III
...
The little bridge was the most rickety looking thing that Nick had ever seen. It went well with the shanty town that made him think of cannibalism. Dal was right beside him, looking around carefully and sniffing the air. The conman was looking around himself as well, and he spotted another set of signatures. He wanted to laugh in spite of himself, wondering how many times they were going to sign their names for him before they gave up and decided he was dead.
Then again, it was probably Ellis who was making them sign their names everywhere, so he could assume that they wouldn't stop until they were out of the States altogether. At least he could be assured that he was probably not going to get lost. He took a step forward, placing one foot on the rickety bridge and easing his weight onto it. It whined gently, but didn't give in to his weight, so he started across it, moving swiftly but cautiously. Dal waited until he was all the way across before following after him.
There was an incredibly scarce amount of infected around the grouping of flooded houses and it was making Nick nervous. Dal was being incredibly quiet, his eyes searching the area more thoroughly than usual. In the messily built wooden shack across the little bridge was when Nick heard it. He froze, eyes wide as he looked around himself quickly; he needed to hide, but there was no where to go without being seen. Dal had heard the sound of the thumping Tank as well, and he grabbed Nick's wrist and tugged him over to the corner of the room with the most shadows. They leaned up against the wall and sat down side by side. The ground was trembling with fear as the Tank barreled into the room, his massive muscles dripping with swamp water as they shivered involuntarily.
Nick's eyes were wide, his heart racing as he held his breath. The Tank turned his tiny head back and forth, his tongue flopping around with the movement. It turned to face them, beady black eyes narrowing questioningly as it snorted gruffly. Dal's eyes were closed, his face relaxed as it could be. Taking the hint, Nick did the same, easing his eyes shut and relaxing his expression as much as possible. He stiffened slightly as the Tank lumbered towards them, leaning close to Nick's face and breathing the most incredibly rotten breath imaginable into the conman's face. He had to hold back the urge to whimper when one of the massive fingers prodded at his stomach, seeing if he was still alive.
When Nick made no noticeable response, the Tank pulled away from him. Apparently, the hunkering idiot couldn't tell the difference between a room that could just barely hold his weight and a tiny little bridge that could barely hold itself up. He attempted to cross the rickety thing and it collapsed underneath him. Nick's eyes flew open in unison with Dal's as they heard the Tank let out a furious roar. Before he decided to down the entire building, they clambered to their feet and tore out of the building, running across the roofs of flooded houses. The Tank apparently didn't notice them leaving as he went about destroying the structure that they had just left.
They continued on, moving a bit faster to avoid being seen by the Tank, and didn't slow down until the sounds of his anger were long gone.
The sun was fully risen and making its way to the afternoon point in the sky by the time they had reached the next safe house. Nick opened the door and Dal followed him inside. There was an assault rifle waiting for him on the table; a Scar, nonetheless. His eyes lit up at the sight up of it. He picked it up, restocked his ammo and glanced around the room. As he had thought, there was a trio of signatures by the door on the opposite side that he had come in. He hadn't slept at all during the night, so he knew that he had to have caught up at least a bit. Then again, he didn't know if the others had traveled throughout the night as well. His heart was sinking fast as the idea of being permanently left behind cross his mind, but he pushed those thoughts away. Nick looked at Dal, forcing an apprehensive smile.
The Hunter simply stared at him, somehow comforting with only a gaze. Nick nodded at him and they left the safe room. The bodies around the area looked relatively fresh compared to the ones he had seen before. A spark of hope ignited within and he started off, moving quickly. He could hear gunfire, but it sounded incredibly far away, nothing more than a soft crack in the air. But he was close, and that was what mattered. Nick started walking faster until he was at a slight jog, Dal right beside him.
"Dal," Nick spoke up, glancing at the Hunter to make sure he had full attention, "Listen carefully."
Dal stared at him expectantly, and Nick continued, "When we find the others, there's probably going to be a large horde, judging by the amount of gunfire we can hear… When you see that horde, I want you walking on two feet, not four. And I don't want you pouncing or jumping, because they'll shoot at you and think you're trying to kill me. And stay close."
Dal nodded, deciding that he wanted to practice walking normally. He pushed off with his hands and straightened out. Nick heard his back crack and pop as he straightened it out. The Hunter didn't seem to like walking upright, judging from the discomfort in his expression. Nevertheless, they continued on.
They were slowed down only marginally by the slight amount of infected in the area. Nick took a moment to teach Dal how to work a magnum so that he wouldn't have to use his claws to defend himself. The Hunter, once again, wasn't very good at acting like he wasn't infected, but he adapted quickly, which lessened Nick's reluctance to attempt to bring him along on their trip.
As they continued along, the sounds of battle became louder and louder. Nick found himself staring at probably the biggest house he'd ever seen, and judging from the amount of noise that seemed to be coming from behind it, he could safely assume that the others were behind it. He took one last look at Dal before they started running towards the house. Nick reached into his miniature medical pack and pulled out the adrenaline shot that he'd been saving. As they arrived on the front balcony, he looked out and around; the others were standing in front of a gate, and seconds after he had exited the building, the gate itself exploded. They were moving away at that point, and thinking fast Nick jabbed himself with the needle and started running.
He knew that Dal would be able to keep up; Hunter's were naturally the fastest of any infected he'd ever seen, hence why they scared the hell out of him. There was a Tank climbing over the walls and running towards the others. Nick could barely hear himself yelling at the top of his lungs when the adrenaline suddenly kicked in.
"ELLIS!" He roared, "ELLIS!" The mechanic was slowing down, turning as he fired at the oncoming infected. He spotted the conman, and a grin spread across his face.
"NICK!" Nick barely heard him, turning to see a Tank coming straight for him. Cursing, he pulled the bile bomb that he had picked up in the mansion and threw it. The lumbering idiot ran right into the puke, and he was swarmed by infected seconds after. He spotted a Smoker out of the corner of his eye and signaled for Ellis to keep going. The hillbilly ignored him, firing at everything in sight.
"ELLIS, GET ON THE BOAT!" Nick commanded, cursing as the vessel started to move. Ellis was grabbed by Coach and dragged onto the boat, despite his fighting and arguing. The conman was starting to slow down as he passed the gate, and the boat wasn't waiting for him. Ellis was shouting for him to hurry, and Rochelle and Coach were doing something akin to shouting at the captain to wait a few more minutes.
"I'm not gonna make it… I'm not gonna make it…" He gasped. He suddenly heard Dal behind him, shrieking something illegible. The next thing Nick knew, he was in the air and flying. He grabbed the front of Dal's hoodie and shut his eyes as his head began to swim.
They landed hard, and Dal nearly dropped Nick in the process of steadying himself. Nick tumbled out of him arms, eyes wide and breathless.
The boat was deadly silent; tension floating into the air at Nick stared hard at Dal once he'd regained his stature. He stood up, looking down at the crouching Hunter with a condescending look on his face.
"We talked about this." He said, "You promised." The Hunter whimpered apologetically. Nick rolled his eyes and turned to the others as he let out a breath he hadn't realized he been holding.
"Did you miss me?" He was unable to defend himself as Rochelle and Ellis simultaneously jumped on him, hugging him tightly and talking about how worried they had been.
"Did you see all the signatures?" Ellis asked excitedly. Nick scoffed.
"How do you think I didn't get lost? And you spelled New Orleans wrong."
"That's what I told him, but he wouldn't listen!" Rochelle said in exasperation, pulling away from Nick so that she could give him a check up. She noticed that he was favoring his right leg, standing heavily on his left as if he'd hurt one of them.
"What'd you do to your leg?" Nick turned to her, blinking for a moment as he recalled what had happened.
"It got wedged under the dashboard when I flew the copter into the trees." He replied simply, "It got banged up, but I can walk fine." Except when I'm being drowned.
Coach finally spoke up, "Nick," He said, "If you don't mind me asking… who's the… Hunter?" Ellis and Rochelle had apparently completely forgotten about the Hunter that had brought Nick aboard the vessel. Nick's eyes fell on Dal for a long, tiresome moment.
"Dal," He replied, "He's Dal. He can't take care of himself because he's not threatening enough. Kinda like Ellis."
Ellis opened his mouth to protest the comparison, but Rochelle cut him off. "So… we have a Hunter onboard now?"
Nick shrugged, "It'd be rude to shove him off the boat." The Hunter whimpered at the idea. Rochelle squealed softly at the adorable sound. Coach nodded and shrugged.
"Well, if he ain't doing us no harm, then I guess it would be okay to bring him along." Coach's stamp of approval was the law of their group. The older man was wise and knew the way the world worked better than any of them. If he approved or disapproved, then ideas would be used or cast away at his word.
Nick would've denied it for hours, but he was glad to have made it back to the group. He glanced at Dal and smiled slightly, walking over to the Hunter and sitting down. He was suddenly extremely tired, the events of the day coupled with the night he had spent traveled finally catching up to him.
He leaned back, stretching out his tired legs as he rested most of his weight on his elbows. A long day indeed, and he was glad to not have to be walking anymore. He had to admit, he did kind of miss Jimmy Gibbs Jr. Dal yawned widely, getting down on the floor of the boat and curling up beside Nick. He started purring, the expression of affection making Nick raise his eyebrows.
"Awww," Rochelle squealed, "He's cute!"
"This is what I meant when I said he's not threatening enough."
