He grunted. “My job is to get you there, these people are none of my business.”
I reached behind me and grabbed Lucian’s hand before squeezing it as if to communicate to him what I was doing. “Ok, I’ll come.”
“Good, leave your weapons behind.”
“What are you doing? We can take them.” Jack hissed at me.
“Cora.” Was all I mouthed to him when the soldiers weren’t looking.
He nodded in understanding and I let go of Lucian’s hand before I started removing my weapons. It was stupid on my part that I didn’t have any hidden weapons meaning I would have to remove all of them leaving me vulnerable.
“Done.” I announced when all my weapons were on the floor around me.
He nodded to one of his men. “Check for hidden weapons.”
I glared at the man the whole time he walked towards me, he looked only too happy to be given such a task. What he did could only be considered as groping as he rubbed up my legs and grabbed my ass. The whole experience sent shivers of displeasure through my body and made me scowl. I heard a low growl coming from Lucian, but I ignored it more intent on blocking out the feel of the man’s cold hands as he ran them over my waist, stomach and ribs before grabbing my boobs. He lingered there for too long and I growled out.
“They’re all mine buddy, now you have precisely ten seconds to decide if they are worth losing your manhood over.”
It took him a little too long to catch on to what I was saying though, his ten seconds were up and I was pissed off. I lifted my knee up hard and fast until it made contact between his legs. He let out a howl of pain that sounded more like a pig squealing than something that would come out of a real human being before he fell to his knees and onto his side clutching his dick.
Several people chuckled around me including Lucian and Jack.
The leader glared at me. “You agreed to come with us.”
“I did.” I hissed. “But that doesn’t mean I’m open to groping from your men.”
“Get up Tristan, just tie her up.” The leader sighed.
Tristan struggled to his feet as he scowled at me. “You just wait until next time, you’ll be sorry.”
I smirked and raised an eyebrow. “Next time, your penis won’t survive, just bear that in mind.”
Tristan was given some rope and he hesitated until I sighed and put my hands together for him to tie up. He did it quickly as if he thought I might attack him if he didn’t do it fast enough. When he was sure they were tight enough he tugged on my wrist to pull me towards the door, but Lucian grabbed my other wrist.
“I want to talk to her first.”
Tristan looked at his leader who rolled his eyes and nodded. “Fine, but hurry it up I want to get back before dark.”
Tristan let go and Lucian lead me off to the side still within sight of the soldiers before he leant in close to me and whispered.
“As soon as you have Cora, get out.”
I nodded and I jumped as I felt something cool pressed against my chest and slide down towards my breasts. I started to look down, but Lucian grabbed my chin to stop me from looking at it and maybe giving it away.
“It’s a penknife.” He whispered in explanation as I felt him slide it into one of my bra cups beneath my breast.
“You did that just so you could touch my boob.” I murmured with a smirk.
He grinned. “You know me too well Mckenzie.” He lifted his hand and ran his thumb over the scar on my cheek gently. “Don’t let them take advantage of you.”
I gave a sad smile. “As soon as I get there and find Cora I won’t let them do a thing.”
It was unspoken, but he knew that I would let them do whatever they wanted in order for me to get there.
He sighed and rested his forehead against mine. “If you’re not back here within a week I’m coming after you.”
I smiled, I knew he was being truthful, it was clear how seriously he took the promise to protect me. “I’ll be back Adams, who would be here to piss you off if I didn’t?”
“Come on, times wasting.” The leader guy yelled.
I looked at him once more before saying. “I’ll see you later Lucian.”
It wasn’t long before I was lead outside with the ten soldiers surrounding me as if afraid I would make a run for it, but unfortunately I wasn’t planning on going anywhere. I could only hope that this would be over soon, but instinct told me it wouldn’t be as easy as I wanted it to be. There was a reason they had come for me and the only person who would be responsible for that would be Eric. Lucian either hadn’t figured that out or just hadn’t mentioned it, but I knew whatever Eric wanted me for wouldn’t be pleasant. The moment I could escape though me and Cora would be out of there.
Chapter 14
Being outside without my weapons made me feel naked and the fact that I was surrounded by soldiers with guns didn’t even make me feel better. I knew if it got right down to it they would give me to the zombies and run for it. Working for zombie leaders may mean they were better protected than the average person, but it didn’t guarantee that none of the creatures would attack them. The only weapon I did have was a penknife in my bra and that would be next to no use for anything other than cutting the rope from my wrists.
The place wasn’t too far away from the hotel so we reached it just as the sun was going down on the horizon. It looked exactly the same as the last time I had seen it, it was a prison. I don’t mean that it looked like a prison either, it was actually what used to be a prison. Huge stone building, barred windows, metal fences surrounding the perimeter, watch towers with guards on and all.
The guards had practically ignored me throughout the whole walk, but the moment we arrived they seemed to be getting kicks out of just shoving me randomly as if I wasn’t walking fast enough when I wasn’t walking any slower than them. When I asked where we were going I got a smack in the face so I decided not to ask questions.
The whole time we were walking though I was taking note of the way out and I was assessing how many guards there were. To my relief the place didn’t actually seem to have many men in. My main problem would be taking down the men in the watch towers, after that we could make an easy escape. My whole plan to grab Cora and escape though was destroyed completely the moment we entered the area with cells in.
They were jam packed with women and I knew the second I saw them scared and dirty cowering in corners that I wasn’t going to leave a single one of them behind. Escaping was still on the agenda, but I just had a few more women to get out, I’d say at least forty had just been added to the escape party. The only plus side was that they were all in one big cell meaning that I would only have to pick one lock. Well, maybe two considering we had just stopped outside a smaller empty cell next to the huge one containing the rest of the women.
One of the soldiers opened the gate, another shoved me in so forcefully that I stumbled over my own feet and fell over, another slammed the gate closed and locked it behind me and they all laughed at me when I glared at them.
“Not so tough in here are you little girl?” Tristan said.
I smirked. “You won’t be so tough when you’re begging for mercy as I cut your fingers off one by one.”
He cackled. “You’ll be the one begging later baby, begging for me not to stop as I fuck you.”
He high fived one of the others and they all laughed as I scowled back at him. I levelled my gaze on him until they walked out a door at the other end of the corridor and slammed a heavy wooden door closed behind them.
When I was sure they weren’t coming back I looked towards the cell next to me separated by bars and looked for Cora. It didn’t take me long since within seconds she yelled.
“Taylor, is that you?”
I tried to locate her until she ran over to the bars and looked in at me. She looked fine to my relief with the exception of being a little dirty.
I smiled at her. “Hello sweetie, you ready to get out of here?”
&n
bsp; She grinned and clapped her hands. “I knew you’d come, I told everyone you would come, but they didn’t believe me.”
“Well, I’m here and we are all getting out.” I said as I lifted my still tied hands to fish the penknife out of my bra before opening it up and cutting at the ropes on my wrists.
“How did you get that in here?” She asked with a gasp.
I grinned and winked. “With a little help from a certain leader of a certain hotel.”
She grinned back and then gasped. “Are they coming here?”
I shook my head and walked over to the cell door with the pen knife. “No, they’d kill us all before they could reach us, we’re leaving now.”
I had never picked a lock before, but it couldn’t be that hard right? Shoving the end of the knife into the lock I start wiggling it around, I didn’t have much of a chance to find out if it was really that hard or not because one of the women hissed.
“Someone’s coming.”
I must have been too engrossed in my task because I didn’t hear anything or maybe they just got more used to listening out for the signs of approaching people. Closing the pen knife up I shoved it back into my bra, quickly hid the cut ropes under the hay in the corner and sat down as if I hadn’t been doing anything.
It seemed that I was right in listening to the woman when the wooden door reopened and non other than Eric Turner walked through with an ugly leer on his face.
“Well, well, well.” He said happily walking over to my cell. “What do we have here?”
“What you have here is one pissed off ex girlfriend who is going to make you pay.”
He cackled. “Not in the right situation to be making threats babe.”
I glared at him silently and he wordlessly opened the cell door before walking in. The moment he closed in I stood up quickly getting in a better defensive position, before I could do anything though he punched me around the face so hard that I saw stars and fell over. Cora was screaming my name, but I had trouble focusing.
When everything finally stopped spinning though Eric had my hands handcuffed behind my back and was shoving me out of the cell.
“You’re coming with me Missy, we have more special quarters for you to stay in for a few hours. Don’t worry though, you’ll be back with your little friend in a few hours.”
Cora was still yelling my name, I was scared out of my mind, but I put on a brave face for her and said.
“I’ll be back Cora, I promise. I’d never leave you here, remember that.”
I saw a few tears slide down her cheeks, but she nodded silently as she and the other women watched Eric shove me through the door and down more hallways. I hoped I wouldn’t have to remember the way here because I wasn’t sure I could get back to the cell on my own. The journey from the cell to the exit was still clear in my mind, but I didn’t think I could memorise this one too.
When we finally did stop outside a black door he opened it and pushed me inside into a bare stone room with chains hanging from the centre of the room and a table with all kinds of instruments on. It looked like a……shit, I was in a fucking torture chamber! My whole body trembled in fear and I fought against him as he pushed me towards the centre of the room.
“Aww, what’s wrong Taylor, don’t you like your accommodations.”
“Let me out of here!” I screamed and tried to dodge him, but he easily grabbed me, pulled my hands above my head and locked my wrists in the manacles hanging from chains.
“Let me go!” I screamed as I uselessly tugged on them.
I had not expected this at all, this hadn’t even crossed my mind once. Rape, I had expected, but torture had not even been on my long list of things to expect.
He smirked. “A few hours in here and you’ll finally realise I’m not letting you go and give up.”
“You’re a sick bastard!” I hissed. “I never thought you would sink this low.”
He started to reply, but why I had the chance I kicked him between the legs.
He groaned and pummelled his fist into my ribs making me wince before walking off to the side and turning a little wheel that connected to the chains holding my arms up. He turned it until my toes were barely touching the ground, my shoulders screamed in their sockets and my gun shot wound in my shoulder from weeks ago felt like it had been cut wide open.
Knowing that the pain from that was nothing to what I was about to receive I tried to shut off my feelings from everything. He pulled off my boots and jogging bottoms and then cut off my vest top. I was hanging there in my underwear and that was when the torture began.
The start was somewhat bearable, but it got worse and worse, I wasn’t sure of the amount of different weapons he used, but I knew I had a large variety of marks on my body and I knew that some of them would never heal completely. I refused to scream, I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of hearing how much it hurt. My whole body was in so much agony that I almost wished he would just kill me and get it over with.
When I thought that it couldn’t possibly get any worse he introduced me to a red hot fire poker. As if the pain from that wouldn’t be enough on it’s own he used it against the raw marks on my body, that was when I couldn’t contain the pain any longer. I let out a blood curdling scream so loud that it actually hurt my own ears. My vision blurred and I knew I was on the verge of passing out from the pain despite my attempts to block it out.
Eric must have seen that I was struggling to stay conscious because I heard him let out a loud sigh before sighing. “I guess we are done for the day, it’s not nearly as fun doing it if you’re not awake for it.”
I was so weak that when he lowered the chains and took off the manacles and the handcuffs leaving my hands free that I didn’t even have the strength to attempt an escape. He threw my jogging bottoms and boots at me before throwing me a clean t-shirt that was too big and I had no idea where it had come from. I silently pulled the clothing on unable to contain my winces with every movement and every brush of material over my wounds meaning I was flinching almost constantly. It wasn’t right that getting dressed should be this painful and difficult, but I knew I had to pull myself together because I still had a rescue mission to accomplish and if I wanted to make it out of here it would have to happen before tomorrow when Eric would do this to me again. I didn’t know if I could survive another torture session like that, I had barely made it through this time.
When we arrived back at the cells he pushed me inside with barely any force, but it was enough to send me to the floor. I didn’t sit up, I just couldn’t find the strength even when I heard the door close behind Eric and Cora started talking to me.
“Taylor, Taylor, you have to get up!” She cried.
After a few minutes of it I slowly lifted my head and looked over at her. “Wake me up in a couple of hours Cora and we’ll leave, but I’m not strong enough right now ok? I just need a little sleep.”
She was crying, but I couldn’t find any words to comfort her as she gave a slow nod. With that I let my head drop back to the ground and I was asleep before my head even hit the floor.
“Taylor, wake up!” Cora shouted waking me up faster than I would have thought possible with how I was still feeling.
I sat up quickly, at least I could sit up, that was a good sign.
“What is it?” I asked.
“They took Bethany, they came in and said they were going to torture every one of us, but Bethany was first.”
I nodded, pulled my pen knife out and headed to my door for my second attempt at picking locks.
“Ok, I’ll get you guys out of here.”
“We can’t leave Bethany behind!” One of the girls said.
“We won’t.” I assured her as I pushed the blade into the keyhole. “I’ll get you lot out, you start back to the hotel. Then I’ll come back inside, rescue Bethany and we’ll be right behind you.”
“How do we get out of here, there is security everywhere?” Another girl asked.
I moved
the knife in the hole hoping to hear some kind of click. “Leave it to me, there aren’t that many guards around, I’ll take out the ones on the ground. We need to find some stairs up to a watch tower, as soon as I can get up one I can dispose of the guards on every tower.” I said making it up as I went along.
“Oh, oh, I saw a door to a watch tower once, it was labelled on a doorway.” The girl who didn’t want to leave Bethany behind said.
“Good, can you lead the way there?”
She nodded enthusiastically just as the door made a satisfactory click and swung open.
“Bingo.” I murmured before running out and getting started on their door.
“Are you sure this is a good idea, I mean they have guns and we might get caught.” A nervous looking girl asked.
“As soon as we get to the watch tower we’ll be fine.” I said. “If we come in contact with any guards on the way leave them to me.”
I picked this lock quicker than the other one, I could have said that it was because I had figured out how to do it from the last one, but to be honest it was pure luck. The second the door was open they ran out, I was thankful to find that the big wooden door wasn’t locked, but I didn’t know if any guards would be walking past outside so I held my pen knife out ready before pushing it open gently. I was relieved to just find an empty corridor.
After glancing both ways again I ushered the girl who knew where the watch tower was to the front so she could lead the way. When I had made this plan in the few minutes I had, had to make it I hadn’t foreseen how difficult it might be to move a group of forty women through open corridors undetected. Before we walked around any corner I checked to make sure the coast was clear before we headed that way.
It seemed that luck was on our side because we made it to the watch tower with only two incidents. Once a guard was standing right around the corner I looked around and I managed to react faster than he did by stabbing my pen knife into his windpipe, killing him within seconds. It would have been sensible to hide our tracks, but when he had already bled all over the stone floor it made it a little difficult so I didn’t bother. I grabbed the machine gun he had been wielding and could have shot the next guy, but rather than draw attention to ourselves with the sound I used the same manoeuvre I had on the other guy, I got the jump on him since he hadn’t even hear us coming and he was dead faster than the previous guard had been.
Demon Hotel (Zombie Apocalypse Series, Book 1) Page 17