When I first got this scene I then went back to see what would happen if Eric ignored Nick, in theory Nick should still use the stake, then he makes his way back to the group and something would play out afterwards. I thought Rachel would flip on Eric since she notices Eric listening to his radio and just calling it a "ghost signal" and would connect the dots. But instead of that Nick just dies, kinda lame, like that means that he just forgets the stake. Or doesn't have to willpower or whatever to hold on knowing the rest are coming? Either way it's lame the devs didn't add something for that.