These Different Times (Nick Clark FF)

12.

Five minutes passed. Then ten. Then twenty. Twenty five minutes had passed before something finally happened.

That something was in the form of Maddie, my mother and the rest of our small group except from Chris and Alicia making their way through the room, searching for both me and Nick.

"Mom!" I yelled, struggling to be louder than everyone else in the room, "Maddie! Hey, Maddie!"

She caught my eye and pointed me out to my mom and they rushed over to me, asking me where her son was.

"I don't know," I told honestly, "He was with this guy."

"He just left you?" mom gaped, "Well, wait 'till I see him."

I shook my head, "No, he was going to come back for me. The guy, he had a key. That's how he managed to get out!"

"Okay," Travis said quietly, "Stand back."

I moved away from the door, looking around at all of the other people who were in here. People who could live if they were just given the chance.

"Have you seen Liza?" he asked when he finally got the lock open, watching as I passed by him to the pen beside mine.

"What about my mom?"

"No," I breathed, taking the gun from Travis and hitting the lock, "I haven't seen either of them. With Griselda's injury, I'm sure that they would've taken her straight to surgery."

"Taylor, what are you doing?"

I looked at my mom, "I'm not leaving these people here to die."

"We don't have time." Maddie protested.

"Then you go," I told them, "I couldn't live with myself if I just left."

What surprised me, was that Daniel was the first who managed to break a lock off, freeing a young man and woman, "Go."

Everyone then started helping and with that number, we had everybody out in no time.

"Did you see which way Nick went?"

"Yeah," I nodded, "Come on."

As I led them down the corridor where I saw him go, I saw Dave sitting on one of the staircases and moved to stand in front of him.

He looked up, a smile playing on his lips when he saw it was me, "What do you know? You got out." he then looked behind me, "This your family?"

"Yeah." I answered, "Did you see Nick? The guy I was brought in with?"

He pointed with his finger, "Upstairs. Don't know how far either of them got though. Place is crawling with infected now."

"Come with us." I said quietly but he shook his head.

"Can't," he rolled up his sleeve, revealing a bloody bite, "I'm gonna die anyway. May as well try and hold 'em off for as long as I can." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his gun, handing it to me, "Take it. You're gonna need it more than me, kid."

The gun felt heavy in my hand as I took it from him but I gave him a soft smile, "Thank you."

He dipped his head slightly and I turned to continue leading the group to try and find Nick.

The small party of six made it to another staircase and Maddie decided that she was going to take the lead. I didn't mind. I'd rather her get us lost than me. She took us upstairs to the next floor where we started making our way along another corridor and up ahead, there was a door. I could see that the lights on the other side of it were flickering on and off and I felt a knot form in my stomach.

And not a good one.

"Nick."

Maddie ran forward, pressing herself against the door, "Nick! Oh god."

"Open it!" my mom said loudly.

"It's locked! Travis, get it open!"

I stayed further back, staring at Nick as he tried to get his mom's attention and I saw him telling her to go and my eyes filled with tears.

"No, Nick. I'm not leaving you.

He then met my gaze and beckoned me to come to him. I gave him a sad smile as I stood in front of him, placing my hand against the glass.

"I...I lo-"

"Don't," I said, cutting him off, "Don't say that again until you're on this side of the door."

He went to protest but Liza appeared from seemingly nowhere, pushing me back so she could swipe her key card through the locking mechanism that was keeping them locked in there.

"Hurry," Maddie begged, "Liza, please hurry!"

"I'm trying!"

Just when it seemed as if it was going to be too late and that I was going to see one of the most important people in my life get torn apart, the lock turned green, the lock clicked and the door opened.

"Come on!" Travis yelled and Maddie pushed my mom forward. Nick grabbed my hand and started running after them.

I looked over my shoulder to see the infected following behind us.

"Don't look back," Nick said loudly, "Just focus on in front of us."

That was probably a better idea and I did what he said, making sure to watch Liza's every move since she was the only one who knew where she was going.

She led us downstairs into a kitchen area, all of us filing around the counters and stuff but on the other side of the room, we were met with more of the infected and Maddie got grabbed around the ankle.

"Mom!" Nick quickly hopped over one of the counters, grabbing a frying pan and smacking the dead over the head.

"Holy..." I whispered as it went down, not quite believing at how easily he had done that.

"Come on," Liza said, "We're almost there. The nearest door is just down here."

He took my hand again as he came back around the counter, taking my hand again, following at a much slower pace this time and he squeezed my hand, making me look up at him, "Told you I'd come back for you."

I stared at him in disbelief, giving him a smack on the chest which made him wince, "Are you kidding me? You almost got yourself killed! It's not funny, Nick!"

He stopped laughing at my scolding, "Okay, I realise that it was a stupid thing to do but Strand, he has a place where we can go."

I looked up ahead at the man who was talking quietly with Maddie, "How do you know we can trust him?"

He held the door open for me as we finally made it outside and I had to narrow my eyes because of the brightness of the sun, "We just have to. He's our only shot."

Well, he had a point there.