That was when I heard the blood curdling scream as if someone was being murdered and nowadays that could quite possibly be exactly what was happening. I grabbed my weapons as I ran across the bedroom putting them on as fast as I could. Slamming the door open I passed the elevator and instead took the stairs knowing I could get down them quicker. Halfway down to the ground floor I realised I had forgotten my boots and daggers, but I couldn’t go back for them. There were more screams as I ran down helping me to identify where the commotion was coming from. I was almost to the ground floor when I realised it was coming from the lobby.
Without pausing I charged through the double doors after taking the last flight of stairs to find zombies ploughing their way through the open front doors. Why the hell were they even open? The few children we had here were running around screaming and a few of the adults grabbed them up into their arms before carrying them to safety. Other adults were eyeing the zombies warily with no weapons at all, but the security guards were trying to shove them back out of the doors. Were they crazy? They were going to end up getting bitten like that they just had to kill them.
Grabbing my bow from my shoulder, I pulled out an arrow, took aim and fired. The first zombie toppled over with an arrow through the eye. Everyone looked towards me in shock as if they couldn’t believe I was killing them. What was wrong with these guys? They were never going to survive if they didn’t build up the guts to kill them and where the hell was Lucian? I knew he would have been killing them had he been in the room.
Wordlessly I began walking towards the zombies, firing an arrow with every step taking out as many as I could before I reached them. Every arrow that left my bow hit a zombie and every zombie I hit died for the second time since they had already died once and all, this time they stopped moving for the last time.
I took out quite a lot, but there were still a good forty-fifty there and I couldn’t take them all on alone. I didn’t understand what was wrong with the guards they could shoot the zombies from a distance, but face to face it was like they froze up and couldn’t kill them.
“Kill them!” I shouted annoyed that they would make themselves so vulnerable.
They looked at me dumbly as I reached them, they weren’t even shoving the zombies back anymore and one was about to get bitten as a zombie lunged. Faster than the zombie could sink its teeth into the guards arm I had my bow over my shoulder, drew my sword and removed its head.
“If you want to survive this, kill them.” I growled.
Mentioning that they may not survive seemed to snap them out of it as they lifted their guns. Not having time to pause to make sure they really were about to go into attack mode I dove into the mini zombie army and swung my blade decapitating three zombies all at once.
“Lucian!” I yelled knowing he would be a very good asset right now as I swung again and tried to dodge the bites at the same time.
I came way too close to being bitten way too many times during the fight and the guards hesitated too many times for it to be safe. Lucian really needed to get some sort of training sorted out for everyone in this place. Talking of Lucian he still hadn’t turned up and I had shouted for him loads of times. Glancing towards the front door I could see the zombies still charging in, where the hell were they coming from? I was starting to tire and my stomach and hand were really hurting. In a stupid attempt to get the doors closed I sliced my way through the zombies until I was surrounded by them on all sides. I have no idea how I didn’t get bitten, but I was thankful when I slammed the doors closed bringing the constant onslaught to a halt.
Now there were around forty left inside to kill, a newfound energy burst inside me at the thought of the end of this fight being so close. Determined not to get bitten, especially now I constantly swung my sword at neck level building up a pile of dead zombie bodies in an arc around me. I received scratches from zombies with sharp finger nails and I was certain I would have hundreds of bruises, but I managed to avoid all attempts they took to take bites out of my flesh. There was no way on Earth I was going to become one of these dead brain eating fiends.
When I took my last swing I watched as the guards shot the remaining few in the head before their rotting bodies dropped to the floor. I was panting and gasping for air as I leant back against the wall. With the amount that had come through that door I had lost count of how many I had killed, but I knew it had been a lot and I was exhausted. All of our heads shot in the direction of the front door as it creaked and started to open.
Being the closest I reached the door first and slammed my body against it before the guards reached it and locked it up. I was absolutely covered in scratches and zombie blood and I had just taken a damn shower too. Slowly I leant down and wiped my blade on the only clean bit of clothing I could find on a zombie before sliding it back into place.
I clutched my stomach as I continued to pant and tried to ignore the pain. It didn’t seem to be working, but it was like an instant amnesia about my stomach pain when Lucian walked out of the elevator with Elizabeth hanging off of his side as if it was just a normal day and nothing out of the ordinary was going on.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me!” I screamed. “I’m going to kill you!” I lunged towards him, but Jack made his presence known then by catching me around the waist.
Lucian took in the state I was in, the fear on everyone’s faces and the piles of dead zombies piled up before he opened his mouth in shock.
“What the hell happened?”
“What happened?” I asked in disbelief. “Well you would have known if you hadn’t been too busy fucking! But, no instead you left us alone to take on the zombies and not to mention you never bothered to teach the people how to take on zombies, they know how to shoot from a distance, but face to face everyone is clueless. You were the only other one who could fight and you fucked off, you’re so damn sure of yourself! That’s your damn problem and that’s why people make mistakes, you never let your guard down! That’s the only way to survive in this damn world and you made that mistake!”
“How can you blame it on me that zombies broke through?” He growled in disbelief.
“I don’t blame you for them breaking through.” I hissed. “I blame you for not being here when they did. So much for that so called promise you made, I guess fucking was more important to you.”
I pulled out of Jack’s grasp and turned to walk away from him, but he grabbed my arm making me wince as his palm pressed against a scratch. “Are you hurt?”
My anger burst forth with an intensity that left my actions beyond my control as I swung around and slapped him across the face as hard as I could before hissing out. “Don’t you ever touch me, talk to me or even think of me again!”
I thought I saw pain flash in his eyes, but that would imply that he cared so I knew I was wrong. Without another word I yanked my arm out of his grasp and headed for the stairs not willing to wait around in front of the elevator.
It felt like it took me hours to climb the stairs, I could have sworn that there hadn’t been this many on the way down, but I guess I had been moving faster. I started to wish I had just waited for the elevator, the stairs only had a door to every few levels and the numbers started to look wrong so I kept climbing. Things were so fuzzy, it was really hot and my limbs felt rubbery.
I finally reached a door that I was sure read the right numbers, but I guess the only way to tell was to go through them. What the hell was wrong with me? This couldn’t just be from exhaustion surely. I had been tired before, but I had never felt like this. Maybe I had been bitten by one of those zombies and not realised it, maybe I was dieing, great. As I staggered towards the door I held onto the wall to keep myself upright. Instead of walking through the door like any normal person I fell through it only just catching myself before my face smashed into the floor.
“There she is!” Someone shouted, I think it was Jack, but I wasn’t sure.
“Taylor, can you hear me?” Lucian asked as he lifted me up in
to a sitting position.
Hmm, I guess that made it the second time he ever called me by my real name. I was still angry at him though, but I guess I had to forget about that for the next few minutes at least.
“You have to kill me.” I whispered. “Bitten.”
“You were bitten?” He asked sounding panicked. “Where?”
“Don’t know.” I mumbled. “But I feel really bad.”
He let out a breath of relief. How was that a good thing, did he hate me so much that he wanted to kill me?
“You haven’t been bitten, you’ve been poisoned.” Jason said.
When the hell had he gotten here and how was I poisoned? I bet it had been Lucian with that water and those tomatoes, he probably poisoned both, that’s probably why he didn’t eat or drink my stuff. Dammit, I was going to haunt him forever.
I didn’t realise I had spoken out loud until Lucian snorted and said. “I didn’t poison you Mckenzie.”
“It happens when zombie blood gets into open wounds.” Jason said. “It kills you.”
I groaned. “Great, so I’m going to die.”
I think Jack grinned, but I couldn’t be sure. What did he have to be so happy about?
“You aren’t we have an antidote.”
“You have a cure for the zombieness?” I asked in shock.
“No, no one has a cure for the virus, this is poison, it’s different.” Jason explained.
“Oh.” I muttered.
My body arched as unbearable pain suddenly shot through my whole body, I wanted to scream, but I held it back knowing everyone would think there was another zombie attack. I unintentionally grabbed a hold of Lucian’s t-shirt and clenched my fist in it. A small squeak escaped my lips and my vision blurred with the agony.
The pain stopped as suddenly as it had started leaving me gasping for air, only then did I realise that Jason had a now empty syringe in my arm and was pulling it out.
“Has it worked already?” Jack asked in shock.
Jason shrugged. “Yeah, the poison works just as slowly as most of the zombies move, it hadn’t been in her long, wouldn’t take much for the antidote to counteract it.”
My panting slowed until it was back to normal making me realise I was still in Lucian’s arms as he helped me to sit up and my fist was still clenched in his t-shirt. I immediately mumbled out an apology and let go of his t-shirt before jolting away from his arms. He frowned, his arms staying there for a second before he let them drop and I struggled to stand up.
Lucian realising he clearly wasn’t welcome to touch me just stood up, but Jack helped me to my feet.
“Thanks.” I murmured refusing to look at Lucian.
“Get cleaned up, and then meet us in 215.” Lucian said flatly before turning away.
I just gave a nod before looking around until my eyes fell on my door making me realise that I had in fact somehow come out on the right level.
“Do you feel ok?” Jason asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, I just feel a little tired.”
He nodded. “Let me know if you start feeling anything unusual.”
“Ok, I’ll meet you guys upstairs.” I said turning towards my door and going inside before closing it behind me.
I had a repeat shower, only this time I didn’t stay in there for as long and when I climbed out my body was covered in scratches and bruises. It turned out that when any material touched my scratches it stung like a bitch and I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from wincing as I pulled on a pair of jeans. Instead of going through the same with a t-shirt I pulled on a vest top so that the material wasn’t touching my arms or shoulders. I looked like I had been used as a punching bag, there was a huge bruise on my shoulder, several on my arms and one on my elbow. My lip was split and I had a bruise on my already scarred cheek. Then there were scratches on my forearms and upper chest, it was hardly surprising that zombie blood had managed to get inside me with all the open wounds I was sporting at the moment.
I pulled all of my weapons on except from my shotgun and bow and arrows before leaving the room and heading to the elevator. Moving hurt like hell, my whole body ached and stung, but I managed to stop myself from wincing with every step by the time I reached 215. The usual guard was waiting outside and let out a low whistle when he saw me.
“Looks like you’ve been through a blender Mckenzie.”
“Wow, you really know how to make a girl feel good.”
He chuckled. “It’s one of my specialities, didn’t you know?”
I grunted. “I hope you’re better at the others.”
He just smirked at me before opening the door for me.
“Thanks.” I muttered before walking through.
“Whoa, I could have sworn you didn’t look that bad when we left you.” Jack said.
I snorted. “Yeah and I could have sworn I didn’t feel this bad when you left me.”
I went to sit down, but rethought as I realised the movement would only make the denim rub against my cuts more and instead walked over to the window and stared out at the buildings. When everyone remained quiet I asked without turning around.
“So, what are we doing here?”
“Well, first things first. Did you ask your men how the zombies got inside Liam?” Lucian said.
Liam cleared his throat before answering. “They took full blame, they said they got careless and didn’t lock the doors when you two got back earlier.”
It took everything inside me not to yell in frustration for them being so idiotic, but I managed to hold it in. Lucian however didn’t seem to have as much control as I did.
“They did what?” He yelled. “They can’t get careless, everyone could have died this afternoon because of that! Not only that, from what I hear they didn’t even fight the zombies, instead they tried pushing them out the do-!”
I rolled my eyes deciding to break my rule not to talk to him for now and interrupted his rant. “Stop yelling Adams, it won’t solve anything.”
His anger turned towards me then, but I didn’t care I had been on the end of it too many times for it to bother me. “Then what do you suggest we do Mckenzie, everyone could have died!”
I sighed. “They could have, but they didn’t and that’s what matters. As for what to do, train the people to fight, they all have the potential, they just haven’t gotten past freezing up when they are face to face with the undead.”
He snorted. “And how do you suggest we solve that, send groups of men out to face the zombies?”
“Exactly.” I muttered.
“Is it possible that the poison affected her brain Jason?” Lucian asked.
I turned and glared at him. “Some things can only be taught through experience Adams, this is one of those things. Send men out during the day when there are few zombies about rather than waiting for an army of zombies to turn up on the doorstep. When they get past the fear of fighting zombies face to face start training them inside.”
“She does kind of make sense.” Jack admitted.
“The men won’t even agree to this.” Lucian protested.
“Lucian’s right, a lot of men won’t leave these walls. They won’t go out to kill zombies.” Liam agreed.
I glanced outside again to notice that there were still zombies piled up close to the front door, the sun was setting too so I wouldn’t imagine they were planning to leave soon. If they did leave that was, which would make scouting a problem if they didn’t, but we could deal with that later. While they were here though we could use it to our advantage.
“Get everyone that can fight sent to the lobby and get everyone else locked in their rooms.”
“Why?” Lucian asked.
“I know you’re the leader and all Adams, but just trust me on this and do it.”
He hesitated for a second before sighing and nodding towards Jack. “Get it done, return here afterwards.”
“I’ve just had that lobby cleaned of dead zombies Mckenzie, what are you planning?”
&nbs
p; I smirked. “I suggest you get ready to get it cleaned again.”
“You do realise that you can’t fight zombies with that many open wounds.” Jason said.
“I don’t plan on fighting them.”
It was a few minutes of silence until Jack arrived and said. “The men are in the lobby, but a few are double checking that everyone is in their rooms before they join us.”
“Good, anyone here who doesn’t want to fight get back to your room.” I said.
Dani, Charlie the fuel guy and Elizabeth left quickly and Jason hesitated before saying. “I suppose I better stay in case of injuries.”
“Ok, let’s go.” I said walking towards the door before adding. “Gordon, go and get any swords or things like that we have, you aren’t using guns.”
He frowned and looked at Lucian questioningly who sighed and nodded.
Gordon took Jack and went off in a different direction the moment we reached the ground floor in the elevator. To my surprise the lobby had at least thirty men in it plus the guys who had come with me, I had been expecting a lot less people wanting to fight, but I wasn’t about to complain.
“Ok, no guns.” I said the minute I walked in and walked past everyone collecting the guns with Lucian and Liam.
They were all reluctant to part with their guns, but at a glare from Lucian they quickly gave them up. When we had everyone’s guns we deposited them in a room and closed the door.
“How are we supposed to train if we don’t have weapons?” One man asked.
“We never said you wouldn’t have weapons.” I said glancing towards Jack and Gordon as they walked in with armfuls of swords.
It had taken me a long time to find my sword so I wondered how they had managed to get so many, but now wasn’t the time.
“What’s the point of learning to fight with a sword?” Someone groaned. “We can’t get that close to those things.”
“You can’t?” I asked with a raised eyebrow before heading towards the front door. “Or won’t? Give them all a sword Gordon.”
They weren’t at all enthusiastic about that, some of them flat out refused to take a sword so Gordon just put it at their feet. These men were so damn rude that I couldn’t deny that I was a little bit glad that I was going to do this to them, maybe it would straighten them out a little.
Demon Hotel (Zombie Apocalypse Series, Book 1) Page 14