Slowly they made their way down the steep slope. Ellis slipped slightly and Hailey reached out for his arm. Her firm grip caught his forearm and steadied him against the incline. He weighted himself with his back straighter before smiling at her.

"Thanks," His Georgian accent replied.

She dropped her hand and turned towards the bottom of the hill again. They continued in silence reaching the creek and tromping through the mud. It was strangely quiet and dead bodies lay either in the water or along the side of the creek. Most infected were dead now, in fact the pair had seen none since their first encounter. Ellis stumbled behind Hailey; his wounded side gave him a slight limp. She trumped on ahead, her boots sinking farther into the mud than Ellis's should have. Hailey glanced up a slope that carried itself more horizontal than the gradients beside it.

"Here," She yelled pointing towards the top; she turned to see Ellis clutch onto his knees for support, "You alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ellis lied, "Just a bit tired s'all."

Her face slowly broke with an understanding smile; she came to the male's side and pulled his arm over her shoulder. Together they began to climb the incline and while her breath remained steady Ellis's became deep and shallow.

"You know," She started, slowing the steps, "You don't have to act tough, I won't make fun of you or ridicule you like that Keith guy."

"How do you know about Keith?"

"You kept mumbling his name while you were passing out, something about 90 % of burns to his body," Hailey replied and smirked, "Is he your man?"

"My man!" Ellis jetted, he stared at Hailey, "Look, I ain't got no problems with the gays but I ain't into guys, 'specially my buddy Keith," Ellis pulled a face of disgust, "He's like my brother."

"Just thought I'd check," Hailey laughed.

"Check?"

"Yeah," She leaned into his ear and lowered her voice, "Gotta see if a good looking guy like you plays for my team."

It was the first light hearted thing to come from her mouth, Hailey was strong and she was a woman of few words at times. Ellis could tell she was attempting to bond with him, it was flattering but it scared the crap out of him. A very attractive girl was basically throwing an invite in his lap, or so he hoped. He needed her in many ways, most of all survival. He wouldn't be able to reunite with Coach and Rochelle without her. His wound didn't feel any better, but it didn't feel worse and it was thanks to her.

"What country boy? Have you ever been complimented before?" Her voice became a little harder.

"Well, no," Ellis said honestly, he opened his mouth to return the favour but Hailey cut in before he could make a sound.

"Don't," She shushed, "I got it enough before the apocalypse."

Ellis closed his mouth and attempted to quicken the pace up the slope without causing too much pain in his side. Hailey practically pulled him up the last section of the hill; her strength was strange to Ellis. How did this toned woman have the kind of strength she had, without displaying it in any of her muscle definition. She even had a heavy step when she walked, and she was always glancing around as if she heard something. Then Ellis had another train of thought push into his mind; adrenaline. Ever since the infection had started, he'd been on his feet, alert. The adrenaline that coursed through his body was enough to give him incredible strength at times. That must have been the same for Hailey's case.

"Well there it is," Hailey spoke softly, "Whispering oaks."

"Still looks the same."

Hailey looked at Ellis, his eyes glinting with a childlike glow. She wanted to possess that as well, she wanted to forget what happened in the woods before she met up with him. She wanted to feel normal again, or normal enough to be able to sleep.

"Makes you wanna get some cotton candy," Hailey whispered.

"Oh," Ellis gleamed, "You are truly the woman of my dreams."

He shuffled towards the gates and then looked back at Hailey, she weakly smiled. He was normal; he was immune like her surely. Maybe she was more immune, she didn't know.

"Come on," He softly yelled in case infected were near.

She quickly cantered towards him holding what she believed as an adequate mask of her feelings. He pulled the gate open enough for one person to climb through.

"I would say ladies first, but since something could attack you, I'll go first."

"You just want the cotton first!"

"That is one aspect of going first that I like," he drawled, he then held his hand out signalling she could go first, "just save me some."

Hailey rolled her eyes once she passed him; he truly was in kiddie land. She waited until he came through before she closed the gate. Together they made their way to a closed vender; she looked at Ellis and then back at the steel curtain.

"Don't worry Hails," Ellis mumbled as he pulled up the skirt of the machine, "Me and Keith broke into one of these a while back, I'm sure they haven't changed the design or nutt'in."

The nickname caught her slightly; he truly was a boy under those toned muscles. He was her friend in such a short time; the truly alien word to Hailey became clearer. Her throat grew a little hot and she swallowed to sooth it. Focusing her attention away from her mind she stared at Ellis who sat fiddling away at the vender.

"Damn thing, she's a tricky one," he grunted as he pointed his flashlight to another area of the machine, "Ah ha! I knew she'd have a sweet spot," he reached in farther and the vender door popped open slightly.

Hailey grabbed the door and slowly pulled it up, stopping whenever it made a protesting noise. Ellis stood and brushed himself off; he wiped his hands on his overalls.

"I'm guessing you're a mechanic?" Hailey said as she pulled on a dangling sleeve.

"Pretty good one in my opinion," Ellis smirked jabbing his thumb towards the air sealed bags of cotton candy.

"I haven't had anything to eat since I found you," Hailey murmured, "But, fuck it... I'm not passing this up."

"Me either," Ellis chuckled grabbing a bag for himself and Hailey, "Free stuff always tastes the best!"

"Technically," Hailey corrected, "It's stolen."

"Seriously?" Ellis narrowed his eyes in a jesting way.

"I'm only kidding," Hailey giggled popping a chunk of the candy into her mouth.

She closed her eyes and allowed the cotton to dissolve against her tongue, melting into a tender ball of sugar that tasted better than the blood and sweat which had been lingering in her mouth. She took another hunk crunched it down with her hand and then bit into it. Her lips even seemed to be salivating; she quickly reached into the vender and grabbed another bag.

"You're gonna be sick if you eat all that," Ellis said his mouth full of cotton as well.

"I don't care," She muttered, she liked the taste, she liked it so much more than the death she had been tasting, "I don't care," she said again.

***

They found shelter in the tunnel of love, some army food and water. Hailey and Ellis both drank about three before they felt satisfied. There was a giant sleeping bag, enough for a family Ellis had said which caused Hailey to laugh weakly. They put it out on the floor and lay side by side staring at the ceiling.

"So," Hailey said softly, "You were a mechanic before this."

"Yes ma'am," he replied, "You?"

"I was a nurse," she looked at her folded hands across her navel.

"Wow," Ellis cried his voice high with excitement; he sat up, "Like in the ER? How many lives did you save! Was there a lot of blood?"

"Ellis," Hailey cringed at his wound, "Lay back down, just because we're letting it breath tonight doesn't mean you can get a head of yourself," She pulled on his shoulder, "you'll break open the fresh scabs."

He lay back down and allowed Hailey to raise his arm away from the wound; she stared at it and then placed her hand around the freshly closed opening. The smell of alcohol was being to die down from the cleaning of his injury.

"Give me the bad news doc," Ellis joked, his face in a very animated pained expression, "Will I make it for Christmas?"

Hailey gave him a look and he sheepishly dropped the appearance. She slowly lowered herself back down still eyeing the damage.

"It looks good, we may want to stay here tomorrow, then you'll be able to move faster," she returned her eyesight to the ceiling.

"You're the ER nurse," Ellis sighed.

"I wasn't an ER nurse," Hailey muttered closing her eyes, "I have first aid training and basic surgeon training for stitches," she hastily added she paused. There was a long silence before she continued, "But I didn't work in the ER. I worked in a psychiatric ward of a Children's hospital."

"What was that like," Ellis called his voice slowly losing the motor control, he felt himself falling asleep.

"Tough," Hailey whispered, "Their only children, you can't tell a child why their mentally ill... they just don't understand."

"That is tough," Ellis breathed he was falling faster in slumber, "but... you helped, them ... none the less...," he trailed off and crashed.

The adrenaline that had been in his system finally broke down and he passed out again like before. Hailey rolled to face him; she placed her hand next to his and slowly let her eyes close. The warmth from him was soothing and she finally felt real sleep come upon her.

A/N: So I've decided to work on this one more. I mean if you guys hate this chapter, I'll try and change it but ha-ha I might just stop. Please Review and give me feedback. : ) [and heck, you can be as brutal as you want, I just want to know how to get better at story telling]