Time Frame: The beginning of winter
Rating: T (but language)
Description: The group is getting ready for the first heatless winter
"Morning." Nick grumbled, stepping outside onto the main front platform of the hotel where four others were standing around a barrel that was on fire.
"Morning, havin a hard time sleepin, buddy?" Keith asked, passing over a half-empty jar of moonshine for Nick to add into his tin cup of black, gritty coffee.
They'd gotten over their argument the day after it happened, being that Keith was the bigger person, went over to Nick, apologized, and offered to share a jar of hooch with him. Having not been hammered drunk in a while, the conman accepted and the two had a long, embarrassing evening where they bonded over their past abuses suffered by their fathers and never mentioned it to another living soul, pretending it didn't happen.
"It's too fucking cold in there." He answered.
From what the group could best guess, it was November and the nights were cold. Even though they were in the South, where summers were humid and sticky, winter seemed colder than usual, with no electricity or heat. It was damp, and the kind of cold that though it may not be that cold in temperature, it was cold to the joints.
"Ellis seems to be sleeping through it." Rochelle said with a smirk. She and Francis were up early with Keith and Jared, likely for the same reason Nick was up now. It was just before sunrise, so there couldn't be any other reason behind the need to be out.
"That little shit could sleep through a Tank destroying the room right next to him." Nick recalled.
It was true. Coach and Nick narrowly saved the youngest of their group from a compromised safe-house. A horde somehow tore the door apart and infected broke in. Ellis remained asleep only a few feet away from the hole that the Tank punched through one of the walls. The group was almost all the way outside before realizing that Ellis wasn't with them.
"He always could, if he was really tired." Keith noted, remembering fondly all the times that his best friend slept through otherwise intolerable noise.
"You're lookin a little rough, Nick. Did Ellis hog all the blankets?" Rochelle commented, pointing to Nick's incredibly messy hair. It has been months since he had it cut, and several weeks since he shaved. He was looking more like a homeless man every day. All the guys were. Except Keith. He looked the same as usual, like a homeless man.
Nick's eyes shot open in surprise.
"Ro…" He groaned.
"It's okay, buddy. We all know about you two." Jared assured.
"Yeah, I told Francis." Rochelle added.
"And I told this guy right here." Keith pointed to Jared.
Nick's upper lip twitched.
"Well that's great. How many other people know?" Nick demanded, sounding more tired than angry.
"Me, Jared, Rochelle, Francis, Coach, and I think Danny." Keith answered, counting the amount of people on the three remaining fingers of his right hand.
"Perfect." Nick shot back.
"Don't worry about it, Nick. You're not gonna get any judgment from us. You're lucky to be where you are. Alive, in love-"
"Whoa, hey there. Easy Texas Pete. I am NOT in love with Ellis, kay?" Nick corrected.
"Bullshit." Francis laughed, coughing because the cold air shot into his smoked out lungs too quickly.
"I'm not! We're just…a thing." Nick tried.
"Whatever, Meg from Hercules. I have to go by you guys' room on the way to mine at night, and from what I can EASILY hear through the walls, it sure sounds like you love him." Jared clarified happily.
"You LISTEN through my door?" Nick's cheeks started to redden.
"So you admit, you've said it."
"Shut up." He grumbled, taking a mouthful of moonshine coffee.
"I don't get your denial, man. I don't know what I'd do with myself if I didn't find this lovely lady here." Francis argued, wrapping an arm around Rochelle and pulling her close to him. She smiled.
Nick shook his head.
"How about you, Jared? You find a girlfriend yet?" Nick asked.
Jared shook his head.
"Stubbs, you find a boyfriend yet, or are you still staring holes through mine?"
"Uhm…what?" Keith asked, eyeing his companions in embarrassment.
"Speak of the devil." Rochelle called, drawing attention away from Keith, whose face was as red as his hair.
Ellis wandered out, yawning and coming over to where the warmth was, wrapping an arm around Nick and kissing him before his tired mind could stop him.
"Mornin darlin." He sighed.
"Morning…" Nick tried to fight off a smile, clearing his throat and motioning to the fact that they were clearly not alone.
"Mornin y'all."
The day started like most other days. The group went to the food storage container and found something dehydrated to stick into the barrel and eat once it got warm enough. For the fifth time this week, Nick just had a charred up potato because all of the dehydrated items had powdered cheese included.
"I'm gonna develop that heart condition like Billy Bob Thornton if I keep it up with potatoes all the time."
"That didn't happen." Ellis doubted.
"Did too. The guy almost died by potato. Look it up." Nick insisted, wiping his potato hand off on Ellis's jacket.
Weeks ago, the group went into a small outlet in town and raided as many winter items as possible in the store's back room. Keith, Ellis, and Jared went on for hours about how lucky they were to have Carhartt coats without having to spend $100 on them. Right, the world ended, and all of their families were dead. But they found little things to be happy about. Nick was at least warm, even though his coat was not his idea of stylish. It was nice, and it felt soft on his easily irritated skin, but it did not look like something he would ever willingly wear. It was probably technically a girl's coat: camo pattern and water resistant, which was nice. But it had fake furry crap all around the hood. Nick would have never admitted it, but he kind of liked the fake furry crap.
Rochelle, Bud, and Francis opted for padded leather, the kind a Hell's Angel would wear if he was cold. Everyone was also getting accustomed to what it felt like to wear thermal long john's at night. The texture was strange and it trapped in sweat and the smells related, but it helped keep night time from being too cold to sleep.
"I wonder if the virus that turned everyone into zombies has something to do with how damn cold it is." Coach wondered out load. He'd been in Georgia his entire life and never faced a winter that was this frigid. The Zone they were in now was on the upper edge of Georgia, right on the border of North Carolina. Further north was always a little colder, but this was ridiculous.
"I don't know what that would have to do with the weather, but maybe. I'm a fertility doctor, not a meteorologist." Ylaina pointed out.
"Well babe, maybe the lack of electricity from houses and the shortage of warm bodies around has an effect on how the climate is working." Evie offered.
"Yeah, see kid? That's what I mean." Coach agreed.
"Quite possible."
"I wish we didn't have to run around on foot. It's sad that CEDA shot all the livestock and horses that were in the area." Ellis said, sounding saddened still. "It ain't right to just start shootin animals that don't have any sort of infection."
"Not like it's the only time CEDA fucked us all in the ass, kiddo." Nick threw in.
Hey Coach?" Ellis said in a hushed voice, approaching the older man while he stood taking a break against a near wall.
"Damn, boy. You need to quit sneakin up on people like that." He answered, having been off in his own world just before the break in his concentration.
"Sorry, man. I just wanted to talk to ya about somethin." Ellis explained.
"What's on your mind?" Coach asked, softening.
"Well, not to be corny, but since all my family is dead, you have become kinda like a dad to me in the last few months. So I feel like it wouldn't be inappropriate to ask you for certain kinds of advice that I can't go to Keith for." Ellis was speaking slowly, and not nearly as loud as he usually was.
Coach eyed the younger man skeptically, not sure as to whether or not he wanted to bite at the bait.
"I don't know about butt stuff, kid, if that's what you're asking."
"Nah, no. Not that, Coach. I wanted to ask you about your wife." Ellis approached lightly, not sure if bringing up his dead wife's memory was going to be upsetting.
"Teresa? What about her?"
"How long were you guys together before you got married?"
"Four years. She was my high school sweetheart. We started goin steady when we were both 14. I asked her to marry me in our junior year of school, and she said yes, as soon as we finished high school. So we did, the day after we graduated." Coach smiled, more to himself than to Ellis.
"Was it hard to convince her?"
"Nah, she wanted to get married. She just made me wait until she was out of school to be Mrs. Coach."
"Wait a sec. You're last name is Coach?" Ellis blinked.
"Yeah. Yea it is. Why do you think folks call me Coach?"
"I just thought it was cause you were a coach of a team or somethin before the outbreak happened." Ellis was surprised and interested now.
"I was actually a teacher in a high school health class. The students were supposed to call me Mr. Coach, but they just went with Coach. So did all my friends and co-workers." Coach explained.
"Wow, I just learned somethin new about you."
"So you were sayin?" Coach asked after a brief silence.
"Oh yeah. I wanted to ask ya, how you did it? How did you propose? How did ya get over bein real scared that she was gonna say no?" Ellis was stammering a bit, trying not to let his voice quiver.
"Well, I guess I just told myself that I was never gonna know until I tried. I thought that if she said no, I would be more than happy to just be with her without the marriage part. It's just a piece of paper, kid. I just winged it, really. I took her out to dinner and then halfway through I just dropped down on one knee and told her how I felt about her in my own words. Then I asked the question. I didn't have a huge rock to do it with either, so I didn't have no glamour to back me up. But she said yes, and we stayed together for twenty five years." Coach finished.
Ellis nodded.
"Just ask him, boy." Coach added.
"Oh, I wasn't… I mean-"
"Don't bullshit me, son. I know how you work. Don't wait around hopin that he'll do it. If it's that important to you, you need to tell the man."
"I want to. But what if he says no?"
"You know the guy is no good at the whole matrimony thing, so you need to find the root of it and have a good long talk about it. See if there's a compromise you can make. Gettin married today can't be much like what it used to. There's no record clerk anymore. No judges. It would just be a spiritual sense of nuptuals anyway. Not so much pressure."
He was making some valid points.
"I think what you're lookin for is just some validation that you're wanted." Coach finished.
The group was exhausted, having spent nearly a week preparing for winter, each assigned to different tasks. John had to hang back in the Zone rather than go into the nearby town of Hayesville, North Carolina. Originally, being that he was quick and springy, he was assigned to go with the others, but Sid was placed on "wood finding" which would have been fine, being that it was quiet work. Wood finding was basically traveling around the woods surrounding the Zone and looking for any felled trees or dry moss or anything that would burn. She would have done fine alone, but instead she was paired with two other men and didn't want to go with them.
"Have a word with your girlfriend, Johnny. Tell her she needs to come with us." The younger and mouthier one of the pair said.
"She's my daughter and she doesn't have to do shit." John said, motioning for his companion to come over by him. "One of you go into town with the group, I'll go with her into the woods."
Being that one of the leads overheard and approved, there was nothing the pushy guy could do about it. John accompanied Sid into the woods, and the man, named Bobby went with the group.
The raid groups were split in two groups of five, so that they could cover more ground, and being that they were going to have a lot to carry, a Uhaul truck was provided. Gas was scarce, so this was going to be the last trip this truck was ever going to take.
Nick, Ellis, Rochelle, Francis, and Evie went into one side of the strip mall, while Jared, Keith, Coach, Bud, and Bobby went into the other side.
It was supposed to be easy. The groups were supposed to go into one store, clear it of all useful items, load them into the back of the truck, and hit the next store, repeating until the strip mall was clear. Nobody anticipated that about four stores in, the moron that owned the upcoming store set the front door's alarm before taking off. Once it was opened, the deafening blare of the alarm drew a horde, and hours later, there were piles of dead infected, ammo shell casing littering the ground, and several injured people piled back into the truck and took off for the Zone.
"Well, that was bullshit." Nick groaned as splinters were picked out of the back of his arms by Ylaina's group of makeshift nurses.