"Coach ..." Nick stared at the man, sitting on what could only be the bottom half of a boomer and finishing up on ... "Is that Rochelle?" the conman asked, staring in disbelief. Sure, Coach had always been talking of food, and that seemed to be the second most important thing on his mind, but this ... This was unbelievable! "Jesus Christ, can you not respect the dead!?" A pretty hypocritical thing to say, seeing as all of those zombies were considered dead, and he was shooting away at them like they were tin cans on a fence and he was a child practicing with his gun.
The heavyset man looked at him, staring before shaking his head from side to side. "Listen, ain't had any food in quite a while, and my stomach was aching for something to eat. Rochelle was dead, and now she can at least help me out even in death." the man explained, leaning back on the 'chair' he'd made for himself and finishing off the last of the fingers he had brought with him. Nick could only stare, a disgusted look on his face.
"Fine, fine, I can see we're not going to get anywhere talking about that." Nick grumbled, sitting on the floor after a thorough examination of his teammates face, if Coach was still human, which he hoped he was. Well, cannibalism had existed before the apocalypse, so perhaps he shouldn't be thinking so much of it. It was just that was definitely not what he wanted to happen to him, if he died before they made it to safety. And that-That wouldn't happen to Ellis, because he wasn't going to let the kid die, no matter how stupid he felt for even thinking he could somehow help the guy.
Coach continued sitting on the infected males bottom, legs folded and eyes glued to the door. "Yep." he mumbled, blinking and giving a soft sigh. Nick didn't even bother asking about the boomer. As if cannibalism wasn't weird enough. Tch, yeah, well, he still didn't necessarily want to fight with Coach. He was bigger, and probably stronger. Besides that, he wanted to stay alive, and what with Ellis how he was, it would be impossible without Coach.
Running his fingers through his hair which was still somewhat slicked back, Nick gave a soft sigh just thinking of Ellis in the other room. He did want to go back in there and watch over the kid, make sure he wasn't ... Well, anything. But there wasn't much he could do, and he couldn't seem to pull his mind out of the gutter even though he was trying. Oh god, he was trying so hard to think of staying alive rather then claiming that hick as his own.
And, almost as if on cue, Coach grunted, then asked how Ellis seemed to be doing. Nick scratched at the side of his head, sighing once again. "He's doing alright." the man spoke quietly, hoping this was true. It wasn't as bad as it could've been, thank god, but the poor kid was still far from okay, especially because he was bleeding profusely, though thanks to the bed covers he did admit at least the chest wounds weren't looking as bad as before.
Coach gave a nod of understanding, knowing full well that there was no way Ellis was okay. After all, he'd been beat up pretty damn badly, and there was nothing around to help patch the poor kid up. "Ain't nothing we can do but wait."
Yeah, if that wasn't true, then nothing was. "Tomorrow, we can continue on. It won't do us any good, none of us, to just lay here and wait to be eaten." The thought made Nick shudder as he looked to the bones on the floor. Poor Rochelle. "Not too much longer and we'll get to safety." Thank god. Nick was thanking whatever god may be up in heaven as he nodded, then moved to sit in front of the door leading to Ellis' room.
"I got first shift, so just get some sleep." Coach informed with a smile. Nick didn't protest. After all, he was exhausted, as he always was, and the worry of what would happen to Ellis was just making it worse. "Alright ... Wake me up in a few." And with that, Nick was closing his eyes and nodding off into that little dreamworld full of nightmares.
---- [ //// ] ----
Instead of ever guarding the door, it turned out Coach had been kind enough to let him sleep the entire night. When the first rays of light seeped through the bars and hit his face, he was groaning and rubbing at his eyes, trying to block out the noise that invaded his eardrums. At first he wanted to get back to sleep, but once he realized who the owner of that voice was, his eyes snapped open and he was staring at the blurry forms of Ellis and Coach.
"Yeah, so Keith and I was like, runnin', ya' know, cuz it'd be kinda dumb to stay after ya' dun that, an-" Nick stared, arching a brow as Ellis stopped, noticing he was awake. "Oh, hey Nick! Damn man, we thought you's was gonna sleep forever! C'mon, get up, we gotta get movin'." the southerner said with a nod, hobbling over and making Nick wince visibly. How the kid managed to stay so cheerful even when he looked so bad was beyond him. And how he could so quickly forgive all of the yelling and hitting, well, he wouldn't question it, because this was a wonderful thing. A blessing.
"I'm awake, I'm awake. Just let me get some ammo and we can head off." Nick murmured, standing up with a groan. Brushing the dust off of his bottom, Nick looked back to Ellis who was, for some reason, staring at him with a somewhat expectant look. "What? Need help walking?" he asked, snorting and moving over to load up his gun, shuddering at the laugh he received as a reply. "Not really, but that'd be jus' great.I got this limp, and whoo, I won't even lie! I'm hurtin'." Nick sighed inwardly before moving over, gun now loaded.
"We'll fix you up soon, overalls, so don't kill over." the conman murmured, throwing that warm arm over his neck and trying his best not to get worked up as he slowly stepped in line behind Coach, who was already starting to open the door that led out of the saferoom.
Nick breathed in heavily, moving his free hand to softly pat the hick on the back, receiving a surprised gasp of sorts in return. Damn, bad idea. "Don't worry, kid." Nick started, looking to Ellis who was, as usual, flashing off that brilliant smile, though this time directing it at him. "I'll be careful not to drop you."
Then, with one final smirk, the door was kicked open and they were heading outside, Ellis yelping happily despite the trail of blood behind them.