A World Reborn: The First Outbreak

by Chris Thompson

  “Melissa Jones. I’m... I’m a guest and I’ve done something terrible.”

  “Ma’am, I’m sorry to hear that but it’s important for me to know: where did you get this radio?”

  Melissa swallowed and took a steadying breath before responding.

  “I took it off a man in a brown jacket. He works at the hotel I think. Worked.” Melissa corrected.

  “Does he have a name tag?”

  Melissa looked at the body. He was on his side, so Melissa nudged his shoulder until he was flat on his back. She saw a small, metallic gold nametag with words ‘Kyle – Security’ written on it.

  “Someone named Kyle, from security.” Melissa told him. The man on the radio was silent for a few moments.

  “My name is Roy Snipes, and I’m the Chief of Security. I need you to tell me what happened to Kyle. Do you know?”

  “I killed him.” Melissa admitted quickly.

  “What happened?”

  “He was eating,” Melissa paused and caught her breath before continuing, “eating someone down the corridor. He saw me and came after me. He... he wouldn’t leave me alone. I think he wanted to kill me, so I used a fire extinguisher.”

  “What did you do with the fire extinguisher?” Roy quizzed.

  “I bashed his skull in, what do you think I did with it?” Melissa snapped, her anger rising at what she thought of as a stupid line of questioning, momentarily replacing the guilt she was feeling over having murdered someone. Again, the line went silent for a while.

  “Okay, Melissa. I’m sorry you had to do that, but there’s some kind of outbreak going on in the hotel. The best thing you can do is go back to your room, lock the door and stay there until help arrives.”

  “Outbreak? What kind of outbreak? What’s happened?”

  “Ma’am, I think it’s best—”

  “Don’t you ma’am me! I want to know what the hell is going on!” Melissa snapped back scornfully, rising quickly and angrily to her feet. Her feelings of guilt were completely subdued now, both by her anger and her confusion; especially knowing someone was hiding something from her.

  “Listen, I understand you’ve gone through an ordeal, but it’s really better for you to just go back to your room and sit this thing out.” Roy rebutted.

  “I’m with the press. If you don’t want to come out of whatever this thing is as the person who tried to hide the truth from the public, you’d better tell me what happened and why I just had to crush someone’s skull with a fire extinguisher!”

  Melissa had inadvertently paced towards the junction away from the elevators, and suddenly heard the elevator ding behind her, signalling its arrival on her floor. She spun on her heels and started moving towards it.

  “And you better talk quick, the elevator just arrived.”

  “Melissa, don’t get on the elevator! You’ll be trapped!” Roy started yelling over the radio, but Melissa was already approaching the opening elevator doors. As she did, she saw two people coming out; their skin was pallid and their eyes were milky just like the man she had been forced to kill. They were covered in blood, from their mouths to their hands and their clothes. And they were shuffling out of the elevator, moving just as Kyle had. Melissa stopped in her tracks and tried to retreat back around the corner before they saw her. Her heart was racing and panic was pulsing through her veins, but she had to know if they’d seen her; had to know if she was in fresh danger, so she carefully peeked back around the corner in time to see another three exiting the car.

  “Melissa!” Roy called out over the radio, and the sound caught the attention of the five bloody, sick looking people. One saw her peeking eye and grunted, increasing the speed of his shuffling as he turned towards her.

  Melissa broke into a blind run, hurrying towards the right side corridor. She moved quickly, hearing a chorus of moans and grunts disclosing the other sick looking people had been alerted to her presence. As she rounded the corner, she saw a scene of utter carnage. Doors were open, blood was sprayed across the walls and the cream coloured carpet, and, most pressingly, a half dozen more of the sick looking people were loitering there. They were moving towards the elevators, and when they saw Melissa they began to sing out their own terrifying groans and grunts. Even worse, they were approaching her quicker than the ones behind. More began to shuffle out of the rooms. It seemed like madness had overtaken the world while she slept. In a moment of confusion, Melissa briefly wondered if, in fact, her own previously fragile mental state had collapsed and she had slipped into insanity. She forced this thought away, knowing it wasn’t true and that she had to move. They were coming for her. Whatever sickness they had was making them aggressive; each one had a murderous look on their face and judging by their blood-soaked faces and clothing, they’d been consuming people just as Kyle had. If they caught her, the sickness would make them try to eat her, and of all the bad ways to die, she didn’t intend that to be the one that claimed her.

  Melissa turned and ran back through the junction, turning away from the elevators, and broke into a mad sprint down the central corridor, heading for the opposite side. She needed to reach the north side elevators and emergency stairs. Fleeing up the corridor, she saw room doors that had been broken into, and more people like the ones behind her emerging. Worse still, the noise and commotion seemed to be carrying up the corridor, and ahead of her, infected people were coming out of the doors or from the junctions to the corridors of rooms to the left and right of the one she was in now. She had to duck low to dodge a lunging grasp from one, and leap over the low grab of another. Eventually, slightly breathless, she reached the north side elevators... just as one opened and half a dozen of the infected sprang out at her running form. She ran on and then slammed into the door to the stairwell with her shoulder, wrenching the handle to open the door, stepping through and shutting it quickly behind her. She looked around for some way to block the door, but all she could see was the dull grey colour of the walls, and the stairs illuminated by the harsh florescent light.

  “Melissa!” Roy called over the radio.

  “Roy, they were in the elevator!” Melissa replied frantically.

  “I know. They’ve been distributed amongst all the floors of the hotel because the elevators are stopping on every floor.”

  “What?” Melissa demanded. It didn’t make any sense, but she didn’t hear Roy’s response. One of the infected slammed into the door, and whether it was because of the force of the impact or because Melissa hadn’t shut it properly, the door burst open. Melissa, caught by surprise, was clipped by the door and tumbled forward, to land with a jolt between the stairs leading up and down. She dropped the radio and sent it skidding off to her right, stopping near the stairs leading up. She rolled onto her back and looked up: three of the sick were approaching her, two men with a woman bringing up the rear. The closest was literally about to drop on her. She rolled to the right to dodge his lunge and his inertia sent him tumbling down the stairs behind her. The second shuffled faster to close in on her, while the third stumbled and fell onto her hands and knees; where she immediately reached out to try to grab Melissa’s feet. Melissa pulled her legs back quickly and managed to scramble up onto her knees. Within seconds of completing the movement, the second male infected moved forward to wrap his hands around her throat. She reacted without thinking and punched him as hard as she could in the gut, but he didn’t seem to feel it; he just continued to approach her. She punched him again and again, the force of the blows pushing him back slightly each time. She used the slight window of opportunity to stand up, and then she grabbed one of his arms and yanked him hard, twisting to throw him down the stairs to join her first adversary. He fell with an almost comical moan, his body slamming into each stair and ushering forth a bone-breaking crunch. Melissa didn’t have a chance to catch her breath as she felt the woman’s cold, clammy hands around her ankle. She looked down as she struggled to free herself from the sick woman’s grasp, horrified to see that the woman was dragging
herself forward to sink her teeth into the warm flesh of Melissa’s leg. Melissa couldn’t get free, so she twisted and brought her other foot down as hard as she could on the back of the sick woman’s head; once, twice and then a third time. It stunned her, and Melissa felt the grip loosen around her ankle. She pulled her leg free and moved quickly towards the radio. She scooped it up and looked over her shoulder. The crawling woman was moving towards her, and another two sick people were now in the doorway. Roy was calling her name, begging for an answer, but Melissa didn’t have time. She started up the stairs, not really knowing where to go, but anywhere would surely be better than here. Melissa felt her back pocket as she mounted the stairs two at a time and felt the key card for her door still snugly sitting there.

  She quickly reached the thirty-second floor and opened the door, slamming it behind her as she went through. She took a quick look around and wondered if any of the rooms were occupied. If they were, the people had to be warned, but what exactly could she say to the occupants?

  “Roy I’m on the thirty-second floor.” Melissa said into the radio. “I don’t know what to do. They’re in the stairwell behind me, and I’m pretty sure they’re on their way up here.”

  “You should be fine. They seem to have lost some mental function. Some of my guys noticed they get stuck behind doors they can’t simply push open. The only danger is if there are a lot of them and they pressure the door and break it down. Were there that many?”

  “Well hell, I don’t know.” Melissa declared curtly. She hadn’t taken a good look at them, and wasn’t even entirely sure they had followed her up the stairs. A loud thump on the door behind her made her jolt forward; they certainly had followed her. Another pair of thumps followed, and then a final one, which led to silence. She considered they may have lost interest, and so slowly turned and backed away, not making any noise to alert them to her presence.

  “I don’t think they’re going to try and pursue me.” Melissa whispered into the radio, continuing to move away from the door.

  “Get somewhere safe so we can talk.” Roy instructed. Melissa carefully crept through the corridors, looking for more people with the same sickness, but saw none. She retreated to her room, swiping the lock with the key card from her back pocket. She shut the door and leaned against it, gaining a little reassurance from its solidity. Her eyes drifted towards the mini bar; she practically ached for a drink.

  “Okay Roy, I think it’s time for you to tell me what’s going on.” Melissa said bluntly, moving to the mini bar, opening it, and grabbing one of the small bottles of whiskey while she waited for Roy’s response.

  “I honestly can’t tell you exactly what’s going on, but I can tell you what happened.” Roy answered, sounding unnecessarily cryptic to Melissa. He relayed what he’d seen on the security cameras; what had happened immediately after, with the complete loss of control of the computer system, and then proceeded to describe more recent events.

  “It was a blood bath. All of my security staff are dead, except for Donna who’s trapped in this damned security room with me. Hundreds of guests were bitten within the first hour, and the ones that didn’t get sick like the ones who bit them... they were torn apart. Jim said they were eaten alive. But I guess you saw that yourself.” Roy said, reminding Melissa of what she’d seen. Hearing this, Melissa cracked open the bottle and drank, and once it was empty, dropped the bottle on the floor.

  “So, what is it? Some kind of virus? Like, rabies or something?” Melissa quizzed.

  “Your guess is as good as mine. All I know is they injected themselves and then everyone they bit either got sick like them or... well...” Roy trailed off.

  “What’s the deal with the elevators?” Melissa asked.

  “After the malware finished whatever it was doing to the computer system, the elevator’s started running again, moving top to bottom, stopping on every floor. The people who stayed in the elevators were trapped when they reached the lower floors; whole families were trapped like fish in a barrel. Now the elevators are slowly distributing the infected people on all the floors. The chime from the elevator announcing the doors are opening either attracts them to board it when it stops or encourages some of them wander out. Kyle saw this while he was trying to warn everyone to stay in their rooms and not to open their doors, but it seems a few of the floors have already been overrun. One person gets bitten and starts screaming, people open their doors to come and help. The rescuers are bitten, and their screams summon more concerned guests; it’s like a chain reaction up and down the corridor. I’m sure there’re some people still alive on the floors that were overrun who simply barricaded themselves inside and stayed quiet, but I can’t imagine how many. Based on the last data we had, we’re estimating at least half of the hotel guests were either in the casino, on the floor above, or in the avenue leading to the pool complex. The people trapped outside, as far as we know, are safe from the hell unfolding inside but are trapped out there, as the external security gates are closed and locked. The ones who weren’t in those locations are either in their rooms or outside the Seraph complex altogether.”

  Melissa listened to what he was saying. It sounded crazy. If she hadn’t seen evidence of his account with her own eyes she would have thought it was a figment of his imagination. But what she had seen, she couldn’t deny.

  “How many of them do you think there are?”

  “Thousands, with the bulk of them on the casino and entertainment floor above, plus maybe a few hundred dispersed through the hotel itself. With the cameras out though, we can’t tell which floors they’re on.”

  “Great. Are the police on their way?”

  “If you’re in your room, you’re in a better position to tell me. Go to the window,” Roy requested, “and see if you can see any squad cars.” Melissa trotted over to the glass and peered out, trying to look down into the street.

  “I can’t tell. There is some kind of commotion in the streets, but we’re in Vegas, it could be anything.” Melissa informed him. “Listen, is there any way to get out of the hotel? Did the security shutters completely lock us in?”

  “Yes. We can’t even escape to the pool complex. The damned security gates have blocked every exterior door.”

  “No external lines of communication?”

  “No, something’s blocking our cell phones and the external phone lines have been cut.”

  Melissa thought for a second. It didn’t make sense; the malware, the lockdown, the cutting of all lines of communication. Something else was going on here.

  “So, what’s the plan, Roy?” Melissa queried, going back to the mini bar and hastily grabbing another small bottle to drink.

  “I’m not sure there is a plan. Donna and I are trapped in this room. You’re on the thirty-second floor and all of my team members are dead or missing. There’s only one thing we could do, and I couldn’t ask you to do that.” Roy answered vaguely. Melissa finished her second drink and tossed the bottle beside its empty friend.

  “And what’s that, Roy?”

  “You’re a guest, a civilian; I couldn’t put you in danger.”

  “Roy, stop dancing around it and get to the point. I’m a big girl. If I don’t want to do it, I’ll tell you.” Melissa snapped.

  “If you could get to the roof, there are some emergency supplies up there. Flares, a radio, things that people trapped on the top of the building by a fire might need to signal for help. If you could get to it, perhaps you could inform the emergency services.”

  “Also, if you have a cell phone you might be able to call out from up there; whatever is disrupting the signal may not have an effect that far.” A female voice called out, and Melissa assumed this was Donna.

  “Are there likely to be any of the infected up there?”

  “To be quite honest, Melissa, I don’t know. I can’t know. The elevators have been running for a few hours and the ones that are on the north and south side have stopped at the top a few times. All the executive suites
were booked by a private party, who were expecting a large number of visitors, so if whatever happened down here happened up there you could be walking into fifty or more of these infected people.”

  “Great.” Melissa commented dryly.

  “If you want to stay in your room where it’s relatively safe, I sympathize and completely understand. At some point, the emergency services will realize what’s going on and send help. I can only advise you to barricade your door, stay quiet and keep calm.”

  Melissa considered what he had said then gave considerable thought to what she should do. On the one hand, going outside was obviously dangerous. She’d been forced to kill one of them and the others she’d encountered had been vicious, single-minded killers. And, as apathetic as she’d been since returning from the warzone, she didn’t want to be bitten or, worse still, eaten. She flipped the scenario around in her mind. There were people trapped in their rooms, some of whom were certain to attract the attention of the sick inadvertently. Roy had admitted they could break down doors, that families had been killed. Melissa couldn’t help but wonder how many people had been warned to stay inside their rooms; how many families? She thought back to what she’d seen in Africa; the horrors of war which had plagued the country of Galgambwe. Briefly, she recalled what had happened on the night that had practically destroyed her; how she’d been forced to take a life for the first time. She’d done it not just to protect herself, but to protect others. She’d fallen into a rut afterwards, but she had had the strength in that moment of necessity to do what she had to do. Melissa considered her options again. She could stay and hide and hope they never made it to her floor, and if they did, that they weren’t attracted by a sound she made accidently and forced their way in to kill her. On the other hand, she could disregard the danger to herself and try to get help, even though she might die trying. It was a risk, but by the sound of things, she was the only one in a position to try.

  “Melissa, are you still there?” Roy questioned over the radio, not for the first time since she’d retreated to her musings.