Ellis sat against a building holding his side; warm blood slowly trickling out of his fresh wound. It was quiet, something that scared the Georgian. He held onto his gun, lightly placing his finger upon the trigger, flexing against it. The sun sat at midday and was hot against the survivor's body. Sweat streaked out from under Ellis's hat and he let go of his side to wipe it away. He attempted to move slightly but his side screamed out in pain and he quickly flew his hand to the gash.

"God damn," he muttered

He'd lost his med kit a while ago after a hunter had leapt onto his back, yanking him to the ground. The pounce had caused Coach to stumble back and lose his footing. The steep slope had taken Coach by surprise and he slipped down the hill taking Rochelle with him. The two of them had tumbled down the traverse and were forced down the creek away from Nick and Ellis. That was the other thing, Nick had disappeared. He'd promised to come back with supplies, but since it was already noon or so Nick had been gone since late last night. At this point it was fairly obvious to the mechanic he was not coming back. Ellis pushed on his injury attempting to keep the bleeding under control. Where we're they? Ellis thought. It wasn't like Coach to leave him for this long, or Rochelle... .Nick wasn't a surprise; he hadn't exactly seemed pleased to discover it was Ellis he'd pulled the hunter off of.

In the distance Ellis heard the noise of the horde; he glanced up the building as it was echoing from the highway. He pulled his gun up off the ground readying himself for an attack. Gunshot cut through the air quickly, breaking some of the noise. Ellis scrambled to his feet hardly thinking of his wound and staggered towards the hotel parking lot. He painfully brought his hand from his side to support the shaft of his gun. Searching for the source of the noise he spotted someone moving. Far off on one of the overpasses, Ellis, saw a young woman shooting her way through a small horde. She was pushing them back and then discharging her gun on them.

"HEY!" Ellis hollered waving his arm far over his head despite his injury.

He took aim and continued to shoot the horde from her, allowing her to escape. The girl scampered down the hill and pushed herself through an opening in the fence. She fell as soon as her last foot got through but didn't stop moving. Turning onto her back she pulled out her pistol and fired at the last infected. Ellis came to her side and took her around the waist heaving her up off the ground.

"Thanks," she quickly sparked as the final enemy ceased twitching and lay dead upon the ground.

She pushed her long hair out her face and swiped the back of her hand against her bloody forehead. Ellis took a better look at this young woman; she looked about his age, her body was firm... a jealousy an older woman would have held. However her body was an enjoyment to a male of any age. Her chest seemed to struggle slightly against her collared shirt, they didn't threaten the buttons as much as a well endowed woman would have, but they were larger none the less. Ellis caught himself staring a little too long at her ample delights and quickly pulled his attention to her face. Her features wore in a heart shape with green eyes, her mouth pulled in a pout and she was in need of sleep.

"Hi," She interrupted his gazing feast.

Ellis glanced back into her dark green eyes and soon found himself spinning. His side reminded him of what had happened the night before. He stumbled back and dropped his gun. The woman reached out grabbing him by shoulders; but Ellis's muscular body pushed against her arms and he slumped down against the office of the hotel.

"Damn," he muttered; losing his grip against his torso.

Ellis awoke slowly, his eyelids pulling back and revealing a dark room. He tried to sit up but his head spun and he lay back down. The woman rolled in her sleep beside him; he shuffled away from her quickly, he was taken aback. Her body lay almost motionless once she was settled. Ellis reached down to his side and discovered a bandage wound tightly against his injury. He sat up slowly pushing the sleeping bag away from his body; his throat quenching for water.

"Oh," The woman sighed, "I didn't realize you were awake."

Ellis turned slowly, he saw her sit up from the bed and rub her arms. She rolled over and pulled something up from the other side of the bed.

"Here," she said holding out a small bottle of water, "I tried to get as much of these in you before you completely passed out."

Ellis took the bottle; unscrewing the cap rapidly and drank. He didn't remember her doing anything other than grabbing him as he fell. He had been brought to a room, possibly the hotel keeper's room, but had she carried him? Her arms were toned, but Ellis was 190 lbs of muscle.

"Uh, thank you," Ellis fumbled after a few moments of silence, "My name's Ellis."

"Hailey," she said holding out her hand.

He smiled and took the hand, shaking it with a firm grip; testing to see if she was strong enough to lift him. Her hand clasped his almost as hard as he had.

"Nice grip," he replied slightly flexing his hand, "How'd you find yer self in the zombie apocalypse?"

"I was on my way to whispering oaks, I got through the highway before they started closing it down," she paused and circled her wrist with her other hand, tightly wrapping the fingers around for support, "People started getting out of their cars and running away from each other but it began to spread," her eyes stared out in front of her, "I locked my door and hid in the back seat, under a blanket. The screaming just wouldn't stop, and then... somebody opened broke my car's window," her voice began to lower, "They tried to bit me, and before I knew it I was hurting this person, I was doing anything to kill them. More came and I left my car. I began to fight them off, but I stumbled down a hill and hurt my leg," she seemed to pause again, editing out some of the story, "I managed to hide from them for a day, and made it back to my car when night time came. That was five days ago."

"How long have I been here," Ellis asked.

"A night," she replied, her eyes still gave away that she needed sleep, "I think we should keep moving."

"Definitely," Ellis agreed, "I have some friends who went on ahead."

"There are other survivors?" She asked, her voice lighten by the news.

"Yessum, and they'll be glad to see us alive."

Ellis knew he was going to have to trust her; he needed her to find his way back to Coach and Rochelle. He didn't know where Nick was, but he knew he didn't care.

A/N: So I'm planning to write more, I just wanted to get this up. I wrote it a few weeks ago and even though I'm planning on continuing, I'm not sure if people will like it. I guess you could say this is a pilot for my story. Please Review : )