NICK POV
We're all here on this dock, Rochelle, Coach, Ellis and I. We made it pretty far, but we're not done...yet. With my gun in hands, my machete packed on my back, and my health pack by my side, I set out with the group to encounter these sons of bitches. We've been slaughtering these dead bastards since about a month ago. It also doesn't help that I've been paired up with these losers. Although, they have been a bit helpful, so I shouldn't complain too much. Yes, even Ellis. Anyway, once I spotted these infected, I was about to shoot them until my concentration was interrupted. This always happens right before we start fighting.
"Did I ever tell you about the time my buddy Keith tried to-"
"Ellis! We really don't have time for that right now!" I yelled at him as soft as my voice could let me. Focusing on that infected, I pulled the trigger. I hit him perfectly in the chest, knocking him back. Unfortunately, my luck changed when he landed on a car with an alarm. It went off, and the scream of a horde was heard.
"And I'm the idiot." Ellis gave me a look. I switched to my machete, firmly in my hands, and I braced myself for the worse.
"Just fucking brace yourselves." I spat at him. It didn't take long for the giant group of zombies to come running all at once. Slashing all that came close to me, all four of us ran through them to get to the other side of the street. Finally slaying off the horde, we shot our way through passageways, eliminating 2 smokers, 2 boomers, and 3 spitters in the process. "We are kicking ass!" I screamed triumphantly as I continued to slash my way through common infected. It wasn't until I heard Ellis screaming from far behind. Quickly running back, I saw him getting ripped apart by a hunter. Cocking my gun, I attempted to fire at the hooded creature until another shot was heard. The hunter howled in pain and collapsed on top of Ellis. Turning around, I saw Coach and Rochelle behind me, staring at what just happened. "Did you shoot the hunter?" I asked them. They shook their heads, making the same confused facial expression. "Well then who shot it?" There was absolute silence as Ellis slowly got up and slightly limped to us.
"Ellis, who killed that hunter?" Rochelle asked him.
"I saw a glimpse of the person. I think he was immune. He would've killed me if he wasn't...right?" We all shrugged and kept a look-out. If its a zombie with a gun, we're good as fucked. Darting into the safe-room, I heard...a voice. More specifically, the voice of someone singing. Who would be singing in a zombie apocalypse? Other than Ellis, I mean. Thinking it could be a psychologically messed up Witch, I closed the door and we prepared for the Park.
Busting the door open with my foot, I jump out into the large group of zombies, shooting rapidly at each one that got too close to me. The other three stayed behind me, killing other infected from farther away. We ran to the park, where there were more hordes. I remember grabbing a pipe bomb earlier. Saving some time, I threw it, causing them to run to the blinking, metallic object.
"Why exactly do they follow after it anyway?" Ellis asked while we ran.
"Because they're stupid, dead pieces of fuck, that's why!" I replied back, running away from the horde around it. We cut through the park and entered the parking lot, which were covered with bodies upon bodies. Slashing a horde that was coming at us, I screamed in triumph as each individual head got cut off their bodies. Although, to my anger, nobody else helped me. The other three just stared at me, slaying zombie after zombie. It wasn't until a smoker began strangling me did they help. "Well, thank you guys for finally helping me out." I patted my white suit...or tan suit until Coach took a small shot to my arm.
"I had just enough of your attitude, Nick." He had a dark look in his eyes.
"Coach!" Ellis jumped in front of him. "We may wanna kill the crap outta Nick, but we can't right now."
"Thank you!" I exclaimed as I clutched my right arm.
"We'll kill him after the apocalypse." He joked.
"I swear to God, if you guys shoot me again, or try to kill me, you will be picking your teeth up off the floor!"
"Not if you're dead." Coach smirked.
"Guys! Nobody's killing anyone except the zombies, okay? C'mon! We gotta get out of this place!" Rochelle yelled over our fighting. Suddenly, everything went quiet. Knowing that something was gonna happen, I patched up my arm, ready to fight. Rumbles were heard in the distance. The others and I got our guns ready as the rumbles got louder and louder. Then, a Tank busted through the wall. Getting back, we attempted to shoot the shit outta that thing, but that ended quickly. The Tank was smart; he serpentined around our range of fire, incapacitating us individually in the process. Screaming for help, (like we had any choice) we continued shooting on it, but it was pointless. Our pistols were useless. We were rapidly losing blood, and we were gonna die in the hands of a big, stupid, hideously-muscular bastard. Lovely; I've always wanted to die this way. As I was about to pass out, due to lack of blood, I saw a figure with something that looked like a grenade launcher suddenly jump in front of me. Everything was blurry and I only heard the sounds of explosions before I was officially out cold.
I woke up in what looked like a safe-house, with my jacket on top of me. I looked around to see Ellis and Coach with something on them too. They looked like blankets. Meh...whatever, I like my white...tan suit. The two seemed to be unconscious still. Then it occurred to me,
"Where's Rochelle?" In the corner, I saw the figure over her body, singing that same song I heard earlier at the Waterfront. Stirring, I sat up. "Who are you?" The figure turned around. It was fairly dark in the room, so I still couldn't see who it was.
"Oh good, you're up! Don't be alarmed, I'm an immune."
"What happened? Who are you?" The figure moved closer to me until the light from the safe-house door shone on her.
"I'm Josephine...or Jo and I just saved your ass from the Tank." I was almost speechless. She looked about 27, her hair was in a tight black and green-dyed braid down to her hips, her eyes glowed blue fires of determination, her slim body had black form-fitting clothes from head-to-boot, and she was carrying many different guns on her back, a health-pack, adrenaline, pills, and a pipe-bomb. My god, she's like the feminine version of Ellis. I slowly got up, holding out a hand.
"I'm nick." Shaking hands, she replied,
"well Nick...I believe you have something to say to me for patching you up and carrying you, along with the other three, to safety, all while fighting off zombies."
"Yeah. Thanks. But did you have to bring him?" I pointed at Ellis. She put her hands on her hips, raising an eyebrow at me.
"Are you saying that I should have just left an immune dead for the zombies to pick at? Nick, you are truly an idiot." My eye twitched.
"I was only kidding."
"Well its not funny. We gotta re-populate the Earth after this goddamn apocalypse and we already have one girl down. We don't want a guy to die too." I looked at Rochelle in the corner, then back at Jo.
"She's dead?"
"Sadly, yep. I even tried the chest paddles. She's gone, man." I stared at the corpse in the corner.
"Shit, Rochelle. You were tough."
"But the other two are fine. Hopefully, they'll be waking up soon." She fixed their blankets, then went back to Rochelle. She placed a new blanket over her body, and prayed. Feeling a little awkward, I went to pick up my jacket from the floor and dusted it off, but really, what was the point? I put my dirt and blood-stained jacket on when the other two began to stir. "Looks like everyone's waking up now." She smiled, turning on a light. Ellis rubbed his eyes and looked at Jo with what looked like...infatuation.
"Guys! This is the person who saved me from that hunter!" He yelled with excitement.
"And the Tank. I'm Jo by the way."
"I'm Ellis. Sorry for thinking that you were a guy earlier." He still had that stupid smile on his face. Jo just laughed.
"You know, I actually get that a lot. People say I'm tough like one."
"I'm Coach." Coach interrupted as he got up, shaking her hand. He then looked around until he finally asked, "where's Rochelle?" She moved aside, revealing a large bundle of blankets in the corner. The look on Coach's face was of horror and ultimate sadness. "No...Rochelle?" He slowly walked over to the covered corpse then fell to his knees. Paying respects, we stood quietly, bowing our heads. The silence was broken by the sobs of the older man. Ellis, being his caring self, as he always is, walked over to Coach, patting his back.
"She dun' well, Coach." In the corner of my eye, I saw his shoulders move up and down during each deep sigh.
"I'm good, I'm good." He got up, sniffed, and turned to us. To our surprise, he didn't look like he was sobbing. Jo clapped her hands together.
"So...right now, we are at the Quarter safe-house."
"That far?" Ellis asked her. "Man, you are one tough bad-ass!" He had to compliment her?
"Just doing my job, Ellis." She winked at him.
"So that means we have to get to the next safe-house, which then leads to the bridge."
"Sounds good to me. Let's kill these bitches!" Coach sounded pumped, but his eyes also spoke revenge. It was a bit creepy...even Ellis caught on and slowly moved away from him a bit.
"So, lets go! Everyone grab your shit and lets move!" I yelled, feeling my own adrenaline rush coming on. Then, I heard a giggle. I turned around to find it was Jo. "What's so funny?"
"Nothing. It's just by the way you're acting, you look like a grown man acting like a 5 year old." It didn't take long for Ellis to bust out laughing with her.
"That's what he calls me!" He howled. I scowled at them as I opened up the safe-house door.
"Let's just go, please?" I gestured Jo to go first. She went out, followed by Ellis, then Coach. Before I left though, I took a quick glimpse at Rochelle's covered-up corpse, sighed, and closed the door. We cut through small doorways, avoiding many zombies as best we could. We eventually reached the ledge that led to a small alleyway. Shooting down all the common infected, we jumped from ledge to ledge. Some even climbed up, but they were quickly shot by Jo. Damn, when that woman fights, she doesn't fuck around. I even spotted a smoker, but right before I even prepared my gun for fire, she sniped it's ass instantly. "Wow, Jo. How did you learn to shoot so well?"
"Years of practice, boy." I twitched when she called me boy. "People thought I was insane because they didn't think there would be a zombie apocalypse, but now they're dead and I'm the one alive, doing the killing." Inside, I wanted to laugh my ass off. Ellis believed in this shit too! Of course I didn't! She really is the feminine version of Ellis.
"You know, I bet you and Ellis could get along quite well. You both seem to have a lot in common." She looked behind her to see him talking to Coach. Looks like he was still comforting him about the whole Rochelle thing.
"Meh. He's not bad looking. And that Southern Accent! Oh God!" I was taken off guard because one, I couldn't believe this badass chick was fan-girling over Ellis and two, I didn't expect her to take me so seriously. Then, she shook her head. "But first, we must get through this. If my mind gets side-tracked, we won't make it out of here."
"What do you mean we won't make it out of here? You think we can't fight on our own?" I said insulted, killing off more infected climbing up to the ledge.
"Tank." She said, in a 'remember?' voice. I felt wiped. She was driving me insane. She's a woman alright.
"Fine, but we still need to get the hell outta here. Hey Ellis, Coach! Let's get a move-on!" The two looked at me with glaring eyes. "What the fuck did I do? Do you wanna live or not?" Sighing, the two caught up with us and we forged on. After more moving, we got to another ledge where a tractor and float was parked on the other side.
"We have to move that tractor." Jo said. "We can use the float to get across this ledge." She was pointing to part of the ledge that had a break in it.
"Well, Ellis!" Nick clapped his hands together. "Would you like to use your Hillbilly skills and drive the tractor for us?"
"Fuck you, Nick." He snapped.
"Seriously, Ellis. Can you drive the tractor while we kill off the infected?" Jo asked him sweetly to lighten up the mood.
"Sure I can." He smiled and raced down quietly go get to the tractor. The rest of us stayed by the gap, prepared to kill off any hordes that could be coming.
"By the way, Nick. You really do need to be a little nicer to your buddies." I cursed myself under my breath.
"You're right. Sorry."
"Don't tell me sorry." She said as she hinted Ellis with her head. Sighing, I looked out for the hordes. Ellis started up the tractor and a roar from many infected throats were heard. They're not that slow...for zombies. Instantly, they were hopping over the tall fence behind the float and we began shooting them down. Ellis drove the tractor as fast as he could, but the float it was pulling wasn't helping at all. On top of that, it didn't take too long before more and more hordes came and we couldn't handle the massive number of zombies. Ellis was almost there, until some of the infected started attacking him. With a pistol in his hand, he shot the scum-bags off of him as he continued to drive. Ellis was still having some trouble though, due to the large amount of zombies attacking the vehicle and float. Suddenly, I could see the determination flaming in Jo's eyes. She leaped off the ledge, into the one big tree in the middle of the area and began sniping every single zombie. Usually, sniping a great number of infected like this would be impossible to do quickly, but she was able to hit them all in a record of 5 minutes and thanks to Jo's convenient shooting, Ellis made it to the gap.
"The ledge is fixed! Let's go!" Ellis cried from the tractor. Coach and I crossed and waited on the other side as Jo jumped down from the tree to join Ellis. "Thanks for savin' my ass."
"No problem." I saw how she smiled at him, all 'crushy' and 'flirty'. "C'mon, we're almost to the bridge!" She called as they caught up to us. We continued passing by alleyways until we made it to the bridge safe-house entrance, but our advances were halted when typically, a Tank appeared from inside it.
"Mother fucker! These things are really annoying!" I screamed, shooting like hell at it. I kept on firing until I was cornered. Bracing myself for a giant strike, I smirked at it. I'm never gonna look scared, even if I'm close to seeing the face of death. Then, an explosion came, hitting the Tank on it's back, knocking it down. As it fell on top of me, I saw Jo with a grenade launcher.
"And that's why its not a bad idea to carry multiple weapons at once!" She grinned in triumph. My God, she's just like Ellis! I wiggled out of the steroid-inhaling mutant, wiping some blood off my white...tan...red suit. Goddammit this suit is getting fucked up! $3,000 down the drain! I looked at Jo, who was blowing on the smoky end of her grenade launcher.
"Thanks." I gave her a small smirk.
"Yeah. No problem."
"C'mon guys, let's get to that safe-house!" Coach yelled as we all filed into the room.
Inside the safe-house, we were healing up, filling up on ammo, and grabbing whatever we might need until a crash was heard and debris fell from the ceiling.
"What the hell?" I screamed when the pieces of ceiling fell at my feet.
"This is no Tank." Jo said, opening the safe-house door. She saw a fighter jet in the distance. "I knew it." She turned back around to us.
"Well? What is it?" Coach asked frantically.
"A bomb. Fighter jets are bombing us. CEDA doesn't know we're here."
"It could be the zombies." I said sarcastically.
"Well, what should we do?" Ellis said, ignoring me.
"I think I saw a radio outside. I'll see if I can contact them." Since there were no infected, it was easier to use the radio without having to blow any brains out. "Hello? This is the bridge! Anyone here? Please pick up!" Static. A voice came on. What luck.
"Hello? Bridge? How many are with you and are you immune?"
"There's me and 3 others and hell yeah, we're all immune! Anyway, we need rescue because we're fighting off all these things and now you're bombing us!"
"Yes, we understand. We'll send a chopper on the other side, but if you don't get there within the next 10 minutes, we're bombing this bridge!"
"Why can't you just bring the chopper here?" Static. "Hello? Dumbass!" More static. "Shit! We gotta cross the bridge and get to the chopper within the next 10 minutes!"
"Why can't they just pick us up over here?" I asked her, irritable.
"Because they're pricks. Anyway, let's lower the bridge because I don't know about you, but I wanna get across it!"
"Oh, and we don't?" I smirked, lowering the bridge. She flipped me off in response. As soon as the bridge lowered, I waited for Ellis to say something before we started running. Surely, he did.
"You know, my buddy Keith and I were on a bridge once, and we-"
"Overalls! We don't have time for this right now! We never do!"
"Quit calling me Overalls, you sleazy conman!"
"Thank you." I smirked at him as I forged on. Jo shook her head, following me. Coach and Ellis caught up to us when they saw us start attacking. "They just never stop coming!" I screamed as I attacked more and more infected, one after the next.
"Well, at this rate, we're never gonna make it in 10 minutes. Unless we get these out." She grinned with triumph as she took out an axe. Smiling just as big, I took out my machete. The other two also took out their melee weapons: a katana and a frying pan.
"Really Coach? A frying pan?"
"Better this than nothin'." He shrugged.
"Ready?" She asked us. We all braced ourselves, and nodded. Then we charged, slaying, hitting, and slashing our way through hundreds of infected. It was like a blood fest, lots of red liquid squirting on us and our weapons. We got up to the middle of the bridge where part of it was completely broken. No infected were found. It was deserted, there were no sounds. It was completely destroyed and empty. Or so we thought. To my surprise, rage, and slight terror, 2 Tanks jumped down from the broken part of bridge. Switching to our guns and grenade launchers, we fought without hesitation. The first one took a blow to the explosion of Jo's grenade launcher, knocking it back and making it fall into the giant break in the bridge. One down. Unfortunately, the second Tank did not fall from the blows like the first one and we ran out of grenades. We had no choice but to get back, shooting with normal guns. The Tank charged, knocking down Coach and Ellis. Acting fast, Jo tried moving to a higher ground. Although that attempt failed as the Tank grabbed her by the leg, and sent her flying into a nearby car. It was the first time we ever saw her fail to kill one of these things. Shocked by what just happened, I took out a molotov and was about to throw it out of panic until he knocked it out of my hand and pummeled me down. I thought it was the end, that we were finished, until I saw the molotov I dropped fly over my head. It hit the Tank and it burst into flame as I watched the mighty beast fall into a big blob of muscle. I turned around as best I could to find Ellis behind me, struggling to stand. He looked pretty banged up.
"That one's for Jo, you big, fleshy piece of fuck." He said with a dark look.
"Thanks, Ellis. You saved my ass." He just continued to stare at me with that dirty look. "Well...aren't you gonna help me?"
"Why should I?" Ellis' eyes narrowed more.
"Because you're a friend?" I tried to smile 'cute'. He just scoffed at my expression and began to heal himself.
"Right, because you've been so nice and helpful." He spat at me as he wrapped bandages around the injured parts of his body. I sighed with exasperation.
"Fine. I'm sorry."
"Your apology is fake, just like you."
"Fine. Ya know what, I don't care anymore." I sighed deeply. "I like Jo, okay?" Embarrassed, I turned my head. I just sounded like a pre-pubescent girl with a stupid fan-girl crush. I could feel Ellis' stare on me. "I guess...when I see you and Jo...you both look at each other...it doesn't matter."
"You...you're jealous. You're actually jealous of me?" He said in disbelief.
"Yes." I rolled my eyes. "So, I'm truly sorry, okay? It doesn't even matter anymore because she likes you. And for me to try to take her away from you...its just not fair...to you. I had a wife, an ex-wife actually. Now she is gone. You haven't had someone to really love and i'm not gonna take that away from you." That was a lie. I never really loved her. If anything, she was annoying.
"Maybe I am better off without Jo." I thought to myself, thinking of all the annoying times my ex-wife nagged me and yelled at me for always going to the casinos. God, she was annoying. But why tell that to Ellis? This was a 'happily-ever-after' moment for him.
"Oh Nick." I heard Ellis' tone change in his voice from disdain to touched. Suddenly, I felt him pull me up from under my arms, treating my wounds. "You are a good friend. Sorry about all that shit before."
"Meh. It's not you, buddy. Now, let's go! I'm tired of fighting these goddamn dead things." He patted me on the back.
"Right behind you, buddy. But first, let's get the other two up." Looking back at a very disgruntled Coach, and passed-out Jo on the hood of a car, I nodded in agreement.
- - On the chopper - - -
We made it to the chopper just in time, zombies banging on the closed door as it took off. Ellis and Coach laid Jo down on two seats as I sat behind her, examining my wounds.
"Well, we made it!" Ellis cheered.
"Hell to the yeah!" Coach exclaimed.
"I'm starting to like you guys." I smirked.
"Wow, Nick." Coach said with a sly grin. "That's the first time I ever heard you compliment any of us." I shrugged.
"Maybe I'm warming up to you guys." I shrugged. In the corner of my eye, I could see Coach smiling at me. Just then, Jo began to stir.
"She's waking up!" Ellis exclaimed, kneeling by her.
"Nnnhh...Goddamn it. My head." She sat up slowly, rubbing it, looking around. "Did we make it?" She asked Ellis, her eyes lighting up.
"Yes, Jo. We made it." He smiled.
"Y'know Jo, Ellis carried you all the way to the chopper. And we made up with Nick."
"Really?" She said, with surprise and gratitude. Ellis nodded with a shy smile. "Thank you." I could see, even from sitting behind her, that she was starting to turn red. Without another second passing, Ellis learned in to kiss her, but then stopped and looked down. She sighed. "You don't need to hesitate or be shy." She said, lifting up his chin and finishing what he tried to begin. I could sense the shock in Ellis' body when their lips touched and when they broke, they looked into each other's eyes. It was love. Real, true love. Not the love I experienced. I turned my head to hide a tear that was creeping out from the corner of my left eye.
"Nick?" Coach looked at me. I kept the left side of my face hidden.
"Yeah? What?" I asked him sternly.
"Are you alright?" Then, I saw Ellis and Jo turn to look at me too. Thinking fast, I yawned to pretend that my eye was watering due to drowsiness.
"Yeah." I rubbed my eye, staring at the three. "I'm just a bit tired, is all. Just dozing off in a daze." I saw Ellis looking at me, with eyes of knowledge. He was mouthing something to me:
"You're not alone."
"That's right. I'm not alone." I thought to myself, "I don't know if I'll find someone, especially now in this goddamn zombie apocalypse, but I guess I'll be fine with these three by my side."
"You know what?" I finally said to the group. "I think I will take a nap." Ellis winked at me and I couldn't help but smile.
"I think I'll rest too." Coach said, getting comfortable in the chair next to me.
"Why don't we all rest? We've been fightin' those infected for a while. We all deserve a break." Ellis looked at Jo. She nodded in agreement, moving as close as she can get to the two chairs that were supporting her torso and legs. Ellis moved up on the two chairs, laying down and wrapping his arms around her. It looked pretty uncomfortable, but considering they're both quite skinny and in love, I think they'll manage. I shifted in my seat a bit, getting comfortable, and closed my eyes.