Note: All characters are copyright Valve.

Tears

"There it is!" Called the elderly voice of Bill, "Safe room up ahead!"

"Oh man, we made it!" Said Louis energetically

"Bout time, I hate the subway!" Francis replied adding yet another thing to his ever growing list of hated things.

"You hate everything." Bill called back to him.

"Hay old man!" Francis snapped back, "That isn't true, now let's just get in there already"

The door flew open and in they went: Bill, Louis, Francis, and....Zoey?

Zoey was limping slowly to the safe room, the pain medication she had taken earlier had wore off an hour ago, but she didn't want to worry any of the others. She had to be strong to get through this. "I'm almost there guys." She called out to them, "I'm almost th-" her voice cut out suddenly as something wrapped around her ankle and pulled her to the ground hard sending her pistols flying out in front of her. Francis turned back just in time to see the smoker drag Zoey to her fate.

"ZOEY!!" He screamed, as he unloaded a burst of rounds from his assault rifle in an attempt to kill the attacker. Fortunately for the smoker, Francis' aim was off by a tad and unfortunately for Zoey, the boomer that was approaching from the smoker's left found itself placed in such a way that the rounds from the earlier assault rifle made contact with its soft flesh. The boomer erupted in shower of gore, covering the nearby smoker and poor Zoey. While this caused the smoker's attitude to change in no way whatsoever, it did cause the terrified Zoey unknown levels of emotional trauma for she knew exactly what was in store for her in just a few seconds. Despite being covered in the boomer's slimy bile, her tears were somehow able to escape from within.

Hordes of infected poured in from what seemed like nowhere and made a horrific dash to her position near the smoker's feet, as it began clawing at her legs. Without her weapons, Zoey's instinct took over and she curled herself into a ball as best she could before the infected caught up and began kicking and punching her back.

Off in a hallway whose back end had caved in, a single infected found itself in a lump on the floor, crying in pain. This witch had chosen this location as it was dark and far enough away from the other infected that the noise level was minimal. At least, it had been minimal until the loud thump followed by a burst of small explosions. It would seem the spot she chose was fast becoming a horrid place to be, and this only angered her.

She brought her head up and slowly and moaned out in rage, if this noise did not end soon she would snap. As hordes of infected charged past the hall she found herself standing, preparing to silence whatever was causing this insane racket, she was close to the breaking point...in fact, the noise would have died down soon enough and she would have collapsed back to the ground again if it were not for that foolish, foolish hunter.

Landing in front of the hallway, a hunter began to cheer on the hordes and smoker as they beat the helpless Zoey. The other three survivors watched in horror as their friend was being killed. It is very fortunate for them that the hunter arrived when it did, even if it only made them fear that much more for Zoey's fate.

The following scene played out in only a matter of seconds. The hunter's cheer was cut painfully short as the witch ran her claws though his entire midsection in an upward diagonal slash, as the hunters upper body fell to the floor the witch had taken off towards the horde of infected surrounding Zoey. In one quick horizontal slice, she raked away the lot of them leaving naught but the smoker and Zoey. The smoker barely had time to stand upright as the witch stabbed it, pausing only briefly before ripping its lungs to the floor. The smoker crumpled to the floor leaving a small cloud of smoke behind. Then the witch looked down.

As the smoke cleared, the quivering ball that was Zoey became visible, not only was she quivering, she was also sobbing. The witch stood over Zoey for a moment, as if wondering what to do. It was indeed a miracle that the witch hadn't plunged her claws into Zoey to silence the crying....however....unbeknownst to the three on the subway car, whom feared the sobbing would get her killed, it was precisely Zoey's cries that caused the witch to pause, and in fact, stop her attack.

Slowly, the witch knelt down and placed a hand on the quivering blood-soaked mess that was Zoey. Believing it to be of her friends, she slowly reached for the hand that rested upon her. Ever so slowly, the witch helped Zoey back to her feet, with as much dignity as she had left, she turned her head to thank her savior only to meet the pale white face of the witch. She was stunned and unsure of what to do or say, eventually she whispered, "Y-you...saved me?" The witch nodded.

"W-why?" she asked. The witch, after making sure Zoey could stand on her own, reached her right arm up to her face and caught one of her own tears, she then reached her left arm up to Zoey's face and caught one of her tears.

"B-because I was crying?" Again, the witch simply nodded, but this time it seemed a small smile had formed across her pale face. "T-thank you." Zoey whispered, and began to limp to the safe room. She didn't get more than one step before she almost collapsed to the ground, the pain was too much for her. The witch was quick to support her however and together they walked as slow as Zoey's feet would allow to safety.

However, it wasn't long before a massive horde of infected cried out as they began to sprint to the safe room. Acting fast the witch placed one hand just under Zoey's but, picked her up, and sprinted as fast as she could into the safe room. Once inside Louis slammed the door shut as Francis and Bill began to barricade it. They were finally safe, well, if you could consider being in a small room with two sealed entrances and a witch safe.

"Uh, pardon me Mrs." Louis said hesitantly to the witch, "Can you give her to me? She needs medical attention or she will die." As it turned out, the witch was highly intelligent and without hesitation, handed the body of the now unconscious Zoey over. As Louis began to apply first aid, the witch found herself unable to bear her emotional grievances any longer and collapsed to the ground crying. The cries filled the room making any form of sleep for anyone nearly imposable.

"I hate crybabies." Francis whispered.

"Don't be an ass Francis, she saved Zoey." Bill replied.

"Still, how the hell do we get some sleep now?"

"Son this aint nothing. Try sleeping in the middle of an artillery strike. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm really fucking tired." With that, Bill put out his cigarette and rolled over to get some sleep.

"Whatever old man." Francis said before taking some cotton and stuffing his ears with it.

Louis meanwhile watched over Zoey, after making sure she would be ok, he too attempted to get some sleep.

"Ahh." Said a well rested and now healthy Zoey the next morning.

"Glad you're alright." Louis said.

"Yea, that was way too close." Bill added.

"Ok, so now that Zoey is all fixed up." Francis said, "What the hell do we do with her?" He pointed over to the witch that was still crying.

"Just leave her alone man." Louis suggested, "Let's just get out of here."

"She might get pissed if we remove the pipe from the door though." Bill pointed out.

"Wait, I know what to do." Francis smiled, as he reached for a shotgun and pumped it.

Zoey got to her feet quickly. "No No! You can't do that to her!" She shouted.

Francis put his finger to his lips, "Shhh don't fucking get her riled up."

"Then don't try to fucking kill her." Zoey said angrily, "I'd be dead if it wasn't for her."

"Yea I know." Francis sighed, "So then what do we do?"

"She sounds like she is in pain." Zoey said sadly, "I wonder if.." She trailed off as she made her way to the witch.

Zoey knelt down and placed her hand on the witch's shoulder. The witch looked up at Zoey with tears rolling down her cheek. Zoey softly placed her other hand on the witch's cheek and used her thumb to wipe away some of the tears. "It hurts bad doesn't it?" She said. The witch nodded. "I know how you feel, and, I think I can help." The witch stared at Zoey with a look that said "You do?"

Zoey smiled and nodded "Yes." She then slowly leaned forward and placed her lips against those of the witch. The witch's eyes widened at this new sensation, suddenly, all the pain that had racked her mind for ages was melting away...only this time, it wasn't replaced by anger. The one sided kiss lasted for but a moment before Zoey pulled away, and just looked into the witch's eyes.

Already, she could see her idea was having a positive effect, as the witch found herself leaning in towards her, their lips met again, this time however, it was not one sided. Zoey pushed herself forward into the kiss, and moved her right arm from the witch's shoulder through her hair to the back of her head, and moved her left arm down around her back taking the witch into a tight embrace. The witch mimicked Zoey and placed her arms around to Zoey's back, returning the embrace.

The three men each wore a different expression: Bill looked on and chuckled, Louis looked on happy that Zoey seemed to have found someone, and Francis looked on with disgust. "I hate lesbians." He said.

Louis looked at him and said, "Aww come on man, it's love, who cares if they are the same gender?"

"Yea but..." Francis said, his mood down, "they won't play with us."

"Tisk, come on man, is that all you care about?" Louis said with a frown on his face.

Francis didn't respond, he just stared at Zoey and the witch.

As much as she was enjoying this, Zoey knew she had to break this kiss, they were not out of the city and now was not the time to throw a party. She leaned back as a thin trail of saliva kept the two connected briefly before being broken itself. "How do you feel?" Zoey asked, "Does it hurt as much now?" The witch shook her head. Zoey smiled, "I'm glad. Say, we are trying to escape this city, would you like to come along?" The witch looked from Zoey to the three men then back to Zoey and nodded. "It's going to be noisy with all of us shooting the infected, are you sure you'll be ok?" She added. The witch simply nodded again. "Ok then. Francis!" Zoey called as the two stood up, "Let's get the hell out of here!"

"Whoa there! We're taking a WITCH with us?!?" Francis stammered.

Bill chuckled "I don't think we have much choice in the matter. Besides, it would be nice to have a fifth person in our midst, it will make escape a lot easier."

Francis sighed, "Whatever." He took off the heads of a few infected with his assault rifle before taking apart the makeshift lock and opening the door. Louis grabbed his automatic shot gun and headed out just after Francis. Bill followed suit, scoped hunting rifle in hand. Behind him, followed Zoey (who had grabbed two new pistols and a pump action shotgun) and the witch.

The group worked its way swiftly through the reminder of the subway and back onto the city streets, the infected were posing zero threat now that a fifth body was attacking them. The witch sent her claws through every zombie that tried to attack Zoey. As they neared the stairway to the surface, a smoker was hiding up in a broken patch of ceiling waiting to strike.

"Look Bill, it's your favorite, stairs!" Zoey joked.

"Well at least it will take us up to the airport." Bill said.

Bill was unfortunately pulling up the rear and made a nice easy grab for the smoker. Its tongue wrapped around Bill tightly and yanked him back. As he cried out, the witch was already moving in on her target. She got to where Bill was being hung and leapt up to meet the attacker, sending her claws tearing right up through his body severing not only his connection to Bill, but also his connection to the living world.

"Y-you saved my life!" Bill said as the witch landed beside him gracefully. She merely nodded and took off towards Louis.

"GE-GET IT OFF ME!!" Louis cried as a hunter started to rake its claws through the survivor. It was only on him for a brief second before an upward slice sent the hunter flying in two directions at once. Louis accepted the witch's hand up saying simply, "Thanks." It was at about that time that a low disgusting gurgling sound was heard.

Francis called out, "BOOMER!!" The boomer was exposed to the open, but was allowed the cover of surprise. It made its way to where Bill was patching himself up. The witch sprinted fast past Bill and stabbed the jiggling mass of flesh that was its stomach. She paused for but a moment, taking delight in the boomers surprised face, as she hurled herself backwards just as the boomer exploded. The bile shower being just out of range of the witch, not like it would have affected her anyway.

Zoey looked to Francis and smiled, "Still think it was a bad idea to bring her along?"

Francis just shrugged and reloaded. The group formed back up at the foot of the stairs, and proceeded upwards. As they made their way up the stairs they could hear yet another hunter up top, it was waiting for them.

"I don't like the sound of that hunter." Bill said. "Sounds like its.....waiting for something."

"Oh I know what it's waiting for, it's waiting for me to put a foot in its ass!" Francis smirked.

"Ok Francis." Zoey sighed and turned to the witch, "Let him kill the hunter ok? He needs the confidence boost."

"Hey!" Spat Francis. They all heard a sound that was completely foreign to them, the witch was chuckling!

It was true, a hunter was indeed waiting for them. However, unbeknownst to the survivors, a tank was situated at the far end of the street. The hunter knew as soon as they poked their heads up the tank would be aware of their presence, and much fun would ensue. What the hunter didn't expect however was to be shot at instantly! As buck from the auto shotty penetrated its flesh the hunter leapt blindly away from the source. If the tank was not yet aware of the survivors presence, the single bit of buck that made contact with its flesh certainly helped drive the point home. With a massive roar the tank took off.

The hunter landed just in time to discover its fate. The tank was charging right towards him....well, not him, the survivors...but he was quite clearly in the way. A problem the tank was more than willing to correct, with a great sweep, the tank slammed its arm into the hunters side, sending it splattering against the building. Louis, being the first out of the subway called out the new far more pressing danger, "TANK!!!"

The group opened fire immediately, and unfortunately, all took off in a different directions. Louis started back down into the subway while Bill and Francis headed right, Zoey took off to the left, and the witch stayed where she was and assessed the situation knowing the tank would not openly attack her unless it was going after Louis. As the tank was shot it lost sight of Louis and quickly decided to go after the lone Zoey. Running backwards had the huge disadvantage of not being able to spot objects in your path of travel, it was just her luck that a street light was in her path. The instant she crashed into it she knew, and braced herself as the tank sent its fist to the gut of Zoey, sending her flying down the street.

"ZOOOOOEEEEEEYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!" With the hectic gunfire, it is unknown who cried out her name. What is known though is that the witch had decided on a course of action! She sprinted behind the tank and when close enough, leapt to its back with her claws at the ready. The tank was fast approaching the wounded Zoey on the ground. The tank was forced to cease its chase as the witch's claws dug deep into its back, causing it to wail in pain and stagger about. This gave Francis the time needed to help Zoey back to her feet, while Bill sent round after round from his hunting rifle into the tank. The witch began slicing as fast as she could, it wasn't long before the tank's body was rendered lifeless.

After getting patched up, Zoey looked to the witch, "Y-you called my name....when the tank punched me...you-" her eyes had begun to well up with tears. The witch walked close to Zoey and carefully wiped them away. "Zoooeeyy." The witch said slowly, and took Zoey into a tight embrace and kissed her deeply. The kiss, while deep, was also short. "Thank you- for caring so much about me." Zoey said. The witch nodded again and broke the embrace. It wasn't long before they found the safe room at the upper entrance to the airport in the nearby parking garage. As the door was sealed, the survivors each found a spot to get some much needed sleep. This time sleep would be easy to obtain as the witch no longer found it necessary to cry, instead, she cuddled up next to Zoey in the back of the room and found sleep for the first time in ages.

Authors' note: As you can see, I have mixed the subways of NM into DA. I find that the Dead Air finale is the only one that makes any sense in terms of why the infected attack you. In the other three campaigns, the rescue vehicle is nowhere to be seen, and there is no valid reason other than "it happens in the movies" for why you are attacked. At least in Dead Air you are making a huge amount of noise refueling the plane.

Anyway, the 5 of them will be making their way through the airport and runway finale on the next part of this fic. I'm sure the witch is way out of character, but I feel she is the only infected that could possibly be reasoned with. I plan to give the witch more dialogue as the story progresses. Also, one final note: The survivors will conveniently NOT encounter any more witches ^.^