Chapter 4 Things get complicated (A/N: Ah! Another chapter so soon! [Which is a first for me.] In any case, I just wanted to warn you that instead of calling Nick a male witch, I m going to now be referring to him as a Warlock. A friend of mine said she d heard it around before, so I decided to adopt it. Allonsy!)

Sometime later, Nick was vaguely aware that they d moved off of the rooftop and away from the sight of destruction. It was still quiet, though, so he could assume that they were still in the area of whatever had attacked. The next thing Nick saw was the pile of (tempting) canned peaches. He pushed back the urge to jump the pile and struggled to sit up, a gasp forcing him to sit back.

Of course, his gasp was loud enough to bring the capped hunter back inside, donning a worried expression. "Ya'll alright Nick?" He asked, shuffling slightly as he watched the warlock. "My side hurts like a son of a bitch but otherwise I'm fine." He grumbled, snatching up a can of peaches and prying it open in one swift movement. "I-I can bandage it up for ya." Ellis offered, shuffling some more. "Oi, 1, stop shuffling Overalls, you re being noisy. 2, you are horrible at bandaging anything." Nick replied, downing the can of peaches as a drinker would a strong drink. Ellis scratched his cheek, sighing. He knew Nick was right, he just hated admitting it. "How about-" "Not Bria either. She's just as bad as you". Ellis eyebrows shot up in surprise. He opened his mouth to talk again but Nick cut him off quickly. "I'll be fine." He said, sighing. "Just bring me more peaches." He grimace-smiled, not comforting the hunter at all.

Ellis gave up and walked back out onto the balcony, where Bria was balancing the almost-toddler on her hip. "Wow! She grew some more." Ellis said, taking the child smoker at her command [aka outstretched arms with a sort of pleading look]. "Yeah. It's hard to ignore it when you're carrying her." Bria agreed, stretching her arms out as the child smoker nuzzled her head into Ellis neck with a happy purr. Ellis looked amused, nearly grinning. He'd always loved kids, and he always wanted to have one of his own. "So, what are we going to name her?" Bria asked with curiosity. Ellis shrugged, looking thoughtful. "I was thinkin Kaylee." Bria giggled, causing the hunter to blush slightly and whine. "What?" Bria replied, "You sound like a doting papa." She grinned at the embarrassed whine. He was about to retort when Nick called for him. Taking Kaylee with him, he practically ran inside and froze.

Nick grimaced as a soldier poked his wound, grinning at the resulting hiss. "This one's hurt, sir." The soldier said, poking again for good measure. Nick glared at the soldier, deepening it at the man that walked into the room with a smirk. "Ah, so we meet again." He said, walking closer to Nick. The man was young-looking, his brown hair swept back into a ponytail. His face was scarred, claw marks moving from the left side of his forehead to his chin, his two-toned eyes having just escaped injury. Nick glared into the green/blue eyes, very nearly growling. He attempted to tell Bria, in infected, to not come in but was too late. A soldier stumbled back in, prying Bria off of his face and throwing her at Ellis, who caught her. The man laughed, ducking away from the warlock and his claws. "Ah-ah!" He said, waggling a finger. "You hurt me, I hurt your family." Nick sat back at that, Unhappy.

He didn't like it but he stayed quiet, glaring at the scarred man. "Luke, you don't have to do this." Nick said, wincing as the soldiers searched his companions, ultimately kicking Bria for biting one of them. "But of course I do." The man, Luke, said pleasantly. "If I don't, you won't hand over that child of yours." He said, motioning to Kaylee. Nick bristled, hissing. "Oh ho! Is someone mad?" Luke said, snickering. Turning to the soldiers, he said, "Take them away. I'll deal with the warlock." He turned back to Nick as the soldiers pulled the group out of the building, down the small set of stairs, and onto the street. Bria bristled, sniffing the air gently. "El. Ellis. Somethin's comin'." She whispered to the hunter, who was just as jittery as her. "I know. Should we run?" He asked, looking around nervously. The soldiers were oblivious to the low rumble coming closer to them, though they could tell the infected were nervous. "What's wrong, huh? Scared of us?" One of the soldiers taunted, laughing obnoxiously. Ellis ignored him, grabbing Bria as Kaylee used her tongue to pull them out of the area. The rumbling was getting louder, coming to the attention of the soldiers though it was past too late now. Kaylee curled up against Ellis side, whimpering as a gigantic round thing pinballed its way towards them. Ellis very nearly fell over as it passed them with a blast of wind, Nick stumbling up the stairs and holding a rather limp arm at the same time. "What the hell was that?" He nearly squeaked, mostly from the pain of a dislocated shoulder. Ellis shook his head, beyond confused. "I-I dunno, Nick." He whimpered, rubbing Kaylee's back. Bria dusted off her clothes, making a noise. "Whatever it was, it was damn big." She said, her voice shaky. Nick opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by a growl similar to that of a Tanks. Nick scrambled over to the group, bustling them off of the roof. The door to the roof busted open and Luke charged through, very obviously angry as a new scar dripped blood. He roared and tore a piece of the roof off, sending it flying. "I'll find you!" He called after Nick, his voice amplified by the infection. "I'll find you and kill you, you bastard!" Nick was glad that his group was able to move quickly, pulling them into an alley way just as the thing from before rolled by. "We gotta get out of here." He said, wincing. "No. First we gotta pop your arm back into place." Bria said firmly.

Nick sighed and consented, clenching Ellis sweater between his teeth so that he wouldn't bite his tongue off. Ellis gave him a sympathetic look before grabbing Nick's limp arm and shoving it back into place. The scream that came from Nick's throat scared them all, but thankfully didn't last long. "You could double as a screamer." Bria said, cleaning out her ears. Nick's eyebrow rose as he rubbed his shoulder. "A what?" He asked, his voice a little horse. "Exactly as their names imply. They are worse than clowns." Bria explained, shivering. Nick nodded, sighing. "Well, let's go, before Luke catches up to us." They nodded their agreement and the group headed off in a general west direction.

((Edit (04/08/13): Sorry about not posting but thankfully I caught this ._. I hadn't known this had happened but I swear when I posted it, it had come out with everything. Emo, I know you pointed it out, but it wasn't meant to be without italics or the " things. So here's an updated version for those of you still willing to read it.))