I do not own this game or its characters… except the kids and Ruiz.
Rochelle shuffled down the hallway, rubbing her eyes of sleep. She was dressed in shorts and a tank top, grateful for the change of clothes. Infinity had come in the guest bedroom and tossed her the articles of clothing last night. She turned on her flashlight as she entered the living room, on the sofa bed laid Ruiz and Marie; even in sleep Ruiz was holding his daughter close protectively. She looked to the recliner and smiled at the large snoring Coach, reclined all the way back. Then she turned to the couch and smiled even wider. Ellis and Infinity were cuddled together; Ellis had his arms wrapped around her, her back to his chest. What made her the happiest was the look of contentment and peace on their faces. Even with impending doom right outside their door these two managed to put smiles on others faces and smile in the face of danger. That was amazing, and an inspiration.
If she had a camera right now she would take a picture of these two. Not as leverage or blackmail, but as a reminder. That even during the darkest times… there was at least one moment of piece.
The quiet before the storm.
Left4Dead
Infinity woke up to the sound of giggling girls and a laughing boy. She opened her eyes and looked around, the sofa bed was back in place, the recliner was void and the children were running around the open space of the living room. Marie, Monica, and Alex were all running around while Matt was chasing them.
Infinity smiled, glad that the children were enjoying themselves and hopefully had a good night sleep.
She heard Rochelle and Coach laughing. She was curious and went to look towards where they were but then remembered the arms around her waist. She turned her head to look at Ellis who was still sleeping peacefully; apparently he was a deep sleeper.
She laughed quietly.
Ellis opened his eyes.
"Hey there."
She smiled again. "Hey there." She echoed.
"Sleep good?"
"Oh yah. You?"
"Yep."
They fell silent for a while just enjoying the closeness and peace. Infinity thought about how they were positioned. Thought about the sense of security she felt, but not only that it felt…. Cliché much…. Right. She thought about everything Ellis and she had been through, both of them thinking the other was going to die. She thought about how sad it made her to think he would give up. She remembered all the jokes and stories they had told each other and how much fun she had with him. She thought about the times when she had gave him a quick kiss on the head or cheek, or the times she had run her hand up and down his back, it all just came naturally.
She smiled as she thought about all the smiles he would flash her, or would set out to make sure she was safe. Always keeping his eye on her to make sure she was alright. It just seemed, to her, that everything they did came naturally, and what came naturally was loving touches…
"Hungry?" He asked suddenly.
"Yes!"
He laughed. "Okay c'mon."
The two of them got off the couch and headed for the small island in the middle of the kitchen where the others were all sitting around and talking.
"Hey, there's the lovers."
Ellis smirked.
Left4Dead
As the large group of people sat around the kitchen, whether it was around the island or sitting at the table they all laughed and ate happily. The man had found a good spot to hide, and with all of them they all felt safe and at peace. It was like they were just one big family who had no problems…
"Hey I was thinking that I should go out and get some more food… since there are going to be more than two people living here now. Maybe some extra clothes….?"
"Who said we were staying here!" Nick freaked out.
"Nobody! Nobody said WE were staying here. But I'm not taking four kids out there. They stay here with Ruiz… Once we get rescue we send them a chopper. We…" using her finger and jabbing it between the five of them, "are leaving tomorrow morning. They…" jabbing her finger between the four children and Ruiz, "are staying here until they are rescued. But they can't live without proper food now can they?"
"Oh." Was all Nick said before he went back to his cereal. "Wait a second!" His mouth still full of Cheerios, "Why TOMORROW morning?"
"I have to go shopping. Didn't you hear me? Besides we can use another night of normal sleep… in a safe place…"
"In each other's arms…." Nick finished batting his eye lashes.
"Oh, go to hell Nick." She stuck her tongue out at him.
Ellis butted in. "Hey guys, c'mon, just git along a little longer."
"Fine. At least we are "safe"…"
Infinity huffed and Nick just smirked and continued eating his cereal. As Coach walked by him to put his bowl in the sink he slapped Nick upside the head. "Ass hole." He muttered, Nick just kept smiling.
Ellis took Infinity's bowl with him as he took his bowl to the sink as well. Infinity and Rochelle laughed together as they walked to the family room with the kids, checking their sizes and getting opinions for food and snacks.
An hour later they had three pages of a notebook filled with ideas.
"Okay! We got what we think will be great for them." Rochelle announced.
"Which one of you gentlemen would like to come with us?"
Nick coughed and pretended to be busy and Ruiz excused himself and left for the bathroom.
Ellis watched as Infinity and Rochelle both turned to him. "Ellis sweety?" Rochelle asked in her sweet drawl. "You wanna come?"
"Uh, no thanks Ro… Ah want ta make sure this house is zombie proof, Ah'm gonna go around and make sure everything is secure."
"Fine." Rochelle huffed and turned to Coach, her partner in crime seemed occupied with Monica again. The sniffling young girl said something about "pushed" and "rub burn".
Coach got up from the recliner, Rochelle must have convinced him to come.
"Alright lil sister… I'll come with you."
Rochelle smiled and turned on her heel, she practically skipped to the front door.
"C'mon In'! I got Coach to go, let's go."
"In a moment." Infinity looked towards Rochelle for a moment before going back to the little girl. She had knelt down in front of the small sad girl. "Let me see it again." Monica held out her elbow to reveal an irritated red section, classic rug burn.
"Alright sweet heart. That doesn't look too bad. Lemme kiss it." Infinity kissed the small area on her elbow gently. "How's that?"
"It still stings." She whimpered.
"Alright, you wanna band aid?"
The girl nodded.
Infinity looked at him, "Ellis could you get her a band aid?"
"Sure."
Infinity looked at Monica, "Ellis will get you a band aid." When the girl didn't seem too pleased she continued. "And guess what? While I'm out… I'll see if I can find you some special band aids. With princesses or something… how does that sound?"
"Awesome!" The girl threw her arms around Infinity's neck and then bounded to Ellis and grabbed his hand and led him to the bathroom.
Left4Dead
Infinity laughed as she watched little Monica drag Ellis to the bathroom. She stood up and headed to the door where Rochelle and Coach were waiting, Rochelle smiling and Coach looking awfully impatient.
"Okay Okay I'm ready, let's go."
"Finally!" Rochelle threw up her hands and opened the door.
They had only run into a couple zombies on the way, mostly single shoppers or cashiers who never left the stores.
After an hour of shopping, they had about 11 bags full of clothes and only about 5 bags of groceries, almost all were being carried by Coach. They hadn't gone into the mall so the stores weren't all together more like 20 minutes apart from each other.
"Can we just steal a cart and use that to carry all of this shit?" Coach complained.
"Fine, this is our last store, we'll grab a cart on the way out and we'll use that to take all of this back to the apartment. Okay? Now stop complaining." Infinity huffed as she opened the door to the drug mart.
"Okay so what do we need here?" She asked Rochelle who was holding the notebook.
As Rochelle got a cart out for Coach to dump their stolen goods she looked at her notepad.
"We need whip cream, painkillers, frozen waffles, rubber bands, paper plates, so they don't always have to wash dishes, and we need hand soap…"
"Okay, oh remind me to look for band aids."
Coach put the last remaining groceries in the cart, "Hey Infinity."
She turned around to face him, he was leaning on the handle bar of the cart. "Hm?"
"Look for band aids." He smirked.
"Ugh."
He laughed as she turned around; she went down to the aisle she supposed would have both the band aids and the painkillers. The entire aisle was completely ruined. Boxes of band aids and bottles and other boxes filled with other crap littered the floor.
"Looked like these people were desperate to get rid of any symptoms of the infection."
"Yah…" She agreed. She stepped over things while looking for princess band aids.
"Found the painkillers."
"Grab anything. Everything that can help with any pain grab it. Oh and get cold medicine, just in case."
She found a couple boxes of band aids but they were all regular or transformers. She grabbed the Transformers one and tossed it into the cart.
"For Matt." She shrugged.
"Hey. I found some Hello Kitty band aids…"
"That'll do, good eye Ro." She heard shuffling and moaning and pulled out her duel pistol, as soon as the undead women came into view… which was on the ground she put a bullet in her head.
"C'mon lets finish it up here." The other two nodded in agreement.
They ended up finding ONE box of Princess and the Frog band aids, they finished the rest of their list and headed out.
"Wow we got really lucky, not many zombies."
"I still got bit." Coach moaned.
"Well then thank the lord you are immune."
"Bite me."
"I thought you were just complaining you got bit."
"Shut up."
The reached the stairs of the apartment and debated whether or not they should bring the whole cart up.
"They could use it reguarly."
"Yah but we don't need to bring it up to the house we could just leave it here."
"Well would you rather make one trip or several?"
Coach paused. "Fine we carry the cart up."
"Great! Be right back." Infinity ran up the stairs and into the apartment. Rochelle must have caught on because she was up behind her in no time.
Infinity ran over to where Nick and Ellis were talking with Ruiz while keeping an eye on the playing children.
"Hello my favorite boys!"
Nick and Ellis moaned.
She skipped up to Ellis and grabbed his hand, "Can you please help carry a cart up the stairs?" She gave him puppy eyes and a pouty lip pulling slightly on Ellis hand.
"Holy shit. You have a freaking CART?"
"What part of SHOPPING didn't you get?"
"They are girls Nick." Ellis put in, he still hadn't moved any further than what the tugs brought him.
Rochelle came in and took both of Nick's hands. "Please? Coach can't do it all by himself you know."
The two of them sighed but got up.
Once the cart was inside they unloaded it and all the children got into their new clothes. They all had a "family" dinner, and they even played card and board games. Nick was way out of his element with the "family bonding time" but he stayed through it all.
Throughout the night Infinity watched Ruiz. He constantly looked nauseous and would leave for the bathroom often and he looked pale.
She was about to ask to give him another look over when Rochelle announced the kids should be going to bed. All the kids squealed and started to run around the room in protest; so Ellis, Rochelle, Infinity, and Coach all got up to chase the 4 children. Nick eventually started to get irritated so to end the squealing sooner he got up to help.
After 30 minutes the kids were all dressed and in bed. However as Marie started to get into the sofa bed she stopped her.
"Marie honey? I'm gonna have you sleep with the others in the master bedroom okay?"
"Why?"
"I'll tell you in the morning okay?"
"Okay." She replied timidly.
After everyone else was settled; Nick and Rochelle in their room as well, and all the kids in the master bedroom only Coach, Ellis, Ruiz and herself remained. Coach was drinking a beer at the kitchen island and Ellis was preparing the couch for a nights sleep.
"Where is Marie?" Ruiz asked as he came from the bathroom again to lie down on the sofa bed.
"I asked her to sleep with the other kids tonight." She answered truthfully.
"Why would you do that?" Though the question was more of a angry statement.
"Because I think you are sick…."
"You think I'm infected?" Ruiz was giving her a death glare.
"Yes." She swallowed.
"Well that's a load of bull shit. I'm not infected. I'm immune like you guys."
"You may be immune to the air born… but that doesn't make you immune to bites."
"I was never bitten."
"Are you sure? Were you even scratched by an infected?"
"No! I was never even touched. You're a bunch of shit you know that! Let me see my daughter."
"If you care about your daughter then you will at least prove me wrong. Let you daughter sleep with the other kids and you sleep alone. I just want to be safe. Put your daughters safety first. Please. You may not be infected, I just want to be safe."
"Fine." He ground out. Ellis had come up behind her protectively during the argument, he had laid his hand on the small of her back in reassurance that she was safe, and that he was there for her. She smiled. This man was really starting to make…
"I'm not infected though." Ruiz said as he drifted off to sleep in his sofa bed. She had wanted to look him over, look for a bite or a scratch but she figured he was pissed off enough…
Coach came over, his beer gone, and sat in the recliner. "Good night." He mumbled.
"Good night." Ellis and Infinity said in union.
As Ellis began to lay back down on the couch Infinity started to walk away.
"You ain't gonna sleep here tonight?"
"I, uh… well the kids."
"Well the kids have one more space taken now, you wouldn't even be comfortable. If you don't like the idea with me being here you can have the couch and Ah'll sleep on the floor…"
Infinity smirked and walked over to the couch and got comfortable, once again, in Ellis' arms.
"Did you have fun shopping?" Ellis whispered.
"Mhmm." She mumbled.
"Good." With that all said they both fell silent and we both fast asleep within minutes.
Left4Dead
Wow…. Fluffy and light much? Sheesh. Well I'll just have to make the next chapter a little more morbid and intense for you all…. Unless you liiiiike it? Let me know! Review it and send me some ideas! I always love input and constructive criticism!
Next chapter will be up soon.
