And as miserable as life is right now, that tiny notch is worth a little sacrifice.
So yeah, when he heard how excited the kid got over fucking Kiddieland, part of Nick actually considered flipping the switch on the fucking tiny motorcycle carousel thing and covering for Ellis so he could go on a fucking ride. The /rest/ of him isn't retarded, so of course he didn't actually do it, but he figured maybe it'd make Overalls happy if he got one of the goddamn stuffed gators from the prize booths - he had some story about trying to win one as a kid and not making it - so yeah, he grabbed one. He was covering the rear, nobody noticed him taking it, he was just gonna toss it at Ellis when they got inside and get the whole thing over with.
He needed both hands and he didn't want anybody to turn around and see him hugging a goddamn fuzzy alligator, so he shoved it down the front of his jacket where it wouldn't get any blood on it and backed his way all the way to the safe room, stayed outside covering the hallway while everybody else piled in and checked the barricades. When Coach finally said something to him about getitng his ass inside he just stepped in backward and closed the door, shoved the barrel of his rifle out through the barred window. "I'm having fun here. You guys just go do whatever." He was /not/ giving the kid a toy in front of everybody.
He got nineteen of the zombie fuckers, straggling in down the hall like sleepwalkers, while he waited for the rest of the group to get their thumbs out of their asses and go to sleep or something. By the time Rochelle finally said "We're going to take a nap now. Goodnight, Nick," he had to race like a pisshorse. Fucking ridiculous.
So he hauled ass to the bathroom - just a toilet in a closet, the saferoom looked like it used to be a break room for the park employees and if this place was ever open again Nick was going to remember the lack of a sink in here and not touch a /single/ food item from the concessions stands - tossed the gator in a corner and got his pants unzipped, and just as he was having what was probably the most /stupidly satisfying/ urination of his entire life he heard Ellis outside going "Hot damn!"
He got business taken care of and picked the gator back up and stuck his head out the door - he wasn't even going to ask what the "hot damn" was about, he was just gonna say "Hey kid" and make the gator toss - and there was Ellis sitting in a goddamn cardboard box that was /full of the fucking things/.
"They musta been storin' 'em in here!" Ellis was kicking the front of the box out so he could sit in it like some kind of really short alligator armchair, and he was grinning like it was Christmas.
"Yeah, that's great, kid." Nick looked down at the gator in his hand - the gator that he'd fucking climbed up on a table to get and then carried around the damn park and fought off zombies to keep from getting bloody and that now looked as completely ridiculous as it actually was - and threw it across the room anyway, turning to find the bag of scavanged shit and dig up something to eat.
Ellis caught it and held it in his hands, sitting there in his Gator Throne, watching Nick scowl at the smiling face of Chef Boyardee on a tin can.
"Hey, Nick?"
He didn't even turn around. "What."
"Thanks, man."
Nick glanced over his shoulder just long enough to catch a glimpse of Ellis' smile.
"Yeah, whatever."
Ellis napped in the Gator Throne straight through until Coach and Rochelle decided they'd slept long enough and it was time to move on; and the whole time, he hugged the one Nick gave him like it was a teddy bear. Not that /Nick/ knew which one was which, or would've cared if he did. The point was that he was right: having the fucking alligators shut Ellis up. He didn't even bitch once about not getting a matching elephant when they passed another prize booth later. Life was just that one tiny notch less annoying. Shit was kind of alright. But he was not /ever/ getting that kid another stuffed animal.
And then Nick was tsundere.