Disclaimer: I don't own Left 4 Dead 2 or its characters. I only own my OCs.
A/N: Greetings once again! I hope that everyone who's read this so far is enjoying this story! I hope the chapters aren't too long for you guys. I like to make sure that each chapter has plenty of content.
WATERDOG139: Thank you so much for reading, following, favouriting and reviewing! It means so much to me, and I hope you continue to enjoy the chapters that I publish for you. I'm on chapter fifteen now with a long way to go, so there's plenty more coming your way!
Happy reading!
~ Not So Forsaken ~
- Chapter Five -
After the shock of finding the abandoned evacuation centre, the five survivors had made what was actually a very short journey to the next safe room in complete silence.
They were all tormented by the fact that they'd been left by CEDA once again, each of them for different reasons. It was just plain bad luck that they would each miss two different evacuations that day, and the thought of chasing evacuation stations across the country was less than pleasing. They weren't going to dwell on it, though. They were going to move on and try and get the hell out of that mall before they ended up dead at the hands of the zombies wandering in and around the damn place. Sitting in their little safe room, the group took a moment to try and gather themselves. Julia was no longer upset, realising very quickly that she needed to pull herself together so that all of them could survive this mess.
"Okay... I think we need to make for New Orleans." Rochelle said, a look of urgency on her face, "That's the only place in the whole damn country that hasn't fallen yet."
"The question is, how the hell are we gonna get there?" Nick asked, "I'm not exactly happy about the thought of trying to hotwire a car in the parking lot."
Ellis' head perked up suddenly from his place in the corner. The posters he'd been seeing around the mall hadn't really registered with him until this point. The mall had been set to have a grand reopening and one of Ellis' favourite sportsmen was supposed to be there. Jimmy Gibbs Jr. And what would be with Jimmy Gibbs Jr? His stock car. If they could just get their hands on it, they'd be home free.
"We won't need to hotwire a car in the parking lot..." The young man said, smiling brightly, "There's car in this mall someplace. We just need to find it... And I bet we're gonna have to gas it up too."
"Wait, wait, wait..." Nick said irritably, "What car?"
"That car." Ellis said, pointing to a poster of Jimmy Gibbs Jr standing by the car in question.
Everyone's gaze slowly moved to where Ellis was pointing, and they finally saw the poster that he was referring to. There was, indeed, a vehicle on display somewhere in this building. It was enough to fill them with a little bit of hope that they might just be able to make it out of there alive.
"Jimmy Gibbs Jr...?" Rochelle asked, "Who's that...?"
"Only the greatest stock car racer of all time!" Ellis exclaimed, "Try readin' a book sometime."
"Wow. Rude." Rochelle scolded him with narrowed eyes, "Cars were never really my thing."
"That man right there," Ellis began, "Is the pride of Georgia. I would take a bullet for that man. And let me tell ya, if the laws of nature allowed it, I would bear that man's children!"
Four pairs of eyes gazed at the younger man, shocked, amused and even a little creeped out. Ellis looked so happy about that statement. He clearly hadn't thought about what that would entail if the laws of nature did permit him to bear another man's children. Shuddering, Julia broke the awkward silence, rubbing her hands together nervously.
"O-Kaaaayyy..." She said, clearing her throat, "Uh, shall we get going?"
Nick smirked, stepping past the young woman to take the bar off the safe room door as she brushed a lock of hair out of her face. He pushed the door open slowly and stepped out with Julia in tow, followed by Rochelle, Coach and then Ellis, who was still grinning proudly to himself at the back of the line, probably because he'd actually been able to educate someone else about something, rather than being made to feel stupid.
"Hey, Ellis?" Julia called to the younger man from her place in the line, "Is this gonna be as simple as just getting in the car and driving away, or...?"
"Nope. Like I said, the fuel tank's gonna be empty. They generally don't fuel cars up at events like this, so we're gonna have to find some gas." Ellis replied from the back of the group, his voice still as enthusiastic as ever.
"Oh, great." Nick murmured, shaking his head in displeasure, "Where the hell are we gonna find gas in here?"
"It'll be around somewhere. They'd have to refuel the car to get it out of the mall at the end of the event." Ellis answered, "We'll have to split up and look around."
"Nobody wanders off on their own." Coach said in a surprisingly stern tone, "Nick, I want you to go with Ellis and Rochelle, and I'll stay with Jules. Two of you can carry the gas, and one person can do the shooting. The more gas we can get into that car, the better."
"Yeah, let's do it." Ellis said, excitement very clear in his voice.
They headed out into a surprisingly well-lit space, that the group presumed was the atrium. There was still a lot of construction work to be done judging by the scaffolding and abandoned paint pots and rollers, but when they headed along a walkway to an all-glass elevator, they immediately spotted their escape vehicle. It was a 1969 Dodge Charger stock car, painted blue with a white stripe along the top of the bodywork, and covered in various logos, including a big red number twenty-two and Jimmy Gibbs Jr's name.
"Okay... Before we all go running off in search of gas..." Rochelle said quietly as they stepped into the elevator, "Let's make sure we can actually all fit in this vehicle, 'cause... I'm having my doubts."
"Of course we can all fit in there." Ellis laughed, "It might just be a little cosy in the back."
"I'm with Rochelle." Julia said softly, "We need to organise seating arrangements and we should also leave our bags in the car so we can make a quick getaway. If we're in a tight spot, the last thing we need is to be fumbling around trying to get into the car."
"The girls are right." Nick murmured, "Let's take a look at it when we get down there."
He pushed the button on the elevator wall, bringing the doors to a close so that they could begin their descent. The journey to the bottom was slow, and it was also silent. Julia, who was standing awkwardly next to Coach, was really hoping and praying that the rest of her time with her fellow survivors wouldn't be this awkward. She hated awkward silences.
The doors opened, and Ellis practically sprinted out of the elevator to go and look at the car. He was jumping up and down excitedly, clapping his hands together like a child on Christmas morning. Nick snapped at him to quieten down as the others approached the car, and they quickly opened the doors so that they could have a look at the car's interior.
"Huh..." Ellis said with a huff of laughter, "It's your lucky day, folks. Stock cars usually just have one seat, never mind all five."
"Oh, terrific." Nick murmured, opening the door on the passenger side of the car, "Let's just prep this thing so we can make a quick getaway if necessary."
They decided that Ellis would drive, Coach would ride shotgun, Rochelle would sit behind Ellis, Nick behind Coach and Julia would sit in the middle, although the idea of being so close to other people wasn't appealing at all to her. She didn't want to spend God only knew how many hours next to Nick, especially if he was going to be unpleasant for the whole journey. Ellis even warned them that Julia may end up having to sit on someone's lap, which was even more discouraging.
While Nick, Rochelle and Julia tried to figure out how best to arrange themselves in the back, Coach was busy trying to disperse what ammo he'd found in the centre of the room so that everyone could at least have a good stash with them as they went on their little scavenger hunt, and once the car was prepared for fuelling with its seats pulled forward so that Nick, Rochelle and Julia could scramble into the back, everyone got into their assigned groups and started to make their way off looking for any fuel cans. Ellis figured they'd need between six and eight cans at the most, so they would just grab as many as they could and whatever wouldn't fit in the tank would be brought either as spares or left behind if there wasn't enough room in the car. Rochelle and Julia, assigned gas can carriers, left their bigger guns in the trunk of the car with everyone's bags, since they had nowhere else to put them while they carried the cans of gas.
Coach and Julia headed off to the left of the vehicle and back in the direction of the elevator, while Nick, Rochelle and Ellis took the stairs to the right. As they jogged up the steps, Ellis was babbling excitedly about how he couldn't wait to drive Jimmy Gibbs Jr's car. Nick was trying to avoid thinking about how uncomfortable this little road trip was going to be, stuck in a car with a bumbling idiot, a guy who does nothing but talk about food, a woman who was clearly an emotional wreck and Rochelle. Well... Being stuck in the back of the car with Rochelle didn't seem too bad. At least she had sense and personality, he supposed. He glanced across the atrium, spotting Coach and Julia who were rushing to climb the stairs opposite them.
"Come on, Coach." Julia encouraged the older man in a gentle voice, "We've got this."
"Damnit... I knew I shoulda lost some weight!" Coach cursed himself, stopping for breath as they got to the top of the stairs.
Julia hurried ahead, shining her light on what looked like two gas cans sitting in a darkened corner on a sheet of newspaper. Indeed, it was an odd place to find them but she'd found them nonetheless. Grinning, she jogged over to them, hearing the sound of Coach's footfalls as he joined her while she put her Magnum away. She was just picking the cans up when there was a sudden pounding on the door to their right, and growls, cries and angry yells started to come from behind it which sent chills down both survivors' spines.
"Oh, shit..." Coach said in a low voice, watching as part of the door broke away, "You go check over there while I try and hold 'em off."
Julia moved across the way to see if she could spot any other cans, while Coach started to open fire as the infected broke down the door. Behind some of the wooden panels of the scaffolding, Julia came across a third can, so, pinning one under her arm, she grabbed the third, and set off running back across to the stairs. The more she could carry at once, the quicker they could get their asses out of that damn mall. It wasn't easy to carry them either. Her small hands struggled to grip the handles on the cans and her arm was already hurting from pinning the third to her body, but they didn't have time to come running back for more.
"Let's go!" She called to Coach, running behind him and towards the stairs.
He followed her, running backwards as he continued to shoot at the oncoming horde of zombies. The door that was on the opposite side of the space, where Julia had just returned with her third can of fuel, also started to come apart as zombies pounded on it from the other side. Spotting zombies heading towards the stairs, Julia panicked, backing up so that she was behind Coach who turned his shotgun on the oncoming infected. Clearing a path for her, he let Julia bolt in front towards the car, where she dropped two of the cans before unscrewing the lid of the remaining can in her left hand.
She carefully eased it towards the opening of the fuel filler pipe and started to pour, emptying the whole of the can into it. Once it was empty, she launched the empty can out of the way, grabbing another one to start filling. Up above her to her left, Rochelle was running with two cans, one in either hand, while Ellis, who was carrying an extra can, and Nick were trying to keep her protected from what looked like a colossal horde of zombies.
"Whoever scattered these cans around like this is a fucking sadist!" Nick yelled angrily, opening fire with his sniper rifle on the zombies that were almost tripping over each other to get at them.
Down below, Coach was covering Julia's back, shooting anything that came her way as she poured her final can into the fuel filler pipe. She threw it out of the way as hard as she could, but just as it hit the floor, she heard a very familiar roaring that sent her heart into her throat. It was a Tank, and it sounded as though it was coming from the far end of Atrium.
"Oh, fuck..." She breathed, taking out her Magnum, despite knowing it wouldn't do much good.
The pounding of the massive zombie's feet grew louder and louder, and the ground around them started to tremble, almost causing poor Rochelle to lose her balance. Coach shared a worried look with Julia, who was looking around for anything that could possibly save them at this point. The Tank appeared at the far end of the atrium, hurtling towards them at an alarming speed.
"We have to lead that thing away from Rochelle and let her fill up the rest of the fuel tank!" Ellis' voice echoed across the cavernous space, "It only needs about two more cans' worth of gas!"
"Why the fuck have you brought a third then?!" Nick demanded.
"Well, for one, I didn't know how much Coach and Jules had with them, and two, we now have a spare for the road!" Ellis answered, "Now shoot the damn Tank!"
The huge zombie was almost upon them, snarling, snorting and growling, its enormous arms swinging wildly as it hit other zombies out of the way and smashed the kiosks it was passing into pieces. Julia, realising that they had to lead it away fast, shot at it with her Magnum. If she could piss it off enough to make it follow her, the others could kill it by shooting it from the back. The downside was that she could potentially die doing this, but, the others at least would be able to get out of there and her sacrifice wouldn't be in vain. The Tank looked at her with its rage-filled, frightening eyes and in that look, Julia had made her decision. She broke into a run towards it, continuing to shoot it with her Magnum.
"Julia!" Coach yelled, opening fire on the Tank, "What are you doin', girl?!"
Taking a right around the damaged remains of the kiosk that the Tank had just smashed up, Julia looked over her shoulder to see it following her. She turned around and started shooting it, thankful to see Ellis, Nick and Coach blasting the monstrous thing with round after round of ammo. Unfortunately for Julia, however, it was catching up with her. Her red curls bounced wildly as she sprinted away from it, her sneaker-clad feet pounding on the floor in an attempt to get away from it.
Suddenly, a tremendous force and horrifically sharp pain seared through her body and it occurred to the twenty-one-year-old that the Tank had just hit her. She was flying towards the wall at the back of the atrium, way too far away from the car to even think about making it back to it, and all she had time to do was to cover her head and try to brace herself for the impact.
The slam of her body hitting the wall seemed so loud to her that she thought it'd attract another wave of infected people to them. The pain was indescribable at the moment that her body hit the wall, but it didn't last long. It was replaced almost immediately with a sickening ache, which only intensified when she hit the floor right in the Tank's path. She curled in on herself for a moment, winded, trying to get up the strength to move out of the monstrosity's way before it could hit her again. Its arm was in the air, ready to strike her and probably crush her into nothing but a pile of mashed up skin, muscle, blood and bone. She covered her head, letting out a terrified scream as its shadow loomed over her.
The blasting of the guns was soon the only thing she could hear, and Julia cracked open an eye to see the Tank collapsing in front of her. Relief washed over her at the realisation that the Tank was dead, it wasn't going to kill her, and when she met eyes with Coach, she realised that she was probably going to be able to escape with them. Ellis and Nick were already racing back towards the car to help Rochelle, who was now being crowded by infected.
"Come on, young 'un!" Coach yelled over the gunfire, kneeling down to try and help Julia to her feet.
Julia pushed herself up, groaning in pain as she did. She and Coach started to run for the car and thankfully, enough adrenaline was now pumping through Julia's veins to keep her moving at a very fast pace. Rochelle had just slammed down the trunk where the others presumed the final gas can had been placed, and she was now being ushered into the back of the car by Ellis, while Nick was waiting with the door open for Julia to get in first, shooting at any zombies that approached them. Ellis could be seen pushing his seat back and then climbing inside, slamming the driver's door shut.
Arriving at the car, Julia scrambled inside, almost falling over as she landed next to Rochelle who then scooted as close to the side of the car as possible so that everyone else had space to get in. Nick eased himself in backwards and at speed, cursing immediately at how cramped the back of the vehicle was. Poor Rochelle was trying to get comfortable while holding onto Ellis's gun, and Nick was trying to find a suitable place to put his sniper rifle. Coach slammed his seat back into place which hit Nick's knees, causing the suited man to draw a leg back, knee towards his chest which was very difficult in his suit and kick the seat out of frustration as Coach climbed into the car, rearranging his shotgun haphazardly between his knees.
"Come on, boy, step on it!" Coach yelled, slamming his door shut as zombies seemed to pour from every direction around them.
Ellis started the car, bouncing in his seat with excitement as the engine roared to life. The wheels started to spin as he accelerated, and as he finally got moving, everyone else was hanging on for dear life.
"Here we go!" Ellis cried, whooping as he got the car off the podium and started to drive towards the doors opposite them.
The car was powerful enough that they were at a high speed within a few seconds. Seeing the boarded-up doors getting closer at a stupidly quick pace, Rochelle and Julia pressed close together while Nick grabbed a hold of the back of Coach's seat, anything to keep himself held upright. They made contact with the boards and then the glass of the doors, bursting out of them at such speed that the car flew off the top of the steps leading up the main entrance of the mall, landing with a such a hard thud that Julia and Rochelle almost bounced out of their seats.
Coach spun around to look between the seats at his comrades, who were clearly very cramped in the back of the car. Nick was uncomfortably squashed between the side of the car and Julia, who looked less than thrilled to be there, while Rochelle was sitting with one leg crossed over the other, also clearly struggling with the lack of space. Kindly, Coach decided to take Ellis' gun from Rochelle, allowing her a little more breathing room as he balanced it next to his own. In the brief silence that followed, Rochelle turned her gaze to a very anxious Julia, remembering how she almost got herself killed trying to protect her from the Tank. She placed a motherly arm around the younger woman, offering her a reassuring rub of the arm as she had at the abandoned evacuation centre.
"Sweetie, are you hurt?" She asked gently.
"I'm okay..." Julia said breathily, "Just achey."
"Here."
Looking up, Julia met Nick's grey-green eyes with her deep brown ones, her gaze then flitting down to his large hand where he held a bottle of pills. Pain relievers by the look of it. Unscrewing the lid with her dainty fingers, she shook a couple of the pills into her hand and swallowed them dry, something which made Rochelle cringe a little beside her. She fastened the lid back onto the bottle and handed the pills back to Nick with a weak, nervous smile, feeling very grateful that he'd been kind enough to offer them to her.
"Th-Thank you..." She muttered, watching him pocket them quickly.
He gave her a nod in return, which she assumed was simply in acknowledgement, before moving to look out of the window with a heavy sigh of irritation, probably from being so uncomfortable and cramped.
"We really ought to pull over when we get to a quieter area and check that you've not broken any ribs, darlin'." Coach said gently, "That Tank backhanded you with some force."
The thought of them finding the bruises on her arms and torso caused panic to rise in the back of her throat, giving her the urge to vomit. She didn't want them to ask her awkward questions, and she certainly didn't want the embarrassment of having to admit that her boyfriend had beaten her so badly that she couldn't bend down without being in agony. She didn't want to have to tell strangers that the man who she loved and was supposed to trust had left her for dead in that horrid hotel. And the more she got herself hurt, she realised, the more risk there would be of them seeing her injuries.
"Honestly, I'm fine." She said, brushing a strand of her copper-coloured hair behind her ear, trying to avoid everyone's gaze as they gave her odd looks, "It didn't hit me that hard."
"Whatever, sweetie." Nick muttered, rolling his eyes as he looked out of the window again.
"Hey, you guys wanna stop off someplace for the night, or just keep goin'?" Ellis asked, keeping his focus on the road.
"We've had a hard day, and a long one." Coach said, "We really oughta rest somewhere tonight, but... I guess we could keep goin' and drive in shifts."
"Oh, fantastic." Nick snarled, "And how the fuck do you expect us to sleep back here? We're almost inside each other we're that fucking close together."
"Really, Nick?!" Rochelle asked, disgusted with his choice of words.
"What? It's true!" Nick replied, indicating Julia with his thumb, "Poor old Raggedy Anne's more stuck than a mouse in a trap! I'm wedged between her and this side of the car! I can't sleep like this!"
Julia wasn't really paying much attention to this particular conversation. The second that Nick started to raise his voice, her heart rate must've doubled at the very least. Panic started to claw at her again as the face of her boyfriend came to the forefront of her mind once more, distracting her completely from the situation she was currently in. Kevin was beautiful to look at. Dark-haired, dark-eyed, strong, handsome features, toned body... But once he got angry and that snarl made its way onto his face, when he would bear his teeth and get so close to her face that she would squeeze her eyes shut, he frightened the life out of her and he became almost demonic to look at.
'The only reason I'm here is 'cause no other asshole's retarded enough to love you!'
"You can't expect us to sit like this all the way to New Orleans, Ellis." Nick's voice brought Julia back with a short, quiet, shaky breath, "Rochelle's right. We need a bigger vehicle."
Rochelle's hand on her back caused Julia to physically jolt, which earned her a concerned look from the older woman. Avoiding her gaze, Julia tried to focus on the conversation that was being had, hoping that Rochelle wouldn't ask her what was wrong. She didn't want to go there. And as long as she could, the redhead wouldn't allow herself to get into a situation where she'd have to go there. The thought of explaining what her boyfriend had done to her was unbearable.
"I ain't abandonin' this car, Nick!" Ellis protested.
"Please, can we just...?" Julia didn't realise she'd spoken until everyone's gaze was on her again, "Can we stop yelling at each other? Today's been hard enough."
She shrank back in her seat as best she could and started to fidget with her fingers, trying to avoid looking at the others. Rochelle looked across at Nick, who was staring at Julia suspiciously before his gaze turned to hers. They were thinking the same thing, Rochelle could tell. Something wasn't right with the youngest member of their group. She was panicky and jumpy, not to mention the fact that she kept phasing out on them and that, if they were totally honest, she just acted rather oddly in general.
"Ellis, I do have to agree with everyone else about the car. This really isn't the best mode of transport." Julia murmured, keeping her eyes trained on her hands.
"Instead of complaining, why don't y'all just shut up and enjoy the fact that we're not havin' to walk for a while." Ellis said in an unusually angry and defensive tone, "I got us outta there, didn't I?"
"Ya did." Coach said in a placating tone, "And we're very grateful for it. Aren't we, y'all?"
"Yes." Rochelle and Julia spoke together, both turning to look at Nick when he didn't respond.
After a long sigh, almost like that of a teenager who'd been asked to take out the trash, Nick also said he was grateful, and turned his gaze to the road that was steadily passing them by, deciding, for once, to keep his mouth shut. Rochelle, who still had an arm around Julia, pulled her closer to hug her in a motherly fashion while the young woman tried to calm her nerves and settle down for the trip ahead. She couldn't really look at much other than Nick from the position she was sitting in, and she was sure that he wouldn't appreciate her staring at him. So, she turned her gaze to the dashboard and tried to keep herself from wandering into more thoughts of Kevin as the car fell into silence.
Unfortunately for the group, Ellis had anything but a quiet journey planned, and as they finally managed to find a way onto a highway, Coach, Nick, Rochelle and Julia internally groaned as they heard Ellis speak from the driver's seat.
"Hey, did I ever tell y'all about the time my buddy Keith tried campin' on top of a buildin' once...?"
~ To Be Continued ~
I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Thank you for reading so far!