Demon Hotel (Zombie Apocalypse Series, Book 1)

by C. M. Chidgey

  He pressed his hand against the lockers close to my hip blocking me in. “Not so fast Blondie, your Dad needs me to give you a ride home later. Meet me out front after school.”

  “Fine.” I muttered dreading the journey already. He had only just received his licence and he was a pretty crazy driver, the first time I had been in the car with him was the only time that I questioned if I had travel sickness or not, but it was just his driving.

  “Don’t be late.” He said pushing away from the locker and wrapping his arm around the waist of a girl who I hadn’t noticed until now. “I don’t want to explain to your Father why you are walking home.”

  “I’ll be there.” I muttered reluctantly.

  The minute he turned his back and headed down the hallway with the girl I leaned my head back against the locker and closed my eyes. My eyes snapped open when I heard girls scream and guys chuckle from the opposite end of the hallway that Lucian was walking. Looking in that direction I didn’t notice what the whole thing was about. The girls had stopped screaming and the guys were walking down the hallway still looking amused, I figured they had just frightened them or something so I shrugged it off leaning against the locker again.

  “Oi Mckenzie, what’s up?” One of the guys asked me. I think his name was Robert, but I wasn’t really sure because I never really spoke to these guys and they never spoke to me.

  Instead of answering I simply frowned at them in confusion until the guy who was maybe Robert moved out of the way revealing his friend holding a tarantula in his hand.

  “You like my friends’ new pet?” He asked.

  Now if I was any other girl, I probably would have simply screamed, they would have laughed and then moved on, but with the history I had that I was sure they were completely unaware of I reacted to it just as I had every other time I had seen a spider since Australia. Taking a step away from them I glanced down at the inside of my wrist where the scars from the spiders’ fangs still remained on my skin.

  Immediately images of that day flashed through my mind and my breathing became erratic. My vision blurred and everything seemed to be fading, I would have fallen backwards, but arms caught me and held me upright.

  “Shh, it’s ok it won’t hurt you, just breathe.” Someone whispered in my ear.

  I nodded and attempted to do just that, but the memories were so clear in my head that it was like I was there all over again. A whimper escaped my mouth and I started shaking.

  “It’s not real, you need to breathe.”

  The whispers sounded urgent and I tried harder to push the memories down. I couldn’t believe that this was happening in the middle of school, everyone probably thought I was crazy. My senses were still struggling to work properly and the voice sounded far away so I didn’t even know who was holding me up.

  Slowly as I started to catch my breath my focus cleared only to find the guy still standing in front of me with the tarantula. They all had shocked looks on their faces, but the spider drew my attention quickly making me freak out again as I started panting all over again.

  “Put that damn thing away, before I knock you on the floor!”

  Now that voice I recognised, but I had never heard it so full of anger before. The guy with the spider scurried away quickly followed by the others and I managed to stand upright. I was still shaking and I felt weak, but the worst of it was over now. Slowly I turned to face Lucian and I was sure the confusion was written all over my face because before I could say anything he said.

  “Even I have lines I won’t cross Blondie and that is one I’d never cross.”

  Before I could even so much as thank him for his help he left and I was still wondering when these lines had appeared because as far as I was aware Lucian Adams couldn’t see the line between acceptable and not acceptable, either that or he just ignored it. At least I thought he had, but now I wasn’t so sure.

  That afternoon when I met him after school though it was as if nothing had happened. He was back to his pain in the ass self and by the time I got home I wanted to punch him.

  8 months ago.

  “Stupid piece of shit!” I shouted at my car before kicking it in the bumper.

  I had no idea why I was yelling at my car when I knew it was something Lucian had done to it. He had only been next to it for a few seconds checking the oil after my Dad had asked him to and now it wouldn’t start.

  I was meant to be going to a party with some friends tonight, but it didn’t seem like that would be happening anytime soon. After letting out a growl of frustration I slammed the door closed and glared over at Lucian’s car.

  It didn’t take long to decide to get him back so I ran over to their driveway before kneeling next to the tyres. I didn’t know much about cars, but I knew how to put air in the tyres so it didn’t take a genius to figure if I pulled the caps off of the tyres they would eventually be flat. So that’s what I did, I felt like some kind of criminal sneaking around to each tyre in the dark and unscrewing the caps, but it was soon done and I ran back to my house quickly to give my friends a call, they needed to know that I wouldn’t be coming to the party tonight thanks to a certain dark haired neighbour.

  “Get your ass down here Tinkerbell!” Were the words that woke me up the next morning.

  I rolled over in bed chuckling to myself before snuggling back under the covers planning to get a bit more sleep before school.

  “Blondie!” The word was shouted from within my room making me sit up suddenly.

  “What the hell are you doing in here?” I yelled at him. “Get out of my room!”

  “You let the air out of my tyres!” He roared.

  “And you broke my car!”

  “I didn’t break it, I just disconnected the battery, it will take five seconds to put back, but all of my tyres are flat!”

  I couldn’t help it I just started laughing.

  “It’s not funny!” He growled at me.

  I stopped laughing and glared at him. “And it wasn’t funny that you made me miss the party last night!”

  “It was probably a stupid party anyway, it’s not good to get drunk.”

  “Whatever Adams, we are teenagers, we are meant to get drunk. Now get out of my room.”

  “Not until you give me back the caps you took.”

  “I’ll give you back your cap thingys when you’ve fixed my car.” I shouted before pulling the covers over my head to ignore him.

  “I’ll fix your car, but get out of bed you’re driving me to school and I can’t be late today.”

  I grumbled and stayed where I was hoping he would just leave my room and fix the car.

  Suddenly the covers were pulled from my bed completely leaving me lying on the mattress in my too big t-shirt.

  “I tried being nice Tink.” Lucian said before he grabbed my ankle and started pulling me off.

  I screamed and kicked at him. “Let me go, I’m going to get you for this!”

  “I’m sure you will.” Despite my struggles he picked me up from the bed and carried me to the bathroom before slamming the door behind me and shouting through the door. “Get dressed!”

  “I hate you!” I yelled at him.

  “You too Blondie, you too.” He said before I heard his footsteps disappear down the hall.

  Chapter 1

  5 months after apocalypse.

  It had been about a month since Eric had been taken, he had been the only person to escape with me and not get eaten by the zombies. That had happened three months ago now. Losing everyone at the camp including my Dad and Lucian’s Mum had been bad enough, but now I was alone completely. I had no idea where Lucian even was, he had been at a friends house when all hell had broken loose and I hadn’t seen or heard from him since.

  When Eric and I had set off from the destroyed camp alone he had protected me from the creatures and soldiers that roamed most places now, but now he was gone and everything was down to me. Over the last month I had been captured by the soldiers three times and had barel
y managed to escape. I had been training hard and I was quite proud of myself for the way I had fought my way away from the last group. They had seemed to find me in every one of the hiding places Eric and I had found, it made me wonder if they had tortured the locations out of him and then killed him, but I couldn’t think about that. All I really knew was that he had left and not come back, which was never a good sign.

  I had been at this new location lying low for a week now not wanting to get in the soldier’s clutches again. The mere thought of them made me shiver all over, but I knew I was going to have to risk them getting me to search for supplies soon. I was hungry, thirsty and extremely weak. I knew that I was capable of fighting well now, but that was when I had felt stronger so I could either sit here and dehydrate or starve to death or I could take the risk and fight my way to some supplies.

  It was obvious which path I had to take, I wasn’t the sort of person to just give up and I definitely didn’t want to get taken by soldiers again or have my brain eaten by zombies. Killing zombies had been fun when it was on a video game, but it wasn’t so entertaining when it happened for real. Most of the zombies were slow and died instantly when their heads were removed or their brains were damaged, but it was the stronger ones you had to watch out for that still seemed to have some intelligence. It wasn’t so easy to hack off their heads when they fought back and used some kind of ninja moves that shouldn’t even be allowed. Luckily though those guys very rarely came out of hiding and instead ordered the weaker ones out to fight.

  The soldiers spent their time capturing humans to feed the stronger ones, they weren’t even zombies, but they were working for them. It made me sick to think how cowardly people could be that they would start giving people to zombies knowing full well that they were going to be ripped apart. They were stupid too if they really thought that the zombie’s would never eat them if it came right down to it, just because they had worked for them it didn’t mean they would consider their brains off limits if they got hungry enough.

  When the sun rose I was going to find some food and water knowing that it was less likely that zombie’s would be about, not impossible, just less likely so I sat in the small room that I had barricaded myself into and waited for light to appear through the hole of the crumbling roof in the corner. Most people had left the city by now or been eaten by zombie’s leaving almost everywhere deserted. I just had to find somewhere that food had been left and maybe if I was lucky there would be guns too because I was getting low on ammo.

  The ammo wasn’t that important because I still had my samurai sword and bow and arrows, but the guns were back up in the case of too many zombie’s or a stronger one so it was better to be safe than sorry. If I had learnt anything since the zombie outbreak it was better to have more weapons than you needed than not enough. Nothing would be worse than being stuck in an army of zombie’s with one bullet left, which was why I now carried a sword at my hip, two pistols, a shotgun across my back, daggers in my boots and a bow with plenty of arrows over my shoulder. Ok, so it might weigh me down, but I had learnt to move more easily with practice and zombies were in for a surprise when they messed with me.

  The minute the light from the small hole lit up the room I made sure my weapons were in place and pulled the chair out from under the handle of the door before opening it slowly and looking out into the alley. To my relief it was clear, well clear as in no zombies or soldiers considering it was covered in rubbish and broken furniture, but none of them were a threat to me unless zombie’s had started making undead pizza boxes or something.

  I crouched and ran to the end of the alley before looking out on the street. There were too many places that I couldn’t hide, but I had to go through there if I was going to find some food since I knew this side of the city didn’t have a lot to offer. The random cars abandoned on the roads were the only cover provided giving me at least some illusion that I was hiding. I knew the soldiers were my biggest problem at this sort of time and I knew there were never more than about ten in a group so it shouldn’t be that hard to sneak past them if there were any around.

  Taking a deep breath I wiped the sweat from my forehead wishing I had something to wet my dry throat with. The sun felt too hot and I knew I shouldn’t have let myself go this long without water, it was foolish on my part and could lead to a mistake. Knowing there was nothing that I could do about it now I glanced around the street quickly before making a dash for the closest car and ducking behind it. When my breathing had slowed I darted behind the next one, when I headed for the third one however, the sound of a gunshot echoed throughout the whole area as my shoulder exploded in pain. I couldn’t stop the cry that escaped my throat before I fell behind the car as I tried to block out my pulsing shoulder.

  “Come out little girl, you didn’t really think you would escape us did you?”

  I closed my eyes wishing it would go away as I felt shivers of fear run up my spine at the familiar voice of one of the soldiers who had taken me last time. Lifting my hand up to my left cheek I felt the burn mark shaped like a small wonky star, he had been the one responsible for putting that there. Knowing if I thought about it the images of what they had done to me would appear in my mind I pushed it down dropping my hand from my face and concentrated on thinking about how I was going to get out of this because there was no way I was going back there without a fight.

  After kneeling up I pulled out my bow and an arrow before pulling the string back making my shoulder scream in pain. I lessened my grip on the string again before slowly looking up to locate any one of the soldiers through the window of the car. When one yelled for me to come out again it didn’t take long for me to identify him, this one was strolling between cars with his gun raised loosely as if he didn’t really consider me a threat. I smirked, this would definitely be to my advantage. Readying my bow again I leaned around the end of the car taking aim at him and let loose the arrow before ducking behind the car again trying not to make any sound when my shoulder started burning. The only indication that I had hit him was simply because I knew I was a good shot and the “oomph” before the sound of a body falling. If my aim had been as good as I thought he now had an arrow through his eye.

  That horrible voice spoke again now. “Stop playing with us little girl and come out like a good girl, maybe I’ll go easy on you.”

  I cringed wiping sweat from my brow before attempting to pull another arrow back, but my shoulder refused to cooperate and before I could stop it my arrow clattered to the concrete revealing my location to anyone in the area. Horrible voice guy must have been closer to the car than I had thought because he suddenly appeared next to me looking down at me with that grin that promised pain to anyone who crossed him. Before he had a chance to do anything I grabbed the arrow from the ground and shoved it into his thigh. I heard his howl of pain behind me as I made a run for it.

  Before I could get very far though the world tilted and I could only put it down to a combination of the blood loss and lack of food and water. My arms were grabbed from behind and I was yanked back against a chest sending my shoulder into agony. At first I thought it had been horrible voice guy, but it proved it must be one of the others when I was pulled around to face him making me shiver in fear. He chuckled seeming amused that he had that affect on me as he threw the arrow on the floor that he had just pulled from his thigh.

  “I told you not to escape.” He hissed seeming suddenly angry just as a few soldiers circled us. “Did you really think we wouldn’t get you again?”

  “Fuck you.” I hissed before spitting at him.

  He sighed. “Really, again? You enjoyed it that much?”

  Before he could dodge it I swung my foot up full force between his legs. He actually roared at me before lifting his gun to my stomach and pulling the trigger. I automatically tried to dodge it, but I realised it didn’t miss me completely when my hip screamed in pain. Letting out a scream I struggled in the guys arms.

  “You have to come with us now, I�
��m sure you don’t have the medical equipment to fix yourself up.”

  “I’d rather die than come with you.” I hissed at him.

  He shrugged. “Well, I can always lend you a hand with that.”

  I gasped in pain when he punched me in the hip, suddenly the guy behind me let go and without his support I fell to the ground. It took a few moments before I could make out the sounds of gunshots surrounding me, not having any desire to get shot again today I stayed low to the ground as I got to my knees and grabbed my bow that had fallen from my shoulder when I was grabbed. Looking around I could see that all of the soldiers were now lying on the floor motionless and probably dead or curled up in pain and probably minutes from dying. There was however, no sign of where the ones responsible for it had gone.

  I struggled to my feet knowing that I had to get out of here, daylight or not the zombies would be drawn to this amount of blood and I was in no condition to take them on. After stumbling for a few steps someone caught my arm holding me up, my brain felt slightly fuzzy and it took me a moment to realise I had stopped let alone that someone was holding me. When I looked up I found dark, almost black eyes and I knew I should know them, but for some reason my mind couldn’t figure out why. Instead I murmured.

  “Don’t I know you?”

  The only answer I got before I passed out was.

  “I would hope so Tink.”

  “Is she going to be ok?” The words sounded far away and I didn’t know if I was dreaming or if it was real.

  “I don’t know yet, she’s dehydrated, been shot twice and her fever is sky high. She’s not looking good.” A woman replied.

  “Well, do something, you have to save her!” The first person yelled. He didn’t sound very happy and the woman sounded slightly scared when she answered.

  “We are trying, but until her fever breaks we can’t know what’s going to happen.”