The bullet in his shoulder continued to grind against the bone. Throwing Luke inside with both hands stung, but there was no other way he could have done it. If Luke had had his way then they'd all be going together, but Nick couldn't let that happen. Sarah couldn't make it through all of these lurkers. Her only chance was to stay put. And she couldn't stay alone, so someone had to be with her.
It was just logical. Luke was beaten to shit, but Nick had been shot. He was bleeding out, no doubt about that, and if the worst came to pass and he was alone with Sarah…
No. He wouldn't get anyone else killed. He was done fucking up.
Okay, you assholes, he thought to himself as the walkers closed in, Just follow me.
He fired a round into the horde. "Yeah, you heard that! C'mon, this way!" He dove through a gap between two trailers over to his left and kept firing the gun as he squeezed through the narrow space. The bulk of the group surged toward him. "This way, motherfuckers! That's right, over here!" Fuck me, it's working. Realizing that the undead were drawing closer to him all around he hurried himself through, emerging from the constricting space between the trailers and into the open near the trailer park's fence and the opening.
He fired into the air twice more. "I said this way you stupid shits!" His heart slammed against his chest as he spun to make his way through the gap in the fence, amazed that he had somehow come through without a scratch when his heart skipped a beat. Then another.
They were drifting back toward Luke and Sarah.
Through the tinning group of them he glimpsed the gap in the fence. Sarah's howling was drawing the walkers away from him. He had a clean shot at escaping. At the cost of his friends' lives.
He checked his watch. He wasn't concerned with the time though. He was thinking to himself.
What would Pete do?
That was an easy question. Nick took a deep breath and prepared himself.
"Motherfuckers!" Nick began to unload into the crowd. He picked his shots carefully. With each shot he saw a lurker go down, and each time his gun thundered he saw more of their decayed faces turn away from Luke and Sarah's trailer. "You want me! Not them! Come on!" He fired again and again. "Over here! That's right, fuck you, I'm right here!"
Finally his weapon made a clicking noise as they bore down on him, only feet away. His bullets were spent.
And so was he. But he wouldn't stop trying.
Nick jumped to the left, trying to get away from the horde and to the gap in the fence but he felt several sets of cold fingers latch onto his leg and pull him down.
The teeth cleaved through his flesh all over as half a dozen of them tore into him. Everything was on fire as he punched, kicked, and shoved his way out from under them. Everything became a blur. He grabbed something solid, metal, and swung. Swung over and over again from under the lurkers as they tried to keep him down. Blood flew, the sickening whacks of his pipe against their skulls sand through the morning air as he tried to pull himself out from under them. Jagged bolts of pain shot through him each time he felt the lurkers bite into him, but he didn't stop swinging. He isolated the agony of his wounds in his mind and pushed it away, ignoring the pain like Pete had taught him to when he was young. Clenching his teeth, he kept swinging even as an unnatural coolness settled in his bones. The weighty pipe in his grasp was the only other thing he could feel as he gave a last heavy swing and crushed the skull of the final walker in the group that had caught him.
Nick pulled himself out from under the pile of now truly dead corpses, leaving dark stains in the dirt as his eyes located the gap in the fence he and Luke had crawled through. His legs were useless now. As dead as the walkers that had pulled him down. He could feel the liquid heat of the pain pour back into him moment by moment as he waited for the rest of them to catch up to him.
But they didn't. They were dispersing. Some, the closest to his friends, drifted back toward the trailer, but most of them… most of them began to wander off.
They were leaving. Settling back into trailers or the corners of the park. I guess Luke managed to calm Sarah, least a little…
He did it. They were safe. At least for the moment.
"Help…" he groaned. ""Gotta find… help… for Sarah… Luke…"
Then the pain washed over him like a hurricane. It was in every joint, every pore of his being. He could feel the bites now, so many of them, all over, the sickness working its way into his system and through his body like a spindly tendril of evil wrapped around his insides.
But he couldn't stop now. He couldn't stand either, but he said he'd get help for them.
So he crawled. The gap in the fence was just ahead. His vision started to go black but he kept the darkness at bay as he clawed his way through the dirt.
Almost… there…
He was cold. And tired. He wanted to sleep.
No… sleeping… have to find… others…
His body begged him to stop. A voice in the back of his mind told him it was okay to give up, but he tried not to listen.
Get a move on, you lazy asshole, he cursed at himself. Go on, you're burnin' daylight. Gotta move faster… gotta find help...
He couldn't feel the bullet in his shoulder anymore. The darkness at the edge of his vision tightened its hold on him.
Fuck, this hurts… just a little further… The smooth metal links of the fence were in his hands now.
Is this how it felt for you, Pete? He couldn't be at Pete's side when his uncle died. He couldn't help but wonder what that old man would have thought of this, thought of him. Would you be proud, Uncle Pete? Or would you just shake your head like you always did? Christ, I can't feel anything…
His arm was snagged. With a feeble tug he tried to pull it off the fence but it wouldn't budge. He dragged himself closer with the last of his strength. He sagged before he could try to free his arm again as he expended the last of his energy. His body was numb. The feeling had left him as lay there in the fence, shredded and bleeding out the last of his life.
You know… this isn't the worst place. He was still so tired. His eyelids drooped and everything went black.
I'll just… rest… yeah… I'll keep going… when I… wake up…
A gruff and hauntingly familiar voice echoed up from within the endless chasm that he could see beckoning to him in his mind. The words were just as biting and disappointed as they had been at the side of that river not so long ago, the final words his uncle had ever said to him.
"You gotta grow up, son."
The last of his breath left his body and he began to drift away. With one final, fleeting thought on his mind he took his final steps into the unknown.
I tried... Uncle Pete… I... tried…
