The smell of rotten flesh made Nick grimace, no longer gagging due to being familiar to the horrific smell of the dead. He turned to look around the safe room, turning his nose up at the wall covered in bullet holes and blood, bodies piled on the floor in front of it. It was obvious what had happened, but there was no point thinking about it.

That's rule #1 in this whole fucked up scenario, don't think about it.

"They could've cleaned it up." Nick muttered, running his finger over a table and feeling impressed from the amount of dust that had collected there.

Rochelle stared at him, "seriously?"

Nick turned his head to look at her, eyebrow raising in confusion. "What?"

"All you've done is complain the whole journey here." Rochelle dropped her AK-47 on the floor, letting the thud ring out across the safe room. Coach looked up from what he was occupying himself with and looked at her with a questioning stare.

"I was just-"

"Shut up, Nick! We are in the middle of a goddamn- I don't even know what this is - and you're complaining about your suit and your hair and this stupid shithole." Rochelle yelled, gesturing to the safe room. Her voice was tight and Nick knew she was going to cry. God he hated it when people cried. Especially when he was the one responsible. "All I give a shit about is us getting through this in one piece."

"And what, you think I don't?" Nick felt his anger getting the better of him. Yeah, he was a selfish asshole a lot of the time, but he did contribute to the group. He pushed a Hunter off Ellis here and there, rammed a Charger away from Coach- hell, he even smacked Rochelle's gun out of her hand when she almost shot at a Witch.

Rochelle grit her teeth, "no, I don't think you do. I don't even trust you half the time."

Coach took this chance to step in between both of them, "Shouting at each other isn't gonna get us anywhere."

"Pft." Nick turned away, heading towards his first aid kit that he'd placed on the dusty table moments after they'd arrived. He could hear Coach quietly reassuring Rochelle that Nick was, in fact, a member of the team and wasn't here to steal their things and kill them.

To hell if he was; there was nothing to steal. A few bandages wasn't going to get him far. Even though everyone on the team somehow pissed him off in one way or another, he was (secretly) glad he had found them when he did or else he would've been dead meat. Literally.

"Hey man, I think you should apologize to Ro." Ellis whispered, making Nick jump and almost smack the hick in the face.

"Jesus- fuck, Ellis, don't fucking do that!" Nick hissed, putting a hand on his chest. He thought he'd be used to things jumping out at him but truthfully, it never stops being scary.

"Sorry," Ellis put his hands up as a sign of peace, "I was just tryn'a keep the peace, y'know? We can't be arguin' while killin' those sons of bitches."

Nick glared at Ellis long and hard until the kid was visibly uncomfortable. "Nick, yer freakin' me out a lil' bit."

"You're serious, aren't you?" Nick narrowed his eyes, leaning on the table behind him. "About me apologizing."

"Well...Yeah, I guess I am." Ellis shrugged, taking his hat off and running a hand through his auburn hair.

"I don't see why I should be sorry, she was the one who-"

"Nick." Ellis' strong southern accent was firm, something unfamiliar to Nick's ears, "please."

Nick stared at Ellis and Ellis stared straight back. Nick bit his tongue; he hated having to apologize and admit he was wrong. Goddamn fucking hicks. He sighed finally, "Fine. Fine, I'll say sorry. Just...stop staring at me like that, it's freaking me out."

A grin spread across Ellis' face, his eyes softening immediately. "Thanks Nick, ah really appreciate it."

Nick rolled his eyes with a smirk, "whatever."

He pushed past Ellis and slowly made his way over to where Rochelle and Coach were chatting quietly. Rochelle looked up from the floor and glared at Nick who raised his hands.

"Ro, I don't want to argue. It won't make this situation any easier. We need to...be a team." He struggled, rubbing the back of his neck, feeling the dry blood from the infected in his hair.

Rochelle and Coach stared at him, no visible expression. Nick sighed, "I guess, what I'm trying to say is...I'm sorry."

Coach's lips twitched upwards ever so slightly and Rochelle's expression seemed to relax.

"It's fine, Nick." She patted his shoulder lightly, "this is hard on all of us."

Nick let himself smile ever so slightly and Coach patted him on the back, "see, that wasn't so hard, was it?"

"Don't push your luck." Nick smirked, letting his 'too cool' facade drop entirely.

It was early when they set off again. Ellis decided to let the group know that he could tell the exact time by the way the sky looked. His 'buddy Keith' told him how to and then something happened with a goose. Nick wasn't listening, he was rubbing his hand over his stubble, breathing in the not-so-fresh air of the morning.

"-so then Ma got real mad, and I'm not talkin' red in the face mad, I mean full blown steam blowin' out of her ears mad." Ellis was laughing now, his words even harder to make out because of his chuckling. Then suddenly he stopped.

"Wh-" Rochelle began but Ellis held a hand up and then a finger to his lips.

That was enough to send Nick into a spiral of anxiety. It was every so often, if not at all, that Ellis would become serious. Nothing could stop that kid from laughing, not even a horde of zombies brought on by Boomer vomit.

He looked around, and then his eyes narrowed to a single spot in an alley. Nick followed his vision but failed to see anything. Maybe his eyesight was getting worse.

"Tank." Ellis whispered, pointing. "We'd better go 'round."

Coach nodded and the rest of them turned around, heading back the way they came. Nick sighed, "guys, seriously. We've taken on Tanks before." He whispered, following them.

"I don't feel like risking my life just after I've just had a rough night's sleep." Coach replied and put a hand on his stomach, "especially when I've had no second breakfast."

Nick was about to protest again, because hell if he was going to spend longer outside than he should. It was an even bigger risk going around the Tank than it was actually killing the Tank. Before Nick could point this out, Coach patted Ellis on the shoulder, "nice one, kid."

"One of mah special abilities." Ellis grinned, "I'm always on the look out."

"Oh c'mon!" Nick sighed even louder and Rochelle turned to shush him, but the ground began to rumble and a blood curdling roar echoed through the neighbourhood.

Shit.

"Goddamn it, Nick!" Coach yelled, "get your shit together!"

Nick wasn't listening, he was too busy firing his assault rifle at the giant, fleshy war machine galloping towards him. Coach took part in shooting his chrome shotgun but when the Tank got too close, they had no choice but to run.

Rochelle just managed to dodge a flying piece of concrete but buckled over the derbis. Nick was so tempted to leave her and just save himself, but something was stopping him from doing so.

GODDAMN IT. He sighed under his breath and ran back to get Rochelle while Ellis and Coach distracted the Tank. Soon enough, there was a final roar and the Tank crumbled to the ground. Nick silently thanked whoever was looking down on him.

Nick lifted Rochelle of the ground gently, "are you okay?" Stupid question.

"Yeah, yeah I'm good now, thanks." Rochelle replied, leaning on Nick's shoulder for support. "I think I just grazed myself. Nothing a little bit of spray plaster won't fix."

"All right, good." Nick smiled.

Coach was in front of him suddenly, hand pulling on the collar of his shirt. "The hell do you think you're playing at, Nick?" He bellowed, "you could've gotten us all killed!"

"I didn't though, did I? The path is cleared and we can take a shortcut." Nick shouted back, "now do you mind getting off my suit?"

"I should beat yo' ass where you stand." Coach muttered and shook his head. He released Nick's collar and pushed him back, "you do anything like that again and I will leave you behind, understand?"

Nick felt a shiver creep up his spine. "All right. Jesus."

"Let's get moving." Coach called, making his way towards the alley. Rochelle looked at Nick sympathetically but said nothing, following Coach.

"C'mon." Ellis said, nudging Nick and following after the two.

Nick was trying his best not to look so affected by Coach's words, but it was obviously not working on Ellis. That kid knew shit.

He followed after them all, staying behind the group to look out for anything that might be creeping up on them.

It was getting dark and they had been walking for hours. The cold had spread through the group and everyone was shivering. They'd come across a small store that had a few packets of food, bottles of water, a few cans of soda and quite a lot of X-Rated magazines.

Rochelle had laughed at that, gesturing towards the pile of them on the counter. "Guessing someone wanted to stock up before shit hit the fan."

Coach took a swig of Cola, "If I'd have had the chance, I would've."

"Now's your chance." Rochelle snickered and Ellis grimaced.

Nick was exploring the store, opening the door to the back room and looking around. The whole place stunk of mold and damp. The conman covered his nose and mouth with his hand, grimacing at the smell. He didn't want to get ill from black mold, that was the last thing he needed right now.

His foot knocked a lead pipe on the ground and manic laughter sounded from the top of the stairs. A Jockey pounced on him before he could even lift his gun.

"JOCKEY!" Nick yelled, trying to pry the thing off his shoulders. The group came running in, shooting at the ugly thing riding him like some sort of disfigured kid. "GET THIS THING OFF OF ME!"

It scratched at his neck and face, making him topple over into a pile of wood and pipes. Suddenly, Ellis ran forward, smacking the Jockey in the face with the butt of his rifle. It then pounced at Rochelle, laughing as it leapt. Coach shot it at the right time and the body fell to the floor with a loud thud.

Nick hissed in pain when he tried to sit up, a sharp pain in his side. Ellis was there in an instant, helping him sit up gently. "Yer bleeding pretty bad on yer neck, lemme heal you." The mechanic said quietly, taking a few bandages and antiseptic wipes from his first aid kit.

"Thanks." Nick muttered, leaning back against the wall. Ellis crouched down in front of him, wiping away the blood that was dripping onto his suit.

Rochelle walked over, handing Nick a bottle of water. "We'll stay here for the night. It's not safe to be out in the cold."

"But the next safe house is only two blocks away." Nick protested.

"You're hurt, what if you get attacked again?"

"Look, we don't have a lot of security here, anything could sneak up on us in the night." Nick was beginning to lose his patience. Why would nobody see how right he was?

"I agree with Nick." Ellis perked up, taping a dressing pad to Nick's neck, "two blocks ain't that far an' I'll keep an eye on Nick. I got plenty of ammo."

Rochelle stared at the two for a second before nodding, "okay. Get ready to leave, we need to hurry before it gets too dark."

Nick sighed in relief. He didn't want to be on edge the entire night, waiting for the inevitable. They were all going to die sometime, there was no way they could all survive this shit storm that had taken over. Well, they could. It would just be impossible.

They packed as many supplies they could in case the safe house didn't have anything. Hopefully it had a bed or at least sleeping bag. Nick didn't know how many more concrete floors he could take before his spine just gave up.