Hero
Almost every night since their meeting at the hotel, Nick and Rochelle talked of things that excluded complaining and the infected outbreak. She wasn't sure how the habit started. Maybe it was just out of friendship and it naturally happened, or because Nick initiated it, which would have been a surprise. He didn't do this with Coach or Ellis exceedingly; it was mostly with her.
The first night, their conversations were short and stoic. Few words were said, no stories were shared, and their talks consisted solely of checking up on each other's well being out of manners. As the nights passed, the two spoke more words and their chats grew longer. The time passed was proportional to the length and depth of their conversations. Their nightly exchanges grew more uplifting and heartfelt and somehow simultaneously more immature and mature. The apocalypse became somehow bearable when it should have been most fearful at night.
So why was this memory arising up at a time like this?
Rochelle's adrenaline pumped as she sprinted with Nick away from decaying shrieks. They got separated from Ellis and Coach and much to their luck, a large portion of the horde was on their tail. Her ammunition was low along with her energy. It felt like someone was trying to rip her heart from her chest. They've never exerted this much energy before.
"Rochelle!" Nick grabbed her wrist and yanked her to the side. A charger skimmed her shoulder as it rocketed into the distance.
"God damn it," she groaned and tripped over every other step in attempt to keep up with the conman. Her left leg was freshly wounded from a pair of hunters earlier, a sight that Ellis almost vomited at due to the flesh they ripped open and off. Rochelle avoided looking at its beating pain.
It's alright, it's alright, it's alright, it's alright, it's alright…
She heard the cry of the charger again and turned her neck to find it charging from behind her and Nick. Nick didn't seem to notice, too occupied with shooting a group of infected ahead with his only pistol. He had to concentrate and with one of his ears bleeding, she couldn't blame him.
There was only one thing she could do with her dying energy. Rochelle mustered the last of her strength and ripped her wrist from Nick. She met his pace, shoved him out of the way, and was soon impacted with a large arm.
For a split second, her eyes met Nick. Never before had she seen a genuine fear in his eyes as the charger stole her away from him. Like every other moment in the apocalypse, he must have had the thought of "we're safe and fine" looping in his head. He never saw this coming at all. If she hadn't of pushed him, the charger could have gotten them both. One was better than two, in this case.
As with earlier, Rochelle thought back to all the conversations the two shared, but one resonated with her in particular.
"Why won't you let me help you?" Rochelle pestered Nick during one of his watch shifts. "Your abdomen is a bloody mess."
"It's a waste. Save it for someone who needs it," Nick replied.
"Yeah, and now you need it." Rochelle opened the first aid kit and took out a bottle of alcohol. "We need to disinfect it."
"Use it on yourself, sweetheart." He nodded at her. "Your arms look like shit. If I didn't know any better, I'd think that swamp water would have some sort of bacteria that got into your wound. At least I was attacked on dry land."
"Then let's share it."
Nick frowned as she proceeded to disinfect his wound. She rubbed it on with her hands since they had no towels or cloths of any kind. He hissed loudly.
"Christ."
"Why do you think this is happening? The outbreak?"
"Hell if I knew."
"Do you think it's because of sin? Or something we did, rather."
He chuckled, but his face was still contorted in some pain. "Sounds like something Coach would say."
"I figured."
The two were silent until Rochelle spoke up, "We need to be faithful with each other."
"What?"
She wiped some of his blood off with her hand and onto one of her pant legs, "I don't care how selfish you might be, we need to depend on each other." She took some bandages from the kit and began to wrap them around his lower torso. "If you don't tell us about getting hurt like this, it's like cheating."
He let out a heavy breath from her touching his open flesh. "Cheating?"
"Yeah." She finished the bandaging and stood up to look at Nick. "Be honest with us. It's not right to keep from us if you're hurt like this."
Nick smirked. "Fine."
"No one's got it all, Nick."
He scoffed, "Maybe that's why this whole thing is happening. Thatthatis why we've been put in a situation like this. A sin of thinking we've got it all."
She smiled. "Then learn from it since you've recognized it."
"Maybe." Nick took her chin between his thumb and index finger and tilted her face up to look at him. "We're all the heroes of this story. We think we don't need to be saved in our time of crisis."
"Bullshit."
"I bet you think it too at times, sweetheart." He kissed her gently on the forehead. "It took years and years to learn that. We feel invincible. We lie to ourselves that we are. We try and believe it to make it through the day because reality is too fucking bad. But in the end, we're heroes to each other. We're little fucking kids, aren't we?"
And how immature she felt at this moment. She thought they could get away safely, but no. Two of them got separated, one of them was left alone, and now she was pinned by a charger. Was she, too, overconfident?
The charger pummeled her into the ground, again, and again, and again, and with every pound, she continuously thought she would be okay and that she was alright, that she would be safe and could get herself out of this.
What a load of bullshit.
She understood where Nick was coming from now. The constant need to deny anything and everything that was threatening and also deny that they, the hero, were in pain and needed help.
She had to start taking her own advice and have faith the others would save her.
They were her heroes. She was theirs. They had each other's back. They were family. They all needed it. They all had it. They all could make it so long as they had each other. They had to have confidence in not only themselves, but each other.
She heard gunshots and saw blood spout from the Charger's small face. Rochelle felt its body go limp. It collapsed, and Rochelle was filled with relief and physical agony. She couldn't hear any of the hordes.
Before she knew it, Nick was helping her up. He slung one of her arms over his neck and began walking to where they saw Ellis and Coach last. The area seemed to be clear.
"Thank you," she managed to say.
He smiled genuinely. "No one's got it all, right?"
She smiled, "Right."
Thanks for reading! I wrote this last year, but edited it a little and decided to upload it on here. Swans gave me a pairing and the song Hero started to play. You can find some of the lyrics woven in with the words ehehe.
-tofu