Chapter Sixteen.

The years had not been kind to the hotel. Claire hadn't bothered trying to read the faded sign out in front, not wanting to remain outside in the daylight for too long. After being chased out of the town by the bizarre red zombies they had spent the night cramped in the Hummer down the highway a few miles. Wanting more gas, they had come back.

The wallpaper in the hallway was cracked and faded with mold forming in the corners where the ceiling met the wall. Claire walked with her gun pointed forward, ready to fire. Behind her was Heinkel, both of her pistols drawn and ready as well.

"What are we hoping to find in here?" Heinkel said. "This is a hotel. No one was staying here."

"Maybe," Claire said, stopping in front of room 201. All the doors in the hotel were locked the old fashioned way. Claire had taken a master key from the office on the ground floor. "All we need is to find one person's stash that they left and we're set for a week or more. Don't forget the complimentary coffee and mints."

Heinkel stuck her tongue out, disgusted. "Old coffee and mints. Delicious."

"Got my back," Claire said, keying the lock and pushing the door open with her foot. The room looked clean but smelled musty. The bathroom was directly on the left opposite the small closet which Claire kept a careful eye on as she walked in.

The beds were both made, the pastoral wallpaper intact, and the blinds were shut, making the room dark. Claire opened the curtain letting the sun it through the man-sized window. She could see across the street to the gas station where Yumiko, Carlos, and Alice were siphoning gasoline into containers they had found and would lash to the Hummer's roof.

"What do you make of that woman?" Claire said.

Heinkel was filling a sack with the coffee and tea packets resting on a stand next to a coffee machine. "Years ago I would say we shoot her," Heinkel said. "Now, who cares? Umbrella screwed her just like everybody else. Maybe they did her a favor, giving her powers or whatever."

Alice was strong and had the reflexes of a cat. She didn't show it off, which Claire supposed was why she was so accepting of it. She had known other not-quite-humans who seemed to take every opportunity to display their inhumanity. Alice's abilities had certainly helped her survive by herself and Claire was only glad that Alice seemed willing to help them in exchange for a little company.

"The only thing I'm worried about," Heinkel said, "was her little 'episode' the other night."

Claire nodded, nearly having forgotten. Alice had woken up in the middle of the night with a shriek thereby waking everyone else in the cramped space up as well. She was holding the sides of her head and sweating, muttering something under her breath. Yumiko had managed to calm her down and Alice had said it was a bad dream.

"You don't have nightmares?" Claire asked.

"Who, me?" Heinkel said, bringing her pistol up to her chest and smiling. "Claire…you know me."

She did. Heinkel had been raised in an orphanage run by the Vatican. From the day her tiny hands were able to wrap around a pistol grip, and perhaps a little before that even, she had trained to be an assassin. Sometimes Claire thought she had walked into a Dan Brown novel, but considering her new lifestyle, she wasn't going to complain about where her friends learned their skills. "Well, some of us have nightmares," Claire said. "Even now. We don't know what she's seen or what she's been through."

"Which is the problem," Heinkel said. "Maybe she flipped out and killed her former companions. Umbrella experimented on her. God only knows what the side-effects were." Heinkel made her way back towards the door. "Come on, let's get this over with. I really don't care if she's dangerous. It'll all be the same at the end."

"Ray of sunshine," Claire said, taking one last look at Alice and Carlos as they switched containers. Yumiko was diligently putting the containers onto the Hummer's roof, rigging it so they could drive off at a moment's notice.

Out of the corner of her eye, Claire saw something move at the end of the street behind the gas station. Squinting, she thought it might be a tumbleweed but soon thought different. Lopping down the sidewalk like an ape was another red zombie. It was throwing its head up in the air as it ran, howling. Claire could hear the sound faint through the glass.

Carlos and the others could certainly hear it. Carlos hauled the pump up and Yumiko secured the top containers. Alice bolted for the hotel entrance, coming up to warn her and Heinkel. "We've got trouble," Claire said.

"Zombie?" Heinkel came to the window and looked out. "Ah. Little bastard. We should…" Her thought was cut short by the sight of two more coming down the street behind the other. From out of a nearby alley came three, two of which were going on all fours while the other moved like a sprinter. Most were naked but some wore tattered clothes.

The Hummer pulled out of the gas station and came across the road into the hotel parking lot. More red zombies were coming out of hiding, some from inside houses, other from inside parked and smashed cars. "What the…where?" Claire said.

"They must've moved in during the night," Heinkel said. "Who cares? Let's get out of here."

They ran out into the hall and down the stairs where they met Alice in the lobby. "Let's go. We've got reds," Alice said.

"We know," Claire said, looking past Alice to the glass front door. Instead of seeing the Hummer pull up with Carlos and Yumiko she saw three red forms rush the door. Instead of slamming into it and pounding on the glass, the one in front gripped the door handle and pulled it open.

It had been a while since Claire felt herself flood with fear. "Up the stairs, now!" Claire shouted, running back up. Heinkel fired a shot but then swore and ran up behind Alice. Room 201 seemed as good as any, so Claire darted into it, turning when she got to the bed. Alice shut it behind her and crouched, holding one of her curved blades up over her lips to signal for silence.

They heard footsteps in the hall which soon became a clamor of sound. Inarticulate sounds of hunger and rage filled the hall outside coming from many diseased and mutated throats, forced past gnashing, lipless mouths. Doors and walls were bumped indiscriminately, including theirs.

Quietly, Claire went to the window and tried to find the Hummer outside. It was parked in the middle of the road, surrounded by over two dozen of the red zombies. They were tugging on the door handles and slapping the windows. Slowly, the Hummer crawled forward and picked up speed, throwing them off before they managed to break something or knock the gasoline containers off the roof. Claire had been thinking they might fight, considering who her companions were, but the population and viciousness of the red zombies made her think hiding was better.

Heinkel and Alice seemed to agree as neither made a sound, even to ask Claire what was going on outside. Claire's mind was buzzing with the shock of having so many come seemingly out of nowhere, but took deep breaths and calmed herself. There was no plan for such an event, but she tried to think of what Carlos might do in such a situation.

He would come back, that was for certain. As long as his bravado didn't get the better of him and so long as Yumie didn't wake up, the two would wait and come back when things had calmed down.

She motioned for Alice and Heinkel to come closer. With their heads together Claire began to whisper. "Carlos drove off. He'll be back. There's too many out there to try anything right now. He'll be back, hopefully once things are a little quieter. We should wait."

The other two women were nodding. "We should find something to put in the window so he knows we're here," Alice said. "We can break the window and go down if he parks under it."

Claire nodded, exactly what she had been thinking. She only hoped Carlos was thinking the same way they all were and would deduce their plan.

To be continued…