L4D: Mana

Chapter 12: Enter Sandman

We didn't need to stay here. The lab had served its purpose for us. They had blood samples, measurements, test results, and most importantly: my antivirus RNA. We asked to leave, and the nurse, Mandy, had us at the door but the soldiers at the door said, "they can't leave, orders from Richard." I was tempted to pay him another visit but decided against it. Mandy apologized for her boss's actions and we went back to our room. We started planing an escape. We were given free roam of the facility except for the contamination free zones where the doctors worked. The heaviest guard presence is at the exit and Richard's office. The next time I was put in the common containment for testing, I stopped at the end of the block to sabotage the lock mechanism power box. Cara was ready when I got back. She got me a knife from somewhere, but I went to the lockers and got my baton, I still kept the knife. A failsafe was in place for the common. If they were let out unauthorized, within a set time for evacuation, all doorways, entrances, windows and vents would be electrified to kill or contain the horde. When Mandy showed up, we barely recognized her. Apparently, she was a MILITARY nurse. She wore camo pants, combat boots, beige tank top, service jacket, and tactical harness. She held an m4 and chewed on something. I thought it was tobacco but I saw the white package of gum sticking out her breast pocket. "Alright, we do this clean. No heroics, no fancies. Once the common are out, we get to the exit the long way. We'll have 10 minutes to do this or we're fried." A snarl of anticipation escaped my lips. These fights felt good to me, in a very wrong way. There was a rush of feel good from tearing things apart, stalking, and playing mind games. I had been having nightmares, a normal Hunter vs the old me. The instincts were still there, but only one side could dominate. I had to choose, let go of myself or let go of the innate skill. And I couldn't choose. "Ames!" I snapped out of thought and caught up with the girls.

Once we got close enough to the common, Mandy remotely sprung the trap. We ran away, towards the outside. The countdown had started. Ducking away and hiding kept burning our time. We wouldn't make it at this pace. The next group we ran into was taken out by Mandy. We turned the corner to the door but something was in the way. Richard stood in some sort of light mech suit. One arm had a hydraulic pincer, the other, some kind of plasma torch. His eyes were wide, and distant with large bags underneath. I'd seen it once before. A man in my home town had beat up a store clerk. He had snapped under stress and lack of sleep. Richard cackled, looking extremely twitchy and vulgar. He eyed Cara and I stepped in front of her growling a challenge of territory and bearing my teeth. He spoke unevenly, "heheheh-I-I-hehehehHAHA I knew I should've killed you the second I-hehehahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAAA...I got word of your ar-arrival. And-a-an-and now-heheheh-I will. And once that's done I'll-heheheheh-I'll take that fine lady for myself. HAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHHEEEEUUUUP." He wouldn't quit giggling and cackling, and he started chewing on his lips, actually drawing blood. The last comment about Cara made me snap. I lunged for him. The pincer came at me. I jumped over and sliced the tubing on it. The claw froze, but he still swung it at me. He kept at it, alternating between the claw and torch until I had broke it enough that he couldn't move. He popped out and came at me. I pounced him but he sidestepped. I crashed into the suit toppling it. It fell on Richard and when we tried to pull it off, a Jockey with a bite on its neck came out wearing Richards clothes. It moaned and limped, it pawed at Mandy's gun. He was asking to die. We put him out of his misery.

Outside wasn't much better. Small survivor groups were approached by soldiers and one would be forcefully taken and thrown into a van with others labeled "spare common" and I couldn't believe it. Mexican Standoffs were everywhere. It seemed that there was an immediate response to releasing the common, they were turning to survivors to make more. I snuck up behind the first group. Before I pounced a memory flooded in and I hesitated. Japanese characters, honor, respect, self-control, skill, training......The Way of the Samurai. Ju-Jitsu. I snuck up closer, stood up behind the soldier...and kicked the back of his knee. He stumbled forward and his head popped. The second was doubled over, clutching his leg. Mandy ran up grinning. We fought for hours. Some survivors came with us, some ran. We reached a radio house. A familiar southern drawl audible inside. "Ellis!" I was happy he was safe. The rest was there too. A military squad was on the radio. "This is Viper 2, Mudd camp, what is your status!?" Ellis replied, "Mayday! Mayday! This is a group of survivors in the camp. Military detail has gone AWOL. Attempting to abduct survivors for infected testing. Infected containment has failed. Outbreak has begun! Repeat. Outbreak has begun! Requesting assistance!" The military was silent for a second...
"Copy. Sending two teams to assist. One hour to evac. We're commencing bombing run on Raleigh, then heading for Mudd." Ellis smiled, Rochelle smiled, Coach laughed, Nick smirked. "We're not safe here." I said. We all loaded up and moved out. Then...I heard a voice...very very familiar. "Come on, Pam, we have to keep moving!" It was loving yet hardened. The response was loving period. "My knee is killing me. The tumor isn't helping. You should leave me." The response to that was young, very young, but too aged to fit. "No! Mommy, we won't leave you. We haven't left you since home, and we're not leaving you now! Especially after losing...him..." Memories flooded in. Mom! Dad! Haydon! My...family. I rushed ahead, ignoring the confused yells behind me. Over a building. Landed behind them. Hood down. They all spun around, pointing guns. Then Mom's eyes widened and she dropped the pistol. "L-Landon?" Then dad recognized me. Then Haydon. Tears formed in my eyes as my group rounded the corner. "M-mom!" I fell into my mother's arms. She held me, she hated it when I leaned on her, but I had been separated for maybe a month, still not ready to face the world alone. My family was back in my life. And I could not have been any happier. THANK YOU JESUS MY LORD AND SAVIOR!!!!!! We continued on toward the wall. The north side with the helipads. As we neared the lift to the pad I had to doge a spray of buckshot, grazing me and Nick. The man from common containment. The one I fought, stood with the smoking gun. He threw it to the side and pointed at me. He wanted a rematch. "Stand back guys. This is my fight." I walked out to him. He took his stance. I took mine. He swung. I stepped in and used the momentum of his punch to twist his arm. I jabbed his armpit and hip to force him to bend. His arm popped out of socket and I threw him back. He stumbled, his arm useless. He lunged to grab me. I fell on my back and kicked out. The strength of my legs sending him flying back. He was dizzy, and stumbled about uneasily. I could imagine a bloody "FINISH HIM!" above us. I jumped on a shack, aimed high and pounced. I went soaring up about 70 feet, then angled down with a screech. Velocity built. I crashed into him and the neural light show signified, a broken hip, 2 broken collar bones, and internal bleeding. I raised my hand to strike him down, but my consciousness receded into me. It was me and the Hunter again. Standing as if frozen. My perspective was in between the two. To the right I saw my old self. To the left I saw an ordinary Hunter. I had to choose. Instinct over awareness. Death over healing. Twi over Lo. Push over pull. Yin over Yang. I choose life. Myself. Me. God's appointed, accepted, renewed, servant. I came back. Not a second had passed. Instead of shredding him, I grabbed his head with both hands and slammed it into the concrete. "Let's gooooo!" I wined. We rode up the lift with out issue, strangely. We were at the top in time to greet the teams. I grabbed the CO's arm and talked into his ear. "My blood is the key to a cure. The research in that lab must be secured." He looked at me and almost jumped back when he realized I was a Hunter. "Of course." He said. We were then loaded onto a chopper. Within the hour we touched down at the Viper base. I introduced my parents to the l4d2 group and we got settled in with some of the other few civilians assisting Viper. We each used our skills to work some kind of job there. Mine was recon, patrolling outside the base with the soldiers. Coach's job was training assistant, Ellis did what he did best: mechanic/court jester. I don't know what the others were. We weren't there long. After a month at Viper, the east coast was clean. That was 6 years ago...