Demon Hotel (Zombie Apocalypse Series, Book 1)

by C. M. Chidgey

  A knock at the door made me jump before Lucian asked. "You ok in there Blondie?"

  Dammit, I still hadn’t thought of a reason for being in here, what the hell was I supposed to say?

  "Yeah, I'm fine." I called.

  Great, I had just told him I was fine, now what reason did I have for being in here a really long time? I was such an idiot. He didn't reply though so maybe he would just leave me to it. At least I thought he would until ten minutes later he knocked the door again asking if I was ok.

  "I'm fine." I snapped angrily, still frustrated with myself for not thinking of any good reason for being in here.

  I heard Lucian sigh before asking. "Ok Mckenzie, what did I do now?"

  Instead of keeping my mouth shut like any sane person would have done I burst out. "Oh, let me think. First you keep kissing me when you have a girlfriend and then your girlfriend turns up at the door and you don't even care, you just go and talk to her and then come back probably expecting more kisses. I don't know what planet you're on Adams, but cheating is wrong and I don't intend to be a part of it so just go away. You can't just mess with two women, we have feelings you know?"

  He chuckled on the other side of the door, which just pissed me off more making me keep talking.

  "It's not funny Adams! You can't just kiss women when you feel like it, kisses mean things to people. I'm pretty sure it means something to Elizabeth when you kiss her, but it obviously means nothing to you."

  "And you?" He asked.

  "What about me?"

  "Do the kisses mean anything to you?"

  Shit, why did I have to say that, how was I supposed to answer that? I was glad that he couldn't see through the door to see my mouth hanging open before I burst out.

  "It doesn't matter about me Adams, I'm not the one you're cheating on."

  "That didn't answer the question Mckenzie."

  "No." I choked out. "The kisses mean nothing."

  The words even sounded fake to my own ears, how could I expect him to believe that? I closed my eyes trying to hold back the tears, I really needed to stop crying around him. The control on my emotions had been strong until I had come here, but when he was around tears just seemed to come whenever they wanted.

  "Ok, but for the record, Elizabeth isn't my girlfriend, she never was." Lucian said through the door.

  "What?" I asked in shock wiping away tears that refused to stop. "I've seen you together Adams, it's not exactly something you can hide."

  "And how many times have you actually seen us really together Tink?" I frowned and tried to think about it, I had seen them hugging and stuff, but the only time I had actually witnessed them together was that time I had caught them in bed. "Once." Lucian answered the question for me. "We slept together once, we were both in the mood so we did it, no feelings were involved. Most of the single people here have one night stands Mckenzie."

  He could be telling the truth, I mean why would he lie about that? People had one night stands all the time before the apocalypse so why shouldn't they now?

  "But I saw her come out of your room loads of times and she's always hugging you and stuff." I muttered trying to hide the sound of my crying, what the hell was wrong with me? I had to stop it.

  "She's in charge of the children, she's always telling me about things they need. They take a lot of looking after and as for the hugging, she's a friend Blondie and I'm a guy, she isn't a tough fighter, the zombies freak her out and she feels safe with someone who can protect her. We have no feelings for one another beyond friendship."

  I stayed quiet as the insistent tears continued to roll down my face, I didn't know what to say to that. What was I supposed to say? I felt kind of stupid now for shouting about him cheating and I felt even more stupid for running away that night when Elizabeth walked out of his room and for yelling when he was with Elizabeth when I had to fight the zombies alone. There were so many things I had done that I felt like an idiot for now. My heart was even stupid for getting broken unnecessarily, he had never been with Elizabeth like that. Did that mean that the kisses meant something to him though or was I just another person he wanted as a one night stand?

  "Are you going to unlock the door?" He asked.

  "In a minute." I choked out.

  There was no way I was going to let him see that I had been crying, I would have to wait until these annoying tears decided to stop.

  He sighed. "I know you're crying Blondie, just let me in."

  Well, so much for that idea. Since he knew I didn't see much point in keeping the door between us so I got to my knees and turned the lock on the door before sitting down again. He opened it just enough for him to slip through the gap before closing it again. Without a word he sat down on the floor next to me and pulled me into his arms.

  It felt even better to be in his arms now that I knew that he wasn't with Elizabeth. The feeling of wrongness that I had felt before was absent now that I knew he hadn't been cheating on her. I still didn't know if I meant anything to him, but I didn't any longer feel guilty for having feelings for him. Without hesitation I cuddled up to him and let my completely pointless tears fall silently.

  "You don't even know why you're crying, do you Tink?" He murmured against my head.

  I snorted and admitted. "No, I never cried until I came here. I blame you Adams."

  He chuckled. "Really? Because I distinctly remember never making you cry no matter what I did Mckenzie."

  "You don't make me cry." I mumbled. "You just make me feel safe enough to let myself cry."

  He kissed the top of my head. "I'll always keep you safe. Well as safe as I can, with how stubborn you are you do make it a little difficult."

  I grunted, glad that the tears were no longer falling. "Don't tell me what to do then and I won't have to be stubborn about it."

  "It's not like I tell you what to do just for the sake of it Blondie."

  "And I don’t ignore you just because I feel like being stubborn." I responded.

  He sighed. "Ok, so we both have reasons for what we do. Are you ok now because I should go and take a shower?"

  "Oh yeah, that's it just rub in the fact that you can shower and I can't." I mumbled as I reluctantly pulled away from him so he could stand up.

  He chuckled as he got to his feet. "I'll be sure to let you know how good the shower was when I'm done."

  "Asshole." I grumbled as I stood up next to him.

  He smirked. "Don't worry, you only have to stink for a few days."

  I glared at him and punched him in the shoulder without thinking.

  "Shit!" He yelled grabbing his shoulder. "Thanks Mckenzie, I got shot you know."

  "Oh my God." I gasped. "I'm so sorry."

  His face changed from a look of pain to one of amusement as I sprouted out apologies and he interrupted me with a laugh before saying. "Just kidding, it's the other one. You should've seen your face though, it was a picture."

  "You're such a dickhead!" I yelled hitting him in the chest. "I should punch you in the bad shoulder just for that!"

  He kept chuckling and held his hands up in surrender. "I'm leaving now you crazy little fairy. I'll see you later Tinkerbell."

  "I'm not Tinkerbell!" I screamed after him as he slipped out of the bathroom and I heard him still chuckling when my bedroom door closed behind him.

  I let out a growl of frustration and stamped my foot on the ground. Why did he have to be so annoying? No one could drive me crazy like he could.

  Now that he was gone I decided to get dressed so I had a wash using the sink like I had the night before and pulled on some jeans and a top. It didn't take me long to decide to go down to breakfast, I was hungry since I hadn't eaten anything since leaving the basement the previous morning. After pulling on my boots I found that they helped to support my still tender ankle, but they didn't do a lot for my sore feet. I strapped on my weapons and made my way to the elevator before going down to the dining room.

  My foot had barely made it through the
doorway before something collided with me so hard that I stumbled backwards and winced as my side throbbed. I immediately went on the defence, but luckily I noticed that it was Cora before I pulled my sword out on her.

  "Taylor, you left, why did you leave? I can't believe you left us, but I'm glad you came back. Are you ok? I heard you got stabbed, is that true? Are you staying this time, you're not leaving again are you?" She showered me with questions after letting go of me not giving me a chance to answer any of them.

  "Cora, stop asking her so many questions or you'll make her leave." Edward said walking up next to her.

  She gave him a glare before turning her attention back to me as if expecting answers to everything, I couldn't even remember half of the questions already so I just answered the last one.

  "No Sweetie, I'm not leaving again."

  "Well, that's good to know." Bethany said strolling over to us. "You might let us know if you plan on it again though." She added with an expression on her face that told me loud and clear that she wasn't happy with me for just leaving.

  "Yeah." I mumbled looking away knowing what an idiot I had been for running especially now that I knew the reason I had run wasn't even true. "Sorry."

  "I know you went through a lot man, but try talking about it before you run ok?" She said sounding slightly less angry and more understanding.

  I gave her a hesitant smile, she thought I had run because of what Eric had done, I didn't see any harm in letting her believe that for now so I just nodded.

  She gave me a bright smile and slung an arm around my neck. "Come on girl, let's get some breakfast."

  "We're coming!" Cora announced grabbing my hand and Edward walked next to her.

  "Where's Peter?" I asked her.

  "He had to go on a scout, they need to do more scouting now with all of these extra people. They wanted to stock up on more food." She explained.

  "And more clothes." Edward added. "And some other stuff, girls are fussy, there's this one girl that is just bossy to everyone and demands stuff. She is so rude."

  "Yeah, she isn't very nice." Cora said.

  "I told them to just hit her." Bethany added.

  I snorted. "You can't tell them to hit her." Then I asked the twins. "Is she mean to you."

  Edward nodded and Cora said. "Yeah, but she's mean to everyone. Even Elizabeth who tries to take care of her even though she isn't even a child, she was just spoiled before the zombies came."

  I frowned. "How old is she?"

  Bethany snorted. "Eighteen."

  I raised my eyebrows. "Eighteen, spoiled and a bitch? Wow, sounds like the head cheerleader from my school." My jaw dropped and I stopped mid step as I looked across the dining room at someone arguing with Elizabeth. She had the same typical popular girl look going on with the exception of slightly worn clothes. Everything was perfect about her, perfect body, perfect face, and even perfect hair despite the whole apocalypse. "Oh hell, that isn't by any chance the girl in question?"

  "Yep, that's her!" Cora said.

  Bethany smirked. "Don't tell me, it is the head cheerleader?"

  I groaned. "It's either her or someone who looks a lot like her."

  "Her name's Susie." Edward said.

  "And has the same name as her." I added as I watched her stamp her feet and demand more clothes. "And has the same personality."

  "Yeah, ok I think that is a little too much in common for it not to be her." Bethany said. "Is she your friend?"

  I snorted. "She hates me and took great pleasure in being a bitch to me and she dated Lucian once. Has he seen her yet?"

  Bethany shook her head. "Nope, he hasn't been around much for any social time, he was looking for you, but he has heard plenty of complaints about her."

  I chuckled. "I can't wait to see his face when he sees her. She like stalked him for years, he finally gave in and went on one date hoping the stalking would stop, it didn't."

  Bethany laughed and Cora giggled, but Edward sighed and asked. "Can't we just kick her out with the zombies?"

  "Hmm, tempting as that sounds, I don't think we can."

  "Oh crap, she's coming over here." Bethany said.

  I looked up to see that she was right, I just sighed and waited to see what she had to say to me. She stopped in front of me before crossing her arms and scowling.

  "Why did you bring me to this dump? If you were going to rescue us, you should have at least had proper accommodations waiting for us."

  I raised my eyebrows at her in disbelief. "This is better than most people have it Susie, so appreciate what you've got."

  She glared. "I don't care what most people have, this is pathetic, we have old clothes, rationed food and water and not even enough hot water for a bath."

  She was pissing me off already and she had only spoken a couple of sentences. "Well consider yourself lucky that you have changes of clothes and any food or water and you can't have a bath so what? Take a damn shower."

  "Yeah, you always were the sort of person who would settle for shit." She muttered. "You never hung out with the right sort of people or anything, it's the apocalypse, you should be getting rid of the people who aren't perfect and giving better care to the people who are more worthy of rebuilding the human race. Instead this place is just full of anyone."

  A switch inside me flipped from annoyed to out of control angry in a second and I started yelling. "The only person not worthy of being here is you, you pathetic little bitch! You may think you can just come in here and treat people as if you are better than them, but I've got news for you, you will not mistreat anyone in this place and if I ever see you so much as look at someone the wrong way or even dare to complain about what you have then I swear to you, you will be back in that cell at that camp with the soldiers quicker than you can apologise do you understand me?"

  She snorted. "You can’t do anything to me and neither can these useless people."

  I grabbed her by the front of the shirt, drew my sword and pressed it against her neck quicker than she knew what was happening. "You fuck with these people, then you fuck with me and you really don't want to fuck with me because believe it or not I will make you pay and you won't like my methods so suck it up and at least attempt to be nice or you may just find yourself stuck in a dark alley surrounded by hungry zombies with no way out."

  Her face had paled now and she stuttered out. "Y-y-you wouldn't d-do that."

  "Try me." I growled in a threatening voice that couldn't be misunderstood as meaning anything other than I would definitely do that making her eyes go wide. After a few seconds of silence from her and everyone else in the dining room I added. "Now are you going to be nice or am I going to be committing a murder before breakfast?"

  She gulped. "I-I'll be nice."

  "Good." I said shoving her away from me forcefully and sliding my sword back in it's sheath.

  The second she was out of my grip though she just had to add. "You can't do anything to me anyway, I heard Lucian leads this place, he won't let you touch me."

  "Hmm, you should know that I have no control over what this one does." Lucian said arriving next to me.

  Susie's eyes lit up at the sight of him an she seemed to forget about the conversation we had just had. "Lucian, I'm so glad you’re here."

  I snorted as she fluttered her eyelashes at him and flipped her hair. Lucian frowned in annoyance at her and quickly retreated saying. "I have somewhere to be."

  Susie followed after him asking to go with him and I chuckled.

  "Wow, you're right she is a stalker." Bethany said.

  I shook my head in amazement, everyone was talking and eating again by now so I headed over to grab some breakfast, Danielle gave me a smile and told me she was glad to see that I was back as she handed over our food.

  "I'm glad to be back." I answered with a grin.

  "Do you think she is really going to try and be nice now?" Cora asked me when the four of us were sitting at a table together.

  I shrugged. "Hope
fully."

  The others made small talk as we sat there and ate, I shoved the food down my throat probably quicker than I should have, but I was so hungry that I just didn't care.

  "You up for going on a scout Taylor?" Jack asked suddenly appearing next to me.

  "No, Lucian said no scouts for her until her stab wound has healed." Bethany answered before I could.

  I sighed. "As much as I hate him telling me what to do, I think he's right in this case, I'll let you know when I'm up to it Jack."

  "Why ask her man, do you know how pissed he would be with you?" Bethany asked him.

  Jack just shrugged. "I figured she could answer for herself."

  "And I can." I muttered. "He isn't the boss of me."

  I couldn't believe that he had people answering for me like that, I could decide things for myself. It made me want to agree to go on a scout just to piss him off, but the fact that I knew it would be stupid was the only thing keeping me from going against him just for the hell of it.

  Chapter 19

  We spent a lot of time in room 215 over the next week talking about better ways to defend the hotel when the soldiers came because none of us doubted that they would come at some point when Eric had told them what had happened. We expected them to send more too instead of the little groups they had been sending.

  Anyone who wanted to learn to fight spent most of the days training in the lobby, this time we didn't have real zombies to practice on since they seemed to be scarce in the area lately, but it didn't prevent them from becoming better at fighting. Me Bethany and Lucian took it in turns leading the training sessions since we were the best fighters there.

  I wasn't having the nightmares as frequently as I had been, but they still showed up every couple of days. My feet, ankle and stab wound in my side were barely bothering me anymore, but I had yet to go out on one of the scouts since there were more pressing matters here, everyone was tense and worried. We still had no real way to defend the place and we just didn't know when there was going to be an attack. Hours sitting at a table in a room didn't do anything for us except cause arguments, mainly between Lucian and I as usual.