"Got my seven fifty howlin' and my shotgun loaded, I'm full up and about to explode!"
Sporting his favorite, yellow graphic tee and trusty, gray overalls as he cruised down his neighborhood in a souped up truck, Ellis felt incredible. He couldn't remember the last time he had a Saturday morning off from work at the auto shop. In fifteen minutes, he would be standing face to face with his idol, and the icing on the cake: the blue and white cap that he admired almost as much as its owner rested comfortably atop his disheveled hair.
Other than a bizarre dream that had momentarily woken him up during the wee hours of the morning, Ellis had slept well last night despite being extremely exited.
When he was half way to the mall, Ellis was feeling so wonderful that he continued to belt out Midnight Rider's lyrics with such intensity that he almost missed his phone ringing, and he continued to sing as he held the phone to his ear.
"…Sounds good, let me under your hood and we can find out what I'm bringin'!"
"Um, Wow…Ellis?"
"Oh, sorry! Heh, who is this? I mean, hello?"
"It's Matt. From the club last night."
"Well hi, Matthew! How's it goin'?"
"Listen Ellis, I assume you're ok?"
"Well heeeell yeah! Never been better! Just on my way ta' the mall ta' meet-"
"The mall? Well keep headin' there! You haven't seen anything strange? Any monsters or anything?"
"Monsters?"
"Some crazy shit's goin' down, man! The police, people in green and yellow suits, they're tryin ta' fly folks outa' the city. If you can't make it to the mall, then try the Vannah hotel. Please be careful El-"
Their phones were suddenly cut out.
"Hello?…Matt?…Hello?… what's all this talk a' - MONSTERS!"
Ellis slammed his brakes as hard as he could, but wasn't able to stop in time.
He watched, horrified, as a young woman careened over his bumper in slow motion, rolled over his windshield, and onto the roof before landing in a heap of tangled limbs in the bed of the truck.
"OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!"
Nearly hyperventilating from panic as he exited the truck, Ellis clasped his hands to his mouth and stared with wide, haunted eyes at the mangled, bloody corpse. It was then that he noticed the source of the woman's careless, terrified dash into the street.
"Holy shit.." Ellis still had his hands over his mouth, so the resulting muffled moan that passed through his trembling fingers sounded remarkably similar to the ones made by the man that was now sprinting towards him. Blood of the brightest ruby hue flowed down the man's face from a gaping head wound like magma into his open, wolf-like jaws.
Ellis bolted back into the driver's seat, slamming the door on the creature's hand as it attempted to grab him. As he floored the accelerator, he could feel the clammy fingers brush against his arm. Puffs of black smoke trailed behind the pick up truck from the friction of the creature's body as it flopped about and scraped against the pavement as Ellis dragged it along at over sixty miles per hour. He could see more creatures shambling about as he swerved around the abandoned cars ahead of him. The fate of the unfortunate woman was long forgotten and she was launched from the truck bed- a testament to the boy's speed as he flew down the street.
Ellis only had one thing racing through his mind.
"Oh God, KEITH!"
Ellis leapt through the broken window of the auto shop despite the building, like all the others in the block, being partially consumed by flames. With the entire structure melting around him, the boy sprinted past infected bodies as they contorted in a sickening dance from the pain of the fire that seared their rancid flesh. He could see Keith, huddled and unmoving in the corner, and scooped the man up in his arms.
Pieces of the ceiling rained down around him, and Ellis struggled to keep from dropping Keith as the smoke attacked his lungs- still a tad sensitive from the asthma he had suffered with as a child.
Winded from his deep coughing, Ellis's pace slowed down inadvertently to a crawl, and he dropped Keith when something struck him in the back. An infected man with half his face burned off tackled him to ground. Ellis punched the weakened creature several times and pushed it off him. Enraged, the boy grabbed the zombie and hurled it into the perilously approaching fire before grabbing Keith by the arms and dragging him the rest of the way out of the building.
Dizzy from smoke inhalation, Ellis tried with all of his might to lift the still unresponsive Keith into his truck. He panicked as more creatures darted towards them and leapt onto the hood.
"Why are you doing this? What's wrong with you?"
The soulless beings responded to the boy's cries by screeching loudly and leaping towards him. Ellis found himself wrestling with three of the monsters with his bare hands as a fourth began beating Keith's unconscious body. One of the zombies nicked the bridge of Ellis's nose with a fingernail in an attempt to rip his face open, and another managed to punch him in the eye.
Ellis fell backwards onto the hard surface of the parking lot and rolled onto his stomach. He began crawling frantically towards Keith, ignoring the pain as the zombies continued to ruthlessly assault him. He had to stop the monster that was attacking his helpless friend.
Had to.
His tears began flowing with ever increasing intensity the closer Ellis crawled towards Keith. The probability of both of them dying was becoming horribly, frighteningly real.
But if they were going to die, Ellis was determined to do so lying next to Keith with his arms wrapped tightly around him- to tell him how much he loved him for the first time…and to say goodbye for the last time.
Ellis heard several rapid fire cracking sounds and the zombies began dropping around him. He looked up to see a young man in a motorcycle helmet, brandishing a bloody baseball bat: his other good friend.
"Dave!"
"Thank God I knew where to find you two!" Dave lifted Ellis onto his feet.
"Keith's in bad shape! Help me get 'im in the truck! We gotta get 'im ta' the hospital!"
Dave shook his head as they placed Keith in Ellis's truck.
"I passed the hospital on my way over here, ya' can't even get through the doors! Good thing I was on my bike cuz there's a mess 'a cars on the streets for blocks around the place."
"Well then where-" Ellis suddenly remembered what Matt had told him, and the hotel was closer to the auto shop than the mall. "We need to get to the Vannah!"
Ellis jumped behind the wheel and Dave sat in the passenger seat, supporting Keith in his arms.
"Maybe you should let me drive, Ellis."
"No, I'm fine."
Once again, Ellis tore down the streets, shifting gears expertly as he avoided the chaos of wrecked cars and people fleeing frantically across the streets.
"Jesus Christ!" Dave watched as a mob of infected attacked a group of people that were forced to stop at the crosswalk. Dave looked away when some of them continued running into the streets, right into speeding vehicles.
"Oh shit!" Ellis swerved to avoid a garbage truck that barreled into his lane.
Keith suddenly coughed, and clotted blood dribbled down the side of his mouth. Dave looked down at the young man, with worried realization spreading across his face.
Ellis gritted his teeth at the sound of the cough and floored the accelerator pad.
"Ellis…" Dave warned as he watched the speedometer surge past 60mph.
Tears began to cloud Ellis's vision and his breathing became rapid.
70 mph.
Once again, he swerved to narrowly avoid another car that had lost control.
80mph.
"Ellis!"
Beads of stinging sweat poured into Ellis's eyes, further obscuring his vision as his heart pounded furiously.
Suddenly, an obese woman appeared out of nowhere directly in their path.
"LOOK OUT!" Dave screamed as her body exploded from the impact, covering the windshield in a mixture of blood and gastric juices. The wiper fluid and blades that Ellis immediately flicked on could barely penetrate the viscous mixture as they continued to move forward at a dangerous speed.
"Stop the truck!" Dave commanded.
There was no response from the boy.
"ELLIS, STOP THE FUCKING TRUCK BEFORE YOU GET US ALL KILLED!"
Ellis obeyed, stopped the pick up, and placed it in park in the middle of the street. He then leaned his head against his window and began sobbing.
"If only I'd lost…"
"Let me drive." Dave's voice was once again soft and soothing, the way it had always been. Ellis nodded his head, still sobbing.
Dave removed his biker helmet and exited the vehicle, careful to support Keith's head as he laid him on the seat. He ran around the truck and opened Ellis's door. The boy allowed his much larger friend to pick him up gently from the driver's seat and place him next to Keith.
Ellis hugged Keith fiercely as Dave drove them the rest of the way to the hotel, completely unaware of the horde of infected following in the wake of the bile covered truck.
"But our friend is hurt!" Ellis pleaded with a police officer outside of the hotel.
"You're gonna have to wait like everyone else."
The scene outside of the hotel was one of barely contained chaos as an enormous line of people waited to be ushered to the roof of the hotel, where helicopters periodically hovered and left with small groups of fortunate escapees. Towards the front of the line, hazmat suited CEDA workers screened people before letting them pass into the hotel. In the middle of the line, groups of frustrated people were detained and taken away by police as they tried to barge towards the front doors. Meanwhile, a rather large group of protesters angrily voiced their displeasure with CEDA over the organization's mismanagement of, and dishonesty concerning, the Green Flu.
Suddenly, gunshots could be heard coming from one of the upper floors of the hotel, causing the policemen outside to rush into the building.
Taking the opportunity, Ellis grabbed Keith from the truck and together with Dave, the two of them rushed towards the entrance of the hotel, shoving past the angry crowds. This resulted in a stampede of people following behind them from the back of the line. All control of the situation was lost as the horde of infected that had followed Ellis's truck now rounded the corner and entered the long stretch of pavement in front of the hotel.
Ellis and Dave huddled close together to protect Keith from being trampled by the crowd of terrified people as they made their way into the lobby towards the stairs. The horde began tearing through the ranks of helpless humans huddled together like a giant bait ball of sardines. Ellis tried his best to block out the massacre taking place before his eyes, choosing instead to keep his focus on Keith's motionless face as they began to carry him unsteadily up the stairs as frenzied individuals pushed past them.
Several policemen came back down the stairs and began to fire rather haphazardly into the throng, killing as many uninfected people as zombies. A terrifying scream- accompanied immediately by a dark, hooded figure- tore through the air. The thing landed on top of a cop next to Ellis and Dave, causing his gun to sail onto the corner of the staircase.
"God damn, what's going on?" Dave reached for the gun, nearly dropping Keith in the process as he fired a few shots at the demonic creature- all the shots missed their mark.
"We gotta keep movin' Dave!" Ellis felt sick as he watched the cop's face and neck get torn apart, but he had to get Keith up to the roof. As they continued their desperate, vertical journey, the amount of people running past them eventually ceased, and all that could be heard were the sounds of monsters screaming. Ellis's arms and legs were on fire by the time they had reached the half way point.
A fluttering tenor of maniacal laughter suddenly filled the young men's hearts with panic.
"I really don't like that noise…" Ellis whispered. Both men stopped when they realized the source of the sound was coming from the hallway beyond the door that led out into the rooms of the current floor. They nervously approached the doorway. Passing it was necessary to get to the roof, but whatever was making the noise was right next to the door.
"Imma check it out," Ellis offered. He had fired guns before- out in the woods with Keith- whereas Dave had no previous experience with firearms. "If somethin' goes wrong, get Keith outa here."
Dave knew better than to argue, and handed Ellis the cop's pistol.
The boy approached the open doorway as the cackling became louder, holding the gun in front of him with a trembling hand. After hesitating for a second, Ellis shoved his fear aside and whipped around the doorframe just in time to be blinded by a small, smelly, sinewy body.
The humpbacked creature latched onto him, twisting its body around as it thrusted its back and pelvis, causing Ellis to stumble away from the stairs towards the hallway. Ellis could feel the vibrations of the incessant laughter echoing through his brain. He could taste the foreign, human blood soaking the monster's fingers as they latched onto his face and mouth.
He could feel the creature's little erection as it rubbed against the back of his neck…
"GET HIM OOOOOOOFF!"
Despite having told Dave to continue without him, Ellis couldn't help but plead for his friend's help as the little beast shuttled him down the hallway. However, Dave didn't come to help him. Ellis could see the rapidly approaching window but he simply couldn't resist the Jockey's influence over his body. Ellis was terrified of heights, and the thought of crashing through the window from that high up was unbearable.
"OH, HELP! PLEASE SOMEBODY!"
His desperate plea was answered just before he broke through the window. The creature's headless body melted off his back and bounced on the floor. Ellis followed suit, dropping down next to the Jockey as he gasped to catch his breath for several moments. He turned his head towards the hallway to find it mysteriously empty, and a pained cry from Dave sent him sprinting back to the stairway.
His friend was pinned to the wall by a Charger, and Ellis fired his pistol as the creature continuously slammed Dave into the floor of the staircase. It took a dreadful amount of bullets to finally take the creature down.
"Ugh…fuck." Dave moaned weakly as Ellis supported him. The back of his head was bleeding profusely. The man rose unsteadily to his feet, and Ellis watched in awe as Dave made his way over to Keith and grabbed his upper body.
"Come on, El...Were so fuckin' close."
Ellis bowed his head and his shoulders began to shake, but he lifted Keith's legs and together they made it to the top of the roof. A landed helicopter, its blades spinning at full speed, was preparing to take off as the few people who had made it to the top clamored aboard.
As Ellis and Dave approached with Keith, the pilot shouted to them.
"I don't have room for all three of you! I'm sorry!"
"Please sir, can ya' at least fit two in? My friends are hurt real bad!" Ellis shouted back. He could feel Dave's piercing stare burn into him.
"We can make room for at least two!" A middle-aged woman shouted to the pilot.
"Fine, we can make room for two." The pilot relented, "Another helicopter will arrive in about an hour."
"Ellis, I'm not leaving without you."
"You have to, Dave. You're hurt almost as bad as Keith. 'Asides you can't shoot worth shit." Ellis smiled slightly, but his lips were quivering. "So you gotta go with Keith…gotta take care 'a him…for me."
A huge lump formed in Dave's throat. He always hated seeing Ellis cry.
Ellis removed Keith's hat from his head and prepared to give it to Dave, but hesitated and held it fiercely to his chest. His thoughts turned back to last night as he remembered his final words to Keith. He looked into his freind's sleeping face- covered in bruises, grime, and a mixture of his and Dave's blood. The small patches of unsoiled skin were alamingly pale.
"I still mean it, Keith." Ellis choked out the words, then turned to Dave, "Take care a' him..."
The boy broke off into an immense fit of sobbing, the likes of which Dave had never seen before. The older man couldn't control his own tears from pouring down his face.
Dave was a very perceptive person. Over the years of growing up together he had sensed the growing feelings that Ellis had developed towards Keith. As such, he couldn't bring himself to tell Ellis that Keith was dead. That he had died before they even reached the hotel.
"I will, and I'll let him know how much you love him."
As he entered the helicopter, Dave cursed himself. His concern for Ellis's heart was about to override his desire for Ellis's safety. He was about to leave his friend behind on a lonely rooftop in order to maintain the illusion that Ellis had sacrificed his chance for survival on a beloved friend that would be ok, and not on a lifeless corpse.
As Dave rose up into the sky he shouted to Ellis at the top of his lungs.
"Promise me you'll stay on the roof! Just wait for the next helicopter!"
Ellis watched as the helicopter was slowly reduced to a dark speck in the utter vastness of the sky.
He closed his eyes when he smelled the rising smoke, and knew that he could no longer afford to stay on the roof.