Full Summary: The Hunter knew prey was in the building when a smoker climbed onto his rooftop for a vantage point, but when he attacks and pins his target he has a strange reaction. He can't kill her, he recognizes her, but why? He has to find out, and through the terror and oddity of the whole ordeal she never expected to potentially fall in love with a mad beast.

Disclaimer: I do not own any component of Left 4 Dead including the different special infected, only the characters which I have personally created. All credit on the infected and anything relating to the game goes to Valve.

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The Hunter. Yes, that is what they call me these days. Ever since the infection hit, I no longer had my own name. We were all classified as the same, and in a way we are. The way we all stalk our prey, intimidating them with low growls and high pitched shrieks, waiting until one straggles behind and we can get it alone. Waiting for the opportunity to crush them to the ground, leaving them helpless while they are torn to shreds. Despite all these similarities however, I am still much different from any other infected I have ever come across.

I still retain some previous knowledge and all conscious thought. I still have emotions.

I do not on the other hand, ever feel hungry.

No, I never eat any surviving human that I brutally murder. I leave it for the rest of those disgusting low breeds to fight over, I have no interest in food. I don't need it to survive, since my body is dead. All I need is my mind and still beating heart. I simply kill for thrill, and that's it.

I also don't rot like many of the others. The lesser infected, fat ones, and long tongued ones all have weak flesh that falls away from them or turns to pustules, making them weaker than I. The only other infected that don't rot I tend to stay away from - the big muscled ones, and the sad scrawny females. I care not for what the latter two are called, I only care that they don't discriminate between infected and non infected – and I'd rather not die again by my own kind.

No... I am indeed different. More alive than the rest, though still as dead. Giving off a ragged sigh, my thoughts on the subject were cut off by a putrid stench that was invading my roof space. Looking behind me towards the ledge opposite of the one I rested on, I noticed a hand clinging onto it. Another infected was pulling itself up, preparing for something that was bound to be coming by soon.

Just my luck. Those stinky, smoking string beans never came up onto a roof unless there was something alive inside the building it belonged on. I smirked menacingly to myself, playing it off that I did not care about his intrusiveness, waiting for him to select a ledge to look over. This infected always knew which way a survivor would go to leave a building, and it was just my luck that he stood next to me and looked down into an alleyway.

As soon as I knew where my new toy would exit into the open, I jumped the other infected catching it quite by surprise and causing it to emit a loud hacking noise.

"Oh God, I can hear a smoker... Where are ya', you grimy bastard?!"

Her voice was quiet, but my superior senses caught her words anyways. So that's what this tongue-thing was called? It didn't matter. I jabbed my claws into it's eye sockets and penetrated the brain, causing the whole thing burst in a puff of greenish smoke. This living one was mine, not his. Quickly the smoke cleared due to a light breeze, much to my gratitude. Stepping off the body I lowered myself to the roof's surface, barely poking my cowled head over the edge to peer down at the ground. I waited patiently for her to exit the building, the ring of gun shots easily keeping me clued in to her current position.

The second floor... I listened carefully, trying to figure out what she was using. Was it one of those guns that shot fast? Or shot slow but hurt real bad? Or was it one of the small ones that didn't really pose a threat? After a few more shots I was sure it was the little gun, maybe two of them at the rate they were shooting. A little more threatening, but a challenge was welcomed. My thoughts were drifting into how that irritating smoker thing that had interrupted my previous, usual chain of thought when the female let out a god awful shriek.

The dummy had fallen through the hole in the floor. If she had hurt herself enough to make it so she was a sitting duck to the rest, I was not going to be a happy hunter. I scowled, listening and waiting. More gun shots, she was fine. For now. What I couldn't understand was why there weren't any others. Why was she alone? How long had it been this way? How had another like himself not gotten to her first?

As my thoughts trailed off, the apartment door just about slammed open, then slammed back shut. Easily audible squeals coming from behind it let me know that a lesser infected wasn't happy about missing a meal. I watched as she sat down against the door a moment to rest, I took in a deep whiff of air, there was fresh blood.

Her blood. Taking a better look, I pinpointed the bloods location to the lower pant-leg of her rather tight jeans. She'd cut her leg. I then looked at her hands, noticing that it was indeed two of those little guns, and she was fumbling to reload them. After a moment they gave off a satisfied click, letting us both know there were bullets ready.

A hand burst through the wooden door and scooting away she shot several times into it, the gurgling from the lesser infected finally coming to a halt. She relaxed, sitting dead in the middle of the alley.

Bad for her, good for me.

I waited a little longer. I wanted her to stand, start walking, so that there was more distance between her head and the ground. So I could stun her long enough to knock away her weapons, and decide what I wanted to do from there. Sometimes, I let them try to fight me off for awhile, especially the small ones like her. She was what, a little over five feet tall? And thin as a rail even. Tiny compared to a monster like myself. I was probably over a foot taller, and at least eighty or ninety pounds heavier. She was a simple target.

Again, it made me wonder how she'd gotten very far alone. That question was answered to me when she burst into tears. She hadn't been alone long, the people she had been fighting with must be dead. Or they could have abandoned her, but the living rarely did that. She only cried for a moment, before stubbornly wiping her face and getting to her feet. Now was my moment!

As I leaped towards her and the ground, I let out a high pitch shriek that not only terrified her, but warned any of the lesser infected to stay away. Direct hit! I nailed her straight into the ground, easily knocking the wind out of her. I ripped the tiny weapons out of her hands and officially pinned her.

Here is where my plan caught a hitch. I knew this girl. I don't know how, but I'd seen her before... I'd made the worst mistake I could have and looked straight into her terror-filled eyes. Brown eyes, that slowly turned green. Her dark, long hair was up in a bedraggled pony tail and her blue shirt had gotten somewhat bunched up in the whole mess.

She was still struggling to breathe, and I saw as her terror suddenly turned to anger. She punched me, hard, it hurt, and it pissed me off. The hood of my dark sweatshirt nearly lost it's grip, and my only response was to snarl at her and pin her arms. She still writhed under me, trying everything to get me off, but she simply wasn't strong enough.

I just looked at her, not sure what to do. Not sure if I could kill her, when I knew how guilty I would feel afterwards. I'd killed countless times before this, why was now so different? What kind of power did this girl have over me?! I didn't like the ideas running through my head and snarled again, this time at myself. It still frightened her enough to still her movements, giving me a moment's peace. I needed an option, and they were in short supply.

I could kill her and just try to forget about it. I could leave her to try and fight her way to safety, though I strongly doubted she'd make it against the other greater infected like myself, or I could take her somewhere I knew she wouldn't die, and where I could try and figure out if how I recognized her. Yeah. The last one was good. I could take her somewhere, and try to figure out who she was and if she was important to me before I became what I am. If I don't figure it out, I kill her, just like that. Yes, this was good.

Pulling her wrists together I jerked her under my arm and crouched, holding onto her tight – I'd go find one of those roof houses where she wouldn't be able to escape, and where there might be enough of what she needs to live for a day or two. A place where no other infected can go without one of those electric crates that carried you up the inside a building. A place that had all the things those "safe rooms" do, like … what were those things called, lights?

Enough thinking, it was time to move. The lesser infected were coming. I leaped from my crouched position, my package still fighting against me. Grabbing a metal pipe with my free hand, I jumped again onto the roof of the neighboring building. I needed to secure her for the trip we were about to take, so she wouldn't fall to her death. That would just ruin my entire plan.

I could put her on my back... but would she hold on? Yes, terror would keep her in place. Since I still had her by the wrists, I slung them around my neck and jumped to the next roof top. She instinctively wrapped her legs around my stomach and tightened her grip around my neck. Wow, I was glad I didn't need to breathe...

Scanning the roofs of the buildings around each one I hopped to, I looked for a bright roof house. It was a good while before I found one, but I was glad when I did. Opening the door I scampered in and broke her terrified grip on me chucking her to the floor. Standing between her and her only exit, she froze. I issued a growl, a warning she was not to leave, but I have no idea if she understood it or not.

It was then that I heard a gurgle, then a scream, and it wasn't coming from her. There were lesser infected here? Probably the previous owners, who were too dumb to know how to leave. I crouched and waited for them to come running, immediately killing the both of them as they exited a doorway. Looking back I saw that she still sat there, looking at the door but unmoving.

Considering her earlier awareness, I was easily a little concerned. Crawling over but keeping my distance, she was simply staring wide-eyed into nothing. That soon ended as she blacked out then and there, curling over onto the floor.

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They were gone. They were all gone. Every one of them. My family, friends, even acquaintances, all dead or... changed. Changed into one of those things, the infected. Not even five minutes ago, I was prowling the streets with my group trying to make it to the next safe house, when one of those gigantic beasts flipped a car – instantly killing the only other female that was with us.

It barreled towards the other two, fear nearly rooting me to the spot. The two boys in the group, Jake and Eric, opened fire on the mutated monster bringing me out of my stupor. It made it to them, smacking Eric into a nearby wall and crushing his skull with a sickening crack. It was then that it grabbed Jake in both it's huge fists and he shouted, "Holly, RUN!"

Some not so-famous last words as I saw it tear my last comrade into two at the waist, a spray of gore littering the streets in front of him. I didn't hesitate to take my friend's advice, and ran. At the time I still had my heavy weapon, and I did the best I could to arm the submachine gun with only one hand. I blindly sprayed a clip behind me as I tore off through the night, and I could hear it roar in anger so I knew at least some of the bullets connected.

The strange crushing and breaking sound alerted me that it had stopped to pull up a chunk of earth to throw my way. It wanted to slow me down. It was then that I took my final molotov, lit it and threw it at his feet. It shattered on the ground and began burning the monster alive... or dead, and left me just enough time to jump to the side and avoid the asphalt block thrown my way.

The fact that it was on fire didn't seem to slow it down much, but I knew it wouldn't stop burning until it died thanks to my only other encounter with an infected like this one. My mind was in a flurry as I climbed back to my feet and started running as fast as I could, forgetting my best weapon on the ground. For awhile I aimlessly ran, until I heard it start to slow down, and it was then that I took one of my pistols out and popped off a few shots – just enough to finish it off.

I'd killed it, but I still didn't feel like I'd avenged my friends in the slightest. If I'd acted sooner, they wouldn't have died. I stared at the huge burning corpse for a short time, shocked at my own accomplishment, before turning tail and heading back down the street, decidedly not waiting for whatever all that racket might attract. I was soon forced to stop when I noticed a large barricade that the army must have built in an final effort to stop the infected, but it was an obvious failure by the number of bodies (both moving and unmoving) strewn about the area.

I took my pistols from their respective holsters, and moved as quietly as I could. I wanted to sneak past them, I didn't want to risk starting a horde. As long as I kept quiet, and out of bright areas, they wouldn't notice me... I hoped. Ducking down the alley to the side, and in the side door of an apartment building, I guessed my best shot at getting to the other side of the barricade relied on me getting to the other side of the building.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the door was a shit-ton of rubble blacking my path – the ceiling had collapsed just past a near stair well, entirely blocking me off. Taking the stairs up a floor, I figured I'd be able to find a way back down to the first floor on the other side of the building. Infected were probably all over in the rooms on either side of me, and all I could think was 'Why did it have to be an apartment building'? Lots of people lived in these things, and lots of people now meant lots of infected.

Pausing a moment, I did the best I could to keep my cool as I searched for the other stair case. There certainly was one, but the stairs themselves had fallen out. I'd have to backtrack, maybe I could drop through the hole I saw before and land softly enough on the crushed ceiling to get to the other side? From the view my entrance had given me it didn't seem like that far of a drop...

Once I was around halfway back down the hall, I heard a loud thump followed by a hacking noise, which nearly made me jump out of my skin, "Oh God, I can hear a smoker... Where are ya', you grimy bastard?!" I thought I had just muttered it, but an infected in a nearby room screeched in response. His screech only served to alert the rest. Soon two infected popped out the door at the end of the hall to the right, and I wasn't even sure how many behind me. I squeezed off a couple shots, killing the two heading my way and didn't look back as I headed for the room they came out of. It was almost entirely dark, and I apparently didn't stop soon enough as I managed to fall straight through the hole I'd been looking for.

I let out a scream – not in my benefit – and hit the rubble pretty hard, rolling down it onto the side I'd wanted to be on and landing on my ass. The infected piled down after me, and from my now sitting position facing the hole I shot them as they fell down one or two at a time. I could hear more coming behind me so I laid on my back and aimed behind me, shooting and killing them as well.

As I stood, I could hear one more coming from above me. I backed up slowly, noticing a sharp pain in my leg as I did so, and pulled the trigger at the last alerted infected as it dropped through the hole only to get a protestant 'click'.

"Shit."

I turned around and high tailed it, the door that exited out the other side of the building straight in front of me. It hurt to run, but I knew from experience that it hurt worse to be bitten and clawed. I carelessly slammed the door open, then slammed it back shut in my assailant's face. Sitting down with my back to it, I clumsily tried to reload my pistols. Just as I managed to complete the task, it's hand broke through the not-so-cheap wood of the apartment door. I slid away, firing three or four shots into the door, until the noises it made stopped.

I sighed in relief, knowing I'd only just barely made it out of there. At that moment, the fact that I was truly alone started to hit me. I couldn't help it, I burst into tears, but as soon as I'd done so realized I needed to stop. The racket might attract more of those things, and I was only making myself vulnerable. Wiping my face off, I let out a resolute sniffle and climbed to my feet. It was then that I heard it, that blood chilling scream that could only come from one being.

The Hunter.

I slammed hard into the ground, onto my back. My head smashed against the ground and probably would have cracked open if it weren't for my mussy ponytail to cushion the blow a little. I felt like I couldn't breathe, couldn't see, and almost didn't notice the guns get ripped out of my hands. All I could do as I stared terrified into the assumed location of my attackers eyes was prepare to die, thinking to myself, 'Sorry I didn't make it for you, guys.'

The ensuing blood bath never came. I didn't get it, what the hell? Why wasn't he killing me? Fuck that, I wasn't going to give him a chance to decide. As I caught my breath, I balled up my fist and nailed him as hard as I could in the face, trying to knock him off of me so I could get up and either shoot him or run. He didn't even budge, god damnit why did I have to be so small and weak?! Instead, he snarled, entirely pissed off. He grabbed my wrists and forced them against the ground, leaving me with nothing other than to struggle as best I could.

I didn't look at his face again. I couldn't see the fun in it as he tore me apart – when he finally decided to – when he snarled again and I gave up. I was only serving to make him more angry, and if I didn't piss him off maybe there was a snowball's chance in hell he would get off and leave me. Generally lose interest, or decide he wasn't hungry... He held me there for what felt pretty damn close to forever, before forcing both my wrists into one of his hands and shoving them against my stomach.

He flipped me and held me under his arm, crouching for a moment as if he was rethinking things, then sailed off against the side of the building. If I'd had the ability to breathe at that time, I would of screamed. It almost felt like sailing through the air had sucked all the air out of me that I had worked so hard to get back. All I could do was flail around in his useless grip for the task and pray he didn't ram my head into a wall like it was a game. Fortunately he didn't, instead he landed on the rooftop of the building next to the apartment and pulled my clasped wrists around his neck. It was during this shift that I noticed the body of the smoker, it's eyes gored out. I hadn't done that... had the Hunter done it? Or another survivor maybe? Neither idea really made sense to me, but I stopped worrying about it the instant I felt us sail through the air again.

My first reaction was to hold on tight, so I didn't fall. I'd rather entertain the idea that he was going to keep me alive a little longer than plunge six stories to my death right now. He pounced around from building to building for what seemed like ages, until he finally decided to stop. My eyes were shut tight, and I was so messed up by my own thoughts and the feeling of having just been on a really tipsy amusement ride that I didn't realize where I was until he clumsily tossed me onto the floor in front of him. He issued a low growl, presumably at me, then crouched for some reason and pounced a moment later. I didn't care why.

When he'd moved, it was then that I saw how high up I really was. I could see a lot of the city through the sliding door, and most of that was the rooftops. A million thoughts were running through my head at the same time, 'I'm alone in an inescapable building with a blood thirsty killer, my friends are dead, my family is dead, everyone is dead, and soon, I'm gonna' be dead."

Finally my mind and body couldn't take it anymore, and everything faded to black.

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A/N: It's likely that each chapter of this fiction will be written this way, with a bi-perspective of the same event through each character's eyes. I wanted to develop each character emotionally for you readers out there, and leave the mystery to "when are they going to figure each other out". I really hope you like it L4D fans, 'cause it's my first fic in this genre. :) Next chapter should be out a week from today. R&R