~Nick~

"Hello there, gorgeous."

The woman, suddenly wrenched from her dream-like stupor, turned her head quickly. Desperate to lay her gaze upon the source of that curious sound, she peered tentatively across the hotel parking lot and into the quickly approaching darkness.

"Yeah, I was talking to you," Simultaneously silky and gritty, the voice sent a jolt down her spine and filled her with an indescribable mixture of fear and longing. "The name's Nick, what's yours?"

My Name?

The tiny sparkle of gold rings distracted her as the man lifted a hand to sweep back his dark hair. Her thoughts were so muddy…in fact, she could think of nothing except the overwhelming desire to throw herself upon the man that stood so confidently before her. She had to have him.

Nick flashed a wry smile at the woman's sudden, frantic approach.

"Sorry sweetheart," he mused, raising a pistol and planting a bullet between the woman's eyes, "You can look, but you can't touch this." Stepping lightly over the crumpled, still twitching form, Nick snatched the purse from the woman's shoulders. His fingers performing a dexterous dance through its contents: a cell phone, a paltry wad of cash, and a can of mace were buried beneath a mountain of cosmetics.

"Nick, what the hell you doin' stealin' from zombies?"

Ellis…what the hell was he doing back here?

"I heard a gun shot an' thought you mighta' gotten yourself inta' trouble," the boy's eyes were wide with an apparent concern that puzzled Nick. They had only met each other a few days ago.

"I think I can handle a lone zombie, Overalls."

"Why ya' have ta' call me that for?"

"Cuz you're wearing overalls, you idiot," Nick pointed out as he quickly pocketed the items he deemed valuable from the infected woman's purse.

"What are ya' takin' her money for anyway? It ain't gonna do you no good now."

"What can I say, Overalls? I have a fetish."

"You ain't right in the head, Nick," the boy said with a grin. The conman gave a quick snort and took a moment to observe the various tangled piles of corpses that littered the parking lot of this cheap hotel. Nick figured about half of the bodies to be infected and the other half were their victims. In reality they were all victims of the same damned disease that was spreading unimpeded across the country. To his left, he could see a pair of bloody little twin girls lying side by side. They couldn't have been older than seven. To his right, he noticed what appeared to be the lower half of a Seeing Eye dog, and at his feet- the body of the woman he just shot. The conman couldn't help but notice how beautiful she must have been before her gruesome transformation. Decay permeated the air like a thick fog.

So much for his plan, he suddenly realized.

There's no way I can do this on my own.

"Where are the other two," Nick finally asked.

"Oh, Coach and Ro? They're a little ways off. Found a ditch were we can reach the fairgrounds.

"And you left them?" Deserting the others was more Nick's speed- which is exactly what he had planned on doing before Ellis found him. The conman was on his way back to the racecar they had used to get out of Savannah. Driving off alone into the night on a different route was a much better idea than traipsing through a carnival with a bunch of losers, but he had never taken Ellis as the kind of person who would do the same.

"Well they was holdin' their own just fine. We only came across three zombies and then I noticed that you just disappeared so I came lookin' for ya. I was worried…" A tiny, thoughtful smile formed across the mechanic's lips. This threw the conman completely off guard.

Worried about me?

Nick wasn't one to display deep emotions outwardly, and he also had to detract attention away from the shady action he had attempted to commit. So the conman chose his next words very carefully.

"Ellis, you foolish hillbilly! Coach and Rochelle could be in deep shit right now! We have to go find them." As if on cue, a shrill scream pierced the evening air.

The two men broke into a sprint away from the abandoned hotel.

"Oh man, oh man, oh man, that was Ro!" Ellis gasped, his feet pounding the pavement.

"Yeah, and if anything happens to them, Overalls, its your fault for abandoning them," sometimes Nick even amazed himself at how much of an asshole he could be.

As they rounded the corner of a staircase, Nick suddenly found himself knocked to the ground. Pale, bloody arms had wrapped themselves around his legs, and he kicked frantically while rolling onto his back. The half-rotting monster crawled forward. Its drooling mouth was open, revealing putrid gums and blackened teeth. After swearing profusely, the gambler fired two shots into that gaping maw. As the creature slumped forward, a stream of bloody drool dribbled onto his suit.

"This is so damn annoying," Nick growled.

Once Ellis realized the other man was no longer following him, he had doubled back and by the time he reached Nick's side, the suited man had already lifted himself onto his feet.

"Gosh Nick, are you alright man?"

"Ellis, You. Are. Useless." Nick's tone was ruthlessly icy as he ran off once more towards the direction of the scream. This time it was Ellis who lagged behind.

~Ellis~

Upon reaching the edge of the aforementioned ditch, the two men were greeted with the ominous absence of their fellow survivors.

"Are they down there already?" Ellis sounded like a child whose best friends ran off to the candy store without him, "Why didn't they wait for us?" It was then that he became aware of a low guttural sound.

"They probably had no choice but to forge ahead," he heard Nick say, but the bushes rustling slightly behind him captured his attention. Ellis stared intensely at the hunch-backed form that suddenly hopped out of the foliage. The grip on his Desert Eagle tightened.

"They must have been chased down there," Nick concluded just before hearing Ellis shout. The conman whirled around and was at the kid's side in an instant. "What the hell's wrong?" Nick's eyes darted wildly searching for Ellis' attacker.

"Isn't he cool, Nick?" Ellis beamed as he held his cupped hands up to Nick's face. Nestled between the boy's palms, a tiny toad stared curiously into Nick's furious eyes.

"Get that disgusting thing away from me!" he roared as he smacked the diminutive creature out of Ellis' hands with such force that it flew over the bushes and down the steep slope below them. The young man stared at Nick with a look of absolute horror, as though the conman had just murdered a member of his family. "I don't have time for your bullshit games, Overalls!"

As they made their way down the steep slope and into a fetid gully, Ellis kept his eyes peeled for Coach and Rochelle-and secretly- for his little amphibian friend. Unfortunately, all they found were zombies.

Lots of them.

"Prepare yourself, Overalls," he heard Nick bark, "I'll take the ones in the front. You handle the ones behind them." Ellis silently obeyed and readied his hunting rifle. Nick had already begun moving swiftly ahead, tearing through a line of zombies with his submachine gun. Ellis followed the older man at a slightly slower pace, lessening Nick's burden by picking off the infected further ahead.

"We can cross up here," Nick shouted as they approached the steep embankment. As they started their climb, Ellis noticed a rotund silhouette above them. The mechanic searched with the lens of his rifle for the creature while Nick dealt with a new group of infected that had tried to blind-side him. By the time Ellis had a clear shot at his mark, the portly zombie had already made its way partly down the slope towards Nick.

"Boomer! Boomer!" the boy warned as he fired a shot, then another, then another!

"Take care of it Ellis, I have my hands full here!"

Ellis let out a frustrated growl. He had never encountered a Boomer that possessed such agility. The beast somehow managed to twirl and dance around his gunfire like a bloated ballerina. It was close now, way too close to Nick. So close that there was no way Ellis would miss this time- but miss he did as a zombie tackled him from behind.

"Argh!" he yelled in frustration as the zombie pounded its fist into the mechanic's skull. Ellis shoved it back and blew its head off clean with his rifle. As he jumped to his feet, he looked up to find Nick not only covered in putrid vomit, but also already completely surrounded by a horde of at least twenty zombies. More could be seen sprinting in to join the fray. To make matters worse, the Boomer had decided to join in on the chaos it had wrought instead of running away.

"Damn it, Damn it, DAMNIT!" Ellis cried as he ran towards the pulsating mass of infected bodies that had entombed his friend. He panicked for a split second, unsure of the best course of action to take. Then he aimed his rifle once more at the Boomer.

That sonofabitch was going to pay.

The shockwave of the bursting Boomer threw all of the zombies- as well as Nick- off balance. Both men took advantage of the explosion: Ellis by killing several infected that had been separated from his friend, and Nick by quickly reloading his gun before the zombies were on top of him once more.

"God damn it Overalls, help me!" Ellis heard Nick yell and watched in awe as he caught flashes of a splotchy white suit and pulses of lighted gunfire. Nick was apparently spinning in a circle, emptying his entire clip into the relentless wall of flesh surrounding him.

"I'm coming, Nick!"

As he closed the distance between himself and the conman, Ellis suddenly felt his entire back become wet and sticky. He howled in agony as glowing goo quickly permeated the thin material of his shirt and assaulted his flesh. The pain was sharper than any he had felt in his young life. Ellis knew that Nick was still in trouble, but the searing pain that grew more intense with every millisecond was too much- too damn much.

It had to stop.

WATER! WATER! His mind screamed as the boy dropped his rifle and tore back down the hill. He leapt into the disgusting stream in a desperate attempt to dilute the corrosive substance. The pain didn't stop, but at least it was bearable now. He surfaced quickly and noticed the stilted gait of a fleeing Spitter. Ellis fired his Desert Eagle, nailing her in the back of the skull.

He made his way back to Nick, who by this time, had killed every last infected that had swarmed him. By the look on the conman's face, Ellis was sure he was next on Nick's kill list.

"Nick are-"

"Don't speak."

* * *

After securing the safe room door, Nick collapsed in a heap on the floor. Ellis could see that every inch of the other man's exposed skin was covered in scratches and bruises. And the suit…it was an absolute mess.

"Hey Nick, let me help ya heal up," the mechanic's voice was small, his heart huge.

"Take care of your own wounds you God damned hick. I'll take care of mine."

"Why do you have to be such an asshole?" Ellis' voice was down to a hoarse, stifled whisper and his eyes filled with tears.

"I told you to take care of that Boomer! A Boomer's ass is wider than the broad side of a freakin' barn! How could you have missed? Not only that, but you abandon me to go for a swim!" Nick was so completely enraged that Ellis thought the conman was going to strike him. Ellis didn't care anymore.

"Abandoned you? YOU'RE THE ABANDONER!!" The boy screamed. He had never been this furious in his life. "The only reason we got into this mess is cuz of you! We could have all been together right now if you hadn't run off!"

This effectively silenced Nick, and after a few tense moments, the conman was about to say something but was interrupted.

"And you killed Herbert!" Ellis wailed.

"And who in the hell is Herbert? Nick gawked at such a random accusation before it dawned on him. "Let me guess, that God damned frog?!?"

Ellis buried his face in his hands and sobbed bitterly.