"What in the hell are you talking about?" Rochelle trembled as she lifted her arms in a futile attempt to protect herself. She began to back away slowly in the direction of the storage closet.

"My son! You killed Daniel!"

The icy hue of Jimmy's feverish eyes contrasted vividly with the dancing flames behind him. An enormous vein split down the middle of his forehead and began to throb in tune with his racing heartbeat. Like vines and branches, more veins began spreading across the surface of his face, pressing against his skin as they bulged. The overwhelming medley of mixed emotions seemed to endlessly contort his face as he stalked closer.

Rochelle's mind raced. The man must have gone insane to accuse her of such a crime. When they had met, he had saved her from the clutches of a-

"The Smoker!" She gasped.

"Only eighteen years old...he hadn't even begun his life yet!" Jimmy let out a cry, so horrific and heart-wrenching that Rochelle could not keep her own eyes from misting over. The tremors of Jimmy's body caused his pistol to shake violently in his hand, " He didn't deserve to die! He couldn't help it!"

"Jimmy, calm down," Rochelle managed breathlessly, trying desperately to heed her own advice, "Just put the gun away."

"No!" The man pressed the barrel against her forehead, "It's your life for his!"

The fire was finally burning itself out, and the girl could see Coach preparing to make his way over to them. He could not risk firing his shotgun for fear that the spread would strike Rochelle.

"Jimmy, I didn't know," Rochelle struggled to keep her voice steady. Try as she might, she could not help but feel guilty, "Were you planning on doing this all along?"

"I..." Jimmy's breathing became extremely labored.

"If you were, then why didn't you do it when you first had the chance? You were up all night in the safe room while Coach and I slept. You could have killed me then."

Jimmy seemed to withdraw into himself.

"With Daniel gone...I was helpless. I needed your help to gas up my car. Sure, I thought about killin' you as soon as you killed him...can you honestly blame me? What if it had happened to you? It was so easy for you to tear him away from me! Like he was nothin' at all!"

"But he was a-" Rochelle stopped herself, but it was too late.

"He was what? A monster?" Sweat and tears flowed from Jimmy's brow and eyes. He emitted a growl, grabbed Rochelle, and shoved her against the wall of the storage closet, "I didn't kill you sooner because I couldn't! I'm not a bad person! The only monsters here are you, your friend, and that mother fucker in the suit that stole my car!"

"What?"

"I was gonna spare your life and drive out of here, but now I can't even do that! I ain't got nothin' left! My fans, the car, my son- ALL GONE!"

The pistol dropped from Jimmy's grip and he clasped his hands against his head as blood streamed from both of his ears. The overwhelming anger and distress had taxed his body so much that it finally gave in to the Virus's assault on his immune system. He lunged at Rochelle and sank his jaws into the girl's neck.

"I said, let go!" Ellis became frantic as he struggled to free himself from Nick's grasp. The car was accelerating quickly, and the boy risked serious injury, were he to open the door and jump out. Without thinking, he sprung at Nick and the two of them wrestled for control of the steering wheel.

"Ellis, you little, fucking bastard!"

The car spun, blew a tire, and nearly tipped over. Nick overpowered Ellis and shoved the boy away from him as he steadied the wheel and pumped the brakes before coming to a stop. Simmering clouds of smoke were threatening to burst from within the vehicle's hood.

"GOD DAMN IT, ELLIS, YOU-"

Nick was promptly silenced when Ellis's fist slammed into his face with such force that a small crack appeared on the driver's side window as the back of his head collided into it. Nick blacked out for a few moments and Ellis crawled out of the car. The boy began ambling back towards the mall as quickly as his ankle would allow.

The conman watched in a daze as Ellis fell, got back up, hobbled along for a few more paces, and then fell again. Nick moaned and his vision began to spin. He continued to watch Ellis's form become smaller and smaller as the boy dragged himself along the ground on his stomach.

Nick stepped out of the car but quickly collapsed. The steady rain pelted him as he lay motionless on the ground.

Choosing them...over me...

An anguished cry from Ellis snapped Nick out of his stupor. He looked up but could no longer see the boy. He did, however, see several infected rushing back towards the mall along with an all too familiar sight emerging from the gloom that made his blood run cold.

A dark, skulking figure with large, scaled hands clenched and unclenched a set of black talons at the end of its long, sinewy arms. The shoulders were broad, the waist thin, and its legs remained bent in a semi crouch. It turned its nightmarish face towards him and flashed its reddened, double-rowed, shark-like teeth before turning and bounding towards the mall in the direction that Ellis had gone.

"Shit!" Nick snarled as he found the strength to rise and sprint to the boy's rescue.

Rochelle screamed and tried to pry Jimmy off her, but his strength was increasing with each moment. He knocked her to the ground and attempted to bite her again when Coach grabbed him. Although Coach significantly outweighed Jimmy, the man flailed about with such rabid fury that Coach had to body slam him to keep him pinned. As Jimmy writhed and squirmed, his elbow struck Coach's injured eye, causing the man's hold on the zombie to loosen. Jimmy wriggled free and leaped on top of Coach. His tanned skin was now as pallid as bone, and his sandy hair bleached a titanium white.

The two of them tumbled across the floor as Coach tried to keep the infected's mouth away from his face and neck. The man's back was pressed against the thin sheet of glass that separated him from a spine severing fall to the ground floor. With the shotgun still strapped to his back, Coach's body broke through the glass from the pressure that Jimmy exerted with his attack. The man gripped the ledge as Jimmy tumbled over him and grabbed his leg tightly.

Another horde began making its way in through the destroyed entrance. As they piled up the staircase, some of them leaped over the railing and managed to latch onto Coach and Jimmy. Fortunately, Coach's fingerless training gloves both protected the man's palms from the shards of glass, and increased his grip on the ledge as three zombies dangled from him like a demented chain.

As Jimmy attempted to climb up Coach's body, a bullet pierced his lower back, rocking the zombie's body enough for him to lose his grip on Coach. Jimmy and the rest of the creatures attached to him plummeted to the ground.

After recovering from the shock of being bitten, Rochelle ran into the storage closet and grabbed a crowbar. She proceeded to bludgeon the zombies that had made it up the stairs on her way to Coach.

Jimmy had received such a substantial increase in strength and soundness of constitution from the Virus that he rose from the floor with little injury as dead zombies rained down around him from Rochelle's efforts above. His milky eyes fixated on the horrified young man who had shot him.

"Jimmy..." Ellis wailed as his idol made a maddened dash towards him.

But that thing wasn't real!

Nick's mind screamed as he sprinted unsteadily towards the mall's demolished entrance with ever increasing trepidation- his pace slowed by the jagged gravel as his sore, unprotected feet slammed onto the debris-cluttered ground with every stride. Surely he was losing touch with reality. The illusory beast that had attacked him in the bathroom back at the Vannah had left him with no visible wounds, nothing to indicate that it had ever existed. Yet it had appeared before him again. Even now, as Nick prepared to leap into the building, he had lost sight of it. Surely Ellis would be in serious trouble- if the creature was real.

What the fuck is happening to me?

"This can't happen ta' you! Not ta' you, Jimmy!"

Ellis's sniper rifle went flying as Jimmy tackled him to the ground.

"Oh my God! Ellis!" Rochelle screamed as soon as she heard the boy yell. She looked down in disbelief to see him smothered beneath Jimmy's larger form.

"What?" Coach yelled and tried to turn his head around to look, nearly falling in the process, "The boy's alive!"

Coach began shimmying slowly over towards the staircase, his grip faltering with each movement as Rochelle continued to handle the diminishing horde.

So all-consuming was Ellis's trauma that he could not hear or see Coach and Rochelle above him. Neither could he bring himself to retaliate against Jimmy in any way. He crossed his arms over his face, more to keep from seeing Jimmy reduced to a slavering ghoul than to protect himself.

But suddenly Ellis wanted to look. He didn't want to shut his eyes and turn away from the man he had admired so much- as though by looking at him, he wouldn't be giving up on him.

"Fight it Jimmy, please!" Ellis cried, "I know you're in there, still!"

The race car driver suddenly stopped his attack, as though arrested by the boy's words. For the most fleeting moment, he stared down at the young man who bore a striking resemblance to Daniel, before wrapping his hands viciously around Ellis's neck.

Coach released his grip and landed on the stairway as Rochelle rushed down to join him. The two sprinted down the remaining stairs and Coach clenched and unclenched his fists to get the feeling back in his hands before reaching for his shotgun.

Ellis grabbed Jimmy's forearms, in an attempt to relieve the crushing pressure on his wind pipe. As his vision blurred, the boy did not see the face of a hideous zombie with ghastly, white hair and skin. He did not see the pair of soulless eyes, the caked blood, or blackened teeth.

He saw his hero.

He saw the face of the man who stood tall and enormous, both in his mind and on the poster suspended from the ceiling above his head. He saw the face of the man whose every race he watched religiously on television, and once in person, as the member of the crowd who had cheered the loudest. Then suddenly, Jimmy's face was gone.

Ellis filled is lungs with oxygen when Jimmy's hands released their grip on his neck. The boy closed his eyes tightly and gritted his teeth as the zombie's headless corpse slumped onto him, slathering blood all over his neck and chin.

"You may grovel at my feet," Nick stated as he helped Ellis up.

With complete disregard that Ellis was covered in blood, Rochelle nearly sent the boy down to the floor again with the ferocity of her hug.

"Oh, sweety I'm so happy to see you!"

"Well I'll be damned!" Coach patted Ellis heartily on the back.

The shock and horror of nearly dying at the hands of his idol blended with the elation of being reunited with Coach and Rochelle, and Ellis was unable to do anything but hug both of them tightly.

As the others shared their moment of jubilation, Nick studied his surroundings cautiously, searching for any sign of his monster. While doing so, he spotted a corpse wearing a decent pair of running shoes, just about his size. Although they were not nearly as stylish as his own had been before being partially dissolved, they were far more comfortable. After slipping the shoes on, he took one last look around and headed awkwardly towards the mall's exit.

Just a hallucination.

"Hey, Nick!"

The conman stopped and turned to face Coach, who was approaching him rather swiftly.

"How's it going, Coach?" Nick asked rhetorically as he continued to walk out of the mall.

"You better explain yourself right now cuz I swear to God, I'm about to send you to Him in pieces in a second!"

"Explain what? You fucking cyclops!" Nick shouted defensively.

Ellis shook his head slowly at Nick's ranting. The boy's hat could not be pulled lower over his face, and he kept his gaze firmly fixed on the ground as they stepped outside.

"You screwed us over, Nick! Without batting an eye, you just turned your back on us!" Coach held Rochelle's hand tightly. The petite girl's calming presence anchored him down as he struggled to keep from beating the conman into the dirt. A mixture of blood and tears began seeping through his bandages from the damaged eye beneath. Nick took a step back at the man's unexpected display of raw, emotional pain.

"I came back, did't I?" Nick spat on the ground as an excessive amount of saliva formed in his mouth, "I...I saw a way out and I took it, alright? I had to get the kid out of there!" Nick motioned to Ellis, and the boy began trembling. "He was hurt, and he still is! I wasn't going to risk fighting that giant freak when Ellis-"

"Don't you dare, Nick!"

Everyone turned to stare at the mechanic who had remained completely silent until that moment.

Nick's eyes narrowed, and a bead of sweat trickled from his hairline down the slope of his nose as he glared at the boy.

Don't do this...

"Quit makin' excuses! What you did was wrong, Nick, and you know it! Injured or not, I was more than willin' ta' do anythin' ta' help them, and you should a' been, too!"

"Willing to do anything, huh?" Nick sneered, "Cuz you choked when you saw 'Zombie Gibbs' back there."

"God damn you, Nick!" Ellis screamed, his final nerve struck, "What if we left your ass behind! I have half a mind ta' do jus' that, you heartless, son of a bitch!"

Shocked by his own outburst, Ellis's eyes plummeted to the ground once more, his face blazing with heat at the look Nick gave him.

"Well that sounds about right, Overalls, because you really do only have half a mind!" Nick roared, his voice full of outrage, "So what? You want me gone, Ellis? Is that it?"

You ungrateful, little bastard!

Ellis couldn't have responded if he wanted to. His throat was completely obstructed by the enormous lump that had formed in it.

"Sounds like an excellent idea," Coach stated, rubbing his chin. Indeed he was just about to suggest the very same thing.

Nick released a deep, low growl from the pit of his throat.

"Look, Nick," Rochelle stated, trying to ease the tension, "As long as we're together we need to act like a family, whether you like it or not. We depend upon one another to make it through this shit. When the whole world is out to get us, and we can't even trust each other, then what hope do we possibly have?"

Nick's pupils contracted.

Fucking hypocrites...

"Don't come at me with this 'family' bullshit! Just like I said, the evac went to hell, so now what?" Nick continued swiftly when no one answered him, "You speak of 'hope', well I have no hope so long as I'm with you, clowns!"

"Glad you feel that way cuz we're partin' ways, Nick!" Coach shouted at him before turning to Rochelle, "For once, I don't agree with you. We don't need this guy poisoning our team. The three of us are better off without him."

"You obviously feel the same way, huh, Overalls?" Nick shouted to the boy.

Ellis visibly sagged, sighed heavily, and looked over at Coach.

"Can Nick and I have some privacy, please?" The boy motioned to the stock car, whose engine had stopped smoking.

"What for?" Coach looked at the boy with concern.

"I jus'...I gotta talk to 'im," Ellis whispered, full of grief.

"As long as you hand over the key, cuz I don't fucking trust him," Coach stared at the conman once more. His fists were clenched and his unbandaged eye narrowed.

Ellis approached the stock car slowly and placed a hand tenderly on the metal surface, his mind instantly forming an inseparable connection between the vehicle and its late owner. He pulled the key out of the ignition, walked back over to Coach, and handed it to him. He sighed again and turned towards the car once more. When Nick tried to sit in the driver's seat, the boy stopped him.

"There ain't no way you're ever sittin' behind Jimmy's wheel any more!"

Nick scowled and cocked an eyebrow as Ellis brushed him aside and sat down in the driver's seat. The conman circled around and sat down in the passenger side. They both closed the doors simultaneously.

Ellis kept his head down, and he stared at the steering wheel as he began to speak. The conman was instantly smothered in the aura of sadness and disappointment that emanated from the boy. He rubbed the bruise on his cheek and shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"I jus' can't believe you, Nick. Ima' make this quick cuz it's painful for me. You ain't never gonna know jus' how painful."

Ellis filled his lungs with air and braced himself.

"I'm leavin' with Coach an' Ro. In this car. Without you."

"You can't be fucking serious."

"I am Nick. You can be so nice...so fuckin' nice, but in the end, none a' that matters."

"None of it matters?" Nick repeated in disbelief. His eyes widened, and his expression lay somewhere in the vast expanse between outrage and anguish.

"No! Cuz then you go an' pull shit like this! You were gonna leave them! It's inexcusable, Nick! There's nothin' you could possibly say or do ta' make things right cuz I know you ain't gonna 'pologize! Like Ro said, we're supposed ta' be a family! Families don't walk away from one another like that and-"

"Well then you've never met a family like mine! You're so fucking naive! And would you cut that shit out, Overalls? I'm never gong to like Coach, and you know what? I don't have to like him, despite what you may think!"

"I jus' don't understand. What is it about 'im that you hate so much?"

"I don't want to talk about that asshole, alright? Just drop it!" Nick's face took on a wild look, but only for the most fleeting moment before he reached for the door handle.

"Wait."

"What? You made your decision, Overalls! We're done!"

Ellis removed his folded Bullshifters shirt from his overalls pocket. Instead of putting it on, he held it out to Nick.

"What the fuck?" The conman folded his arms.

"You can keep it. Jus' in case you need it again," The boy still could not bring himself to look at Nick, his eyes becoming saturated. He reduced his voice to a whisper, which was the only way he could form the words without his voice breaking, "I'm really gonna miss you, Nick..."

The conman scoffed, his words cold and hollow.

"I neither want, nor will I need, your stupid shirt, now give me back mine."

Ellis hesitated, but removed Nick's shirt and gave it to him.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm through talking with you, Overalls. Have a nice zombie-filled life."

The boy began to shake and he finally looked the conman in the eyes. He hadn't planned on bringing the next subject up, but it was eating away at him, and he simply could not help himself.

"Tell me somethin' Nick. Last night...when we were in the tent-"

Nick's eye twitched and he stared at Ellis like a cornered animal.

Coach and Rochelle sat in another unlocked car a short distance away, to shelter themselves from the now steady downpour.

"How are you feeling?" Coach asked as he tended to the bite wound on Rochelle's neck.

"Alright, I guess. As alright as a situation like this will allow. You?"

Coach let out an immense sigh.

"Not good," Coach really didn't want to talk about his feelings at the moment, so he quickly changed the subject, "It's a shame that Jimmy Gibbs got infected, kind of worrisome, actually."

"Because it took him so long to change?"

Coach nodded gravely and stared out at the stock car.

"He pulled his gun on you long before that, though. Why?"

The man listened intently as Rochelle explained Jimmy's reasoning.

"It's terrible to lose a child, Coach."

The man nodded and his heart ached as he thought about his two children. Only then did he catch the full weight of Rochelle's words and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked gently.

Rochelle bowed her head slightly.

"Just over a year ago, my boyfriend and I were getting over a pretty rough patch in our relationship when I found out I was pregnant. Although I was focused on my career, I quickly embraced the idea of becoming a mother. I really wanted my child to grow up with a father around, so I did everything I could to make things work. But then, only four weeks in, I miscarried. My hopes were so high that when it happened, I was pretty devastated. Looking back on it now, I realize that it was a blessing in disguise, but still..." the girl placed a hand on her stomach, "There were a lot of emotions wrapped up in those four weeks."

"I'm sorry."

Rochelle produced a small smile.

"Although there was no way of knowing for sure, I felt in my heart that it would have been a boy," the girl looked over at the stock car as her hand stayed put on her stomach, "I still can't believe Ellis is alive."

Coach nodded his head.

"So what do you think they're talking about?" Rochelle asked as she began to scrape away at the chipped, red polish on her nails.

"That bastard's probably tryin' to weasel his way back into the boy's good graces," Coach snarled.

Rochelle sighed, "Ellis has been through a lot more with Nick than you or I, so I'm sure he feels a certain loyalty to him."

"Well then where in the hell does that leave us, huh? I still say we should cut all ties with that asshole. Forget the shit he just pulled, there's somethin' about him that's just not right."

Rochelle rubbed her neck and looked at Coach uneasily as the man continued to speak.

"Ever since we met up with those two, I've had a bad feelin' in my gut- and then back at the parking lot... the look in Nick's eyes..." Coach twitched slightly and shook his head, "Somethin's just not right."

"Nothing happened, Ellis. You were dreaming."

I was dreaming...

"That's not true!" Ellis shouted, "We-"

Nick bore a hole into the boy with the red sclera of his piercing eyes.

Just a hallucination...

"It was a hallucination, Ellis! Nothing more. You were so fucked up that you were delirious."

"How can you say that, Nick? After you-"

"Nothing happened!"

Just a dream...

"You was holdin' me real tight an' you...we kissed!"

Just a nightmare...this is all just a fucking nightmare...

Nick's eyes began to bleed and he yanked Ellis close to him.

"It was nothing! You mean nothing to me now, understand? You want me gone, then I'm gone! You can just run right back to Coach, you little asshole!"

Crush him. Crush him the way he crushed you...

"It meant something ta' me! You meant somethin' ta' me!" Ellis struggled to keep from falling apart, "I liked you, Nick! I looked up ta' you...when we were together it was just...right! Unlike you, I ain't ashamed, and I don't regret nothin' that happened between the two a' us!"

"You don't get it, do you, Overalls?"

"Yeah, I do get it! Coach and Ro are right! I can't trust you, Nick! You're an asshole and a liar!"

"I'm a liar?"

"Yeah! You lie ta' me, and you lie ta' yourself!"

For several moments, only the rain pulsating on the roof and windshield cut through the silence as the two men stared each other down.

You know what, Ellis? You're the liar."

Ellis forcefully released a puff of air from his nostrils.

"After everything that I've done for you, I'm bad guy! I'm the asshole, the one that can't be trusted?" Nick was fuming- raving, "Well guess what, Coach and Rochelle don't give a shit about you, Ellis!"

"There you go lyin' again, Nick! That ain't true!"

"And how in the hell do you know that? You think they're blameless- innocent- and I'm the asshole, right? That Bible-toting bastard thinks he's all high and mighty, passing judgement on me for 'turning my back' on them! Well they turned their backs on me and on you, Ellis! They gave up on you! They just got up and left while I stayed behind looking for you!"

"No, that can't..." Ellis's eyes grew wide and he wiped his brow, the seed of doubt planted. His mind raced.

"You said you trusted me and now you're taking it back! You said you'd be there for me and now you're going to run off with fucking Coach! Who's the liar now, Ellis? WHO'S THE FUCKING LIAR, NOW!"

Ellis bit his lip and his stomach twisted into a knot. A low moan escaped from his throat as he wondered just how in the hell Nick had managed to turn a situation so crisply black and white into a murky shade of gray.

"Cuz you...you jus' told me that I didn't mean nothin' to you..." The boy's voice was tiny. His resolve was breaking.

"And do you know why I said that?" Nick also lowered his voice and his eyes took on a haunted look, "Because I don't mean anything to you, Ellis."

"N-not true..." Ellis choked out the words.

"Oh, but it is true," Nick continued to speak slowly, his eyes burning. Each subsequent phrase chipped away at Ellis's soul.

"You were lost, so I waited for you. You were helpless on the ground, so I picked you up. You were hurt, hungry, thirsty and filthy, so I tended to you, gave you food and water, and cleaned you up. You were lonely, so I gave you a warm body to sleep next to..."

Ellis could no longer hold himself together. His tears started to flow freely.

"You wanted to have fun, so I played your stupid, little game. You couldn't run, so I carried you on my back. You were afraid, so I gave you strength. You were falling, so I caught you."

Nick paused as he watched Ellis fall apart, wondering if he should continue.

"Every good deed in my life, every single mother fucking good deed that I've ever done, was performed on you- for you, and after all that...it means nothing at all, does it? You said so yourself- none of it matters. None of it holds a candle to the fact that I 'turned my back' on Coach and Rochelle. It's like none of it ever happened. Like it was just a dream, a hallucination. Right, Ellis?"

The boy could not speak.

"You want to act like none of it matters, well then nothing that happened inside that tent matters, either."

Raindrops continued to dance in wind-driven bursts along a windshield that had become completely coated in the foggy heat of their argument. Nick rolled down his window to let in some much needed air, and pulled his empty water bottle out to catch what little rain he could through the bottle's narrow opening.

God damn it, why can't I stay mad at you...

All of the harshness had left Nick's eyes as he stared at the young man who was now slumped over the steering wheel in such an emotionally fragile state. His skin was still irritated, his leg still swollen. Nick began to think about all of the things that Ellis had done for him in the short time they had known each other. All of the emotions that he had experienced when he thought he had lost the young man came flooding back and he wondered if he could willingly walk away from Ellis for good.

The conman placed his hand on the door handle, waiting for another word of protest from the boy. When none came, he pulled on it just enough to pop the door open slightly.

Ellis shifted a little and lifted his head just enough from amidst his folded arms for his eyes to peek through.

They both stared at one another, neither of them sure of what to do, neither of them sure of what the other wanted.

"You still want me gone?" Nick finally asked, his patience running thin.

Ellis shook his head.

"Well look at me, then."

Ellis straightened himself off the steering wheel, his eyes nearly as red and puffy as Nick's. The conman pulled the water bottle back inside and poured what little rainwater he had collected into his cupped hand.

"Always cleaning up after you," Nick mumbled as he brought his face close to Ellis's and began using the water to carefully wipe the boy's face clean, paying particular attention to his mouth, chin, and neck.

Were he not feeling so terrible, Ellis would have smiled both from Nick's touch, and the fact that even now the man was fussing about cleanliness.

"Nick, you know I 'preciate everythin' you've done for me...You're jus' tryin' ta' make me feel bad," the boy murmured.

"Well, did it work?" Nick's face was now a much healthier hue as he slid his thumb along the side of Ellis's mouth.

"Yeah," Ellis wiped his eyes, "Hell, ye-."

Suddenly Nick's lips were pressed firmly against his own. Ellis's eyes grew wide as the man cupped his hands around the back of his neck and advanced forward. Ellis complied by returning the kiss as Nick's forehead brushed the brim of his hat back and knocked it off his head. Nick exhaled deeply through his nostrils as he maneuvered around the stick shift and slid his tongue between the young man's lips. The simmering heat of their actions caused the driver's window to completely mist over as the back of Ellis's head pressed neatly into the small divot in the glass formed earlier by Nick's own head.

Ellis was now able to smile when Nick broke away from his mouth and began traveling down the small cleft in his newly cleaned chin. His brow raised and his eyes closed as Nick's lips traveled further down onto his neck. Ellis's mouth parted into a sigh at the sensation of rough stubble and soft suction at a particularly sensitive spot to the left of his adam's apple.

Nick reveled both in the throbbing pressure against his lips from the young man's quickened pulse, and the feeling of Ellis's large hands as they slid beneath his suit and across his shoulders. The young man's palms were slightly rough and calloused, but his fingers were wonderously soft as they peeled back the suit, revealing the tensed muscles of Nick's back as they traveled downward. After the slightest hesitation, Ellis's fingers probed further down Nick's back and pushed forcefully against his belt, unable to slip underneath the tight, leather strap. Nick's own hands, softer than Ellis's, flowed across the young man's torso- his rings providing minutely different sensations as their flawlessly smooth surfaces traversed the ridges of Ellis's abdomen.

The back of Ellis's head tingled as it slid down the slick, cool surface of the glass from the increased weight as Nick leaned into him, their lips locked together once more. Nick's fingers laced around and squeezed the straps of Ellis's overalls as he continued to push him downward until the young man was lying on the seat cushion. Ellis arched his back and groaned into Nick's mouth when the conman's hand traveled further down and gripped him firmly through the baggy material of his overalls.

"H-holy shit, Nick," Ellis whispered breathlessly. He lolled his head to the side as Nick proceeded to work his neck once more.

A sudden rapping on the window caused both of them to spring away from one another. Ellis's heart nearly stopped when he heard Coach's muffled voice on the other side of the glass.

"Can you two hurry this along? It don't take this long to talk, Ellis!"

Mercifully, Coach could not see a thing beyond the rain droplets and the heavily fogged glass.

"Jus' another minute, please!" Ellis called out to him. The man walked back towards the other car, grumbling.

Nick leaned back nonchalantly in the passenger seat as Ellis placed his hat back on with shaky hands. He looked over at Nick in astonishment, their intimate actions fully sinking in.

"Don't think you're off the hook jus' yet, Nick," Ellis murmured.

"Please, I was never on the hook," the conman smiled slyly, "not with you at least."

Ellis sighed and rubbed his ravaged neck.

"You gotta 'pologize ta' them, okay?" There was a desperation in the young man's voice that Nick found himself enjoying far too much.

"Fine, whatever."

The rain had devolved into a pervasive mist as the two men exited the car and approached the others.

"Alright, look. I had my reasons, but what I did was still wrong. I apologize. It won't happen again."

So unexpected was the sincerity in Nick's tone that Coach stared at the conman with his mouth slightly agape. Rochelle nudged Coach when Nick extended his hand, and the man took it, shaking it firmly. Nick even returned Rochelle's neutral hug.

"This don't mean we're friends, Nick," Coach stated bluntly as he folded his arms.

"Of course not," the conman wholeheartedly agreed.

"It's gonna take a while for me to trust you."

"Yeah."

You and me both...

The rest of the day was spent resting up, collecting water from the intermittent rain showers, and guarding the car. Ellis replaced the blown tire with a spare and used the small toolbox in the trunk to fix up what he could under the hood. Nick occasionally stopped by to complain.

"Are you done, yet?"

"Almost, man. Almost. You do realize this is entirely your fault, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, but it can still drive, can't it?"

"Well, yeah. A' course."

"That's all that matters."

"Hey, Nick."

"Yeah."

"I wish you and Coach could jus' get along, but I'm real glad you 'pologized, at least."

The conman shoved the brim of the mechanic's hat down over his face.

"I've never apologized before, I'll have you know. Take that as you will."

"Well, hopefully you'll never have ta' do it again."

Satisfied with his handiwork, Ellis gleefully test drove the car around the parking lot, trying his best to fight the urge to perform doughnut maneuvers.

"God damn! This is a dream come true!" He whooped.

When it came time for him to rest up, Ellis sprawled out across the front seats of the stock car. Rochelle fell asleep in the back seat while Coach insisted Nick stay up and keep watch with him, as his way of keeping an eye on the conman.

"So how's life been treating you, Coach?" Nick glanced at the man and produced the cheesiest smile of his life.

Ellis couldn't help but chuckle before falling asleep.

Off in the distance, at the outskirts of a quaint, decimated town, an elderly soldier lay staring up at the starless void on a forsaken drawbridge. He closed his weary eyes as the voices of his past echoed across the lonely night.

William...William...