Destroyed and Condemned

Rated: R

Chapter I: Infection

Author's note: Okay lets see if this one actually gets published. I'm going to keep trying until I get one suitable for publishing. Yeah it's the same old stuff but really, I'm trying here. It will be a Huddy, just so all of you know ;-)

They had taken a trip to Cleveland to see the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Cuddy didn't know how House had convinced her to go with him but he had. She needed a vacation anyway and she thought that she could stand Cleveland just enough to go there. He paid for the plane tickets anyway and seemed really psyched about going. Of course, being House and wanting to save money, he had gotten them the red eye flight into the state. It was nearly midnight when they checked into the Renaissance hotel in downtown Cleveland, and Cuddy was exhausted. She was sitting in the lobby, guarding the bags, while House got their room keys. She just wanted to get some sleep, and she didn't care at that point if it was in the same bed with House or not. They were two adults, they could keep things platonic. Just as she was starting to doze off for a second time, she saw House quickly approaching.

"They fucked up our reservations." House said, sounding annoyed at the situation. He was holding a piece of paper in his hand that looked like it had previously been folded. She wondered what it was, maybe the confirmation note for the rooms.

"Seriously? For crying out loud." Cuddy replied, feeling herself get indignant. This was a nice hotel, expensive. Surely they hadn't screwed up too badly. She wanted to get up and storm to the front desk. At that point she would have passed out on one of the couches in the lobby and worried about it in the morning, but that probably wasn't going to happen. From behind House a plump, blond woman approached them. She was wearing a navy blue pants suit and had her hair clipped back. On her lapel there was a gold tag, but Cuddy couldn't read the name on it from there.

"Sir, we've fixed the problem and are sorry for the inconvenience." The woman said, reaching out to put her hand gently on House's shoulder.

"Really? How have you fixed it?" House countered.

"We are giving you a luxury suite on the top floor." The woman said. Cuddy could now read her name tag, her name was Mariann. She assumed that the woman was the night manager, or at least a supervisor. She barely even registered that they were about to get a luxury suite.

"And how much am I paying for this upgrade?" House inquired.

"Nothing, we will charge you as much as we would for the two single rooms. We are very sorry for the mix up." Mariann said and held out two key cards. Cuddy's eyes went wide and she looked at House. At that point she would have been happy for a cot in a broom closet, but low and behold they were getting a suite. "Top floor, suite 21B."

"Thank you." House said and took the keys, "Lets go get me some honeymoon action." Cuddy glared at him for saying that but she didn't correct him. First of all, they had booked two rooms originally so it was probably apparent that they weren't together. Secondly, she didn't care, they were going to be in a luxury suite, House could make all the sex jokes he wanted. She grabbed one of the keys from him, pulled the handle up on her suitcase, and started to head towards the elevators. She hoped the suite had two beds.

The room, or rather, rooms they were staying in did have two beds, in two separate areas. Cuddy took the room on the far side of the suite and House took the one closest to the main door. The place was absolutely gorgeous, floor to ceiling windows, a sitting room, a flat screen TV in each bedroom, it was immaculate. Once she was in her room she shut the door and kicked her shoes off. She nearly jumped into bed and rested her head on one of the pillows. It was so comfortable in there and she knew that a few days stay was not going to be enough to satiate her. Without even getting undressed she closed her eyes and she was out, and very unaware of the horror that would overtake her life in the morning.

At around ten in the morning, according to her watch, there was a loud BANG out in the hall and then some incomprehensible shouting. Silence followed. She closed her eyes again to go back to sleep but there was another loud BANG and then a female voice screamed, "COME GET SOME MOTHER FUCKER!" She heard that clear enough. Apparently there was someone outside shooting a gun. This frightened her into action and she raced out into the sitting room, House was not there.

"House wake up!" She cried and then raced over to the door, locking it every which way she could. How House had not been awoken by all this she didn't know. "HOUSE!" She looked towards his bedroom and then carefully put an eye to the peephole in the door. Outside she saw two very attractive brunettes with their backs to each other, each of them were holding a shot gun. Cuddy wondered if the hotel was now under siege. Why would two women, firing shot guns, be in a five star hotel?

"Couldn't wait for some morning nookie?" House asked, coming into the sitting room, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"How did that shot gun blast in the hall not wake you up?" Cuddy asked, terror stricken.

"There was a what in the what now?" House asked as he went to open the bottle of vicodin that was in the hand not occupied with his cane. He wasn't quite dressed, just boxers and a white t-shirt, and Cuddy was surprised he was even wearing that.

"LOOK!" She shouted in a harsh whisper and pointed at the peephole. House rolled his eyes and came over to the door. He gave Cuddy a look like she had just gone insane, and then bent down to look through the peephole.

"What the..." House's train of thought seemed to trail off and he started to unlock the door.

"THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!" Cuddy screamed and grabbed his arm, "Don't unlock the door! They're out there!" As hard as she was trying, she was unable to pull House away or stop him from undoing the locks. The door swung open and the two young women both turned in their direction, aiming the guns right at their heads.

"Whoa that's enough of that." House said bravely and put his hand to the barrel of the gun of the shorter brunette, "What's going on out there."

"They're cool." The shorter one said turning to the taller one. She then looked back at House and Cuddy, "Have either of you been bit?"

"Bit by what?" Cuddy asked

"Yeah they're definitely cool." The taller woman said, "You gonna let us in? Or are we all going to be food for the zombies?"

"Wow, I really gotta lay off the vicodin this early in the morning." House said, backing up to let the two newcomers in. Once they had entered, the shorter woman took the initiative to slam the door shut and lock all the locks on it. "Unless you two are just having a bad trip." House added and tried to look into their eyes.

"I haven't done drugs a day in my life pops." The tall one said and then came over to the floor to ceiling windows, which had the curtains pulled. "If you don't believe me, take a look outside." She pulled the cord to open the drapes. Sunlight spilled in and Cuddy had to blink a few times, waiting for her eyes to adjust. She stepped over to the windows and looked out over downtown Cleveland. What she saw chilled her down to the bone.

The world had officially gone to hell in a hand basket. Cars were on fire, public square was on fire, statues were knocked over, cars were crashed into each other, and dead bodies were strewn about. The movement down there came from one of two things, people being chased, or the ones that were doing the chasing. Cuddy swallowed a gag, one of fear and anguish, and she sunk down to her knees. She never thought in a million years that something like this could happen, but here it was, happening. They were so far up she couldn't really tell that there were zombies, but she took the women's word for it. There was enough chaos outside for her to buy that the undead were behind it. "Oh my God."

"So what's your names?" House asked, like this was some sort of every day normal occurrence.

"Christine." The tall brunette said. Cuddy turned to look so she could put a face to the name.

"Amy." The other brunette said. They both held out a free hand for House to shake. He took each one in turn and then looked over to Cuddy.

"That's Lisa, I'm House." He said, "Now please tell me, why do you randomly have shot guns and end up here of all places?" Cuddy didn't like how calm he sounded. He hadn't more than glanced at the outside world, but he was being level headed. In some small way she needed him to be.

"We were in town for a gun show. Have all sorts of guns in our room downstairs." Amy said, she carefully set her shot gun down.

"We were sort of cornered into an elevator and decided that going down wasn't an option. If there were zombies on our floor there would be even more in the lobby. We came up here and only had to shoot two maids." Christine said. House nodded and went over to the mini-bar in the far corner. He opened the little fridge and got out two small bottles of vodka.

"Cuddy! Think fast!" He said and tossed one of the bottles in her direction. She caught it, and without a second thought she opened it and downed most of it in one go. Maybe getting toasted wasn't such a good idea in this situation but she needed something to calm her nerves and she was betting that House wouldn't be forking over any of his pills. "So what's the plan?"

"I haven't gotten that far in my thinking." Christine said, "We were just looking for somewhere safe." House tossed her a bottle of what looked like schnapps but Cuddy couldn't tell from where she was, still on the floor in almost a fetal position.

"It's probably best to stay here until everyone filters out of the hotel and mall. After a few days we should be clear." Amy suggested. Christine opened the bottle she was now holding and took two gulps before handing it over to her partner who drank the rest of it. Cuddy thought that plan sounded like a good idea. They had enough food in the mini-bar to tide them over for two days and by that time, most of the people would be out and about.

"You okay with that Cuds?" House asked. He popped a vicodin in his mouth and downed it with a few gulps of vodka. Cuddy bit her bottom lip and nodded. Was it fate that had brought all of them together? If Amy and Christine hadn't been out there, shooting everything to kingdom come, then they might have succumbed to the zombies out there. Lord knew that they didn't have any guns and had no way of protecting themselves, other than House's cane...if it came to that. "Good. Now lets see what's on the news."