Night had fallen fast, and Ellis was panicking, he'd wandered too far away and now he couldn't find Nick. A low growl of impatience and annoyance at himself emitted from his throat as Ellis tore down the empty streets, limbs stretching to almost impossible lengths to gain more distance and only stopping long enough to skid around a corner. Stopping a huge pile of rubble he could hear Nick on the other side it of it.. close enough to catch on to the other man's wails but still pretty far away. So with a quick tense of the muscles in his legs Ellis lunged forward, letting out a warning screech as he latched on to a piece of concrete near the top and lunged again clearing the distance and landing with a quiet thud. Perking his head up, the glowing yellow eyes were unblinking as he listened, training his ears on his lover and taking off again at a breakneck speed in that direction. Getting across the destroyed bridge in a matter of seconds and sliding down the river bank to get to the area below it.
That was where he found Nick, legs covered with the once white pants were crossed and elbows resting on his knees, his hunched back covered by the remains of his blue dress shirt. His face was hidden behind hands that sported the long claws of his kind.. but didn't muffle the sounds of the wails tearing from his throat at all. It wasn't just a normal wail, Ellis had learned to tell the difference, this was more high pitched and the kind of sound he only heard when they were separated. It told him that Nick was alone and upset and missed him.. and now that he was here Ellis was going to make the heartbreakingly sad noise stop.
Crawling across the ground the former mechanic let out a low rumble to let his love know he was there, and that was when the head lifted up, and the glow of Nick's red eyes met his yellow ones.. and Ellis sprang forward, tackling his sweetheart successfully knocking him over and giving his cheek an apologetic lick. Which earned an angry cry from Nick and the feeling of those strong muscles use every bit of it's force to push Ellis off the older man and send him flying back, hanging in the air for just a second before rolling across the ground and landing in the water. Which was perfectly fine since the hick surfaced a second later with his hat in his mouth.
Spitting the hat out he plopped it back on his head and crawled back onto shore, laying down beside Nick and curling up with a little whine to tell Nick he really was sorry and his little trip hadn't hurt him. But Nick had already straightened up and went back to his previous position so he could resume to 'crying' this time the tone being that of a normal witch cry, and to Ellis was just telling survivors to stay the fuck away from them. Not that they were ever bothered by survivors anyway, very few made it this far into New Orleans.. and even fewer dared to tangle with a witch.. or the hunter they could hear growling out it's warning close by.
Closing his eyes, Ellis tried to get the closest thing he got to sleep he'd ever gotten since turning. It wasn't even sleep.. it was more like shutting his eyes, and letting bits of his human life come back to him from somewhere deep down in his subconscious. Hunter Ellis didn't know what to call this, but if he had still been a human, it probably would be classified dreaming.. or just remembering.. he wasn't sure and his rotting brain wouldn't put that much effort into it. Whatever it was, he almost looked forward to it every night. It let him feel things he never felt when alert, the zombie in him locking away a lot of his human emotions along with everything else.
Tonight it seemed he was remembering how they had turned in the first place. It had been an accident really, Nick had pushed Ellis out of the way to avoid an attack and had gotten bitten somehow. At first Nick just wanted them to shoot him right then and there, but when they refused to he just got mad and ran off, Ellis had chased after him.. and they suffered through his turning together while Coach and Ro moved on. It was when Nick was almost done changing that Ellis came to him in the corner, holding one of the hands that was still painfully growing those long claws, and looking into the reddening eyes and told Nick that he wanted him to bite him so he could change too and stay with him. Even cracked a joke by saying Nick would never make as a zombie without him.
Nick had refused of course, but he didn't have a whole lot of will power left so with enough begging Ellis had gotten him to agree to it. The bite had burned and the transformation was too painful for words, but when he had become a zombie, his sense of loyalty and undying love to Nick had stayed with him.. and Nick's love for Ellis had remained as well. So it was that they left their little convenience store hide out and started to stumble through New Orleans.. not sure where they were going but feeling like they needed to keep moving. Which was probably another part of their human selves that transferred over, seeing as when they were living it was practically encoded in their DNA to keep moving so they wouldn't get stuck somewhere and live to fight another day.
He had just gotten to the part where they first tried to kiss each other as infected when he felt a hand on his shoulder, and 'woke up' to the dull glow of morning light and the sound of Nick's clothes rustling as he got up. Lifting himself up onto all fours Ellis gave his equivalent of a yawn and stretched his long arms out in front of him. Time to get moving before something found them.
