Chapter Two
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
I found myself getting increasingly annoyed at the sound. Attempting to block it out, I folded the pillow over my ear, but it somehow still broke through the physical barrier; attacking my ears.
"Mom…can you turn off the alarm…" I groaned, not wishing to get up. I tried to go back to sleep, but the beeping insisted I stay awake. "Mom…" there was no answer. Curiously, I sat up, giving up on trying to sleep through the noise. As I suspected, the noise was coming from the alarm clock across the room, but that wasn't what caught my attention. For one, my mom was nowhere in sight. For two, the room was filled with a hazy thin smoke, enough to make me cough. Straining to find the reason of the smoke, I only needed to sniff the air and smell burning wood for me to find out. The hotel was on fire!
Leaping out of bed, I quickly slipped on my boots, which I kicked off in the middle of the night and ran towards the door. Grasping the handle, I attempted to twist but it refused to move. "Dammit! Locked!" I looked desperately up at the door, trying to find a way to open it. What the hell kind of hotel has it locked on the outside to the point where you can't unlock it on the inside? Cursing to myself, I leaned against the door, thinking hysterically for ways to force the door open.
"Hello? Someone there?" I heard from the other side of the door.
"Yes! Can you help me please? I can't get the door open!" I pleaded. A few minutes passed as I heard grunts from what sounded like a young man trying to get it open.
"Ah, hell! I can't get it open! That's bullshit." I closed my eyes. This was hopeless, without the key I'm stuck in here. And with the building on fire, I'm going to burn in here. This is the worst road trip EVER. "Get away from the door, I'ma kick it in!"
Obeying, I backed away. Seconds later the wood made a loud SNAP as it split under the immense pressure of the man's foot. The man, who looked no older than twenty-three, entered the room. He had light brown shaggy hair, hidden under a blue and white hat with a picture of a tow truck on it. His shirt said bull going down then across it said Shifters, a tattoo could be seen in a strange design on his right arm, and he wore mechanic coveralls tied around his waist. Even through the thickening smoke I could see his eyes were crystal blue.
"You 'lright?" he asked. I'm only able to nod, stunned at how hot he was. Almost as if he could read my thoughts, he grinned at me before taking my hand. "C'mon, rumor has it an evac station's just on the roof!"
"O-okay" I mumbled, letting him lead me outside the room, and without letting go of my hand we climbed the staircase. It surprised me how many flights of stairs there was, and it didn't take long for us to start gasping for air. Behind us I could hear footsteps closing in. I don't know why but I felt the need to get away, and I pushed myself to go faster.
"Who the hell…puts an evac station…up thirty flights of goddamn stairs…" I heard from behind us, a deep rumbling voice but I didn't turn around to see who it came from. There was a slight laugh closer behind me.
"C'mon Coach, maybe the helicopter…maybe it's made of chocolate!" a less deep but gruff voice replied. No one answered him, but the man and I continued to climb the stairs hand in hand. We reached for the door leading to the roof and pushed it open, running out expecting to find some means of transportation to take us away from the burning building. What we found was nothing. Nothing was waiting for us, nothing was there. We walked forward to see a few helicopters flying away, ignoring us completely. The man in the mechanic garb walked away from me.
"Hey, where is everybody? Hellooooo? Anyone here?" he shouted, looking around. Finally I turn around to see the people who had followed us. A lady with soft dark skin wearing a pink dépêche mode shirt and jeans with black hair tightly knotted into a bun lifted her hand to head, watching the helicopters fly away.
"Ugh, this is not happening…this is not happening…this is not happening…" she muttered to herself. A big bald black man wearing a purple and yellow sports shirt and light brown pants walked in front of her, also watching the helicopters.
"Aren't they supposed to be saving our asses?" he exclaimed, glaring as they soon became too far away to hear anymore. Another man, who was bent over with his hands on his knees while gasping for air, had his brown hair slicked back and was wearing a white suit with a blue undershirt. He glanced over at the bigger man before looking up at the helicopters also.
"Looks like there's been a change of plans…" he said in a calm voice, but I could sense anger hidden behind the surface. With a little disgust I saw a hicky on the man's neck. Looking away, I spotted something strange.
"Come look at this…" I said, just loud enough for them to hear me, almost as if I spoke any louder something would come out and attack us. They all turned to where I was indicating, a table laid with four medkits, two axes, two crowbars, and a pistol.
"Oh how thoughtful…they left us supplies…" said the guy in the white suit sarcastically.
"I've been hearing about things…" the lady started to say, but then she saw me and the hat guy. "You know what? Never mind…but just…grab a weapon." The man who saved me from the room turned to me and grinned, picking up the axe.
"Picked this out just for you, beautiful." He said, handing it to me. I couldn't help but smile.
"Thanks!" I looked down at the potential weapon I held, and felt a grin spread across my face. "This thing is heavy and extremely dangerous!" he gave me the most adorable smile; I almost forgot we were probably at least seven years apart.
Once the other four picked out their weapons, the suit guy the pistol, the sports guy a crowbar, the lady the other crowbar, and the mechanic the last axe, we were ready to go. I took a deep breath to ready myself for what was ahead. I didn't like what the woman said about hearing things…could have the sickness reached this far? With a pang I remembered my mother, she never returned. Bitterly I wondered if she left me to save herself, but I might never know now, and now wasn't the time to think about it. When the others opened the door and headed back down the stairs I followed. Once we reached the door to one of the hallways we opened it expecting it to be empty.
We were wrong.
I gasped, and I wasn't alone.
"Jumping Jehosaphat! What are these things?" the sports guy asked aloud, staring in shock at the people looking mutated in the hallway, walking slowly.
"Is that a zombie? Like a, like a—ZOMBIE, zombie?" the mechanic asked, standing closely behind me. Thinking of these people as zombies felt wrong, but there just wasn't any other way to describe them.
"This is why we got weapons…" suit guy said in a low voice, roughly pushing past us to walk out into the hallway. He walked right up to one and put a pistol to its head while it was still sitting down and pushed the trigger. Immediately I felt injustice boil in my veins.
"What the hell are you doing?" I screamed, running out into the hallway and attempted to grab his pistol, but he easily moved it away.
"You see these people, baby cheeks? They aren't human anymore! If we don't kill them, they'll kill us! Do you understand now?" he shouted, forcing me to take a step back. I felt frozen to the spot, just staring at the dead person dumbly. They still looked human…but at the same time…they didn't…I gulped.
"Yes…" I whispered.
"Good!" and with that, he stormed away from me, throwing his arms in the air wildly. "Not only do I have to survive this, I'm gonna have to babysit too!" I felt tears sting in my eyes until I felt a rough but gentle hand nudge mine. I looked up to see the younger man, who grinned at me reassuringly. At the sight of his grin I couldn't help but grin back. The two behind us moved in front, and the man and I took up the rear as we walked down the hall. The guy in the front glanced quickly in each room before stopping at one near the end of the hall and walked inside. When we entered he found a magnum and picked it up, offering the pistol off to someone else wordlessly. The lady with the pink shirt placed the crowbar on the table and took the pistol from him, nodding her thanks.
When we turned around to leave the room however, a group of the zombies had started screaming and running inside towards us. With a little yelp I swung my axe, decapitating one but more came after it. I heard gun fire behind us and a "thump" as the bigger man used his crowbar to knock one into the wall. One of the zombies that came in was wearing a protective suit, and the face I saw through the glass will haunt me forever.
"Hazmat guys!" someone yelled behind me and a shot punctured the suit, sending it down with the last ones. Turning around I saw the white suit guy walk forward to the hazmat person, kicking it slightly to make sure it was dead. "Guess those suits don't stop bites." He walked away from it, and the others followed him out of the room. Lagging behind a bit, I looked at the small tag on the suit that read "CEDA". Curious, I ran to catch up with the others.
"What's the CEDA?" I questioned.
"Civil Emergency and Defense Agency." The girl with the pink shirt answered shortly. I said a silent "Oh" and continued behind them. We turned a corner and down the hall to where the elevators were and examined them.
"I don't think you're supposed to use an elevator when the buildin's on fire." The sports guy pointed out.
"Well it doesn't look like we're gonna be able to either way…this one ain't working…" I announced. The guy in the suit cursed slightly before leading us down another hall, his strides long and quick. There was a sudden explosion down the hall that surprised us all and the next thing we knew the guy up front was on the ground, one of the zombies wearing a hoodie on top of him and began to rip at his chest.
"GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!" he screamed, and the mechanic being the closest ran up and sliced it's head off.
"Are you okay?" I asked immediately as the younger man attempted to help him up, but he pushed him away and got up himself, brushing off his suit.
"Do I LOOK okay? That thing jumped me and started digging away at my guts!" he yelled. Feeling hurt, I didn't answer, but the lady glared at him.
"You actually look fine, now how about you keep walking and leave the kid alone?" she snapped. He glared back at her, but without argument he walked into the closest room.
"Thanks…" I whispered to her. She grinned.
"No problem, sweetie, now let's get moving." She said and we followed her into the room the suit went inside. The room looked like it was made for storage, a closet to the side with shelves lining the walls. The man was already at the window, a look of thought on his face. The sports guy moved to one of the shelves and picked up what looked like to be a small bottle of pain pills.
"Damn right, I'm gonna grab everything I can." He said before he pocketed them. The man in front finally turned to us.
"Out here, let's try the ledge!" he suggested, and without waiting for an alternative, he broke the window with his gun and walked casually outside. The lady and purple shirt guy walked out first gingerly, and I hesitated. The guy with the hat could sense my concern and gave me a smile.
"It's okay, I'll be right behind ya." He assured me, and I just couldn't deny him. My breath shook as I stepped over the window and out onto the ledge. Feeling the wall beside me, I instinctively looked down and did NOT like what I saw. I shut my eyes tightly before continuing, my left hand lightly tracing the walls and windows we past while my right gripped the axe in my hand tightly. It didn't take long though for the zombies to realize what we were doing. One of them jumped out the window right in front of me, hitting me. Screaming I tried to get away from it so I had room to hit it with the axe, but my foot missed solid ground and went off the edge, making me off balanced and I tipped over the edge. Luckily the bigger man whipped around and smacked the zombie so hard it fell off the ledge. Not so lucky for me however, was the fact that I was now hanging onto the ledge for dear life.
"HELP!" I shrieked, and the man who was right behind me knelt down.
"Up we go!" he said cheerfully, picking me up by underneath the arms and lifting me up back on my feet. The sports guy helped steady me.
"Thank you…" I breathed, still winded from my fall. He smiled.
"No problem!"
"C'mon, let's go." The girl said, and with that we continued along the ledge. One of the rooms we passed was on fire, but the other wasn't, so the suit guy kicked in the window and we walked inside. It was relatively empty except for beds and a dresser until we went to the door and opened it. Outside were more zombies, and another CEDA guy. We fought them easily, until I noticed something on the ground. I picked it up and found it was a container holding greenish liquid. The guy in the suit walked up to me to see what I was holding.
"Is that a bottle of puke?" He asked. Feeling immediately disgusted, I instantly dropped the bottle. Laughing at my reaction, he knelt on the ground and picked it up, and for reasons unknown he decided to pocket it. In my mind, I concluded that he was messed up in the head beyond all hope of repair. Further down the hall, ignoring the group of furniture and fire behind us was another flight of stairs. Without complaining or even talking, we ran down it. There was no door, only a doorway, and what ran out of it to greet us was no savior. A tall zombie with boil mutations on its right side and its face was hardly recognizable. But there had to be some sort of mouth, because a tongue whipped out like a rope and wrapped around the mechanic's waist and violently pulled him towards the monster. We were momentarily stunned.
"TOGNUE…SHOOT THE…TOGNUE!" he yelled out, and it was only then did I realize that the tongue had also grabbed hold of his throat, strangling him. The bigger man was the first to act and shot it right in the head, killing it instantly and we watched as it crumpled and fell to the ground. The man gasped for air, for the hold on his throat was tight before he thanked the larger man. Without a word we moved on, hoping we wouldn't have to face something like that again. We walked down the long hall into a large resting room, where a lot of zombies were chilling out. Or, at least, that's what it looked like to me.
"Let's try to sneak past 'em…" I whispered, and they nodded in agreement, walking slowly into the room to find the elevators. When I saw one, I noticed a disgusting gurgling sound and turned around, only too late to see a huge fat guy with boils barf all over the bigger man and the lady. Appalled they jumped back from the creature, and quick to the gun the one in the purple shirt shot it before it could get any closer. However, this didn't go unnoticed to the zombies. Ignoring me and the other two, they ran towards the ones recently puked on. The amount of zombies that surrounded us was frightening, but through the tight group I stepped on a strange object. Looking down I see it looked like a white pipe with a red button on it. I leaned down and pressed the button, and it started to beep. Gasping, I look around desperately, trying to find the others. I'm so stupid! I can't believe I just started a bomb! But it seemed to have grabbed the attention of all the zombies, who turned their focus away from the others to run towards the flashing light the red button was now making. Picking up my axe, I pushed some back and started to slash my way through.
"EVERYONE GET AWAY FROM THE ZOMBIES I STARTED A BOMB!" I yelled, finally escaping the zombie mess. Behind me appeared the other four, and we all quickly moved to the elevator, the sports guy now limping. We closed the door just in time to see the zombies near the bomb explode and fly across the room. We all took relieving gasps.
"Anyone get bit? I think that's how it works…" the guy in the suit asked, looking around at the rest of us.
"I don't think so…my friends call me Coach, I guess y'all can do the same." The man with the purple shirt introduced himself.
"Hey, name's Rochelle, you?" the lady asked, turning to the mechanic.
"Ellis, it's a pleasure to meet you Rochelle. What about you, beautiful?"
"Jeanette Kaija, but y'all can call me Jean if ya want…" I answered, leaning against the elevator wall.
"Name's Nick, but don't bother learning it 'cause I ain't sticking around long." The guy with the suit announced.
"Well let's stick together for a little longer, Nick." Coach suggested, and Nick nodded.
"There's a gun shop that ain't too far from here…we can head there after we get outta the buildin'." Ellis suggested.
"Sounds like a plan…let's do it!" Rochelle agreed, starting the elevator. I took a deep breath and looked around at the four people around the room, axe hanging loosely at my side. For some reason, I felt like we were going to be together for a long time…