Russian Roulette

The chamber was empty… this time.

Chapter 3

No one had really believed Keith was real. After all, the crazy stories about him just seemed impossible. A man that stupid (he was decided to be stupid, since every story portrayed him as such) either could not exist, or should already be dead.

"Where?" Rochelle asked.

"Are you sure it's even him?" Nick cut in, not at all believing that Keith was really there.

"I's him, alright!" Ellis confirmed. "C'mon, let's go an' see 'im!" He grabbed Nick and Rochelle's hands and pulled them over to a sleeping man who looked no older than Ellis himself. Actually, from what they could see (just his back, since he was facing away from them), he looked a lot like Ellis. He wore a baseball cap that was turned sideways in a sloppy fashion, a faded orange t-shirt that almost matched his scraggly reddish hair, jeans that were ripped in several spots, and black combat boots that were caked with mud and gore. Well, everything on the guy was covered with blood and dirt, much like everyone else in the area.

After Ellis shook him and called his name excitedly, though, it was a whole different sight.

There were scratches everywhere on him, just as Ellis had described in one of his far-fetched stories. From what they could see, there were indeed a few burn marks on his arms, and even though he was half-asleep when he had turned to look at them, he had the general daredevil look in his green eyes. The short auburn goatee definitely contributed to his Southern appearance. It was, without a doubt, Ellis' buddy Keith. Nick tilted his head, trying to get a better look at the man – he wanted to see if the stories about the "MORON" tattoo on his forehead were really true.

"…El?" Keith asked, his eyes widening as a tremendous smile spread across his face. "Izzat really you?"

"Hell yeah!" Ellis replied. "This is the best apocalypse ever!" Keith gave a "Yeah!" in agreement and the two best friends hugged each other. Rochelle smiled and said, "Isn't that sweet."

Nick crossed his arms. The only good thing about this was that it seemed as if they weren't shooting Carriers after all, depending on how long Keith had been there. So, he had to ask: "When did you get here?"

At that, Keith stopped in the middle of a story he was telling and looked at Nick. "Well, I only got here 'bout two days ago," he replied. "Some crazy shit went down with our first 'elicopter pilot an' we had to fight our way here."

Nick uttered an "Uh-huh," looking displeased. That wasn't assuring at all.

"Y'hear that, Nick?" Ellis asked. "They ain't shootin' anybody yet!" Obviously he didn't understand the fact that that may not be entirely true. Nick looked at him and said in a mockery of his voice, "Y'hear that, Ellis? That don't mean they ain't gonna shoot him today!" after which there were a few seconds of silence. It appeared that, like Ellis, Keith also knew when things were bad – which was a surprise, given all the stories that had been told about him made it seem like quite the opposite. He had obviously gotten uncomfortable (most likely due to Nick's insensitive comment), so he cleared his throat and looked at the three of them. "How'd y'all get here?" he asked. "Those military guys made it sound like there wasn't anybody left, jus' zombies. They said they were gonna bomb everything."

Nick and Rochelle nodded; Ellis replied with a morose "Yup."

"Damn! Well, how'd ya get here?"

"Sure as hell wasn't easy," Nick muttered. "They were bombing the bridge that we had to cross to get to the helicopter. I don't think we'd seen as many of those Infected things before, either. They were everywhere. The only good part was that our pilot didn't die this time." At this, Keith nodded. Rochelle shot a look at Nick – she had been opposed to the idea of shooting that first pilot, Infected or not; it had just seemed wrong. Maybe that was due to the fact that she had actually seen him changing into a raving monster. Sadly, she knew they hadn't had a choice. Nick looked back at her and said, "What? You know it had to be done." She redirected her eyes to the ground and said quietly, "I know."

"What happened t'your pilot?" Ellis asked suddenly in an attempt to prevent another moment of silence. It was in vain, however. It took Keith a few seconds of recollecting his thoughts to reply.

"We had been walkin' 'round for a really long time – Dave an' me," he added. Ellis instantly perked up, and Keith continued. "We were followin' a bunch o' directions people had left on walls an' stuff like that, talkin' about escapin' and get'n to a safe place. It took a while, but we actually found one o' the places still had people there. Good thing, too, 'cause Dave was lookin' really tired an' he was gett'n kinda upset. There was only a few there, all these army guys in crazy get-ups, an' they had a helicopter. So it took 'em a long time ta talk about it an' finally they decided they'd let us on it, but like half of 'em said somethin' like they had ta 'evacuate' and they ran away real fast before they'd let us through to the chopper." Nick let out a grunt of disapproval; that had most likely been the clean ones making way for the Carriers. "So I was on the helicopter an' I was about ta help Dave up when all of a sudden the army guys started runnin' around and pullin' out their guns. At first we thought they were gonna shoot us, but they aimed at the cockpit. Man, that was the nastiest shit I ever seen. The pilot started goin' crazy, snarlin' and all that, so I jumped outta the copter and started runnin'. Somethin' felt wrong, though, so I looked back an' Dave was goin' really slow."

Ellis tensed. It seemed as if he was predicting the horrors of what might have happened next.

"I honestly dunno what was wrong with 'im, El," Keith sighed heavily, shaking his head. "It looked like 'e was limpin'. I yelled at 'im ta hurry up, but he kept goin' all slow and before I could yell at 'im again, the wacko pilot was on 'im." At this point, it seemed as if Keith was having a hard time speaking and his voice cracked with every few words, overwhelmed with the loss of his friend. All was silent for another few moments until he continued his story. "…So all the army guys were still shootin' this way an' that, an' they had really bad aim, but one of 'em actually hit the pilot an' 'e went down. I ran up ta Dave an' shook 'im ta make sure 'e was okay. He looked bad. Really bad. I couldn't even tell where 'e was hurt, El… 'e was covered in blood. I don' even know if 'e heard me talkin' to 'im. I musta asked 'im like fifty times if 'e was alright, but it was hopeless…" He paused again and took a deep, shaky breath. "So… The army guys were gettin' all nervous an' they practically shoved me into the helicopter. Everythin' after that kinda turned into a big blur 'cause I was so upset. Y'have no idea how happy I am t'see ya, El."

The usually cheery Ellis looked as if he was unable to smile. He barely gave Keith a suitable reply – just a short "Uh-huh" – and stared at the ground, twiddling his thumbs. The realization that he would never see his buddy Dave again was too much for him to bear. He sat on his cot and continued to focus on the floor as if it could provide him with security. "Night, guys," he said finally, and laid his head on the ragged pillow.

"Sounds to me like Dave might have been hurt for a while," Nick commented quietly, hoping Ellis was already asleep so he wouldn't hear. "You said he looked tired and he was upset. Maybe he was hiding something from you."

Keith shrugged. "Everyone's tired." he pointed out. "Y'all don't look too great yourselves, an' I probably look like shit too."

Rochelle made a "hmph" sound. "Thanks," she mumbled.

The three of them agreed that they were indeed tired (though Keith had been sleeping when they first saw him) and settled into their own beds. The people around them seemed to feel the same way, and soon the whole barracks was dark and silent.