“The last thing I saw before the TV went dead was a woman talking about how there were some new reports about this thing spreading to Fairbanks and maybe even to Vancouver and Seattle. By that time, most of the folks in the hotel decided it was time to leave. Some came down to the front desk to check out, but most just left. The parking lot went from full to empty in about an hour. Most just ran off without any place to go or plans to get there. They was just runnin’. All them folks from outta town...from the Lower Forty–eight took off but where was they gonna go? Not like they could just drive to home or safety or nothin’. I didn’t know where they was headed and they prob’ly didn’t know neither. It was just good enough for them to be headed and so that’s what they did. They all just disappeared. A few families stuck around the hotel. I guess when they got to thinkin’ about where to run, they realized that there wasn’t much runnin’ to be done. Maybe they was hopin’ that all the troubles would stay in Anchorage or that maybe someone would swoop on down to save ‘em.
“All the ladies that worked the front desk was gone too. The last to go was the manager. He was some young guy...just a kid who had a degree and a connection through his family to get the job. Least, that’s what everyone say ‘bout him. He was nice enough. I ain’t never seen him sweat until that day. Well, I guess before some big time manager was up from the Lower Forty-eight, he was a little worked up but nothin’ like that morning. This was somethin’ different and I could see it in his face. He was scared and wasn’t puttin’ no effort into hiding it.
“He took me aside and gave me his keys. You know, the ones that open every door. I had a master key that opened all the guest rooms and the utility and laundry rooms, but his keys opened every door. He said that I could stay at the hotel with the guests who was stayin’ too. He told me to take care of things, but I could tell he didn’t care one way or t’other. He just wanted to be gone. It was hard for Steve to be so young and so scared at the same time. He was so used to being invincible and powerful. I think maybe he was thinkin’ his fear was making him less of a man or something, but that didn’t stop him from runnin’ out to his little black car and drivin’ hisself on outta that parking lot without ever lookin’ back.
“By the end of the day, it was just me and a few families. They was all from somewhere out East, travelin’ together... the typical dream vacation to Alaska.”
Neil and Meghan gazed sympathetically at Jules and Danny, who had come into their company in much the same way.
Under her breath, Della’s thought found her voice and she said, “Dyin’ together too I guess. Them poor folks.”
Della felt all the eyes back on her again. She chewed her lip, revealing for the first time any hints of frailty. She scratched her neck lightly and rubbed her chin. “At the hotel, we got ourselves comfortable. We had lotsa food...mostly breakfast sausage and muffins and such. We just waited. A few nights into it, the lights went out. We knew it was coming, but it took us all by surprise. The hotel’s got a generator but we decided we would wait until the morning to turn it on. Turned out to be a good idea. I guess them things started to come into Soldotna. We heard a buncha’ screaming and then some shootin’. The hotel was dark, so it all just passed us by but it sounded horrible. By the time it was to full steam, when all them folks was screaming and shootin’ and dyin’, and no matter how far we went into that hotel, we couldn’t seem to get away from it. The noise shook the whole hotel. It was like we was in a earthquake or somethin’. I ain’t never heard nothing like it and hope I never do again.
“We blocked off the front doors and the windows, but they was big doors with thick glass. We thought they would hold most everything out, so we wasn’t worried. We had lights when everything was dark. We had food. And we had security, we thought. We was such fools.
“A few of them things came around. They made a mess of the glass on the front doors but that was about it. We hung some sheets over the glass so that the things couldn’t see us and we couldn’t see them. There was a buncha kids with us, I think nine in all, and they didn’t need to be lookin’ at those demons. I ain’t never seen nothin’ like it. Like I said though, we didn’t pay them no mind. If that was as bad as it was going to get, well...it wasn’t.
“About a week later, we heard some motors comin’ up the road toward us. We’d heard motors before, but always during the day. This was a little bit after sunset. A coupla’ the moms thought that maybe it was all over and help had finally come. I knew better. I tole’ ‘em all that them motors didn’t sound like the type of thing the military or government would be using. Those motors only sounded like trouble to me. None of ‘em listened to me though, like I was some kind of a fool or somethin’. I just went and found me a place to hide. I didn’t want no part of whatever was comin’.”
The grisly conclusion of her tale was halted when Della gazed over at the two young children in her charge and thought better of it. Her face was as rigid and warm as stone, but her eyes glistened with soft, tender kindness. She continued more quietly, seemingly carrying on the conversation directly with the fire in front of her, “I don’t know fo’ sure what happened. From my spot in the luggage closet, it sounded a lot like the way it did on the road in front of the hotel those first few days. I heard runnin’ and screamin’ and shootin’ and even some beggin’. It sounded like them nice folks was goin’ through hell. I guess it don’t take much imagination to figure what happened. It was done and over so quick.
“Whoever they was didn’t leave much behind. I think I heard a few of the younger moms and maybe some of the kids being taken along. When it got quiet enough for long enough and I thought it was safe, I took a look around. The food was all gone. What they didn’t take was scattered all over the floor and on some of the furniture in the lounge area. They took all the diesel for the generator too. They left behind quite a mess though, and the food on the couches was just the start. Windows and doors were smashed and someone had sprayed a fire extinguisher down the hallway. They even sprayed some graffiti on the walls. I understand the food and the fuel but the rest of it, especially the graffiti.... I guess I just don’t get some folks is all. Things weren’t messy enough already?
“There was a coupla’ bodies floating in the little pool. Their skin was as white as a linen sheet. Whatever little bit of color bleached right out of ‘em by the chlorine in the water. There was three or four more bodies out in the parking lot. Their hands were tied behind their backs and they had plastic shopping bags over their heads. I didn’t look close enough to tell if they’d been shot and the bags were just their version of an executioner’s blindfold, or if they had been smothered by the tight plastic. Don’t matter much no how.
“In a room on the main floor, I found two moms in beds. I don’t even want to tell you how I found them poor ladies. God rest their souls. I decided I was gonna leave the next day as early as I could. I just planned to go to my trailer and see what happened next. I looked around for anything that them others might have left behind by accident. I wasn’t never comin’ back to the hotel, so I wanted to make sure that I grabbed whatever I could. I found me some chips and cookies hidden in the break room by one of the desk girls. In the locked manager’s desk drawer, I found me some canned breakfast drinks and some energy drinks too. Never much took to either of those, but I knew that it would come in handy down the road.
“I went into the laundry room to see if anything in there might be helpful. I wasn’t plannin’ on gettin’ anything useful from in there but I looked anyway. I mean, what would I possibly need with clean sheets?”
Claire interrupted with a prolonged sigh of longing, “Cleannnnnn sheeeeeets.”
Della continued without losing pace. “I opened the door and these two little heads popped up from inside one of the laundry carts.” In a rare moment of levity, Della smiled through a slight chuckle. “Looked to me like a coupla’ prairie dogs, I swear they did. I grabbed ‘em and found a quiet room upstairs that wasn’t too bad where we could sleep
for the night.”
Della’s eyes expelled any humor and became serious and grave. “The next mornin’ was cold and wet on the other side of the window. I was thinkin’ maybe we could wait one more day. No point in leavin’ if it was goin’ to be nasty outside, especially since it was dry and not so cold in the hotel still. The little boy though, he said that he was hearing somethin’ that was making his head hurt and then the little girl said the same thing. And then I thought that maybe I heard it too. I don’t know how to explain it.”
“It’s okay,” Neil said. “We’ve all been through it too. We think that it, whatever it is, tends to affect younger ears much more than older ears.”
Della considered Neil’s assessment before she spoke. “I didn’t have as much time to figure that sort of thing out right then because all of a sudden there was some banging on the door and that sound got worse. Don’t know that I ever been so scared. I didn’t know what to do. The kids were cryin’ and I might’ve been too; I don’t know fo’ sure. If it was one of them bastards come back to finish the job, I wasn’t gonna give him the satisfaction. And if it was one of the things that was out in the street, well I wasn’t quite sure what I was gonna do. I didn’t have no weapons and I was afraid that if we tried to jump out the window...well, look at me and you know what I was worried about tryin’ to do that and them kids couldn’t drop that far without hurtin’ their selves neither.
“The thing at the door was gettin' a little more serious about it and was gettin’ louder and louder. I didn’t think we could out last it, so I had to do somethin’.”
Meghan wondered, “What did you do?”
Stretching her arms high over her head, Della paused, letting the difficult memories settle before speaking again. “I did the only thing I could think to do. I opened the door. The only thing I had in that room that I could use to protect myself was a fire extinguisher. So I locked the kids in the bathroom, got that extinguisher in my hands, and opened the door. The thing looked as surprised as I was that I’d done a fool thing like that. But that was what I was hopin’ for. I sprayed its face and knocked it back into the hallway. Then I swung that heavy, metal son of a bitch and hit the thing on his head. He just fell down, gurgled a bit, and then went limp. There wasn’t no other things in the hall but I knew that we didn’t have much time.
“I ran back in the room, got them kids outta the bathroom, and we ran out one of the side exits. There was more of them things in the Carrs parking lot across the street, but they didn’t see us. A little bit later, the kids started to complain that they could hear that noise again. We was movin’ slow, tryin’ to stay outta sight as much as possible, so we just waited.
“Coupla’ seconds later, we saw ‘em. There was maybe four or five of ‘em lookin’ in the windows of a service station. And then they started to get all...agitated and excited. They started to bang on the glass until I heard a scream from inside. All of a sudden a woman ran out the back of the building and down the direction we just come from and them things take off after her. A few seconds later, we heard another scream and then nothing else. Lucky for us, all those things chased after her, so we could get movin’ again.
“We spent the next few days just movin’ from place to place. We ate when we could, but mostly we just wanted to hide. We just laid low. Movin’ like that, from hiding spot to hiding spot, until we found DB.”
Della looked up at the darkening skies. “One of those days after we left the hotel, we saw some cycles that looked like maybe they coulda’ made the kind of noise I heard on the night that the hotel was attacked. They was big and shiny and, I bet, loud. The bikes was just sittin’ there in the middle of the road on their kick stands like they was horses waiting outside the saloon for their cowboy riders to return. They wasn’t abandoned though. They looked too particular and neat. They certainly looked out of place, like they didn’t belong. Lookin’at them, I kinda’ hoped that maybe God still had enough vengeance left in hisself to visit a little on some of those evil men. Maybe they had to answer for their sins after all. Truth be told though, them bikes coulda’ been sittin’ there since the beginning of all this hell on earth. It was fun to think that maybe there was still some justice left in this big, ole, broke world.”
“Back then, we seen some other folks still around. Normal folks, ya know. They was lookin’ around for food and such just like us. Some looked okay but I wasn’t chancin’ nothin’, so like I said, we just laid low.”
The story wasn’t anything new to any of them, other than the specific details. They had, unfortunately, lived through similar events recently and would hopefully continue to live through the harrowing times in front of them. Neil did have one question for her. He waited patiently until he was certain she was done speaking, and then inquired, “After all those days and all the other people, why DB? What was it about him that was different?”
Della sidestepped the question at first, letting it bounce away like an errant ball hit out of bounds. She wasn’t sure if she had an answer that would either satisfy his question or her own curiosity. If she were honest with herself, she would have to admit that there wasn’t a single factor that led her to trust the old man, but if there was one thing that she could name it would have to be the man’s eyes. There was no malice in the fading blue orbs. The wrinkles to either side of the light blue pools were honest and harbored no spite. They were eyes worthy of trust and so she had done that. She felt no compulsion to immediately answer Neil’s question, and decided in the end to leave it unanswered. She simply stirred the fire with another of the longer sticks and let the inquiry slip away from the conversation and disappear into the encroaching night.
But what did it really matter? She and those two kids were cold, hungry, and desperate for salvation when they happened upon the man, the boy and that old dog. She had thrown caution to the wind and put her faith in a complete stranger. By the grace of God, it had worked out and there she sat amongst these strangers as living proof of her successful gamble.
Finally, when everyone else had given up on hearing an answer, Della spoke defiantly, “Steve, if I knew I guess I’d tell ya. As it is, we here because we went with them two. That’s all. Nothin’ mystical or profound really. Steve just done his job and got us here.”
Emma’s eyes betrayed her exhaustion, despite the air of excitement around the camp. She said, “We all got stories about how we got here. Maybe we should put off any more of this until tomorrow. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I could sure use some sleep.”
Her suggestion was met with nodding heads, stretching arms, and yawning mouths.
Jerry stood with his rifle balanced across both of his shoulders. “You folks have been on the move all day. Maybe you should get some shut eye. Me and Claire and Meghan can keep first watch. We’ll get you up in a few hours to take over.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Neil said gratefully. “Thanks. I could use the rest.” He was exhausted and the spell of sitting had only made him understand that reality that much more clearly. His legs ached, and it felt as if he was wearing cement shoes.
He scanned the campsite and found his sleeping bag still rolled tight and anything but ready. He decided it was too much effort and so elected to simply zip his coat closed and cross his arms across his chest. He closed his eyes and let the calmness of the moment tempt him to sleep. When he felt his legs being lifted and moved slightly, he barely cracked his eyes to inspect the source.
It was Meghan. She was coaxing him as gently as possible into his sleeping bag. He complied, and was soon wrapped in down-filled comfort. Inside his warm cocoon, he was once again isolated with his thoughts. He thought about the day now behind them. He missed his friend Dr. Caldwell’s company and judgment, but, for a change, things seemed to be on an upward swing.
18.
“Neil. Neil.”
He was being shaken awake, but he resisted. Neil had been dreaming, or maybe more accurately described as remembering, in his sleep wh
ere memories weren’t forced to parade themselves through the filter of his conscious reality. He was revisiting his wedding day. The marriage notwithstanding, the actual wedding ceremony and, more specifically, reception were pretty good.
His recollection lacked clarity, coming to him as familiar yet hazy forms. It was like looking at a picture from a distance and through flowing water. All around him in a happy swirl were smiles and laughter, music and dancing, and, of course, the prospect of a lifetime of happiness and love. He relived his brother’s rambling but sincere toast, though the specific words, like the images, defied coherence. His parents’ approval, evident in the warmth of their presence, was perhaps the most fulfilling memory that graced his dream. And his bride...she was gorgeous. There was no other way to describe her. Her dark, elegant curls and soft, feminine features were enough to take his breath away on that day so long ago and were still stirring to him in his dream. He couldn’t have been more in love.
His dreamy reality, perfect and pristine, was interrupted by a voice, then by shaking and finally by a face floating above him. At first, the face was foreign and accompanied by a staccato beat resembling the sound of a thousand out of sync woodpeckers banging out a thousand confused rhythms all at once. This was not a face he remembered from his wedding and the noise wasn’t even a part of his hangover the morning after. The face was young but lacked naiveté and had hints of dirt and grime over its splotchy red cheeks. Recollection was slow, but when he finally recognized Jerry, his wariness raged to pure terror in an instant.
The near absolute darkness and the roaring cacophony all around further fueled his disorientation driving him nearly to a panic. The air kissed Neil’s cheeks with its cool, salty wetness forcing his breath deeper into his lungs. He could smell the moisture and realized that the woodpeckers were actually raindrops hitting upon the tarp that had been laid over him to keep him dry. Neil started to shuffle and move under the tarp, making a bit of noise in the process.
Alaskan Undead Apocalypse (Book 3): Mitigation Book 3) Page 9