Because You Live
By: esmtz
"Nick, open this door right now!" Rochelle screamed at him as she pounded hard on the door, "What is wrong with you telling that to Ellis! Because of you he's run off!"
"So? The kid needs to learn to take care of himself. He should know by now that being a liability is only going to put the rest of us in danger." Nick replied.
"That's a bunch of crap and you know it!" Rochelle said angrily, "Where do you get off saying that he's nothing but a burden?! You're the one who's been looking after him this whole time, Nick!"
"Yeah and I'm getting sick and tired of it." Nick said.
Rochelle shook her head unable to believe that it was Nick who was saying this.
"Nick, if you truly didn't care about him why did you save his life before? You could have just let him die and you never would have acted the way you did if you didn't care about him," Rochelle said sadly.
Nick didn't say anything. He just sat in front of the door feeling guilty that he had said what he said to Ellis. He refused to admit it to himself that he really did care about Ellis and that he was jealous that Ellis and Francis were getting close.
"Look I don't know what your problem is, Nick, but seriously Ellis didn't deserve that. He's practically in love with you and what do you do? You pretty much tell him that you don't care if he dies!" Rochelle said.
Nick winced at what Rochelle said and looked down at the floor.
"You know what, Nick? What would you have done if Ellis had died?" Rochelle asked.
Nick felt himself tense up. He closed his eyes tightly refusing to even let that thought cross his mind.
"No you know what maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you are still the selfish asshole who doesn't care about anyone but himself. You can just stay in that room while I go out to find where Ellis and Francis went. At least Francis cares about Ellis." Rochelle said and left the safe house.
Nick sat there for a few more minutes before finally deciding to follow Rochelle to go and look for Ellis.
"Ellis! Hey we really should get back to the safe house!" Francis called out to him as he followed after him.
"I'm not going back! Nick hates me…" Ellis cried out; tears falling down his face and he could barely see where he was going.
Francis finally caught up to him and grabbed a hold of his arm.
"Francis, let me go!" Ellis cried.
"I'm sorry, Ellis, but no." Francis looked around and quickly pulled out his shotgun, "Man you're a fast runner. I don't see the safe house anywhere in sight."
Ellis wiped the tears from his eyes and looked around.
"Aw hell, I did it again didn't I?" Ellis asked sadly looking at Francis.
"What are you talking about?" Francis asked reluctantly letting go of Ellis so he could have a firm grip on his shotgun.
"Being a burden. I just got us into some trouble didn't I?" Ellis asked sadly pulling out his shotgun.
"No, Ellis you aren't a burden. Nick was just being an ass and it's not your fault we're out here. If you want to blame someone blame it on him for talking to you like that because that ain't right what he said." Francis told him looking at him.
"It ain't his fault. I know it's mine I haven't exactly been holdin my own good enough." Ellis said.
'Goddammit, Nick!' Francis thought angrily.
"Well since we're already out here should we just go ahead and try to find a way to the city or at the very least look for the others?" Francis asked changing the subject.
Ellis nodded looking at him.
"Well I reckon this is a big forest and the best place to run into the others might not be until we reach the city." Ellis replied.
"Yeah you're probably right, Ellis. It wouldn't be a good idea to search around this forest with all these supercharged infected around. Did I mention that I hate supercharged infected?" Francis sighed.
"Yep you did already." Ellis smiled.
Francis grinned at the smile on Ellis's face.
"Glad to see I got you smiling again. Let's go oh and keep your guard up since it's only the two of us alright?" Francis told him.
Ellis nodded blushing. For the next couple of hours both guys stayed absolutely quiet to make sure they didn't accidentally give away their position to any infected.
"This is weird…" Francis whispered.
"What is, Francis?" Ellis whispered back.
Francis stopped walking and turned to look at Ellis.
"So far there's been no sign of any other survivors besides us and no sign of the infected anywhere either."
Ellis frowned and then shivered out of fear.
"You don't think that all the other groups of survivors that might have been out here were already killed?" Ellis asked.
"Probably only thing is I don't see…" Francis looked around and saw another area that was covered in blood and guts, "never mind I guess that answers that for us huh?"
There was a noise coming from behind them and Francis quickly stood almost in front of Ellis ready to protect him if necessary.
"Oh my god, Francis is that you?" a girl's voice was heard.
Francis and Ellis watched as Zoey and Louis walked towards them.
"Hey where did you guys come from?" Francis asked as Ellis blushed rubbing the back of his neck.
"We thought we heard someone talking over here so we thought we'd check it out. I can't believe we actually managed to find you guys." Louis smiled, but quickly turned to a frown and looked around.
"If you're wondering where your girl is, Louis we left her and the other guy back at the safe house." Francis grinned at the blush on Louis's face.
"Wait, you guys weren't at the safe house. It was just Bill, Louis, Coach, and me." Zoey said raising an eyebrow, "So you guys found another one?"
"Well yeah otherwise we probably wouldn't be alive right now would we?" Francis told them.
"Stop being a smartass, Francis. Why did you leave the other two behind anyway? You know it's a bad idea to separate right now." Louis asked.
Ellis looked away feeling guilty.
"We could ask you guys the same thing." Francis replied.
"To be honest we kinda ran into trouble as soon as we left the safe house," Zoey said, "Where we were there were tons of other survivors out here, but they ended up getting killed by more of the infected that came chasing after all of us."
"We got separated by a tank chasing us away from Coach and Bill. Luckily we were able to take it down before it could hit us." Louis added.
"So what about you guys?" Zoey asked.
"Eh I got into a fight with that Nick guy and he pissed me off so much I took off and Ellis here came with me." Francis said looking at Ellis who had a look of relief on his face and mouthed thank you.
Both Louis and Zoey sighed.
"How did I not see that one coming?" Zoey said to herself.
"I was wondering where you got that bruise on your cheek and chin, man." Louis said.
"So where were you guys headed now?" Zoey asked looking at Francis and Ellis.
"The city where the evac station is. Please tell me you brought a map with you. We kinda uh left the one we found in the safe room," Ellis admitted.
"Trust me I don't go anywhere without having one just in case," Louis said pulling it out of his pocket.
"It's nearing nightfall you guys shouldn't we find the fastest way to get there?" Francis asked.
"There's no need. The map says that we should be close to the city already." Louis said, "Let's just keep on walking."
"What about the zombies and shit. Shouldn't we be worried that they might attack us?" Ellis asked worried.
Zoey shook her head.
"I'm pretty sure we don't have to worry about them until we get into the city."
"Why's that, Zoey?" Francis asked.
"Haven't you guys noticed that there hasn't been any signs of the infected in this area of the forest? I'm assuming that they think that they got everyone in this area already." Zoey replied.
"Well, that's reassuring."
Everyone jumped and saw that Rochelle and Nick had shown up. Ellis looked at Nick nervously as he rubbed his neck and quickly looked away.
"Ellis I'm…" Nick started to walk towards Ellis, but stopped as soon as he saw and heard Ellis's reaction.
"Francis, can I stay with you and your group please?" Ellis asked clinging on to Francis's arm.
Francis grinned and looked at him and nodded. Nick tried to get Ellis's attention again, but failed as the group started to make their way towards the city. Ellis didn't look his way after that.
'I will never forgive myself if Ellis doesn't want to talk to me again' Nick thought to himself sadly as he watched as he was slowly being replaced.
Author's note: Just a few more chapters and I'm pretty sure I will have finished this story. I figured that it was going to be short. Oh well it'll give me time to think of a new idea for another l4d story. To all those who like the story since I have no idea who you are besides the ones that reviewed, favorited, or added to story alert I would like to say thanks for taking the time to read and enjoy my story. Hmm maybe I should have put that on my last chapter haha yeah…anyway I hope you guys all look forward to these next few chapters as for the next story…well im not sure if you want to or not since I obviously haven't figured out what it's going to be about yet.
