-x-

Eyes. Womanprey's eyes? No. Close, but not hers. Same color. Whose?

Voices, movement. What was going on? It was all fragmented, none of it made any sense.

Familiar; why did it feel so familiar?

Eyes. Eyes, and then blood.

-x-

Pain; there was pain in his stomach. The Hunter quickly became aware of that pain as he stirred into wakefulness.

Pain? Whypain? Was, was...

He shrieked and scurried backwards as the memory of what had happened rushed back to him, instinctively lashing out at the threat he was sure was there.

Deadkilledmedeadwasdead! Whathow?

He yelped when his head hit something hard over him and crouched down to the floor to get away from it, his breath quick with the onset of panic.

This, this couldn't be happening! It made no sense! When something was dead it was gone, no more. Even he knew that. Then why-

A soft jingling noise drew him out of his blind panic enough for him to look around and realize that the thing he had hit his head on was the top of the crawlspace that held his nest.

He was in his nest, and the womanprey was no longer pinning him and attacking his wound with her sharp-stabbing-thing. Once he realized that he was in relative safety he let himself collapse into the soft things, still panting from the lingering shock and fear.

For a little while he buried his face in the soft things, wanting to shut everything out and just try to make some sense of what was going on. He was going to go mad if he didn't.

He was alive; he'd been dead, and now he wasn't. What had the womanprey done? She'd killed him, he thought. But she'd stopped her attack on him, and now he was awake.

Notattack, something in the back of his head was telling him, Womanprey, she- Womanpreydidwhat?

And where was she? He'd heard the clinking of her shiny things, but nothing else after that. The Hunter raised his head and gave a kind of bark, trying to locate where she'd gone. There was no response, so he started sniffing for her. Her scent, though, was only there in lingering traces.

He did smell something else, though: the saltymeat that he'd been eating when she'd jumped him. Confused as he was, he was still distracted by the thought of food; starvation quickly won over fear and he crept forwards, wary in case it was part of a trap again.

As soon as he moved he noticed two things: something pulling at his wound, and the sound of the womanprey's shiny things again. He yipped at the strange feeling and sat up on his haunches to investigate it as soon as he was out of his nest, pulling up his upper covering enough to look at his stomach.

It was covered in wrappings like the ones on the womanprey's chest and eye. Underneath them he could feel something holding his wound together. It still burned, but nothing was twisting in it when he moved; the sting was gone.

When he bent down to lick at it, something hung down from around his neck. The Hunter quickly grabbed it, and then realized what it was: the womanprey's shiny things, dented where he'd clenched them in his teeth before. They were hung around his neck. He stared down at them like they could answer all of the questions suddenly spinning through his mind.

She'd given him a gift? But… she was a Clean One! Only pack was supposed to do that!

Womanpreyfixedwound. Womanprey… womanpreyhelp.

The Hunter growled softly at the throbbing in his head, but shook his head to clear it and sat down to finish the food (noticing that there was now a round holding thing filled with some water, too). He was going to need to get some of his strength back.

Findwomanprey. Havetofindwomanprey.

-x-

Well, Skyler, are you happy yet? Ben's going to be all right, and you're well on your way to the next safe room. Nothing left to think about.

Skyler sighed heavily and shook her head, trying to divert her attention to keeping her remaining eye out for any specials hanging around the area. Right. She wished it were that easy.

She was a good hour or so out of the flat, having started out later than she'd intended after waking up from what had to have been a coma, and was making pretty good time considering her newly-discovered depth perception issues.

And she still couldn't get the leaper that she'd left behind out of her mind. Christ. She grimaced, putting her full effort into thinking about anything else. She never should have looked.

It had been a sort of morbid curiosity, really. She'd been bandaging Ben's wound after she'd finally managed to get him in what looked like a relatively stable condition, when it had occurred to her that she'd never actually seen a Hunter without a hood on and that was likely to be her only opportunity. She'd been a little embarrassed by her interest, but hell. When was she going to get another chance like that? Maybe she'd wind up with something interesting to tell the guys back at base, if she ever decided to open up about her little adventure and if she managed to be rescued in the first place. With that in mind, she'd lifted up his hood for what was probably the first time since he'd been infected.

She supposed she shouldn't have been surprised. There had to have been plenty of infected that had been young men like Ben that she'd killed. There was something a bit depressing about seeing it so close, though.

He would've been handsome once, when he'd been human. His hood had been concealing somewhat curly black hair and a single silver stud in his right brow. Without the menace cast by the shadows over his face, she could see him actually looking nice, maybe even sweet, in his past life. Surely he'd had a life before with family, friends, probably even a girlfriend, or at least a story behind how he'd gotten that brow piercing. Now those dark curls were in matted knots, and his face was blanched in the unhealthy tone of disease; horribly bloodstained and crisscrossed with scratches besides. She wondered if on any level he was even dimly aware of what he'd lost.

Skyler mentally kicked herself at the turn her thoughts were taking. What the hell was wrong with her? It wasn't doing any good thinking that way. Her face contorted into a grimace as she swung her assault rifle to the side, gunning down a couple of commons leaned against a wall like some kind of mob execution.

She was losing it, she thought; some part of her was honestly feeling bad for leaving. What the hell else was she supposed to do, though? She'd stuck around for long enough to make sure he had the best shot at making it that she could give him, and that was all she could do. After all… even if she'd saved him, there was no saving him. She knew damned well that there was no coming back from what the infection had done to him.

Enough. Skyler forced her attention back to the present, and the present involved either leaving the relative security of the back alleys or continuing along what looked like a dead end. Faced with her amazing variety of options, she reluctantly settled for venturing out into the street. She was surprised to find it mostly clear of commons, though, save for a few stragglers milling around up ahead. From what she'd seen, that wasn't likely to mean anything good.

Well, it wasn't as though she had much choice, unless she was thinking of turning back. And she most certainly wasn't doing that. Skyler grit her teeth, readied her assault rifle, and took up extra caution at a peculiar feeling on the back of her neck. God. She'd had enough of feeling watched for her entire lifetime.

She didn't like this. Not any of it at all.

-x-

The Hunter yelped and rolled to the ground, saving himself from a fall but in awful pain anyways. His wound burned when the muscles in his stomach flexed, and his blood leaked hot and wet into the wrappings as something tugged at the skin around it. He felt stronger than before, but he still couldn't jump. He hissed in frustration but continued on; it was all he could do.

The womanprey had gotten farther than he'd hoped. Now that she wasn't bleeding, her scent trail was faint, but not hard to distinguish since she was the only Clean One who had come in a long while. It stood out pure and inviting over the diseased smell of his brothers, drawing him to his prey.

He still didn't quite understand why following her seemed so important; it was different than what normally drove him to pursue the Clean Ones. She was still prey and the drive to kill was still there, but something... something wasn't the same. All he knew was that his instinct was telling him to seek her out, and he listened to his instinct.

Findwomanprey, he repeated in his head, havetofind. That was what he had to focus on. It hurt his head to think about it more than that.

At least now he could walk without his limbs failing him, though he still felt faint. The Hunter stalked over the ground in the shadows between high places, down the narrow ways where the womanprey's scent led.

A couple of his weak brothers noticed his weakened state and chose to attack him, but it was their mistake; now that he had a little of his strength, he could fight back. He snarled fiercely and reared back, slamming into the first's legs and knocking him to the ground. The other merely screamed stupidly as he ripped out the first's throat in his teeth, slashing at any part of the weak brother's flesh he could reach. Excited by the scent and taste of blood, even if it was sick blood, he turned and shrieked at the remaining one. He seemed to realize that he was outmatched and franticly turned to run from his claws.

The Hunter gave a kind of scoff but didn't bother pursuing, choosing instead to enjoy his kill for a moment. He grumbled low in his throat and turned onto his side to roll his coverings in the growing pool of blood, his mind still racing with the excitement of a kill.

Notnow, the thought interrupted him after a moment, womanprey.

He growled softly but got back onto all fours, continuing on and ducking his head slightly to avoid the light when the spaces became more open. He could come back later.

Findthen… kill?

The thought of hunting her didn't bring nearly as much of a thrill as it was supposed to. That was the frightening part; the only thing he'd ever really been sure of was what he wanted, and now he didn't even have that. Nothing made any sense without that. He stopped and grabbed onto the shiny things around his neck, squeezing them like they were the things that were going to keep his mind from snapping completely.

She was the one who had given them. She'd-

A sudden, startled yell reached his ears from somewhere ahead and he snapped back into alertness.

There! Womanprey!

Something had happened; something had gotten to her before him. The Hunter's blood started to boil with the familiar rage when he realized that until it escaped into a steady growl. No! He might not have known just what he wanted with her but the womanprey was his! He started to tremble with the fury of his prey being taken. Then he let out his kill-screech and called up every bit of his energy to run in bounds faster than he'd thought his body could manage then, nearly blind with the anger surging through him.

Nobrotherstouchwomanprey. MINE. WOMANPREYMINE!

-x-

No. NO.

Skyler felt the Smoker's tongue slip around her waist like some kind of grotesque snake and tried to free her arms to turn and shoot, but by then it had started constricting and it was too late. The slimy appendage effectively bound her arms to her sides. It would only be a matter of time before she couldn't so much as breathe.

A sharp scream ripped from her throat against her will. Panic held her in its grip. Oh god, no. This couldn't be happening.

It was just like when she'd been on her way to the evac center, only this time she wasn't going to be rescued. Lauren wasn't there to save her that time.

She was alone, and she was going to die.

"NO!" she shrieked, not even caring if her screaming drew a horde, "N-"

Then the Smoker pulled back, choking off her shout and landing her flat on her ass on the ground. Skyler gasped for air as it started to reel her in towards the unseen source of the excited coughs and wheezes, but all of her struggling was doing no good. Her already-sore ribs were protesting in agony. Somewhere along the way she lost her rifle, and soon she was breathing the infected's smoke cloud, which certainly didn't help with her breathing problem.

Christ, so this was how it was going to end? After all she'd lived through, she was going to be choked by a Smoker because she'd been too stupid and reckless to notice it. It might have been almost funny, if it didn't hurt so damned bad.

Just when she thought that her luck couldn't get any shittier, the telltale shriek of a Hunter sounded from in front of her. Great, she thought dizzily, one of the Smoker's buddies had decided to take advantage of the fact that she was defenseless.

Skyler managed to get her head up enough to scan for the new threat, but had to blink when she actually saw the hunched, grey-hooded figure in front of her. There was no way.

Ben?

The Hunter was crouched for the pounce, every inch of him quivering with tension. And he looked pissed. Every one of his bloodied teeth was bared in a snarl, and he looked every bit as fierce as he had before she'd shot him. Well. So much for gratitude then.

Maybe it was the lack of oxygen getting to her head, but… Skyler was almost glad that it was going to be Ben to kill her instead of the Smoker. Rationally she knew that it should make no difference, but hell. If she was going to have any infected tearing out her guts, it might as well be him.

Guess this is it, then, she thought, dangerously close to passing out from the pressure on her lungs. She tensed every muscle in her body in anticipation of the inevitable impact that was to come.

Before she squeezed her eye shut, she saw Ben rear back farther onto his haunches and let loose another shrill, primal screech.

-x-

LongTonguetrapwomanprey! Easykilleasyfood, now, pouncenow!

Every one of the Hunter's instincts was shrieking in his head for him to make the kill, to take the prey that he knew was his. His muscles strained until they ached with the tension, longing to send him flying through the air. Through the excited haze of hunting he saw the womanprey fighting to breathe against the Long Tongue's hold, still struggling weakly, and the sight made his blood race. Still though, he didn't pounce.

Now, his instinct demanded, KillNOW! BiteripeatnownowNOW!

Wait. Waitwaitwait.

The Hunter screeched in pain, the conflicting messages in his brain making him want to claw the pain away. Why wait? She was right there, and she was helpless! Whatever was holding him back, it only made him more furious.

Killwomanpreynow! Waitwaitwait. Pounceripeat- No; notnow. LongTounge. Nobrotherstouchwomanprey. Mine? Mine, womanpreyminemineMINE! WOMANPREYMINE, WOMANPREY-

Womanpreynotprey.

What? What did that even mean?

Didn't matter. The anger was building up in him to a point that he couldn't physically do anything but attack. The Hunter shrieked his kill-screech, the rage behind it making his throat raw from the force.

WOMANPREYMINE. KILL.

Without any more of his thought the muscles in his legs released, and he sprang forwards with an enraged snarl.

-x-

Skyler was all but prepared to die when she heard Ben's enraged shriek, when she was just about surprised shitless by an audible whoosh of air flying over her.

What the hell?

She honestly had no idea what the hell had just happened. Until, that was, the Smoker's hacks cut off into a strangled wheeze of shock and Ben's yowls turned into a fair impression of a pissed-off cat getting into a scrap. Something hit the ground with a dull thud, and then came the sound like knives ripping through wet rags. Abruptly, the tongue's death grip around her ribs loosened.

Gasping for air, she frantically tried to brush the disgusting appendage off of her and push herself away, her vision slowly clearing of the swimming black spots that had popped up there. She blinked rapidly to get a better look at just what had happened to free her.

Now that she was seeing it, she was even less inclined to believe it as when it happened.

The Hunter had the Smoker pinned down the same way that he had her and was setting himself in, screaming his bloodlust as the other terrified infected choked its dying breaths. Arcs of strangely tinted blood and god only knew what else were sailing into the air, splattering anything close by. The Smoker was dead within seconds, but he just kept going, like he was taking out every bit of his aggression on the now-unmoving body.

It was all Skyler could do to sit there shaking, coughing violently from nearly having her ribs crushed and damn near in shock besides. God, she'd almost forgotten just how violent Ben really was; the other infected practically looked like it had been attacked with a lawnmower.

Was he defending his kill or something? It had to be a matter of time before he turned on her, and then she was going to have to-

Her assault rifle. She'd dropped her assault rifle when she was being reeled in. Well. That wasn't good.

Once he'd apparently shredded the Smoker's body to his liking, Ben grumbled deep in his throat and slowly crawled off of it, now thoroughly drenched in its blood. Skyler couldn't help flinching a little when he started coming towards her, ready to defend herself. Hell, he couldn't have that much strength to him after she'd had to revive him the day before.

And then he merely sat back on his haunches, staring at her intently with hidden eyes and growling but doing little of anything else. What?

Still gasping for breath, she stared up disbelievingly at the leaper who'd saved her from certain death. The question written all over her face might have been obvious even to his infection-addled brain.

Why?

"Well?" she half-gasped harshly, mostly for the benefit of her own confidence, "Are you going to kill me or what?"

Ben just gave another rumbling noise, but now was rocking slightly back and forward on his heels, as if his body itself couldn't decide if it was going to pounce. Despite herself she inhaled sharply when he warily crept closer, until he finally stopped directly in front of her, close enough that she could smell the sweat and blood on him.

Slowly he reached around his neck and held something up with a softer growl, almost like he was asking her something; he was showing her the chain with her dog tags on it.

Skyler blinked a couple times in surprise, and then let out a single, almost hysterical laugh that sounded more like a cough from her aching lungs, traces of a relieved smile breaking out across her face. Damn, maybe her little adventure the day before had been a good idea after all.

"Y-yeah," she got out, "Those are yours now. You, umm. You can keep those."

Before she could really react to the strange situation farther, an all-too-familiar noise stopped her cold: the wails and shrieks of an approaching horde.

"Shit!" she cried as Ben started up snarling, both her and the Hunter scrambling to make it to their feet. Ben made it first, but the action was immediately followed by him swooning and making a visible pitch towards the ground with a startled yelp. Well, looked like the stress was finally getting to his weakened state.

Christ. She wasn't exactly ready to trust him not to turn on her, but she'd seen commons attack other injured infected on more than one occasion. After all the trouble she'd been through, she wasn't about to just leave him.

-x-

Bad. This was bad. The mob of weak brothers was coming fast, and his body was refusing to obey him again. If he couldn't get up, both him and the womanprey were going to die. His womanprey. His. The thought of his brothers killing her boiled into more rage, but it turned into distress when he still couldn't get his limbs to support him. The Hunter yelped again, starting to panic.

Nonono, getup! Pleasepleaseplease, havetogetup!

She made a muttering noise and crouched in front of him. A growl rumbled through him, but he really couldn't control that; his body was begging less fiercely to pounce after he'd torn the Long Tongue, but his instinct to kill was as strong as ever.

Womanpreynotprey, he told himself again, the strange thought the only thing keeping him from attacking, notpreynotpreynotprey. Nokill. Notnow. Thinking it hurt his head less this time; it had a kind of clarity it hadn't before.

All of those thoughts were cut off when the womanprey made a muttering noise and grabbed him, trying to pull him up. For a second it was all overwhelmed by his primal need to either fight or get away. Screech, twist, claw, make her stop touching, kill-

Somehow he managed to get a hold of the urge before he got his teeth into her, panting raggedly with the effort. He hissed in warning and struggled the best he could, desperate to get away, but he could barely hold himself up. The womanprey wouldn't let go, only started making awfully loud noises that panicked him more and grated at his mind. He keened in pain and fought to cover his ears.

Pleasepleasepleasestop, he begged in his head, letgoletgo!

He was going to bite if she didn't release him; he didn't think he could do anything else.

She must have seen his distress then. The grip on his arm didn't relax, but the yelling noises that she made did stop. When the sounds started again, they were different: soft and low, like before. It had the same effect on him as then, too. The pressure in his brain dulled, and the desperation faded from his thrashing.

She… she wasn't hurting. Okay, he told himself even though his breath was still coming quick and it went against every one of his instincts to relax even a little; it was okay.

He didn't have much choice, anyways. The weak brothers were almost close enough to attack, and the only thing keeping him from falling was her hold on him. The Hunter started to growl a warning at the ones closest, but cut it off in surprise as the womanprey put the arm she had around her small shoulders and struggled up, taking him with her. He yelped at the sudden movement and the discomfort of being up on two legs, but was still calm enough to resist snapping at her and did vaguely recognize that he was being helped.

Gowithwomanprey. Womanpreyhelp.

He wished he knew what it was that was making him actually want to trust the thing that he should've been hunting, but he could try to figure that out when he was safe. For now, he just had to hold on. Holding on was his only choice.

Womanpreynotprey. Gowith. Womanprey… different.

-x-

Prey. Preysmell! CleanOneclose!

High above the ground, the Alpha growled his excitement, his pack mates quickly smelling it too and doing the same. It had been too long since food had come, and all five of them were hungry. The scent was distant, but it was already making his mouth water.

Without so much as a sound from him, his pack knew to follow him as he sailed across one rooftop and onto the next.

His mate, the little red-haired female, kept stride with him and yipped in enthusiasm, to which he rumbled in assurance. He was glad that his mate would be able to eat; she'd always been small, and he worried about her not being strong enough to fend off a Clean One with a beatingstick or a sharp-stabbing-thing. He would have to keep the rest of his pack back while she ate her fill. Little-Red-Hair ate first.

Closer now. The Clean One's scent was growing heavier in the air from below. They'd been there not very long before. As he drew nearer to the source, though, the Alpha started to pick up on another, familiar scent mingled with the smell of the prey.

Grey-Hood?

He growled at the thought. Grey-Hood had left the pack, and the thought of a pack-deserter taking the prey before them angered him. If he saw him and he'd killed the Clean One first, he would fight him for it, and kill him if he needed to.

Eager to claim the prey before his former pack mate could, the Alpha quickened his pace and growled softly for the others to be silent. He ran and leapt between high places, quickly closing the distance with his pack behind him.

CleanOneclosenow. Eatsoon. Yesyesyes. Good.

Hearing the quiet sounds of the Clean One below, he stopped and crouched low, crawling to look over the edge and see the best way to make the jump.

What he saw instead made no sense.

The Clean One was there, standing by an entrance, and so was Grey-Hood. But it was wrong, all wrong. He was right next to them, the womanprey; leaning into her, touching her. And he- he wasn't attacking? The Alpha snarled in confusion.

Grey-Hood's head jerked up at the noise, and the womanprey turned around and raised her firestick. He hissed under his breath at the threat, sliding backwards to avoid being seen. Little-Red-Hair gave a soft, questioning noise, but he grabbed her by her covering and pulled her back with him. From below he heard the prey get into the shelter and shut the entrance behind her.

His pack grumbled, obviously wanting to pursue the food, but the Alpha snarled at them to make them stop.

Notnow. Womanpreywillsee. NotletGrey-Hoodtakeprey. Watch. Later. Wait.

With one more growl in the direction of Grey-Hood and the Clean One, the Alpha signaled his pack and leaped away.

-Author's Note-

Well, sorry this took so long. I had to get it out through a bit of a block, and I'm not overly happy with the result. As always, any feedback is loved so that I can clean up and improve. I will edit this later with the first edition of the 'soundtrack', so if you have any songs that you think fit this well, let me know! And once again, thanks for reading!

Left 4 Dead and all things associated belong to Valve. This story and all of my OCs belong to me.