A/N:

I recently became OBSESSED with L4D2 and Ellis is just my baby, my boo, my king, etc. As such, I began to wonder if Keith was actually real. I spammed Twitter with my thoughts about it and a friend said she wanted Keith to be a playable character in L4D3 and she wanted him to tell Ellis stories. The pure bromance of the situation made my heart explode in joy and before I knew it I was writing this. I guess it became more of a short version of Keith's adventures and less about Ellis stories but I'm happy with it anyway. I might make a series about this survivor group since I really like them and the friend who inspired this said she'd like to see more of them.

Fun fact: Pages thinks that when I said butt-fucking I meant boot-licking? ***~The More You Know~***

They're in their garage and Keith is sitting on the work bench while Ellis tinkers around under the hood of his truck. Dave is missing yet again, a couple days late from his trip to see his girl in Virginia but they figure he's just spending more time with her.

"So you're makin' a zombie-proof truck 'cause-"

"'Cause the zombies are comin'!" Ellis' voice is muffled but becomes clearer as he rises from the jungle that is his engine and steps back, tilting his hat back with a satisfied smile.

"How do y' know the zombies are comin'?" He doesn't say it patronizingly- instead, he's curious. Things might be plenty exciting as is, but zombies! That'd just blow their normal lives outta the water.

"You know my uncle Jim? Lives down south 'bout an hour? He called Mama and told her there was zombies! She didn't believe him but she told me anyway. So I'm preparin'! Way I see it, my truck's about 99% zombie proof now." He looks at Keith, his brow furrowed in concentration. "You think that's enough?"

"Fer sure." Keith hops off the bench and walks over to clap his friend on the back. "Ain't like that last 1% is gonna tear it to shit, right?"

Ellis laughs at that, and he initiates their handshake. It's long and complicated and involves a lighter and screaming. Ellis tried to patent it once, since "The dude who invented the high five didn't do it and now everybody's high-fivin' and he ain't makin' nothin' off it!"

But that's another story.

This is the story of the last time Keith saw Ellis before the zombies came.

Soon after the handshake ends and as they're wiping the soot of their faces, the phone rings. Keith answers while Ellis slams the hood of his truck closed.

It's Paul, one of his brothers (or so he says, Keith has trouble remembering Paul since that one time he three pounds of raw chicken). Something about the raccoon fights getting out of hand. Keith heaves a sigh and hangs up. Such is the life of an entrepreneur. He tells Ellis that he has to go and Ellis tells him good luck.

The last thing Keith remembers about Ellis is that he was wearing his dog-old shirt he got when they were still in high school. Ellis swears it's lucky but every time he wears it he gets something over 90% of his body, be it bruises, cow shit, or lipstick. Maybe it is lucky, Keith thinks as he closes the door to the shop, since nothing ever gets on the shirt itself.

Keith goes home, sorts out the raccoons, and is promptly leapt on by some sort of crazy zombie that looks like a mutated monkey. It leads him straight into the fence before Ricky shoots it.

Ricky and Paul turn soon after. Keith shoots them both and runs to the high school, which currently doubles the nearest evac center. There is no evacuation anymore, but there are three other survivors who are just as infection-free as he is. There's Dolly, the prettiest southern belle Keith's ever seen. She seems sweet enough but Keith revises his opinion after seeing her with a chainsaw. There's also Michael, a cop attempting to find his son. Lastly, there's Jacob, a teenage rebel who seems to find everything "mainstream" and regards Michael with a kind of respectful dislike. They aren't the people Keith thought he'd be spending the zombie apocalypse with but he makes do.

To be honest, he thought he was going to be with Ellis and Dave and Dave's girl when it went down. It doesn't take him long to realize that Dave and his girl were probably either dead or undead long before the zombies ever hit Savannah.

And Ellis? Ellis is certainly (probably, hopefully, dear god please let him be) okay. He has his zombie-proof truck and Keith knows he's smart.

But he's still worried.

Ellis is more than his best friend- he's family. Keith never liked his family much, so he spent a lot of time with Ellis and his mama and daddy. Ellis is the brother he actually likes. Ellis is, in all likelihood, the only family he has left in the whole world. When Keith's shooting zombies or running from a Tank or staring at the ceiling of a safe house when he should be sleeping, he remembers all the crazy shit he and Ellis have done together. He remembers the lucky shirt.

Sometimes, his worry and his remembering get to be too much to keep inside, and he opens his mouth.

"You know, this reminds me of the time my buddy Ellis and I-"

At which point he's usually cut off by Dolly or Jacob. Michael seems fine with letting him continue, probably because he says Keith reminds him of his son. He even asks questions about Keith when they hold watch together. Together, he and Michael form a solid friendship and Keith reevaluates everything he ever thought about cops.

Keith gets along fine with Dolly, even if she can be prickly at times. He sees her cry, once, and hugs her while she sobs over the boy she had been about to marry. Dolly wakes him up when he tosses in his sleep and strokes his hair until he sleeps with no dreams of his brothers' blood or Ellis lying dead in the street.

Jacob once implied that Keith and Ellis were "butt-fucking" based on the fact that all of Keith's stories are about Ellis. Keith doesn't like him too much for that but they have each other's backs. Jacob reminds Keith of a younger Dave, only brattier. Normally, he would tease Jacob more or make fun of him, but once he makes the connection to Dave it seems wrong. He doesn't like Jacob, but he feels protective of him anyway. Maybe he's, like, Dave reincarnated. That would be so cool- like Dave never di-

When he figures that out, he tells himself needs to tell Ellis about his theory when (if) he finds Ellis again.

They're headed to New Orleans. Dolly says that's where her big brother had said he was going before he split. When she shares that information, her voice shakes. Keith grips her shoulder because he gets it. He really does.

He hopes Ellis is heading out there too. That way they'd meet and he'd at least know.

The not knowing, as any of the survivors could tell you, is the worst.

Once someone was dead and you knew it, you could mourn, move on. But if you didn't know, you still hoped.

Hope is a killer.

But because of hope, they head west.

Keith and Jacob both know a thing or two about hot-wiring cars, so for a while they hop from car to car until they hit a pile-up.

"Is that Jimmy Gibbs Junior's car? Hot damn!"

"Jimmy what now?" Dolly's lips purse and she settles her hunting rifle on her hip as she waits for an explanation.

"He's the best human bein' alive!" Keith pauses. "Well I dunno if he's still alive, but shit! This is the coolest thing since this time my buddy Ellis-"

This time, Keith stops himself. The other survivors wait for him to continue with puzzled expressions.

"I remember Jimmy Gibbs Junior was gonna be at the mall with his car. And the closest evac center to my shop was the mall. Maybe-" Keith feels his spirits rise and he beams at his companions. "Maybe Ellis drove out here! That'd be just like him!" Keith can't resist running to the car and caressing the hood. "Damn, my best friend drivin' Jimmy Gibbs Junior's own stock car. Don't that beat all."

Jacob snorts disdainfully behind him, but that doesn't bother Keith one bit. In his mind, there's no doubt that Ellis drove this car, which meant that not only is he alive but he's heading to New Orleans.

"Keith, darlin'?" Dolly's (tiny, tiny, too delicate for such a harsh situation) hand rests on his shoulder. "We need to get a move on."

"I don't think we should go through Screaming Oaks." Michael comes up on Keith's other side, one hand on his shotgun and the other shading his eyes from the sun. "There's a lot of loud things to attract attention and I bet a lot of people were there when the infection hit, which means a lot of zombies. It'll be safer to go through or over the cars until we hit open road again."

Keith nods in agreement and re-loads his ammo from a stash near the trunk of the stock car. He looks up to see Jacob scramble on top of a white SUV to look around.

"Looks safe as it's going to be."

Dolly snaps the safety off of her gun.

"Let's mosey on then."

The cars go on for a long time but they manage to get out by the end of the day. They make it into a safe house and lock up for the night. Keith, wired up on a shot of adrenaline and pure hope, takes the first watch alone.

After an hour, Jacob sits next to him. They sit in silence for five minutes until Jacob speaks.

"You really think that friend of yours survived?"

Keith shoots him a glance but doesn't see any of the normal malice in his face.

"Heck yeah I do. Ellis is even smarter than me, and he was prepared. If anyone could survive, it'd be him."

Jacob nods but doesn't say anything else for a long while.

Then-

"I don't think I have anyone else left."

That hits Keith in the heart like a Tank's fist.

"Hey now, that ain't true."

Jacob looks completely baffled and Keith suddenly remembers how young the kid next to him is. Seventeen is awfully young to lose everything.

"You got us now, don't ya?"

Jacob looks doubtful but gives a little smile anyway.

"I guess."

Keith scoffs. He guesses? But he smiles back.

They don't say anything else for the rest of Keith's watch, but when Jacob falls asleep against his shoulder, Keith puts his arm around him.

Yeah. They all have each other now.

Keith gets really sick. For some reason, Hunters and Witches are attracted to him above everyone else. One time, he gets the shit mauled out of him when he gets both at once. God knows where those claws have been. Michael tries his best to clean his cuts out but it isn't enough. Keith gets a fever and he has the weird fever dreams that come with it. Michael's son apparently got an infection from stepping on a nail once so he knows what to do. It isn't a perfect solution but they stuff him full of pills and water and settle down for a couple days. God knows they all need the break.

In his dreams, Keith apparently says a lot of things he doesn't remember. He says he's sorry to his brothers, says he's sorry to Dave, tells Ellis he's coming for him. He has nightmares about being alone in the middle of a field of special infected, he has nightmares about being alone in general.

It's terrifying, when he gets to the other side of it, to hear all these things from Dolly and Michael. He didn't realize how badly this has affected him. He thought this was an adventure, but he realizes he's scared. He's scared of what he lost, what he could lose, and what he will lose.

He's scared of losing the rest of these survivors, the only people he has around him anymore.

After they tell him about his nightmares, no one ever mentions them again. He loves them for it.

But they remember that he's afraid, and they do little things to remind him they're all in this together. They make sure he knows he'll never be alone. He loves them even more for that.

They're almost to New Orleans when Keith realizes Ellis isn't the only family he has left anymore.

Dolly grew up in New Orleans, so she knows where to go when they see signs for the evac center.

It also means she knows some of the people they find, either as zombies or as bodies shot down by a scared government.

Whenever she sees another face she knows, Keith protects her. He holds her hand and pulls her away or he shoots before she has to.

They got Keith through his fear, they got Jacob through his loneliness, and they get Dolly through the pain.

When they find Michael's son and daughter-in-law dead in an abandoned apartment building, they get him away from there as well.

The next time they find breathing room, Keith hugs Michael and lets him dry sob into his shoulder.

"We're almost there, Mike. We're gonna be just fine. And if you want a son, I don't got no parents no more. I'd say we're a matchin' set." It's supposed to be a joke and Michael laughs but when they pull away from each other, he's searching Keith's face for...something. Confirmation, affection, a hint of seriousness maybe.

"Kid," and when he speaks it's quiet, which says a lot about a man who's normally soft-spoken, "I already got a son, and you've already got a dad. Don't need to go adopting you when you're already here."

Keith doesn't say a word but when he smiles it's the biggest grin he's had since he saw Jimmy Gibb's car and knew that he'd see Ellis again.

"Go go go go go!" Dolly screams before lobbing a pipe bomb behind them and bringing up the rear. Keith is up front, running over the bridge to the last helicopter to leave New Orleans. His submachine gun is ripping apart every thing in front of him and he feels sick with anticipation and he's shaking with the rush of life or death. The pilot said there were already four people on board and Keith struggles to push hopeful thoughts of Ellis out of his head. He can't afford to slip up, not now, not with everything on the line.

A Charger roars in front of him and Keith whips out a boomer bomb and lobs it. He ducks and rolls to the side to avoid both the Charger and the bomb as it explodes, then grabs Jacob by the wrist to lead him around the other infected ripping the Charger to pieces. Jacob grabs Michael who grabs Dolly and they're running faster than they ever have.

"Get to the chopper!" Keith lets go of Jacob and pushes him ahead, turning around to the sound of a Hunter's shrieks. He takes the brunt of it but manages to shove his pistol into the Hunter's mouth and fire.

When Keith stands again, his friends are climbing into the chopper and he's covered in scratches. He thinks that move he just did was about the coolest thing he's ever done, and that's including the one time he dodged roller coaster carts for twenty minutes. He sprints to the chopper, ignoring the throbbing of his chest and left leg, and is hauled up into it just as the pilot lifts up into the air.

Dolly begins to cuss him out for being a "goddamn witless hick with a hero complex" and he starts to respond but stops when he sees the other passengers.

"Aw shit, Ellis? Ellis!"

And he starts to ramble, saying "no way" and "Ellis Ellis Ellis Ellis" over and over right as Ellis says "Keith, are you shitting me, Keith Keith Keith man I can't believe it's you" and it's really embarrassing but doubly so because Ellis has tears running down his face and Keith is pretty sure he does too.

They scramble into a hug and it's the best thing that has ever happened to Keith in his whole life. He hears Jacob say "Wait, Ellis is a real person?" and there's a man in a white suit that says to the woman next to him that "Just because he isn't an imaginary friend doesn't mean he did all the shit Overalls says he did." and Keith laughs while he's crying because not only have they become the heroes of their own zombie story, but they have become the stuff of legends to people who didn't think they weren't real. It's all they wanted when they were kids. They lost everything and gained it all back again, if only in a different way.

When they stop squeezing the heck out of each other and wipe their eyes, Keith introduces Ellis to his new family: "Michael is a cop but he's pretty awesome and he sort of adopted me and Dolly is the scariest woman I know and she's really good at Go Fish and Jacob is a brat but I like him anyway-" and Ellis introduces Keith to his: "Coach is really cool and he has the awesomest ideas ever and he likes the Midnight Riders and Ro is really smart and she's gonna write a book someday and she took a Tank down on her own once and I'm pretty sure Nick killed a dude once but damn he can shoot, and he's kind of an asshole-" and Keith clutches to the back of Ellis's lucky shirt while Ellis has a death grip on his shoulder.

It's a while later, when everyone is asleep but Ellis and Keith and they're swapping stories about what's happened since they left each other when Keith finally asks the question he's been saving for two weeks.

"So Ellis. I found Jimmy Gibbs Junior's stock car. Was it you that drove it out to Screaming Oaks?"

The brightest smile Keith has ever seen splits across Ellis' face and Keith knows that this is the perfect moment. This is what he's going to tell his kids about, years from now when this is all a fuzzy memory. He's going to tell his kids about the time Uncle Ellis drove the best human being's stock car through hoards of zombies and Ellis is going to tell his kids about the time Uncle Keith saved his team by taking down a Charger and then killed a Hunter by letting it attack him and then blowing its head off.

"Hey kids, did I ever tell you about the time Uncle-"

and in that perfect moment Keith knows it was all worth it. The losing and gaining again, the fever and the bruises and the tears and the death, because in the end everything was okay.

Yeah, he thinks as he drifts off to sleep with Ellis' head on his shoulder and his head on Ellis', everything turned out okay.