//------------------------------// // Chapter 13: Chopper Chop-up // Story: Left 4 Derpy // by Edmar Fecler //------------------------------// Left 4 Derpy Chapter 13: Chopper Chop-up The hunter watched as the five survivors carried their injured comrade into the high-rise hospital after their escape from the massive horde. After witnessing their display of destruction, the hunter knew he would have to formulate a plan on a much more grand scale than he had originally intended. A few special infected, even with his strategic advice, would still be no match for the group. Judging from how badly the gruff survivor appeared to be after his encounter with the tank, there was a high possibility that the group would be stopping momentarily in order to aid his injuries in some way. The hunter saw this as an opportune time to hunt for more infected to use against the survivors. As he was about to leap from his perch to begin his search, a loud noise reached his ears. It sounded like something mechanical was flying through the air towards him. When he turned to investigate, a massive metal machine with rotating blades on top of it zoomed past him. It left the scent of burning gasses and a faint whiff of humans in its wake. The hunter watched as the machine continued flying above the rooftops, and a thought crossed his mind. If that had survivors on it, then one way or another it would lead him to more. He glanced back to the hospital for a moment before turning and giving pursuit to the flying machine. He was sure that his survivors would not be going anywhere any time soon. - “This is news chopper 5, Come in. Are you still there, over?” The radio buzzed for a moment before the mic on the other side of the frequency clicked on. “Yes! Yes, news chopper 5, I read you loud and clear. You can’t imagine how good it is to hear your voice!” “…Remember, you have to finish by saying ‘over,’ otherwise the receiver won’t know when you’re done talking. Besides, you might want to save the celebration until we get to the hospital, over.” “R-right, of course. Over.” “Right. So, where exactly did you say your position was again, over?” “We are holed up at the intersection crossing Sunny Boulevard and South Street, requesting pickup a-s-a-p. We’ve cleared the intersection of vehicles, so you should have a clear landing zone, over.” “Roger that, see you there. News chopper 5 over and out.” The radio clicked off as the pilot altered the helicopter’s trajectory to coincide with the location of the survivors. Hours ago, after he passed the four-man group (which had some sort of animal with them), the pilot had fruitlessly flown over the city for some time before returning to the news station where he refueled and took a moment to rest. After the helicopter was fully fueled he had planned on flying to the hospital where he would wait for the survivors that he passed earlier. However, on the flight over he had received a distress call from a group who were held up and awaiting rescue. After they assured nobody was infected, the pilot had agreed to pick them up. Now he was on-route to their location for immediate pickup, after which he planned on taking them to the hospital with him to wait for any other survivors. If nothing else, more people meant more protection if the situation went south. After a few more minutes of flying over the city, he was beginning to near the intersection where the man had told him they were. Sure enough, the vehicles in the intersection had been moved to block all four sides of the intersection. As he brought the helicopter down carefully amongst the light posts, one of the surrounding building’s doors that was inside the car barricade opened up. A man stepped out and began waving at the chopper as it touched down. After the helicopter was firmly planted on the ground, the man in the doorway ran over to the pilot’s door and knocked on it a few times. The pilot, knowing something could go wrong at any time, pulled out his pistol and opened his window. “Alright, you and your group get on so we get the hell out of here. I’d say we have five minutes before this noise attracts a whole ton of those bastards!” “Look, I need your help with my wife. She has a broken leg and I can’t get her on my own.” “What do you mean ‘on your own’? I thought there was a whole group of you!” “Well there was! But we got attacked as we were clearing the intersection,” the man shouted as he pointed to several relatively fresh bodies around an SUV. “Now come on! Like you said, we haven’t much time!” The pilot went over the situation in his mind for a second before nodding and opening up his door. “Alright, but let’s make this snappy,” he said, hopping out of the helicopter. The man turned back to the open door he had come from and made a break for it with the pilot close behind him. However, when they were both out from under the helicopter’s blades, the man heard a scream from someplace above them. “Wait, did you hear that,” he asked the pilot as he slowed his pace. Without warning, the man was tackled to the ground by a grey blur. Before he could even begin to try and figure out what had hit him, he felt a set of claws begin ripping his stomach open and pulling his guts out onto the street. The pilot, however, was left in utter shock as the man in front of him was gutted in the blink of an eye. Barely even aware of what he was doing, he aimed his pistol at the hooded creature and fired a shot off. The bullet missed its target entirely, shattering a window in the building behind it. The hooded monstrosity ceased in its disembowelment of the man and turned to the pilot, flashing its glowing red eyes ay him. The pilot fired off another shot, but by that time the hunter had already leapt into the air. It tackled the pilot to the ground like it had the other man and slashed through the pilot’s shirt, cutting his stomach. But before it was able to bring down his second blow, an excruciating pain shot through the hunter’s shoulder as a bullet ripped through it, barely missing its heart. The hunter leapt back before the pilot could land a second, even more deadly shot. The pilot, on the other hand, sat up and aimed right between the hunter’s burning red eyes and fired off another shot. The hunter leapt to avoid the shot, but the bullet passed through its right ankle in mid air before it landed behind the car barrier and out of sight. The helicopter pilot, having lost sight of the attacker, stood back up despite the pain from his wounds. He looked down at his injured stomach, seeing that his blood was not the only liquid soaking into his shirt. After a despaired sigh, the pilot rushed over to the gutted man and checked for a pulse, but there was none to be found. He was torn away from the dead man by the sound of a multitude of infected swarming to his location. The inevitable horde was approaching, and he had no time left. He looked up to the open door before him. He could still try and save the man’s injured wife if he hurried… He looked back to the helicopter. …However, he didn’t have enough time to do so. If he did then he would surely be killed, thereby forsaking the other survivors and leaving them for dead. He looked back down to the dead man as the decision rushed through his mind, the sound of approaching zombies growing by the second. Finally, the pilot stood up and looked again towards the open door. “…Forgive me.” Suddenly he turned and ran back to his helicopter and jumped in the pilot’s seat. However, before he could close the door he heard a child’s scream. He turned back to the building, where he could see a little girl looking out of a second story window down at the dead man below. A tear ran down the pilot’s cheek as he heard the girl screaming for her father, but to no avail. If he had known that there was anyone else other than the man’s injured wife he would have gone and tried to help. But that ship had sailed, and there was no more time left. With many more reluctant tears, the helicopter pilot closed the door, fastened his seat belt, and lifted off the ground just as the first zombies began climbing over the car barricades. He wiped the tears from his eyes. The sooner he got to the hospital, the sooner he could pick up the other survivors and get all of this behind him. - The hunter climbed up the side of a building slowly. Pain from his injuries racked his mind, causing his muscles to tense as he applied pressure to them. Under other circumstances he, or another, less ‘aware’ hunter, would have simply continued to kill the man he had pounced. However, the hunter still had his main focus set on the group of survivors in the hospital, and he was not going to risk getting killed on some side-job. The hunter crested the edge of the roof and perched himself on a corner in his usual squatting position. He watched as the helicopter flew away, back towards the hospital where his survivors were. Suddenly a thought crossed his mind. From what the hunter could tell before his intervention, the helicopter had come here so that the survivors here could get on and fly away to who knows where. The helicopter flew farther away from the hunter and closer to the hospital by the moment. If that was the goal of the helicopter, to rescue survivors, then he might not get the chance to take revenge of his group if they were allowed to live long enough to escape. The hunter growled at the thought of his prey slipping through his bloody fingers. A sudden, high pitched scream cut the hunter’s attention away from the shrinking helicopter and back to the intersection. He noticed several zombies from the massive horde swarming inside the open door that his first victim had exited. Several gunshots were fired as well as another scream, both of which were cut short an instant after. He looked from the building to the mass of common and special infected crowding the intersection. He might have been gravely injured by the helicopter pilot, but had still done one good thing for the hunter. His machine had summoned a horde big enough to stand up to the four survivors and their pet. All the hunter had to do now was sway their frail, corrupt minds into following his commands…