And you can check that story
You know they're no friends of mine
Never thought I'd take the time
The look the Infected gave him caused him to freeze. Her eyes rolled back, lips curling back to reveal teeth stained with blood. Her voice rose in a low guttural whine that made Nick's skin rise with goosebumps. It was unlike anything he had ever heard. Her stuttering gait twisted towards him, frail body quaking with each step. Then she was coming at him with nothing more than a horrific screech.
He stumbled backwards, trying to deflect her hands with his axe, but she simply knocked his arm out wide with one effortless slap. Her other hand caught him just in the chest. Nails dragged down his bare skin and blood was spilt. He let out a startled yelp and he fell against the wall with no where to go. Head swimming he watched her close in again.
Then she went down in a shudder of wails and screams as bullets tore into her.
The conman slid down the wall, hand pressed hard against his wound. He lifted his hand up—it was smeared with blood as he should have expected, but even so he was still surprised. He pressed his hand back to his chest, shaking his head hard in denial. His mind raced.
No, no, no no... That didn't... She didn't just. He couldn't... Again he lifted his bloodied hand from his wound and just stared. Jesus fucking Christ... He was...
"Nick?" Ellis asked tentatively. He lowered his gun as he crept closer. "Nick are you all right?"
"Do I look all fucking right?" He tried to sound angry, but his voice choked and betrayed him. His breath shook in his chest. His stomach had dropped a million miles and he felt sick. Some people may find their lives flashing before their eyes. See the faces of friends and family, loved ones... An old house or a favorite pet. Somewhere they loved to just lay down and relax. Nick could see nothing but the prospect that he would soon be gnawing on some douchebags brains and left to spend the rest of his life as one of those walking corpses. "Oh fuck..." He ran his hands feverishly through his hair, quiet curses leaving his lips endlessly.
"Do ya feel all right?" Ellis asked. He moved cautiously to the conman. "Like... Do ya feel different? I didn't feel different. I still don't." Nick didn't answer him and so Ellis scooted a little closer before dropping down to one knee. "Nick? Maybe you're Immune. Let me just patch you up and we'll jus-"
Rochelle reached down to grip Ellis' shoulder. "Just wait. Give it a few more minutes." She held her gun ready in the other hand. Her scowl was intense.
Beside her, Coach shook his head slowly. "I don't know, Nick. You feel fine?" the big man asked.
Nick swallowed hard before he nodded once.
Coach looked slowly from Nick to Rochelle. "Satisfied?"
"What are the chances of two of us being Immune?" she asked. She shook her head, throwing her hands into the air. Ellis and Coach both shrugged nonchalantly. "Fine, whatever. Throw a band-aid on him. But when he goes for you two, don't say I didn't tell you so."
"I'd go for you first, you bitch," Nick grumbled. Ellis, the only one to hear, grinned hard as he pulled out bandages from his first aid.
"I'm gonna clean the wound a little. All right?" Ellis went to work. Health 101 in high school had taught him enough of the basics. But with a friend like Keith, he could probably be a certified EMT if he wanted. He started first with saline, then with antiseptics. He dressed the wound with six butterfly bandages. Nick took all the poking and prodding stoically. "Does it hurt?" the young man asked quietly. He frowned sympathetically but Nick refused to look at him.
"No."
"Do ya feel all right?"
"Do you feel all right?" Nick asked flatly. "You've been Infected longer than I have."
"I feel fine." Ellis shrugged. "A little hungry, but fine."
Nick noticed Rochelle's sudden (and overly dramatic) glance to Coach who simply nodded slightly in agreement. It had been some time since any of them ate. It was reasonable enough. Nick, however, felt the asshole in him clawing its way out. "For..." Nick did well not to grin. "Brains?"
Ellis blinked once then he burst into the most disarmingly charming laugh Nick had ever heard. The conman flushed slightly as Ellis continued to laugh heartily. He was practically rolling on the ground beside him. Nick gaped.
"No, man," Ellis gasped between his laughs. He brushed tears from his eyes. "Just normal hungry. I ain't got no cravin' for brains."
"Mmmm," Nick smiled mockingly to Rochelle. "Brains sounds really good right now. Chewy. I like chewy." He clicked his teeth together. Rochelle let out a noise of disgust.
"Are you done?" she asked. "I'd like to get to the mall before it gets dark. Or before you Turn." She snapped a new clip into her AK and smiled pointedly.
"Mall's jus' around the corner!" Ellis said cheerfully. "We'll be there in no time."
Literally. Around the corner the gigantic "Liberty Mall" sign shone like some ungodly tacky beacon. CEDA had set up camp in the parking lot. But no one but the dead walked here. They snuck through the abandoned camp by sticking behind tents and parked cars. The dozens of Infected standing stupidly around didn't notice them. They figured it was best to save bullets and left them.
When they entered the mall, they began to see the signs.
"Evac, this way?" Coach said quietly. "CEDA better be in this god damn mall." He tore the sign from the door. "We're right here." He pointed at the map. "The evacuation site is..." He trailed the map with one finger, frowning deeply. "Way over here? What, do they want us all to die just getting there?"
Nick snorted with laughter. "Probably. Never intended to save us all." He looked lazily to the other three who stared back worriedly. "They'll probably start shooting people when they can't take on any more."
"That's not funny," Rochelle said.
"I wasn't going for funny. I was going for logical," Nick said. Before he could continue, Ellis let out a sudden shriek. Nick started back to attention, shotgun clutched in both hands, ready to fire. Ellis, however, was gripping his hat with both hands and jumping up and down.
"Oh my God! Jimmy Gibbs, Jr's car is here?" He bounced around excitedly. "Aw, man! We gatta see that thing! Man, can we stop for just a minute? Just a little bit. I gatta see that beautiful girl."
"You're an idiot," Nick said flatly. If Ellis heard him, he didn't seem to care. He was still grinning that ridiculous grin. And god damn it, Coach was starting to as well. Nick was unable to keep the confusion off his face. One glance to Rochelle indicated that, for once, they were on the same page.
"So... We're here." Nick said blankly. He pointed at the gigantic map just a floor up from where they had come in. The place had turned out to be more or less a maze. Half the exits were blocked and the most sure way to get where they needed was becoming more and more obscure. Nick tilted his head one way and then the next. "We go... downstairs?" He craned his neck to stare down into the dark floor below. "God, I hate malls."
"Mall's are awesome, man!" Ellis interjected. He smacked Nick hard on the back and the conman gave him a sour look. "You just ain't never gone with the right kind of people. Man, one time my buddy Keith and I went to a mall down in Atlanta... Hol-ee shit, man. You wouldn't believe the kind of shit they got going down there. This one time-"
"Shut up." Nick stared evenly into those startled blue eyes. Ellis stopped talking immediately and he fidgeted with his gun awkwardly. "Do you hear that?" Nick continued.
"What?" Ellis perked up. "Hear what?" Then he looked worried. Last time they had "heard" something... Well... The young man glanced to his bandaged arms and then around the mall fearfully. "Coach?"
"...Yeah." Coach nodded. "I hear it. Sounds big."
"I think... I think I see something." Rochelle leaned slightly over the railing, staring hard into the darkness. "What... is that?" She reached for her pistol, clicked on the flashlight and then pointed it into the darkness. Before anyone could caution that may not be a good idea—the light shone directly into the face of the biggest fucking Infected Nick was sure he was ever going to see. It's massive head snapped around and then it let out a thunderous roar.
"What the fuck!" Nick yelled. "What the fuck is that? What the fuck!" The four quickly back-peddled away from the escalator where the massive creature now pounded up, gigantic arms swinging wildly. "Shoot it! Fucking shoot it!"
The thing made it about eight steps past the escalator before it succumbed to over two hundred bullet wounds and crashed to the ground. Nick was quick to unload three shotgun shells into its face.
"That thing is like a god damn tank," Coach said breathlessly. He nudged it gently with his foot. The Infected's head lolled, brains spilling across the floor. "Too many god damn steroids."
"What the fuck is going on with this Infection?" Nick asked. "This is... This is fucked up. I've never seen anything like this. First that jumping thing, then that crying girl. Now this. What the fuck?"
"It makes it more fun!" Ellis suggested, shrugging lightly.
"Fun?" Nick wheeled around on the other, shoving him hard in the chest. "I don't think it's much fucking fun having to shoot a bunch of fucking people in the faces because they're trying to eat me. Maybe if I was a fucking moron like you, I could see all the god damn fun in this."
Ellis' lip trembled slightly and he lowered his head, ashamed. "Sorry," he muttered miserably.
"No, sweetie. You have nothing to be sorry for." Rochelle put an arm lovingly around the young man. She glared daggers at Nick. "I think Nick needs to apologize."
"I'm not fucking apologizing." The conman scowled as he reloaded his shotgun. "Sorry if I'm a little too fucking real for Overalls over there."
"Ya'll," Coach said. He looked sternly between the three. "We can't be turning on each other right now. We need each other to get to the evac station."
"Yeah, what Evac, Coach?" Nick snarled. "They fucking left us. All right? They're fucking gone. We're gonna die here." He laughed shortly, throwing his hands into the air. "I haven't seen one god damn living person since we got here. No one is waiting for us here, all right? Fucking no one." The silence was almost tangible. Nick let out a frustrated sigh and ran his fingers through his hair obsessively. He refused to look the other three in the eye.
"Let's get movin'," Coach said quietly. They gathered their courage and made their way downstairs.
An hour later, Nick's premonition rang true. The evacuation site was empty. There was no army waiting. No smiling and concerned faces to whisk them away.
There was no one there to save them.
Nick sat down heavily on one of the registration tables. Papers were strewn everywhere. Some of the dead lay about, bloodying the floor in pools of red. The conman dropped his face into one hand, rubbing his forehead and trying very hard to keep his tongue in check. Why the fuck had he listened to these morons? What the fuck was he doing here? He was probably Infected... going to die any time soon—or fucking Turn. All for this? For this? He gazed out into the ghostly room of overturned chairs, tables and fences. He was going to die. For this.
"Nick...?" Ellis asked quietly. He shuffled close before leaning against the table along side Nick. Nick shook his head and looked away with a sigh. "It'll be okay."
"I don't need a pep talk, kid."
Ellis shrugged slightly and began to absent-mindedly run one finger across the length of his sniper-rifle scope. "We can get out of this. Maybe fight our way to the Evac's on the coast." He shifted his foot away from a piece of paper before picking it up off the ground. He held it over for Nick to see. "Map says New Orleans still stands." He shook it, trying to get the other to look at it, but Nick refused. Dejectedly, Ellis brought the map back to his lap and stared hard at it. "We can make it there. All of us."
Nick sighed. "What, fight our way there?"
"We ain't got much a choice." Ellis smiled quietly to Coach and Rochelle as they approached. He held the map out to them and Coach took it wordlessly. He and Rochelle stared hard at it. Ellis shrugged. "I ain't gonna just lay down and die. I'mma go there." He nodded towards the map. "Y'all should come with me."
Rochelle frowned and glanced to Coach who met her gaze for a moment before nodding slowly. "I think the boy is onto something."
"Our best chance, right?" Rochelle asked. "We have to give it a shot. Clearly no one is going to save us."
"We should just shoot ourselves now," Nick muttered. "Save us the trouble."
"Don't talk like that, man," Ellis said. He put an arm around Nick and the conman gave him a cold stare. Ellis didn't even falter with his one armed hug. He just grinned back. "We're gonna do this."
Again, Nick sighed hard. His gaze lifted towards the Heavens.
For probably the millionth time in his life, he wondered if there even was such a thing as God. His gaze dropped to the disfigured corpse of an executed Infected.
For the millionth time he came to the same conclusion: no.
A/N: This story is a much lighter story than I'm use to writing. So if it feels forced/strained that's why. I'm trying to get into the groove with it. It'll probably turn darker just because it's my style of writing, but not unbearably dark. I'm kinda digging the humor and lightness. And Nick's a pessimist. And I love that about him.
Thank you for reading and reviewing. I appreciate it, so much. Hearts.