“I don’t want any of us to die because we’re being stupid! Jeff’s dead or locked up somewhere we can’t get to him. Now we need to just go find somewhere safe for us to live. Not go charging across the country like a bunch of idiots!” Lisa rose to Yue’s challenge. LeBron and Drew both stared at each other unsure what to do.
“How the hell are we supposed to sleep with all of you fighting up here?” Gus asked from the back. That diffused the situation somewhat. Everyone in the cab settled into an awkward silence and tried to grab a quick nap. It wasn’t like they had much else to do. Any planning needed to be shelved until they’d had a chance to cool down and think things through.
An hour later Gus decided he’d slept enough and slid into the driver’s seat. He got the truck started after a quick bio-break. They continued to head east along the interstate. The snow on the ground was gradually thinning out So far, they hadn’t seen any more tire tracks. They had seen footprints in the snow outside that looked human when they got out of the cab before leaving. Gus had given the tracks a wide berth when he went to take a whiz. No telling what may have slithered in to hide under the truck.
They were ticking off the mile markers on their way to Asheville, NC. Yue diligently tracing out routes to the little sharpie dots LeBron had put in the atlas. Each dot represented a top-secret military base location where Jeff might be. Asheville was going to be a decision point. They could either keep going east towards the ocean, north towards the not-so-secret bases or south back towards Florida. No matter what the group decided Yue knew she’d be going north. Even if she had to ditch her brothers. Not that she thought for a minute they wouldn’t come with her. Gus would tag along as well, Lisa would follow Drew, and she was pretty sure Harley wanted to strangle Jeff to death with his bare hands.
“Where we headed?” Harley asked Yue from a distance of about six inches away. She hoped she didn’t look too startled. He’d asked her that at the same time she was wondering if he still intended to kill Jeff with his bare hands.
“We’re almost in Asheville then turning north on twenty-six.” Yue answered his question then asked one of her own. “Are you planning on hurting Jeff if we find him?”
“I don’t know. I’ve run through what I’ll do over and over in my head. I guess it depends on how he reacts when we meet him.” Harley answered honestly. Yue nodded her head and gave him a half smile for the answer.
“You hurt him too bad I’ll kill you.” She threatened him in a whisper.
“I don’t doubt that one bit. We going to Raven Rock or Weathertop first? I’m kind of excited to see what the government’s got going on there. I used to geek out on all the conspiracy stuff. Those two places are basically the East Coast version of area 51.” Harley said.
With everyone up and talking they decided not to risk being surprised by the sunset again. They’d gotten lucky the previous night. Not many crawlerz had been wandering the cold, snowy passes when they drove through. There was no guarantee that they’d survive doing the same thing again. Every night they spent in the cab the cage got a little weaker and their ammunition supplies a little lower. They decided to start looking for a place to spend the night. Better to waste some daylight than die because they couldn’t find anywhere good down the road.
They didn’t see any good spots as they approached Asheville. Once they hit the city limits though the skyline showed a lot of opportunity. Office buildings and hotels with enough height to keep them safe from the most ambitious of crawlerz. Especially if they could find one that’d been locked up before the crawlerz hit this section of the world. They skipped the turnoff for I-26 to take the exit that’d lead them to downtown Asheville instead.
LeBron had been talking about hiding out on the roofs of tall buildings for a while now. He’d envisioned them taking the emergency stairs up multiple flights until they got to the roof access door. Then they’d spend the night on the roof safely hidden away from any crawlerz. The only problem being how they’d secure the roof access door behind them to make sure they didn’t get any unwelcome visitors.
The streets through the middle of downtown Asheville were eerily quiet. A growing sense of unease crept up on them as they drove through the tall buildings lining both sides of the street. It felt like there were eyes staring at them from behind every dark sheet of glass. The eyes were willing them to walk into the buildings. The pull to stop the truck and enter one of the dark buildings was palpable. They could all feel it. This may have been a really bad idea.
“Do we have time to get out of here and find somewhere else?” Lisa asked timidly. She didn’t want to start another fight, but she didn’t want to get pulled into a Bank of America and eaten either. An extremely vivid image flashed in her mind of being ripped apart by a group of crawlerz. She couldn’t explain how but she knew beyond any doubt that the monsters were staring at them through a large picture window on the front of the bank.
Yue and the others hadn’t really given LeBron’s idea of sleeping on a roof much thought. They’d liked the idea of finding a secure place at a high enough elevation to keep the infected out though. Most of them were picturing penthouse suites in swanky hotels with thick doors keeping out anything that managed to follow them up that high. No one had put a lot of thought into how they were going to get up that high. Based on the bad vibes they were all getting they had no desire to enter a building to take the regular stairs up.
Gus pulled up in front of a Marriott branded hotel and parked in the middle of the street. He sat there checking out the chained-up entrance. There were faded signs all over the windows saying that they were closed until further notice. He didn’t see any broken windows. There was a narrow alley on one side and a cross street on the other. He drove around to the cross street to see what was on that side. There was an entrance to a parking garage. He was pretty sure their truck didn’t have a hope in hell of fitting in there.
Choosing to be extra cautious he drove back around so they could check out the alley. It was dark in the alley, but Drew was quick to point out the barely visible contraption strapped to the wall. Gus let them all sit a moment and just try to feel the vibrations from the hotel. It was weird having everyone sit there trying to get their Zen on. It was worth it though to check if evil spirits were going to kill them if they went in the hotel. Gus announced the Feng Shui felt good to him after five minutes of staring at the building. If they didn’t get a move on, they wouldn’t be leaving much time to look for an alternative if this turned out to be a no go.
Chapter 24: Checking in the Hard Way
“I didn’t know buildings still had fire escapes.” LeBron said looking up at the rusty set of metal stairs climbing up the ancient brick facade of the hotel.
It was dark in the alley. The shadows extended all the way across the narrow space between the old hotel and an adjacent office building. While LeBron was staring up at the bottom rung of the ladder everyone else was scanning the alley for crawlerz. This kind of dark space was the perfect habitat for them. The dumpster down at the end was especially forbidding. Drew kept picturing it opening up like some kind of dingy blue crawler clown coffin. The infected would just boil out and rush up the alley towards them.
Nothing moved down the alley and none of them were getting that weird feeling of imminent death. The feelings they got weren’t necessarily a reliable indicator of an imminent attack. Any kind of early warning sign was greatly appreciated when your enemy came at you as fast the crawlerz did though. Even if it was a sensation that wormed its way into your brain and made you want to lie on the ground and puke in disgust. A feeling like your brain was rotting and chunks of it were rattling around in your skull. Everyone’s nightmares had reached the point where falling asleep was dreaded. That was half the reason Gus and Harley had both stayed awake the last twenty-four hours.
“How do we get the ladder down?” LeBron was still staring at the ladder. He looked like he was hoping it may decide to just randomly fall down. Drew looked from the la
dder to the overly ominous dumpster.
“Let’s push the dumpster over and use it to climb up.” Drew said. No one else seemed overly excited about the idea either. With no alternatives in easy reach, they formed up and headed towards the dumpster. The big blue box getting more sinister looking the closer they got. Drew and Harley warily circled it to make sure nothing was crouching behind it. Gus stuck his flashlight inside and made sure nothing was ready to leap out at them. LeBron, Yue and Lisa all stayed back hoping they weren’t needed for anything concerning the scary big rusty blue box of stink.
The dumpster had wheels on the bottom so it could be moved. The three men lined up on the side where the wheels aligned and began pushing it towards the fire escape. When it’d moved about three feet there was a weird scratching sound. The men all jumped backwards cussing and hitting themselves with their hands. The girls and LeBron couldn’t see what the problem was since they were on the opposite side of the dumpster. They ran over to help. They stopped when they felt something crunching under their feet.
“Oh, hell no!” Yue shouted as she turned and sprinted for the truck. Lisa was right behind her. LeBron was doing his best to learn how to levitate over the massive carpet of roaches pouring out from under the dumpster. He ended up making it to a spot the roaches were ignoring for whatever reason. He tried looking down and realized it was getting so dark he couldn’t really make out the roaches so well. That wasn’t good.
“We need to get the dumpster moved over to the ladder now!” Lebron shouted. Drew looked over at him like he was crazy. Easy to yell that command out from the other side of the alley. Drew, Gus and Harley forced themselves to ignore the bugs. The three of them put their backs into moving the dumpster over. A few minutes later the dumpster was resting under the fire escape and the three of them were feverishly brushing at their pants to get the roaches off.
Looking up LeBron realized they still needed someone about ten feet tall to reach the bottom rung of the ladder. They didn’t have anyone ten feet tall, but they did have LeBron standing on Harley’s shoulders. Yue and Lisa watched from a safe distance while LeBron climbed up Harley’s back to try and reach the ladder. Harley’s feet were solidly planted on the edges of the dumpster. LeBron was just able to reach the bottom rung. Noticing how quickly the light was fading out in the street he jumped for it. Harley wasn’t expecting him to do that and tumbled backwards into the roach filled dumpster.
LeBron hung from the bottom rung expecting the ladder to just slide down with his bodyweight on it. When that didn’t happen, he began climbing up the rusty metal ladder. He tried not to think about how pissed Harley was going to be about falling into the dumpster. LeBron hadn’t even thought about giving the big guy a warning. Worried about how quickly they were burning daylight he’d just jumped for it without a second thought.
LeBron climbed all the way to the first platform before finding a latch that’d let the ladder slide down to the ground. He pulled the lever, nothing happened. He started to panic. Looking below he saw that Harley was climbing out of the dumpster. LeBron considered jumping off the ledge into the dumpster if he couldn’t get the ladder down. The thought of a big pile of roaches breaking his fall motivated him to try harder to figure out what the deal was with the ladder.
He pressed the lever again and nothing happened. Rather than try to isolate the issue he gave in to his rising panic and kicked the holy hell out of the ladder. He was rewarded with a loud clicking sound as the ladder finally loosened enough for gravity to yank it forcefully towards the ground. Too late he realized he should’ve tried to slow it down some. The metal ladder hit the dumpster below with a sound akin to the world’s largest pair of cymbals crashing together. If every crawler in Asheville wasn’t already aware that they were here, then they were now.
Knowing they didn’t have time to screw around the rest of the group quickly scurried up the ladder to go up the stairs behind LeBron. All of them searching frantically for the best place to enter the hotel. The fire escape creaked, swayed and otherwise did it’s best to freak them all out. Harley brought up the rear of the pack keeping his focus on the ground below them. He was waiting for the crawlerz to make their presence known. So far, the alley was still clear. They were all getting that anxious feeling that normally preceded the crawlerz showing up though.
They hustled up the ancient staircase past the narrow windows sunk into the wall of the hotel. It wasn’t like the alley offered much of a scenic view. LeBron’s plan was to get to the highest window they could find and break in there. Then they could barricade themselves in and pray they’d been right in choosing this hotel. Hopefully it’d been shut down and secured before the infected took over this small mountain city. With no normal people inside there wouldn’t have been a reason for a concerted attack on the hotel by the infected. With no reason to break in the infected would’ve looked elsewhere for places with easier access to pass the day away.
That was the theory they were betting their lives on. For all they knew once they shattered that window all hell was going to break loose. A hotel full of ravenous psychotic killers may spew the infected out like the pus from an overgrown pimple when the window got popped. If that happened, they were most likely dead. It wouldn’t matter that they were lugging most of their ammunition with them if a waterfall of infected poured down. Nothing like carrying an ammunition box in each hand up a rickety outdoor staircase a dozen stories with a bunch of super zombies heading over to kill you at any second.
Completely out of breath LeBron kept climbing as fast as he could force his body to move. The others were carrying most of the ammunition and other supplies. He’d been spared the extra burden so that he could serve as their scout. That meant he had to suck it up and go hard. He was drenched in sweat by the time he got to the top of the fire escape. It ended well below the actual roof of the building. There were a few more stories above them based on the rows of windows in the brick facade. Evidently the architects didn’t care if those people could escape or not.
A window loosely aligned with the top level of the rickety fire escape. The window was covered in dirt and grime. There was a curtain or something on the other side of the window blocking his view. Hating the fact that they’d be going into the hotel completely blind LeBron whacked on the glass a few times with the barrel of his rifle. Nothing immediately attacked the window, so LeBron flipped his rifle around and smashed it into the window. The glass shattered with enough noise to be heard for blocks in the dead city.
Expecting arms to shoot through the broken window and drag him inside to be devoured LeBron was ecstatic to still be alive after breaking the window. Yue came up behind him shouting that they needed to hurry. The two of them used their rifles to clean out the rest of the jagged glass from the window frame. LeBron tried to unlock the window and slide it open, but decades of paint had sealed it completely shut. How the fire escape had escaped the code enforcement department was a complete mystery.
Since they couldn’t open the window they fell back on brute strength and broke the rest of the frame. By the time they were done making a hole where a window used to be the rest of the group had made it up. Harley was waiting a level down since there wasn’t room for all of them. LeBron went through first with Yue right after him. The two bouncing to their feet quickly after climbing over some kind of bureau that was sitting in front of the window. The twin beams of light from their flashlights cut through the dust in the long desolate hallway. They were looking down a long hallway with the doors to rooms on either side of it.
“Oh, they have a coke machine!” Yue whispered excitedly pointing out the vending machine in the little open space a few feet down the hall from them. Drew dropped in the window behind them followed by Lisa. Yue was about to point out the soda machine to Drew who had a serious Cherry Coke addiction when gunfire erupted outside the window.
“We need to get a door open.” LeBron said beginning to check the doors to rooms. They were all sealed tight. The fancy ele
ctric lock handles completely foiling them from getting in the rooms. The thick hotel doors would be lovely to keep crawlerz out if they could just get in a room themselves.
Fully automatic fire from outside was interrupted by Gus literally rolling through the open window. He landed and stood immediately to cover the window.
“We good in there yet?” Harley yelled through the window as he was changing out magazines.
“Give us a minute!” Drew yelled. He was wondering if they could just shoot the door to get in. They did it in the movies. In real life he wasn’t sure if that’d work. He couldn’t ask over the deafening noise of Harley unleashing hell on whatever was coming up the stairs to get them. It turned out he didn’t need to do it himself since Gus had some urban warfare training. Gus shot the door in front of him four or five times then kicked it hard. The door flew open and he rushed in to clear the room yelling for everyone to follow him.
Drew shoved Lisa after Yue and LeBron into the room with Gus then took a spot next to the window. When Harley finally came crashing through, Drew stepped in and covered the window while Harley got to his feet and reloaded. Drew asked how many of the crawlerz were making it up the stairs. Before he got an answer back the crazed face of one of them was staring at him from the other side of the window. Freaked out Drew put some rounds into the open-mouthed freak and yelled for Harley to get in the room.
Crawlerz: Book 3: The Mountains Are Calling Page 21