Virtual Reality: Left 4 Dead

The four of them ran across the open field and from there to a small two story building right against the lake. Sean didn't even bother looking for anything in the house, there was only one thing he wanted and as soon as he got to the back door he saw that it wasn't there. "No fucking boat." Sean grumbled.

"No boat?" Zoey responded equally despondent. "Where to now?"

"Hello, hello? Is there anybody there?" A tiny static filled voice called from someplace in the house. "Can anybody hear me? This is John and Amanda Slater we are on our way to Marine Corps Extraction point Delta. If you have guns and ammunition we can pick you up. Is anybody there?"

Sean followed the voice until he found and old style radio. It didn't matter at the moment how absurd the placement of this was, he wasn't questioning that do gooders were leaving radios behind, after all he was going to leave this one behind too. "This is Sean Renaud. I have three survivors, we are all armed. If you head out now things look pretty clear."

"Okay we're heading out now. It will take us approximately ten minutes to get to your location." There was an audible click as John set his radio off.

As soon as Sean sat down the microphone he heard a foghorn go off and it was answered by what must have been several hundred screams. "That stupid son of a bitch." Sean grumbled.

"We're making a stand here!" Francis roared just pick a spot and don't stop killing till that fucking boat gets us!"

"We got some kind of machine gun up here but I don't know how to use it. If only we had Bill." Louis lamented.

"Hey I might not have seen action like Bill but I'm a Marine, which makes me better than the army. Let me look at it. Sean shouted running towards Louis. "Damn it's a GAU-17. It'll do but if this thing jams I got nothing. I worked on one of these in school like eight years ago and I hated the damned thing then, there is less than no chance that I can fix this in the middle of a fight. To bad we didn't get an XM-218. That's a thing of beauty, less bullet per second than this thing but bigger bullets and more importantly more reliable."

"Less talking more shooting Fucker." Francis shouted slapping Sean on the shoulder as the first wave started running over the hills. It looked like a real wave, just hundreds of them charging in a tight group with stragglers behind them. Sean focused on taking out the thickest packets of them. He didn't bother to aim even at the Hunters or the ones with the tentacles or the fat ones. There were three others backing him who could take out specific targets, his only job was to keep the masses back. "Goddamn it." Francis grunted pointing towards a nearby patch of trees.

For a moment Sean didn't even see what Francis was pointing at. All he saw were trees being knocked over and broken logs flying through the air. It was interesting but he had a job to focus on and that was the herds of zombies racing to see who got first dibs on his liver. "Taaaaaaaaaaaaaank!" Sean shouted when the facts all congealed in his mind. He tried to swivel his gun to face it but brackets set wouldn't turn that far. If it had been a weapon he was more familiar with he could easily have turned it but he didn't understand most of what he was looking at. "Goddamnit. If you've got one of those zombie magnet bombs use it!"

"What are you gonna do?" Zoey asked a hint of genuine concern in her voice.

Sean smiled and snatched Francis's shotgun. "He's gonna get on the minigun and keep you safe. Me I'm about to hero up." Sean didn't stick around to negotiate because somehow he'd come to an epiphany and this was just something he had to do. The first part was that he was drunk, high or dreaming and nothing he did here would matter anyway. The second was that if he wasn't then the most important thing he could do was make sure they got to the boat and that meant stopping the Hulk, Tank, whatever.

Sean charged down the steps taking them two at a time until he was out in the field and Francis was firing just over his head at the zombies who were oddly enough seeming to thin out as the Tank drew closer. Charging this thing was utter insanity and Sean knew it but it didn't stop him from rushing towards it firing rounds from his pistol until he was close enough to use the shotgun and then that became his weapon of choice. "Die you big motherfucker!"

Instead of falling to its knees like Sean wished it swung one of its barrel like arms and sent a boulder hurdling towards him that only narrowly missed ending him. It followed that by digging its hands into the dirt and pulling up a giant dirt clod and hurling it towards Sean who again narrowly avoided being crushed. Face to face with the brute Sean threw his shotgun aside and hefted the crowbar with both hands neatly ducking beneath a wild swing and slicing with his crowbar. He'd hoped the Tank would be like the other zombies and rip like rice paper but the thick muscles of its stomach didn't give as much as he'd hoped.

The Tank grunted as it officially took notice of its opponent and tried to spin to face it. Sean had already decided that speed was his only hope and started ducking and darting around the trees forcing the tank to knock them down or go around while slashing with his crowbar every chance he got. The Tank roared in frustration as its tiny opponent ducked and dodged around it and slowly the wounds started adding up and slowing the monster.

Sean started growing confident that he was going to be okay here and slipped into the Tank's reach and slashed it again and again. The beast was clearly starting to slow down when it roared angrily and rushed towards Sean simply bowling him over with its shoulder. Once Sean was off his feet it locked its massive hand around his torso and started slamming him against the earth shattering two ribs with the first blow and bruising a few more.

Blood and screams erupted from Sean's mouth as he felt his life passing before his eyes once more. He knew that the next blow was going to be the one that finished him but the tank didn't bother to lift him a third time. It was bleeding badly from all of the cuts Sean had given it. Instead it lifted another fist, easily the size of Sean's torso and aimed it for his skull. Sean surrendered letting his head fall slack and by chance spotted his shotgun just within reach.

Faster than he thought he could move Sean snatched his shotgun in one hand and pressed the barrel directly against the Tank's jaw and pulled the trigger. After that epic struggle all it took was one bullet to the skull to end the conflict. The top of the Tank's skull exploded and the rest collapsed. Sean pushed the Tank's massive hand off him and got back to his feet in time to see a boat docking at a tiny pier.

"Run." He hissed at himself trying to will his aching muscles to carry him the rest of the way. "Run!" He growled more insistently but his body still refused to do more than limp and that wasn't going to get him more than half way with the new wave of zombies screaming for his intestines. "Run!" He shouted at himself but self motivation wasn't enough and he was going to die here.

"RUN!" This time the voice wasn't his though it was Zoey who at the same time slapped a pill bottle against his chest. "Take em!"

Sean had always hated pills but this wasn't the time to stop and measure. He upended the bottle swallowing several pills at once and instantly he could feel them. More accurately he couldn't feel anything as his entire body went partially numb and suddenly he was running at full speed and the shotgun didn't feel heavy any longer.

He leapt onto the boat with a smile and glanced around. "Where's Francis?" Louis didn't speak but the way his head sank was enough of an answer for Sean. The boat pulled away from the pier. "I'm sorry."

"It wasn't your fault you saved us all." Zoey said pulling Sean below decks. "And you know you deserve a reward." She started stripping down. Sean smiled and closed his eyes.

Then he opened them and found himself on a familiar black leather couch with the credits for Left 4 Dead playing and a bottle of vodka on its side a few feet away.