On The Road (A L4D2 Fiction) *DISCONTINUED*

Save me some Sugar

I was woken up by someone's hand on my shoulder. My eyes fluttered opened, and I looked to see who it was. Ellis.
"Hey El. What's up?" I asked, pushing myself up in a sitting position.
"We gotta get goin'. Suns been up for bout an hour and you didn't wake up so I figured I'd get ya." He replied.
I nodded, and stood up, shakily. I looked around the saferoom. Coach was eating a small candy bar he had most likely found in one of the rooms we had explored yesterday. Rochelle was reading an old magazine she found lying around. Nick was sitting on the table, seemingly in thought.  Ellis was checking out a sniper rifle he picked up from the metal shelves lining the wall to his left.
   "If anyone sees any hand sanitizer let me know." Nick spoke, breaking the silence.
   Rochelle and I giggled.
   "C'mon man. You ain't afraid of a little dirt are ya?" Coach asked.
   "A germ just wiped out the whole planet, Coach, so yes." He replied..
   "Nick, catching a cold isn't high up on my list of concerns right now." Rochelle  stated.
   I giggled again.
   "Nick, you're immune aren't you? Don't be afraid of a little germ, alright?" I joked.
   "Yeah. Ha-Ha-Ha. A little more hand sanitizer and we wouldn't be in this mess." Nick grumbled.
   "Oh, I'm sorry. Do you want us to cover you while you wash your hands, Nick?" Rochelle threw her hands up sarcastically.
   "Stop! I am gettin' pissed off. Nick, you calm your germaphobic ass down and stop arguin'." Coach spoke.
   Rochelle turned to glare at Nick, who just held up his hands defensively.
   There was a momentary silence in the room.
   "So.. you reckon we should move out now?" Ellis asked, breaking the quiet.
   I nodded in response, I assume the others did so too, and we prepared to head out. Coach opened the saferoom door and we stepped out into the soft rain and dark night. I slung my gun over my back and switched to the axe that I had picked up, using that instead.
   A few minutes went by, and we had been checking a few abandoned buildings and shops for supplies. Eventually, we came across an old tattoo parlor.
   "Tattoos!" Ellis exclaimed excitedly.
   "Man, I wanted a tattoo. Too bad this apocalypse got in the way." I sighed.
   Coach walked over to the wall and looked at the different designs.
   "I got that one, that one.. hell, I got most of these!"
   Rochelle slowly turned to look at him.
   "Where?"
   "Hey man, Coach keeps his secrets." He laughed.
   "Ugh! Please be the ankle.. please be the ankle.." she murmured to herself.
  "Man, I love tattoos! I only have one," Ellis showed us his arm, "but I was gonna get my truck on the other arm! Damn zombies.."
   "Hey Ellis," Nick spoke up, "did you get that girl's name? Cus' I can tattoo it on your ass. She'll like that."
   Ellis looked down at the floor, seemingly in thought.
   "Oh no.." I mumbled.
   "Hey Rochelle, do you want me to tattoo your boyfriend's name on your arm?" Nick asked sarcastically.
   "What?!"
   "Oh c'mon, I saw how you were looking at him." He smirked.
   "Sorry, didn't get his name."
   "Hey I'll just write 'greasy pig' we'll all know who we're talking about." Nick laughed.
   "Compared to you, Nick, he was downright nice." Rochelle scoffed.
   I sighed at their conversation, and we began to head out. As we did, Ellis began to tell us a story.
   "Once my buddy Keith got a tattoo on a dare. 'I'm a moron' written across his forehead! 'Course, he did get $200 out of it so you tell me, who's the real moron?" He laughed.
   We continued into another building, and that's when I noticed it.
   "Hey, where did Nick go?" I asked, not seeing him anywhere.
   Suddenly, we heard a yell from outside. I ran to the door to the right of me, and opened it. I walked out into the small alleyway and saw that a hunter had pounced Nick.
   "Hold on, buddy, I got you!" I exclaimed as I shot the hunter, killing him swiftly.
   Coach came behind me to help him up.
   "Thanks." Nick mumbled.
I nodded in response, and the group kept moving. In order to keep going, though, we had to pass through an old bar, which Nick seemed to like.
   "Damn, this is my kind of place!" He smirked.
   I rolled my eyes and looked around the counters and shelves for supplies, as did Rochelle and Coach. Nick was messing around with the pool table, and Ellis was checking out the old jukebox. After finding nothing we could use, I walked back over to Ellis.
   "What do they have on there?" I asked.
   "Dunno. Most of the writing is smudged or scratched. But we can turn it on to find out!" Ellis exclaimed, flipping on the jukebox.
   The song that played opened with guitar, like soft-rock songs had. It was almost sad. I raised my eyebrow, having never heard this song before. I looked over at Ellis, then back at Coach and Rochelle. Both Ellis and Coach seemed ecstatic.
   "Midnight Riders! This jukebox is alright!" Coach laughed.
   I stood in silence by the jukebox, listening to the song. It was a really good song, but to me, seemed sort of sad.
   "Ellis, what song is this?" I asked him.
   "Hm? Oh, it's called 'Save me Some Sugar'. It's a good song, but it ain't my favorite." He shrugged.
   I nodded in response, still just listening to the lyrics, and occasionally singing along softly to the repeated ones.
   "Katie, I didn't know you could sing." I heard Nick speak from behind me.
   I turned around to see him leaning against a wall literally a foot behind me.
   "Oh, sorry. Was I being too loud?"
   "Nah, nah. You're fine. Sounded decent." He chuckled.
   I rolled my eyes.
   "Whatever, we gotta get going. Those other survivors are probably waiting for us." I said, walking away from the jukebox.
   I jumped out of the window, and landed in some sort of small construction zone. As the rest of the group and I walked away, we could hear the song still playing in the distance.