A/N: Hey all, I'm back with a new Left 4 Dead story. Finally. I'm sorry for not updating, I just lost interest in writing for a little bit. But I'm trying to encourage myself in updating my stories, after almost three years. This story is going to be a little different and I will not give up on it no matter how long it takes to finish. It may be stupid and may not make any sense to some but entertaining to others but it's what I enjoy doing. Making random, silly stories.

This one has multiple genres:

Humor/horror/friendship/adventure/family/hurt/comfort/suspense/drama/angst.

Disclaim: I do not own Left 4 Dead or the characters. It all belongs to Valve.

Claim: I own this story, plot, ideas and OCs.

This fanfic also contains the following: Dark and sensitive content, heavy swearing, dark humor, gore and some possible mild sexual content/suggestions.

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"FRANCIS!"

Zoey reached her hand up as she yelled his name. The fire escape staircase falling down from below her, taking the roaring Tank with it. Francis quickly reached down and grabbed a hold of hers. They listened as the huge infected's body crashed into the concrete, crushing other infected. She dangled in the air for a moment longer, staring downwards, until the panting biker hoisted Zoey up and onto the roof. He sat against a brick wall while she crawled away and gazed up at the starry night sky as everyone worked to catch their breaths.

Louis looked around slowly, silently, when a light laugh escaped him. "We made it...I can't believe we made it!" He exclaimed in joy, glancing at his fellow survivors and breaking the silence. "Son, we just crossed the street." Bill replied coolly, his back to the other three. The war veteran pulled out a packet of cigarettes and placed one between his lips. There was another moment of silence before he exhaled the smoke. "Let's not throw a party till we're out of the city."

He rose from his seat and walked over to a ledge of the building the four scrambled up on to escape an attack. Bill grimly stared downwards as Louis frowned, remembering they were still far from safety. He winced at the wounds a Hunter inflicted before hoisting himself to his feet and quietly joined Bill's side. Watching the seemingly never ending dangers that awaited them.

"So...what do you suppose we do?"

They conversed as Zoey looked over at Francis. He hadn't moved from where he was. The back of his head rested against the wall, his eyes closed.

"Are you alright?" She asked quietly.

Francis swallowed before nodding. "Yeah, I'm alright. And you?" He opened his eyes to meet hers.

"I'm fine. Tanks are fucking terrifying…"

"Heh," the biker smirked "they're just big, stupid and loud to me..." he reclosed his eyes. "I hate Tanks."

Zoey lightly chuckled at his famous quote. "That makes two of us."

"Alright Louis," Bill gave the analyst a quick pat on the back, "let's get those wounds of yours bandaged up. You're lucky Zoey got to you when she did." He led the way with Louis placing a hand against his bloodied, torn shirt. Following close behind. A cold breeze wafted. Zoey got up as well and began to catch up when she stopped upon realizing she hadn't heard Francis do the same. She turned around. He was still sitting in the same position, a hand resting on his knee. He appeared lost in thought, his eyes focused on the concrete in front of him. Full of worry. Snowflakes began to slowly and lightly drift down from the sky around them. In the short two weeks she has known him, Zoey learned when they got away from an attack, Francis would usually mock the infected and yell how unstoppable they are in that cocky attitude of his. But as of now and more recently, he hasn't.

"Hey."

He looked up at her.

"that big ole' brute scare you?" She smirked back.

His brow furrowed. "No! That was nothin'." He got up and walked with her, all evidence of worry in his face suddenly gone. Replaced with the tough expression she had grown used to seeing. "Those damn things should run from me."

She smiled at the thought. Francis running after a sobbing Tank, shouting profanities and wielding his favorite auto shotgun into a sunset.

Francis rested said shotgun on his shoulder, lucky enough he was able to grab it again after the beast threw him into a brick wall; and it fell from his hands. He sighed and led the way down a set of stairs in pursuit of Bill and Louis. However Zoey couldn't help but wonder. She knew, though she didn't know what. But she knew something was bothering him. The college student didn't bother to ask if he was alright again or to confirm if her suspicion was right, because all he would say was he was just fine.

"Ow! Hey, easy there ya know!" Louis exclaimed as Bill tightened heavy bandages over the cleaned, disinfected wounds. "Ah save yer sobbing for another day kid," the old man scoffed. "As I've said, you're damn lucky Zoey got to ya when she did."

Louis downcast to examine the gauze on his chest before looking to the only woman in their small group. "Thank you Zoey." He smiled. She nodded as Bill packed the minimum medical supplies he found in a cabinet into his bag and slung it over his shoulder. He bent down, grabbed and tossed a shirt he found shortly after rummaging through a lost and found box at Louis. "Do you have the energy to keep moving, or do you want to rest here and continue in the morning?" He asked the younger survivors.

"Honestly," Zoey began before a yawn escaped her "after that, I'd say we should rest for the night. Louis definitely needs it, and I'm guessing your old bones do too." She added. Bill lowered his head a little with his eyes still on her as a light scowl.

"I don't care." Francis shrugged from where he sat on a table. His arms crossed.

"Noted," Bill confirmed. "Everyone try to get a good night's rest. I'll keep an eye out."

"Old man, you need rest too." Francis started with a bit of annoyance in his gruff voice. It seemed Bill always put them before himself. An instinct picked up from fighting the war in Vietnam. An instinct he did not like in the slightest.

"I'll keep an eye out." He left his spot as Bill stared firmly at the large defiant man. "We'll take turns as we always have." Louis reminded as he examined more cabinets. He gasped quite loudly seconds later as Francis stood by a window just out of sight. "Guys, I found my drugs!" He smiled in glee, pulling out a couple of painkiller bottles. One tylenol and the other ibuprofen, the pills jiggled around in the containers. Zoey looked over as she tried getting comfortable in a spot on the floor. "If you don't die from a mauling, you'll probably die from ODing."

"Hey!"

Francis laughed through his nose as Bill smiled from under his hat.

Soon after barricading the room all had grown quiet. Louis snored lightly and Bill's hat hid his closed tired eyes. Zoey's back faced them all as Francis looked at his friends. He tugged off and hung his vest and fingerless gloves over a chair, kicked off his boots seeing it was vacant outside. Rhey should be ok for the night. Although, he kept his gun close. Just in case.

A few hours passed. Zoey turned over on her other side and opened her eyes. They almost immediately focused on Francis. Quietly, she watched as he stood where she last saw him in a side view. He stared out the window, moonlight illuminated the room while raindrops streamed down the glass and made a light pit pit pit sound on the roof. His mouth closed with unblinking eyes concentrated yet full of deep worry again. From what she can tell. Before she could speak up to offer to switch positions, Francis rubbed his face and walked away from the window, muttering something under his breath. Leaving a thought in her mind begging to be truthfully answered.

'What's wrong?'

...

-Days later-

Zoey scanned the streets through the scope of her sniper rifle from the back of an overturned delivery truck. She picked off a few staggering infected, their blood spurted up into the air in thick and thin streams when their heads blew off; collapsing on the ground in a puddle of their own fluids. "Getting better at this kid," Bill praised, patting her shoulder. "Nice work."

Taking caution if it was safe to go, He surveyed the area before motioning for the others to follow. They all quietly maneuvered through the streets. Quietly...until Francis' stomach growled noisily. "Augh...where can we get something to eat in this shit hole?" He started, "I'm starving."

"We should have a little something one one of our bags if you wanna look," Louis offered. "Probably nothing I like. We gotta find some real food."

"Francis!" Bill hissed as Louis and Zoey sighed, "in times like these ya can't be picky with your food. So quit your bitching and grab something from one of our bags."

Francis rolled his eyes and did as demanded. Louis offered his bag to which he promptly reached into and dug around. After a few seconds he pulled out a peanut butter granola bar and tore it open. He examined his surroundings while chewing greedily, until he spotted a market and pointed at the building with the granola bar. "We can probably find something in there you know."

"Alright fine." Bill replied when they all looked over. Everyone quickly made their way for the market. Some commons spotted the survivors and charged snarling, only to be cut down by Francis' machete and blasted away by Zoey's firearm. As they worked together in killing off their attackers, Bill and Louis searching around inside, Zoey made a double look at Francis while he wiped blood staining his weapon off on a broken window frame they were about to climb through. He spotted her watching him, and she earned herself a confused look from the man. "What?"

"Seeing you with a machete makes me think of Jason Voorhees."

"Um, why?"

"I don't know. Probably your built."

"Whatever that means," his stomach growled again. "God I'm hungry!"

"For once in your life stop complaining. I beg of you." Bill pinched the bridge of his nose as they made their way further into the store. "I can't, I'm STARVING."

"Well then go get something," Bill grunted. He walked off in search of more small medical packs, cigarettes, anything. Louis raced over for the first aisle he saw. It contained bags of chips and pretzels. There wasn't much left in this store at all. One could tell it's been ransacked many times, with shelves knocked over and broken. Blood decorated some parts of walls, wrappers and papers of all kinds littered the floor and shopping carts were either all dented up, pushed over or left forgotten and piled in corners. Broken glass from the coolers crunched under Francis' feet as he grabbed whatever he saw from either side of him and chucked them in his bag. Zoey took a water bottle from a cooler and chugged the liquid down quickly. The door swinging close with a matted thud.

"Now I want to watch Friday The 13th. Thanks."

Zoey shrugged as she tossed the now empty bottle away. "Which one? There's like twenty of those movies."

"I prefer the 2009 remake. That was a good one."

"You don't like the original?"

"I hate the original."

"You hate everything."

"Not everything," Francis defended. "Almost everything. The original was boring."

"Ok, ok," Zoey lazily motioned her hand at him. They continued on and eventually ran into Louis who was working on chewing a mouthful of pretzels. Upon bumping into him he began coughing loudly, leaned over and spat some pieces out onto the floor. Francis stuck his tongue out in disgust and Zoey went to slap his back hard a couple of times. Turning the coughing into full blown gagging. "Louis, try this technique called smaller bites."

"I!-I thou!-" He continued coughing until Bill rounded the corner. He paused upon seeing this and sighed. Walking away from the false alarm.

As he did, Louis straightened himself and Francis chuckled silently at the sight in amusement. "You good?" Zoey double checked, her eyes narrowed tensely at him. Louis put his thumb up with a smile, his lips pursed and eyes watery. "I'm good," he placed a hand on his chest. "I'm good."

"We all set?" Bill called. The others checked over what they grabbed, confirming they had everything for now and gathered back together to start for the exit.

Zoey heard Francis say something quietly from behind her, as Bill and Louis took the lead talking about what was next.

"Francis?"

He didn't answer.

"Francis."

"...Yeah?"

"I've noticed you haven't been yourself lately. I know you're just going to say you're ok but I know you're lying. So I want you to tell me. What's bothering you?"

He watched her as they walked along before looking ahead. He thought of how to answer her question. There was a long moment of silence since he wasn't sure how to begin. He thought of just telling her it was nothing, although by now she has certainly noticed his odd quiet behavior as the days went by. There was no use in lying or hiding it anymore.

"Zoey…I-"

He was cut off when everyone heard a single gunshot in the distance. Bill instantly held his fist up halfway and they all froze before pressing themselves against a building. Listening intently. Weapons ready, all stared in the direction ahead.

It was quiet again.

"That can only mean one thing…" Louis said with hope in his voice.

"That don't mean they're friendly. And we could be outnumbered."

"We have a Francis."

"Wait, what?"

"Shh!"

More silence. They waited for something to happen until a couple more shots echoed through the empty streets and ruined buildings. Bill grasped his gun with a look of seriousness in his face. "We should check it out. But stay out of sight while doing so at least." Zoey suggested. Bill contemplated the idea for a couple of moments, then nodded his head once. "Ok, but remember to stay outta sight if it's anything bad."

"No shit," Francis snarked. Only to be ignored.

They continued on in the direction of the gunfire. Dreading what may be found.

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A/N: Sorry for the dumb, boring chapter. It's what happens when ever I start a new story. But it'll get better! (I hope!) This story also takes place in 2019, not when the games came out. You know what I mean? But yeah, stay tuned if you like.