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Chapter 29: Safehouse

Disclaimer: I do not own Left 4 Dead 2

--

" Keep running, those things are right behind you!" Rochelle cried.

" GEE YA THINK?!" Ellis shouted back. He didn't mean to be rude, but there was a TANK after him, which tended to put even him in a bad mood. Nick was running in front of him, and Coach was behind him, the Tank bellowing as it charged after the two, Coach leaping over the body of the Charger. Thanks to a lucky roundabout shot, the Charger was dead, but the Tank was not. The hulking beast bellowed as it tried to grab Coach, the man lunging out of the way and hiding behind a brightly painted horse, making a face at it's paint job. Whoever painted these last had to have been drinking.

" Hey, this way!" Ellis cried, bolting past Coach and leaping for the hole in the fence, hitting it hard with a grunt. Something dug into his side,  but he ignored it, pulling himself through it, Nick soon following. Coach was the last one through, followed by the Tank, which punched another hole in the fence, tossing a badly painted horse after them. A well aimed molotov then hit the Tank's flesh, igniting it like paper, the infected roaring its displeasure, slamming its fists into the ground. Sion had always admired how certain infected managed to burn so well, smirking as the flaming Tank tried to make their way towards them.

Ark held the lighter tightly, lighting another molotov and tossing it onto the tank for good measure, glad his aim was good. The pugnent smell of burning flesh assaulted his nose like a whip, but he dealt with it and kept going, holding his breath to stave off the smell. It was important to keep that Tank busy long enough for the rest of them to escape. Chad and Rochelle opened fire on the Tank, Coach grabbing for his shotgun and firing at the Tank, now in an area to where he could fight back without injury. Nick ran ahead with Ellis towards the safehouse, the conman blanching at the sight of the tunnel of love.

" Oh hell no."

Ellis held his side tightly, stumbling along with him towards the safehouse, suddenly being swept off his feet by another Charger, the infected beast carrying him towards a nearby wallk, slamming him against the unforgiving wall. The mechanic let out a pained yell, Nick spinning on his heel to go help
him. His magnum wasn't nearly enough to deal damage, but Ellis's fallen tire iron was more than enough to do some damage, the conman scooping it up from where it had fallen, bringing it down on the Charger's head. A sickening crack sounded, Nick giving a satisfied smirk before swinging it again, a tearing sensation in his arm making him hiss and clench his teeth, the Charger dropping Ellis and falling over with a caved in skull. Ellis fell to the ground like a rag, his arms and legs splayed out awkwardly, the Charger falling on top of him.

Nick winced, holding his injured shoulder. The wound felt like it wanted to open, but he held it tightly, glaring at the Charger's body. " Ellis. Overalls, you okay?" he said, eyes scanning for the energetic mechanic. Ellis was unmoving on the ground, Nick reaching down for him, having to strain a bit to lift the heavy infected's body off the younger man. " Hey, overalls, no sleeping here." he said somewhat urgently, trying not to entertain the idea of leaving Ellis behind. Ellis's mechanic skills were a big help, not to mention an extra gun arm to help, along with possible meat shield in case of Tank attack. Ellis stirred with a pained groan, one hand on his head. " Ahh..." he whined softly.

Nick grabbed his free hand. " Come on, we can get that doctor guy to look at you when he catches up." he said, helping Ellis to his feet. " Damn, you're all fucked up." he commented when Ellis meekly nodded, staggering around. He helped Ellis along, grumbling about how Ellis was always getting himself into insane amounts of trouble. "Damn stupid hick, always managing to get himself into the stupidest of shit, can't even give us a fucking break for one damned second!" he complained, merely for the sake of it, since his nerves were shot trying to keep the both of them safe for the moment. Instincts were telling him to just abandon Ellis, to cut his losses, but the thought of losing a valuable gun hand-- not to mention what Rochelle and Coach would do to him if they found out-- won out over his instincts.

Ellis made a noise, lifting his head to look at Nick, who helped him into the safehouse, Sion helping Chad to into the safehouse as well. Ark headed towards them as well, Rochelle and Coach ahead of him , going inside the safehouse. " Oh my god, that was one hell of a rush." Rochelle said, collapsing against the side of the wall, Sion and Ark securely bolting the door. " I don't ever want to do that again." A collective groan rose up in agreement.

Chad bit his lip as he pulled the fabric away from his burned leg. " Shit, that hurts. I can't imagine if it had taken any longer to get it off..." he ground his teeth, reaching for his bag to get some burn medicine.

" Hey, can you look at Ellis first? Young'un ain't doin so good." Coach said, Ellis laying on the ground with one hand over his face. " Charger beat him to shit this time."

Chad nodded and pulled himself to his feet, walking over to Ellis to start to tend to him, kneeling beside him. He started checking Ellis for a concussion, grateful to find that Ellis was just stunned. " He's a bit stunned." he said, reaching to turn Ellis over. " But that needs treatment." he said, looking at the torn flesh on his side.

He stripped Ellis's shirt off him, despite his protests, and set about cleaning the wound. He used the shirt to act as a gag to keep Ellis from biting him or his tongue, using some antiseptic to start cleaning. Predictably, Ellis started to try and shy away from the burning touch, Sion coming over and holding Ellis down. After a moment or so, Ellis stopped thrashing, settling down and wincing only softly as Chad worked.

" It's not so deep... but you'll be sleeping on your uninjured side." Chad said finally. " And make sure you keep it clean." he said, Ellis spitting out his shirt.

Rochelle picked up the garment, giving Ellis a soft smile. " I'll see if I can repair it, I think I still have some needle and thread on me." she sat down across from them and started going through her equipment, Nick leaning against the wall, slowly sliding out of his suit jacket to look at his wound, satisfied to find that it wasn't open in anyway, just a bit pulled. With a sigh, he slid it back on, closing it and sitting against the wall, falling silent while clearly ignoring everyone in the room.

Coach looked at everyone, crossing his arms. " Alright, ya'll. We're gonna have to camp here for the night." When he recieved a dark expression from Nick, he returned it in full. " Ain't got no choice. You got some sleep, we didn't." Nick's expression remained dark, but he nodded his head in understanding, if only grudgingly.

Ark looked around while everyone talked with one another. There simply wasn't enough room for all of them to sleep, and it was cramped just standing around. " Sion and I... patrol?" He asked Chad, who nodded slowly, gazing at the door. Coach looked up at them, his eyes full of disbelief at what Ark had just said. " Hang on there you two, it's not safe to "patrol" around. Infected crawl through this area like you wouldn't believe!"

Chad looked at Coach, smiling. " Ark and Sion will be fine, they've done this before."

Coach looked apprehensive. " But I don't wan' to be responsible for anyone passin away because they found some trouble."

Sion gave Coach a warm smile. " Here, hang on to these for me. I'll be sure to come back for them." he said, handing over his dogtags. Chad looked a bit surprised, but nodded. " It's okay, I will come back for them." he reassured Chad before going out the safehouse door.

Ark nodded slowly and left through the safehouse door as well, sitting in the tunnel of love. His eyes took a moment to adjust to the dim light, the room becoming clear to him after a few seconds. Sion took a moment to adjust as well, looking at Ark, settling behind him. " So, we're sleeping outside tonight, huh?" he said softly.

Ark nodded, stretching out one leg. " We don't have a choice, do we? We're the infected, we can get by."

Sion was rotating his shoulder, hearing it pop. " Yeah, yeah. Still sucks, but they need to rest more then we do. But hey, sometimes life is a bit unfair. At least they haven't shot at us yet."

Ark stretched out like a cat. " It's hard to talk like a human sometimes. It's hard to string a full sentence sometimes. Worried I'll get caught."

Sion looked at him. " Well, you never really were good at it. Zoey and the others could understand you, but these guys are a bit more itchy on the trigger." Ark nodded and hung his head, a bit ashamed of himself. He had always tried to imitate a human to the best of his abilities, but speaking was a bit beyond him sometimes, especially with big words or long sentences.

Sion, of course, had a much stronger grasp of the language, but was also more at risk for being found out. But he paused to think, a smile touching his face. " So... cockroaches?"

Ark shot him a nasty glare. " Come off it. I'm not afraid of them, they just creep me out."

Sion chuckled. "And how did that happen?"

Ark groaned at the memory. " Mercy City... I was still learning how to judge leaps and I missed a ledge. I fell into a dumpster full of the things, and they crawled all over me, into my clothing, nowhere was left untouched." He shuddered, hugging himself tightly.

Sion made a noise. " That would do it..." Ark continued to shiver in place, the Smoker looking out at the darkened tunnel. " So, what do you think of the new survivors?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

Ark looked at him. " What do you want me to say? Coach reminds me of Bill, Rochelle is an older and quieter Zoey, Ellis is a class of his own, and Nick is... well, he's Nick."

Sion  laughed at that. " I bet him and Francis would only agree to disagree with each other. Nick is such a polar opposite of everyone here." Ark nodded in agreement again, looking out at the tunnel. " Any idea what time it is?" the Hunter asked randomly.

" We've been out here for fifteen minutes, Ark." Sion said.

" It's gonna be a long night." Ark sighed.

--

" So, how long have you been on the road?" Coach asked, speaking quietly while Nick and Ellis slept, turning his head to look at Chad. " I mean, ya'll look road-weary." He was sitting beside Rochelle, who was curled up into a little ball while sleeping, a blanket on her shoulders and her bag of supplies as a pillow.

Chad lifted his head. " Yeah, I've been traveling for... about a while now... couldn't tell you how many weeks. Ark and Sion have been on the road longer than I have though... they've been at it since this whole thing broke out." he picked at his nails. " Those two are fighters... they don't back down easily."

Coach nodded. " They look it." he said, giving the doctor a smile. " So, what made you decide to be a traveling doctor? Instead of stayin in one of them evac's and helping those who come in?"

Chad bit his lip, looking away. " Well, things happened at my old evac... and I didn't like the way they did things, so I left with Ark, Sion and a few others. I also figured my talents would be more useful out here. Let's face it, if Ellis had recieved serious injuries, he would probably never make it to an evac to recieve proper treatment. Not with how frantic some of the rescues tend to be from what I heard. Many survivors never make it to rescue, even at perfect health."

Coach nodded, suddenly feeling down. " We were at a mall tryin' to get out, like everyone else, but CEDA packed up and left. We had to use a racecar that was there to get out. Ask Ellis 'bout it, and he'll tell you the whole story. We came out here, hopin that someone still makin rescues out here."

Chad patted Coach's shoulder after hearing the tale, worried that Coach's high spirits would disappear. " Now now, don't let what I said get you down. If there's rescue out there, you'll find it. Ark and Sion would be more than happy to lend help in finding it."

Coach chuckled. " They veterans of this, ain't they?"

Chad shrugged one shoulder. " In a way... they're kinda used to fighting in very small numbers against large odds."

Coach nodded, stifling a yawn. " Well, doc, I'm goin' to sleep now. Can I count on you to watch the door?"

Chad nodded, lifting his gun. " No one's getting in here tonight. Sleep well."

Coach soon drifted off to sleep, a thin blanket wrapped around his body, curled up in a corner of the room. Chad made sure everyone was asleep before walking to the door. " Hey, Sion? Ark? How are you two doing out there?" he asked.

" Miserable." Sion replied dryly. " This ride was designed to give people the heebie-jeebies. How are the others?"

Chad shook his head. " All sleeping now. They really needed the break."

Sion came to the barred door. " Yeah, they looked exhausted. Wonder why there isn't a stronger sense of.... what's the word, unity among them?"

Chad crossed his arms. " The infection took longer to reach the south, Sion. These guys were probably from an area that just got hit by the infection, seeing as how there was still evacuations within the city. Not much time to bond. My bet is they're all deathly, no pun intended, afraid of someone in the group turning or leaving them out to dry. It's a shaky alliance for now."

Sion nodded, sighing again. " It's gonna be hard to earn trust in this group. Coach seems kind enough, but he's still wary. Not that I can blame them."

Chad looked annoyed. " Wary yes, but if we're going to stay with these guys until the next evac, you guys are going to have to earn their trust in more ways than one. Being a good shot in battle is one thing, but convincing them that even though you're infected, you're not gonna eat or kill them is another."

Ark looked at Chad, finally getting into the conversation. " Is hard, you know. Zoey and others not trust me for days. These may shoot first."

Chad shrugged. " We don't know that. The important thing is to gain trust first. If I didn't trust you, I would have shot you myself. But I know that you guys can protect me and the others with your abilities. Speaking of talents... I miss them."

Sion looked at Chad. " Who, Zane and Zephyr?"

Chad nodded. " Yeah. The little guy was starting to grow on me, and Zephyr... she was always someone to talk to at anytime. Wonder how they're doing."

Ark scratched his ears. " Probably mad  at us for leaving without them."

Sion laughed softly. " Probably... but it would have been even harder to hide them than us..."

Chad finally just shrugged and let out a soft sigh. " What's done is done. Maybe we'll see them again, but hopefully in a safe environment. I don't want to have to do anything like the rescue operation from the base... that was a nightmare."

Sion shivered at the thoughts and memories. " I don't ever want to be a lab rat again."

Chad smiled through the bars. " Don't worry, if I have anything to say about it, it'll never happen again."

Ark and Sion both gave Chad a smile before returning to the tunnel, settling down to sleep themselves, the doctor turning back to the group and sitting with his back to the wall, taking out his journal. In it was sketches of Ark and the other infected he had met, and intricate details of their abilities and talents. He had several pages worth of information, and was always writing new details and facts, sighing as he wrote in his log for the day. It was a bit of an annoying task, really, but he liked to keep notes on everything that happened. It helped him to keep his mind clear of everything that could possibly weigh it down.

If anyone asked though, it wasn't a diary, it was a science journal.

Biting his lip, he started to jot down the notes of the day, including his opinions and beliefs of the new survivors, and his fears about what lay ahead. Coach and Rochelle, not to mention Ellis were all friendly, but wary. It was nice to meet some smiling faces, but he knew he would have a hard time dealing with trying to keep them from shooting Ark and Sion if they found out.

And then there was Nick...

He saw Nick as the biggest obstacle. Always skeptical of every little plan they had, finding the biggest flaws in them or making up some. He wasn't afraid to bring attention to the elephant in the room so to speak. Ark and Sion's infection would probably spur the conman into taking action for his own safety, even if the two in question were completely harmless. Or, he would take advantage of them and use them as meat shields. He didn't really know Nick well yet, he doubted anyone there would be able to tell him more besides " he's a grouch," among other things.

Sighing, he closed his notebook with a snap, pulling a blanket over himself, unaware of the green eyes staring at him before they closed as well.

--

Description
Chapter 29: Safehouse

Disclaimer: I do not own Left 4 Dead 2

--

" Keep running, those things are right behind you!" Rochelle cried.

" GEE YA THINK?!" Ellis shouted back. He didn't mean to be rude, but there was a TANK after him, which tended to put even him in a bad mood. Nick was running in front of him, and Coach was behind him, the Tank bellowing as it charged after the two, Coach leaping over the body of the Charger. Thanks to a lucky roundabout shot, the Charger was dead, but the Tank was not. The hulking beast bellowed as it tried to grab Coach, the man lunging out of the way and hiding behind a brightly painted horse, making a face at it's paint job. Whoever painted these last had to have been drinking.

" Hey, this way!" Ellis cried, bolting past Coach and leaping for the hole in the fence, hitting it hard with a grunt. Something dug into his side,  but he ignored it, pulling himself through it, Nick soon following. Coach was the last one through, followed by the Tank, which punched another hole in the fence, tossing a badly painted horse after them. A well aimed molotov then hit the Tank's flesh, igniting it like paper, the infected roaring its displeasure, slamming its fists into the ground. Sion had always admired how certain infected managed to burn so well, smirking as the flaming Tank tried to make their way towards them.

Ark held the lighter tightly, lighting another molotov and tossing it onto the tank for good measure, glad his aim was good. The pugnent smell of burning flesh assaulted his nose like a whip, but he dealt with it and kept going, holding his breath to stave off the smell. It was important to keep that Tank busy long enough for the rest of them to escape. Chad and Rochelle opened fire on the Tank, Coach grabbing for his shotgun and firing at the Tank, now in an area to where he could fight back without injury. Nick ran ahead with Ellis towards the safehouse, the conman blanching at the sight of the tunnel of love.

" Oh hell no."

Ellis held his side tightly, stumbling along with him towards the safehouse, suddenly being swept off his feet by another Charger, the infected beast carrying him towards a nearby wallk, slamming him against the unforgiving wall. The mechanic let out a pained yell, Nick spinning on his heel to go help
him. His magnum wasn't nearly enough to deal damage, but Ellis's fallen tire iron was more than enough to do some damage, the conman scooping it up from where it had fallen, bringing it down on the Charger's head. A sickening crack sounded, Nick giving a satisfied smirk before swinging it again, a tearing sensation in his arm making him hiss and clench his teeth, the Charger dropping Ellis and falling over with a caved in skull. Ellis fell to the ground like a rag, his arms and legs splayed out awkwardly, the Charger falling on top of him.

Nick winced, holding his injured shoulder. The wound felt like it wanted to open, but he held it tightly, glaring at the Charger's body. " Ellis. Overalls, you okay?" he said, eyes scanning for the energetic mechanic. Ellis was unmoving on the ground, Nick reaching down for him, having to strain a bit to lift the heavy infected's body off the younger man. " Hey, overalls, no sleeping here." he said somewhat urgently, trying not to entertain the idea of leaving Ellis behind. Ellis's mechanic skills were a big help, not to mention an extra gun arm to help, along with possible meat shield in case of Tank attack. Ellis stirred with a pained groan, one hand on his head. " Ahh..." he whined softly.

Nick grabbed his free hand. " Come on, we can get that doctor guy to look at you when he catches up." he said, helping Ellis to his feet. " Damn, you're all fucked up." he commented when Ellis meekly nodded, staggering around. He helped Ellis along, grumbling about how Ellis was always getting himself into insane amounts of trouble. "Damn stupid hick, always managing to get himself into the stupidest of shit, can't even give us a fucking break for one damned second!" he complained, merely for the sake of it, since his nerves were shot trying to keep the both of them safe for the moment. Instincts were telling him to just abandon Ellis, to cut his losses, but the thought of losing a valuable gun hand-- not to mention what Rochelle and Coach would do to him if they found out-- won out over his instincts.

Ellis made a noise, lifting his head to look at Nick, who helped him into the safehouse, Sion helping Chad to into the safehouse as well. Ark headed towards them as well, Rochelle and Coach ahead of him , going inside the safehouse. " Oh my god, that was one hell of a rush." Rochelle said, collapsing against the side of the wall, Sion and Ark securely bolting the door. " I don't ever want to do that again." A collective groan rose up in agreement.

Chad bit his lip as he pulled the fabric away from his burned leg. " Shit, that hurts. I can't imagine if it had taken any longer to get it off..." he ground his teeth, reaching for his bag to get some burn medicine.

" Hey, can you look at Ellis first? Young'un ain't doin so good." Coach said, Ellis laying on the ground with one hand over his face. " Charger beat him to shit this time."

Chad nodded and pulled himself to his feet, walking over to Ellis to start to tend to him, kneeling beside him. He started checking Ellis for a concussion, grateful to find that Ellis was just stunned. " He's a bit stunned." he said, reaching to turn Ellis over. " But that needs treatment." he said, looking at the torn flesh on his side.

He stripped Ellis's shirt off him, despite his protests, and set about cleaning the wound. He used the shirt to act as a gag to keep Ellis from biting him or his tongue, using some antiseptic to start cleaning. Predictably, Ellis started to try and shy away from the burning touch, Sion coming over and holding Ellis down. After a moment or so, Ellis stopped thrashing, settling down and wincing only softly as Chad worked.

" It's not so deep... but you'll be sleeping on your uninjured side." Chad said finally. " And make sure you keep it clean." he said, Ellis spitting out his shirt.

Rochelle picked up the garment, giving Ellis a soft smile. " I'll see if I can repair it, I think I still have some needle and thread on me." she sat down across from them and started going through her equipment, Nick leaning against the wall, slowly sliding out of his suit jacket to look at his wound, satisfied to find that it wasn't open in anyway, just a bit pulled. With a sigh, he slid it back on, closing it and sitting against the wall, falling silent while clearly ignoring everyone in the room.

Coach looked at everyone, crossing his arms. " Alright, ya'll. We're gonna have to camp here for the night." When he recieved a dark expression from Nick, he returned it in full. " Ain't got no choice. You got some sleep, we didn't." Nick's expression remained dark, but he nodded his head in understanding, if only grudgingly.

Ark looked around while everyone talked with one another. There simply wasn't enough room for all of them to sleep, and it was cramped just standing around. " Sion and I... patrol?" He asked Chad, who nodded slowly, gazing at the door. Coach looked up at them, his eyes full of disbelief at what Ark had just said. " Hang on there you two, it's not safe to "patrol" around. Infected crawl through this area like you wouldn't believe!"

Chad looked at Coach, smiling. " Ark and Sion will be fine, they've done this before."

Coach looked apprehensive. " But I don't wan' to be responsible for anyone passin away because they found some trouble."

Sion gave Coach a warm smile. " Here, hang on to these for me. I'll be sure to come back for them." he said, handing over his dogtags. Chad looked a bit surprised, but nodded. " It's okay, I will come back for them." he reassured Chad before going out the safehouse door.

Ark nodded slowly and left through the safehouse door as well, sitting in the tunnel of love. His eyes took a moment to adjust to the dim light, the room becoming clear to him after a few seconds. Sion took a moment to adjust as well, looking at Ark, settling behind him. " So, we're sleeping outside tonight, huh?" he said softly.

Ark nodded, stretching out one leg. " We don't have a choice, do we? We're the infected, we can get by."

Sion was rotating his shoulder, hearing it pop. " Yeah, yeah. Still sucks, but they need to rest more then we do. But hey, sometimes life is a bit unfair. At least they haven't shot at us yet."

Ark stretched out like a cat. " It's hard to talk like a human sometimes. It's hard to string a full sentence sometimes. Worried I'll get caught."

Sion looked at him. " Well, you never really were good at it. Zoey and the others could understand you, but these guys are a bit more itchy on the trigger." Ark nodded and hung his head, a bit ashamed of himself. He had always tried to imitate a human to the best of his abilities, but speaking was a bit beyond him sometimes, especially with big words or long sentences.

Sion, of course, had a much stronger grasp of the language, but was also more at risk for being found out. But he paused to think, a smile touching his face. " So... cockroaches?"

Ark shot him a nasty glare. " Come off it. I'm not afraid of them, they just creep me out."

Sion chuckled. "And how did that happen?"

Ark groaned at the memory. " Mercy City... I was still learning how to judge leaps and I missed a ledge. I fell into a dumpster full of the things, and they crawled all over me, into my clothing, nowhere was left untouched." He shuddered, hugging himself tightly.

Sion made a noise. " That would do it..." Ark continued to shiver in place, the Smoker looking out at the darkened tunnel. " So, what do you think of the new survivors?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

Ark looked at him. " What do you want me to say? Coach reminds me of Bill, Rochelle is an older and quieter Zoey, Ellis is a class of his own, and Nick is... well, he's Nick."

Sion  laughed at that. " I bet him and Francis would only agree to disagree with each other. Nick is such a polar opposite of everyone here." Ark nodded in agreement again, looking out at the tunnel. " Any idea what time it is?" the Hunter asked randomly.

" We've been out here for fifteen minutes, Ark." Sion said.

" It's gonna be a long night." Ark sighed.

--

" So, how long have you been on the road?" Coach asked, speaking quietly while Nick and Ellis slept, turning his head to look at Chad. " I mean, ya'll look road-weary." He was sitting beside Rochelle, who was curled up into a little ball while sleeping, a blanket on her shoulders and her bag of supplies as a pillow.

Chad lifted his head. " Yeah, I've been traveling for... about a while now... couldn't tell you how many weeks. Ark and Sion have been on the road longer than I have though... they've been at it since this whole thing broke out." he picked at his nails. " Those two are fighters... they don't back down easily."

Coach nodded. " They look it." he said, giving the doctor a smile. " So, what made you decide to be a traveling doctor? Instead of stayin in one of them evac's and helping those who come in?"

Chad bit his lip, looking away. " Well, things happened at my old evac... and I didn't like the way they did things, so I left with Ark, Sion and a few others. I also figured my talents would be more useful out here. Let's face it, if Ellis had recieved serious injuries, he would probably never make it to an evac to recieve proper treatment. Not with how frantic some of the rescues tend to be from what I heard. Many survivors never make it to rescue, even at perfect health."

Coach nodded, suddenly feeling down. " We were at a mall tryin' to get out, like everyone else, but CEDA packed up and left. We had to use a racecar that was there to get out. Ask Ellis 'bout it, and he'll tell you the whole story. We came out here, hopin that someone still makin rescues out here."

Chad patted Coach's shoulder after hearing the tale, worried that Coach's high spirits would disappear. " Now now, don't let what I said get you down. If there's rescue out there, you'll find it. Ark and Sion would be more than happy to lend help in finding it."

Coach chuckled. " They veterans of this, ain't they?"

Chad shrugged one shoulder. " In a way... they're kinda used to fighting in very small numbers against large odds."

Coach nodded, stifling a yawn. " Well, doc, I'm goin' to sleep now. Can I count on you to watch the door?"

Chad nodded, lifting his gun. " No one's getting in here tonight. Sleep well."

Coach soon drifted off to sleep, a thin blanket wrapped around his body, curled up in a corner of the room. Chad made sure everyone was asleep before walking to the door. " Hey, Sion? Ark? How are you two doing out there?" he asked.

" Miserable." Sion replied dryly. " This ride was designed to give people the heebie-jeebies. How are the others?"

Chad shook his head. " All sleeping now. They really needed the break."

Sion came to the barred door. " Yeah, they looked exhausted. Wonder why there isn't a stronger sense of.... what's the word, unity among them?"

Chad crossed his arms. " The infection took longer to reach the south, Sion. These guys were probably from an area that just got hit by the infection, seeing as how there was still evacuations within the city. Not much time to bond. My bet is they're all deathly, no pun intended, afraid of someone in the group turning or leaving them out to dry. It's a shaky alliance for now."

Sion nodded, sighing again. " It's gonna be hard to earn trust in this group. Coach seems kind enough, but he's still wary. Not that I can blame them."

Chad looked annoyed. " Wary yes, but if we're going to stay with these guys until the next evac, you guys are going to have to earn their trust in more ways than one. Being a good shot in battle is one thing, but convincing them that even though you're infected, you're not gonna eat or kill them is another."

Ark looked at Chad, finally getting into the conversation. " Is hard, you know. Zoey and others not trust me for days. These may shoot first."

Chad shrugged. " We don't know that. The important thing is to gain trust first. If I didn't trust you, I would have shot you myself. But I know that you guys can protect me and the others with your abilities. Speaking of talents... I miss them."

Sion looked at Chad. " Who, Zane and Zephyr?"

Chad nodded. " Yeah. The little guy was starting to grow on me, and Zephyr... she was always someone to talk to at anytime. Wonder how they're doing."

Ark scratched his ears. " Probably mad  at us for leaving without them."

Sion laughed softly. " Probably... but it would have been even harder to hide them than us..."

Chad finally just shrugged and let out a soft sigh. " What's done is done. Maybe we'll see them again, but hopefully in a safe environment. I don't want to have to do anything like the rescue operation from the base... that was a nightmare."

Sion shivered at the thoughts and memories. " I don't ever want to be a lab rat again."

Chad smiled through the bars. " Don't worry, if I have anything to say about it, it'll never happen again."

Ark and Sion both gave Chad a smile before returning to the tunnel, settling down to sleep themselves, the doctor turning back to the group and sitting with his back to the wall, taking out his journal. In it was sketches of Ark and the other infected he had met, and intricate details of their abilities and talents. He had several pages worth of information, and was always writing new details and facts, sighing as he wrote in his log for the day. It was a bit of an annoying task, really, but he liked to keep notes on everything that happened. It helped him to keep his mind clear of everything that could possibly weigh it down.

If anyone asked though, it wasn't a diary, it was a science journal.

Biting his lip, he started to jot down the notes of the day, including his opinions and beliefs of the new survivors, and his fears about what lay ahead. Coach and Rochelle, not to mention Ellis were all friendly, but wary. It was nice to meet some smiling faces, but he knew he would have a hard time dealing with trying to keep them from shooting Ark and Sion if they found out.

And then there was Nick...

He saw Nick as the biggest obstacle. Always skeptical of every little plan they had, finding the biggest flaws in them or making up some. He wasn't afraid to bring attention to the elephant in the room so to speak. Ark and Sion's infection would probably spur the conman into taking action for his own safety, even if the two in question were completely harmless. Or, he would take advantage of them and use them as meat shields. He didn't really know Nick well yet, he doubted anyone there would be able to tell him more besides " he's a grouch," among other things.

Sighing, he closed his notebook with a snap, pulling a blanket over himself, unaware of the green eyes staring at him before they closed as well.

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