L4D Hunter Story

Saturday night. My favorite night in the week. It was the night my buds and I played video games. Zombie survival games to be honest.  We would always last a long time before our players died. It got really fun all the time, we'd end up doing crazy stuff. It doesn't bother us that a few people around town were infected and behaving like zombies. The city had the problem under control.

My friends and I were facing each other as zombies and people, and I was the zombie. The game was based off of some movie that came out, and I was an infected called the Leecher. I jumped onto my friend Austin's back, and he started cursing at me. I chuckled a little as he said "Screw you Des! I was almost at the safe house too!" My friend Liam laughed as well, seeing the mayhem unfold on the TV screen as Austin's character was attacked by a horde of zombies.

"Sucks to be you. I win." I said. He glared at me.

It was his turn to play as the zombies, and got to play as a Sploder, a zombie that explodes covering people in an acid. I easily dispatched him and was out of the range of the acid. I was the best one here at this game. No one could ever beat me. Pretty soon, my character made it to the safe room, and there was another annoyed look on Austin's face. "Why don't you go to the store and buy some more pop, let Liam take a turn to face me?" He suggested.

"Uhh sure. Alright. Here ya go. " I said as I handed Liam my controller. He was best friend. He moved here in Philadelphia from a little town called Talgarth, in the UK. I left the door as I could hear Austin complaining about Liam killing him.

It was a nice walk to the store. It was a cloudless night, and fairly warm. I saw the big lights of the store coming up. It was the only store open at 2 in the morning. I entered the store and picked up a case of Cola. Can't kill zombies without some good old Cola. The gave the store clerk a fiver and made my way to the door. The store clerk leaned over the counter and said "Hey, you might wanna be careful. Rumor has it one of the infected people has escaped the hospital and is on the loose. And it doesn't take as long for someone to change. Mere seconds now." I looked her in the eye and said, "Yea, okay. Thanks. I'll be extra careful." I said sarcastically. She shook her head as I left the door. I was almost invisible in the dark. My dark hoodie had duct tape on it, as well as my dark pants. People always questioned why I wore duct tape. It was what Liam and I did. We put duct tape on our dark hoodies and pants for game night.

I was about halfway home when I heard something. I turned around and noticed a woman, dried blood all around her jaw and neck. She screamed at me and ran towards me. I tried to outrun her, but she latched onto me and bit the back of my left leg. She must have been one of the escaped people!

My leg was throbbing with pain as I clutched it, and the woman ran off, seeming to have fulfilled her task. I suddenly found my self overcome with unexpected emotions. I was enraged. I lusted to kill. I needed to do it. Anyone who wouldn't be infected would have to die. I was then confused. Didn't it take a few days for someone to be infected? That's when I remembered the store clerk, who said it would only take a few seconds to turn.

There was an increase in my leg strength, I noticed. I could jump a lot higher now, and I always felt like screaming at every moment. I spent most of my time on all fours. I crept my way back into my house, being completely silent. I peeked into a room and noticed Liam and Austin, still playing the stereotypical zombie game. They both felt different to me. Austin, on one hand, was immune, and he needed to die. Liam, though, was different. Like me, he wasn't immune. I could infect him!

"I wonder when Des will be back with the Cola. I'm thirsty." Austin said as he tried to latch onto Liam's back. I screeched as loud as I could as I leaped towards Austin. My claws started trying to tear him apart, and Liam looked at fear. He knew it was me, and he saw the bite mark on my leg.

"Des! What happened?" Liam cried out. He didn't know what to do. Austin was dead now, and I turned to face Liam. Tears ran down his eyes as he begged me not to kill him. I wouldn't. He wasn't immune. He could become just like me. I leaped at him, but instead of attacking him full force, I scratched his arm once. He looked at the scratch and started to feel weird. He got onto his hands and knees as he started coughing. The change was taking effect. Some blood started coming out of his mouth. Soon, the coughing stopped, and was replaced by growling.  Yes. Success! He had turned into something just like me. We studied each other, knowing that alone, we wouldn't make it. Liam looked over at Austin's corpse, and I knew what he was thinking. Death. To all the immune ones. Just as I was thinking.

Weeks passed, and the city of Philadelphia had been mostly evacuated. The infection had taken over. Liam and I were perched on top of a tall building where survivors commonly passed by. We already had nicknames, given to us by survivors we failed to destroy. We traveled in a pair. We were hunters.