Chapter Twenty:

Concert of the Dead

*Nick*

I was a jerk, an ass, a loser, a conceited arrogant son of a… all of these things floated through my mind as I watched her walk by me, tears rolling down her cheeks. Beside me I saw both Coach and Rochelle glare at me and walk by with a huff.

I ignored them as I followed after Ellie, my head buzzing with light headedness and pain from the crash into the floor it had received. I noticed Coach limping and the large stream of blood running from Rochelle's arm.

Looking past them I noticed Ellie limping also, her skin was pale and sweaty and I noticed her swaying as well. I was about to mention this to Rochelle when all at once Ellie's legs gave way. I dived forward out of instinct and caught her as she fell, the other two stopping in surprise. I looked down at Ellie's face, it was deathly white and I grimaced upon seeing the large bruise on her jaw and the fresh blood shining through her shirt.

"She needs to rest and get her bandages changed", Rochelle said as she knelt beside her and lifted up her shirt. The sight made me flinch; it looked pretty sore and slightly infected.

I carried her through the alley to the double doors and laid her down on a cot before I walked over to another cot and laid down on it, my senses dead to the world as I closed my eyes leaving Rochelle to handle patching Ellie up.

*Ellie*

I woke to warm hands gently rubbing sweat covered hair out of my face as a damp cloth was applied to my hot skin. It felt so good and I smiled imagining Nick doing it to me, but when I opened my eyes about to greet him, I frowned noticing it was Coach.

"Hey baby girl", he said with a gentle smile.

I smiled back but I obviously didn't hide my disappointment as he sighed.

"Nicks sleeping, I think he has a minor concussion."

I nodded as he smiled again, "you have a little bit of a fever from the infected wounds, but Rochelle said only one is really infected so she applied some more antibiotic cream to it and gave you some pain medication to take when you were a little out of it. You already are much cooler then you were."

"Thanks coach", I whispered.

He smiled, "Anytime Ellie girl", he said with a smile as he placed the damp cloth on my head and walked over to Rochelle who was cooking. He said something to her I didn't catch and she turned to me with a smile.

"You hungry Ellie?" she asked.

I nodded, "Yeah a little."

She smiled a little bigger this time and nodded.

"Alright, it will be done in a couple minutes."

I nodded and glanced to where Nick was sound asleep, a few cots away from me. I didn't like the fact he was so far away but I didn't feel like getting up and moving. Instead, I just watched the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed and I smiled, just so happy he was breathing at all.

I quickly ate the food Rochelle brought me as I watched Nick slowly sit up and eat his portion. He glanced at me for a second and then looked away. I frowned but didn't let it bother me as I continued to eat. I knew something was bothering him and I would just have to be patient until he told me what it was.

When we finished eating, I noticed Rochelle and Coach were ready to leave anytime. Standing up, a little wobbly on my feet at first, I grabbed my stuff and watched Nick do the same.

"Ready?" I asked.

They nodded.

We started out towards the stadium and I couldn't help but smile when I saw the stage.

"Midnight Riders", I said with excitement in my voice.

Beside me I heard coach holler and laugh, "Yeah baby! Those guys rock!"

"Never heard of them", I heard Nick mutter.

"Me either", said Rochelle.

"Keith and I came to a concert of theirs one time and we got so close to the stage, Keith's eyebrows were burned off and he…"

"Ellie, not now sweetheart", Rochelle said with a small smile.

"Okay", I agreed and moved down the stairs behind the others.

*Nick*

Ellie seemed a little unstable on her feet, but as soon as she saw the stage she seemed to be ten times healthier as adrenaline seemed to rush her system. That dang Keith had to be mentioned again though, I thought with a scowl.

I continued after the others as we walked onto the stage. The stadium was pretty big and I knew the spotlights and music would attract rescue if anything was around this area. I hoped they were anyways, I didn't know how we would escape if they weren't.

"Someone needs to start up the power", Coach replied.

"I got it", said Rochelle as she bound up the stairs swiftly and hit the power switch.

The lights on the stage came on as Ellie cheerfully ran over to the sound system and turned on the record. The music blasted loud into the night and the howl of a horde was heard shortly after. We all stiffened as they rushed into the stadium and began to fight for survival.

Coach took the center stage. Rochelle to the right and I took the left. Ellie was at the front of the stage, having fun with the flames that shoot up off the stage as zombies would run straight into them, catching themselves on fire and then falling into the others that also caught on fire. She laughed as though she were merely playing with insects rather than walking corpses.

A familiar rumble made its way to us and I noticed everyone had stopped smiling as they looked to where a tank had entered the stadium to the right. We began opening fire on it, but a shout took my attention away. A tongue had wrapped itself around Rochelle and was pulling her back almost off the stage. I took off running for her and opened fire onto the slimy thing, a puff of smoke exploding all around her as the thing died on impact from my bullets.

She nodded her thanks as she coughed and we made our way back to the stage where Coach and Ellie stood side by side, firing their rounds into the tank as it dropped to the ground dead before having even reached them.

The sound of a helicopter attracted my attention as I shouted and pointed into the sky. Smiles became etched onto everyone's faces and I felt for once, we might have a chance to get through this nightmare.

The pilot shouted for us to get aboard and I ran without looking back as I quickly climbed into the back of the whirlybird, as Ellie had called it often. The others right behind me sat back and sighed in relief as the pilot took off and we watched as that horrid little dark carnival got further and further away.