The group arrived in the next town with ease, only to find the town full of zombies. So this is where the zombies had been lurking all along…fuck. There were hundreds of them!

With a loud sigh, Nick raised his gun and began to shoot at the zombies, killing his fair-share. He still felt a bit bad about yesterday when Ellis killed all of the Specials, and felt like he needed to repay him. He may have been a gambler, but he knew how to repay people quickly.

Most of the zombies were dead after about 20 minutes of intense killing, but not all. They had made a huge dent, but there were more where that came from. In fact, a whole other town full. Just great! Would the killing ever end?

Coach pointed to the safe house just past a few lingering zombies in an open area and ran past them, shouting at the others to follow after him quickly. "Get your butts in here!" He held the door open for them, waiting impatiently. His shouting had caused alertness in a horde that stood idly nearby the group. This caused them to attack Rochelle and Ellis, ripping them up to a bloody mess.

Ellis laying on the ground all bloodied and battered with zombies clawing at him caught Nick's attention when he heard the boy shout out weakly, desperately for Nick. "N-…Nick…" It was almost inaudible over the growls and screeching of the zombies, but luckily he had heard. Thank you perfect hearing!

Nick slowed his running and finally stopped, turning around on his heel slowly and looking for the source of the small cry for help. He saw a hand reached up out of the horde, grasping at something that wasn't there. Ellis. He ran to Ellis and began beating the zombies off of Ellis with the butt of his gun, and even landed a few punches and kicks on some of the zombies that just wouldn't give up.

Coach busied himself with Rochelle, picking her up and carrying her back to the safe house, knowing Nick and Ellis would be fine without his help. Nick struggled to pick up the younger man, but eventually slung him over his shoulder, his knees buckling a bit at the sudden weight gain. "Fuck Kid…you weigh so damn much."

Ellis cried out weakly at the feeling of Nick's stiff shoulder digging into his stomach suddenly, the area on his body the most torn apart by the zombies. Why did they always go for the stomach? Oh yeah…the guts were there. Zombies loved to start with the guts, then work their way up the body until they finally finished you off by eating your brains.

"Nick…it hurt-..s…stop running…" Ellis grabbed onto the back of Nick's suit-jacket, hanging on for dear life as Nick saved him, taking him into the safe house to be patched up and nursed back to health. His savior would be Nick because he spotted Coach's shoes and Rochelle's shoes together, meaning that they were healing one another, or one was healing the other.

Nick cleared off the table with supplies stacked high on it off with a sweep of his arm and laid Ellis on it harshly, not meaning to be quite as harsh as he had been. This caused a groan to come from Ellis, then pained panting as Ellis absent-mindedly fingered his mechanic suit to push it down out of the way and pull his torn, bloodied shirt up onto his chest so Nick could work on him.

Nick held his hand over his mouth and had to shut his eyes tightly for a moment. "Shit Kid…it's bad." He had almost gagged at the sight of so much blood. How could all of that blood come from such a small being such as Ellis? Never mind. He didn't want to think about it, or he might get sick.

He got into his first-aid kit and got out peroxide, a stitching kit, and wrapping gauze. "God Ellis…it's bad this time. Why can't you ever be careful you fucking idiot!" He wasn't mad, but more so worried about Ellis. Ellis had always been careful not to get this badly torn up. What was going through his head this time though? Why was this time any different than any other time?

Ellis gripped the table with his blood-slicked hand as Nick poured peroxide on his stomach to cleanse the wounds. He let out a loud groan of discomfort and flinched. "MOTHER FUCKER! G'damn!" He furrowed his eyebrows together as the stinging began to fade, but not quickly enough for his likings.

Nick worked quickly to get the worst part over with—the peroxide. Soon enough, it was over and Ellis had stopped flinching and was now just lying there, staring at the ceiling with his bloody hand resting on his chest. He couldn't help but feel bad for him. Nick had always been the one to cause Ellis pain, never meaning to. "You okay? Still hurt?"

Ellis shook his head and looked at Nick. "How bad-…how bad's it?" His eyes caught a glimpse of his shredded stomach, almost not recognizing it. "Fuck…FUCK!" He looked away and shut his eyes again. Now he began to panic.

The gambler glared a bit at him in confusion and got the stitching needle ready with thread, then began to sew him up as quickly as he could. He felt Ellis grasp his bicep tightly, wadding the suit-jacket up in his pained grasp as he sewed. "Ellis…it's okay. Relax." Nick clenched his jaw, pissed at Ellis for getting his bloodied handprint on his white suit-jacket. Well…it was white, but now it looked more like a tainted gray color with all of the dirt, scum, and blood all over it from killing so many zombies for so long.

Nick broke the stitching string with his teeth, tied it off, and pulled Ellis' shirt back over his stomach and adjusted Ellis' mechanic suit to sit in its normal position on his hips. "You're fine. You in pain?" Nick couldn't help but smile and pat Ellis' shoulder in acceptance.

"A bit…I been through worse. In fact…one time…me 'n Keith took turns lighting our hands on fire, cuz we were bored y'know…'n I couldn't put my hand out one time, so it burnt over 90% of my hand…" He smiled a bit as he raised his head and laughed weakly, but stopped immediately as he found that laughing hurt, letting his head drop like dead-weight to the table with a loud thump.

Nick shook his head at the funny story, smiling a bit. "Always a story, huh, Ellis? I'ma give you a shot to help with the pain. You're gonna feel high for the next few hours, but just lay there. If you get up, I'll kill you." He dug around in his first-aid kit and brought out a shot which he uncapped and stabbed into Ellis' leg harshly, giving him the entire dose of morphine.

Ellis relaxed and let his leg dangle over the table, swinging it gently back and forth. "Hnnnnnn…thanksssss Nickiii..." He lolled his head from side to side and giggled a bit, finding humor within himself.

With a shake of his head and a roll of his eyes, Nick shoved his hands in his suit-jacket pockets and went to go check on Rochelle and Coach. Apparently, Ellis had guarded Rochelle and took most of the attack on his own self, so Rochelle wasn't as bad. At least she could walk and not complain every five seconds, unlike Ellis.

She smiled at Nick and rubbed her arm. "How's Ellis? Is he okay?" She looked towards the table that Ellis was lying on and shook her head, laughing. "You gave him the entire dose of morphine, didn't you? Nice going, Nick. He's going to be like that for hours now. I hope you're proud of your decision to give him three people's worth of morphine."

Oh boy…Nick hadn't known how much he had really given him. He thought that since the syringe was small, that it was one person's worth of morphine. Apparently not.

Nick hit himself in the head and cursed loudly. "Fuckin' hell!"

"Fuckiiiiin' hellllll yaaaaaa!" Ellis threw his arms in the air and outstretched his fingers in sudden fascination in his fingers. "Nick said fuckin hell…hahahahahaha…" He began to giggle again and kicked his leg on the side of the table again.

Coach shook his head and laughed, finding it quite funny. "Fuckin' hell is right Nick. You fucked up."