Persistence - Left 4 Dead X OC

44

"I'm somewhat inclined to believe that-" BOOM! I sigh, hearing a bomb go off in the distance. "That the military isn't wanting to help us." I again started pestering my side of our journey.

"No shit, they're even trying to bomb the public." Nick mutters, holding onto his machete and running his finger along the dried blood. "This god damn safe room doesn't exactly feel safe." He whips his blade around, making me more hesitant, from him mostly playing with that.

The area around us led into more of the apartment and the downtown communities. Then the fire jets that keep whizzing by, dropping bombs scared the crap out of us. Where was CEDA? We haven't seen them since the bus depot... what a shit show that was anyways.

"You two are welcome to make a home right here in this safe room." Coach waves us off, and he's right for swaying most of the opinions.

Ellis seemed to be hesitant, looking between me and Coach. I took a breath, setting my hand of his forearm. "Ellis... I want to stay with you. Whatever you pick, I'll join." I eased his worry, and I had no plans of ever leaving him.

"I don't know, Doll." Ellis shifted his eyes away from me. "I get what you're saying... I do... but like, all these infected feel like they'll keep comin' and comin'."

Another valid point, and I gently brushed my fingers against his skin. "I know... but I feel safe around you, and so I trust your opinion." I say with a whisper, leaning in to rest my face on his chest. His heartbeat was the only thing calming and consistent.

Ellis rests his chin on my head, wrapping his arms around me tightly. He placed another kiss on me, soothing my worries.

"Coach, I'm not really liking the idea as much anymore." Rochelle chimes in, swaying the decision to our side. "They might be right about it."

Coach looked rather annoyed. Setting down his weapon and slowly turning to us. "Well, now we gotta talk about it." He gains everyone's attention. Coach looks at me dead in the eye, focusing on me out of anyone. "You're the one talking about it the most, so then where?" Coach asks, talking with his hands.

Pulling away from Ellis but still having my hand on his hips, I felt embarrassed being put on the spot. "Erm-" I started, feeling worse about it. I bit my index finger, trying to think.

"Coach, we can't just put it all on one person, it's a team effort." Nick cuts in, stepping in closer between us.

"Of course, but there's no to go, if we want to be safe, there's only one place to be... I don't like how they're dropping bombs on us either, but as long as they're still evacuating, it's the best we got." Coach crossed his arms and shook his head. "I don't want y'all to be in danger..."

"Coach," Rochelle sets her hand on his shoulder, "CEDA isn't even here anymore... we haven't seen anything but the military... and they're dropping bombs." She quietly reminds him.

Coach grunts in reply with disappoint.

"The infected don't like swimmin'." Ellis butts in, and I held his waist closer. "I say we go down to the docks n' get the biggest boat."

"What about food?" Coach asks.

"It'll be a few months, but if we get a big boat with a lot of surface area... we could start growing some food." I added.

"Building a farm on a boat?" Coach arched his brow, still not satisfied with the answer. "What about the gas?" He starts. "And the repairs? And where do we go with that?"

Silence. Shuffling on our feet, we tried to think of more reasons why we could last outside the military.

"We could head north?" Nick offers.

"The cold ain't gonna stop em', they're mutating, and we wouldn't be able to grow food so fast up there." Coach again shoots down the idea.

BOOM! Another drop from a bomb in the background, the ceiling above a shook and cracks started forming. Ellis grabs my head, pulling me in for fearing the ceiling was going to cave in on us. That one was really close, and the team was starting to get shaken up from the potential threat.

Coach huffs. "Y'all's, I want to find another way, I do." He grabs his gun, holding it close to his chest. Coach looks to the floor. "I know we have some doubts about it, but together we'd survive."

"Yes, together!" I repeated him, stepping away from Ellis and to the center of the room. "I don't know what'll happen, but we'll be okay when we stop traveling and start setting some roots. We might even come across some new folks!"

"And where?" Coach repeats.

More silence.

Coach steps aside, going towards the writing on the wall. His hand sets on the barely dried ink, there's lots of panic in the writing, even some of have smears of blood. The team was getting frustrated, and Rochelle seem to be back on the military evac side again as she turned her back on us. Ellis was still unsure over it, but I knew he just wanted us to be safe.

Nick and I were the only ones still against this. Looking to Nick, he kept his mouth shut. "Okay... we'll go with you guys." I spoke for myself and Nick. Nick rolls his eyes, but his lack of protest shows he doesn't really have a choice in the matter.

"As long as the military is still here, I think we can talk to em' and try to reason with em'." Ellis urges us to keep trying. I couldn't argue with him, I slouches over and nodded to agree. "They wouldn't hurt us if they knew we were here."

"Then let's get going guys." Rochelle steps up to the door, grabbing onto the bar and setting it against the wall. "I'm getting tired of these bombs, and I don't want to wait till the bigger ones get dropped on us."