Nick winced as his foot came in contact with the rock hard muscles of the Tank.
"You sure you're ok?" Coach asked him again.
"Yeah I'm fine. It never touched –"he broke off as he remembered the soldier. He rushed to the edge of the alley, "Shit!"
Alex was lying on his back; blood caked the side of his face but, his eyes were open. He groaned as Coach grabbed his hand and hauled him to his feet. "I'm fine, I'm fine. I've had worse."
"Alex!" Hailey flew past the others and latched onto her uncle. "Are you ok?!"
He grimaced and gently pulled her arms from around him. "I'm ok," he told her with a tight smile, "but I think I might be a bit sore for a while."
"Yay!" Hailey did a small jump then gently took her Uncle's hand. "I love you Alex."
"I love you too girlie."
Nick rolled his eyes at the scene, "Yeah, yeah everyone's happy. Can we get out of here?"
Ellis chuckled, "Love you too Nick!" He picked up the conman's empty weapon and held it out. Nick grabbed the gun and swiftly reloaded it with the ammo from his pack. He just wanted to get as far as possible from this place. He set off down the alley but had only taken a couple of steps before he heard a grunt of pain.
Alex was doubled over, one arm wrapped around his ribs and the other holding on to Coach for support.
"Alex, what's wrong?" Hailey asked fearfully.
"Might be a rib, that Tank hit ya pretty hard." Coach lightly probed Alex's side but pulled back when the man sucked in a pained breath. "Something's screwed up in there." Coach said.
"Where can we take 'im?" Ellis asked as he scanned the rooftops, "Safe room's busted and we can't cross the river."
"What about that house Coach and Nick found? You said there were people there." Rochelle suggested.
"Good idea Ro. We can try there." Coach replied, "We gotta be careful though, Nick and I cleared it out pretty well but who knows what might have moved back in." Coach carefully put Alex's arm around his shoulder, taking as much weight as he could.
Alex's face twisted in pain and he leaned heavily on the other survivor. Hailey looked up at him, fear still apparent on her face. Then, suddenly, she straightened up and announced, "Don't worry Alex! We'll fix you just like we did Ellis and then we'll all go find Jamie!" she smiled broadly, pleased with herself.
Everyone chuckled at the little girl's enthusiasm.
Ellis shouldered both his pack and Alex's, "Alright, let's get movin' 'fore it gets dark!"
It was slow going. They had to stop frequently when Alex's breathing became too labored. Nick and Rochelle took point, watching for any surprises. Coach, supporting Alex, followed behind with Hailey. Ellis was bringing up the rear, keeping an eye out for anything that got too curious.
Nick glanced around quickly; he was becoming increasingly uneasy as the sun dipped toward the horizon. Rochelle nudged him softly, "You ok?"
"Yeah. Fine." He replied in his usual fashion.
"Ok."
Nick looked at her, "What? You aren't going to psychoanalyze me, give me an inspirational quote or two?"
She didn't answer. Now Nick knew something was going on. He poked her again, "Hey! We're going to be living the cushy life when get to the house! We'll stay there, rest up, and figure out what we are going to do next. No sleeping on moldy beds for a few days!"
She smiled slightly, but then sighed and looked at the ground.
Nick looked at her with confusion. She was usually right there with Ellis on the "everything is going to be ok!" scale. "What's eating you?" he asked.
She mumbled something incoherently.
"What?"
"It's my fault." She said so quietly he almost didn't hear.
"What is?"
"All of this! Alex is hurt, you almost..." She couldn't bring herself to say it. "It's all my fault."
"What do you mean? It's not like you went up and punched soldier over there into a wall." Nick almost smiled at the visual, "It was a Tank, how is that on you?"
"Because I fell asleep!" Rochelle replied fiercely, "If hadn't done that I would have seen it coming and warned everyone!"
Nick stopped and grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to look at him. "We don't need you thinking like that. Remember when I fell off during watch in Savannah? We woke up to the sweet smell of Boomer bile! That horde lasted 15 minutes!
"And Ellis? He passed out and a Smoker got you!"
She looked down again and Nick gave her a small shake. "We've all done it." It's bad enough with the zombies, he didn't need this to deal with too.
"Everything ok?"
Nick turned and saw Coach and Alex slowly catching up.
"Yep! We're good!" Rochelle gave them a strained smile and shook off Nick's hands.
Ellis came up behind the pair and slung his gun over his shoulder, "Hey Coach, I'll take over now."
Alex spoke up, "Actually, how about you Nick? Ellis we need you keeping watch."
Nick eyed the man, wondering what he was thinking, it was Ellis' turn.
Alex seemed to notice Nick's hesitation, "No offense Ellis, but you're smaller than me so I feel like I'm squishing you."
"No offense Alex, but you kinda were." He grinned and brought his gun back to his hands.
"Whatever." Nick shrugged and stepped to Coach. They slowly transferred Alex to Nick. The soldier took shallow breaths as his body complained about the movement. Nick waited until he felt the other survivor grip his shoulder securely, "You good?"
"Yeah, fine." Alex said through gritted teeth.
Hailey took his other hand softly and the group continued down the road.
Only a few minutes later Alex slowed, then stopped all together. He sagged against Nick, "I've gotta sit." He gasped.
"We're almost there!" Nick urged the man. The light was fading too fast for Nick's liking. He tried to pull the man along but stopped when the soldier grabbed his jacket.
"Nick. I have to sit." Alex looked at him pleadingly. The look in the other man's eyes convinced Nick and as carefully as he could, he helped the Alex sit against a ruined storefront.
"Alex what's wrong?" Hailey kneeled beside him.
He smiled at her, trying to hide his pain, "I just have to sit for a little bit. Remember when you broke your ankle at school and sometimes just had to sit down?"
"Yeah, I remember! I kept getting super tired really fast! Is that what's happening to you?" She looked at him curiously.
"Yep, just like that." Alex squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep, pained breath. "C'mere Hails." He patted the ground next to him.
Hailey gingerly sat down, just barely brushing his arm. Alex sighed and pulled her closer, his face twisting.
"But I'm hurting you!" Hailey said quickly.
"I'm ok." Alex pushed some hair from the girl's face. "I love you very, very much Hailey. You know that right?" he said slowly.
"Well duh!" She replied with a broad smile, "And I love you too!" she snuggled a bit closer into his side. "And when we find Jamie he'll say that too and we'll all be together!"
Nick turned away and looked at Ellis and Coach with a grim expression.
"Ah shit man, that ain't fair." Coach said murmured.
Ellis looked between them confusedly, "What ain't fair?"
Nick clenched his fists, "Life Ellis. Life isn't fair."