Demon Hotel (Zombie Apocalypse Series, Book 1)

by C. M. Chidgey

  “You look a little pale.” He pointed out.

  I nodded. “Yeah, just a little tired.”

  “Hey, Taylor!” Someone called.

  I looked around to see Jack making his way towards us so I waited until he arrived before saying.

  “Hi Jack.”

  He grinned at me and nodded at Eric before turning back to me. “I was just wondering if you wanted to scout back to that place you found yesterday to get more supplies. We can send more people this time so we can get more of it back. What do you think, you in?”

  “Sure, sounds good.” I answered. “I’ll meet you in 215 then?”

  He shook his head. “No need, we’re meeting in the lobby in five minutes.” I nodded and he patted me on the back before walking off.

  I looked at Eric. “Well, I’ll see you later then?”

  He nodded. “Was hoping to spend the day with you babe, but ok I’ll see you later.”

  “Sorry, this is kind of important though.”

  “It’s ok, I get it, I’ll see you later.” He kissed me then lingering for a minute before walking away.

  I saw Lucian out of the corner of my eye staring at me and I looked towards him. His expression was hard to determine, but I thought I saw his jaw twitching, which didn’t make any sense so I figured I’d imagined it and headed towards the lobby instead of thinking about it.

  I wasn’t waiting there with the security guards for very long before Jack and Lucian arrived with a group of ten other people. Jack walked straight over to me and gave me a backpack, which I pulled on as he spoke to me.

  “Right, you will have to lead them to the place, I tried to convince one of the others to come too, but Peter’s brother is feeling poorly and the other two were still a little freaked from yesterday so it’s up to you. Can you find the place again?”

  I frowned hoping Edward was ok, but now wasn’t the time so I nodded. “I think so yeah.”

  “Good, if you haven’t found it by noon then head back, we don’t want a repeat of yesterday, we want you back here before the groups of zombies start coming out ok? Oh, and Peter told me you’d need this key for the room.”

  I nodded and took the key. “Sure.”

  He handed me an earpiece, which I put in straight away as he turned to the others handing them backpacks and earpieces the same as mine.

  “Look after yourself Tink.” Lucian said walking over to me.

  I smirked. “Always Adams.”

  He chuckled. “Try not to get into any fights.”

  “I’ll try my hardest.” I told him.

  He lifted his hand and stopped with it between us, I looked at it, but then he seemed to shake himself and lifted it up to run his fingers through his hair.

  “I’ll see you later Blondie.” He said before walking over to Jack to talk to him.

  I stood there feeling a little confused, but shrugged it off and turned my attention to the fact that we were going outside into the scalding heat and that it would only make my fatigue worse.

  It was surprising how easily I managed to remember how to get back to the shop, but it wasn’t so easy making my way there. Unfortunately I hadn’t thought ahead to bring a bottle of water figuring I would drink some when we got there so I felt on the verge of collapsing when we did finally make it to the shop. Everyone was quiet, at the beginning people had been talking, but by now we didn’t even have energy to speak.

  When I unlocked the door into the room we all stumbled in and grabbed bottles of water before swigging them down. We all managed one and some of us two as we sat around on the floor taking a break. It can’t have been more than fifteen minutes when I stood up and started shoving things in my backpack. Everyone followed suit and when we were done the room was cleared out of all the good stuff, which was a relief meaning we wouldn’t have to come back, but also meaning we couldn’t get anymore supplies from there and would have to find somewhere else.

  I left the key in the door when we walked out and started making our way back, the sun was high in the sky and it was probably just after noon so hopefully we had plenty of time to get back. At least we should have, but I started to get a little disoriented halfway back and stumbled a few times before I couldn’t take it anymore and had to take a break. Several of them were happy for the break, but a few others insisted we needed to get back. I wiped the sweat from my brow and tried to tune them out as I took a drink of water.

  “What’s going on, why are you stopping?” Jack asked through the earpiece.

  “Because the girl needs a damn break.” One of the men grunted.

  “Shut up, it’s fine we are ahead of schedule anyway.” I replied before taking another gulp of water.

  “It gets dark in a couple of hours.” Jack reminded us.

  “See, we need to get moving!” One insisted.

  I sighed wiping my face and forced myself to my feet. “Let’s go then.”

  It was an hour later when we finally admitted we were lost. I of course was the one to get blamed despite the fact that they had all been with me on the journey here, which I pointed out.

  “You went here yesterday, you know it better than us!” The guy who complained earlier pointed out.

  “Just find your way back here, I don’t care how you do it, just do it.” Lucian growled down our earpieces.

  I groaned and looked around, we were in an alley, it looked just like any other alley. We couldn’t see anything to detect where we were or how far we were from the hotel. Walking further up the alley I found a ladder that went up to the roof so I headed towards it.

  “What the hell are you doing now?” Someone asked in frustration.

  “I’m getting an aerial view.” I hissed. “Unless you have a better idea.”

  When everyone kept quiet I took that as a sign that there were no other ideas available and climbed up the ladder. My aching body hated me at that moment in time, but I managed to reach the top even though my limbs were shaking when I did.

  “What’s it look like?” Someone asked, his voice coming through the earpiece now that I was so high up I couldn’t hear him talking.

  I looked around the already darkening sky and let out a breath of relief when I saw the hotel a few buildings over. Before I could tell them anything though I heard a rattling sound behind and spun around.

  “Hey, what’s going on up there, did you find where we go?”

  “Yeah, go to the end of the alley and turn right. It’s a few buildings over.” I said absently as I walked towards the sound.

  A few of the guys simply grunted and I heard them start walking, but then someone asked.

  “Hey, are you coming down?”

  “In a minute I jus…….” I trailed off as I turned the corner to find an enclosed area with a padlocked gate, the padlock was almost broken and was being abused as I stood there.

  The main problem though was what it was being abused by, the area was absolutely filled with zombies, there were probably over fifty in there. Way too many for me to take on alone even if I wasn’t feeling so crappy.

  “Bit of advice guys.” I said taking a few steps back.

  There were several answers all wondering what I was talking about.

  I gulped at the same time the zombie kicked the padlock for the last time, it landed on the floor and the gate creaked open.

  “Shit, run now!” I yelled turning and running back in the direction of the ladder.

  Glancing behind me I knew I wouldn’t have enough time to climb down the ladder, zombies just jumped off buildings and got back up seconds later as if nothing had happened, I would stand no chance. Without giving myself a chance to think about it because I knew I would back out I sprinted to the end of the building and jumped to the next one.

  I barely made it grabbing the edge with the top half of my body before scrambling up the side until I was on top of the roof, just that one jump left me wanting to lay down there and go to sleep.

  “What the hell is going on?” I realised Lucian
was yelling down the earpiece and by his tone I gathered it wasn’t the first time.

  “She told us to run.” The others kept trying to explain to him, but he seemed completely irrational.

  “Where the hell is Mckenzie? If you left her behind, I will feed you to the zombies myself. You don’t leave women behind!”

  I snorted. “Don’t get your knickers in a twist Adams. I’m fi-.” My sentence was cut off with a scream when my foot was grabbed and I slid backwards only just catching myself before I fell off. The zombie was still hanging onto my foot and I kicked out at him, he was trying as hard as he could to bite me. Lucian kept yelling my name, but I had more important things going on right now. “Get the hell off of me you fucking piece of crap.” I yelled somehow hoping it would work.

  I was losing my grip on the roof and if I did and the fall didn’t kill me I would be completely surrounded by zombies. Hoping I had enough strength in one arm to hold on I reached down and pulled a pistol out before aiming it at the stupid leech still trying to bite my leg and shot him in the head. To my relief it let go and fell to the ground. Swinging my arm back up I pulled myself onto the roof and crawled away from the edge breathing heavily and pushing my gun back into place.

  “Blondie, are you ok?” Lucian asked.

  I gave out a humourless laugh and gasped out. “Oh, I’m just peachy.”

  “Get back here now, the others just turned up.”

  “That’s good.” I murmured. “I’ll be there in a minute.” I tried to get up, but stumbled and fell over again with a wince. The weight of the zombie pulling on my leg had really done my hip in.

  “Why can’t I hear you walking?” Lucian asked after a few seconds.

  “I’m a ninja, no one can hear me move.” I panted.

  “Under any other situation, that would be funny, but right now it’s not. Are you on your way back?”

  “I’m trying.” I groaned in frustration. “Just give me a minute.”

  “Are you hurt?” He asked me.

  “I’m fine, I jus-.” I shut up and looked behind me when I heard movement to find zombies crawling over the edge. I almost cried before bursting out. “Shit!”

  I ignored Lucian from that point reserving the energy it would take to talk and using it to force my body back to the hotel. I had to jump two more roofs, luckily they were narrower than the first jump and ran down ten sets of stairs via the fire escape on the last building. The last stretch to the hotel felt like the longest run ever, but I ran as fast as my weak body would allow. The steel door opened when I got there and I stumbled through before dropping to my knees on the floor breathing heavily. I shrugged my backpack off and one of the security guards helped me to my feet before Jack and Lucian arrived in the elevator arguing. The arguing sounded annoyingly loud in my ear and was giving me a headache so I ripped the earpiece out and threw it at Lucian.

  “Shut up.”

  He looked at me in surprise for a moment before looking me up and down to assess me for injuries I assumed because he asked.

  “Are you hurt?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Not unless tiredness is an injury. There are your supplies.” I said kicking my backpack towards him.

  Jack picked it up and Lucian nodded to the elevator. “Come on Tink, let’s get upstairs.”

  I grumbled out a response and followed him into the elevator. It may have been expecting a little much, but I was kind of hoping that the elevator would break down on my floor so I had to go to my room and sleep. Stupid I know because it’s not like we couldn’t have walked the rest of the way upstairs, but what could I do? I was exhausted and my thoughts were a little crazy.

  As it was though, the elevator of course didn’t break down and we reached room 215. Instead of the usual people sitting there, it seemed it was just going to be me, Lucian, Jack and the other guys who had been on the scout. Several of the guys actually looked relieved to see me and one of them said.

  “Listen Taylor, we are really sorry, we shouldn’t have left you there.”

  I frowned at him. “You don’t need to be, I told you to run.”

  “We still shouldn’t have left you behind.”

  I snorted and practically fell in the closest empty chair, which was next to Lucians before saying. “What would be the point in that? We would have all just been eaten by zombies.”

  “You are such a damn hypocrite.” Lucian growled. “First you claim you couldn’t leave Peter behind and now you’re saying you should have been left behind!”

  I groaned and rested my head on the table. “Go away Lucian.”

  He grunted and I must have dozed then because the next thing I heard was the other guys relating what had happened. When they were finished with them arriving at the hotel Jack asked me. “What happened to you Taylor?”

  “The same thing that happened to them.” I muttered. “We got stuff and came back.”

  Lucian sighed. “What happened when you got on the roof?”

  I yawned and murmured. “Zombies, told guys to run, jumped across roof, grabbed my foot and almost fell off roof, shot him in head then back here.”

  “Careful Tink, you might give us an information overload with all those details.”

  “Haha.” I muttered dryly. “Can I just sleep?”

  “Well, we aren’t going to get anything out of you now so go for it.”

  “Thanks.” I murmured closing my eyes.

  “Hmm, are you going to bed then?” Jack asked.

  “Thought about it, but too far away.” I murmured feeling sleep pull me down.

  I came to with a wince due to a twinge in my hip as I felt something being tugged against it.

  “Sorry Blondie, go back to sleep I’m just taking your weapons off.” Lucian whispered obviously sensing that I had woken up.

  I tried to get back to sleep, but try as I might I could not go to sleep with his hands against me as he removed my weapons. It felt stupidly good having his hands on me, completely different from Eric. It was just because I had known Lucian longer though I assured myself because Lucian of course drove me insane and I didn’t really want his hands to be on me right?

  Without meaning to I let out a cry and grabbed for my hip as the handle of my sword pressed against it painfully when it was removed.

  “Shit, I’m sorry sweetheart.”

  Sweetheart, since when would Lucian Adams call me sweetheart? That was weird enough that it made me forget about the pain and my hand fell away from my hip as I started dozing again. Now that his hands were gone from my body as he pulled my boots off, I felt cold. I couldn’t understand why, but I wished I had worn more weapons so he had, had more to take off. What the hell was wrong with me? I shouldn’t be thinking these things about him, if I was going to think them about anyone it should be Eric.

  I let out a groan when I was jostled as Lucian lifted me up before pulling the covers back and gently laying me back down. He pulled the covers up to my chin and I fell into a deep sleep before I even heard him leave the room.

  Despite falling asleep early the night before I never woke up until nightfall and I still felt a little tired even then. I groaned and rolled over in bed thinking about just staying there.

  “About time you woke up.” Eric’s voice made me force my eyes open to see him sitting on my bed next to me. He grinned at me. “Look what one of the guys found on a scout.”

  I frowned at him still trying to force my fuzzy head to wake up as he lifted his hands to show me what he was holding. Before I could stop myself and think about the fact that people would probably think zombies had broken in or something I started screaming my head off. I couldn’t explain why I screamed when my usual response to spiders was to freak out silently, but my emotions seemed crazy. Eric being the guy he was simply treated me as any other girl having a fear of spiders and moved closer.

  “Aww, don’t you like the little spider Taylor?”

  Wanting to get as far away as possible I scrambled out of bed and stumbled towards the d
oor. I was halfway there when I lost my footing and my breathing became ragged as I fell to the floor. The sound of the door banging open seemed distant and I barely heard Lucian yell. The only thing in my head was the last moments I had seen my mum alive as she fought off the spider.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” He sounded so angry. “You never ever show her a spider! Are you fucking insane? Get the fuck out of here now!” His voice was quieter and more soothing the next time he spoke. “Shh, it’s ok it’s gone, calm down and breathe.”

  Hearing his voice somehow made the images disappear and at the same time slowing my breathing until it became steady and my vision cleared. My body felt weak and I slumped against him as shivers shook my body.

  “H-he didn’t know.” I whispered.

  He grunted. “He may not have known, but he had the intention of scaring you either way.”

  “Yeah, because you haven’t messed with me before have you Adams?” I didn’t know why I was being so defensive, it may have been because the thought of relying on him to save me was freaking me out and the fact that I felt so comfortable in his arms as he held me up was downright terrifying.

  He lifted me up and walked me over to the bed as he explained. “That’s different Blondie, I know what is ok and what isn’t. He clearly doesn’t so he can stay away.”

  When he put me down I glared at him. “He isn’t staying away, he’s my boyfriend.” Weirdly him being my boyfriend didn’t sound as good as I thought it should, but I obviously didn’t mention that.

  “A boyfriend who doesn’t know the simple fact that he should keep spiders away from you?” Lucian growled. “That’s real clever.”

  “Well, it’s not like we come across the things very often anymore so it didn’t seem important.”

  "Of course it didn’t.” He muttered. “Because preventing panic attacks clearly isn’t important.”

  “Whatever Adams, I’m going to sleep.” I muttered wanting him to leave to get rid of the uncontrollable urge I had to be in his arms again.

  He frowned at me. “You’ve been asleep a whole day Mckenzie, are you sick or something?”