“Stay down here, if anyone comes then whistle.” I whispered to them when we reached the door.
They all nodded and were already looking around like meerkats on the lookout for predators. I opened the door, leaving it open behind me so I could hear the whistle if it came and started up the stairs silently. Knowing the sound of a machine gun would echo around the whole prison yard if I shot someone on the watch tower I wielded my pen knife once again. There was one guard at the top and before he even noticed that I was ascending the stairs I grabbed his ankle and yanked as hard as I could sending him to the ground not willing to kill him with the chance that a watch tower guy was looking in this direction. I was glad that he didn’t yell out in any kind of way either before I could stab him in the throat. His reaction was too late though, instead of the shout all he could achieve was a gurgling sound before he choked on his last breath and died.
Just as I had hoped he had a sniper rifle so knowing every minute I wasted was a chance we could be caught I grabbed the gun and took aim at the closest tower. That one was closest to the front gate and held two men, within seconds both had been shot in the head silently with no one the wiser. One more tower with two men and two others containing one man all lost their guards in minutes leaving the whole yard unguarded since they hadn’t thought it necessary to post guards around the ground area.
I ran back down the stairs leaving the sniper behind. “Ok, coast is clear, do these doors lead outside?” I asked pointing to the double doors at the end of the corridor.
Watch tower girl nodded and I looked at Cora. “Can you remember the way back to the hotel?”
She nodded.
“Can you do me a favour and lead them there?”
She nodded. “Only if you promise to come back there.”
I smiled at her. “I promise, now get going. The faster you guys leave, the faster I can find Bethany and follow. I’ll keep on lookout from the tower until I can’t see you anymore.”
They all nodded in understanding.
I kissed Cora’s forehead. “Now run.”
And run they did, they ran out the front doors at the same time I bolted back up the stairs and watched them as they ran across the yard and out the gates undetected. I kept on guard ready to lift the sniper at a single sign of danger as their figures headed towards the rising sun until they disappeared around the corner of a building in the distance.
Mission rescue Cora was complete, Bethany was next. Hanging my newly acquired sniper rifle over my shoulder and equipping my machine gun I loaded it and turned towards the stairs. Now it was time to find her and dispose of as many of the bastards who ran this place as I could in the process, if I could just remember where the torture chamber was.
Chapter 15
My sense of direction officially sucked, I must have been at this for hours, but I just could not find that chamber. The others had probably almost made it back to the hotel and I hadn’t even found Bethany yet. The strangest thing was that I hadn’t come across any guards at all. At first I thought that it was just coincidence, but I started stomping down corridors to draw attention to myself and there was nothing. I started to worry that maybe they had discovered that we had escaped and gone after them, but I would have thought I would have heard some kind of alarm go off if that had happened.
Knowing there was nothing I could do right now I continued my search up and down corridors. It made it difficult because all of the corridors were similar, but I distinctly remembered the torture chamber having a black door and from what I could tell so far all of these had wooden ones.
My whole body was aching from the affects of the torture and if it had only been my life on the line I probably would have hidden somewhere and rested for a bit, but as it was I had to get to Bethany. I was on the verge of screaming in frustration when I finally caught a glimpse of a black door out of the corner of my eye. As I stopped and looked at it I realised that there could be more than one black door in this place and if this wasn’t the one I could be at this for hours longer.
At the sound of a scream coming from inside though it pushed that idea from my head and I shoved the door open to find an ugly little skinny man holding a hot poker towards the girls who must be Bethany’s mouth as he said.
“Go on put it in your mouth and suck it little girl.”
He seemed so engrossed with his goading that he hadn’t heard my arrival. That clearly had to change.
“Hey!” I yelled as I took aim with my machine gun. He looked up immediately in shock and I hissed. “Why don’t you suck on this motherfucker?” Pulling the trigger I deposited a round of bullets straight into the ghastly face that would probably haunt this girl forever.
“Bethany I take it?” I asked as the man toppled over unmoving.
“Dude, I thought that Cora girl had way too much faith in you, but man I’m ready to get down on my hands and knees and kiss your feet right now. That was awesome!”
I chuckled and walked over to the wheel for the chains. “No need for feet kissing, we have more pressing matters right now.”
The minute I lowered her to the ground I found the key for the manacles and unlocked them. She immediately started rubbing the feeling back into her shoulders and wrists before grabbing her clothes and getting dressed. I was glad to see that the guy hadn’t gotten the chance to hurt her as badly as Eric had me.
I realised that she must have been around the same age as me when I got a proper look at her face. She had shoulder length black hair and pale blue eyes, she was extremely skinny and I wandered how long she had been a prisoner to these soldiers.
“So, where are we headed, are we getting the others out now?” She asked as she grabbed the now dead soldier’s machine gun.
“Oh, they are already on their way back to the hotel, they’ve probably made it back by now actually. We should get going.” I started for the door, but when she didn’t move I stopped and looked at her questioningly.
“A guy called Lucian doesn’t lead that hotel by any chance does he?”
I frowned. “Yeah, why?”
She swallowed. “A guy came in here earlier and spoke to this guy about sending the attack on the hotel, all the guards were going to have a meeting about it, but this guy stayed here obviously.”
I guess that explained the lack of guards in corridors anyway. “What sort of attack?” I asked. “What do you know about it?”
She shrugged. “Not a lot, but I know they were sending zombies, they said that the group was getting too strong and could become a threat so they had to be wiped out. They were sending them this afternoon since they would be unprepared for so many zombies in daylight.”
“Shit!” I yelled. “We have to get back, it’s probably too late to warn them now, but I can still help.”
She started following me out the door and down the corridor, but when I heard her footsteps stop I stopped and turned around.
“How are you guys doing for ammo and shit there?”
I shrugged. “We haven’t got a lot, but we get by why?”
She grinned. “What would you say if I could lead us to a truck that we could take back filled with ammo, guns and explosives?”
I grinned back. “I’d say lead the way.”
I was glad that she was doing the leading and that she seemed to know where she was going because it would have taken me so long to find my way out of there since I wasn’t really sure how I had finally reached it in the first place.
The guards must have still been doing their meeting thing because we didn’t come across anyone until we reached what must have been the car garage where two men were standing watch. We each shot one without hesitation before Bethany lead the way inside. As she had said there was a huge truck completely full with all kinds of weapons.
“How did you know about this?” I asked.
She grinned. “That guy spent more time talking with other guys than he did torturing.”
“Hmm, I guess we should have thanked him for this b
efore I killed him.”
“Keys!” She exclaimed after opening the drivers side door and pulling down the sun visor.
I grinned and started to climb in, but paused as I caught sight of a blue sports car. I had no idea what type it was, I wasn’t really good with car names, but I knew it was fast and fast was exactly what we needed to get to the hotel in time, but we also needed the weapons.
Bethany grinned at me. “Go, I’ll bring the truck.”
“Thanks.” I said before giving her quick directions to the hotel.
Luckily she was familiar with the town so it didn’t take much explaining before I was heading over to the car, climbing in and starting it up with keys also found in the drivers side sun visor. They were way too overconfident that no one would escape. I checked the gas glad to see that the guards had been nice enough to fill it up for me and revved it. It resulted in a guttural echo around the garage before dying down again. I grinned, I had never driven a car like this, but I had always wanted to. Not knowing the names didn’t mean I couldn’t appreciate a good car when I was in it.
I glanced in the wing mirror to see Bethany chuckling and shaking her head at me as she started the truck. Realising the garage door was still closed I ran over to the control panel next to it and pressed the up button before running back and climbing back into the car. We had to wait less than two minutes before the door had risen. Eager to drive this car, get out of here before guards came running and get back to the hotel I stuck my foot down and shot out of the car garage. It took me a few seconds to get my bearings and figure out which side of the building I had come out of.
When I discovered it was the back I braked before turning around until I was heading in the direction of the hotel. It didn’t take long for me to leave the truck behind and as I had suspected the car was amazing to drive. The abandoned cars on the road were obstacles, but I dodged every one of them without a problem. If speed limits had still been in place I would have broken every single one, I drove the hell out of that car determined to get back as fast as I could.
Even if I hadn’t known that I was close to the hotel the fact that there were a lot of zombies in the area would have been a big give away, I didn’t stop though, I drove straight through them. The damage it was causing to the bodywork of the car made me wince, but a damaged car was the least of my problems right now. It wasn’t long before the road was so thick with zombie bodies that the car was surrounded.
The clearing in front of the hotel was just up ahead, who knew how long it would take these zombies to break through the doors? I revved the engine, put it in gear and stuck my foot down, it was like a rocket shooting through the zombies. It sliced through them like butter as if they were little more than an inconvenience. The only way of telling when I reached the centre of the clearing was by the approach of the hotel out of the top of my windscreen. It was an estimate, but it was all I was going to get, I kept my foot on the accelerator as I braked and jolted the steering wheel to the side until I was donuting the car.
Just as I had expected it spun round in circles taking zombies out with the back end of it with every turn keeping them at bay. It was only then that I realised it had been stupid not to get some weapons off of that truck. I still had my machine gun and sniper, but I wasn’t sure how many bullets were left and I was now trapped in an army of zombies.
Like all car donuts, it eventually came to a stop and the engine cut out. Before the zombies could approach I opened the door, climbed out and scrambled on top of the roof before I took aim and shot zombies in the head left, right, centre and back. They dropped dead creating a low wall with their bodies making the progress of the other zombies slower as they tried to get to me, but it wasn’t nearly enough and it wasn’t long before my bullets ran out.
I threw the machine gun down and lifted up my sniper, which was absolutely shit for close range. After one shot though I discovered that it didn’t help when there was only one bullet left in the damn thing either.
“Shit!” I yelled before hitting a zombie over the head with the butt when he got too close.
Now was the time to run for it, but where the hell could I run to? I looked around, the closest escape route was a ladder to a roof of a building close by, but there were at least four zombies between me and it and I had nothing to kill them with. I was being surrounded on all sides though, it was either take the risk or stand there and get eaten. The choice wasn’t a hard one, using the sniper as a barricade between me and the zombie’s mouths I ran over the bonnet of the car and shoved towards them. It felt like pushing my way through twenty of the damn things even though I knew it was four and they almost bit me so many times that I lost count.
When I reached the ladder I turned around and threw the sniper towards them forcefully giving myself the small amount of time needed in order to get up the ladder without being dragged down. Quickly turning around I grabbed the highest bar of the ladder I could and yanked myself up. I thought I was out of reach when my foot was grabbed. My arms were already so weak that they could barely hold my weight up as it was. Expecting them to hold the weight of a zombie too was just a bit much.
My fingers were slipping on the bar, I kicked downwards hard knowing that I had only seconds. I felt my foot collide with the zombies head and it let go, not wanting a repeat of that I forced myself up a few more bars before slowing down and struggling to make it to the top. My whole body was trying to shut down, I needed food, I needed water, I needed sleep and I was in so much pain that breathing was even difficult, but I refused to give in. Giving in had never been an option with me and it wasn’t about to become one.
I climbed onto the roof when I reached the top of the ladder, my legs were too weak to hold me up for long though and I felt my knees hit the ground before I leant forwards trying to catch my breath. It was like the air was low in oxygen and I couldn’t quite pull in enough to breathe properly.
“Focus Taylor.” I whispered to myself.
I had, had panic attacks before, they felt like I was starving of oxygen and I made it through them, this was just the same. Well, almost the same, I hadn’t been in unbearable pain during the panic attacks.
“Mckenize, look out!” My head snapped up and I looked towards the hotel at the sound of Lucian’s voice.
I caught a glimpse of him standing at the window of the top floor where room 215 was before I noticed the zombie about two feet behind me having just climbed the ladder. When the hell had zombies started climbing ladders, stairs they could climb, but ladders? That was completely new and I can’t say it was an improvement I liked.
Adrenaline kicked in and catching my breath was no longer a problem when the zombie dove towards me. I rolled over onto my back and kicked out towards him sending him stumbling backwards, but not far enough to stop him in his advance. After sitting up I shuffled backwards refusing to take my eyes off of him so he couldn’t sneak up on me and bite me. I moved my hands around me trying to find some kind of weapon, but unless the tiny pieces of gravel on the concrete were going to kill him I came up empty.
He pounced again so I kicked him in the jaw snapping his head back. The moment I did there was a whizzing sound followed by the sound of bullet sliding into flesh and he fell down motionless. I was panting and quickly got to my feet, it didn’t take me long to find the shooter. Lucian was standing at the same window with a sniper.
I grinned at him and gave him a thumbs up, he smirked in response, but then I was distracted by the sound of the truck Bethany was driving. She wasn’t surrounded by zombies yet, but I could see her on the outskirts of the army. Apparently she wasn’t as crazy as me and hadn’t driven into it trapping herself. Knowing that I needed weapons I ran across the rooftops away from the hotel.
When I was close enough that she could hear me I yelled her name as I ran down the closest fire escape. She saw me and redirected the steering wheel until she was headed in my direction. When she reached me I was far enough down to make the jump onto the back of the tru
ck with ease. I rolled into the landing to stop myself from twisting an ankle or something equally stupid. She didn’t stop driving, if she stopped moving the zombies would be on us in seconds.
“Man, we have some serious zombie killing to do!” Bethany shouted.
“That we do.” I agreed as I started searching through the weapons. “Wow, there is so much here, this could do us for years even with the amount we are going to have to use to take these out.”
“How awesome am I?” Bethany asked and I could hear the grin in her voice.
I chuckled. “I’m thinking you’re pretty awesome right now.”
“So, what’s the plan girl?”
“I’m thinking, drive in and shoot the hell out of them.”
“You’re my kinda girl Taylor.”
I chuckled, but cut myself off as my eyes fell on a weapon just right for this situation. “Oh my God, I’m in love!” I gasped as I reached for it.
“Sorry, but I’m no lesbian.”
I snorted. “Not you, there’s a gatling gun!” I exclaimed.
“No way!”
“Yes way, ok plan is drive in I take out as many as I can with this baby. Then we grab swords or whatever and take out the remaining undead bastards.”
“Ok, you ready?” She agreed and I could hear the excitement in her voice. She got as much enjoyment out of killing these things as I did.
I grunted as I lifted the heavy gun into position and shuffled towards the back of the truck. My joints screamed in agony at the effort it took, but I took no notice and loaded the gun making sure more reloads were close by.
Demon Hotel (Zombie Apocalypse Series, Book 1) Page 18