Left 4 Dead/Left 4 Dead 2 One-Shots

Charger ~ Once Enemies

A charger yell pierced the air and you nearly groaned as you searched for the same stinkin' charger that had been following you around trying to kill you for the past week. You only managed to nail one shot on it before it disappeared into some brush and rammed into a tree. How it wasn't dead yet you had no clue, but maybe it was because you didn't truly want to kill it.

It was the only exciting thing to happen around here and it's aim was so off you almost didn't have to move when you heard it shout. You'd only hit it with bullets a couple times though; it's aim was terrible but it was fast.

You just saw it peeking out from behind the bushes it ran into and you waved jokingly. Beady eyes, jean overalls, one big arm and one dinky, shoeless feet, breathing like a bull, that's what it was. You assumed it was a guy, but it never got close enough to see for sure. The female boomer, witch, and spitter were obviously girls, and the other special infected were hardly ever females so it just made sense.

"I should give you a name," you hung your weapon from your hand as you put the other hand on your hip. "You should be.....Charger." Sooooo your naming skills weren't on point, everyone has a flaw! He snorted and you grinned, nodding. "Charger it is." He backed up out of sight and you continued on, whistling a tune to yourself.

For a while all was calm, and Charger was trailing after you like a spy. A noisy spy but a spy nonetheless. It was almost like he had a timer for when he could attack, and only when the countdown hit zero could he yell and charge in your direction. You wondered what would happen if he actually hit you and shuddered at the thought. But what if he was as surprised as you that he actually hit his target? That'd probably give you an opportunity to leave.

Charger peered at you from behind an abandoned car, watching your (H/C) hair swish behind you as you searched the surrounding trees with narrowed (E/C) eyes. Your shotgun was up as you spun in a slow circle, hearing something Charger didn't. He kept his eyes on you as your eyes passed over him dismissively like he wasn't a threat anymore. Perhaps he wasn't. He couldn't hurt you.

The first time he saw you, he thought you were fresh meat to pound into the ground. But over time, and many failed attempts to grab and smash you later, he realized you were much more than that. He wasn't sure if he was purposely avoiding hitting you now or not.

You tensed up at the growls of the hunter, but you couldn't find it. The noise was getting closer and your time to find it before it could pounce on you was drawing to a close. You nearly started sweating when you heard the noise end, like suddenly the hunter disappeared into thin air.

5 painstakingly silent minutes later, you deemed it safe to move on, but the moment you took a step, the hunter popped out of the nearby tall grass and knocked you off your feet. Your nails dug into its shoulders as you tried to keep it off you but it snapped at your arms and clawed at your stomach. The sharp, unclean nails sliced through your skin, but because you held it far enough away, they only cut an inch deep.

Charger screamed into the air, and with the most accuracy he'd had in forever, charged towards the two of you. The hunter stopped as you both stared at his approaching figure, then you shot each other a 'What the heck?' face.

The next second Charger's big arm knocked the hunter off, and he kept plowing through, stepping on you in the process. The wind was forced out of you, and as soon as the foot was off your abdomen, you inhaled sharply. You coughed while Charger smashed the hunter into a tree. He backed up and the hunter fell to the ground, knocked out cold.

"Watch your feet big man," you groaned, closing your eyes while your body recovered. Charger tromped over and stood beside you, standing in front of the sun. "Move, you're blocking my sun." He listened and you sighed. "Thanks, but was stepping on me necessary?" He snorted and you looked up at him. Yep, he was definitely a guy.

His tiny arm hung limpy at his side like he couldn't move it. You watched it move back and forth as he breathed, studying it. The charger was a strange creature, but then again you'd say that about all the special infected.

Then you remembered Charger and you weren't exactly on the same side and Charger wasn't touching you. Couldn't he pound that big arm on you and push you into the ground? Or did you have to be standing up for him to do anything to you?

"Could you give me some space? I'd like a 5 second head start when I get up," you said. He trotted off, his footsteps sounding like a bull's. Your hand found your shotgun and you rolled onto your stomach, pushing yourself into a push-up position before moving your feet under you so you were crouched before extending your legs.

You took off running but stopped 2 seconds later. Your innards still felt squished and you didn't want to push yourself too far. Charger couldn't aim anyways, unlike, ya know, last time with the hunter. You stopped walking. Charger could obviously aim if he was able to knock the hunter off you, unless of course it was just a lucky attempt, so was he purposely avoiding you those previous times? That thought made you puzzled.

Hearing familiar footfalls behind you, you turned to see the very infected you were thinking about. But in his beefy hand was...flowers? They were squished and probably wild flowers, but they were definitely the kind of thing a male would get a female if he liked her. A hand was on your hip and you pointed your shotgun at the sky as it rested on your shoulder.

Charger grunted and lifted his arm so the flowers were right in front of you. "These for me?" You rose an eyebrow. He nodded. "Thanks," you took them out of his hand. You took a sniff and were sorta surprised they still smelled nice. "Why are you giving these to me?" He made something with his thumb and pointed finger, and it took you a second to realize what it was. It was half of a heart.

You stepped over and made the other half of the heart with your hand, placing it next to his. "You love me?" He nodded, looking away bashfully. "That's so sweet!" You cooed, hugging him. You didn't necessarily like him yet, but you could definitely learn to. Pulling away from the hug, you hopped onto his arm and got comfy. He was staring at you like suddenly you threw up black goo like the common infected and you rose an eyebrow in response.

"What?" You asked. He shook his head and walked forward. "Where are we headed?" A snort and a shrug was his answer. "Cool." He wouldn't do anything you didn't want if he liked you, right? Also, you were gonna ignore the fact that you were confused as to why he liked you. You were just you, a normal girl that just happened to not be infected like everyone else. Shouldn't he like, like, a spitter or something?

A shout that sent a shiver down your spine made you sit up straight and stare ahead with your shotgun at the ready. Charger looked around, concern on his face. You'd know that roar anywhere, and it belonged to...

"ARRRRGGGHHHHHHH!" A tank bellowed, slamming its fists into its chest like a gorilla. You hopped off of Charger's arm and cocked your shotgun.

"Let's do this," you muttered, eyes narrowing as the tank shoved a car 15 feet away when it zeroed in on you. Charger yelled loudly, causing any nearby birds to take flight, and slammed his arm into the ground before charging at the tank. He missed, of course. The tank stopped temporarily, staring after the special infected, and you sighed.

"He needs to work on his aim," you told the tank. It nodded before going back to ambling towards you. You ran towards it, a glint in your eyes and a grin on your face, and pointed the end of the shotgun at the tank's head.

Extended Ending

"Charger, Charger honey, he's dead. You don't need to-" He ignored you and raced towards the dead tank with a loud cry. He missed. "Charger, he's dead! He's literally not moving, how did you miss?!" He grumbled something and you shook your head. "Don't get sassy with me." He snarled and slammed his fist into a tree. "Don't pull that 'It's harder than it looks' bullcrap with me. I could do it better than you blindfolded."

Charger walked off and you sighed, looking over at a common infected that had wandered by. "You agree with me, right?" It made a noise that you took as a 'Yes'. "Yeah, see? Even this guy agrees with me!" You froze when you realized the charger couldn't hear you. "Wait up!" You sprinted in the direction he left.