The Unforgiven
By: esmtz
Rochelle was wide eyed as she looked from the guy in front of her and then to Nick who was getting off the bed and then walked towards the door.
"You might want to say your goodbyes because you might not see your friends for awhile." The guy told him.
Nick sighed rubbing the back of his head.
"I don't need to. I wasn't really close to the other guys who came with us." Nick said.
"Well if you're sure…"
"I'm sure."
Just as Nick was about to follow the guy out of the room, Rochelle flung her arms around him and hugged him tight.
"I'm so sorry, Nick." Rochelle whispered as tears started to slightly blur her vision.
"It's ok. Just make sure to tell Ellis that I'm not mad at him." Nick told her as he hugged her back smiling slightly, "Kid's growing up being able to defend himself like that."
Rochelle laughed as she pulled away from him.
"He was never a kid, Nick. We just treated him like he was one."
"Maybe you were, but I wasn't. To me he'll always be the kid who wanted to go on the rides at Whispering Oak. He'll also be the one who clearly never learned how to give up." Nick chuckled.
"If only Ellis was here to hear how much you're proud of him." Rochelle smiled.
"I wouldn't say proud more like impressed. There was no way I would have been able to stay that positive about everything the way he did." Nick replied.
"It's funny considering when you first met him you couldn't stand him."
"I know. Believe me I know." Nick said.
"Nick, you know he's not going to take it very well no matter how long I wait to tell him." Rochelle told him.
Nick sighed as he nodded.
"Which is why he's going to need you and Coach to be with him."
"Well you know Coach thinks of Ellis like a son and you already know that I'm not going anywhere." Rochelle said.
"I know you're not."
After a few seconds of silence Rochelle spoke again.
"It's too bad he'll never know how much you love him."
Nick didn't say anything as he walked out of the room.
"Are you ready now?" The guy asked.
"Yeah."
"I'm guessing you already know why I asked you to say your goodbyes."
Nick nodded as they started walking.
"I'm terribly sorry. I really am, but as it is strict around here for us to kill anyone who's got it in their blood we have no choice."
"I get it. You people don't want the infection to spread anymore then it already has." Nick snorted, "Wasn't there a better way besides killing off innocent people?"
"I'm sure the people running this place had their reasons…" the guy replied hesitantly.
"What you don't even know why you guys decided to take this route?" Nick asked.
"I'm just a messenger. They don't tell me shit on what they're planning to do. They just tell me to get certain people and to take them somewhere else." The guy sighed.
Nick looked at him as they passed by the cafeteria where a bunch of people were still at and headed down a hallway until they got to the very end where you could either turn to the left or to the right. He rolled his eyes as the guy knocked on the door.
"Don't want anyone to hear you guys killing off people? Bunch of fucking assholes…"
"The room is over there." The guy pointed to the left.
Nick turned and saw a see through wall right next to the door and just barely heard the sound of a gun going off. Nick raised an eyebrow as he turned to face in front of him.
"So what room is this?" Nick asked.
"It's the waiting room. They've got two rooms on both left and right sides of the hallway and as you heard they're both in use right now."
Nick looked at him in shock.
"Just how many people are you guys planning to kill?"
"They've been doing this since the infection hit and well, they've been killing a lot."
"How much is a lot?" Nick asked.
The guy looked nervous.
"Uh too many to count?"
Nick knew that this shouldn't have come as a surprise to him, but instead he ended up speechless. The door opened and the guy pushed him inside before someone else closed the door behind him. Nick looked around the room and to his horror saw a few children amongst the group of people.
"Sit down."
Nick turned and before he could respond he was pushed making him fall to the ground. He glared up at the guy.
"What the fuck was that for?"
"Do what I say or I'll send you to your early grave!" The guy told him holding a gun right towards Nick's chest.
Nick snorted as people started screaming.
"You assholes are already going to do it so why wait?"
The guy was tempted to shoot him right there, but then someone spoke on the intercom telling him to not shoot him. He lowered his weapon and stepped back. Nick shook his head wondering if it was because hearing a gun going off in this room would be a lot louder then it would be in the other rooms.
"Wait for your name to be called. If you so much as try to escape I'll shoot you where you stand." The guy told him.
"Whatever."
Almost half an hour passed by before Rochelle finally found Coach and Ellis. They had been back at the cafeteria sitting at an empty table completely bored out of their minds.
"Where have you guys been? I've been looking everywhere for you." Rochelle said sitting down next to Coach.
"Sorry, Ro. We were busy walkin around talkin about some stuff." Ellis told her.
"Yeah like how there's no air in here!" Coach complained.
Rochelle snorted.
"You can't be serious."
"It's stuffy in here, baby girl. I don't know about you, but I'm starting to feel suffocated in here with all these people." Coach sighed, "By the way where's that boyfriend of yours?"
Rochelle looked at him horrified. She glanced at Ellis who looked at her completely hurt.
"Nick isn't my boyfriend, Coach!" Rochelle told him.
"Sure seems like it to me with how much you've been with him recently." Coach said looking at her.
"You and Ellis hated him. What was I supposed to do abandon him like you guys did?" Rochelle asked.
Ellis rubbed the back of his head nervously as he looked around.
"That was the basic idea yeah." Coach replied.
"Coach, we were supposed to be working as a team! I was starting to feel bad that no one was watching his back!" Rochelle said, "How can you still hate him even after we all finally got rescued? He helped us get here!"
Coach rolled his eyes.
"So? Just cause he helped us get here doesn't mean I'm obligated to like him now." Coach replied.
"At least you admitted that he did help us out!" Rochelle said before looking at Ellis, "I'm surprised you're not jumping in here."
"Uh…"
Coach shook his head.
"Reason he's not jumpin in is cause we were talkin about Nick for the most part and…"
"Yeah I kinda figured." Rochelle sighed.
"…and after awhile he started feelin guilty about what he had said to Nick and wanted to go and apologize to him. I kept tellin him that it wasn't a good idea…"
Rochelle glared at him.
"…but we went back to the table and found that you and Nick had already left." Coach said.
"Yeah because we were finally shown where we would be sleeping for tonight." Rochelle replied.
"Please tell me we got us a couple of rooms." Coach said.
"Only one and it has a king sized bed. Sorry, but I'm not sharing with you, Coach." Rochelle told him.
Coach sighed.
"Well it never hurts to sleep on the floor."
"Ellis, you can sleep with me if you want." Rochelle said.
Ellis hadn't been paying attention. He kept looking around for any sign of Nick.
"Ellis?" Rochelle asked.
Ellis swallowed.
"Ro, where's Nick?" Ellis asked looking at her like a kicked puppy.
Rochelle hesitated as she removed her hand from his arm. She looked away not wanting to lie to him, but at the same time not wanting to tell the truth either.
"He hates me that's why he ain't here with you. Is he at least in the bedroom? I need to talk to him."
Rochelle bit her lip refusing to make eye contact. Coach frowned as he looked at her.
"Rochelle, please it's really important that I know where he is." Ellis pleaded.
The words came out of her mouth before she could stop herself.
"He's gone, Ellis."
Those three words made Ellis look at her in horror. He swallowed.
"W-Where did he go? He can't have gone too far." Ellis started to stand up.
"No, sweetie not gone as in he left. Gone as in…"
Ellis turned completely white.
"What are you talkin about, baby girl?" Coach asked worriedly as he saw tears start to form in her eyes.
Rochelle started shaking as she wrapped her arms around herself.
"He was bit."
"What?" Coach asked.
"W-When the tank knocked Ellis out c-cold and Nick got him to the s-safe house, he was b-bit by the hunter."
"When was this?"
"W-When we were g-getting the gas to Virgil."
Ellis was at a loss of words as he started looking around for Nick.
"Ellis, s-sweetie…" Rochelle got up and followed after him.
Ellis was yelling out Nick's name as he moved passed people that were walking by and looking at him. Rochelle grabbed his arm making him turn to look at her.
"You sure he ain't in the room? He probably just wanted you to say that to make me feel bad about what I said." Ellis asked
"No, sweetie he isn't in the room." Rochelle said tears falling down her face, "About half an hour ago the same guy who brought us inside told him that he needed to say his goodbyes."
"What the hell for?"
"Ellis, you already know what for." Coach said having followed after Rochelle.
Ellis shook his head as he looked at them wide eyed.
"No I don't!"
"Sweetie, he's carrying the infection. He's been carrying it since before Virgil picked us up." Rochelle told him.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Ellis asked tears starting to form in his eyes.
"Because Nick didn't want you to know."
The tears fell from his eyes as it finally made sense to him as to why Nick didn't want him to look at his leg.
"B-But I didn't see any b-bite marks on his leg w-when the both of us were t-takin care of him."
"It was because the blood got in the way." Rochelle replied looking at him worriedly.
Ellis started falling apart right in front of them. He was shaking and was about to turn around to start calling out for him again, but Rochelle didn't let go of his arm. He turned back to look at her and started sobbing.
"Ro, p-please let me go…I have to find him…"
Rochelle bit her lip as more tears fell down her face.
"Ellis, Nick wanted me to tell you that he was sorry about what he told you. He didn't mean any of it. He just thought that you hating him would make it easier for you to deal once he was gone."
"What?" Ellis's voice got quieter.
"Also, he's not mad at you, sweetie. He really wanted you to know that. He also wanted to tell you how proud he was of you for being able to stand up for yourself the way you did." Rochelle said smiling slightly at him.
They didn't say anything for a few seconds. Ellis shook his head refusing to believe what Rochelle had told him.
"He ain't dead. He ain't." Ellis sniffed as he wiped away the tears on his face.
"Ellis, sweetie, don't do this to yourself…" Rochelle pleaded.
"No. I'm gunna find him. I'm gunna find him and I'm gunna apologize to him. He's gotta be around here somewhere." Ellis said.
Rochelle watched sadly as Ellis started asking people if they saw a guy in a white suit. After having watched everyone that had been in the room with him leave, Nick's name was finally called. He stood up and was escorted into the room on the right. He was forced to stand up against the wall and handcuffed on either side.
"Seriously, is this really necessary?" Nick asked looking at his escort and the shooter annoyed.
"It would be really annoying if you tried to get away." The escort said.
Nick snorted.
"Was this specifically made for me? because really I wasn't planning on going anywhere." Nick told them.
"Don't think you're something special because you're not. People tend to try and run as soon as they find out what's going to happen to them." The escort replied glaring at him.
"I wonder why that is." Nick said sarcastically.
"Could you hurry up and reload your pistol already? I'm getting sick and tired of talking to this guy." he said.
"Relax, I'm done. You can go." The shooter said taking the gun off safe mode and pointing it directly at Nick's chest.
"Finally."
The escort left leaving the shooter and Nick alone in the room. Nick wasn't afraid. Having been close to death so many times before even before the infection had prepared him for this moment. He promised himself he wasn't going to think about Ells in these last few moments of his life as he closed his eyes and waited for the bullet to enter his chest.
"Nick!"
Nick opened his eyes in surprise barely able to hear someone yell out his name. He looked towards the see through wall and to his horror saw Ellis banging on it. The kid's eyes were wide with fear as he went to the door and started trying to kick it down.
"Who the hell is that?" The shooter asked a he looked in the same direction.
Coach and Rochelle had shown up and Coach immediately went to help Ellis out with the door. Rochelle watched wide eyed as she saw the shooter glare at them.
"They shouldn't be here."
The person on the intercom told him to get on with it while Coach pushed Ellis aside so he could use his full force on the door. Ellis went back to look at Nick tears streaming down his face as soon as he saw Nick slightly smile at him before closing his eyes and hearing the sounds of the door, the gunshot, and Ellis's scream.
"NICK!"
Author's note: I literally started crying writing the last parts of this chapter starting from Rochelle finding Coach and Ellis till the end. I know it's a bit redundant since I'm doing the same thing as I did in my last two l4d stories. I'm almost positive that this is my last l4d story since obviously I cant think of anything else that doesn't include bringing somebody back from the dead (man I'm stupid) I think. Also I'm fully aware of the fact that I tend to use run on sentences a lot. Thing is I think I talk the same as I write so I guess that explains that. Also kind of important if you guys were hoping for a sex scene well I'm kinda stupid in that area. I have absolutely no idea how to write something like that and not only that I kinda don't want to seeing as its very common in tons of other stories and I just plain don't want to. I'm much more into their actual relationship then in them having sex. Sorry. I just wanted my stories to at least be different that way. Again sorry for the disappointment.