Time frame: February
Rating: M (for language and mentions of sex)
Description: Reunited
"Not much farther now." Derek called back, to the now tired group behind him.
The sun was starting to sink to, and everyone was on edge, hoping none of the dead decided on a stroll before sunset.
As of now, the group was four miles northeast of the donut shop, slipping deeper and deeper into the woods.
"Pick up the pace, man. It's gonna be dark soon." Keith grumbled, having no energy to fight the dead.
"Keep your hair on, love." Derek replied, "It's not my fault that the target is moving. I'm likely to get shot if I start sprinting after him."
Ellis nodded. Shooting first was a very Nick-like thing to expect.
"How much farther do we got, boy?" Coach asked, sweating even though it was still chilly.
"I'd say another 10 minutes if he stays where he is."
The group made their way through the steadily denser woods, trying to avoid breaking branches or making a lot of noise.
Slowly, a beat up old car became visible in the distance. It had to have been abandoned ages ago. The thing was rusty and it was unclear what color the body used to be painted. The windows were still intact, though the front windshield did have cracks in it.
The tired shadow of a man sat on the ground beside the passenger door.
Derek was the first to present himself from behind the trees.
"Good morning, Vietnam." He stated, smirking at his own charming behavior, waving a polite wave.
Nick was on his feet instantly, though slightly unsteady. His gun was already drawn.
"Who the fuck are you?"
Derek stopped in his tracks, keeping both of his hands visible.
"Someone that has a surprise for you, if you can avoid shooting me."
Ellis came into view only seconds after, pausing briefly until Nick's eyes caught his.
"Ellis." He lowered his gun and once it was safe, the youngest of the group cleared the space between them, almost instantly in his partner's arms.
They kissed openly, a long, loving kiss that they'd been waiting for since the fire broke out.
"Baby I missed you so much." Nick whispered when their kiss broke, and Ellis hugged him tighter than he ever had.
"I thought I was never gonna see you again." Ellis replied, bringing his mouth back to Nick's to kiss him again.
The rest of the group waited, allowing the couple to catch up without saying a word about it until they broke off and approached the group again.
Coach gave Nick a friendly pat on the back when he was close enough.
"Good to see ya, kid."
Nick nodded, "You too, old man."
The group exchanged their greetings and happy words with one another, trying to catch up on who saw who and if anyone had news of anybody else. When it was clear that these were the only survivors known, the conversation shifted to silence, especially between Ellis and Keith who each knew about Bud but had not broken the news to Danny yet.
"What the hell happened to your face?" Nick asked, turning Ellis's chin up with one hand, peering at his crooked nose and the faded bruising around his eye sockets and nose bridge.
The younger man didn't reply with any explanation other than, "Nothin."
Nick's gaze was already locked on Keith, being that his guilt was palpable enough to read.
"What did you do?" He demanded.
"Nick, it's okay-"
"Your nose is broken, Ellis- Stubbs did you break his fucking nose?"
Keith didn't answer other than a quick nod, before backing away as the newly found man came at him, Coach's blocking ability the only thing that saved him from having a broken nose himself.
"Settle down, kids." Coach asserted, keeping Nick at bay.
"This is the last fucking time I trust you with his safety, shit-for-brains. I swear to fuck he would have been better off by himself."
Ellis once again approached his partner, having noticed how stiff his movements were.
"What happened to you, Nick?" He asked, pulling down the left collar of Nick's coat, revealing the edge of a burn starting at the side of his collarbone.
Nick shrugged.
"I'm fine, El. I got it in the fire."
After asserting that the wound needed to be tended, Coach coaxed the rest of the group back toward the way they came.
As the lot headed back down the long trail to the donut shop, Ellis took a moment to introduce his boyfriend to their newest companion.
"Nick, this is Derek. He helped me find you."
The two men exchanged nods of mutual respect, and the group talked quietly amongst themselves, sharing their experiences throughout the past few days.
Nick had apparently been heading deeper into the woods each day, having not gone back to the scene of the fire once. He had no idea where his group was, and just walked blindly for as long as he could.
"I think I must have been in shock or something, from the burn. My chest hurt and I was really disoriented."
For being injured, though, he was in good spirits and even seemed to forget that he was mad at Keith when they reached their shelter and he offered to care for the wound he developed.
"I been burned so many times, let me have a look at ya." Keith requested, patting one of the chairs that were still in the donut shop's main room.
Honestly, Nick was tired from the long walk and would have preferred to just go to sleep, but being in pain like he was, he agreed and sat down, letting skilled fingers peel his coat and shirt away.
The others made themselves busy in the kitchen, and Ellis ended up taking care of the rabbits, hoping that leaving them in the old freezer kept them fresh enough. The entire place was quite cold, so it was likely that they didn't spoil, having been cleaned this morning.
"Keith" Nick whispered, when the two were alone.
"Yep?"
"That new guy…" Nick started.
"Derek. What about him?" Keith's voice was clearly not amused even talking about Derek.
"Does anyone but me seem to get that he's certifiably insane?"
Yes. YES! Someone else gets it! Someone else sees through Derek's charm. It's not just me!
"Just you and me, brother." Keith replied, continuing his work on the wound with what little supplies he had on hand. The burn was quite large, spanning from the edge of Nick's collarbone and taking up the expanse of his shoulder. Luckily it was only a second degree burn.
"I don't trust him."
"You're right not to."
When alas his burn was patched, the group returned to the main room to dine on canned green beans and rabbit meat, Nick excused himself from eating, stating that he wasn't hungry.
He caught Ellis's gaze burning into his upper torso, not looking at the wound on his shoulder.
"See something you like?" He asked.
Ellis swallowed quietly and nodded.
Nick smirked that same frisky smirk that he did and motioned for his companion to follow him into the kitchen, closing the door behind them and ignoring the concerned glances of his friends.
Keith, Coach, and Danny tried to quietly finish their food, pretending that they didn't hear the steadily increasing volume of frenzied love-making coming from the kitchen.
Almost two hours passed before Ellis made his way out the front door of the donut shop, joining the mysterious man that seemed to stay in the area all night. He sat down on the wooden porch in the front of the building, a comfortable talking distance from Derek's left side.
"Looks like somebody had a good time?" The older of the two teased, a broad smile crossing his face.
Ellis blushed and nodded. Of course they had a good time. Nick and Ellis hadn't seen each other in days.
"Nick asleep?"
Again Ellis nodded.
"He's out cold…I wanna thank you for findin him." Ellis started.
Derek waved a hand like it was no big deal.
"My pleasure. I'm glad you got him back. You really do seem much happier. I kinda like it."
Ellis again nodded.
"He means the world to me. I really thought I lost him forever."
Derek offered a friendly pat like he usually did with the other group members.
"Luckily that wasn't the case."
"What about you, man? Are you lookin for anyone…special?" Ellis began, not sure how to open this conversation.
"Me? Nah, I was single when this happened and I have been ever since." Derek replied casually, watching the moonlight shine through the trees.
"But if let's say…someone…was interested?"
Derek's left eyebrow cocked up, shooting Ellis a disbelieving grin.
"Interested? Who on Earth…"
"Danny. I mean, not tryin to make ya uncomfortable. I didn't know if you were…"
"Gay?" Derek finished for him.
Ellis nodded, hoping he didn't just start a problem.
"Danny digs me?" Derek's voice sounded surprised.
"Yea, he thinks you're cute."
Derek's mouth pulled into an almost genuine smile.
"That's really sweet."
"So…you do like guys?" Ellis clarified.
Derek nodded.
"I do…but I can't, Ellis." His smile faded and his expression looked almost sad.
"If it's about bein in the closet, man, I get ya. But look around, everyone that judged people like us is dead." Ellis was trying to be reassuring.
"It isn't that."
After a short and awkward silence he continued.
"Can I tell you something?"
The younger man nodded.
"If I do, you have to promise that you won't tell anybody. Especially Keith, he already doesn't like me." Derek started, keeping his voice low.
"Of course. You helped me get my Nick back. Anything you feel like sharin, I'm here to listen, buddy."
Derek took in a deep breath.
"I'm sick, Ellis."
After a few seconds of the younger man continuing to wait quietly, Derek continued.
"When I went to prison…I didn't have a good time in there. It was the worst four years of my life. I was…abused pretty seriously in there and I contracted HIV." He explained.
Pushing past the shock in Ellis's face, he continued.
"By the time I got out, I was already sick and dying. I couldn't afford the medicine I needed to keep it at bay and before I knew it, I had full-blown AIDS. Once I got out of prison, I went right back to meth to kill the pain I was in. I thought I would just do it til I died but then this all happened and I decided that dying a slow death was better than being ripped apart by dead people. So I got on the helicopter and ended up in CEDA."
After waiting to see if Ellis would stop him, he again went back to his story.
"I was in and out of there several times, and during the time I was there I had so many different cocktails of harsh chemicals pumped into me that eventually things changed. I changed. My immune system stopped weakening and I had these little bursts of strength, before I would spend days curled up in pain. Those doctors were some of the meanest people I'd ever met. They were calloused and insensitive, treating me like a lab rat when I was a person."
"I'm so sorry that happened to you." Ellis whispered, genuinely sad and concerned for his new friend.
"So am I. But I'm also not. See, after all of those experiments, my body reached a state of stability. I still have the disease, but it isn't going to kill me, now. According to the doctors, it's trapped inside me, but it is also frozen. I won't get any sicker, but I won't get better either. It's like…I'm dying, but forever. For as long as my body holds up to whatever CEDA put into me, I'm going to be like this. And I don't even know what *this* is. I watched people puff up and die with the same stuff shot into them as me. Something about me already being so sick forced a wedge into…whatever that stuff was. Look."
Derek pulled back the collar of his hoodie, showing Ellis the ring-shaped bruise that stayed on the side of his neck for 9 months.
"That's where I got the first shot…and then they threw me into a room full of zombies. I guess it was to see if they would notice that I was still a person. And they did. I remember screaming so much, trying to rip the door off its hinges. I begged those motherfuckers to let me out, but they didn't. And the zombies tore me up. I got bit so many times and to keep from dying I had to kill all of them…with the inside of the door knob that I pulled off trying to get out."
He sighed again.
"I don't know how long I was laying on the floor. There was blood everywhere. When the doctors came back in, I thought that maybe they were gonna at least administer some first aid to all of my open wounds. But they didn't. They cut all of my clothes off, moved me to another room, and kept me cuffed to a bed in there. I was basically there for them to continue checking my wounds, which healed, but the healing process was still incredibly painful. I escaped after that, but they caught me again."
He paused to pull back the sleeve of his left arm, presenting another ring-shaped bruise on the inside of his forearm.
"I went through more tests, and more exposure to zombies until they didn't seem to notice that I was different from them. I escaped again, was caught another time. And after this, they had even more tests."
Again, he paused to pull down the waistband of his pants around his right hip, sporting a third ring.
"I guess they thought they had the cure, but with me it just…made me like this. Now I just make the other zombies stay away, just by being around. Now I'm half man…and half them."
Ellis's expression was both shocked and sad.
"You're gonna turn?"
Derek shook his head.
"No. I'm not. This is me, for the rest of my life. I'm stuck like this. But at least I can keep my new friend safe." Derek smiled weakly, gently patting Ellis's leg.
His touch wasn't far enough up the other man's thigh to be inappropriate and he didn't linger.
Ellis smiled that sweet smile of his.
"So, as long as you're around, the zombies won't be?"
Derek nodded, "Correct."
"Then, congratulations, buddy. You've earned your keep as far as I'm concerned."
"Now all I need to do is get Keith to like me again."
Ellis shook his head, "What's his deal, anyway? You seem fine. And Keith usually likes everybody."
"Oh he has his reasons."
Ellis scooted a little closer.
"Would ya mind tellin me? I asked him sooo many times but each time he gets mad at me and tells me to just drop it and take his word."
Derek shook his head.
"This is really somethin you should hear from him."
Ellis looked discouraged.
"But…since we're friends now, I really want YOU to like me, Ellis. So, against my better judgment, I'm gonna tell you. But you have to swear to me you'll never let on that you know. It would really hurt him if you knew." Derek kept his face straight, trying on a frown that only Ellis would have mistaken as a legitimate emotion.
"I promise."
"Okay, well…I broke his heart once."
Ellis's expression was completely lost.
"See…when we were young, Keith and I spent some time together. We didn't really plan it out, the whole thing just kinda happened. One day we were just talking as friends, and the next, we were all over each other. We explored all kinds of amazing pleasures with each other. Of course I was really liking it. I had feelings for him. I trusted him with all of me. But one night, we were alone at his house, getting heavy in his bed. I thought we were about to have sex for the first time. I was already naked and ready, but he stopped me. He told me he couldn't because he was in love with someone else, and that he didn't want me, didn't like me.
"The way I reacted really hurt him. I feel bad about it now, but at the time I was so upset. He used me to get over this other guy, and I actually thought he liked me. I thought that he'd want to be with me after he finished school. I told him all this dumb shit about moving to a more progressive city so that we could be together. I just felt…really stupid, man. But that other guy didn't even give him the time of day."
Ellis shook his head.
"You didn't know, did you?" Derek asked.
"I had no idea. Even to this day, I thought he liked girls."
"Try not to be mad at him. He wasn't ready to be himself yet." Derek sounded sympathetic.
But…Keith is my best friend. Why didn't he tell me? Doesn't he trust me? What did he think was going to happen? I have always accepted him, no matter what. I would have never stopped being friends with him over something like this. What the hell?
"You still have feelings for him?" Ellis asked, as if this piece of information just barely made sense.
Derek nodded again.
"But of course, this is my life now. I would never risk infecting him. Please don't say anything about this, Ellis. To anyone."