Persistence - Left 4 Dead X OC

26

"Is there anything here to eat?" I turned my attention to the boxes next to the ammo pile. Sitting on the ground next to Ellis as we recovered from that horrible coaster fiasco. My stomach was rumbling, and right now I felt so weak. Running around and nearly avoiding death has eaten up all of my energy, and with dinner being skipped long ago we were all feeling the hunger grow in our stomachs.

Rochelle opens up the box, dipping inside and pulling out a thin plastic sheet. "Popcorn... great." She grumbles, sending it on the wooden beams of the waiting lines.

Popcorn being so light, I don't think any of us were really entertained by the thought of it. "Still better then nothing." Coach says, dipping into the box and grabbing out more packets. "I need some calories in my system before I start chasing the ones in aprons."

"Not bad of an idea, except, how are we going to cook it?" Nick throws his arms around, motioning for us to look around at the lack of stove and microwave we have. Rochelle and Coach throw their heads back, as Ellis and I watched. "You would think that since this place would be overrun, at least some food would be somewhere." Nick picks up his own packet of popcorn.

Looking to my side, I noticed my fire axe. Then the wooden waiting beams. A grunt to myself, and I started pushing myself off the floor with my fire axe and hand. "Do any of you know how to make a fire out of wood?" I asked, looking to them.

"Oh sure! Me n' my buddy Keith went camping down south and we didn't know about the bear watch-"

"Ellis, just make the god damn fire." Nick shuts him up, not even letting him get a sentence out.

I think we were all feeling a little bit too miserable, and all this running around has finally caught up to us with the hunger we felt in our stomachs. I held my axe high, bringing it down on one of the beams to chop it in half. Starting to cut it into more pieces, I kicked out the loose bits of it. Starting to make a pile slowly but surely, everyone else was grabbing the wood to start setting it in the middle of the room. I turned my head to Rochelle, looking at her bloody frying pan.

"Do we have anything to clean that?" I asked, wiping the sweat off of my forehead.

Rochelle looked back into the boxes, and at this point started picking them up from the bottom and flipping the contents out. "Come on..." She mutters, picking up the last box and dumping it out. One last water bottle. "Score!" She cheers, handing it over to me as I took that and her pan.

Ellis started feeling better, picking himself off of the ground and going towards the pile in the middle of the room and started working at the fire as I peeled off more advertisements for the park posters off the wall to start scrubbing at the pan with a little bit of water we had so we didn't have to eat bloody popcorn. "And God said, 'let there be light!'" Ellis cheered, creating the smallest fires between the broken down wood. I think I heard a sigh a relief from everybody.

We pulled the pan to set on top of the wood, Ellis occasionally blowing in some air from his lungs to puff up the fire a little bit more. I grab the hold of the popcorn packet, ripping it open with my teeth and pouring it inside the pan. "Good idea, Jo." Coach said, kneeling in close to me to watch me cook. "Man, I could probably eat the entire box of these."

"Save some for us, will you Big Guy?" Nick laughs, setting back up the empty boxes so he could find something to sit on.

That reminds me of something, my hand feels the outside of my pocket. I still felt it there, I'll be at a little bit mushier than I like to gift it as. This is probably a good time as any. My hand digs into my pocket, pulling out the rectangle of melted chocolate I found earlier. "Hey, Coach." I got his attention, raising the Hershey's chocolate bar in his face. "Got something for you." I smiled, tossing it to him.

His face lit up, and at that moment it looks like he just won the lottery. "Mmm-mm!" He hums to himself, plucking it for my hand. "You're a lifesaver!" Coach smiles, tearing open the chocolate bar and snapping a piece off.

"What about us?" Nick starts, watching coach eat the chocolate.

"Next time I find some premium wagu steak, it's going directly to you." I smiled, Nick had a tiny pull at the corner of his lips before he shook his head to loose it. "Coach has been wanting this for the longest time, it's only right that it's his."

Pop!

Grabbing my attention, I took it back to the pan. It was finally starting to pop some of the kernels in the pan. Everyone else was looking over, waiting for a pile to start collecting. Slowly but surely, all of them begin to pop and bounce around. After having the majority of the corn pop, I carried the pan and set it in front of everybody on the wooden beam. This thing was still hot but, damn I was sure hungry.

"Dig in." I said, already grabbing a handful for myself and stuffing my face with it. No butter, but anything works right now.

"Flavorless, but still... glad to finally have something. Thank you, Jo." Rochelle grabs her own portion, holding it in her hand to start picking up.

Everyone had their hands in, and within just a minute it was all gone. I'm sure we were all still hungry, there's no way that this one packet was going to fill us up. We only had one pan so this was going to take a while. Nick handed me another packet. I took it, and ripped it open with my teeth yet again. I guess a little impromptus snack break was going to be helpful, I was just glad that there was little windows at the top of the building to let some the smoke out.

We ate more and more, coach already finishing off his chocolate and digging into the popcorn. I sat on the rest of the wooden beam, everyone else seem to be satisfied with their portion as I had a little another packet made just in case. Ellis sat down on the beam beside me, and I offered my pan of popcorn to him. He reached in, grabbing more for himself as we started sharing. The mood felt really somber, but I'm sure we were all waking up again from our brief waiting moment.

As we finished the last of it, the pan felt cool enough to hand back to Rochelle. "Thanks, we're so lucky you grab this." I commented, she grabbed it out of my hand and attached it back to her belt loops.

"We might have been lucky, but it was your idea. I was going to start chewing on the wood if you didn't." She laughs herself, dusting off her hands and switching back to her AK.

I was happy to be contributing to the team in any way I could. All the team looked like they had renewed their energy, and I guess it was time again to start moving out. As I sat back on the wood further from the door, right next to Ellis again. I wasn't really wanting to go just yet as I fiddle with the thought of being around him. The team started to clear out the zombies from ahead of us.

I felt my fingertips being touched. It was definitely Ellis, and I can feel his hand reaching over mine slowly. His fingers edging to mine with a subtle touch. Without even looking at him, my fingers crept into his. I could feel the harder skin from our latest adventures, his hands were bigger then mine and finally we interweaved our fingers together. This... felt right. Our hands were being blocked by my body from where the survivors were standing, and I could feel his fingers in mine.

We didn't have to say anything, we didn't even have to look at each other. I just knew that this moment was unexpected but welcoming, and I scooted just a little bit closer to him. Finally I turn my head to him, his eyes darted to mine as soon as I landed on him. I smiled kindly, he fingers wrapping tighter around mine.

"Aight y'all, we should get going. It's saying on the walls that the entertainment center is the last holdout. There might be a chance that somebody is there and they can help us signal the chopper." Coach said, snapping our attention away from each other.

I held Ellis' hand still, but I know as soon as we stood up we would have to let go. These brief moments in the safe room, or on the road felt like there was never enough of it. I sighed, looking back to Ellis. "Let's get going..." I whispered so we could get moving without being suspicious... well anymore then the attention I bought to us last time.

"Just hold on a second." Ellis said, smiling widely and tilting his head. Before leaning back and losing his balance. He started flailing, holding my hand as he tumbled backwards and pulled me down straight to hitting my chest into the beam as I couldn't hold his weight. "Hogwash...!" He spoke softly trying to get the air back in his lung, releasing my hands a little too late. More laughing, great. "I'd told you it'll hurt like a bitch." Ellis laughed, as I started to wonder if some of his bruises were just his own doing.