He sighed and turned back to the panel pressing the floor down from the top. “Ok, I’ll take you to your room then, you can rest there.”
Five minutes later he showed me into a room fit for a five star hotel, it wasn’t small either. There was a huge comfortable looking bed, a chest of drawers, a wardrobe, a desk and on the other side there was a door leading into what I assumed was a bathroom.
“Get some sleep, I’ll send some clothes and your weapons up later.”
I nodded and walked further into the room before stopping and turning back. “Lucian?” He looked at me and I murmured. “It’s about your Mum.”
“It’s ok, I know.”
“Wha- how?” I asked in surprise.
He gave me a sad smile. “You wouldn’t have been out there alone if she or your Dad were alive.”
I looked down at the floor my eyes stinging with unshed tears, I had never let myself cry for their deaths. Letting my guard down was too risky nowadays and I wasn’t about to start getting careless now so I pushed them back and murmured. “I’m sorry.”
“Me too Tink.”
I didn’t even realise he had turned to leave until I heard the door closing. Lifting my head up I stared at the closed door for a few seconds before walking over to the bed and climbing under the covers. It was a lot comfier than the sleeping bags or blankets on the ground I had, had to deal with over the months and even comfier than the hospital bed downstairs. After wrapping myself in the duvet and blocking out the pain from my wounds I was dragged into a relaxing sleep.
It was late the next day when I finally woke up and the first thing I did was head to the shower. After undressing and taking off the bandages from my wounds I took the best shower of my life. I had never felt so clean before and was reluctant to climb out, but I knew I had to so I wrapped myself in a towel I found in the bathroom before walking into the bedroom to find the clothes that Lucian said he would have sent up. Instead of just one set of clothes I found my wardrobe and chest of drawers full of clothes. I pulled on a pair of jogging bottoms and a too big t-shirt going for more comfortable clothes so that it wouldn’t aggravate my hip or shoulder.
I was happy to find all of my weapons on my desk and immediately went over to them finding my boots underneath it too. After pulling on the boots I slid the daggers into them, belted the holster around my waist with both pistols in and strapped the samurai sword on afterwards. I left the shotgun and bow and arrows behind not thinking my shoulder was really up to having the pressure on it and left the room.
Not having anywhere else to go I headed to the elevator and up to room 215 again hoping I would find Lucian there to find out about this questioning thing I had to do.
This time I saw the security guy standing close by and raised my eyebrows at him. He would have had a friendly looking face if it wasn’t for the long scar running across his cheek and part of his chin. His hair was a dirty blonde and he had dark brown eyes that had a don’t mess with me look about them.
He grinned eyeing up my weapons. “Expecting an attack?”
I smirked. “You plan on one?”
The grin stayed on his face. “Not today, he’s expecting you, you can go in.”
I raised my hand and knocked the door, it was only moments before I heard Lucian’s voice shout. “Come in.”
I opened the door and walked in before closing it behind me. It was barely closed when I heard Lucian chuckle.
“Really, you bought weapons?”
I smirked and crossed my arms as I looked at him barely glancing at the others in the room that had been there yesterday. “Better to be safe than sorry. Just imagine what an idiot you’re going to feel like if zombies get in here. I’ll be defending myself and you will be zombie food.”
He raised his eyebrows. “I would feel like a bit of an idiot, but if there are enough zombies to get through our defence I can guarantee that your weapons won’t be enough to keep you alive Blondie.”
I snorted. “Whatever, I just came to find out about this questioning thing you want me to do.”
He sighed. “Well I guess we can do it now, we have enough people here in the room.”
“Ok, I got nothing better to do.” I said sitting down in the chair closest to the door and opposite Lucian at the other end of the long table uninvited.
“Introduction’s first.” He said nodding to a woman that I would guess was around fifty on his right.
She had greying hair and looked like a mother hen. “I’m Danielle, love, in charge of the food and water around here.”
I smiled in response and they went on around the table, Charlie was a middle aged man who was in charge of the generators and fuel, he had an Australian accent and a no nonsense attitude. Then there was Jason who must have been the oldest guy there, he was the most qualified Doctor in the place and apparently was responsible for me surviving which I thanked him for. A woman who can’t have been much older than me who was pretty and had dark hair was called Elizabeth and she was in charge of looking after the children. Jack organised scout teams to get more food and any other supplies. Gordon who of course was Lucian’s friend made sure we had enough weapons and ammo at all times. Then there was a young nerdy looking guy called Kaleb who was in charge of the technology side of things like communications when the scout teams went out. The last guy had a big black moustache and looked constantly angry, he was the head of security and his name was Liam.
I couldn’t resist I smiled at him and said. “So you’re in charge of the guy who hits girls?”
To my surprise he gave a full belly laugh and said. “Oh, it’s not like you didn’t give it back to him just as much girl.”
I grinned. “He shouldn’t sneak up on me.”
When silence enveloped the room Lucian cleared his throat. “You ready Blondie?”
I sighed. “Sure, throw me some questions Adams.”
I could tell that he was going to ask something stupid by the way the corners of his mouth kept trying to tilt up before he confirmed my suspicions and asked. “Ok, what’s your name?”
I glared at him. “Sixteen years you knew me, I’m pretty sure you knew my name despite your reluctance to call me by it.”
He smirked. “It’s not for my benefit Tink, just answer the questions.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine, Taylor Mckenzie.”
“Age?”
I ground my teeth and opened my mouth to argue again, but figured the quicker I answered them the quicker I could get out of here. “Eighteen.”
“When did you first leave your house?”
“The day after the outbreak, us and a few people from the neighbourhood headed to high ground. This guy, Eric somehow found out that the zombies tended to stay lower without good reason so we headed to the mountains and kept out of sight.”
“And what happened at this new place you found.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know, somehow they found us after a couple of months, we got ambushed in the middle of the night and didn’t stand a chance.”
“How did you survive?”
I bit my lip and looked down at my lap. “Soldiers grabbed me at the same time the zombies started killing and dragged me off, I tried to get back, but there were too many of them. I thought they would kill me or something, but then Eric turned up and shot all of them. When we got back to the camp, the zombies had already attacked everyone.” I took a deep breath to hold back the tears that I knew wanted to come, but I refused to let them fall. “For some reason the zombies left some of them to come back. I couldn’t let them turn into zombies I knew that they wouldn’t want that so I t-took the g-gun from Eric and sh-shot them all in the head.” I swallowed and gripped the handles of the chair as I remembered holding the gun to the heads of the people I loved and the children before pulling the trigger. “Eric said he couldn’t do it, but I had to I couldn’t let it happen.” Pushing away the memories I carried on. “After that Eric and I left, we were alone for three months, getting food and water whe
n we could, picking up any weapons we found. I wasn’t a very good fighter, I was learning slowly, but he did most of the fighting and protected me every night. We had several hiding places we kept going to that we knew were safe and kept changing so no one would find us.” I gulped remembering the night I had last seen Eric, we were in a relationship by that point, being on the run from zombies would do that to people. He had told me he loved me, but I couldn’t say it back because I wasn’t sure if I did. He wanted to take our relationship further, but I wasn’t ready at any of the times he tried. He must have died thinking that I didn’t really care for him. Shaking the memories from my head I carried on. “One night Eric went to check the surrounding areas, see if he could find anything. I waited, but he never came back. It seemed like I waited for weeks, but it must have only been a few days and then a group of soldiers found me. Somehow I managed to escape, I still don’t know how I did it, it’s all kind of a blur.” Ok, it wasn’t all a blur, but they didn’t need to know what they did. “I knew if I was going to survive I had to fight better, so I used what I knew and made myself stronger.” I frowned still confused by the next part. “I became better, and changed the hiding places just like me and Eric had done before, but for some reason they didn’t seem to be very good hiding places anymore. I got captured again and escaped, then after it happened again I figured not to risk it again. Twice maybe coincidence, but three times was just ridiculous. I don’t know if they tortured the locations out of Eric or something, but they were no longer safe so I found a new place and waited. There was no food or water and I didn’t dare go out to find any so I waited hoping they would get bored and leave. It was stupid though, I became weak and that was when I turned up outside here, you know the rest.” Taking a deep breath I leaned back in my chair.
Everyone was silent including Lucian, I could feel his eyes on me, but refused to meet his stare. Finally he spoke making me look at him. “How did you get….?” He pointed vaguely at his own cheek.
“Oh, that was that asshole that shot me, he thought it would be fun to brand me. Something about the number of girls he err….. sent to the zombies” I said changing my sentence at the last second. “I figure it was meant to be a hash sign, but I put up a fight, it messed up, he dropped the branding iron, I picked it up and branded his dick. At least I think I did, it was through his pants so who knows what I hit down there. Then I ran for my life, I think that was why he was so pissy and shot me this time. The asshole must have been waiting for me the whole time.”
Lucian smirked. “Good girl.”
“Yeah, yeah, have I answered all your questions now?”
“Hmm.” He seemed to think for a moment. “Who was this Eric to you?”
I raised an eyebrow. “What are you asking exactly?”
He grinned and asked outright. “What was your relationship with him?”
I laughed. “Ok, my love life is absolutely none of your business. Anything else?”
He chuckled and looked around the table. “Does anyone have anything to add?”
Everyone shook their heads except from the scout teams guy, I think his name was Jake or something. I wasn’t really sure with how many names I had just been told and everything.
“Hmm, would you be interested in coming out on any scouts?”
Before I could even think about answering Lucian growled out. “No Jack.” Hmm, Jack that was it, I knew Jake was close.
Jack shrugged innocently. “What, you know she would be good, we need some better fighters.”
Before Lucian could try and answer for me again I said. “Yes Jack, I would be interested in going on scouts.”
“You are not going on scouts, they are dangerous!” Lucian hissed.
“Its better me going on scouts than out alone because I can assure you I’m not going to spend all of my time in this building.”
He glared at me. “You just live to piss me off don’t you?”
My eyes widened at the venom in his voice. “Wow, that might actually hurt if I gave a shit what you thought and for the record I’m pretty sure when I was bought into this world I wasn’t thinking “Lucian Adams, he’s the guy I want to piss off” so stop thinking so much of yourself.” Without giving him a chance to respond I looked at Jack. “I’d be happy to go scouting in a few days, but right now I’m pretty sure I’d do more harm than good with my injuries. Give me four days and I’m sure I’ll be ready.”
“I’ll give you five.” He said with a smile.
I nodded and got out of my chair avoiding looking at Lucian. “I’ll see you guys around.” I said before heading out of the door and closing it behind me.
“How did it go?” The guard asked me.
I forced a smile and muttered. “Wonderful.”
Clearly picking up on my unhappy tone he didn’t say anything else and I headed back to my room. It hadn’t been easy reliving the past few months and I just wanted to cry, but as usual I pushed the tears back refusing to let them fall.
Chapter 3
The next five days were completely uneventful, my gunshot wounds were feeling better and I started eating breakfast, lunch and dinner with everyone else in the hotel. Everyone seemed really nice and there were only a few actual families, the others were just random people who had been found when the scout teams were out. None of the children had their parents, all seven of them had been found trapped in buildings claiming that their parents had told them to hide and had never come back. The majority of the adults were in their early twentys, but there were a few middle aged and even fewer over fifty.
I barely spoke to Lucian during that time, I never realised what a flirt he was though until I saw him in action with the girls at meal times. They practically fell all over him and I saw him leave with one of them more often than not. I just wanted to punch him, but it wasn’t really any of my business so I kept my mouth shut and kept mostly to myself.
Cora and Edward were identical twins and they quite often came over and spoke to me whenever they got the chance. I had assumed that they were alone in their family until they informed me the night before I would go scouting that their older brother, Peter was going to be on my team. They assured me that he would make sure that I didn’t get hurt, I guess they thought that I was afraid of going out with all the zombies, but I didn’t tell them otherwise, there wouldn’t have been much point. I wasn’t about to encourage twelve year olds not to be afraid of the zombies, it was safer for them if they were scared.
When I had headed to bed that night Jack had found me and told me to meet at room 215 the next morning so that was why I was knocking on the door that morning before walking in. There were going to be four of us on the team including me and Peter. The other two were Oliver and Arthur, I recognised both of them from meal times, but that was as far as our knowledge of each other went.
“My brother and sister are pretty attached to you, you know.” Peter said to me when I walked in and stood next to him as everyone was talking around the table.
I grinned in response. “I rather like them too, I never knew you were their brother until last night.”
He opened his mouth to say something else, but was cut off by Jack saying. “Ok, this is just a general scout. Clothes, food, water, ammo, anything you see get it. We are ok for a lot of things, but it’s good to keep stocked up, don’t take risks, we aren’t at that stage yet and under no circumstances stay out after nightfall.” He handed each of us what looked like a wireless Bluetooth thing then. “Put these on and don’t take them out, it means you can talk to me or Lucian at anytime, we’ll be listening in until you get back. Do you all understand?”
We all nodded and pulled on the empty backpacks we were given, I hid the wince at the twinge of pain when I put it on my shoulder. My shotgun and bow and arrows weren’t going to be easily accessible with the backpack on, but if it came right down to it I would take the backpack off to fight for my life.
“Don’t do anything stupid Blondie.” Lucian added before we could lea
ve.
I smirked at him. “Why Lucian, how dare you suggest such things.”
“I mean it, you won’t go on a scout again.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Careful Adams, someone might think you care.”
He ground his teeth together and didn’t say anything else as we left and made our way down to the lobby where we would leave through the steel doors. We were going to make our way across the street in groups of two before going into the closest alley. Peter and I went first and when we were ducking behind a building, Oliver and Arthur followed. We didn’t really have any precise destination in mind, which seemed a little silly to me, but it wasn’t my decision so I kept quiet as we wandered through deserted alleys and buildings coming up empty everywhere.
The sun was hot making sweat run down my back and my jeans were getting uncomfortable against my hip. I had been silent throughout giving the others a chance to lead the way since they had apparently done this before, but the way they passed by places that I would have usually checked out was driving me crazy.
When we passed another little shop that looked undisturbed I couldn’t take it anymore and burst out. “Ok, guys why didn’t we check out that shop?”
They looked at me as if I was stupid before Oliver answered. “It’s tiny, there won’t be anything left in there.”
“That’s exactly why we should check it out, because everyone will think that!” I insisted.
“We’ve been doing this longer than you Taylor, we know what we are looking for.” Arthur said to me.
I glared at him and muttered sarcastically. “Of course and that’s why we have more stuff than we can carry isn’t it?”
“This is your first scout, you can’t just come in here bossing everyone around.” Oliver growled.
“I wasn’t bossing you around.” I hissed. “I simply suggested we look in that shop.”
I was pretty sure the heat from the sun was making us all grumpy, which was partly why we were at each others throats at the moment.
Demon Hotel (Zombie Apocalypse Series, Book 1) Page 4