far down the end of the street was the entrance to the subway station, "there's the station" Bill said as he marched forward with the younger man closely following behind.
Louis noticed a couple of ready made Molotov cocktails on the ground next to a torn apart corpse with its hand pointing towards them, "son of a bitch... he was already dead and wanted others to see" Louis said solemnly as Bill removed his beret in a moment of respect, they took the grenades and moved on moving forward towards the entrance of the station... an infected wearing an air tight hazmat suit stumbled around in front of a red car in front of the station.
Francis and Zoey walked down a long corridor checking side rooms to their left, Zoey had found a cabinet with two bottles of pain pills inside handing one to Francis and keeping one for herself, as they continued down the corridor an infected was stumbling around in front of them... wearing a med kit, and also having a pipe bomb on his holster on his side, and a hunting rifle on his back below the med kit, "hey that zombie has cool shit on him get him!" Francis yelled as he shot at the infected, some pellets hit the infected causing him to draw blood and knock him back against the wall... the infected climbed back to his feet and then snarled angrily... and then began to run away from them both... they both looked at each other and then frowned before giving chase... "get back here with your shit!" Francis yelled.
Bill and Louis went to shoot the hazmat infected but realised the car behind it was alarmed, they looked at each other worriedly... glass smashed to their right as the fallen survivor ran towards them with Francis and Zoey behind as he began firing with his shotgun, several pellets hitting the infected over and over as it finally fell, "Francis stop!" Louis yelled as he fired one more shot hitting the car behind the fallen infected... the alarm went off beeping loud as the four of them were utterly horrified, the hazmat zombie shot around and snarled with fury as he charged for Louis being gunned down as air hissed his airtight suit breeched.
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"Holy shit here they come!" Francis yelled as angry screaming and shouting could be heard all around grouping up around the car as the alarm stopped, shadows could be seen through the light from the fires as glass began to smash and many pairs of feet could be heard running from all around, the moment infected came into eye view they opened fire, Louis and Bill at the back firing their automatic weapons and cutting down many of the horde as Francis and Zoey crouched down in front of them firing their shotgun and pistols respectively and blowing holes as bodies toppled and blood splattered, bones crunching as the infected who had already fallen were mindlessly stepped over and broken by the infected behind rushing for their next meal.
Louis tossed a Molotov back down the street engulfing a large area in flames as many infected burned, squealing in agony as their skin turned black, the horde thinned out as a tall gangly figure on the rooftop above them looked down on Zoey its one yellow eye frowning in fury, before it screamed in fury, lashing out a long rubbery appendage from its mouth as it wrapped around her legs and threw her on her stomach her handguns dropping out of her hands... "Help... guys Help me!" she yelled as infected broke off and began to follow her as she was hung up against the wall as the tongue began to tighten around her throat and chest, suffocating her as she coughed and gagged thrashing around desperately. Her vision began to go dark as several infected began to run towards her... time seemed to slow as she accepted her fate, suddenly automatic gunfire cut down the common infected in front of her as a grizzled old man charged through the dropping bodies as he slashed cleanly through the tongue dropping the college girl to her knees as the smoker above hissing in pain.
He pulled her to her feet, she smiled for a moment and then went pale faced with terror... the smoker had dropped down behind them and then backhanded the old man knocking him against the wall down on one knee... it then slashed him across the face drawing blood as the old man roared in pain as it then smacked him to the ground, it stood above him and howled in anger... only for several pistol shots to puncture its head and causing its body to flop against the wall and its body to shoot out a green smoke covering a large area.
She pulled him to his feet and smiled weekly... "Up you get old man... you wouldn't let me give up... come on" she said, handing him back his assault rifle as he smiled weakly, Louis and Francis had gunned down the remaining infected and stood over a pile of hole filled bodies, they turned to each other and smiled, "any bar fight you can walk away from is one you won!" Francis declared. Louis scoped up the second Medi kit as Bill and Zoey came back, Zoey placed her handguns on her side as she picked up the hunting rifle, giving the pills to Bill as Louis cleaned up his wound and wiped away the blood.
"Francis check your fire!" Bill snapped as he rounded on the taller man, "hey come on you old geezer how was I supposed to know that car was alarmed!" they began bickering as Louis chuckled as Zoey moved to join the office worker, suddenly being alerted to growling from behind Francis, looking over his shoulder she saw a Hunter crouched behind him ready to pounce, "Hunter!" she yelled as it screamed leaping towards the biker as she raised the hunting rifle and fired hitting it square in the head and causing its body to lose all momentum and collapse immediately.
"That's right" she said smiling smugly as Francis turned on his heel he then chuckled at the young woman, "heh you surprise me... nice job" he said, Bill looked down the steps looking into the subway realising they were blocked by the roof caving in on the stairs, "subway stairs are blocked" he said, Louis looked right and saw a clothes shop with a white house symbol sprayed on the wall. "Safe room in here perhaps it might lead into the subway another way" he said as Bill nodded, "good thinking I could use a damn break" he said as the moved inside the store, the red steel door into the wall ahead of them leading into a room in the back of the shop, once inside they closed the door and placed the bolt over the door.
Once the door was shut they took several places around the room with Zoey collapsing to the floor and breathing a sigh of relief, "phew a moment of relief" she said trying to straighten out her ponytail as the three men sat silently for a moment.
End Chapter