Time frame: The Parish
Rating: M for language and mentions of sex
Relationships established: [Secret] Nellis
Description: Kind of an angsty chapter. Nick is getting in too deep and lashing out.
"Hey guys, what's the first thing you want to do when we get rescued?" Coach asked as they continued toward the bridge. Besides Ellis, it was always Coach that tried keeping everyone's spirits up.
The parish wasn't taking as long without all of the rain, but the bridge was still off in the distance. On foot it was not easy to scale an entire town.
"Get about three days' worth of sleep." Rochelle answered.
"Take a decent shower. You know, one that's actually hot." Nick threw in.
"Good one." Ro added.
"I'm probably gonna try findin a waffle house. Nothing like a beer, some waffles and chicken all in one place. Me and Keith used to go all the time. Best times we ever had was around 2am on our days off work." Ellis remembered fondly.
"On second thought, the first thing I want to do is maybe locate some of those loose women I was told about and then I'll take a decent shower." Nick's voice threatened to laugh but he was met with a scowl from Rochelle and went back to crossing the street.
Over the next several minutes, Rochelle and Coach covered a lot of ground and Ellis intentionally hung back with Nick. Once the two were out of earshot, Ellis started conversation.
"Nick," He said quietly, "why you so worried about them findin out? Coach and Ro are our friends. I'd like to think they'd understand."
Ellis had a simple heart and he wanted to believe that he knew what made his friend and secret partner tick. Nick was an asshole, nobody could say he wasn't. He said things like that, about women or alcohol, when he wasn't comfortable with something.
"I don't have any friends, kid." Nick answered.
"Come on. We have all been traveling together for...what has it been, almost two months. We're bound to form some kind of connection with each other. Especially you and me. I mean, really there are only like two girls we even seen since this all happened. One girl hates you and Ro would split an ear off you if you laid a hand on her." Ellis explained.
"Psh, that Zoey girl is a bitch anyway. And Rochelle thinks I'm hot. She's always staring at my ass when she thinks I'm not looking. She'd jump if I asked." Nick bragged.
"No, maybe she's always watching your ass to make sure you don't get in trouble. She's good people. So is Coach, and from what I've heard from them I don't have a reason to believe they would have a problem with you and me being...you and me."
Nick kept his word previously, promising they would at least give sex a try again and Ellis was more than willing. He'd gone so far as to find Vaseline for just such an occasion. It was in one of the first aid boxes that Rochelle was carrying and Ellis made the excuse of wanting to give it to Nick because his hair was getting out of control in the humidity. She bought it and when he presented the substance to Nick, the pair scarcely waited for their companions to sleep before trying again. Through trial and error, the two discovered that fingering and slow stretching was key, much to Ellis' embarrassment. They experimented with alternating positions and prostate stimulation and gradually pleasant sex became mind-blowing in a span of several sessions. As it stood, they'd been at it five nights straight and each time it felt better and better.
Better and better except for the last five minutes of their last session when in a fit of his passions, Ellis forgot himself and confessed deeper feelings than lust for the older man. Nick froze like he'd been turned to stone, before simply asking Ellis to turn over and finishing with him from behind.
"Ellis...this...thing we're doing. You know...I mean you do know...we aren't a couple, right?" Nick said everything he was thinking as slowly as he could, hoping Ellis would understand.
"Umm..."
"I mean, you're the closest thing to an available girl-"
"Except that I'm a guy, Nick." He tried to fight off hurt from presenting itself in his voice. "I'm a man. You've seen every inch of me. Shit, you've had every inch of me. How the hell could you be tellin yourself that I'm still anything close to a girl?"
"You're the better looking guy out of the group, more built like a girl than me or Coach. If I close my eyes your lips are like-"
"Okay, can we not?" Ellis said, quietly but with enough conviction to be taken seriously.
"I didn't piss you off, did I?" Nick asked as the two continued walking so as not to draw attention.
"No, I aint mad." Ellis wasn't lying, sadness did not equal anger.
"Good, that's good, right? We're good?" Nick asked.
"Yeah, of course we're good. But you still couldn't get Rochelle." Ellis quickly jumped to another topic to hold onto, trying to mask all of the conflicting thoughts bombarding his mind.
"I bet I could."
"Yeah? What do you feel like partin ways with? Cause you're gonna lose this bet."
"What do you want?"
"How about..." Ellis thought, "Your handgun? Yours is higher powered than mine and I like it better."
"Fine, done. If I don't have Rochelle interested by the end of the day, you get the gun."
"Hey Rochelle." Nick caught her attention.
"Yeah?" Rochelle was on alert, only half paying attention to her companion.
"After we all get rescued, did you say you had family to go back to?"
"No," Rochelle answered, "it's just me around here. I have family but they're not close and it's unlikely that they were rescued."
"Maybe they were, maybe they weren't. In any case, would you be up for-"
"I know what you're doing, Suit. Knock it off or I'll pop you." Rochelle shook her head almost in pity before laughing to herself.
"Well that was about as smooth as a cat's tongue, Nick." Ellis had a winning grin plastered on.
"Goddamn it, Ellis. That was just a warm-up. Ever hear of a warm-up? I'll regroup and try again later."
"Oh boy, you mean there's gonna be more of this?" Ellis actually chuckled to himself this time, walking ahead of his companion and turning the corner at the end of the building.
"Hey, it's been a while since I had to impress anyone! I've gotten rusty with only zombies to talk to!" Nick called, needing to have the last word. Needing to have the last word loudly.
Suddenly there was a shriek.
"WITCH!" The youngest yelled, turning and bolting down the street away from the Witch in hot pursuit. During their shenanigans, neither of them heard her sobs.
He made it down the street and turned around a fence before another shriek brought him out of panic, into confusion, and then back into panic. He had one witch coming toward him another witch giving chase. He turned away from the new witch, running back in the direction he came, and skirting around the first witch.
"How the hell did you startle two of them?" Coach yelled.
"Just shoot them!" Ellis yelled, trying to stay ahead of two angry, screaming, swiping witches.
"Draw them over here." Rochelle called, waiting for Ellis to get a safe distance away before lighting the witches up.
"Molotov out!"
The four backed away from the fire, watching the witches scream, burn, and swipe at each other in confusion.
The ground started to shake.
"Shit." Nick groaned, looking around for the source of the shaking.
The whole group was on edge, eyeing the buildings nervously as the ground shaking turned into a roar.
"Tank. Everyone keep an eye out."
The Tank finally came barreling down the street, knocking over fences and pushing past other infected. The four looked for cover as fast as they could and luckily the Tank could not see them yet. He was roaring and throwing debris.
In his rage, the Tank punched a broken down car hard enough to send it flipping down the street. The car smashed into a building, knocking bricks loose, before skidding off the road, over the sidewalk, and directly into Nick's path. He ducked against the building, having no time to do anything else short of protecting himself and bracing for impact. The car landed on its side with the front end propped up on the steps of the building's entrance. The back door was open and bent at an angle pinning Nick's lower leg between it and the ground.
"Hang on!" Coach yelled, dragging Ellis with him to try moving the car.
"Shitshitshitshitshit!" The younger man said nervously, putting all of his weight into the car with Coach, trying to free their companion. Blood was already staining his pant leg.
"It's not gonna move. You need to run." Nick said, calm in the eye of a storm.
"No, I'm not gonna just leave you behind!" Ellis all but yelled, giving the car another shove. "Coach, help me move it!"
"I'm tryin, son. It's so damn heavy." Coach was sweating bullets as it was, his hands were slipping over his grip on the car.
"It's coming!" Rochelle was yelling, firing shots at it as the thing propelled like a gorilla down the path.
"Shit, you're out of time. You need to go, now. You need to go. Ellis, get-"
"No-"
"Yes. Hurry up or you're gonna die. Coach, take him. Just go." Nick was trying to sound unafraid, getting more urgent in his demands as the Tank got closer.
Coach gave the car one last shove before gripping the younger man and dragging him away.
In a last ditch effort, the southerner freed himself from Coach's grasp, running back toward the car, directly into the path of the approaching Tank. He picked up a chunk of cinder block that broke free from one of the buildings and lobbed it into the giant creature, catching it in the side of the head.
"Hey! Over here!" He yelled, getting its attention before running. The Tank noticed, giving chase.
Rochelle caught on and threw a tire rim like a Frisbee, smacking into the Tank's massive arm with only inches before he reached her companion.
"Over here!" She called.
When the Tank turned, Ellis shot it in the back with one of his remaining shells. It was furious, turned around to plow through its latest assault. Rochelle took the open shot and the two continued taunting and shooting the Tank until Coach got the assault rifle reloaded and took the final few shots. The three of them didn't stop moving until the Tank dropped.
"We gotta go get Nick." Ellis recalled, going back to the overturned car.
"You dumb son of a bitch, I said to leave me." He complained.
"Tank's dead. I don't have a reason to leave you." Ellis insisted.
"Goddamn it, Ellis. The planes are gonna leave."
"There's a safehouse up ahead. We'll be fine if we can just get you patched up." Rochelle insisted, helping her two companions try moving the car.
"Nick, we're not gonna be able to move this thing much. We can push it just a couple inches up, but you're gonna have to do the rest and pull your leg out." Coach instructed.
The three pushed the car as hard as they could in unison, and including Nick's right leg pushing as he pulled his left leg away from the door it was just enough. He managed to free himself, not to mention tearing a hole in his pant leg and pulling open an already serious wound.
"Now get up! There's more infected coming." Ellis warned, crutching his incapacitated friend.
He managed to stifle most of his screams until the group reached the inside of the safehouse. It didn't get incredibly painful until any attempts to clean the wound were made.
It was bad. Upon pulling up Nick's pant leg, blood started pooling on the concrete. A half-moon flap of skin was loose on his calf, cutting nearly down to the bone on the side of his leg, and reaching the bone toward the shin.
"Your tendon is still intact. That's good. You're gonna be able to walk." Coach noted.
"We're gonna have to get you good and high to make it to the plane. Otherwise it's gonna hurt bad." Ellis explained, dumping a couple pills into his hand and passing them to Nick.
"Shit, that looks fucking disgusting." Nick groaned, eyeing his leg and then quickly looking away as Rochelle dumped ethanol over the wound.
"JESUS TAP-DANCING SON OF SAM!" Nick yelled.
"Sorry." Rochelle said softly, trying to be soothing.
"Warn me before you throw the Hell fire on me next time."
The group waited a good 40 minutes after packing Nick's wound as well as they were capable before heading over the bridge. The pills kicked in and Nick was flying. He was a little more unsteady when it came to walking, but with Coach, Ellis, and Rochelle taking turns hanging back with him, they made it through the hordes. Nick was an excellent shot, so he held his own when it came to defense, and the group managed to get onto the plane before another Tank did any damage.
"This is it, this time. We made it." Rochelle sighed.