This particular room was right across from another stairwell door. I guess the proximity was probably the reason they’d selected it. Anyway, after they had the room open, they stepped aside to allow one of the group to enter.
“You’re welcome!” one of the battering-ram guys called bitterly after the dude as he disappeared inside.
The group then moved down one door and began readying to break that one in as well. I didn’t stick around to watch.
The fact that a fraction of the group downstairs had already made their way up to the eighth floor greatly concerns me. Are they going to keep moving higher inside the hotel? What are their plans? What will they do if they find us? I noticed that several of the people on the eighth floor were heavily armed. They carried not just handguns but what looked like semi-automatic or even automatic weapons. Where would they have gotten automatic weapons? I suppose they could have taken them from police units or even dead National Guard troops. If that’s the case, were these guys the ones that killed them or did they just pick the weapons up from already dead bodies? By the looks of these guys, I wouldn’t put killing law enforcement units past them.
Not good, definitely not good.
September 21st
7:53 a.m.
Benjamin and Emma are gone! We can’t find them anywhere on the 15th floor. Manny and Sandra are flipping out. I don’t blame them.
I can’t believe it! Where would they have gone? We told them to hunker down and stay quiet.
I’m gathering my gun and the pack I had set aside for last night, and then Manny and I are going to search for them. I keep hoping that the kids will return any second, but to this point, we haven’t seen hide nor hair of them.
There’s a knock at my door. Either the kids are back or Manny is ready to go.
8:13 a.m.
That was Manny. Emma is back. She said that she and Benjamin got tired of staying in their rooms. Their particular rooms are adjoining, so they could socialize whenever they wanted. Well, I guess they got it into their stupid little brains that it would be a good idea to go adventuring around the hotel. Why they couldn’t have done this BEFORE the group downstairs arrived, I have no idea.
This really pisses me off. I invite the Salatros into my domain, and now they’re fucking everything up.
No, that’s not right. I’m just venting. It’s not their fault. They’re just kids. And now one of those kids needs my help.
Manny is taking a few minutes to calm Emma down next door. She said that she and her brother had gone downstairs early this morning just to catch a glimpse of the group who had set up shop in the lobby.
And they did just that. They made it down to the lobby, saw a bunch of crashed-out crazies sprawled sleeping all over the place, and were prepared to head back upstairs. But that’s when Benjamin saw two girls coming out of the lounge. Emma said the girls looked to be older, college age maybe. Of course the sight of the two women instantly piqued Benjamin’s interest. He told his sister that he wanted to try to talk to them. She advised against it, but she was in no position to try to stop her older brother. Still, she told him that she thought it was a bad idea and decided to stay behind.
Benjamin didn’t care. In fact, he told her he was glad. He didn’t want his little sister getting in the way of his trying to make a first impression on the older women. Therefore, Emma stayed behind, unseen and watching from afar as her brother attempted to “work his magic”.
At first, according to Emma, things appeared to go well for Benjamin. The girls seemed not only friendly but receptive to his advances. In fact, much to Emma’s surprise as well as chagrin, she watched as the girls slowly led Benjamin away with them, keeping up a friendly banter all the while.
Emma followed behind, careful to stay quietly out of sight. The two girls led Benjamin downstairs to the lobby. Emma broke off her pursuit at this point, smartly deciding to observe the action from afar. She watched from the shelter of a nearby stairwell as the two girls introduced Benjamin to several of the group who had settled in the lobby. They seemed welcoming at first, shaking hands with Benjamin and slapping him on the back good-naturedly. But things didn’t stay cordial for long. Emma could tell that the course of the conversation was changing by Benjamin’s body language. Even though she couldn’t hear what was being said, she knew that Benjamin was uncomfortable by the way he was standing and reacting to the growing group of people slowly forming up around him.
As soon as they had reached the lobby and made introductions to others, the two girls that Benjamin had initially followed, faded into the background. It appeared that several large and rather intimidating men had taken up the conversation at that point.
Sounds like Manny is back. Got to go see what the plan is. What a way to start the day!
11:49 a.m.
I’m back upstairs for a quick bite to eat, a bathroom break, and to check on Sandra and Emma. Manny refuses to leave his station overlooking the lobby. I can’t blame him.
They tied Benjamin up in a chair in one corner of the lobby. We have no idea what their intentions for him are, but I can’t imagine they are anything good. So far, they’ve dumped sodas and beers on him, spit on him, slapped him, and one asshole even pissed on him. These people are some sick shits. I mean, who does that to a kid? Nobody I want to know, that’s for sure.
The question now becomes, how the hell do we get Benjamin out of there? I mean, I counted 18 people down in that lobby. Sure, they come and go, but for the majority of the time that Manny and I were down there, there were at least a dozen of them at any given moment.
I can’t imagine what this must be like for Manny and Sandra. God only knows what must be going through their minds right now. There has to be some level of relief that Emma is safe. But there must be gut-wrenching terror at what fate might await Benjamin.
Is Benjamin just a play thing to these people? Is he something to be toyed with and tortured at their sick whims? Maybe more importantly, what are they asking him? Are they asking him where he came from? If he has supplies? Where those supplies are? If someone is guarding those supplies?
And if he answers them, he could be endangering ALL of us.
I told Sandra and Emma to pack up as much stuff as we can carry and to be ready to move at a moment’s notice.
I have no idea what’s to come. I know that Manny wants to get Benjamin out of there. Hell, we all do. But then there is reality. We’re two guys with a gun that we hardly know how to use. We have very little ammunition. The people in the lobby are all heavily armed and they look extremely proficient with the type of weapons they carry. I guess our next move is to come up with some sort of plan. I don’t know what that plan might be, considering the situation; but I think the sooner we can relocate, the better. If Benjamin spills the beans on OUR current location, it doesn’t matter what we come up with to get him out of HIS current location.
2:01 p.m.
I’ve taken over for Manny on Benjamin watch duty. The boy is still tied up in the lobby.
Manny is helping Sandra and Emma move stuff down to the fourth-floor ventilation hallway closet. We briefly debated moving all the way down to the hotel’s basement, but we decided against it. Not only will moving as much of our supplies down to the fourth floor save us moving the stuff down an extra five floors, but it keeps us from having to pass the lobby level on our way down.
With the lights they have running from the generator they’ve positioned in the lobby, I have just enough light to see by to write.
Poor Benjamin. I really feel for him. I mean, I know he got himself into this mess, but he’s only fifteen. He must be terrified. Part of me wants to just charge down, weapon drawn, and threaten to shoot anyone who interferes with my rescue. But I have a bad feeling that would backfire big time. They’d probably just shoot me before I had a chance to do anything and then piss on my dead body.
I hope that the others are getting things squared away upstairs. If they are seen, it could all be for nothing, though.
I expressed to them just how critical it was for them to be safe. It’s tough. We want to get things moved quickly, but at the same time, we have to do so quietly and largely in the dark since we don’t know where these people will be scattered around the hotel. I gave Manny the gun and told him to stick close to his family.
I wish these people would just move on. I don’t know why they had to pick our hotel. They really stink – both figuratively and literally. Their stench is wafting up to the second floor. I don’t know how these people can live in such complete filth. It disgusts me. I mean, I know it’s hard to keep up general personal hygiene considering the circumstances, but it’s like they’re TRYING to be filthy…like they’re actually WORKING at it.
Last night they had a big bonfire out on the street. At first I thought they were just partying it up. Then, as the smell reached the upper floors, I knew what they were doing…burning bodies.
Wait…something’s going on downstairs. It sounds like they’re arguing.
2:42 p.m.
Jesus! I just saw someone get shot – “assassinated” is more like it I guess. Poor Benjamin saw it too. This world sucks! I want our old world back. I think we need to get out of this hotel. It’s starting to turn into crazy land. I don’t know how things are in other areas, but I can’t imagine they’re much worse than what’s going on here.
Now back to the shooting. As I said, the losers in the lobby started to argue. I couldn’t tell what it was about. There were five or six that began to congregate around this one guy. They started raising their voices, shouting at the dude, and then they started to shove him roughly. The dude seemed to be trying to defend himself, at least verbally. But I couldn’t make out exactly what was being said.
It was like watching one of those nature shows where a herd of animals is interacting and then it starts to fight amongst itself. The animals know what’s going on, but without the voice-over narrator, the viewer has no earthly idea why the members of the group are fighting or over what. Well, in this situation, I’m the viewer, and I have no narrator to clue me in on the focus of their frustrations. All I know is that whatever it was, it resulted in the death of at least one member.
Then the larger group confronted two others. They hauled the two people out of the lobby in the direction of the street. About a minute later, there were several gunshots, so I’m assuming that the two who were dragged outside met a similar end to their counterpart now lying on the lobby floor in a pool of blood – half his head blown off.
Now they’re hauling him outside as well.
What a lovely bunch these people are.
Benjamin is crying. From this distance, his weeping is not audible, but I can tell by his face and when his shoulders shudder every so often.
I hope for his sake he can pull it together. These people don’t seem like the type who would pity a weeping person – just the opposite in fact. They’d see it as a weakness, an opening that only invites further negative attention. I’m not sure Benjamin knows that, though. And even if he does, I’m not sure he could control himself regardless. It’s not every day that you see people being shot in front of you or being hauled outside to be put to death.
I wonder if…
3:29 p.m.
I had to break off from my writing for a minute. Manny is back. I guess he heard the gunfire out on the street from upstairs and was worried it might have something to do with Benjamin. I assured him that it didn’t, but I think we’re both concerned that it MIGHT have something to do with him soon if we don’t do something to get Benjamin out of the lobby.
I have a plan. I’m not sure it will work, but we have to try something. I’m going to run it past Manny, and if he’s good with it, maybe we’ll give it a shot. It will have to involve Sandra if it has any chance of succeeding. And I think that if we wait until night time (IF we can wait that long), it will be our best bet. But we’ll have to monitor the situation closely to make sure that these people don’t move Benjamin. I just hope they don’t do anything crazy like they did earlier. If they grab him and march him out to the street or just assassinate him on the spot like they did that one dude, we won’t have the time to rescue him. It will all be over too quickly. We’ll just have to pray that these sick freaks enjoy playing with their new toy a little while longer.
8:42 p.m.
Well, I’ve run my plan by Manny. It’s dangerous, but he’s up for it. I hate involving Sandra, and I know he does to, but I think it’s necessary for this to work. If it doesn’t, Emma could find herself on her own in this terrible new world of ours.
Speaking of Emma, she’s safely stashed in the fourth-floor ventilation hallway closet. We were able to relocate our supplies down there. While it will be cramped, we have to do what we have to do at this point.
Now it’s just a waiting game. Seems like it’s been a waiting game since all this started almost a month ago. I told Manny and Sandra that I expect us to carry out our plan sometime around midnight. I’m nervous as hell, and I feel like I’m going to throw up.
If this works the way I hope it will, I’ll give an update after the fact. If not, well, it’s been a pleasure writing my thoughts here, and I hope that anyone who finds this book enjoys reading my story. Sorry I couldn’t end it on a happier note.
September 22nd
2:39 a.m.
Wow that was INTENSE!!!
My adrenaline is pumping so hard, there’s no way I’m going to fall asleep, so I figured I’d write about our experience trying to rescue Benjamin. My hands are still shaking, making it hard to write, but I’ll do my best.
We were planning to start our operation somewhere between midnight and 1 a.m., but at that point, there was no official start time as our plan depended largely on the actions of the people holding Benjamin captive. I was hoping that these people would all be asleep by midnight, but they seem to be hard partiers, and alcohol was in no short supply.
It was about 1:30 a.m. by the time the vast majority of them had fallen asleep or passed out. Even then, several remained awake. I’m assuming they were to serve as sentries to guard the others from outsiders, or just to guard the group from its own apparent self-destructive tendencies.
But after waiting for as long as we had, we thought that this was probably the best opportunity we were going to get. The three of us, having already discussed our rolls in detail numerous times, all quietly wished one another luck, set a specific “go” time for our plan, and split to take up our positions. We left Sandra on the balcony overlooking the lobby with a bottle of high-proof plum brandy imported from the Czech Republic. I had this stuff once at a wedding I attended, and it knocked my socks off. We took shots of it, and then one of the guys lit his shot on fire. It burned for almost a minute. It’s high octane stuff to say the least. I saw the bottle when I was casing the lounge several weeks ago and figured no one would miss it. It was my bottle of “last resort”. I figured I might need something strong for courage in the right situation. When I saw the plum brandy there, I recognized it as one of those drinks that puts hair on your chest if you don’t have it, and takes it off if you do.
But taking shots for courage was not my intended purpose for retrieving the bottle from my stash tonight. Instead, we took the bottle’s cap off, inserted a rag into its top, and gave Sandra a lighter and an exact minute at which to light and then toss her homemade Molotov cocktail down into the lobby.
Then Manny and I took up our positions on the lobby level.
Manny crept as close to Benjamin’s location as he could without the possibility of being seen. I stayed toward the farther end of the lobby. I sheltered just inside a stairwell opposite the stairs leading from the lobby down to the hotel’s main entrance. The darkness of these areas helped conceal us since the lights the looters had going were positioned largely toward the center of the lobby.
Once we were all in place, we had a few more minutes of waiting until our pre-determined 1:42 a.m. “go” time. They were the longest damn minutes of my life.<
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Finally, our watches hit 1:42 a.m.
I held my breath and waited, praying the plan that I had come up with, would work. If it didn’t, not only would I feel horribly responsible for anything that happened to Benjamin as a result, but the rest of us risked death, potentially leaving poor Emma upstairs in the ventilation closet all alone.
Suddenly I saw something float through the air from the corner of my eye. An instant later it crashed onto the lobby floor and exploded into flames. I had coached Sandra repeatedly about how and where to throw the Molotov cocktail so that it not only reached its intended destination – a part of the lobby between the majority of those sleeping in it and Benjamin – but so that the glass bottle would shatter, spilling its fiery contents and erupting into flames. Even at this point, however, I had to be patient. I had to ensure that I gave the lobby’s sleeping occupants several seconds to rouse themselves or BE roused by those on watch-duty.
As soon as it appeared that most of these people were up and awake, I emerged from the concealment of my stairwell, albeit just enough to serve my intended purpose. My body was tense and I was sweating. My hands were trembling and my breath came in short panicked bursts. I’m not too much of a man to admit that I was scared. No, I was MORE than scared. I was terrified. But I knew that if I didn’t carry out my part of the plan, Benjamin was screwed.
The Dystopian Diaries Page 26