Nick grabbed her wrist again, and pulled her down the walkway. She was tripping over her feet and trying to get him to notice he was moving too fast, but there was no luck. She looked over the banister of the second floor; She needed to know if anyone saw them so close together.
Unfortunately, she saw Ellis, but fortunately, his back was turned. He was looking at something...
She looked to the distant right, and noticed a huge poster. Some 'Jimmy Gibbs Jr. guy'.
Ellis spun around, wide-eyed. "Some Jimmy Gibbs Jr. guy? Girl, have you lost it!" He shouted that loud enough for everyone to hear a mile away. Jamie hadn't realized she'd said that aloud, but even so, how did he hear that from so far away?
All of a sudden, she heard yelling coming from the corridor ahead of her on the first floor. Coach shouted that a horde was coming, and that it was all Ellis and Jimmy Gibbs Jr.'s damn fault. He added a few more harsh words that aren't to be understood when yelled...
Nick rushed into a nearby gift shop, nudged Jamie behind him, and knelt on one knee. "Shoot over me. Try not to blow my head off."
She nodded, and waited for the horde to arrive. While she and Nick ripped through the zombies that came all the way to the second floor just for them, she watched over Ellis. He was by himself, since Coach had immediately ran to Rochelle's aid when the attack started. Together, they had gotten at least five of the gas cans, Ellis had two, and they had zero. Jamie could tell it was going to be hard to explain coming up empty handed...
Nick had gotten off his knee, grabbed her wrist, and started running toward the escalator. She wanted to ask him why he always felt the need to yank her around, but felt that now probably wouldn't be the time to stop and scoff at his cocky answer.
They ran down the escalator, with her wrist still in his hand. Ellis watched them every minute, switching focus from them back to his share of the horde. Every one of those minutes, he got more and more sure that Nick was competing with him. He just knew it; and he must've gained some advantage. Some advantage he didn't know about, one he only gained recently. Every time a zombie got within a whole six feet of Jamie, he blew it's head off.
"Would you let me feel useful, dammit?" she screamed from beside him, dropping her shotgun to her side.
"Shut it, and let daddy take care of you," he snickered, guiding her arm back around him.
Ellis was infuriated- he didn't care about anything else Nick did today, because that just pushed the line.
He picked up his gas cans, and ran over to the car. He started to fill the tank, and for some reason, Jamie thought the air between her and Ellis got tense. He was behind them, listening to everything Nick said. He wasn't normally a jealous guy, but this was ridiculous.
"Jamie! Could you go get the gas can over there?" Anything to get them separated, he told himself.
"Nope, sorry. She's too busy over here with me," Nick said, with his back turned.
Ellis was a little ticked with the sarcasm in his voice. He was angered with Nick for the first time, which Ellis thought was surprising enough on his own. Jamie rolled her eyes, and started running toward the gas can in the corner.
He watched her as she ran, making sure she got back ok. She picked it up, turned around, and made it safely back - none of the infected paid the slightest bit of attention to her. He noticed though, that there was small, odd shape on her body. She was rushing to get back over to the car, and her shirt had risen up just enough to see the bottom of it. As she got nearer, he saw that it was some sort of foreign word.
She stood next to him, pouring the gas in the tank, while he stared at her tattoo under her shirt. First he wondered what it meant, then he wondered why she wore that kind of shirt today, and finally, he decided he wanted to see what it looked like on her bare skin. He just would never say that aloud.
"What's that tattoo mean?" he blurted out.
"It's just the word love in Latin. You know, one of those tattoos you get as soon as you turn eighteen... one of those tattoos that you don't really think about," she answered, bending over to get the next can into the tank.
"...Oh..." he said, returning focus to the horde. After that, he looked a bit dejected. She studied his eyes from the side, wondering why he suddenly lost interest. After perfecting her 'man brain' concentration, she understood.
Latin for love? It means I was someone else's lover, and we were very serious about each other.
...A turn-off.
She knew for a fact that she'd never been in love before, and if she had, she hadn't realized it. Suddenly, she regretted answering without thinking...
"I've never been in love before. This tattoo is kind of ironic, isn't it?" she asked, hoping to dismiss his assumption.
He turned his head to her, still popping off zombies with little effort. "Yeah, for a second there, I thought you were gonna tell me you were married," he laughed.
The ground started to shake, interrupting Ellis' chance to find out if she'd ever get married.
"Shit! Everybody get in the fuckin' car already!" Nick screamed.
Something big, scary and angry was coming for them. It'd burst out of a toy store. Probably one of the kids who didn't get a mega buster for Christmas.
Ellis wanted to make sure Jamie sat up front with him to avoid any shenanigans, so he reached across the passenger seat and tugged on her shirt while she was getting in.
"Oh come the fuck on, Ellis! We don't have time for this," Nick shouted from behind Jamie.
He grabbed her by the waist and pushed her into the back seat, making Ellis' heart drop a little. Rochelle followed behind Nick, and Coach hurried into the front seat. Both of the car doors were pulled closed at the same time. Ellis slammed hard on the gas, ignoring the thundering roar behind them as they took off through the glass entrance.
Ellis hadn't noticed until he checked his rear view mirror, but Jamie was sitting between Nick's legs.
It wasn't entirely Nick's doing, though. The back seat was only supposed to hold two people. He told himself it was better than her sitting on his lap, fondling her and whispering sweet nothings into her ear...
She wasn't leaning back, and he wasn't trying to get too close. He had his hands behind his head, while she leaned forward onto the back of the driver's seat. Neither of them were necessarily enjoying it.
...
Or maybe they were?
Either way, he dismissed the thought.
Hours had passed, and everyone was starting to fall asleep under the AC. Rochelle had finally given in, after trying to focus on the repetitive, blurring scenery for two hours. Coach was snoring, but not loud enough to disturb anyone. A peaceful sort-of silence swept over the five, entering them into the perfect state of relaxation. Jamie really didn't want to be tired, because Nick was already asleep. If she fell asleep, she wouldn't be in control. If she wasn't in control, neither was he, and something weird would happen.
She scooted forward, resting her chin on the shoulder of the driver's seat. She put a hand on Ellis' shoulder; he jumped a little.
"Hey El, are you tired?"
"Uh...yeah, k-k-kind of..." he stammered.
She elbowed Nick in the stomach. He responded with a silent "oof," and a frown.
"Ellis is tired. You drive."
Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he yawned "Ok."
Ellis pulled over, and the three of them exited the car. He avoided looking at Nick entirely, Jamie noticed.
He slid into the back seat, and smacked his hands against his thighs in a rhythmic pattern. "So how do you wanna do this?" he asked, clearly nervous.
"Relax, Ellis." She got inside to sit with him, and faced the driver's seat.
Ellis quickly fell asleep, but Jamie was starting to get a bit uncomfortable. Her bottom was sore from sitting in the same spot so long.
"Hey Ellis," she began to whisper. "Can I move around a little?"
Still dozed off, he turned his head to the side. A few minutes passed, and Ellis started shifting into awkward positions. He must've been uncomfortable as well. She started to slide forward in the seat to give him a little space, and he did something...strange.
She noticed he was pulling her back, and instantly panicked. She tried to force his locked fingers apart, but it wasn't working. She grabbed his forearms, and started pulling them in opposite directions. Ellis seemed not to mind, or notice. All at once, he stopped her mighty opposition with a swift jerk backwards, and mumbled for her to 'just go to sleep.' Jamie sat there, back pressed against his body, eyes wide in shock. She ignored the discomfort in her neck from being forced to lie back, and looked to her left to see if Rochelle had noticed.
She most definitely did...
She leaned on the car door, chin in her hands, hiding her grin behind a finger. "Don't worry. I didn't see anything," she snickered.
Jamie jokingly shook her head, and buried her face in Ellis' chest to nod off.
Jamie awoke to feel the car...not moving. It was some hour of the night, which gave her the impression that something bad had happened. She saw that no one else was inside, and Nick was leaning against the rear end. She got out of the car, ignoring him as his eyes... traveled.
No harm in at least knowing what we're dealing with, he told himself.
"Did we run out of gas?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.
"Nope," he said, turning to her. "Ellis had to pee." The face he made when he said it was probably meant to mock the way Ellis alerted the group of his urgent business. "I think he's just a little horny from the wet dream he was having, though."
"Uh? What," she laughed.
"Come on. He's young, and you two were pretty close to each other."
She rolled her eyes, and he decided to take lead of the conversation.
"So," he said, looking to her.
"So." Her eyes were focused on the ground.
"You and Ellis are getting a little close, don't you think?"
"Maybe. Why's it matter to you," she spat.
He shrugged, shaking his head at her. She guessed she was supposed to know why.
"That's gonna get in the way of me and you, love."
He said this with the most unbelievable confidence, and she raised an eyebrow at him.
"Me and you aren't going anywhere, love."
"What makes you so sure? You know you can't resist me," he smiled.
"You're a cocky bastard," Jamie snarled.
"Yeah..." He rested his shoulders against the roof of the car. "But you like it."
She shook her head, unable to help the grin stretching across her face. "Maybe, if I was someone else. Someone who hated herself."
"What are you saying? Don't I come off as the most caring, sensitive, and loveable man you've ever met?"
"You don't want me to answer that question," she blinked.
"I know. It was rhetorical anyway," he said, drawing her close with his arm.
"You know," he began.
She tensed up, wondering what Nick thought he was doing.
"I know I might seem like the last person you'd ever think about doing anything with -"
She looked up at him, hoping this was not where she thought the conversation was going.
"But the world is getting smaller and smaller every day. And everyone in it is eventually gonna turn on the people that trust them," he whispered.
He felt her ask if he was one of them.
"Hell yeah I am," he chuckled. "But..."
"I would never turn on you."
He looked up, praising the moon for the killer mood it was setting.
"You're a little bit younger than I am, but I think you're smart. You'd learn fast, and I could teach you everything I know. If you would be willing to stay by my side, we wouldn't need anybody else in the goddamn world."
