Left 4 Dead: West Coast Chronicles

The Marksman

It was some time before Jesse finally left her room and even then it was at the behest of her growling stomach. Keeping an eye on her open doorway, she looked around for something to eat. She spied the bag of baby carrots she tore out of the fridge by her sofa. She carefully picked up the bag and retreated back to her room to eat and think. She sat cross-legged on her bed and slowly chewed on the carrots to avoid making any undue noise.

Well from the looks of things, those things… zombies?... are spread across the city. She glanced outside a window at the ongoing chaos.

Yeah, this definitely isn’t a contained incident. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to last on my own so finding other people sounds like a good idea. ‘Til then, I guess I can hold my own against a few zombies with my bat. She thought back to the moment when she killed the one that had gotten to Amanda and shuddered slightly.

TV! I still have a TV! Maybe I can see if there are any safety zones or something… there has to at least be some sort of effort to get out people. She glanced at her bedroom door and frowned. Wait, my front door had some extreme TLC in the last half hour and I’m not too keen on the idea of getting mauled when I’m not looking.

She probably could bring the television set in her room but there wasn’t a cable hookup in there so all she would get would be riveting Video 1 and the stunning Video 2 and if she was feeling really adventurous, she could get snow on channel 3. She stuck another carrot in her mouth and chewed thoughtfully as she tried to think of a plan of action. There were other apartments in the building and chances are good that most of them have a TV set and basic cable so she could theoretically mosey over to a neighbor’s apartment and borrow their set for a few minutes. She didn’t think they’d mind it. Even if they did, chances are, they’d probably be a part of a panicked mob or an undead one. The only issue was whether or not she could handle more than one or maybe even two infected on her own. She didn’t like the idea of killing them, but if they really were zombies…

Jesse thought back to the countless hours she spent playing videogames that entailed some sort of zombie mini-game if zombie killing wasn’t the main focus of the game to begin with. Smack ‘em in the head, cut it off, bullet between the eyes, basically just give them a cranial enema. On paper it sounded easy enough but it is a small, fast moving target. Eh, I can’t do much worse than I did earlier, right? Besides, sitting here won’t do me much good.

With that, she stood up and approached her bedroom door murmuring under her breath, “Six o’ clock- TV hour, don’t get caught in foreign tower…”

She slowly eased open the door and snuck out, ears straining to pick up anything that sounded like it was nearby. She crept out into the hallway, making sure both ways were clear, and walked

(away from the bodies)

toward her other neighbors’ apartments. She quietly knocked on the first door, listening intently. No one answered so she moved onto the next. She continued this all the way down the end with no luck. Sighing with defeat, she slumped against the wall and closed her eyes. There has to be somewhere with people that aren’t infected. She sat there for a moment resting her eyes. I guess I’ll have to get moving and look for myself.

She got back up and padded down the hall to her apartment; once inside, she nervously checked the rooms. Luckily, nothing wandered inside while she was out. She stared at her TV for a moment before turning back to her open doorway. Might as well…

She grabbed the remote and turned on the screen and cable’s receiver. Once it was on, she turned the volume down almost all the way. As she watched the plastic anchormen and women give their take on the crisis, she felt a growing sense of dread. Turned out, the situation was not only uncontained, it was a global pandemic. Entire countries had already fallen dark literally and metaphorically as several lost power and entire governments had collapsed. She glanced at the ticker on the bottom of the screen and read: …correspondent has denied any affiliation with creation of the virus now dubbed Green Flu. Day 3 of the global epidemic- several cities across the country have lost power and contact with many more communities have been lost as nationwide panic ensues. Authorities advise…