Left 4 Dead Fan Fiction
The Forgotten Survivors
by TheDark12
Chapter Six - Impact
Sarge handed a two way radio to Charlie, who was now sitting in the passenger seat.
"Radio your friend, if you can. Tell her we're coming for her and the girl."
"Why? What's your plan?"
"We're going to get into the library."
"We can't risk opening the doors, there's too many there."
"You get her on the horn then I'll speak to her, I've got an idea that I'll need to explain to her myself." Charlie smirked at the use of the old expression 'on the horn', but nodded obediently and immediately started scanning frequencies saying, "Come in Victoria, do you copy Eagle six? I say again, do you copy Eagle six?"
Suddenly, a flicker of a flashlight came from the rooftop. "Victoria can you hear me? Flash three times for yes." Said Charlie. He held his breath and a moment later, flash, flash, flash, three flashes came. "Yes!" He cried, elated. "I've got her."
Sarge said, "Good, let me talk to her."
Charlie handed over the two way radio and Sarge took it from him, pressing the speak button with his middle finger. "Private Victoria Chase, my name is Ex-Senior Sargent Gregory Wilks, I'm driving the Humvee and I have an idea to get you out of there, do you have any way to respond apart from the torch? Two flashes for no."
Flash, flash.
"That's fine, I'll do the talking then."
* * *
Five minutes later, Victoria was huddled in the stairwell, just out of view of the library front door with the Lauren next to her and a significant amount of ammunition, firearms, and medical first aid packs loaded into a moderately sized weapons crate. "Okay Lauren, you run up and give them the signal, then when you get back, we'll make a run for the vehicle together." Lauren took off up the stairwell and after a few seconds she was back. Victoria had assembled a submachine gun for her and handed it to her delicately.
"Take this, fire from the shoulder and not the hip. If you have to shoot, try to flick the trigger rather than hold it down. If you hold it you'll mess up your aim and spend your magazine in about three seconds. " Victoria quickly ran over the weapon features. "That's the safety, the trigger, mode selector, grip here and here, magazine ejects like so and inserts like so."
Click
Lauren nodded. Victoria had a sense that Lauren didn't completely understand, but would learn later, if this crazy ass plan actually worked.
"Ready?" Victoria asked, struggling to keep her countenance calm and strong.
Lauren shook her head.
"Me either." Victoria cocked her gun, as she heard a Humvee engine roar to life in the distance.
* * *
Sarge started up the engine of the Humvee. "I think you should get in the back." said Sarge.
"Sarge, I've been thinking." Charlie started, Sarge gave no acknowledgment, his eyes were set firmly on the library’s red metal doors. "Are you sure that this thing will hold together for an impact like that?"
"No." Sarge answered. Charlie swallowed his next remark. "That's why I think you should get in the back."
* * *
Charlie buckled his seatbelt in the back seat and double-checked the safety on his submachine gun. He was sitting directly behind Sarge, the last thing he needed was to shoot his driver full of holes on accident.
Sarge eyes were on him in the rear view mirror.
"You ready?" He asked.
"Yeah," answered Charlie, sounding more confident than he felt.
"Good."
The vehicle lurched forward, pressing Charlie backward - hard - into his seat. The heavy vehicle picked up speed sluggishly and Sarge pushed the revs into the red zone then switched up in gears quickly, two at a time. The vehicle jerked as it drove back into gear and lurched forward with a new burst of speed. In ten seconds the vehicle had hit forty five miles per hour and at that very moment, the Humvee smashed through the bright red doors.
From inside the Humvee the sound and feel of the impact was concussive. Charlie jerked forward in his seat, his head driving straight toward the driver side seat in front of him. His seatbelt instantly leapt into action, halting his forward momentum successfully, stopping his head a mere inch from impact with the headrest, but bending two of his ribs inward with a crunch that seemed to echo throughout his body.
Charlie awoke suddenly, he was in immense pain. He had not realized he had been asleep. He was still in the back seat, infected were all around the car, vaulting over the Humvee in desperation.
Charlie saw his gun at his feet, on the floor of the vehicle. He unwedged the weapon and made to unbuckle his seatbelt. No use, it had been jammed from the force of the impact. A thought occurred, Sarge.
Charlie sat up straighter and saw Sarge slumped against the steering wheel. "Sarge. Sarge!" He yelled to the unconscious body. There was no response. Charlie looked around for a way to get Sarge conscious, all he could reach was the headrest.
Idea
Seconds later, Charlie threw the unplugged headrest into Sarge's head and Sarge jerked back to consciousness with a grunt. "Knife!" Charlie yelled.
Sarge was quick to respond, he tossed a Velcro strapped knife sheath from his leg into the backseat with Charlie who quickly cut himself free. Sarge had his own knife out and was cutting himself loose too. The clatter of gunfire brought Charlie's confused thoughts back to the task at hand, Victoria!
Charlie hastily strapped the knife around his thigh and grabbed his gun. Not wasting a second he burst out of the door of the Humvee and ran to a covering position within ten yards of the vehicle. He ran fearlessly and shot true, his superior Marine training shining through, dropping infected in all directions.
The Humvee was blocking the hole in the wall, but there was still enough room for several infected to crawl through over the roof. The minute he took position he saw Victoria duck out from the stairway, her weapon was on her shoulder and she was shooting calmly, precisely; just as Charlie now was. Sarge had warned her about wasting ammunition.
Charlie thought back to Sarge's words on the radio. Make every shot to count, firing wildly will waste the magazine and we'll all be sitting ducks. His focus darted from target to target, nailing zombies in the body, then the head. Many shots missed, but with the two of them firing as steadily as they could, they just might be able to make it!
A minute later he saw Victoria throw a signal over her shoulder and Lauren ran out from the cover of the stairwell straight at the open door of the Humvee. She was carrying a crate. It looked far too heavy for her. Victoria grabbed one end and both Lauren and Victoria ran toward the Humvee as fast as they could. Victoria was shooting as best she could one handed, and Lauren focusing all of her attention on holding onto the crate.
Charlie covered them as they ran, he had nailed more than a dozen raging infected but more kept coming. Lauren and Victoria were closing in on the open door, Charlie could see that they were almost there. Yes. Yes!
Then all at once, the worst happened. Three infected clawed their way up over the roof and leapt down, landing between Lauren and Victoria and the open Humvee doorway. Charlie aimed.
Click
No ammo.
No...
"Reloading!" Charlie yelled over Victoria's gunshots and the screams of ravenous infected.
But it was too late. Charlie watched in horror as a crazed infected man, broad and at least seven feet tall slammed a fist into Lauren's face, hurling her backward onto the ground. The crate, which had left Lauren's unsteady grip, but was still held by Victoria, crashed to its side and spilled open, dropping shells and grenades and strips of bullets all over the tiled and rubble coated library floor.
Victoria dropped her end of the crate and smashed the butt of her gun into the closest enemy's head. The blow was so ferocious that it caved the skull inward with a sickening crunch that sounded like a watermelon breaking.
The other two infected dropped with two powerful blasts from Sarge, who was leaning out his broken window. "Get in!" He yelled over the noise.
Charlie heaved his expended magazine loose and jammed it down his belt, then loaded another one. He cocked his submachine gun and let loose a fresh spray of bullets. Mowing down infected as they scrambled for hand and footholds on the roof of the Humvee.
Victoria scrambled over to Lauren and helped her to her feet. Charlie could see blood on her face, but couldn't tell where it had come from. "Get in! Get in!" Charlie yelled over his own gunfire. Victoria ran with Lauren to the door of the Humvee. As Lauren got into the vehicle, Victoria scrambled to salvage whatever remained in and nearby the spilled crate. "Just leave the rest! Get in the car. Go, go!" Charlie yelled running toward the Humvee himself. Victoria heaved the half-spilled crate into the Humvee behind her and closed the door.
As Charlie neared the Humvee he leapt onto the hood and desperately established a hand hold on the windshield wipers. "Drive!" Charlie yelled to Sarge.
Sarge nodded to Charlie through the blood smeared windshield and threw the Humvee into reverse. They hurtled backward and Charlie held on desperately, the Humvee bumped over several pieces of rubble and infected as they took off, picking up speed surprisingly fast.
Charlie held on until his eyes watered, his grip was slipping. Sarge looked forward and saw what was happening; he reached down and heaved the hand brake. The rear wheels locked and the front half wheeled around to the right. Charlie held on, but it was no use, the windshield wipers broke and Charlie flew off the side of the vehicle and rolled along the bitumen parking lot, still clutching the wipers in his hands.
Surprisingly, he wasn't hurt, probably because he hadn't had time to try to stop himself, he figured. He looked over at the Humvee and saw the passenger door swing open. "Get in." Sarge said, leaning over from the driver’s seat.
Charlie hurried back to the Humvee and jumped in. He could see that the infected were approaching again. He said with finality: "Let's get the hell out of here."
