"Why don’t you do us both a favour, then, and go right ahead and do that. Or, y’know, you can go on outside and play hide and seek with the Infected. Go away and get lost, that’ll stop you from being bored." Just like the boredom was driving Ellis crazy, Ellis was driving Nick crazy.
Strangely, Ellis briefly explored the idea of playing hide and seek with the Infected in a desperate fit of boredom, but quickly disregarded the idea. “I don’t know, man. Last time I tried playin’ tag with a Charger, things didn’t end so well. I’ve had love taps from Tanks that weren’t that hard on my back.” Ellis confided, the venom and sarcasm in Nick’s words apparently lost on him.
Nick rolled his eyes.
"I remember. I had to help your ass up almost every single time." A sigh. Man, the kid really could be oblivious. Especially oblivious to Nick’s never-ending desire to give Ellis a nudge. Off a cliff.
"Yeah," Ellis said fondly. "That's what friends are for, Nick!" He slapped his shoulder a tad too rough. A horde was still milling outside the saferoom door and Nick would have to suffer his rambling until either of them decided it was safe to leave. "This reminds me of that one time me and my buddy Keith got stuck in the storage closet at work. I never told y' guys on account of it bein' embarrassin', but I'm gonna tell it anyway, for shits and gigs. We had two storage places at work, right, the inside one and the outside one. We just got a shipment of some stuff in and Randy told me and Keith to go put it all in the outside storage 'cause it wasn't anything that weather or temperature could ruin. Now this storage closet was already pretty full, but by the time we stacked the last couple boxes, there was barely enough room for one person to stand. I couldn't put the last box on the shelf 'cause I was too short, so Keith stepped in behind and pushed it up. Keep in mind this was almost a year after Keith's burnin' incident and he had to really lean in to get full extension of his arms. He was takin' some allergy pills at the time, too, so his head wasn't 100% clear. We forgot that it was a windy day and that the storage closet won't open from the inside. Door blew shut and we were both in there plunged into total darkness. Now, I never been the biggest fan of tight spaces, 'specially in the dark so I was already not havin' a good time, and then Keith goes, "Shit, I gotta go to the bathroom." To which I reply, "Well, you shoulda thought 'bout that 'fore we got trapped in the damn closet!" He's actin like a little girl and tells me, "I didn't know we were gonna get trapped in here." We were stuck in that closet for four and a half hours 'cause Scott and Travis couldn't hear us yellin' and we left our phones inside 'cause this was only supposed to be a five second trip. Since it was in early May and that closet was sheet metal on the inside, it got real hot inside. We were drenched in sweat even though only half of Keith's sweat glands actually worked on account of the scar tissue. Keith decides that since he's hot, he's also tired and decides to go limp against me and fall asleep. So for the whole time I stood there supportin a sleepin', sweaty, slippery man, tryin' real hard not to let the doorknob bash me in the back. Took until almost 5:00 in the PM for Scott and Travis to realize that we never came back after lunch and they came lookin' for us, finally openin' the door so we could go home in shame. They laughed their asses off the whole way back to our trucks."
