"Crazy woman!"
Coach had some of the best ways to describe the special infected. They entertained Ellis to no end. He laughed just a little even as he jumped back from the acid on the floor and Rochelle pounded a solid four rounds into the Spitter's stomach. The fact that Ellis did not see these shells as human, and had not for quite some time, contributed heavily to his ability to make many situations and experiences laughable.
"Damn, Rochelle."
Speaking of laughter, Nick sure had a funny way of expressing himself sometimes. That was kind of expected. Ellis had gotten used to the abrasive way Nick decided to display his emotions, and the witty but compassionate retorts from Rochelle, who currently looked smug as anything while smacking a zombie with a crowbar to the ribs and drinking in Nick's rare praise.
Soon enough, they rounded a corner and turned down a few steps. A scaffold stood in the center of the cemented area, seeming a little too inviting, with a pile of ammo and a few scattered guns about the surface. It was sort of eerie, sometimes, how well set things were for them to jump in and begin the hunting. Usually, none of them mention how strangely organized and set up everything seems to be despite the obvious zombie-override to the rest of the areas you pass through, but it's silent agreement not to mention that it all feels a little more than ominous in the end.
"Time to get going."
Rochelle's words rang like a bell and cut through the air, and it seemed to take Nick a little longer to realize she's not up there on the scaffold with all of them. He had a very vulnerable moment where the blue in his eyes flickered a little and he seemed to…worry? But it was gone too fast to analyze properly and Rochelle pulled the lever, alerting the first of many hordes.
She climbed up the ladder like a spider monkey, and Coach was brilliant enough to launch a gas can near the steps. Rochelle saw the red soar across her vision just as she beat a zombie off the ladder with her crowbar and whiped out her gun like dark lightning, igniting the can faster than that stock car they left behind.
That beautiful, blue, perfect stock car, drowned to hell in blood and bile and now totally useless and rotting way back on the road among dozens of cars that paled in comparison. No part of anyone was glad to see that car go, but least of all, Ellis.
He thought about that stock car as he really hit home on a group of common infected crowded around the base of their scaffold. Luckily they had all managed to stay up high thus far, so attacking the waves of zombies coming in from only four directions had been pretty easy.
"This bitch is choking me!"
Ellis and Nick both averted their eyes to look, but Rochelle did not look anywhere but forward. She side-stepped as quickly as possible while keeping her gun aimed and firing at the zombies running toward her and their constricted team mate. Coach had been wrenched off the scaffold and pulled up into a bush, where a smoker was desperately trying to reel him closer. In seconds, a cloud of thick gray-green smoke hovered where the special infected had been, and both the woman and man were coughing up a storm.
Through wheezes, somehow, Rochelle managed to communicate that the gates were open. Immediately, Nick and Ellis jumped into action.
Ellis hovered back while Nick shouted that he was throwing a Molotov, helping the still-recovering Coach and Rochelle fight back infected. When the bomb had gone off, they sprinted for the gates while swinging axes, crowbars and pistols around wildly.
Ellis managed to break free of the zombies at his back, thanks to Nick's decent aim, and made a dash for the green easy-up tents that signaled a safe room. Unfortunately, he ran a little too straight-forward, and with not enough time to stop and only enough time to shout, he ran into a small gray huddled from.
"WITCH, WITCH, WITCH!"
A shrill scream sounded off in the patchy darkness, and Ellis went colliding with the pavement as the witch mercilessly attacked the man. Rendered immobile, all he could do was shout for help in his agony while simultaneously shooting his pistol as far back as he could to help the others for the blunder he had made.
Coach, Rochelle and Nick had heard the warning, it seemed, because Ellis could not see them, they had run so far backward. Preoccupied now with the common infected swarming his downed body, Ellis began to attempt to shoot them off, but kept blindly shooting behind him until he heard the witch's horrible moan signal her death.
There was silence save for common infected, and then awkwardly paced footsteps, and he looked up to see Coach grabbing his hand and yanking him upward. As soon as they turned to go, however, a Spitter screeched out from atop a small cement wall and hacked mightily, unleashing a very large pool of acid right along the safe room's path.
"Goddamn, that hurts!" Nick had a sort of finesse when it came to stepping in Spitter goo while the others took care of the actual Spitter, but unfortunately, he had been the only thing supporting Rochelle, who stumbled backward in order to avoid the mess. Falling flat on her back, she gave a hiss of pain as Ellis fired wildly at the retreating Spitter form. Sneering and hobbling forward, enraged at the fact that none of this would be happening if it weren't for his careless run-ahead, the mechanic was determined to hunt the Spitter.
However, before he could get much further, coach's low baritone rang out and showed him that they were already half way down the narrow isle to the safe room between green park gates.
"C'mon, let's go damnit!"
With a final glance back at where the Spitter had been, Ellis left the monster to the night and limped into the safe room, where Nick was already tending to Rochelle. Coach shut the door and placed a strong rod over the entrance, leaning back against it and heaving a big sigh.