The second he stepped foot outside the safety that the safe room provided, he checked both his immediate left and right for hostiles, but he didn't find anything that would pose a threat since anything that could have was shot to shit or hacked to pieces.
It's all clear; time to drop down through the hole in front and head on into the metro station below.
Having done his due diligence, our eager but cautious protagonist approached the hole in the concrete wall and looked over the edge.
It looks clear here as well, though I won't really know for sure until I drop down because I know there's a space located right under this floor that a number of infected would've been hiding in the game.
Aware of the dangers that possibly awaited him below, he slung his KORD on his back, drew his full-auto Glock with his right and crouched by the ledge before grabbing it and lowering himself down swiftly. John was quick with it so once he dropped several feet he impacted the floor below and landed on his feet and swiftly followed that up by scanning the space below the floor.
As soon as he did that, several zombies that had been lurking behind and between the foundational columns blitzed towards him. Unfortunately for them, he was prepared for this exact scenario, thus he took aim at the nearest zed and planted a 10mm bullet straight through its skull.
This will be quick.
John's ability to take out infected as quickly and efficiently as possible has been growing at a stupidly fast since his arrival in this world, so mere moments later all 7 infected that were charging at him seconds ago were lying on the ground motionless and with a nice sized bloody hole going straight through their heads.
Man, I'm good.
With every zed in the vicinity either dispatched by him or someone else, John quickly reloaded his sidearm, stuck it in its holster, and grabbed his souped-up AK once more and entered the cutoff metro. It was dark when he first entered, but soon the powered lights ahead lit up these narrow quarters.
Okay, it's light enough so I can turn off my light and conserve my batteries.
Seeing the lights above providing more than enough vision on their own, let alone when combined with all the subway tiles that were reflecting and amplifying their brightness further, he continued on his way through the hall whilst avoiding the occasional body and blood spill on the hallway floor. He was confident, but at the same time nervous because the thought of a Charger just running his ass down this tight space did cross his mind, so he moved with haste as that potential danger lingered in the back of his mind.
The hall was lengthy, but he eventually reached its end and rounded the corner, and when he did, he encountered another set of stairs that led to the actual metro station. He would've been pumped about all this normally, except the stairs were littered with bodies and the air was thick with the smell of blood and giving off an unsettling feeling, the latter of which John was able to pick up on somehow.
I got a bad feeling about this.
Although John was weary of what lay ahead, staying planted where he stood wasn't an option; thus, he grew a pair and began his descent down the steps. With his weapon held at the ready, he went down the stairs and stepped over the infected corpses whenever possible, and then came upon three escalators lined up together that led further into the subway. Sadly, his position did not allow him to view what was awaiting him below in the terminal, so he kept on trucking. However, as he was descending the stalled escalators, he heard a deep, distinct, heavy breathing coming from the path ahead, and God did he know what the fuck it originated from.
Ohh, you have to be fucking kidding me! I have to deal with a goddamn Tank… God, you must hate me, right???
The path forward was blocked by a mutated infected that could literally fling multi-ton cars as if they were nothing. That sort of special infected was nothing to joke about since all it would take for him to meet an early grave was to either get hit by one of the Tank's massive fists or fail to get out of the way of the projectiles it was known to throw at survivors occasionally. Those fleshed based titans were walking disasters on their own, let alone when they were backed up with other infected, so John paused his advance on the metal steps of the escalator and considered his options.
Haaa, if I were just some ordinary gamer that never left the house I would be screwed; however, I am anything but that. Still, be that as it may, it doesn't change the fact that this is still going to be one hell of a challenging obstacle to overcome. I mean, I'm not exactly specked out to take on a literal tank made of mutated undead human flesh that is capable of ending me with a single blow.
In spite of that, I'm also not completely fucked just yet seeing how I have taken out hundreds, if not thousands, of them over my career on the original Left 4 Dead and its sequel. Not to mention the boatload of experience I have shooting and using guns in the real world and my decent shooting ability. Nevertheless, that former experience was all in a game and this is well… My new cruel reality so it's not exactly a one-to-one sort of thing.
Having said that, I could technically go back out the way I came, the issue I'll face with that is I will have to dig my way past the wall of corpses I made when I fended off the last horde of infected… Yeah, I think I'd rather go take my chances with the Tank since I do have a bit of an equalizer with this puppy here.
A 40mm probably wouldn't take the Tank out in a single shot but it would surely fuck it up and let it know it wasn't the only one capable of dealing big damage.
At any rate, my GL, although powerful, wouldn't necessarily put it down in one shot, so a bit of strategy is going to have to be utilized alongside it if I truly want to come out the other end of this. I was thinking if I want to take it on and get past it I should deal as much damage to the lumbering beast in as short a span as I can in the opening and save my 40mm HE shot when I have a clear shot on its head. But if that turns out not to be enough, I'll turn tail and run back up to the hall where I will have plenty of time to reload both my under-barrel grenade launcher and my assault rifle for a second volley.
I doubt it'll take more than that, especially if I unload a mag full of APDS rounds into its head and chest cavity. But if it's not, I'll draw the big bastard into the space below the safe room and nail it again before trying to maneuver around it, so I can increase that distance between the big bastard and I.
Mmm, on second thought, that plan sounds a bit risky if things don't go the way I want them, so I'ma buy a couple of claymores as a failsafe. I don't believe I'll need them in the end, but I'd rather have every advantage I can at my disposal than not… Even though it may prove wholly unnecessary.
Unlikely as it was, John was unwilling to take even the most minor of risks this early on into his adventure here in the world of walking undead, thus he bought his backup plan alongside a wireless trigger and set the two deadly explosives up at a low height. His reasoning for placing them at such a low position was rather simple: the Tank's body was built like a gorilla's, therefore its legs must be a weak point. One which he can target and exploit to easily evade and kite the undead brute until it inevitably collapses and kicks the bucket.
There, they're set and ready to rob the mobility of that Tank if he doesn't fall to my traditional zed killing methods… Hopefully I don't have to use them because they cost me quite a pretty penny.
Shedding a nonexistent tear for his declining bank account that got hit with a charge of 29 gold coins, John tucked the detonator close where he could grab it and activate it at a moment's notice and pressed onward once more. When he came upon the escalators again, he slowly descended the metal steps, one careful step at a time, and soon he was able to see the state of the lobby. The scene he had the joy of viewing was something straight out of horror movies, the floors, the seats, the help desks, and even the damn subway turnstile were covered in blood, guts, and mangled pieces of flesh, and in the middle of all of it was a monstrous titan of an infected.
Holy shit, it's massive... The games certainly didn't do the Tanks justice.
Was all that crossed his mind as he stared at the incredibly muscular back of the Tank and watched it tear into the flesh of some poor soul that had thankfully passed away some time ago. John stood there watching the beast for several seconds before eventually moving his eyes elsewhere to see what he was really up against, and man, was there a lot of them… Specifically, the special kind.
So not only do I have to deal with a Tank, I also have to take down 2 Boomers, 5 Jockeys, 1 Smoker, 2 Spitters, and 4 Chargers… Like what the fuck kind of hell difficulty is this shit? And in addition to all those special infected, there are dozens upon dozens of common infected lurking around the lobby. And that's just what I can see, so there have to be far, far more zeds lingering in the subway terminal ahead.
Christ almighty I wouldn't be surprised if the four survivors got done in already if this is what I'm coming across… But I see plenty of zombies lying around with all sorts of wounds marring their frames from gunshot and slices to missing chunks, bashed skulls, and what have you, so I guess they made it through somehow, though that remains to be seen.
John expected to find a number of infected alongside the Tank, but not over a dozen special infected with it, plus dozens upon dozens of common infected. This fight was obviously gonna be one hell of a battle, though it wasn't impossible for a Left 4 Dead vet such as himself.
Had I known I was going to be going up against such forces I would've skipped buying the M203 under barrel and just simply put down the money for a rocket launcher, Carl Gustav, or a magazine fed grenade launcher, but I didn't know so I'll just have to make shit work. That said, how am I going to deal with all these numbers… Well, I could go for a moly throw but that shit isn't going to cause any lethal wounds immediately nor is it going to burn as long as the in-game counterpart unless they've put special compounds in it, meaning I would be best using something else.
I do have 3 bile bombs and 3 pipe bombs put away in my grenade sack for such an occasion, and this is about as perfect an opportunity to use them I imagine. So if I open with a pipe bomb I can draw all the common infected out, fire my GL at the Tank and aggro the rest of the special infected with my KORD before I book it back up the escalators. After that, I'll continue with my original plan and sprint down the subway hall while I reload my grenade launcher, and once I reach the end, I'll fire it a second time and dump my entire drum down the tight quarters of the hall.
If that's not enough I'll fall back again and take cover in the space below the safe room and trigger my claymores the instant they're within their kill zone… Yeah, that's about as good a plan I can come up with without depleting my funds further, so let's rock and roll.
The second John made up his mind, he let go of his rifle and let it come to rest against his chest softly. He then popped open his grenade sack, retrieved a pipe bomb, lined up a throw, and launched the explosive across the expansive lobby whilst simultaneously activating the device. The pipe bomb soared across the lobby and emitted loud chirps repeatedly, and before it could even land on the tiled floor, it had attracted all the zeds within earshot of its annoying high pitch beeping.
So whilst both the common and special infected were distracted with the pipe bomb, John took aim at the Tank, that had also switched his attention from his gruesome meal to the explosive device, and pressed the trigger on the M203 grenade launcher once he had lined up his GL with the monstrosity's shoulder. The distance between him and Tank was less than 50 meters, so a second or two later it impacted the brute's shoulder and exploded, sending large chunks of flesh and muscle flying.
That's sure to piss it off.
And right he was because the damned beast started roaring immediately in a mix of both anger and pain. However, that quickly changed when John began lighting up the special infected around it.
I was planning on targeting the Tank originally, but why waste the bullets on a target I can't deal enough damage to eliminate just yet when there are perfectly good targets I can remove from the equation.
The Tank's head had yet to become visible, so why bother with it when he could thin out the numbers of the special infected instead. John was smart enough and quick enough to think on his feet, so he didn't waste a second more on the undead ball of muscle and immediately let the other lesser but still extremely dangerous special infected have it.
Our ruthless protagonist fired his new assault rifle nonstop for the next several seconds, just enjoying the hell out of a near recoilless, fully automatic firearm he now possessed. However, as his suppressed shots rang out through the underground lobby and several of the special infected fell to his accurate, lethal fire to their heads and other critical vitals, the biggest threat of their group directed its attention as well as its rapidly increasing rage to John. It didn't take long for the Tank to zoom in on him as expected, so when it took notice of the one who had caused it excruciating pain, it roared furiously.