“Guys, just stop arguing. It won’t hurt to look in one little shop.” Peter said.
“Oh, so now you’re on her side?” Arthur yelled.
“Shut up!” Lucian demanded through our earpieces making us all jump. “Look in the damn shop!”
Arthur and Oliver grumbled quietly, but followed Peter and I as we made our way back to the shop. I really hoped even more that they did have stuff now or I would look like a complete idiot.
At first I thought it really was going to be useless, it was a tiny shop, that sold very few basic items and most of them were unsalvageable or missing. We spread out and searched the place anyway, I was feeling pretty stupid until Peter shouted from a door behind the counter.
“Jackpot guys.”
We all made our way over to him to find that the door lead to a store room, it contained shelves and shelves of tinned food, bottled water, soap, basically extras for what was sold in the store. I wasn’t sure what shop would order this many more items than it needed, but I wasn’t about to complain. Without saying anything else we all took off our empty backpacks and started filling them with stuff. Mine was so full that it was difficult to zip, but I managed it and my shoulder was killing me when I lifted it onto my back. We all took drinks of water to help our parched throats before heading back out into the heat.
We were almost to the front of the shop again when Peter suddenly stopped and ran back to the store room.
“What are you doing?” I called.
We heard some moving about and he didn’t answer me, instead he ran back over to us after a few minutes holding a key up with a grin before sliding it into his pocket. “Don’t want anyone getting in there do we.”
I grinned back, it might seem a little selfish, but if we wanted to live it was the sort of thing that we had to do nowadays. Between us we managed to find the way back to the hotel, it made me realise how stupid it was not to mark our path out on a map or something, but we found our way back so it wasn’t as it could have been even if it was beginning to get dark now.
We were in the alley close to the street when the sounds of smashing made us swing around on the spot to look behind us. There were about twenty zombies making their way towards us and they were moving pretty fast. Without stopping to discuss it we ran for the hotel doors, Oliver in the lead followed by Arthur followed by me and Peter taking up the rear. We were almost at the door when I realised that I couldn’t hear Peter panting behind me anymore.
“Stop.” I yelled turning on the spot to find Peter on the ground with the zombies closing in fast.
“We can’t do anything.” Arthur insisted grabbing my arm.
Peter rolled underneath the closest car, but I knew it would only be minutes before one of them managed to bite him as they closed in around the car.
“Yes we can.” I said pulling my backpack off and holding it out to him. “Here get back to the hotel, I’ll be there in a minute.”
“What are you doing?” Oliver asked in surprise.
I glared at him feeling annoyed at their reluctance to help someone. “Four of us left that place and four of us are coming back.”
Shoving my backpack into Arthur’s arms he took it automatically before it dropped to the floor.
“Blondie, don’t you even think about it.” Lucian yelled through the earpiece as I walked towards the car surrounded by zombies.
I chuckled. “You don’t even know what’s going on Adams.”
He snorted. “There are such things as windows, now get back here.”
“And leave Peter? Not going to happen.”
As I got closer to the zombies they began turning towards me noticing that I was an easier target. Suddenly without any kind of warning they charged towards me. Without even a second to waste I grabbed my sword, unsheathed it and swung it in an arc slicing through the necks of the closer zombies. After that I barely had time to breathe as I dodged, sliced, stabbed, ducked, kicked, punched, elbowed and severed heads. Body parts were removed rapidly, bloody rain sprayed the surrounding areas and grunts echoed with every kill my sword made.
When I was done I was breathing heavily, my clothes were covered in blood and my gunshot wounds were a painful reminder that they hadn’t completely healed yet. Not willing to wait around for more zombies to come along I wiped the sword clean on the nearest body and sheathed it while Peter rolled out from under the car. He stood up and looked around at the pieces of zombie littered on the floor with a shocked expression.
I smirked. “I think we better head back in.”
He nodded slowly and followed me back into the building quietly. We had been told to meet back in 215 afterwards so that is where we headed. The minute we walked in everyone looked in our direction including Oliver and Arthur who were waiting there too. Lucian was the first one to talk, if you can call yelling talking that is, he looked like he was about to explode with anger.
“What the hell did you think you were doing?”
I raised my eyebrows. “Killing zombies.”
“Don’t be smart with me Mckenzie, I told you not to do anything stupid and what do you do? You deliberately walk into a group of zombies single handedly!”
I glared at him. “Peter would have been killed, I wasn’t going to stand and watch!”
“We have guards you idiot, he would have been fine, but we couldn’t open fire when you were there!”
“It would have been a waste of ammo, there was no need to use it, I got them fine.”
“Don’t you have any sense of self preservation?” He kept yelling. “I’m surprised you survived this long, if you just spend your time trying to get others out of danger!”
I stared him down and shouted getting pissed off now. “Now you listen here Adams, I don’t know how you work, but I do not stand by and watch someone get eaten by zombies when I know I can help. If you expect me to walk away when someone is in danger then we have a serious fucking problem because it’s not going to happen!”
He didn’t even respond to that we just glared at each other silently until Jack suddenly clapped his hands together once drawing everyone’s attention to him and said. “Right, now let’s go over what you found today.”
I pulled my eyes away from Lucian and just watched and listened quietly as the others related the events. He just made me so angry all the time, it was like he wanted to argue with me at any point he could. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t have done the same thing, he was an asshole, but he wouldn’t have left someone to die like that, the fact that I had been saved outside the hotel was enough proof of that so what the hell was his problem? I tuned out what everyone was saying and wandered over to the window before staring outside, I wasn’t really seeing anything I was just looking.
“Thank you by the way.” Peter said from beside me.
I glanced up at him and gave him a small smile. “It’s no problem, I’m sure you would have done the same.”
He smiled back and I vaguely heard the door opening and closing. “But I know that’s not why you did it, you just couldn’t watch someone get hurt, so thank you.”
I shrugged and grimaced before grabbing my shoulder involuntarily when it throbbed.
“Hey, you ok?”
I nodded letting go of my shoulder again. “I’m fine.”
“Who are you exactly?” Lucian asked someone making me turn around and follow his gaze to who was being held between two guards.
My jaw literally dropped so far I thought it might hit the floor. I wasn’t sure if I was just seeing things for a minute, his sandy blonde hair and brown eyes were exactly the same, although his hair was a little longer. After staring for what felt like hours he looked in my direction and recognition crossed his face.
I knew I was right then and quicker than I thought possible I ran across the room and wrapped my arms around him kissing him full on the mouth in front of everyone.
“Oh my God, I thought you were dead.” I gasped kissing him again.
He smiled kissing me bac
k and ran a thumb against my left cheek. “What happened?”
I waved it off. “It was just some soldier guy, it’s fine.”
“I’ll kill him.” He growled.
I laughed. “It’s ok, he’s already dead, but how are you alive I don’t understand.”
“The soldiers got me, I got out a week ago, I searched all of our places, but you weren’t there, I thought you were gone for sure.”
I frowned. “How were you alive when they had you for over a month?”
“They tried to get me to be one of them, I refused of course, but they kept trying, I finally escaped.”
I erased my frown and forced a bright smile as I unwrapped my arms from around him. Something was wrong somewhere, I knew that they didn’t ask random people to be one of them, it was something enough people volunteered to do, but I guess I could be wrong, I just didn’t think I was.
Lucian finally cleared his throat and we both looked at him reminding me that other people were listening and watching. “Eric, I take it?” He asked.
Eric nodded at him. “Eric Turner.”
Lucian looked at Eric like he wanted to punch his face in, I had seen it before so I knew what it looked like, other people may not be able to recognise it, but in this case I had no idea what Eric had done to him.
“Lucian Adams.” He responded.
“Oh.” Eric said in shock glancing at me. “As in the Lucian Adams, as in the guy who you had like a constant argument with?”
I nodded, I thought that would be the end of it, but no Eric clearly felt the need to tell everyone exactly what I had said about him.
“As in your neighbour, the one who you told his Mum you actually missed your fights with him and the guy who was annoyingly attractive for someone who pissed you off so much? The on-.”
“Oh my God Eric, shut your face!” I burst out knowing my face was glowing red in embarrassment by now the more Eric said and the more Lucian smirked at me in amusement.
He looked surprised that I had yelled at him, but I wasn’t about to apologise, who would say that out loud in front of the guy in question? His face slowly turned into what was probably meant to be a nice smile, but to me it just looked a little creepy at the moment before he wrapped an arm around my waist. I winced when his hand touched my hip, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“Shall we make up now?”
“No, you have to be questioned.” I said trying to detangle myself from him.
He tightened his grip on me making me grind my teeth together to fight back the pain. “Yeah, they said something about that, but since you know me and all….” He trailed off.
“That doesn’t matter, no exceptions. Now let go, I’m going to take a shower.”
I pried his fingers away from my hip with difficulty and moved away from him trying to ignore the pounding there now.
He smirked. “Really, can I join you?”
I snorted. “Bit of advice, you want to get into a girls pants, don’t make suggestive comments in front of a room full of people.”
He grunted. “Why are you covered in blood anyway?”
“Zombies decided to bleed all over me, have fun with your questioning.” Without another word I walked out deliberately ignoring Lucian’s amused look.
As said I took a shower to get rid of the smell of zombie guts. My clothes weren’t even salvageable so I threw them away because there was no way I was going to be wearing them again.
Twenty minutes later I was clean with a pair of jeans and too big t-shirt on. After pulling on my boots and weapons I headed downstairs for something to eat. When I walked into the dining area I was grabbed from behind and I reacted immediately. The sound of my sword being drawn echoed throughout the whole room as I spun around, shoved my attacker against the wall and pressed the blade close to their throat. The sound of Eric talking was the only thing that saved his life at that moment.
“Woah, woah babe, it’s me what the fuck?”
“Is everything ok?” Lucian’s voice made me realise what I was doing.
“Yeah, sorry just surprised me.” I said moving the sword away and taking a step back before sliding it back in its sheath.
“Nothing to see here guys, get back to your dinner.” Lucian called making me notice that everyone was staring at us.
I cleared my throat feeling a little uncomfortable and everyone got back to their meals before Lucian gave Eric a strange look and walked over to Elizabeth.
“So, you did the questioning thing then?” I asked.
He grimaced. “Yeah, thanks a lot for not speaking up for me babe.”
“And thanks for leaving me alone in a world full of zombies.” I responded.
“Clearly you can take care of yourself.” He said glancing down at my sword.
“Well, I had to learn.” I muttered walking over to get some food.
He followed close behind me and we gathered our bowls of beans. Our food was rationed and a lot of the children often complained about being hungry, but I was sure we all felt it. Despite the small portions it was still an improvement from what we had, had at camp and from what Eric and I had dealt with so it was ok with me. I just felt sorry for the children because I thought when they were growing they needed more food.
“Is this it?” Eric grunted when we took our seats and started eating.
I glared at him. “It’s more than we got most nights, so quit complaining.”
He shrugged. “Well sure, but I’m pretty sure they have more here to give.”
“It’s called rationing.” I muttered as I stuffed down mouthfuls of beans.
We were silent through the rest of our meal and when I stood up, Eric did too.
“So, umm.. what room are you staying in?” I asked as we walked towards the lobby.
“Oh, Lucian said it’s the room next to yours.” He answered quickly.
I nodded and we silently went up in the elevator and made our way towards my room. We paused outside and he looked down at me moving his hand up to press against my cheek.
“I missed you Taylor. I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”
I pressed my cheek into his palm. “Me either, I’m glad you came here.”
He smiled. “Me too.”
His lips descended on mine then and he kissed me just like before. The memory of it was familiar and it had me clinging to it with everything I had so I wrapped my arms around his neck kissing him back desperately. I was pushed back against the door as he pressed himself close to me. He groaned into my mouth and I was vaguely aware of hearing the click of the door as he opened it and we stumbled in before he kicked it closed behind him.
His hands moved to my back, but my shotgun was in the way so together we pulled all of my weapons off dropping them to the floor before he moved his hands down to my ass and grabbed it. He ran his tongue along my lips before pushing it into my mouth and pushing me down onto the bed coming down on top of me. I winced at the pressure on my hip, but he seemed oblivious to it so I didn’t say anything as I kissed him back clutching my fingers in his blonde hair. He grabbed my thigh and slid his hand up and under my shirt, but when his hand touched the skin on my stomach I freaked out.
The memory of cold, rough, unfriendly hands burst to the forefront of my mind. Being forced down and overpowered no matter how much I begged to be let go was still fresh in my mind. I pushed his hand away and turned my head away from him.
“Stop Eric, please.”
He pulled away from me suddenly and I could see the anger all over his face. “What the fuck Taylor?”
Tears tried to escape and I blinked them away before stuttering out. “I-I’m not ready.” I should have just told him the truth, but I couldn’t talk to him about it.
“Still?” He asked in disbelief tugging on his hair and jumping off the bed. “After everything we’ve been through? Why do you keep doing this to me?” He hissed.
“I’m s-sorry.” I whispered.
“Of course you are.” He muttered lookin
g away from me.
I looked away from him not having anything to say in response to that. A few minutes passed before I heard him sigh. “Listen, can we just forget about this? I’m sorry, I just missed you and went a little over the top.”
I nodded and pulled off my boots, he stayed in my room and we slept in the same bed. Despite the fact that we had slept in the same space for at least three months it felt surprisingly uncomfortable with him being so close to me and I didn’t get a wink of sleep that night.
Chapter 4
I finally got up just after the sun rose, yesterday had been tiring and that combined with no sleep left me exhausted. Eric was still fast asleep so I was silent when I got dressed, pulled on my weapons and headed down to breakfast. Strangely though, despite my hunger I couldn’t seem to stomach anything that morning. The thought of eating anything made my stomach turn so instead I stuck with glasses of water.
“You haven’t eaten your breakfast today.” Danielle said suddenly taking a seat next to me.
I gave her a faint smile. “I know, I just don’t feel hungry today.”
“You should eat to keep your strength up love.”
I nodded. “I’m sure I’ll be fine by lunch time. I just feel a bit nauseous this morning.”
She patted my arm before standing up. “Ok dear, but make sure you get something to eat later.”
“I will Dani.” I smiled up at her. “Thanks.”
I glanced around the room as I finished up my water. Lucian was busy having a conversation with Elizabeth, he seemed to talk to her a lot I noticed, but then again it wasn’t surprising when she was that pretty. As if he felt my gaze on him he looked over at me, his dark eyes locking on my blue ones. I gave a small smile and he smirked before I looked away, finished my glass of water and stood up to leave the room.
As I made my way towards the door I almost walked into someone. When I steadied myself I looked up to find Eric looking down at me. He gave me a smile and kissed my lips.
“You were gone when I woke up.”
I gave a half smile. “Yeah, sorry I got up early. I’ve been down here for a while.”
Demon Hotel (Zombie Apocalypse Series, Book 1) Page 5