Chapter Six

The Passing: High Fives

Cas' POV

Being in the backseat with Ellis driving, I could handle- flying through a glass window, I could handle- having to sit on Nick's lap, I couldn't wait for the second I could move. I was sure he wasn't happy about the arrangements either, but neither of us spoke up-

-until the Jimmy Gibbs slowed to a stop.

"Halle-fuckin'-lujah!"

Needless to say, my outburst woke everyone who was napping. Now I just had to wait for Dakota to hurry up and get out.

"Come on, woman. T-t-today."

My comment only made her dramatically slow her pace until I started poking at her around the seat.

The second I crawled out of the stuffy car and landed on the ground a grin broke out on my face.

"First time a woman's been so happy to get off my lap," Nick taunted with a smirk.

My grin instantly contorted into a scowl.

"You let a lot'a women sit on your lap, Nick?" Ellis asked innocently.

Then the grin was back. "I'm sure I was the first," I snickered.

Nick opened his mouth for a retort, but Coach cut him off. "Not now you two. We got bigger problems."

Following Coach's gaze, I took in the raised bridge in front of us, preventing us from continuing forward.

"So, we just have to lower the bridge?" Jon asked .

"Sure as hell isn't a walk in the park, kid."

All of our attentions turned towards the man on the bridge walkway. He was too far away to fully see him, but it was easy to note the sleeves of tattoos along his arms.

"But it can be done, right?" Rochelle piped up.

"Sure, if you've got a ton'a gas and a small army," he answered with a chuckle. "Hey, is that a Depeche Mode shirt? You know, I don't hate that band."

Rochelle's brow rose in confusion, yet she looked slightly amused.

"So, there's no way you c'n lower the bridge fer us?" Ellis asked, hoping he could do it.

"No can do," a female's voice replied.

We all watched in surprise as a woman walked out from behind the guy we were talking to. She had her hair tied up and looked to be around my age.

"Look cupcake, let's just let the man handle this," Nick cut in.

I had to resist the urge to back hand him from where I was standing.

"Oh boo-hoo, I don't know what to do. Go to hell, Colonel Sanders!"

Nick's mouth fell agape while the rest of us tried to stifle our laughter. This girl was definitely someone I could get along with.

"Uh, well... Do we need'a password or somethin'?" Ellis tried again.

As adorable as his persistence was, I didn't think it was going to pay off.

"Uh... No..." She replied hesitantly (probably not sure if he was serious or not). "The generator's out of gas. You'll have to get to the other side and fill it up. We can cover you from here, but that's the best I can offer. Did you get all that?"

When a minute went by and Ellis didn't offer an answer, everyone turned their attention to him curiously.

Coach was the first to speak up. "Son, are you gonna answer her?"

"She is so beautiful... She is so beautiful..."

I felt my lip twitch at his rambling as a pang of jealousy shot through me. Dakota must have felt it too, because I heard her start growling.

"He's got it!" She shouted up to the girl.

"Okay, see you on the other side."

With one last glance at the two survivors, we turned heel and started our journey. The first patch of it looked to be a long park like area full of infected. It just looked like a pain in the ass to me.

"Before we all run down there..." I mumbled.

I earned a few questioning looks, but I brushes them off and put my rifle on the roof of a nearby van before climbing up as well.

"Might as well clear the path, right?"

Jon and Peter nodded and Rochelle gave me an approving smile.

"Good thinkin', Cas," Ellis chimed in.

I smiled to myself (at least his mind was off that girl) and lined up the first myself before firing.

"This is going to take all day," Nick grumbled. "I'm sure we can handle it."

Before anyone could say anything, he marched forward and jumped down into the park. I was about to hop down and follow, but a small flash of pink skin caught my attention.

I could just let the jockey grab him and prove that my idea was smarter than just running in blind, but then again, my conscience wouldn't allow it. Why did I have to be so nice?

I waited for the small infected to close in on Nick, only taking the shot when it had jumped up at him. The lifeless corpse rag-dolled mid-air and landed on Nick, causing an embarrassing shout from the con man.

I heard a few snickers as I jumped down from the van and walked towards Nick. The rest of the group followed with weapons drawn. As we caught up with Nick, Coach and Peter took point and I gave Nick a pat on the shoulder.

"Guess it wasn't your lap it wanted to sit on," I teased.

He grumbled in agitation. "Ha, ha, very funny."

I gave him my best shit eating grin and continued on past him with the others. By the speed we were moving at, it was going to take us quite some time to get around to the other side of the bridge.

With a sigh, I shot another infected in the head, but my eyes widened when my scope landed on the next one in line. Other than the fact that it was wearing one of those circular hats (it looked like a fisherman's hat to be honest), it had a row of ammo strapped over its shoulder, a health pack on its back, and a molotov on its belt. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought it was another survivor.

Luckily, I knew better.

It took two shots to the head to put the damned thing down, but once it hit the ground, I ran over and grabbed my reward.

"Looks like the zombies are good for something after all," I grinned.

The rest of the group wandered in behind me to look at the zombie.

"Looks like he just turned," Rochelle said quietly. "Poor guy..."

A minute passes by silently until I heard Dakota clear her throat. "We should get moving."

A few nods were shared between the group and Coach started heading forward. "Nick, you're with me."

Surprisingly, said con man didn't have an issue with the order and made his way to Coach's side, while the rest of us followed from a distance.

"Man, oh man, ah don't even know that girl's name," Ellis started. "But boy was she beautiful."

He opened his mouth to continue, but the sound of two hands making contact with his face stopped him. Both Dakota and myself continued to glare daggers at him.

"D-did you two jus'... Slap me...?"

"No, we didn't slap you," Dakota corrected, a slightly icy tone to her voice. "We highfived you-"

"-in the face," I finished.

Ellis' brows shot up as he looked between the two of us. "Well, uh... Okay then."

With a smirk, I raised my fist towards Dakota and bumped it against hers.

"Ellis does have a point though," Peter chimed in.

I turned to him, daring him to continue. Apparently, I wasn't that threatening.

"She was beautiful."

Jon chuckled and nodded his agreement, but before we could do anything, Coach called us forward. There would be hell to pay for this later. We'd make sure of it.

Footnote from cas.92:

I apologize for the short chapter... maybe some incentive from reviews would help out? ;P