Left 4 Dead Fan Fiction
The Forgotten Survivors
by TheDark12
Chapter Eight - Highway to Hell
Lauren sat chewing her fingernails nervously in the back seat of the Humvee. Guilt welled up in her stomach tying an uncomfortable knot that ate away at her insides. No one had said a word since they had left the library. The tension made her nervous. She wanted nothing more than to apologize, but dared not speak the first words.
"Maybe someone should check the radio." Victoria finally said from beside her; the first words of conversation in the last hour, they made Lauren jump.
"Yeah, good idea," replied the Marine in the front seat, stirred back into reality. He leaned forward and switched on the radio. There was nothing but static.
The man in black, 'Sarge' as he was called, was driving. He looked over at them, also brought back to reality by what Victoria had said. He didn't respond.
Lauren couldn't take the guilt that she was feeling anymore. "I'm really sorry that I lost all of the ammunition for us." She said, her voice strained.
"What?" The young Marine in the passenger seat said, looking backward over his shoulder into the young girl's eyes.
"Don't be ridiculous, you got hit in the face!" Victoria said from beside her. "Even Charlie couldn't take a hit like that."
"That's right," said the Marine in the front. "Besides, if I had've watched my ammo better I would've been able to stop that before it happened. It's as much my fault as it is anyone's."
"We can't waste time stressing about what we can't change," the man in black clothes finally said. "We can't change it now, all we can do is learn from it and try not to let mistakes like that happen again."
Lauren felt the knot in her stomach ease just a little, she still felt guilty though, and very self conscious. She was sure that she was the only person in this car that wasn't militarily trained, and couldn't help but think that if she was the whole situation would've turned out better.
Even though his words were not particularly kind, she felt comforted by the presence of the black clad man. He reminded her of her Grandfather, who had died the previous year. Kind and gentle, yet strong and protective. And remarkably fit for his age.
Suddenly, a voice came alive over the radio; "... Olsen Wilcox. I am alive..." as suddenly as it had come, it disappeared, static replacing it.
"Damn it." Charlie said to himself, changing direction and scanning backward, trying to find the radio station once again.
The radio fuzzed in and out, the signal was bad, "...long as I... be waiting... I have a gun and... bullets... Help each other. I will be here. Here at Burkleigh Hill radio tower."
"Burkleigh Hill? Have we really been driving for that long?" Charlie asked, surprised.
"I've been speeding wherever the road's clear. We've been driving for about an hour." Sarge said. "How far away is Burkleigh Hill?" Victoria asked from the back seat.
"Not far, it's the next exit," answered the driver.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go."
The driver began to slow. "What do the others think?"
Charlie hesitated before speaking first, "I don't think we should go. For all we know this guy could be long dead by now."
"Yes," argued Victoria, "But on the other hand he has a gun and if we have any luck at all he could be alive and might know how to use it. If that's the case we can't afford to just leave him for dead!"
"What does the girl think?" said Sarge.
Lauren looked back from her window view of the highway. All eyes were on her, Victoria's eyes were full of compassion and Charlie's with apprehension. The driver's were completely unreadable. "I think we should go," she answered.
The driver swerved in the direction of the highway exit. "It's not far from here, if all goes well we should be there in a few minutes and..." he never finished his sentence. Before he did, a large body of a rampaging infect slammed into the side of the vehicle hurling it sideways for several hundred meters.
It slid along the road violently, upside down, kicking up sparks, twisting and shrieking along the ground like a wailing banshee of metal. Lauren and the driver bounced around the inside of the vehicle like rag dolls, having been unable to fasten their seat belts. When the vehicle finally ground to a halt the last thing that Lauren saw was her hands covered in blood. Her eyes slowly began to sparkle and her vision went totally white and in that moment, she lost all consciousness.
