Hey folks! Thanks again for all your lovely reviews! Before we get to the story, I think I'd better warn you that I had to go off some the characters' personality's a bit for this chapter to work. Hope you enjoy!

It's Hard to Survive
Chapter 4

"Anytime…"

The biker had arrived back at the front of the bridge, but this time, he brought someone else with him. Coach, Nick and Rochelle couldn't help but worry a bit. This new guy looked like an old war veteran. The new survivors prayed inwardly that these people would help them. If they didn't, then Ellis was doomed…

"Alright!" the biker yelled. "We have a plan! We have a rope up here that we used to get our injured man up here. If you could just tie it around your guy and hold him steady, then we can get him up here. After that, you guys can then climb the bridge ladder here!"

Coach, Nick and Rochelle all sighed in relief. These people were going to help them.

"One of our team members will be here soon to-Wait, here she is!" the biker yelled.

A female member of their group handed the biker-man a long piece of rope. She looked like a college student. She then turned around and headed back the way she came.

"Catch!" the biker yelled, throwing one end of the rope down towards them. Coach grabbed it and handed it to Nick, who immediately tied it around Ellis' body. When he was done, he gave the thumbs-up sign to the biker-man and war veteran, who immediately began to pull Ellis up towards them. It only took a few minutes and Ellis was soon on the bridge. Nick then climbed up the ladder and was shortly followed by Coach and Rochelle. When they all reached the top, they saw the biker-man and war veteran leaning over Ellis, mouths agape.

"Shit, he looks bad," Nick heard the war veteran murmur.

"Will he make it?" the biker asked.

"I don't know," the war veteran replied. "I didn't know he'd be this fucked up."

Nick couldn't wait anymore, so he stepped forward and coughed loudly. The two survivors looking at Ellis turned to face him.

"Right, right!" the biker exclaimed. "I guess introductions are in order. Let's go to the back and we'll introduce everyone."

They followed the biker and war veteran to the back, where they encountered the college girl and a new guy. This new guy looked like a manager of some kind. His leg was in pretty bad shape, so he must be the injured man the biker was telling them about.

"Yeah, that's Louis," the biker said, pointing at the manager. "I wouldn't get too attached to him, he'll probably be dead soon. I'm Francis."

"Name's Bill," the war veteran said.

"I'm Zoey," the college girl added. "Who are you guys?"

"I'm Coach," Coach replied.

"Name's Rochelle," Rochelle added.

Nick just kept quiet. Everyone looked over at him.

"What are you all staring at me for?" he exclaimed, folding his arms irritably and turning away. Coach sighed.

"The sourpuss here is Nick. He really isn't into trusting new people."

"Can't say I'm surprised," Francis replied.

"Wait, you didn't tell us who this guy is," Zoey reminded them, pointing at Ellis, who was lying on the floor.

"That there is Ellis," Coach replied, trying to keep his voice from shaking.

"Damn, he looks like shit," Louis observed. "What happened to him?"

Nick opened his mouth to reply, but closed it instantly and turned away again. Rochelle sighed.

"Well, we were fighting a big-ass horde, when suddenly, a Jockey grabbed Ellis. It started to lead him towards a Witch that we hadn't detected yet. We shot the little bastard, but when it fell, it pulled Ellis down, too. They were right above the Witch at the time, so Ellis ended up getting incapacitated by her. The burns were caused by Nick throwing a Molotov in an attempt to lead the Witch away from Ellis."

She stopped to see if anyone had any questions. Bill had one.

"Why in hell would the bastard throw a Molotov at an incapacitated survivor?"

"I was trying to freaking help him, okay!" Nick yelled, surprising everyone. "I wasn't trying to kill him! Jeez, you make it sound like I did it to deliberately hurt him!"

"Nick, calm down!" Rochelle exclaimed, putting a hand on his shoulder. "We know you weren't trying to hurt him, okay! Just calm down!"

As Nick calmed down, Louis moved over to Francis, who was sitting a few feet away.

"You're right, Francis," he whispered. "He's not friendly. I'm surprised Bill didn't shoot him yet."

"Carry on with your story, Rochelle," Zoey prompted.

"Well, okay," Rochelle replied. "Anyway, so after Ellis cr0wned the Witch before she could cause serious damage to Nick, he shoved Nick out of the way of a Charger and took the blow from it. Shortly after we killed it, a Smoker pulled Ellis away from us and started to claw at him. We killed it, but the smoke left behind was really thick, so it was really hard to find him. He got incapacitated by the Smoker, so he couldn't move. This was the perfect opportunity for a Hunter that was hiding in the smoke."

"Let me guess," Francis interrupted. "It jumped him, right?"

"Francis, don't interrupt!" Zoey scolded.

"No, Zoey, it's okay," Rochelle assured her. "Yes, Francis, it did. But luckily, the smoke cleared and Nick killed it. When Coach and I arrived, I immediately started healing Ellis. But my health-kit wasn't enough. Coach gave me his, but it still wasn't enough. Nick's wasn't enough, either. We saved Ellis' health-kit, since we didn't want to risk Ellis, or someone else, for that matter, to get seriously injured. But everything went downhill from there…"

Rochelle trailed off. She couldn't carry on.

"Rochelle, what happened?" Zoey asked. "What do you mean by that?"

"A Tank appeared and attacked us," Nick intervened, surprising everyone again. "Ellis shot me a few times and I got distracted. The Tank, in my brief distraction, threw a slab of concrete at me. Ellis pushed me out the way again and took the full blow. The Tank then picked him up and threw him into a nearby swamp, where he was attacked by the Mud People a few seconds later. While Coach and Rochelle killed the Tank, I dived into the swamp and rescued Ellis. When I got him out, he was half-drowned, unconscious and barely alive, so I performed CPR on him. I managed to get him to cough up all the swamp water, but he was still unconscious, so I shouldered him and carried him here. Luckily, we didn't run into many zombies on the way here after all that chaos."

When Nick finished the story, he turned and walked to the railings on the side of the bridge, leaving everyone in an awestruck silence. No-one knew what to say. Bill broke the silence.

"Goddammit! Son of a bitch!" he yelled. "No wonder he looks like shit! He's been ridden, slashed, charged, pummeled, pulled, constricted, clawed, pounced, trapped under concrete, thrown, dragged under water and drowned all in one day!"

"Do the special infected always go for him?" Zoey asked.

"Most of the time," Coach answered solemnly.

"Holy shit…"

"Damn, that kid is tough!" Louis exclaimed.

"He's as tough as Grandpa Bill!" Francis added.

"Francis…" Bill said in a threatening tone.

"What! It's true!" Francis pointed out. "He's as tough as you!"

"Well, anyway," Bill said, glaring at Francis. "Since I was a war veteran back in my day, I can probably take care of him. He should be fine, so you can stop worrying."

Coach and Rochelle sighed with relief.

"You hear that Nick?" Rochelle asked turning around. "Ellis is going to be o-"

She cut off; the reason is because she found that Nick wasn't behind her like he was a few minutes ago.

"Hey, where did Nick go?" she asked.

"He went to the front of the bridge," Coach replied. "Said he needed some time alone."

"That's not like him at all," Rochelle said. "I mean, he's been worried about Ellis a million times before, but never this much."

"Why would Nick be so worried about Ellis?" Francis asked. "Nick's an asshole! He doesn't care about anyone but himself!"

"How would you know?" Zoey asked curiously.

"We've crossed paths in the past," Francis responded.

"We did more than 'cross paths', Francis," a familiar voice interrupted.

Everyone looked up and saw Nick standing there. He looked mad. No, wait. That's an understatement. He looked like he was seething!

"Nick?" Rochelle asked nervously. "What do you mean?"

"We were in a gang together when we were younger," Nick began. "The normal tradition was to get a tattoo if you were part of the gang, like Grease-Monkey has here on his arm. I, though, didn't want a tattoo, so I got a ring instead."

He held up the ring for everyone to see. He then held it next to one of the many tattoos on Francis' right arm: it was a perfect match.

"We were good friends to begin with," Nick continued. "In fact, we were almost like brothers. But that was before the whole incident happened."

"What incident?" Louis asked.

"A couple of years after we joined the gang," Nick answered, "everyone in the gang went into a store to nick some stuff. I didn't go because I had other plans that day. The gang got away with a few things, but the cops arrived and arrested one of the gang members."

"Three guesses who," Bill murmured.

"Okay," Louis replied sarcastically. "I'm going to guess…Francis?"

"That's right," Nick replied. "When the cops took him in for questioning, he sold the whole group out, including me, even though I wasn't there! The police arrested everyone in the gang and took us in for questioning. When it was my turn, I simply told them that I wasn't there and that Francis was talking bullshit. Of course, they didn't believe me. They only believed me when they found out that my alibi checked out, so they removed me as an accomplice."

"What happened after that?" Coach asked.

"All I know is that the whole gang, except me, got jail-time. I left the city after that, for I knew that Francis would come after me. A few years after that and this whole Goddamn zombie apocalypse happened."

"Wouldn't the rest of the gang also come after you?" Louis asked.

"No," Nick replied. "They told me that I should not even have been in that mess, since I wasn't even there. They just told me to get out of the city as soon as I could. So I did."

"And you're still holding a grudge?" Francis asked. "I was young and I made a mistake."

"A mistake that almost cost me a few years of my life!" Nick exclaimed.

"Guys, that's enough!" Rochelle exclaimed. "What's in the past is in the past. Are you still in jail?" she asked Francis.

"No," Francis mumbled.

"And are you in jail?" she asked Nick.

"No," Nick mumbled.

"Then do us all a favor and put your differences aside and become friends again," Rochelle finished, folding her arms.

"And how are we going to do that?" Francis asked.

"You can start by apologizing, Francis," Zoey replied. "And you can finish by forgiving him and becoming friends again," she said to Nick.

"Fine," they answered in unison.

Francis walked up to Nick.

"I-I-I'm sorry, Nick," he apologized gruffly. "Are we friends again?"

Nick hesitated for a minute before answering gruffly, "Yeah, I guess so, Francis."

As they started to enjoy their rediscovered friendship, Rochelle and Zoey shook their heads and chuckled.

"Boys…"

There's chapter 4! I got the idea of Francis and Nick knowing each other from the fact that they both have the same symbol:A tattoo on Francis' right arm and a ring on Nick's hand bear the same symbol. Hope you enjoyed it!

Until next time
D-ZombieDragon