On The Road (A L4D2 Fiction) *DISCONTINUED*

Portside Escape

I stirred a bit as someone was calling my name, and shaking my shoulder. I grunted, my eyebrows furrowed, and I turned away, still not hearing the person clearly.
"Katie, hey, get gotta get going! Get up!" A country-man's voice softly spoke to me.
I opened my eyes, and, groggily, rubbed them. When I looked up to see who had woken me, I wasn't exactly surprised to see Ellis.
"Shit, did I fall asleep? Sorry. How long was I out?" I asked, pushing myself up off the safe room's floor.
"Only 'bout an hour. Wasn't too bad. I figured you'd wanna rest a little so I got the rest of the group to calm down and let ya sleep." He smiled.
"Thanks, El. Dunno what I'd do without you." I grinned back, grabbing my gun off the table next to me.
I looked around the safe room, seeing the rest of the group as they took a few moments to relax. Upon noticing that I was up and ready to go, they too began prepping for the outside, zombie-infested world.
"You know," Coach spoke, "I don't trust that biker. He could be long gone by now."
"You don't know that. He'll be there!" Rochelle quickly exclaimed.
"Oh yeah, he'll be there. I saw how he was lookin' at Rochelle." Ellis laughed.
I rolled my eyes, picking up a bile bomb, and stuffing it in my bag. Ellis, Coach, and Rochelle kept at it, talking about how Francis (if I remembered the guy's name correctly) would or wouldn't be there. And eventually they started accusing him of possibly stealing Jimmy Gibbs Jr. During the whole ordeal, I stood by Nick.
"Look at them arguing like children." He grumbled.
"Calm down, dude. I'll break it up if it lasts longer than two minutes." I smirked.
"Oh so she's got wit AND a pretty face. You are a surprise, sweetheart."
"Took you this long to notice?" I giggled.
Eventually, the group left, and stepped out into light rain and (somewhat) fresh air. We climbed up some stairs, rounded a corner, and to our surprise, the survivors were still there.
"Hey! You made it!" An unfamiliar voice called.
It came from an African-American man who we hadn't seen from the bridge below.
"Hey, I didn't see you from the other said." Rochelle said.
"Oh yeah, I stayed over here. I'm okay, just a little banged up at the moment." He laughed. "It wasn't easy getting up here. We lost a man."
The other three survivors suddenly looked solemn, as if it had been horrible and tragic.
"Anyways, I'm Louis! This is Zoey and Francis. I'm sorry, I didn't catch your names."
We went around and introduced our group. We had a little trouble from Ellis, who had just been staring, doe-eyed, at Zoey the entire time. He stumbled his words, but he got out a greeting, at least. I rolled my eyes and chuckled at his behavior.
"Well hello Rochelle," Francis spoke, "a beautiful name for a beautiful lady."
"Thanks! Nice vest." She smiled.
Nick walked past me, probably to interrupt. I tried to stop him from doing something he'd probably regret, but I couldn't.
"Should we leave you two alone?" Nick laughed.
I sighed. Not as bad as I thought it'd be.
"No, no, no!" She stuttered, embarrassed.
Rochelle and Francis kept flirting back and fourth, and Ellis went off to Zoey telling her about one of his 'me and Keith' stories to her. Leaving me, Coach, and Nick in the background.
"Well, this is certainly interesting." I commented.
"Glad you noticed." Nick replied, not exactly paying attention.
"Oh what, you staring at that Zoey girl too?" I laughed.
He scoffed at me.
"Like hell. I ain't seen a woman even worth my attention since this whole shit show started."
Eventually everyone piped down a bit, and we could get back to business.
"Look people, can we talk about lowering this bridge?" Coach asked, loudly.
"Go down that elevator, fill up the generator, and we'll take care of the rest." Louis told him.
We thanked their group, bid them farewell, and headed down the elevator. All of us stayed mostly silent until we reached the bottom.
"Okay! Let's fill up the generator guys! We'll have the bridge lowered in no time!" I exclaimed, leaving the elevator first.
"Hey, wait up now! We should split up into teams to get these gas cans! It would be a whole hell of a lot safer." Coach exclaimed, trying to round us up before we even strayed.
"Right, I'm with Katie." Nick suddenly spoke.
My eyes widened, then narrowed in suspicion.
"Really? Thought there wasn't a girl you met that was worth your attention since this whole thing happened." I sneered.
"Whatever, sweetie. Ellis, and Ro, you can go with Coach. Come on Katie." He grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the generator, off to the far ends of the port.
When he stopped dragging me to grab a gas can (I did the same), I just had to ask.
"Why the hell were you so eager to get me alone, huh?"
   "Cus' you're the only one in our group I can stand for more than five minutes at a time," He grumbled, picking up a can.
   I followed, and did the same, tagging along with him as we headed back for the generator.
   "I dunno, you've been an awful flirt over the past week," I teased him, sticking my tongue out at him playfully.
   He rolled his eyes, ripping open the can't cap and pouring it in, a motion which he repeated after taking my gas can from me. Nick didn't reply, only went back to look for another gas can.
This shocked me ever so slightly. Nick usually always had a response, whether it be serious or sarcastic. I followed closely behind him as we entered a different building, and I picked up yet another gas can.
  "Hey, sorry dude, did I go too far?" I asked, breaking the silence between us as we made our way back to the generator.
   Nick glanced over at me, before moving his eyes to stare straight ahead once more.
   "No, just don't have anything to say."
   "Really, you don't have anything to say? Oh my goodness! I never thought I'd see the day!" I exclaimed dramatically, pouring the gas in the generator.
   "Yeah, well, you've seen it now. Happy?"
   I stopped and stared at him as he poured his can into the generator.
   "What's wrong with you?" I questioned him, offset by his strange behavior.
   "I hate the apocalypse and you're starting to annoy me so shut the hell up and let's just focus on getting gas cans. We only got three more to go and I don't see any more in our area so let's just hope those three chuckleheads managed to find them." He snapped.
   Instantly, I shut up, not wanting to deal with him or his attitude. Almost on cue, the other then showed up. Rochelle with her gun in hand, and Coach and Ellis carrying the last three cans.
   "Alright guys! Let's get this all finished up!" I exclaimed, fist-pumping in victory.
   Ellis poured his can in first, and reached around to give me a high-five (which we had to re-do because we missed the first time). As soon as the last van was poured in, the bridge creaked, and it started to lower.
   We all cheered and stayed by the bridge for when it lowered, running across as it did. We waved goodbye to the survivors as we got to Ellis' beloved Jimmy Gibbs Jr., and Rochelle ended up in the driver's seat. We all hustled to get inside and drove over the bridge, away from the port and the survivors we had met there.