Hello everyone! I just wanted to thank you for the wonderful reviews from the last chapter! I really do appreciate the comments, and I hope to continue to keep you all entertained :) As always, I hope you enjoy the chapter and feel free to leave a comment on yours thoughts about the chapter, and I'll continue to post more chapters as I continue writing. Enjoy!
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Ash ran down the hallway that was leading to the main lobby, his rifle bouncing off of his shoulder with each step. As he continued to run he was continuing to think about what had come over Misty. It didn't make sense to him in his mind. One night she was basically shivering in Ash's arm, stuck in the sense of a plaguing reality, and then the next day, out of no where, she was proclaiming about how they shouldn't be held up in the room and how they should be fighting to protect other civilians.. What on Earth snapped that caused her to change this drastically? It didn't honestly bother Ash that much, for it reminded him of the Misty that he truly knew: the tomboy girl with a fire-filled passion that couldn't be extinguished. In fact, more than anything, it actually made him feel more confident in their chances of survival with her fighting on her own accord now. He had only found the sudden transition so unexpected...
As he made his way down the hallway Ash actually heard a couple of gunshots from the main entrance. From the sound of it he could tell that there multiple people fighting off the infected. Ash swung his rifle from his shoulder into a holding position, making sure that the safety was turned off. Still running, he grabbed a clip from his jacket pocket and loaded it into his rifle. Ash approached the top of the stairs overlooking the main lobby and surveyed the scene.
Below him, in the main lobby, stood about four other survivors, firing their weapons through the main entrance, where the infected were storming through, bit by bit. One of the survivors was Misty, who had this steeled-focused look upon her face, firing her Desert Eagle somewhat accurately at the infected. The others were unfamiliar to Ash. There was a guy who looked like a hotel worker, as he had his red and purple coat-and-pants uniform with white gloves, firing a Five-Seven pistol. The other two members looked to be of the same group, as they both wore a silver and navy blue headband around their upper arm. The first one was a very muscular guy, with short brown hair and wearing a black leather jacket with matching jeans, holding a MK46 light machine gun in his hands. His friend was a tall girl who had long maroon hair, wearing an opened, matching maroon, long jacket with various silver designs all over, and duel-wielding two uzis. From what Ash could see, they were doing a really good job with keeping the infected out of the hotel, as none of the infected had not passed the front desks.
Ash made his way down the staircase and stood next Misty, whipping up his rifle so that he could look down the sights of the rifle. "Hey Misty, I've come to help you out!" he spoke, continuing to look forward, with a grin on his face. Misty glanced over for a second, catching how heroic Ash had looked at the moment: spirits, energy, and head held high. She smiled and focused back at the door.
"Thank you, Ash, it is very much appreciated!"
"Hey! Who's this guy?" the man with the light machine gun spoke, still looking at the door and firing at the infected running inside.
"This is my closest friend Ash" Misty spoke, firing three shots at an infected member, who slammed to the floor from the powerful bullets ripping through its torso.
"Nice to meet you Ash! I'm Lawrence and this is Isabella" he spoke, nodding his head to the girl with the long maroon jacket. She continued looking at the infected and blasting a couple of bursts towards the horde, not really noticing Ash's presence. Ash was a bit taken back by the fact that she didn't at least acknowledge him. Lawrence noticed his expression. "Don't take it too hard, Isabella is a bit of a hard-ass under pressure and especially when focused, but honestly she's a very nice person" he told Ash.
"Damn right I'm a hard-ass under pressure!" Isabella replied, firing off a few more rounds at another group that was running towards them. Ash shook off Isabella's presence and focused back at the main entrance, firing a few burst-fires at the group of infected.
Together all five of them were fighting quite well against the infected and were able to hold their ground. Both Ash and Misty thought that they could all be able to fight them off successfully, but however just as they started to think it was over more and more infected showed up at the door. It had seemed like it was just an endless wave of infected; the numbers were not even comparing to how many estimated.
"Damn it all! They are still coming!" Isabella yelled out in frustration.
"I never realized this many infected were headed to the city! It almost feels as if every infected we kill, there appears two more" Misty spoke.
"Yeah, and not only that but we're starting to run out of ammo" Lawrence replied, looking at the ammo box that laid beside him. "We're not going to be able to hold this spot for very long. We're going to have to move out!"
"And where in the hell are we suppose to go? Going outside is just simply stupid and we'll be trapped if we continue to hold our position!" Isabella yelled in reply, keeping her focus on the doors and the infected that would run through. Ash and Misty turned to face each other, thinking about their room. Even though it's just a stronghold, in they couldn't really fight too well in, it was better than nothing. Misty nodded her head in agreement. Ash turned his head to face Lawrence.
"We've got a room on the second floor that's acting like a stronghold. I know it's not much but I guess it's something" Ash spoke.
"Hmm, well it's not really our type to go and hide from the infected, since we are from the C.D.F. after all. But I guess we really don't have much choice at the moment" Lawrence replied, looking back at Ash.
"Wait, what's the C.D.F.?" Misty asked.
"It'll have to wait, we need to move!" Isabella shouted in reply, nodding towards the door. Another horde of the infected was running towards the entrance, and considering that they were in need to conserve ammo they really couldn't keep holding out. "We need to move! Now!"
"Follow us! The room is just upstairs!" Misty replied, as she and Ash started running up the stairs. The hotel clerk and Isabella followed them up the stairs, while Lawrence was providing covering fire, ripping through a few of the infected before making a dash up the stairs. The group then ran down the hallway, as Ash flipped out his cellphone, quick-dialing Brock. After a few beeps the phone connected.
"Hello?"
"Brock! It's Ash! Listen, we're headed to the room with a few survivors! I don't have time to explain but we have a horde that going to be in the lobby very soon! I need you to get ready to let us in and lock down our defenses!"
"Okey-dokey! Can do!" Brock replied, disconnecting the call. Ash placed the phone back in his jacket pocket and continued running down the hall.
"Once we get inside, we'll lock down our room, nice and secure! We're almost there!"
"You sure you guys will be able to be secure against these infected!?" Isabella shouted back.
"Pretty sure! We thought this through before they invaded the city!"
"Hurry up! The infected are catching up!" Lawrence shouted from the rear. He turned around and blasted a few rounds at the running infected, watching the bullets rip through their torsos and seeing them stumble onto the hallway floor. These burst shots were providing to being very effective against the infected, as they seemed to fall after about four or five shots to the chest. But those who were shot down didn't slow the rest of them, as they simply jumped over the fallen infected, continuing to storm towards the group. "Shit! Well then, take this!" Lawrence shouted, pulling what looked like a strange looking container from one of his thigh pockets. He pulled a string from the container and rolled it towards the infected, as they continued to storm down the hall.
"Hey! Come on!" Isabella shouted at him. As she shouted this, the container started to spray what looked to be a dark purple gas, which left a smokescreen in front of the infected, temporarily stopping their progress. Lawrence smiled at this small success and turned around, starting to run down the hall to join the rest of the group.
They arrived at the door, to which they found was wide open. Ash stood outside the door, as Misty, the doorman, Isabella, and then Lawrence entered the room. He made sure that the infected had not seem them enter the room, to which he noticed that the smokescreen was starting to fade. Quickly, he got inside and closed the door, securing each of the locks established on the door. Ash stepped away from the door, as he started to hear the yelling by the infected, as they stormed down the hallway. Brock entered into the main room where everyone was at.
"Who are these people?" he spoke, to which basically everyone 'shushed' him, leaving Brock to just simply shrug his shoulders, back away, and head back to his post. Meanwhile the yells were becoming louder and they were starting to tear up the hallways, as if it was a bloody riot going on.
Everyone in the room remained dead quiet, trying not to alert any of the infected towards their location. Even though they only had basic instincts, that still doesn't mean that they are completely stupid. They will react to any noise that they hear, usually resulting to the horde moving towards that source. The silence of the moment filled the entire room enough that one could be able to hear a pin drop on the floor. No one made a single ounce of movement..
Ash looked over at Misty, who looked like she was trying to catch her breath, but trying not to breathe too loud. She looked over at him and Ash could tell from her facial expression that she was frightened about them being discovered. Ash replied with a smile that said 'we'll be okay, trust me', making Misty feel a bit better, but she looked back at the door as the screams got louder and louder, the infected getting closer to where they were at. Ash got up slowly and walked to the door, his rifle at the ready in case any of the infected started banging up against the door. He took a glance through the peep-hole. The infected were clearly outside the room, yelling and making commotion, but they weren't making any motion that they had found the group. "Good, the smokescreen worked!" Ash thought to himself, "But we need to get them away from the door.. but how?"
Right as Ash thought of this, a massive explosion from outside rocked the room, catching everyone off by surprise. Ash walked over to the window to take a peek outside at the source of the explosion. The sight of what he saw caught him in absolute awe.