Rochelle watched him from the chair she was sitting in as he wheezed; every breath was a struggle and it was getting harder to watch. She furrowed her brows and took his big hand in her small on, lightly running her fingers over his bruised knuckles.
"Ellis sweetie...can I get you anything?"
he looked up at his fellow teammate, half lidded blue eyes struggling to stay open, and he cleared his throat as he squeezed her hand gently "Some water would be nice" he croaked in a tired, quiet tone. She was somewhat glad he'd asked for something. It was getting hard to watch him in so much pain all of the time. She knew he was going to die and that thought played on her mind every time she laid eyes on him. Raising from the creaky wooden chair she walked towards the doorway and into the next room which was the kitchen where Nick was sat at the round kitchen table, a lantern illuminating his rough features as he smoked a cigarette calmly. Rochelle ignored his presence as she made her way over to the rucksack that was slouched in the corner of the room. As she crouched down to search through it, she felt Nicks gaze burn into her back intently.
"Is he any better?" His tone held no emotion as he slouched back in his chair. Rochelle had to fight the urge to snap at him yet again. That's all she seemed to do since Ellis got tore up by that witch and all Nick seemed to do was pull at her nerves constantly when he knew she had other things on her mind. He did it on purpose, to whined her up and miraculously it worked.
"You know he's not any better." She snarled in a whisper, finding the water and standing up. She turned around and met gaze as she placed a hand on her hip. He eyed her from head to toe, something he'd do often and when he did Rochelle would always wonder what ran through his mind. They were in the middle of what was probably the end of the world, one of their friends was dead and another dying, yet Nick still thought it necessary to fuck her with his eyes. Unbelievable.
"That's the last bottle. You should tell the kid to toughen up so we can leave for fucks sake." Nick grunted putting his cigarette butt out in the make-shift ashtray.
She gave him her most evil glare "Incase I haven't already informed you like a thousand times, he is dying Nick. He isn't going to make it. He's not going to get any better. Do you understand now?"
He heard the pain in her voice crack through the anger and he looked away for a moment before looking back at her, trying not to let his asshole attitude fail "Put the kid out of his misery then. No use giving him false hope."
Rochelle went silent. She couldn't believe that, in her head, she was actually debating whether that was a good idea. If he was dead he'd be out of pain, out of his misery and out of this messed up world. To Rochelle though Ellis was just a kid, a little brother and she couldn't bring herself to agree that that was probably the best thing for him. The four huge gashes on his chest were seeping blood and didn't look like they were going to stop anytime soon. Although she'd wrapped them in bandages she knew it wasn't helping much. He was in a critical position.
"Fuck you Nick." She whispered in an icy tone. She watched as his mouth turned up into a smirk and he cocked his head to the side, raising an eyebrow "You'd probably like that, sweetheart."
She glared at him in a way that told him to shut his mouth "Don't be a smart ass. Make yourself useful," she turned around and began walking towards the room Ellis was lying in before adding "go out and look for some more water. While you're out there try look for some stitches and something I could possibly clean his wounds with. I'm gonna make sure this kid survive this."
Nick scoffed, turned his head to the side and laughed "oh my god let it freakin go Rochelle. We've lost Coach and- let's face it- unless we're handed a fucking miracle we're gonna lose Ellis as well. Its just me and fucking you, Ro' or at least it will be and I can guarantee you that."
"Oh placing a bet on it? How original Nicohlas. Just go and take a look for supplies; I'm tired of your smart ass mouth."
Nick stood up almost angrily, tipping the chair over as he did "You know what? Fine. I'll fucking go look for supplies which are getting wasted on a DEAD man. I don't know what you're going to do if I go out there and get ripped to shreds by a hunter. I'll see you later- unless I get lost because of the fucking rain." He walked towards the safe house door and pushed it open, letting a bitter breeze flow in before he stepped out into the lashing down rain and slammed the door.
Rochelle hesitated for a moment before entering Ellis' room where he had fallen asleep yet again.
"Ellis sweetie, wakey wakey I got your water."
His eyes flickered open as if he hadn't been asleep at all. Rochelle sat down on the chair she usually sat on and smiled sympathetically at him "how you feeling? Did the pills help the pain at all?"
Ellis stared at her for a moment before closing his eyes. When he reopened them there were tears brimming them and he looked sadder than ever. Rochelle stroked his forehead trying to soothe him "Hey, don't cry. Why don't you tell me one of your famous Keith stories, huh? Keep your mind off things."
He shook his head slightly before beginning to speak "I...I wasn't supposed to die like this. Not this way. I was meant to be surrounded by my kids, I was meant to be an old man. Keith was meant to kneel beside me and sing cotton eyed joe to me. This ain't right..."
Now it was Rochelle's turn to cry "Ellis...you're not going to die."
"I'm in so much pain. I heard you guys takin' 'bout killing me off. You know, I-I really don't mind. I think I'm ready to go now. Just pop a bullet in me and I'll finally be at peace again." He gave her a small smile- it was all he could offer her. She shook her head almost frantically
"No Ellis. That was just Nick being...well that was Nick just being him self I suppose."
They went silent for a few minutes before Ellis decided it was best to change the subject "Prop me up, I'm thirsty as hell."
Rochelle obeyed and helped him sit up. The relatively clean floral blanket he had been using fell away from his messily bandaged up chest and Rochelle realised what a dogs dinner she'd actually made of it. The blood was seeping through the once white bandages quite badly. Rochelle eyed it "I need to change those for you. I need to clean those nasty ass wounds too."
"We ain't got nothing like that Ro'. You used the last of the bandages and we got nothin' to clean them up with."
"I sent Nick out to look for more supplies-"
"Woah you sent Nick out by himself?! Ro are you crazy? What if he gets killed?" Ellis shook his head. For once in his life he was being serious. Ever since he'd been cut up by that witch he'd become serious. It's like in the space of two days he'd grown up and matured.
Rochelle slowly nodded, surprised at his outburst "He's tough." Was all she could manage after realising what she'd done.
"Don't you worry about him," she said getting out of her chair and opening the bottle of water for her fellow teammate "I don't think he's ready to die yet." She passed the bottle to him and smiled "Now I've been awake for a long time, I'm gonna go get some shut eye. There's pills on the bedside table if you get too uncomfortable and just shout for me if you need anything. I'll be in the next room."
She excited with worry flooding her dark brown eyes. Making her way through the dark room over to her makeshift bed on the brown couch, she began to think about Nick. What if he didn't come back and Ellis did die? She'd have no one and that thought terrified her. As she lay down on the sofa and pulled the tartan blanket over her cold, aching body the thoughts of Nick didn't give up.
Eventually she felt herself drift off into a deep sleep.
She awoke two hours later, her back aching from two uncomfortable nights on the hard took her eyes a few seconds to adjust to the darkness but once they did she looked over to the small table where Nick usually sat. Oddly, he wasn't there. He still wasn't back.
"Shit..." She mumbled tiredly, sitting up and rubbing her tired eyes. She got to her feet and walked over to the table where his packet of cigarettes and red lighter both lay. It was weird that he left without them...though he was probably doing what Rochelle told him and trying to make them last. For a moment she wondered if she should go out and look for him but she went against the idea after rethinking it with all the bad stuff that could happen.
Instead she sat down in what was claimed of Nick's seat. Her eyes scanned the silent room, moving over the green gas cans that were no use now because Virgil had probably gotten tired of waiting and found himself some gas, up and left them. Next to them were two unzipped med kits that had both been used on Ellis. There was nothing interesting in the room at all. She sighed heavily before her eyes fell upon the packet of cigarettes again.
She'd never smoked in her life but had always wondered why other people did. She picked up the packet slowly and took one of the cancer sticks out, placing it between her plump lips before lighting it up.
She took one single puff of it and coughed vigorously. It was disgusting; twisting her face she quickly put it out and spa. It really was awful.
Then suddenly the safe house door flung open and a drenched Nick stumbled inside, slamming the door as he did. He dropped his AK-47 before doing the same with the rucksack that looked very heavy. Rochelle didn't say anything she just watched him as he stared at her.
"Well? I'm back don't I at least get a hello?" He hissed obviously still a bit moody. They'd been at each other throats ever since Coach died. She laughed a little before raising from the seat
"I was beginning to think you'd abandoned me, Nicky."
He snorted as he walked past her, shrugging his jacket off as he did, before plopping back onto his seat "yeah, bet you were contemplating suicide and all that hocus pocus nostalgic stuff girls do when the handsomest man disappears." His tone was sarcastic and cocky; as it nearly always was.
It was Rochelle's turn to snort at him "So full of yourself. Nice."
"Hey, look at it this way honey, you're gonna be full of me one day when we need to repopulate the earth." He smirked. Rochelle gave him a disgusted look. That was another thing that had changed since Coach had died, Nick had become so vulgar.
"In your dreams." Was all she said before walking past him and over to the black and green rucksack on the floor "let's see what you managed to find."
Rummaging through the bag she found three bottles of water, two packets of out of date Cheetos, hand sanitizer and some more packets of foods.
"So you were out there for- what- three hours and you didn't manage to find any bandages or anything to clean his wounds?" She asked in an annoyed tone.
"Oh for god sake Rochelle, can we have one fuckin' moment where we don't argue. Christ you're as bad as my ex and we're not even married."
She rolled her eyes as she grabbed a bottle of the water and walked over to the sofa, getting back under the blanket. ,I'm going back to sleep; you can look after Ellis for a bit."
"Whatever." Was the last thing she heard before she fell back into an uncomfortable sleep.
An hour into her oddly peaceful nap, a loud gunshot made her jump awake. The room had fallen silent again and when she looked around there was no sign of Nick. A tight knotting sensation started up in her stomach. Had he killed himself? Jumping up quickly she ran to Ellis' room, the source of the sound. Inside the room Nick's lantern lit up the room enough for Rochelle to see the sight in front of her. Ellis lay dead on the bed and Nick was pushed into a corner, clutching a pistol in his shaking hand.
She didn't know whether to break down crying or rip his head off.
"What the hell have you done?!" She screamed, running up to him and beginning to punch into him. Nick came out of his shocked state and grabbed both of Rochelle's hands looking her dead in the eye
"It was for the best! He even asked me to do it!" He had to yell over her screams. He had shocked himself; it had passed so quickly. Ellis asking him to shoot him and him pulling the trigger. He didn't even know he'd pulled it until he'd opened his eyes and saw what he'd did.
He felt Rochelle fall against his chest, deciding not to fight with him anymore. It had been what Ellis had wanted after all.
As Nick put his arms around her she pushed away from him quickly, wiping her tears away. She turned to Ellis' lifeless body and slowly pulled the blanket over his head "Rest in peace."
Nick followed her as she exited the room.
"Get your stuff together; we'll leave in the morning." Nick informed her, wiping sweat away from his forehead.
"Fine." Was all Rochelle said. She didn't bother putting up a fight anymore.