“Who shot him?” Vince asked.
“I don’t know.” Neil said, he turned and faced the infected, “But they have us surrounded. They don’t want anyone getting out.” Neil slowly started walking toward a female with long brown hair. Her skin was pale and her face was nothing more than flesh, as if someone peeled her outer layer off to reveal a crimson mask underneath. Neil’s fingers went out to the woman and the tips slid along the cold wet surface of her face. “I can’t blame them. We’re all monsters.” Neil said.
“I’m not a monster.” Vince said as he watched Neil’s fingers dance along the red meat that was now the woman’s face, Neil’s hand curled into a fist and he snarled through clinched teeth,
“The whole human race is, they just don’t know it yet. ” Neil said. Vince’s eyes looked down at the carpet, “They take, and take, and take. No matter what the cost to those around them.” Neil said. Vince’s eyes glazed over the pack of infected. Some of them were staring at Neil but most of them were glaring at Vince. Teeth snapping.
“Why are they following you?” Vince asked.
“Me?” Neil asked. He looked around and shook his head. “They’re not following me. They’re following you.” Neil walked back over towards Vince and looked down at the short man. “I repulse them. They don’t want anything to do with me, but you and everyone else. You attract them.” Neil said. Vince rolled his eyes,
“The first time in years I’ve been attractive and it’s to some fucking zombies.” Vince said. He smiled at Neil, “That’s life, am I right?” he asked. Neil stared at him until Vince awkwardly looked away from the man, back toward the floor. “I know a way out of here.”
“The building is surrounded with snippers at ever vantage point.” Neil said.
“Yeah, but they can’t see where we’re going.” Vince said with a smile.
“You’re not worried about this virus getting out?” Neil asked.
“I’m more worried about it getting in me.” Vince said. He extended his hand, “You keep the freaks at bay and I’ll have you breathing the fresh air of freedom in thirty minutes.” Neil looked down at Vince’s hand and then grabbed it. They shook for a moment and then Neil stared Vince in the eye,
“Which way.” Neil asked.
“The kitchen and totally off the subject, how do you feel about small spaces?” Vince asked. The pair went off down the nearest stairwell leaving the infected standing among the dirty gray and black carpet.
Chapter 17
“If this is the end of the world. Like if this is it. What are you gonna miss the most?” Trinity asked. Christian’s head came up from between his legs. The stair well only had the one dim lightbulb from the exit sign shining down on them. He could see the light causing the sweat along Trinity’s cheek to make her skin glow. They sat there for a while in depression and silence. Trinity not even looking up from the floor, while Christian did all he could to avoid eye contact with Jorge. He sat right in front of Christian saying the same thing over and over,
“Get up, Mijo. You have to keep going.” Yet, Christian sat there unmoved by his father’s or his imaginary father’s pleas. Christian was so unfazed by it that he lowered his head, blocking everything out until Trinity spoke,
“I’ll go first. I’ll miss pizza, like the good kind with the white sauce. Oh and Netflix. I’ll miss my aunt. She was always good to me. I’ll miss you and Hec-” Trinity stopped herself. Her eyes blankly stared at the door. She had been rushing and fighting so hard that she hadn’t fully let it sink in till then, Hector was gone. They were all gone and soon enough Trinity and Christian were gonna join them. Just two more souls to walk among the dead. The building was clearly on lockdown and Trinity didn’t really know what happened to places that were quarantined but her YouTube conspiracy mind told her, they would set the place on fire and say there were no survivors. Her hands rubbed along her bare knees and she lowered her head, glancing back down at her black toenails.
“I never wanted to work here.” Christian said softly. Trinity’s eyes came up from the floor and fell upon him. “This was just gonna help me pay for school, until I found something better. ” Christian’s eyes went over toward Jorge, who sat on the floor staring unblinkingly at him. “I had a dream that I would get out of Austin and backpack across the country. Painting every beautiful thing I saw, my Pop hated that idea. He said I was being selfish. When I got hired here, it was just gonna be a stepping stone to that dream.” Christian’s eyes opened to see Jorge standing now,
“Get up Mijo!” Jorge shouted.
“I hated this place right off the bat. The pay sucked. The work was hard and fucking insulting at times, but then I walked into orientation and I saw you.” Christian said. Trinity smiled,
“Me?” She asked.
“I saw you smile when you said my name and I knew, I would do this shit job forever and a day if it meant I could see that smile again. Even if it was just in your employee of the month picture.” Christian looked over at Jorge, “No matter how bad things got at home or how shitty things got here, I could always count on that smile keeping me going. I didn’t want to travel and paint beautiful things, because I knew there wasn’t gonna be anything more beautiful than you.” Christian slowly pushed himself to his feet and rested his head on the wall, “I know it sounds crazy, but the whole world seems crazy these days. I don’t know what’s going on right now. It could be a killer virus or Revelations coming to life.” Christian cautiously moved closer to Trinity until he was standing in front of her. His hand went out and he felt her smooth skin slip into his. “But what I do know is every moment of being with you, has been the best moments of my life.” Christian said, his finger ran along the back of her hand, “I’ll miss a lot of things but I’ll miss that smile more than anything.”
“Damn,” Jorge and Trinity said in unison.
“Oh, when we get out of this…” Trinity pulled Christian closer by the back of his neck, her lips brushed against his and then she pressed them together. Christian’s arms wrapped around her and Trinity’s arms locked around his neck. They were lost in a moment that both had been waiting for, since the day they met. Trinity pulled away slowly and whispered, “I’m gonna rock your world.”
“When?” Christian asked, “What happened to the end of the world?”
“After that little speech, I’m willing to go a few more rounds with some zombies” Trinity said.
“Good, because I can’t keep running anymore.” Christian said.
“You don’t run,” Trinity said.
“Yeah I do. When things get hard, I run and I hide.” Christian replied. Trinity raised her right eyebrow,
“This is about the accident isn’t?” Trinity said, “You did everything you could have done Christian.”
“I just let them drive off. I should have stopped him. I knew something bad was gonna happen and I-“ Trinity’s hands rested on Christian face, her soft fingers rubbed along his cheek.
“You did nothing wrong and even if you did. There’s no changing what happened. All you can do now is keep living for him. Keep making him proud.” Trinity said. Christian’s eyes went over to Jorge and the salt and peppered haired man nodded and just as quickly as he appeared the man was gone. Trinity pulled Christian’s gaze back to her own, “When your brother wakes up his gonna tell you the same thing and the last thing his gonna need is to see you falling apart.” Trinity said.
“You’re right.” Christian said,
“I normally am.” Trinity replied with a smile. “Now you said Neil’s infected with the zombie alien virus right?” Trinity asked.
“Yeah, I didn’t use those words at all, but right.” Christian said.
“Well they must think this whole place is infected, that’s why they’re shooting. So maybe if we can let them know we’re okay-“
“It’s worth a shot.” Christian said. Trinity nodded and placed her hand on the cold doorknob leading into the west wing of the lobby. Christian’s hand went on hers. �
�Wait, what’s the plan?” Trinity shrugged.
“Walk out the front door with our hands up and pray they don’t shoot us.” Trinity said and Christian nodded,
“Yeah, because that’s worked a lot in the past.” Christian said.
“I’m gonna use the front desk radio and see if I can get a hold of someone.” Trinity said. Christian’s hand went over his heart and he sighed,
“Thank God, because I was gonna follow you regardless but I was gonna be extra pissed if we died.” Christian said.
“That cuteness is wearing off again.” Trinity said as she pulled open the door.
Chapter 18
“Condor to Alpha one!” Reed shouted into the two-way radio. The song of raindrops on the black fabric of the Jeep was the only answer he received. “Goddamnit!” Reed shouted. His fist beat against the hard back dashboard of the Jeep repeatedly. The bashing of his Knuckles was joined by a tap on the driver window. Reed’s head spun to the left to see a dripping wet red bush of hair. The red beard lowered to reveal two bright blue eyes and a black trucker hat. Reed rolled down the window and the rain started to slash along his hand. As the red head spit a large woad of black spit onto the wet ground,
“Any answer?” A deep southern slur came from the man’s lip. Reed shook his head and the man looked over into the distance. People in tactical gear rush along the parking lot. “The white coats are braking orders again.” The country boy said and In the center of the chaos was a black trailer. The two men stared at the trailer, Reed could see the CDC doctors arguing among themselves as he glanced at the open trailer door.
“What they want now?” Reed asked. The country boy folded his arms and leaned in on the window of the jeep.
“They want missiles in the air. Same shit, different tone.” The country boy said. Reed sighed and grabbed the handle of the door. He pushed and leaped from the jeep,
“Bobby, keep trying the radio.” Reed said.
“Shit boss, don’t go picking no fights with the eggheads now.” Bobby said with a smile. He hoped into the jeep and pushed down on the rubber black button. “Wonder Twins? This is Bobby over,” Reed continued through the pouring rain toward the trailer. His black dress shoes felt like sponges soaking up the water as he pushed along, when he was just two feet from the doorway he felt a hand slap into his chest. Reed’s eyes went down to the gloved hand of a young man in tactical gear.
“No one goes in. Doctor’s orders.” The young man said. Reed’s eyes didn’t lift from the gloved finger.
“Son if you don’t take your Goddamn hand off me-“ Reed shouted but his full colorful statement of how he planned on relocating his right foot into the young man’s ass was cut off by a light voice shouting out,
“What do you want Reed?” A woman in black rimmed glasses and a messy bun of brown hair stared at Reed from the door way. The raindrops created a hypnotic song throughout the parking lot, one that pushed Reed to say what he had wanted to say since this whole mess started. Since they cut the power and locked down the hotel. Since they told the news crew there was a gas leak. Since he lost contact with his team.
“I want my men on the ground-“
“No.” The woman said and turned back around.
“You sent us in there blind!” Reed shouted.
“I told you there were risk!” The woman shouted.
“What you didn’t tell me was that fucking risk was a damn zombie outbreak!” Reed shouted. His words echoed through the park lot. All eyes fell upon him, what was once an area of hustle and bustle was now a museum of statues all staring at Reed. There were whispers of what was going on behind the hotel doors. Terrorist, white nationalist, an everyday nut job with a gun collection, all were thrown around but below all those whispers was a rumor that had been running around for a month now. A rumor of Russians being attacked, being eaten, and being hunted by the dead. There was something unexplainable going on in Russia which was why the world closed their doors to it, no one in and no one out. Full lock down only the highest of high ups knew what it really was. Reed wasn’t on that level but he was high enough to know zombies weren’t fiction, not anymore.
“There are no such thing as-“ The woman was cut off by Reed’s booming voice.
“Fuck you!” Reed shouted, the young man pushed Reed back only to be met with a right hand to the jaw. The young man and all his gear crushed to the wet ground and when his eyes finally rolled up towards Reed, they connected with the barrel of Reed’s weapon. “Stay down son.” Reed said softly. Reed listened as boots started to shuffle and charging handles were pulled back.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” The woman asked.
“You white coats pulled me out of retirement and told me I was going to do good for my country. I sat at a big ass desk and spit that same lie into my teams face and now you won’t even own up to the truth. This was a suicide mission!” Reed shouted.
“This mission was simple. Find the target and bring him in for questioning.” The woman said. Her eyes scanned the weapons that were all pointed toward Reed, she sighed, “You’re team allowed him to skip town with his family. You’re team-“
“Is in there! Blind! No help, no answers. You sent them in there and if you don’t let me pull them out, then you might as well tear up that PHD because all you are is a fucking murderer Dr. Brooks.” Reeds said.
“Hey, boss! It’s live! We got contact!” Bobby shouted over the heart straining tension that filled the area. Reed looked over his shoulder at Bobby and then looked back at Dr. Brooks. The woman stared him down before nodding,
“The rest of your team can go in through the main lobby and pull out survivors. You’ll get one hour, that’s it.” Dr. Brooks said.
“One hour is more than I need.” Reed said.
“It better be, because the birds are in the air and I’m bombing this hotel whether you’re in it or not.” Dr. Brooks said. Her hand reached out into the cool Austin rain and she pulled the door to the trailer shut. Reed pushed his gun back into his holster and looked down at the young man.
“Bobby!” Reed shouted.
“Yeah?” Bobby replied.
“Gear up, we’re going in.” Reed said, he leaned down and smiled as he stared at the young man, “Make sure you and your little trigger happy friends point the bullets at the dead and not the living okay son?”
Chapter 19
The baseball bat stood proudly in the air, as the pair cautiously made their way down the long hallway. Snapping, moaning and the chilling sound of meat being chewed crept toward them from the end of the hallway. Christian was getting far more accustomed to that sound than he wanted to admit. He was getting far to use to people dying than he wanted to admit. His eyes scanned the back of Trinity’s long black hair. Her dress had a soft shimmer to it, even in the dim light, as well as long random strikes of blood. The two of them looked like they were wrapping up a prom date from hell. Trinity’s barefoot softly pressed into the carpet as they finally got to the door to the front desk. Her finger went to her lips,
“Shh,” She said softly. The door pulled open ever so cautiously, both of their hands guided it in hopes of avoiding that loud creek of certain death. Christian and Trinity got low to the floor and crawled into the back office. Trinity’s bat slid across the carpet. “Come on the radio is-“
“These things they…they can’t help but turn right?” Vince’s voice pulled Trinity out of the task at hand. She slowly started moving towards the front desk area. Christian stayed low in the back waving his hand at her,
“Trinity.” Christian hissed.
“What do you mean?” Neil asked.
“Like if someone got infected. They’ll turn right? There’s no cure or anything is there?” Vince asked. Neil stopped in the middle of the lobby, his eyes scanned the bloody carnage that surrounded them. People killing people. People eating people, Neil looked back at Vince,
“Does it look like there’s a cure?” Neil replied.
“I just wan
na put my mind at ease…I don’t want to wake up tomorrow and find out I killed my friends for no reason.” Vince said.
“Motherfucker, you ain’t got no damn friends.” Trinity hissed. Her grip tightened along the taped handle of the bat. Her back rested on the wood of the front desk area.
“Let me ask you something? Were you married to any of these friends?” Neil asked.
“No,” Vince said.
“Did you happen to watch one of them grow for fifteen years?” Neil asked.
“No,” Vince replied.
“Then tomorrow morning your world isn’t gonna be all that different now will it? You might be sad, hell you might even cry, but I’m sure all of that will pass after a few drinks and a pretty girl.” Neil said, “Which way is this damn thing?” Neil asked.
“I understand what I’ve been through might not compare, but I wanna make sure I’m not going to jail for any of this. What if they do have a cure and the cops try and arrest me for pushing some fat fuck down an elevator shaft!” Vince shouted. The white eyes spun around and Neil turned his head toward the mass of dead that lined the lobby.
“Remember what I said about the magnet. Stop attracting them.” Neil said softly.
“I’ll be okay as long as I stay next to you right?” Vince asked as he backed up closer to Neil.
“I don’t know, it’s not an exact science.” Neil replied. The last of the conversation was lost to Christian and Trinity’s ears. They just stared at each other from across the gray and black carpet. Each blaming themselves and partly each other for Hector’s demise. Both claiming responsibility that belonged to nether of them. How were they to know the hotel was gonna be ground zero for a zombie outbreak? How were they to know zombies were even real? And how, oh how were they to know Vince would turn out to be such an,
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