‘Ian look out!’ Susan cried at him.
She was pointing in front of Ian. He hadn’t noticed because he was too busy with the thing beneath him. Susan ran up with one of those anti-theft steering wheel lockers in her right hand. She thrust it at the undead with all of her might. It did not take the undead down though, to Susan’s demise. You could see the fear rushing over her face as she again swung at the undead. The second swing did more damage this time. Susan watched as the undead stumbled onto the ground. It’s hands were still out stretched towards her. She placed her foot onto it’s neck and buried the weapon into it’s thick skull.
Just as Ian picked himself up off of the ground to attack another thing headed towards Susan, he immediately saw the rest of the group pull up next to them. Jeremy and the people in his van got out and started to get them into the vehicle. They were not taking any chances with taking on this horde. And for good reason. There were way too many of them. If we could just leave them behind we might have a fighting chance.
Jeremy almost had everyone into the vehicle when he noticed that they were missing Ricky from the Make up dept. He peered around looking for Ricky’s thin profile. He almost gave up when he finally spotted him. He was standing in the middle of the horde. His face wore a blank expression. As Jeremy moved closer he understood why. One of the undead had a fist through his heart. Blood was running down his chest as the thing pulled his hand through. It exposed a complete hole where his heart should have been. The swarm caved in on him suddenly. They started ripping him apart limb by limb. They started on his arms first. They pulled those out from the sockets. Ricky fell to the ground and then there was nothing. You could no longer see his body because, there were too many of them on top of him. Eventually, you could no longer see that there had been a center to the horde at all. There were so many of them trying to get to Ricky.
Jeremy looked away. There were tears in his eyes. That was so horrible. And it happened on his watch. Why the hell did that kid get so far over there anyway? Jeremy jumped inside the van and slammed the door shut as fast as he could. More of them were coming. It seems it did not take them that long to ravage Ricky’s body. Many of them were covered in pales of blood. In this Texas weather, it had already began to dry.
‘Let’s go!’ Jeremy cried swirling his finger around above his head.
The van took off. As Ian looked back he noticed that the rest of the group had followed Jeremy instead of pushing on. This whole motion of never stopping was literal just as much as it was medaphorical. They had no time to mourn for Ricky. He was just gone. And they couldn’t allow themselves to stop and wonder what could have been. They had to push on.
‘I need to find my son still.’ Susan said to Jeremy as he stepped back inside of the vehicle.
‘I still intend on giving you guys another vehicle. We are going to give you Dan’s from Editing. It’s not that much compared to the truck that you had before…but, it’ll get you a few more miles down the road and back.’ He told Susan. Jeremy looked around at Ian’s group. They all looked distraught. Blood covered their clothes from the crash.
‘You might want to clean up too.’ Jeremy told Ian.
He pointed to his shirt. Blood from his head wound was dripping onto it.
‘I think they can smell the blood.’ Jeremy said as he handed Ian a baby wipe that he had found in the car.
‘Use this to wipe it off and I’ll get you another shirt unless you have one.’
‘No, thanks. I have one.’ Ian told Jeremy as he pulled out a clean shirt from his bag.
He motioned for the others to change too. They drove a little further and then parked to let the other’s out. It was time to switch vehicles with Dan. Everyone with Dan would go with Jeremy. It would be tight. But, they were down the road from the school and wouldn’t have to drive to long cramped up.
They loaded up in Dan’s car. It was a little Honda Accord and a later model. It would be enough now that there was only four of them. Sadly, if Ricky were still here there wouldn’t be enough room for Jaime. Dan came around to Susan’s window and handed her the keys.
‘Take good care of her. I have had her for 15 years.’ Dan said glumly.
‘We will!’ Ian said from the passenger side of the vehicle.
‘She’ll come back in one piece. Scouts honor!’ Ian told him. Crossing his two fingers over his heart. There really was no way to tell this guy that he wasn’t exactly sure what would happen to his car. But, honestly the car wasn’t his main priority. Jaime was right now. And once he got Jaime back to the school, he would be focusing on getting back to New York. Anything to keep his mind off of the craziness of the world now.
Susan took off onto their path once more. The others turned off to the left of the highway heading towards the school. If you squinted, you could see it down at the end of the road. There were many trees covering the its path. Atleast, once they got to the school they would be able to get some shade from this heat. It had to be atleast a 100 degrees. You could cook on the sidewalk it’s so hot outside. But, they had a fair amount of water on them and food as well. So, Ian felt confident that they would be ok if they ran into trouble.
The group passed by Ian’s as they drove off. Everyone looked relieved from what Ian could tell as he looked through his side mirror. He was extremely glad that his friends were going to a safe place. Now, they would embark on another journey. And hopefully save this kid so that he could be safe too.
They drove passed a convenience store located directly off of a nearby exit. It was a truck stop gas station. So, it would have plenty of gas for them to grab extra for the rest of the group to have for generators. Or anything that needed gas. Ian made note of the exit it was at so, they would stop by on the way back to the school. It only took a few more minutes to make it to their main exit for the Hotel. It was a rather large hotel so, you could see it off of the highway. It’s outside was a golden yellow, with finely polished windows. And a very elegant miniature garden out front. Many of the bushes and flowers had begun to wilt though. The summer heat was butal today. In fact, it may just be the hottest day of all so far. Ian knew that they would have to scrounge more water up before leaving the hotel. Usually, hotels had large water containers for the water dispenser. He would make sure to check.
As they pulled up to the hotel, they had already spotted a few of the undead walking around. Their stares seemed aimless and simple. But, they all had the same look in their eyes. The look of hunger and pure rage. A lot of the ones that they were seeing also looked like they had recently turned. So, more than likely they were guest from the hotel. Ian knew that he wasn’t the only worried that Jaime hadn’t made it. Susan wore the expression of complete and utter fear. She rushed their vehicle to a stop and jumped out.
‘Wait!’ Ian said to Susan.
He tried to keep his voice at an inside level. He didn’t want those things catching up with them. They also needed to get out quickly. And if they heard them they would get closer.
‘We have to be quiet. We still need to leave her too ok?’ He asked her.
Holding his hands up beside his elbows. Susan calmed down a little bit. She allowed herself to go back into her almost comotose state She didn’t seem to react to much.
‘Let’s go. Everyone be quiet!’ Ian whispered to the group.
He looked around at them. They were all worried about the undead getting closer to the hotel. No one wanted to have to defend themselves against them. They still seemed human in a way. And made it hard for other people to recognize that their humanity was completely gone. Or atleast that is how they seemed when they attacked.
The group headed towards the double doors of the hotel. Luckily, the they were already open. Next to the doors was a bit of broken glass from a nearby window. Much of the bushes and flowers had been stomped on and decorations strown about. As the group walked through the doors they felt a sense of quietness. There was no movement or noise coming from the lobby. There was not a familiar ding c
oming from the elevators. Everything just seemed dead. He decided that they would take the elevators if they worked.
‘What room are you in?’ He asked Susan.
‘I’m in room 353. Third floor.’
She pointed up to the hotel. There were quite a few floors. At least they only had to go up three levels.
‘Alright, let’s get on the elevator. Susan,’ He pointed at her. ‘You work the elevator. You know it better than anyone and you know your way around here too. Lead the way.’ Ian said motioning to the elevators.
Susan grabbed her key card out of her back pocket.
‘Follow me.’ She said rushing to the elevator. She was very anxious to get up there. They watched as the elevator numbers one by one from the third floor lit up.
‘Someone must have already gone up to the third floor…’ Eddy pointed out to the others.
No one wanted to address what he said though. They didn’t want to upset Susan more than she already was. The elevators popped open and they scooted inside quickly. As the doors closed they could see an undead stumbeling into the hotel’s front doors. It had just noticed them as the doors clicked shut. They could see it’s head snap towards them and begin to sprint after the elevators.
‘Oh my god!’ They cried.
They all felt lucky that they had skimmed by with out really being noticed. The elevator rose steadily up. They watched the lights that signled each new floor come on one by one. As they finally reached floor three, a loud shriek came from behind the doors. Ian quickly hit the button that would hold the doors shut. They didn’t open. One of those things must surely be on the other side. The noise they heard sounded very similar to the sound Allison made.
‘Ok,’ Ian said clutching at his metal staff. ‘We are going to have to take one of them on. I’ll go first. But, everyone needs to have their weapons at the ready.’
He waited for them all to get situated and then he slowly reached down and hit the open door button. The doors slid open and they peered out. The lights were a little dim so, it was hard to see too far down the hallway.
Ian pushed himself to step out of the elevator. His nerves were shot and he was afraid. The hair on his arms was even standing up. He walked slowly down the hallway. As a moment passes, the others step out of the elevator and follow him. Susan’s face seemed much more worried now. Ian stopped as he got to a door on his left side. He quickly looked over to see what number it was.
‘349.’ He whispered. He looked over to Susan. He watched as she pointed down to the far left hand side of the hallway.
‘I’m down there.’ She voiced.
Ian pressed on. He was still clutching at his staff. He couldn’t see any of them in the hall. Maybe one of them were in a room somewhere. For now they would be ok. They neared Susans door. She walked out in front of them and swiped her keycard. The door opened slightly and the group quickly came in and shut the door behind them.
‘Jaime?’ Susan called. She rushed into the room that they shared.
‘Jaime are you here?’ She frantically sounded off.
The others searched for him in the living room and kitchen. There was no sign of him. He had just disappeared. His things were still there. And it didn’t seem like there had been a struggle. Susan walked back ito the kitchen and raised her hands beside her.
‘I have no idea where he could be. We don’t really talk to anyone here.’ Susan lowered her head.
‘And.. I didn’t want to tell you before but, Jaime has a condition.
Ian piped in,’What kind of condition?’
‘He has Aspergers. It’s a social disorder. It’s harder for him to communicate with other people. And he has anxiety. So, it can get pretty bad if I am not there. I am pretty much the only one that can calm him down.’ She told them.
‘I was afraid you wouldn’t come if I told you this. I mean it would make it difficult to survive out there. Especially now.’ Susan put her hands over her face. She silently cried into them. Tiny streaks of tears rolled down her cheeks.
‘He has to be here. I’m not going to give up. He probably got scared and went to a neighbor or something. Let’s go check around.’
Ian walked up to Susan and hugged her. He couldn’t just stop looking for this boy. If he did, it would be the end of her. And he wasn’t willing to let that be on his conscious.
‘We need all of the food and water that you have here though. Before we go looking. That ok?’ He asked squeezing her lightly. He felt her breath out steadily.
‘Of course!’ She told him.
She immediately broke into a jog and began loading supplies into one of her bags. I have a whole case of water over there.’ She pointed to the corner of the kitchen. Ian walked over there and picked up the case of water. He counted out 6 bottles for each of them. That would make a total of 10 bottles that he would have. Later, they could ration out what was left when they got back to the school. Should be a fair amount.
Ian watched as Susan walked around with her full bag of snacks. She had a ten year old boy so, she had a wide variety of things to choose from. Each person reached in and grabbed about 5 things each. Ian waited until everything was packed up and they were ready to go.
‘Alright. Let’s get out of here.’ He opened her front door and walked out.
They followed behind him. Ian could hear someone talking in a room that was close to Susan’s. Maybe only a few doors down.
‘Come on.’ He said. ‘I hear something down there.’
They slowly made their way down the hall until they rest in front of room 359. Susan recognized this room. It belonged to a young blonde girl. She had been here before them.
‘I know who lives here.’ Susan told Ian.
He knocked on the door lightly. He didn’t want to make too much noise. He waited for a response. They could hear rustleing around. It sounded like there was someone running around inside.
‘Is somebody there?’ Susan called through the door.
As Susan said this they heard a very loud shriek. Ian cringed at the sound. He knew one of the undead was behind that door. But, what if the kid was trapped inside. At that moment the door swings open suddenly. Ian sees a women step out from behind it.
‘Oh my god! Help me!’ She cried.
The girl let go of the door and ran passed the group into the hall. Ian stepped forward into the room and raised his staff. He spots the undead. It was a short heavy-set woman who smelled horrible. Almost smelled like infection. It moved towards Ian. He watched as foam fell down her face. Ian readied his staff.
The undead ran at him full of rage. You could hear her making noises under her breath that sounded like anger. Ian swung his staff at her neck. It stunned her for a moment but she kept coming after him. He reached for the pocket knife in he pants. Once he found it he pulled it free and opened it quickly. He watched the thing run into a coffee table trying to get at him. She got up and pressed towards him. Ian held the knife out and jammed it into her temple. The undead’s body fell over immediately. It knocked over an inn table with it’s enormus leg as it fell.
‘It’s ok. You can come in now.’ Ian spoke to the group.
Susan’s neighbor rushed in and ran to the back room. She came back with a little boy. He looked very upset. Like he had been crying for hours.
‘Mom!’ He cried running to Susan.
‘Jaime! Oh, thank you God!’ She cried throwing her arms into the air to accept his embrace.
The two wrapped their arms around each other and squeezed hard.
‘I thought you were dead Mom!’ The boy told her. He had tears in his eyes.
‘I would be if it wasn’t for their help.’ Susan told him.
‘Are you ok? Did one of those things touch you?’ She frantically pulled up his shirt and turned him around.
She was searching for any scratches or bite marks. Once she was satisfied that he had not been hurt she let him go.
‘He is fine!’ Susan’s neighbor told her.
‘He c
ame to my door worried about you. He showed me a video of those things out there. I knew I had to keep him safe.’ She said, her eyes wandered to the ground.
‘Thank god you guys showed up when you did. I was a goner for sure.’ She walked up to Ian.
‘I’m Sam.’ She told him extending her hand out. He took it and shook gently.
‘Ian. And it was no problem. We were looking for him.’ He said pointing over at Jaime.
Ian introduced the rest of the group to Sam. They all said their hello’s and sat down to catch their breath. Ian had no idea how tired he was until he saw them relaxing a little.
They sat around her living room and began to talk about what had led them to the hotel. Jaime and Susan went to her Sam’s room to clean up. So, they were able to speak freely. They talked about Allison and how she had turned. And about the video that everyone seemed to have seen. And they talked about the school.
‘So, Sam.. What are your plans after this?’ Ian asked her.
She had a surprised look on her face.
‘I hadn’t really thought about it. Jaime was my number one priority. I’ve tried calling everyone that I know. I can’t get through. And the one that I did…..’ She trailed off.
‘Why don’t you come with us? There will be plenty of room. We need to start taking care of one another.’ Ian stared at her.
Sam got up and walked to the kitchen to pour herself a drink. She laid her glass out and filled it with orange juice.
‘I suppose I have no where else to go. And if you say this school is safe, then I have no reason not to. Just let me get some things together and we can get out of here.’ Sam told them as she gulped down her drink.
Ian got up and walked over to her in the kitchen.
‘If you have any extra supplies that you can spare we could use them. Especially water.’
He set his bag down onto the counter top.
‘Yeah, I’ve got some waters in the cabinets up there. ‘ She pointed to above her microwave.
Scarlet Memories (Book 1) Page 6
