Silent Lucidity

By: esmtz

Before the others found out about what they were doing Nick and Ellis quickly moved away from each other and grabbed some of the canned foods so that they could eat. Ellis then mentioned to the others that there was food there in the safe room and watched as they climbed down the ladder and quickly ate before finally deciding to load up on supplies so that they could head out right away.

"Well it ain't much, but it's better than nuthin." Coach sighed wishing that they had more to eat, but knew that he was just going to have to deal for now as he threw away the empty can that he had just finished eating and went to pick up his gun as well as a health pack.

"It ain't far now. I heard from a walkie talkie that I found just exitin the safe room that rescue is waitin for us on the other side of the bridge." Keith told him as he reloaded his gun.

"That's good to know as long as they're still there that is and as long as they're not infected." Rochelle sighed not wanting to have to experience that again.

"They're still there alright. Even while I was helpin y'all out with the Tank I heard someone talkin through it." Keith told her as he looked at her.

"Well only way to know for sure is if we get across this goddamn bridge." Nick replied already ready to go as he stood next to the ladder and looked at them.

"It's not like we have a choice, Nick. I'm just hopin that this turns out alright." Coach told him as he walked towards him and started heading up the ladder.

Ellis watched as Keith and Rochelle finished getting ready themselves and started making their way up the ladder. He swallowed feeling nervous about having to run across the bridge just to get to where the rescue was going to be at. Nick walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder gripping it slightly.

"Relax, overalls. Nothing is going to happen out here alright? It's just going to be the same thing that we've always dealt with." Nick told him having noticed that he was nervous and was looking at him with a serious look on his face.

Ellis rubbed the back of his neck still not completely sure about that.

"I know yer right, Nick, but don't you think that maybe sumethin MIGHT happen? I mean it's a bridge and we don't exactly have a lot of room to…"

Ellis was cut off as Nick put both his hands on his shoulders gripping them tightly.

"First off I'm not going to let that happen especially if it's you and second why are you suddenly worrying about what's going to happen?" Nick asked frowning slightly.

Ellis didn't say anything so Nick continued.

"Listen, Ellis you don't need to worry because you know how good all of us are at handling difficult situations plus we got your friend here to help us out as well."

Ellis sighed as he lowered his arm and looked at Nick.

"I know that. What I'm concerned about is the Charger and the Tank. Nick, I think you and I both know what the chances are of them targeting us and Nick it can't be you." Ellis told him.

"Ellis, it's not going to be either of us and don't you dare fucking say that it's going to be you! I don't want to hear that shit! We're getting out of here so there's no way in hell that anyone's going to die out here after how far we have come just to get here especially you! I helped you get here so there's no way in fucking hell that you are dying now!" Nick said angrily.

"But Nick…"

"No buts, Ellis. Nothing is going to happen and we are getting out of here. ALL of us so don't you dare start thinking that way! If you so much as try to save me by sacrificing your life I will make sure that you don't even get the chance!" Nick told him looking at him seriously.

Ellis looked at him horrified.

"Nick, what are you…"

Ellis was interrupted as he heard Keith call down to them.

"Hey El, are you ready to go yet?" Keith asked.

Ellis paused for a second before answering.

"Yeah, we'll be right up." Ellis told him.

Ellis watched as Nick made his way up the ladder as he clenched his fists tightly at his sides before following behind him. Just as Ellis finished climbing the ladder they all made their way outside and Coach went towards the walkie talkie and pressed the button. A voice was heard coming from it and Coach started talking to him. As soon as he was done he told the others that rescue was indeed waiting on the other side and all they had to do was lower the bridge and get across it.

"Y'all be careful now. This ain't like how we're used to fightin them." Coach told them as he pressed the button to lower the bridge.

"This should be easy. All we have to do is get across it right?" Rochelle asked slightly worried herself.

As soon as it was lowered everyone winced at how many cars were on the bridge. Ellis turned completely white as he thought that with one swing a Tank could easily kill all of them with all these vehicles.

"Shit. I didn't think there was gunna be THAT many cars on the bridge. Sorry y'all I guess I must have not seen enough of the bridge to let y'all know about the cars." Keith said rubbing the back of his head as he looked at them, but more specifically at Ells, worriedly.

"Nuthin we coulda done about it anyways. Let's move people and stay away from the sides!" Coach told them as he led the way.

The moment they left the safety of the safe room they could hear that a few of the special infected were around. Ellis winced when he heard that a Charger was among them.

"Whatever you guys do don't let the Charger charge you." Rochelle told them as she looked around for any sign of it.

"Don't let the Jockey jump on you either. It could easily steer you off the bridge." Keith added as he moved closer to Ellis.

Ellis nodded as they kept making their way past the cars and killing as many zombies as they could. Before they got very far a Smoker showed up behind them as it's tongue wrapped around Keith and started pulling him towards it. With Ellis being so close to him the Smoker was quickly killed just as the Jockey showed up and jumped on top of Rochelle.

"Get this thing off of my head!" Rochelle cried out as it tried to steer her towards the side of the bridge. With Coach and Nick being closest to her it was quickly killed.

"Y'all look out for the Charger!" Coach yelled as he saw that just in front of him was the Charger and it already started charging in their direction.

Coach, Rochelle and Nick quickly got out of its way, but unfortunately it managed to ram into Ellis, sending Keith flying, and started smashing him into the ground. Ellis started screaming out in pain as he knew that his body couldn't take much more of this. Nick and Keith, who just got back up, went towards it and kept shooting at it until it died.

"El, are you alright?!" Keith watched worriedly as Nick helped him up.

Ellis stumbled as he felt Nick catch him looking completely horrified as he saw that Ellis was struggling to keep himself conscious.

"Overalls, hey look at me I've got you alright. You're going to be fine." Nick told him making Ellis struggle to keep his eyes focused on him.

"Y'all I could use some help here!" Coach yelled out.

"Keith, I can help out Coach with the front. Can you guard the back?" Rochelle asked as she tossed out a pipe bomb.

Keith nodded as he looked at Nick and Ellis.

"Yeah I got it." Keith replied trying to keep his cool as he pulled out his adrenaline and handed it to Ellis, "Can't have you goin down on me now, El. Here."

Nick grabbed it and quickly injected it into Ellis's arm while Keith turned his attention back to the zombies.

"Come on, Ellis just hang on a bit longer we're almost there." Nick said pushing him slightly to get him moving.

The adrenaline at least helped to get him moving and he wasn't in as much pain so Ellis was able to keep his eyes open and focus on killing the zombies. At about half ways there, after having found some pain pills for Ellis and having dealt with a few more special infected, they felt the bridge start to shake and everyone winced as they saw the Tank come into view.

"Shit, there's too many cars!" Rochelle cried out.

"Just run and shoot!" Coach yelled as they started backing away from the tank.

Keith brought out his molotov and threw it towards the Tank just as it started trying to throw cars at them. Of course zombies were still rushing at them from behind so they tried getting them out of the way before the Tank could reach them. Ellis watched wide eyed as a car was thrown directly towards them. He fell to the floor as it flew past him. Ellis then quickly got back up and started shooting at the Tank and just as it got close to him it died. Ellis's heart beat was so fast that he hadn't heard that Nick had yelled out his name when the Tank had thrown the car towards them. He did however just then hear Rochelle scream making Ellis's heart skip a beat as he just stood there frozen in fear.

'The car missed me but did it…'

Ellis was afraid to turn around as he hoped that it hadn't been Nick who had been hit by the car. He slowly turned around just as he felt someone's hand on his shoulder and with wide eyes saw that it was Nick who was looking at him clearly relieved to find him ok. Ellis swallowed as he started shaking.

"Nick…"

Nick sighed.

"Damn, Ellis I swear you like to scare the shit out of me."

Ellis was about to ask if everyone was ok, but after fully turning around and saw how everyone was he didn't need Nick to tell him what had happened as Ellis turned completely white unable to form sentences together as he saw the state that Coach was in.

"Coach…oh god…" Rochelle cried as she put a hand to her mouth as her tears started falling down her face.

The car had literally slammed into Coach and with such force it had killed him on impact, blood pooling underneath his dead body. Ellis felt like throwing up as he watched Keith make his way over to Rochelle and tried to get her to stand up.

"I'm sorry, Rochelle, but we have ta get goin. I can already see the zombies headin right for us." Keith told her.

Rochelle wanted to so badly say no that she wanted to stay here and mourn for Coach, but she knew that he was right and that staying there would just get the rest of them killed as well. She got up and followed after him stopping just for a second to look back at Coach.

"Goodbye, Coach. I'll miss you." Rochelle said as she went to catch up with the others.

Author's notes: Well that was unexpected. I originally wasn't planning on killing off Coach, but I decided to just go along with it in this chapter. What's also surprising is that I've been inspired enough lately to write as many chapters as I have lately which this makes a total of 3 recently updated. I honestly didn't think anyone would still be reading this so I thought that after I updated the first time which was chapter 7 I probably wouldn't get a lot of attention but I am glad that you guys are reading it! ^_^ Anyway next time I update will probably be another 2 weeks or so just to give this chapter enough time for people to read before I post another if I'm not busy.