The First 24 Hours after the End of the World
"Charlie brown, he's a clown that charlie brown. He's gonna get caught just you wait and see. Why's everybody always picking' on me". The same song played every day at exactly 8am as if to wish everyone a good morning .I let out a sigh as a few guest exited our hotel lobby doors. "Yet another wonderful day at the Hotel." I said in a sarcastic tone. "I really have to find another job." I told Ryan my co-worker of about a year. He was tall, blonde hair, huge thick shaggy beard, I had been his trainer when he first came in and we were both on the morning shift now. "Dude, all I know is its fucking hot outside it literally feels like hell" he replied. Had I known what was in stored for us I would of laughed at the irony.
"I hear ya man, I wish I could join my sisters at the pool and cool off a bit. I remember being a teen during summer vacation" since it was a slow day and the boss was off I brought my sister's so they could use our pool. Every now and then my mom, the housekeeping supervisor, would check up on them if not my dad, the Chief Engineer, would do so. Most people found it weird that I worked alongside my parents, but I thought it was great especially after I had moved out. Our satisfaction scores were great and the communication between the staff was incredible. So the general manager had no issue allowing us to do so.
We worked at a small hotel of 105 rooms, 6 floors including the lobby and about 18 rooms per floor except on the first floor which only had 3 rooms. There were about 20 employees daily, 7 housekeepers, who were mainly up on the floors, my Mom, the housekeeping supervisor, who ran around the whole hotel inspecting rooms, 2 laundry attendants that were in the Housekeeping laundry, my Dad, the engineer, 2 breakfast attendants that were in the breakfast area which is right in front of the Front desk area where Ryan and I are usually spend our mornings. Behind the front desk is the main office area with only two entrances and that's where our bosses spent their day. The front office manager, a lady by the name of Gwen, Our sale manager some young lady named Brittney, and our General Manger Jane. Everyone knows everyone at the hotel and are pretty friendly towards one another. The housekeepers were super friendly especially towards me since I had worked with them before and because getting promoted to the Front Desk.
The breakfast ladies were great. Erin and Alma always saved Ryan and I some breakfast food so we usually ventured off into the breakfast area for a bit while we devoured our breakfast. There are two main entrances to the left and right of the front desk. Both of them are glass sliding doors. The entrance to the left is right next to our two elevators and the entrance on the right is right next to the front desk. There are also two minor entrances to the north and south of the front desk area. These two are simple one glass doors. The north entrance leads to the pool area and the south leads towards a parking lot. Next to each of these entrances are the emergency exit stairs which lead from the 6th floor downwards and an entrance to every floor. The housekeeping laundry is located a bit south of the front desk and on the opposite side of the main office area.
"Thank god Gwen is off or we'd be stuck listening to her bitch about Brittney fucking up" I told Ryan, who was already browsing the front page of the internet. I guess we couldn't really help it. Brittney was the newest member in our team. She had transferred here from another one of our properties and it was her first time being a sales manager. "I'm just glad Jane is off or I wouldn't be able to browse Reddit. The cameras in her office are always monitoring my screen." I chuckled as I shook my head and walked over to the television in front of the front desk, as I did I took a glance at the main entrance. It was early in the morning but the sun was already up and shining. Two cars sped down the road at very high speed even tho its only 35 speed limit. "Damn bastards" I thought to myself. Though looking back at it.. I probably should have joined them.
"There's a bunch of joggers today, what the hell are they doing in the damn heat?" The TV turned on to Fox 4 News. The News anchor was reporting some domestic violence in which the wife apparently bit her husband's dick off.
"No clue maybe they have a death wish, why would anyone fucking jog in this damn Texas heat and please change the channel. That's just sick" answered Ryan, taking a second to look up from his computer screen and onto the TV.
I granted his request and changed the channel but it was also news, something about a riot in downtown Dallas due to the Zimmerman case. According to the report a bunch of people had seen a man attack another and pin him to the ground and attempted to bite him. Others tried to help the pinned man but the attacker pushed them off scratching a few of them on the forearms and legs.
"Shit, it's going to be like Florida all over again. The internet is going to get a hard on for zombies" chuckled Ryan.
I laughed out loud and out of the corner of my eye I saw more movement outside. More cars were speeding down the street and loads of people were running. Some were running through our parking lot getting either to other hotels or to their cars. By now my sisters came to the front desk soaking wet and wrapped up in a towel and asked me why were there so many people running outside. I was about to answer her when one poor fellow tripped and fell right outside our front entrance, at which point I made my way over to him followed by Ryan. The man was wearing a black suit. His briefcase was beside him on the floor still closed.
"Are you alright sir? Do you need me to get the first aid kit?" I asked him as he laid face down. He seemed to be breathing but not answering so after a few seconds of dead silence I patted his back.
"GAAAHHH! WHAT THE FUCK!?" startled I jumped back when the man screamed. The man on the ground turned and had a gash on his forehead from the fall. It was close to his brow but was not bleeding too bad.
"Ryan get the first aid kit. Sir let me help you up and get you inside" I went to try and help him but he stood up and shook his head "Can't do, I wouldn't want to be stuck here when those fuckers get here" then took off running again.
"Marco.. you should come see this" said my sister from behind us as she pointed towards the TV. A few of our guest began to gathered around the TV. We stood in awe as we saw the screen.
"—stay inside. Do not step outside. These things are dangerous, do not engage them. Stay inside" said the news reporter. She looked terrified as the words left her mouth she let out a gasp then stood up and ran away from her seat. The sound of glass breaking could be heard in the background as the chair spun in place followed by a womanly shriek. Before channel went into "please stand by" mode, low growls and moans were heard that sent chills down all of our spines.
I ran over to the front desk to grab my radio and call down the housekeeping supervisor, engineer, and the sales manager. I told them to meet in the main office where informed them of report and asked what we should do about it. Right away the Brittney used he squeaky voice to annoy everyone with her "we should run away and hope they don't catch us" comment.
"Well.. the reporter clearly stated we should stay inside. I think it's best if we stay here and wait it out" i said outloud.
"But what if whatever is out there tries to get in here? we dont have any way to defend ourselves" the head housekeeper asked and the engineer reponded with "What if whatever is out there.. is already in here." Suddenly the office went cold, the Texas heat was ignored by the unanswered question. The silence was deafening in the office.
"I'm going to call the guest down here. We're only at about 18% occupancy so there's very few guest. We should probably also bring all the employee's to the lobby and let them know what is happening." said Ryan making his way to the front desk. The Housekeeping supervisor left through the side entrance and made her way up to the floors to gather the housekeepers. Brittney, the engineer and I headed to the front lobby.
Most of our guest were down at the lobby already and were up in Ryan's face about all the comotion going on outside. It appeared they didn't wait on Ryan's call to come downstairs and bombard us with questions about procedures and safety. Nearly 30 people were gathered down at the lobby. I walked to the main entrance and faced the crowd.
"Listen here folks, we know about as much as you do at this point. The news reporter said to stay inside and to not go out. But i know you've all got family that you're worried about so we cant really force you to stay here. " I took a moment to translate the message for our housekeepers because most of them only spoke and understood spanish. They were terrified of what was going on and it was clearly visable on their faces.
Nearly all of our guest left the hotel and rushed to their cars. Mr. Jackson, an older military veteran that had been staying with us for a couple of weeks. Miss Reid, a young lawyer staying with us since we were close to her internship. Mrs. Roberts, a sweet old lady that came to visit her daughter for a few days. She wanted to stay with us that way her daughter knew where to find her. Out of our employee's only 10 of them stayed. The two breakfast ladies, the engineer, the supervisor, Ryan, my two sisters, Brittney, and 4 housekeepers. The other housekeepers ran to their cars leaving their belongings behind and rushed off home i guess to hopefully find their kids and a safe place. i wonder where they are now, hopefully they found something better..
As they left, a familiar face came out the elevator. Tony our evening front desk agent had spent the night at the hotel. Rubbing his eyes he made his way towards the front desk.
"Where the heck are our guest going?. Marco! Tell me you didn't have anything to do with it" he said laughing.
I Shook my head and pointed towards the TV. Tony's laughter quickly disappeared. He rapidly made his way to the elevator and was off before i could say a thing. I shrugged then gathered the remaining employee's and guest near the front desk.
"These glass doors arent going to withstand much we should reinforce them with something and we should do the same for the side ent-" before i could finish, Brittney informed us that the doors were hotel issued doors capable of withstanding nearly anything and walked over to the doors. She turned them off and walked outside, the doors slid shut behind her.
"I'll show you guys how strong they are" we gathered around and awaited to see the blonde in action.
She took off her heels then planted her feet on the ground then attempted to push the doors in. With the slightest push the doors nearly caved in and we busted out laughing. Brittney's face turned red from embarrassment then screamed at us to fix the doors and let her in. The engineer started working on the doors while we stood there laughing a bit still. Ryan's face was bright red from the laughter and Mr. Jackson had a tear on his cheek.
"Guys... guys... could you please hurry. There are some people standing in our parking lot" the usual squeak in her voice was gone.
"Almost done" replied the engineer still messing with the bent in doors.
Brittney scooted in closer to the doors trying to get out of the sight of the gang of strangers out in the parking lot.
"I think they saw me.." she whispered in the faintest of voices. "They're moving in closer, there's about 5 of them... and some more way behind them... please hurry" her expression showed a sense of dire fear.
The 4 of us inside were now trying to figure out how to get the damn sliding doors opened. We took our eyes off Brittney for what seemed less than a minute when suddenly a loud pitch scream pierces our ears.
"AAHHHHHH! MY HAIR!" were her last words. Some bloodied bastard grabbed a handful of her blonde hair then pulled on it yanking her head back and pounced on her slamming her body into the floor with his back facing us. Her screams of agony were blood curling. Out of the corner of my eye, i spotted the five figures she had spoken of. They were getting close to her and all appeared to be wounded somehow. Some had torn up shirts and others had blood dripping from their arms.
"Guys.. there's more of them now. They're right outside" i gestured to Mr. Jackson and ryan.
"Holy shit what the hell is wrong with them?" Mr. Jackson said in his raspy old voice.
They sluggishly surrounded Brittney and her attacker. He let out a loud growl then stood up and grabbed her arms. He began dragging her away from the new arrivals but they weren't going to give up without a fight. They grabbed Brittney's now bloodied body by the legs and began pulling towards them. Her head wobbled with every pull and on one of them her face ended up facing us. Her cheek was torn off and her eye was dangling outside its socket. The blood dripped down her face and neck leaving a small pool under her body. She was missing a chunk of her neck which just added to the blood pool. Her attacker was probably a regular at the nearby gym because he was built like a steamroller. His arms were the size of a damn log and his torso was nearly bigger than a middle school kid. Both zombies pulled away from each other with such a force that Brittney's torso and legs became separate. Her intestines plopped to the ground and gallons of blood just splashed on the ground floor. The muscular bastard fell back due to the force he was exerting while the others quickly pounced on the intestines and legs.
"Ryan tell the people inside to move away from the entrance. Tell them to get out of sight and hide in the main office. Try and block their view... I don't want any of them seeing this" i said trying to prevent myself from puking.
Ryan went back and informed the people inside of what we were going to do. One by one they went inside the main office. They asked no questions and followed orders to the point. The engineer fixed the doors which made a clicking sound once they adjusted. We all held our breath wondering if the attackers had heard the doors snap back in.
Thank god they didn't hear it i thought to myself. They had been busy devouring what was left of Brittney's legs and guts. They dug into her flesh, grabbed what they could then stuffed it in their mouths. Slowly we walked back to the front desk. Mr. Jackson was the closest to the wall and was walking backwards. He didnt see the damn hand sanitizer dispenser and crashed right into it causing both to fall to the ground.
"Shit! My hand!" said Mr. Jackson from the floor. He held his hand close to his body. I paid little attention to him as i was focused more on the zombies that were now staring at us from outside the entrance doors.
We could all see their red eyes. The five of them slowly stood up, the blood on their mouth dripped down their necks and their shirts were soaked with Brittney's blood. We all froze as the zombies were now aware that we were inside and the only thing that stood between us and they were some shitty glass doors. Soft thuds echoed through the lobby. They left blood stains as their hands touched the glass doors and it wasn't long before the doors began rattling.
"We cant let them get inside!" yelled the engineer as he ran to the doors and pushed on them. Ryan and i followed behind and backed him up on his efforts as Mr. Jackson slowly stood up and stayed behind.
We pushed on the doors with all our strength. "PUSH!". The thuds grew louder, the zombies were desperately trying to get inside. The doors rattled like crazy and the two middle ones were now off the tracks. Ryan pushed against those doors but the zombies were over powering him. There were now cracks in the defense and their arms were dangerously close to us.
"Think of the people inside! We cant give up!" sweat ran down my forehead, I was losing a bit of ground. I saw the others and it wasnt looking pretty. Thousands of thoughts ran through my head, maybe we chose wrong in staying here.. maybe we should of ran.. now thanks to me 15 innocent people were going to be eaten alive. "I'm sorry guys.. i cant believe i made you all stay here. It was stupid"
I thought we were done for. My mind was filled with the faces of the people i had disappointed in my life. My mom and her dreams of me going to college, My dad and his dreams of me giving him grandkids before his 40th birthday, My ex who kept telling me to grow up, My sisters who told me to follow my dreams of becoming a cop. The sad part i guess was that i could of actually done all of those things if i hadn't been so addicted to gaming. Day in and day out all i thought about was my kill to death ratio, or how to get more achievements on halo 4. Gaming was the reason my parents and my ex were pissed off at me and one of the main reasons i had moved out. I realized my mistake all too late and was now stuck working at the hotel where my mom pulled some strings to get me in. After a rather harsh reality check i toned down my gaming habits and things started looking brighter, i made some new friends like Ryan, Erin and Gwen. Also started hanging out with one of our younger housekeepers. Things were starting to get pretty serious.
I was snapped out of my mental breakdown thanks to 5 shots being fired followed by the sound of glass breaking. The pressure from the doors stopped and the zombies fell back with a thud. We all looked at each other then looked behind us. Behind the glass stood a figure, around 6 feet 5 inches tall. He wore a camouflage outfit and black combat boots. The gun he'd just fired was still in his hand. An all black Springfield XD .45 I saw his nametag "Phillips" it read. I realized it was our evening shift agent Tony. He seemed taller thanks to his boots.
"T-tony? Is that you man?" we all looked at each other puzzled.
"Yes. It's me. Now get as many cars as you can and drive them up to the front and back entrances. We have to get this place barricaded, we cant let those bastards get in."
"Thanks man, you just saved us." i wiped the sweat off my forehead. "We can use the heavy housekeeping carts to block the side entrances. I'll get the housekeepers to bring them down."
"Good thinking. Go ahead and bring the knives from the kitchen area to the main office, also bring down the mop sticks. We might need to makeshift some weapons."
"I'll get the fire axe, it might come in handy later" blurted out Ryan.
I went into the main office and grabbed 4 radios. I gave one to a housekeeper; one to Mr. Jackson, one to Ms. Reid, and the last to Tony. I then informed everyone about the barricade plan. I sent 3 housekeepers to get the housekeeping carts down. I told Ms. Reid to head into the kitchen area and bring all the knives she found. I showed Mr. Jackson the security cameras in the General Manager's office. I told him it was his duty to keep an eye out for all of us at the hotel.
"Ms. Reid, come in. If you'd be so kind as to bring me a small bag of ice for my wrist I'd really appreciate it" he said on the radio. "My wrist is killing me Marco, but I'll do my best to keep you guys safe."
I gave him a nod before heading out. Tony, Ryan and The engineer were already waiting for me outside. They had gathered 9 car keys. Tony clicked on the 4 keys that had an alarm. He gave us each a key and we ran as quick as we could to the cars. I drove my '05 ford expedition to the front entrance; I parked sideways past the broken glass doors the zombies were trying to get through earlier. The engineer followed behind and parked the hotel van inside as well. The van and the expedition took up most of the small entrance, not a single soul could make its way near the doors. Just to be safe Tony wedged an extra car into the main entrance. We used our breakfast chairs to block off any holes left in the car blockade.
"Sometimes I can't help but thank douche bags for being douche," I said laughing as Ryan drove an all black hummer with chrome rims into the back entrance. The first set of doors was made shit when the front bumper crashed into them.
"Perfect fit" said Ryan as we exchanged thumbs up.
"Now you just have to get out" a soft laugh from the engineer followed.
Ryan looked around and realized the he had no space for the side doors to open. He climbed to the back seat then over to the trunk area. He clicked the open button in the key's which prompted the trunk door to open.
"Get the chairs ready guys; I'm going to crawl under to get back inside"
Before Ryan could get to the ground, something grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back. He fell to the ground and the figure quickly jumped on him. Ryan struggled against the Zombie that was trying to mount him.
"He smells worse than the dumpster!" yelled Ryan from under the zombie.
"I can't get a good shot! The damn hummer is blocking the whole entrance!" said Tony his attempts to get a decent aim failed.
I ran to the main office and picked up one of the many knives that Ms. Reid had brought from the kitchen. My hand was at the door knob but before I could turn it I heard a few people ask questions.
"What's going on?"
"Where are you taking that?"
"Have you seen my daughter? She said she'd pick me up"
"I'm sorry guys, but they need me out there. I'll be back as soon as I can. Please don't worry okay? Just bear with us"
I turned the cold knob to open the door I didn't wait for it to close and jolted over to the hummer. "Ryan! Ryan! Get the knife!". Then knife slid through the hard floor tiles of the hotel. It stopped a few feet away from the struggle,