Because You Live
By: esmtz
The next day everyone was up and getting ready to head on out again. They were stacking up on as much supplies as they could and found that they didn't have a lot of medic kits.
"Well, looks like only three of us will be having a medic kit. Who's it going to be to hold on to them?" Bill asked as he stood next to the safe room door watching as everyone else got ready.
"I guess I'll take one of them," Zoey replied as she took one and held her pistols at her side.
"Are you guys sure you don't need a medic kit?" Rochelle asked her group glancing at Ellis.
"Nah I'm good, Rochelle, thanks but really I'm alright." Ellis told her smiling as he picked up the combat shotgun.
Nick shook his head and looked at her.
"I'll pick up one later if we ever come across some more," Nick said, "don't worry about it, Rochelle. You can have it."
Ellis frowned glancing at Nick feeling hurt that he didn't tell him to take it.
"I agree with Nick here, take it." Coach said.
Rochelle nodded and picked up the second med kit.
"For the love of God, Francis just take the last one. More then likely you will be needing it." Zoey sighed as she watched Francis pick up some pain pills.
"I don't need it how many times do I have to tell you, Zoey?" Francis said looking at her slightly annoyed, "quit acting like my mom for heaven's sake."
"Francis, we don't have time for this!" Zoey told him.
Bill sighed and lit up a cigarette.
"Sometime before I die of old age people." Bill complained.
"Hey, uh, Francis just please take the med kit alright?" Ellis said looking at him worriedly.
There was an awkward silence before Francis decided to pick it up and walk towards the door. Zoey shook her head and looked at Ellis.
"Thanks, I don't know why, but it seems that he listens to you more then he does to his own team." Zoey said.
Ellis felt himself turn red and nodded.
"No problem, but to be honest I don't know why that is myself." Ellis told her.
Rochelle giggled and Coach grinned.
"Maybe it's because he likes you, Ellis." Rochelle said softly so that only he and their group could hear her.
Ellis turned redder and shook his head.
"Nah, no way, Rochelle, besides we barely only met these guys like what a week ago? There's just no way…" Ellis said more to himself.
"Well even so maybe it's love at first sight," Rochelle couldn't hide her laughter from the look on Ellis's face.
Nick growled and pushed past Ellis and Rochelle to stand near the door.
"Somebody's jealous." Coach said who was also laughing.
"What the heck are you talking about, Coach? Nick's not like that especially not when it comes to me." Ellis replied sadly looking at Rochelle with envy in his eyes.
Rochelle noticed this and looked at him sadly.
"Oh, sweetie it's not like that between him and me."
Ellis shook his head and looked away not believing at all what Rochelle had said.
"Hey, quit yer yapping and lets get going already." Bill said.
"Are we all ready yet?" Francis asked who didn't even have the slightest clue that he was being talked about.
"Hey, stop it you guys we might not all be ready yet." Louis replied as he looked at Rochelle expectantly and she nodded.
"We're ready just go ahead and open the door." Rochelle said turning her head to look at Bill and Francis.
"Alright then, ladies lets move out!" Francis yelled out making Ellis blush.
Nick rolled his eyes and crossed his arms looking at Francis.
"Whatever just do me a favor and don't get in my way." Nick said opening the door and walked out.
Francis raised an eyebrow at him and followed right after Bill. As soon as everyone was outside they immediately pulled out their weapons.
"Well, how far is it to the evac station?" Zoey asked hoping it wasn't going to be far.
"It's still going to be quite some time before we get there." Coach replied.
"You think so, Coach?" Ellis asked looking at him.
Coach nodded and looked around.
"It's going to be in a small town which I don't see any sign of it from here. As far as I can tell we're in the middle of a forest and it'll be very easy to get lost in here. Now lets just try to stay in the group and not get too far from everyone else got it?" Coach said to everyone.
"Well ain't that convenient for the infected when they come to attack us again." Nick said, "Let's just get out of this goddamn forest as soon as we can."
"In case something does happen lets just at least stick with a partner." Louis said.
"Good idea, man. I hate forests." Francis said.
"Of course you do, Francis." Zoey smiled slightly.
Before Ellis could go towards Nick and ask him to stick with him Nick already went towards Rochelle making both Louis and Ellis feel hurt.
'Why do I even bother?' Ellis sighed 'He's not even looking at me. Is he avoiding me for some reason?'
"Hey, kid."
Ellis looked up and saw that Francis was standing in front of him grinning. Ellis turned slightly red.
"Uh, hey Francis what is it?" Ellis asked.
"Well I noticed that you didn't have a partner so do you want to partner up with me?" Francis asked slightly red and was rubbing the back of his head.
Ellis looked at him and then at Nick who was still with Rochelle and then nodded looking back at Francis and smiled.
"I would like that, Francis, thanks." Ellis said.
Francis beamed.
"Alright then. I'll watch your back and you'll watch mine!"
The pairings, in case if anyone got separated, were: Bill and Coach, Zoey and Louis, Nick and Rochelle, and Francis and Ellis. As soon as that was taken care of the group started to head deeper into the forest away from the safe house. They all kept their guns up in case something came up and surprised them. After a couple of hours of walking through the forest it started to become clear that something wasn't right.
"What's going on? Where the heck is everyone?" Ellis asked looking around for all the zombies.
"Do you smell that?" Bill asked sniffing the air.
"Yeah it smells like something is burning," Coach replied, "everyone keep your guard up."
Zoey gasped and quickly turned around.
"What is it Zoey?" Louis asked her.
It took a few seconds before she replied.
"It's nothing. I thought I heard something, but it might have been just me." Zoey shook her head.
"No I heard it too." Francis said looking around and getting a little closer to Ellis protectively.
Ellis didn't notice as he also had his guard up his back facing Francis. Ellis felt his heart pounding in his chest out of nervousness and he backed up to where his and Francis's backs were touching. He hadn't noticed as Francis slipped his own hand into his holding a pistol in the other. A few more minutes passed and Bill let out a sigh of relief.
"It's gone for now whatever it was." Bill said.
"What's that?" Rochelle asked pointing up at smoke that was coming from somewhere nearby.
"It looks like something that might have been set on fire." Nick replied as he looked at it and turned to see which way the wind was blowing it towards.
As he turned, however, he saw that Francis and Ellis had been holding hands and started to immediately feel the need to go over there and kick the crap out of Francis.
'Why the fuck do I feel this way?! It's not as if I care what Ellis does…do I?'
Nick tried to suppress his anger as best he could but was failing miserably as his face contorted into a look of fury and his hands were clenched into fists so tightly that they slightly started to bleed. He quickly turned to look away from then and saw in the corner of his eye the look Rochelle was giving him.
"What?!" Nick asked.
"Oh, nothing it's just that I can't believe how stupid you really are sometimes." Rochelle said shaking her head with a smile on her face.
"What does that mean, Rochelle?!" Nick turned red glaring at her.
Ellis looked over at Nick and Rochelle and was even more hurt when he saw that Nick was looking at her blushing. He then noticed that he was holding on to something and looked down and immediately started blushing as soon as he saw that he was holding Francis's hand.
'Uh, how the heck did that get there?' Ellis asked turning redder by the second and looked up at Francis.
Francis grinned and looked back at Ellis.
"I told ya I got your back." Francis said.
"Stay here you guys we'll be right back," Coach said and he and Bill took off toward the direction the smoke was coming from.
"Wait a minute you said not to separate unless something happens!" Louis cried out and he and Zoey took after them.
"Well here we go again. I hate running." Francis said letting go of Ellis's hand and started running; Ellis quickly following behind him.
As soon as they caught up with the others they stopped and looked at them.
"Hey y'all what's the matter?" Ellis asked worried.
"Look down there see for yourself." Zoey said who looked like she was about to throw up.
"This is bad…" Bill said.
"I think we better find another route people." Coach told them.
"Guys what's going on?" Rochelle asked as she and Nick caught up with them.
Ellis looked where the others were looking at and turned completely white.
"Aw hell I think I'm gonna be sick." Ellis ran back the direction he came from and threw up in the nearest bush.
Author's note: wow um at first I had absolutely no idea how to start this chapter off and well it came out better then what I thought it was going to be. It almost if not took me at least 2 hours to write this chapter maybe a bit longer. Anyway i'm so glad i'm on spring break right now that I can concentrate on this story for the next week instead of also on homework. Of course I love the games so much that I've been playing them a lot and cant wait for the add on for l4d2 its called the passing. It comes out the end of this month so yeah. Anyway please leave me reviews because they inspire me as well as make me very very happy XD
