L4D: Mana

Patient Zero pt. 2

I woke up without opening my eyes. I had a hoodie when I was last conscious that was still there. I moved my hand and felt my body. Everything was still there. I opened my eyes and looked myself over. Blood covered the front of my jacket and mouth. I assumed that was from the aneurysm. My hypothesis was confirmed by the presence of blood on my ears. My finger nails had thickened and pointed out at about a half inch long. My front teeth were all pointed and my rear teeth seemed suited for snapping bones. My ears had developed a tendon like growth that would pull them against my head allowing me to hear behind me. I tried walking but it felt sluggish and I got an idea. I squatted down like a frog and the tried crawling. That worked better. I kept my knees bent and moved my hips and feet, supporting myself on my hands. It seemed my muscles had warped to accommodate a semi quadrupedal existence. The muscle in my legs seemed denser, and I could feel the energy coiled in them from this position. I crawled outside and sprung up through the air. The feeling was amazing! I let out a screech as the arc angled downward and sank my claws into a wall, skidding down a few inches before detaching. The adrenaline rush wore off and I was quickly overwhelmed by white blindness. I thrashed my head this way and that but I couldn't see! I kept thrashing until I bent over and my hood fell to its rightful place. I blinked as my vision returned and sheepishly slunk into a trailer.

I needed to see myself. I needed to know if I looked any different. I could see perfectly in the dark windowless bathroom. The mirror displayed a pale iteration of my scruffy ,15 year old, face with faded blue eyes instead of bright glacier blue. The water in the sink would only trickle but I did my best to clean my face and jacket. My everything else looked fine, just pale. If anything, my normally chubby frame was now taught and muscular. I assumed I had enough biomass on reserve to fuel the transformation, so I was just as hungry as I was before. My ears were slightly pointed and had a dark line where the new muscle was. I didn't know why or how other hunters had weird eye sockets if they woke up looking completely normal. Maybe they start clawing at them when they're blinded. I had no idea, but I'll find out...

I wandered outside without any idea of what to do. In l4d, as infected, it was fun to shred some cocky squeaker who'd strayed too far from the group and scare the crap out of them before doing it, but here, it was real. The whole point of being a survivor in a zombie apocalypse is SURVIVING as in not being infected. I royally screwed up that. I got bit, I turned, but I still seem "aware"(?). I wasn't going to be a mindless murderizer machine. I would--! A smell hit me. It smelled like jerky. Or... It was a smell. A smelly smell. A smelly smell that smells...smelly. The second it hit my olfactory receptors, my vision was masked by a yellowish tint and my fingers twitched and spazed unnaturally. Soon I was convulsing. On the ground, I was silently raging at the hunter who had bit me but then another wave of spasms came and his face blurred, then my family's, then names, dates, places, color, language in general and everything else human until all that I could see was anger and the humanoid outline of the hunter. A low growl echoed as instinct took over. That scent. It was food. FOOD! KILL! STALK! I leapt up to the top of a white thing that made gonging noises as it bent under my weight. My ears flicked around to zero in on the sounds. "Hey, have I ever told you 'bout this one time, when me' my buddy Keith set a cats tail on fire?" The sounds held some familiarity but meant nothing. Just a means to guide me to a meal. They came into view and somewhere deep down, the real me was nerdgasming. Coach, Rochelle, Nick, and Ellis came down a road and in that dark recess of my mind, I was squirming to get control. I couldn't kill someone let alone video game stars! Ellis, excited by something, ran ahead. "Wrrrryyy!" I crashed into him and reared back to strike. I became angry at myself and pushed harder. A feral cry morphed into "
-n the name of Jesus Christ, GET BEHIND ME SATAN!!!" A few human things flooded back as I jumped to a tree branch. Ellis lay there dumbly. I was internally praying that they would hear me and not shoot on sight. I called out, "Hey! Don't shoot! Friendly! I hope..." I hung from the branch for a second before dropping and raising my hands. The survivors surrounded me cautiously. Coach came to the front. "Are ya infected?" He asked nervously. I shrugged my hood off and tried to stare where I believed he was. "Yes. Turned in fact. Hunter. Recently too, woke up about 15 minutes ago from the coma. I think my faith in God has protected my humanity." Coach and Rochelle smiled in a knowing kindness. Ellis smirked like an older brother proud of his younger sibling. Nick just rolled his eyes. Coach continued, "Well, how do you know you're a Hunter?" I didn't need to think twice. "Well now, I can pounce about 50 feet, I could smell you before I saw you, and with out a roof or my hood, like right now, everything is a wall of white but I have excellent night vision. Also I was bitten by one." I could barely make out the faces from the shade of the tree, but they were without color. I flicked my shoulders to put my hood up so I could see. Rochelle was now next to me. Once I made eye contact she spoke, "Do you remember anything, about your past?" My stare went blank as an obvious "hamster on the wheel face" for a solid minute. "I remember my...7 year old brother, Haydon, my mom and dad, and a girl I liked I called Cara. I know I'm 15...that's it. There is a faint image of a tabby cat too but she might be gone...my name is Landon, and the clearest memory I have is my faith in Jesus, that I am almost certain of." It looked like she would respond but a smell hit me: rotting flesh. I spun on my heel and crouched to attack. The survivors pointed guns at me but I snapped at them, "Not you! The Horde! Get ready, I smell a tank coming with 'em!" The survivors pulled pipe and bile bombs out to prepare. The ground shook and an apelike monster thrust forward with a good hundred common trailing close behind. A tube of puke broke over the head of the beast and the common changed direction to beat, claw and bite the muscled twinky. He stumbled a bit, but the horde was all crushed and he continued on. As he charged I spotted a red door. "SAFE ROOM!" They took the hint and edged to it as I pounced the tank. I hit the nape of the neck and let my legs straddle the head. He flailed at being blinded but couldn't reach me. I leaned back and started tearing away layers of dense muscle until the actual neck was exposed. I sank my teeth in deep. It was sweet tasting and that alone sent shivers down my spine. The tank began to slow as he grew tired. Or frustrated. I let go when I noticed that he was moving in a circle. When I made eye contact with him, he plopped down and rested his head on his massive arms panting heavily.
I went to the door and wrapped lightly on they frame. Nick came to the bars. "What do you want?" I ignored his blatant dislike of me and asked, "Do you happen to have any food? I don't fancy hunting down some lone soul." He was about to say no when Ellis came up with a water bottle and military ration, smiling kindly. I took a board and leaned the water-filled ration bag against it. A few minutes later, the reactive coating started to heat up and steam came out, the scent of a burger wafted through the air. I put the patty on the dried out bun and wolfed the whole thing down before curling up by the door as the sun dipped past the horizon.