L4D: Mana

Chapter 4: Through the Fire and The Flames

The radio crackled to life and Nick spouted a mayday message on all channels. I could hear something or someone, not on the radio. It was feminine, and familiar, and it was a cry for help. "Someone's in trouble!" I followed the sound until I saw her. She was hanging over the edge of a shop building, surrounded by common and a smoker poised to strike. I sprang into action, quite literally, targeting the smoker. My claws met flesh and instinct kicked in and I shredded the smoker. I crawled to the ledge and reached a hand out. She looked up and started screaming. Then I remembered the face. She's Cara! "Cara! Cara! Carolina, it's me, Landon! Your friend!" Her face went blank and she took my hand. "L-Landon?" She wrapped her arms around me and broke down sobbing. "Hush now, you're here, you're alive, and if your family is gone, you know where they're at. You have a strong spiritual family. Now get on my back and hang on." She latched on tight and I sailed back to the helipad. I landed near Ellis, and everything was going to crap. Two tanks were barely being held at bay by Ellis' heavy gun. Hundreds of common were attempting to storm the underside being cut down by gun fire just barely in time. I took Cara and put her on the second gun and told her "Pull the trigger and mow 'em down. If it stops, pull the handle and put a new belt in." She nodded and I flew into the fray. The noise itself could kill, moaning, screaming, crunching, and grinding from all directions numbing my ears almost instantly. I ignored it but made it my goal to quiet it. I flicked my baton out a went to work bashing heads. I found it most efficient to use the baton in a similar fashion to a short sword, coupling a swing to the leg with a foot or claw. A lonely wail signified the death of a tank. Then I heard the screams. I spun around to face them and saw Ellis, off his gun hacking at common that were storming up the piles of corpses with a fire axe, and Cara was struggling against a familiar looking tongue. Sprinting to the helipad I cried out "Coach! Pipe bomb!" I snatched it from the air and jumped to the top. I stripped the cap off the fuse to start it beeping and tossed it past Ellis. He took the stragglers; I grabbed Cara just as her footing failed. It was a tug-o-war game now. Cara clung to me tightly with her legs, her hands pinned under the loop of the tongue to give her room to breathe. I pulled and pulled, but I was slowly losing ground. I was mere inches from the edge when I got an idea. I pulled hard to get some slack, then reversed my position so I was in front of Cara; I crouched with some difficulty but once I was down it was checkmate. I remember playing football, how to tackle a QB: get low, push out, wrap up. I did just that. I pounced on Cara but instead of pinning I wrapped my arms around her torso. The force wasn't enough, but we had leverage. "Ellis!" I pulled the tongue itself as Ellis brought his axe down on it. A wail. A puff of green smoke became visible in the distance. It was quickly blown away by chopper blades.