Nobody was sure exactly what brought it on. They assumed it was a callous joke too far after the heat of battle with the horde. What the joke was about or whom it was about didn't really matter as the world slowed to a crawl and Ellis's fist smashed across Nick's smirking face. It was a shock to everyone, especially Ellis. He watched with wide eyes as Nick stumbled backwards to the wall, the gambler clearly trying to get his bearings back together. Rochelle ran to Nick and Coach took Ellis's arm but the kid wasn't responding. He was focused on Nick who was leaning against the wall, the gambler bringing the back of his hand to his lip. When Nick pulled away his hand even Ellis could see the blood. He had actually cause Nick to bleed, on purpose. Ellis began to shake slightly.
Nick looked up and the hillbilly and the gambler exchanged looks. Ellis wasn't sure exactly was going through Nick's mind but he was sure it couldn't be good. Ellis's throat was parched as he swallowed, hard. "Nick…man…" Ellis stuttered. He couldn't think of anything good to say. The gambler just kept looking at him with an unreadable look. The silence between them caused Ellis to want to scream. "I'm sorry!" he blurted out finally. "I'm sorry Nick!"
The gambler looked at him for a minute more, as if studying him before moving. "Rochelle," Nick said, interrupting his silence but not removing his eyes from Ellis, "There any water in that med pack? I feel like washing my mouth out."
…
Ellis avoided Nick for the rest of the night and for once the safe room was quiet. Rochelle and Coach attempted to fill the gap with talk about various things but it wasn't the same. It was rather unnerving as the mood was tense. It took a while for Ellis to fall asleep, his guilty conscious keeping him awake until he finally couldn't take one more minute of not being able to sleep. Nick took first shift to play look out. He kept a shot gun in hand and looked out between the planks that covered the windows. It was hard to see the horde but he could hear the shuffling. He hated look out that is why he always asked for it first. He didn't jump as Rochelle moved to stand with him, they just stood in silence looking out the window.
"Thank you," Rochelle said.
"For what?"
"For not hitting Ellis."
Nick shrugged effortlessly. "It was nothing, really not worth it." He could feel Rochelle's eyes shift to looking at him.
"Funny, I keep thinking if it had been any other time, any other place, or any other person, you might have actually done something. You would have pounded him into the ground."
"Yeah, I guess so," Nick answered with a smirk. Before all of this that probably would have been his answer. It was the circle of survival, attack when you are. It's what had gotten him through life thus far. His smirk grew as Rochelle kissed his cheek.
"Again, thank you."
Well it had been a while since he had gotten a kiss from a pretty lady. Of course there was that cross dresser in Los Vegas. But it was nice to have a female presence in the group, a female to balance out all the testosterone.
Nick glanced over at Ellis who was sleeping as far away as possible. Once and a while the boy would twitch slightly, clearly not having a good dream. Nick rolled his eyes as he watched Ellis whimper and twitch. Without thinking the gambler removed his jacket and lay it over the boy's sleeping form. Ellis twitched again.
"I'm sorry Nick," Ellis muttered.
Nick ruffled the kid's hair a bit, smirking just a bit. "I know."
