I like this pairing. I wish there was more of it. Enjoy. :D
Nick's AK was securely placed in the crook of his arm, the arm strap looped around his other shoulder. He was taking lead, Coach taking rear. The rhythm of their footsteps was like a song, at least the only rhythm they've heard in months. He could even hear someone humming in the background. Nick caught himself from whistling. This wasn't a fun ride; they'd almost lost Rochelle to a hunter not even an hour ago.
Nick spotted several common infected by a doorway. He pulled out his pistol with his free hand and aimed. Shooting two of them quickly, he was able to pick of the others as they ran towards him. The last one was able to survive a couple gun shots to the torso, and now he was too close to shoot. The others behind held fire, not wanting to shoot their comrade. Nick swung around when the zombie got close, bringing the butt of his gun onto the top of his head, breaking the mushy skull open.
"Son of a bitch…" Nick almost vomited at the sight of zombie brains on his pistol. Wiping it off on Ellis (when he was preoccupied with talking to Rochelle) he took point again.
The others picked off a few more infected as they walked by, but for the most part, the street was dead. Ellis was goofing around with his new baseball bat that he picked up.
"BAM. Thatta show you!"
"Ellis, sweetie, can you not swing that around so close to us? You're gonna smash my head in." Rochelle sounded strained.
"Yea, sorry Ro."
Trying not to laugh after seeing Rochelle's face, he turned back to the road ahead of him. Instead of an empty road, he made eye contact with a giant…woman? Her neck was as long as his forearm, with no lower jaw to speak of. She had bright green drool coming out of a hole in her cheek.
"Holy. Fucking. Shit." Nick pulled his AK up and unloaded into the huge zombie woman. She hit the ground within seconds, her body making a weird hissing noise. Nick kept his eyes on it, hoping to God it was done moving. The green slim that he had seen early in her mouth was now pooling around her body like blood would. Nick's eyes narrowed. Why did his mind always go to that?
The hissing didn't stop, and the woman's belly expanded suddenly. Everyone took several steps back, afraid it would explode in their faces. But something much worse happened.
The belly ripped open, the sound echoing in the street. A small zombie girl slowly emerged from thick green slime. She was covered in it, and she wore no clothing of any kind. Nobody moved for several seconds.
"What the fuck is that?" Ellis' eyes were as big as dinner plates as he leaned around Coach to get a better look.
An ear piercing scream rang out and the girl lunged for them. It had long talons for fingers, and its eyes were bright red.
"WITCH!" Nick jumped back, pushing Rochelle out of the way in the process.
Everyone split up, getting several feet in between each person. The witch stood in the middle, not moving anymore. Coach was frantically loading his shotgun, probably going to attempt to crown the witch. Nick was afraid that wouldn't work. He would have told Rochelle to fire up her chainsaw, but the noise would probably piss her off even more. He just hoped Coach could kill her instantly. Coach's hands were visibly shaking as he walked up to the witch. He raised the shotgun and shot his automatic right into her head and shoulders.
Its slimy body hit the road hard, the sound of bones cracking loud in the afternoon air.
"Jesus H Christ." Coach looked like he was going to become sick.
"Daaaammmmn, Coach. That was awesome." Ellis ran up throwing his arm around his shoulders, having to jump to do so.
***.***
-Later that afternoon—
"Nick! Nick, Nick, Nick!"
"What?" Nick took a deep breath. "What is it Ellis?"
"There's a mall over there! Maybe we can fish out supplies?" They had retreated into an open patio dinner, attempting to find some water.
Nick didn't answer him, just glanced in the direction Ellis was pointing.
"A mall. Really?" Nick sounded agitated.
"Yea, reeeeaaallly" Ellis shook his head. "I worry `bout you some`imes Nick."
"The feelings mutual, trust me." Nick continued to un-jam his gun, feeling more and more pissed off as he was having difficulty.
"I think it's a good idea. We desperately need water and food. We haven't eaten all day." Rochelle was still hunched under a counter, digging through cabinets.
"It's also a death trap. If we happen to find something large in there, like… I dunno… a fucking Tank, we're screwed." Nick pulled out his last cigarette from his front pocket, lighting it.
"But we'll die for sure if we don't go." Coach said slowly. Nick reluctantly looked up at him.
"Fine. Let's get ready then. That mall is gonna be crawling with infected." Nick stood up, took a long drag of his cigarette, and finally yanked his jacket on.
"Alright… Rochelle, Ellis, you guys win. We'll go." The cigarette was held in place by his lips as Nick talked.
"I don't wanna to go, Nick. But we really don't ha`va choice." Ellis was obviously regretting his idea.
Nick ignored him and taking one more inhale, he put out his hardly touched cigarette and stuffed it back into his pocket. He's going to need it if they survive the mall.
****.****
Running across highways are harder than one might think in the infected world. All the "special" infected seem to come out then. And that's also where the Tank normally shows up.
"Molotov coming! Everyone back off!" Coach's voice boomed across the street and Nick watched Rochelle pull off a full sprint towards the street. The Tank swung around in confusion, now completely engulfed in flames. Finally making out Ellis' form, it charged at him.
"Oh shit! `h Shit! I'm runnin boys!" He blindly fired off a few more shots as he ran. It's large hand wrapped around Ellis' waist just as Nick brought his ax down on the beast's back. With a loud growl, the Tank went down.
"Jesus that was a big one!" Rochelle ran up to help push the Tank's arm off of Ellis. He was pinned and trying to get out from under it.
"This thing smells like ass." Nick nudged it with his foot. It's flesh made a wet squishy noise. Ellis was hacking when he was finally on his feet.
"Let's get movin ya `all." Coach began walking down the street again.
Nick took point again, keeping his AK slung on his shoulder, and his pistol with the other hand. He needed to conserve his bullets. It was becoming harder to come by any ammunition.
They walked and walked, minutes turning into hours.
"Look! There it is!" Ellis jumped around like a five year old.
"Yea, yea. Keep your voice down kid." Nick grabbed his shoulder.
As they came closer to the entrance Nick knew this was a bad idea. The front was spray painted 'EVAC CENTER. CEDA'S COMING" CEDA hasn't showed up to save anyone in a long time.
"Bullshit. That's what this plan is, Bullshit."
"Shut up, Nick." Coach opened the front door, peering inside. "Nothing. I don't see any zombies."
"They're probably munching on the last survivors to come in here." Nick grumbled.
Coach ignored him and walked into the large open room. The mall lobby was torn to pieces. The chairs and tables all pushed up against broken windows, and small stands tipped onto their sides. Blood was wiped all over the walls, hunks of human beings piled into the corner.
"Guys..this is a real bad idea. We shouldda looked some`here else." Ellis was still standing at the foot of the steps.
"I hate the idea, but we have to. Come on tough guy, I thought you loved killing these sons-a-bitches?" Rochelle egged him on.
"Yea. Right. Alright, let's go then." He slowly walked towards the door. The door slammed behind them, blotting out most of the light.
From the bright sunlight, to almost none whatsoever, they all had a startling minute of being blind.
"Get close, everyone, back to back." Nick grabbed Ellis shoulder and stood next to him.
"Wait, our eyes will adjust." Nick felt Coach's back hit his and Rochelle's fast breathing next to him.
The few Zombies nearby heard the door, and came running. But the chances of friendly fire down to impossible, they all fired where the gurgling was heard.
"We gotta get moving. I can see pretty well." Coach began walking towards the center of the mall.
"Let's stay off the top floors as much as possible. It's only going to get us trapped." Nick was hoping they wouldn't argue with them.
"Alright, fair enough." Coach was the only one to answer him. They ran into a few zombies, but for the most part it was still empty.
Over a few hours, they ran into only three hunters and one smoker. A pretty good number considering how many are on the streets.
"This is too damn quiet… something awful is going to happen…" Her voice was startling against the silence. Not even seconds later, the horde hit them head on.
"Cooooach!" Nick shoved past several zombies to try to reach him. Coach was kneeling behind a table, shoved in a corner. Nick could hear a spitter somewhere on the top floor.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck… Ellis, where the hell are you?" Nick's lungs burned as he ran. The smoker had dragged him several feet, separating him from the group. Rochelle shot it, but that only broke the tongue. Taking his machete out, Nick sliced as many infected as he could reach. Gunshots rained out over the crazed screaming of the zombies.
Hoping to see some other teammates, he found Rochelle on the ground a dead charger a few feet away, and Ellis helping her out. Coach was slicing away with his ax. Who was still shooting? Confused, but still determined, Nick reached Coach and quickly regrouped with the other two.
"I swear guys! I heard gunshots, and nobody was firin`!" Ellis kept yelling while they were quickly reloading. Most of the horde was wiped out, finally giving them peace to reload.
"I did too, but how do you explain it? Maybe we fucked up our hearing during the horde, who knows? But I will not stay in here for a second longer, we need to get moving." Nick had a painful cut on his chest and it pissed him off that it ripped his blue shirt. Quickly finding out that a tie was a horrible idea, he yanked it off, shoving it into his pocket. A tie would work well in cutting off blood flow.
"I agree. We can't afford to look for survivors." Coach was already heading towards a small McDonald in search for food.
"Bull! We would`a never got this far if we didn't try to help people!" Ellis was furious.
"It isn't all about us, guys!" Rochelle was taking Ellis' side.
Nick took a deep breath. Of course… of-fucking-course they would want to waste what little time they had looking for some dead asshole that shot in the air before he died. Sighing, Nick gave up the fight.
"Fine. We'll look. But fast." He wasn't going to waste any time arguing. Rochelle ran towards some bodies stacked in the corner. Nick calmly walked toward the area where Coach had holed himself up at. Several bodies were stacked, but all were obviously dead. And probably had been for a long time.
Breathing through his mouth, Nick yanked some more bodies continuing the search. He could hear Ellis hacking and coughing.
"Breath through your mouth, moron." Nick snapped over his shoulder. If he keeps making that noise, it's going to trigger his gag reflex.
"Sorry…sorry." Ellis voice was the loudest noise in the whole area.
Nick stood, glancing around. This is such a waste of time. We aren't going to get this sort of quiet opportunity to move again.
Nick was beginning to think the group was more hurt then help when he noticed a strange pattern in the way the tables were turned and bodies were piled.
"What the…" He walked closer, coming to the first body on the floor. It was an older man, not too decayed yet. His white beard was actually trimmed, and he had army colors on. Nick just stood there, looking him over. He spotted a pipe bomb on him and instantly felt a jolt of excitement. Finally! This will help.
He reached down to grab it when a shot rang out, hitting another dead body at Nick's feet.
"DON'T! …Don't… touch him…I MEAN IT" Nick felt frozen as the unfamiliar female voice screamed out. Nick crouched close to the floor, quickly glaring around. All the other survivors had dropped to the ground staring at him.
"Sweetheart, I won't touch him again." Nick's charm was instantly turned on. He didn't like using it, but he knew it was life or death for him. He finally found her face under a table, dirty and bruised.
"Just please leave Bill alone." She closed her eyes, apparently sure of the threat being gone.
Whoever Bill was, he wasn't going to touch him again. She wore only a white tank top, jeans and a some pink clothing wrapped around her arm. Several pistols were on the floor next to her. He could smell the death on her from ten feet away.
"Hey, sweetie. What's your name?" He still stayed close to the ground.
Her head slowly looked back up to him.
"Zoey." Nick felt a sharp pang in his chest. He felt aghast when he felt the protective urge. She was going to kill me!
"Don't come any closer. I don't plan on staying alive much longer. Just leave." She raised the gun. Nick was afraid she was going to shoot at him again, but instead the gun rested on her temples.
"All you gotta do is leave."
*****.******
Hm... Somethings missing in this story... Ah well. I'll update again in a week or so.