Please note that this is my first fanfiction, so no flames please. Hope you enjoy!

It's Hard to Survive

Chapter 1

The group of four, all battered and bleeding, trudged on towards their destination: The Bridge. Leading the group was Coach, and then came Rochelle, then Nick, and lastly, trailing at the back and the most injured of all, was Ellis.

Ellis limped behind, struggling to keep up with his teammates. The group was down to only one health-kit, which was the reason why Ellis hadn't had much medical help. The last horde had hidden five special infected, which, unfortunately, all went after Ellis!

(Flashback)

The group had to stop driving, as their car (The Jimmy Gibbs Jr.) had been making sputtering noises for the last ten minutes, until, eventually, the car stopped working altogether. They all got out and Ellis opened the hood to what was wrong. Nick waited impatiently.

"Well? What's the problem, Overalls?"

Ellis' head eventually came into view, his face looking grim.

"The problem's a dead battery," he answered.

"Well, that's just great!" Nick yelled, folding his arms irritably.

"Can't you fix it, sweetie?" Rochelle asked.

"Sorry Ro, but without another battery, this baby ain't driving no more."

"Goddamn you, Jimmy Gibbs Jr.!" Nick yelled.

Ellis looked over at Coach. The oldest member of the group had a thinking look on his face.

"Well…we probably can take a car battery form one of the ol' cars we see in the streets. The only problem is that most of them have car alarms…"

"That's alright. We can just prepare ourselves for them hordes. We always manage," Ellis replied, anxious to get on the move again.

Having no other options, the group went ahead with Coach and Ellis' plan to find an abandoned car with a working battery. That shouldn't be too hard to do, as they see many cars in the streets these days.

Ten minutes later…

The group had found a car that seemed suitable enough to have a battery that would fit their stock car. Ellis went up to the car and opened the hood to shoot the alarm. But not fast enough. The alarm sounded, and it took a full five minutes of shooting to finally shut the damn thing up. But five minutes were enough for all the zombies in the area to hear their dinner bell.

"Here they come, y'all!" Ellis yelled, quickly reloading his Desert Rifle.

As soon as those words were out of his mouth, the horde appeared and started attacking without mercy. The others had barely started attacking, when they all heard Ellis' unmistakable cry of, "JOCKEY'S GOT ME!"

The others ran towards him and saw that the Jockey was leading Ellis towards a crying Witch that they had overlooked. Even worse, the Witch had already started growling and standing up.

"THIS THING'S RIDING ME! GUYS, HELP ME!" Ellis continued to scream, unaware that he was getting closer and closer to the Witch.

"Ellis!" the other three yelled in unison, aiming their guns and shooting at that stupid Jockey. The Jockey fell, but also pulling Ellis down with it! Ellis fell right on top of the screaming Witch!

"OH, SHIIIIIIIIIIT!" Ellis screamed, trying his best to defend himself with his pistols while incapacitated. The Witch continued to slash him, leaving new wounds on Ellis' body. Nick pulled out a Molotov.

"Fire coming!" he yelled, throwing it towards the Witch without thinking about Ellis.

"OW! WHAT THE FUCK, NICK! I'M ALREADY IN ENOUGH PAIN! " Ellis screamed, trying to roll away from the flames.

Coach and Rochelle ran to help him up while the Witch ran after her new target: Nick. As he tried to get away, the burning Witch suddenly slashed him hard and incapacitated him. Before Nick could get seriously injured, Ellis suddenly appeared behind the Witch and cr0wned her. Ellis helped Nick up, but before Nick could thank him, he was suddenly on the ground again. He looked up, and saw that Ellis had shoved him out of the way to take the full blow of a Charger, which had chosen at that time to appear.

"Overalls!" Nick yelled, getting up and running after the Charger. The Charger had now crashed into a wall and had started pummeling Ellis into the ground like a rag doll.

"CHARGER'S GOT ME! OW! IT'S POUNDING ME TO DEATH!" Ellis screamed as the Charger continued its abuse.

Nick found Coach and Rochelle and together, they all started to shoot the Charger. The Charger let go of Ellis and dropped to the ground, dead.

As soon as the others ran over to help Ellis, a long, wet tongue wrapped around his torso and pulled him away from the others.

"OH, SHIIIIIIT! SMOKER'S GOT ME!" Ellis choked out, trying unsuccessfully to get out of the Smoker's grasp.

The Smoker was much closer than the others thought, because the next minute, Ellis was being clawed and choked by the Smoker at the same time.

"I'M DOWN!" Ellis yelled, as he became incapacitated by the Smoker.

Nick took out his pistol and shot at the Smoker, causing the tongue to slacken. Nick then finished it off and ran over to help Ellis. But in the thick smoke left behind by the Smoker, none of the group members noticed the Hunter that was taking advantage of the situation. Just before Nick could find Ellis, the Hunter jumped on Ellis.

"AH! SHIIIIT! NICK, COACH, ROCHELLE, ANYONE! THERE'S A FREAKING HUNTER ON ME! HELP ME!" Ellis screamed.

Nick heard Ellis' scream and was more determined than ever to find him.

"Hunter's got Ellis! Hunter on Ellis!" Nick yelled, trying to get Coach and Rochelle's attention, before running further into the smoke to find Ellis.

Eventually, the smoke cleared and Nick managed to find Ellis and the Hunter. He pulled out his pistol and shot the Hunter in the head. It fell off Ellis and onto the ground, dead. Nick ran over to Ellis, panicking when he saw that Ellis wasn't moving.

"Ellis? Kid? Overalls?" he whispered, getting on his knees and shaking Ellis, trying to wake him up.

When Ellis didn't respond, Nick's panic started to rise even higher. He couldn't lose Ellis now. He couldn't. Ellis was like a younger brother to him. Even though he barely ever showed it, the whole group, including Ellis, knew this. But Nick didn't care. He cared about Ellis like his brother, no matter what others thought.

Nick was jolted out of his thoughts when he heard coughing coming from the mechanic. He looked down and saw Ellis looking up at him. Nick grimaced.

"H-How do you feel, kid?" he asked.

"Like shit," Ellis answered, with a weak smile on his face.

Nick couldn't believe that the kid could still fucking smile like that, despite him being in so much pain. He pushed that thought away for a moment and proceeded to help Ellis up.

"If I get you up, you promise not to shoot me anymore?" Nick asked, smirking at Ellis.

Ellis managed to laugh weakly at Nick's joke. But as soon as Nick let him go, Ellis buckled. Nick just managed to catch him.

"Nick, 'm fine! I just need a couple of them health-kits and I'll be good as new," Ellis tried to reassure Nick.

Before Nick could argue, Coach and Rochelle ran over to them to see if Ellis was alright. When they saw the bad shape Ellis was in, Rochelle ripped off her health-kit from her back and set it on the ground.

"Nick, I'll need you to hold him steady," Rochelle told him, getting the bandages and gauze ready.

Nick's grip on Ellis tightened, while Rochelle started the healing process. Ellis looked like he was in excruciating pain, but he was keeping a brave face. Rochelle finished her health kit.

"My health kit isn't enough," she said with surprise. "Coach, can I have yours?"

Coach handed her his health kit. Rochelle continued her work, only to find out that Coach's health-kit wasn't enough either.

"Nick, can I have yours?" Rochelle asked him worriedly.

Nick handed her his health-kit, hands shaking. He was really worried about Ellis, as the others were. If this health kit wasn't enough, then they'll have to go on and save the last health kit. It didn't sound right, but if Ellis, or someone else, for that matter, got attacked again, and there were no health-kits, they would be in serious trouble.

"This still isn't enough. What do we do now?" Rochelle asked.

"We'll have to go on," Nick replied. "We can't use the last health-kit until we get to the next safe-room. If we do, then we'll have no more health-kits, and what if we got attacked again?"

Coach and Rochelle stared at each other. Coach sighed.

"Nick's right. We can't risk it."

"I guess you're right," Rochelle sighed sadly.

Even though the others wanted to help Ellis to the next safe-room, he insisted that he was fine and can walk on his own. He took a few steps forward to prove his point.

"See? 'M fine," he insisted. "Now, let's get to that bridge."

(End Flashback)

So that's where they are now. They trudged on and on. It was quiet. Too quiet.

"Hey, Overalls, are you alright?" Nick asked.

When he received no reply, he stopped and turned around. Ellis was on his hands and knees, breathing heavily.

"Ellis!" Nick yelled, running over to him.

His yell got the attention of Coach and Rochelle, who immediately turned around and ran over to him and Ellis. Nick already had helped Ellis to his feet and was holding him around the shoulders.

"Nick, what's wrong with the youn'un?" Coach asked.

"I don't know," Nick replied. "He just collapsed."

"Probably from the pain," Rochelle added.

"Would y'all stop worrying 'bout me," Ellis said, a bit annoyed. "I was just catchin' my breath."

"Don't talk shit," Nick argued, turning his head to face him. "You collapsed because you are in pain. And don't give me that look. It's true."

Before Ellis could argue, he felt what felt like the ground shaking.

"Hey, is it me, or is the ground shakin'?" he asked the others.

The others felt it too, and Nick immediately gave Ellis pain pills.

"You'll need these," Nick told him.

"Run!" Coach yelled.

They all ran ahead. They eventually came to a dead end.

"Oh, shit! We must have taken a wrong turn somewhere!" Nick yelled.

Ellis took out his pain pills and took the whole lot. He then heard a loud roar and saw the big zombie known as the Tank was coming closer and closer towards them.

"Holy shit…"

So what did you think? R&R Please!