"He's cute," Emily said.
Julie turned to the little girl. "He is."
"I've never had a dog before."
The little girl rarely spoke about her life at home, before the change. Once or twice she had mentioned her father, but hadn't said any further than that.
Buster licked her again.
"Stop that," Julie said, giggling.
Emily laughed too.
Then Scooter called to them.
Chapter 10
The group came together and had the food that Scooter offered them. There wasn't much left.
"Where are we gonna after this?" Scooter asked. "We have to find food. We have to find a place to stay the night."
Julie sighed. "Do we have to worry about that now? I was just starting to feel comfortable."
Scooter apologized. He hadn't meant to ruin the mood. He had only been curious. "I didn't mean anything by it." He shoved a cracker in his mouth and started to chew.
"No," John said, "It's a good question. It's something we need to think about."
Scooter smiled at the old man, thankful once more for the support.
"And it's one that I've thought a lot about," John continued.
Everyone waited for him to say more.
"We should go to The Regent." John folded his hands and rested them on his lap, as though putting an end to any argument.
"The Regent?" Marianne asked. "What's that?"
"It a hotel. Just a little up the road."
His wife shook her head. "A little up the roadin a car. It's far away on foot."
"I guess you're right," John admitted. "But not too far. It'll probably only take us a few hours to get there."
"A few hours?" his wife asked, shaking her head again. "You're crazy."
"Crazy for you," John replied. Then he blew his wife a kiss.
She rolled her eyes and laughed. "John, I don't know."
"We'll get a good night's sleep there."
"How do you know that? What happens if thosethings are there?"
John opened his mouth to reply, but closed it again. He shrugged his shoulders.That was a definite possibility.
"No," Scooter said. "It's a good idea. I don't know if those creatures will be there, but Idoknow that there'll be a lot of supplies there, a lot of food. Plus, it'll give us a place to head to. Right now, we're not really sure where we're going."
"He's right," Marianne added.
"I'm still not sure if it's a good idea," Alice persisted, "but I won't argue about it anymore. If it's what everyone wants to do, then I'll go along."
Everyone looked at each other. They all agreed.
"The Regent it is," Scooter said. "We'll leave when we're finished up here."
They got back to their food.
Chapter 11
Everyone finished their food and rested for a little bit longer before they decided to leave.
Scooter was the first to stand up. He grabbed his axe. "Everyone ready?"
They all got to their feet and gathered their things. Then they walked away from the park, leaving their garbage on the ground behind them.
Alice and Marianne had tried to fight them about this. They had said that even though the world had been destroyed, it didn't mean that they should keep contributing to it. But the fact of the matter was that their garbage wasn't going to do much to the world as it was. Even the garbage can had been ruined. It had been knocked over and its trash spilled everywhere. Unless they wanted to clean it all up, it didn't make much sense not to leave everything where it was.
"Come on," John said, holding his wife's hand. "No one will mind."
Day 11
Chapter 1
It took them two days to reach The Regent. Not a few hours, like John had thought. There hadn't been any creatures around, but there had been a few steep hills that had taken their toll. Plus, the sun hadn't let up.
John had done his best to keep up with the group. However, sometimes the journey had proven too much and he had had to take a break. His legs pained him. His breathing was shallow.
Emily had had some trouble too. Though she had done a lot better than any of them could have asked. Scooter and Julie carried her a lot of the way. Yet, several times she had asked them to let her walk a lot instead. She'd walk beside Buster, or hold onto Alice's hand. Not once had she cried.
"So this is it?" Scooter asked, standing in front of the hotel.
It wasn't as much a hotel as it was a motel. Spread out before them with two wings, and a lobby in the middle. Most of the windows had been smashed. Cars in the parking lot had crashed into each other. Once had even slammed into the side of the building.
"It doesn't look very good." Scooter wasn't trying to make John feel bad about his suggestion that they come here, but he couldn't deny that there were a lot of problems. "A lot worse than I had expected."
"It's pretty bad," John agreed.
"So what should we do?"
John didn't know. None of them did. There were bodies spread through out the parking lot. Dried blood splattered on the pavement.
"Should we check it out anyway?" Everyone looked at Scooter as though he had gone mad. "We've come all this way. We might as well see."
"It doesn't look safe," Julie said.
"We should keep moving on past it," Alice added.
"But there have to be some things in there that we could use in there," Scooter pressed. "Food. Water. We might even find some rooms that aren't wrecked."
He stared at the old man, waiting for some support. To his surprise, it came from someone else.
"You're right," Marianne said. "I'll go with you."
Scooter turned to look at her. Her sunglasses were pulled down over her eyes. Her yellow shirt shone brightly. And to add to all of that, she had a purse strapped over her shoulder. She didn't look the type to volunteer to go into a building that could be filled with creatures. On the other hand, she hadn't given him any hint that she was frightened on their walk over the past couple of days.
"You will?" he asked.
"Yes, I will." She spoke without any hesitation.
"And I'm coming too," Julie added. Unlike Marianne, her voice shook as she spoke. Her eyes couldn't keep contact with his, either.
"I don't think so." Scooter didn't know why she had offered. He knew that she didn't want to. "Maybe it's better if I go alone. Marianne, you should stay too."
"No," Marianne said.
"No," Julie repeated.
Scooter looked back and forth between them. "It could be dangerous."
"Which is why we'll come." Marianne's voice conveyed her determination.
Scooter turned to John, unsure of what to do. John stared back at him, unsure of what to say.
As Scooter kept his eyes on the old man, he could see the different emotions pass across his face. It was obvious that John was nervous about the whole thing, worried that the three of them would get hurt. But he also knew that there wasn't much of a choice. If Scooter was going to go into the hotel, he wasn't going to do it alone. Then, behind all of that, was a hint of sadness.
At first, Scooter wasn't sure what it was about. Was John imagining them running into the creatures? Was he picturing their deaths? He didn't think so. There was something else to it.
John wished that he could come.
The idea hit Scooter hard and left him wanting to reach out to the old man. Instead, he decided not to. He didn't want to make John feel any worse than he already did.
He turned back to Marianne and Julie. "Are you two sure you want to do this?"
They nodded.
"All right. It's not like you were going to give me a choice anyway."
They nodded again.
"Let's go."
Scooter started walking toward the hotel, axe in hand. Marianne and Julie followed. They pulled out their knives.
"I don't know," John called out to them. "Maybe you shouldn't. I don't like the look of it."
"I don't either," Scooter ad
mitted. "But we've come this far. We might as well see what we can."
"But…"
"We need to check it out. Who knows what we'll find?"
"That's what I'm worried about."
Scooter was worried too. He kept thinking of his time in the airport. The man who had chased him from the elevator. The old woman who had come out of the shuttle bus and attacked. Thethingthat had called out to him in the darkness. He didn't want to have to go through any of that again. But he also didn't think that he had much of a choice. He had to try to find things that would make his group's journey easier. And if that involved going into abandoned buildings and facing thosethings, then that's what he'd do.
"We'll be okay," he said. No more discussion.
Once they got closer to the building, Scooter looked back over his shoulder and saw John and Alice standing there, looking at them. Even Emily and Buster were watching them go.
"You think they'll be okay?" he asked.
"What do you mean?" Julie replied.
"Maybe we shouldn't have left them. What if one of thosethings comes by? They won't be able to fight them off."
Julie looked horrified by the suggestion.
"Listen," Marianne said. "If thosethingsare around, they'll be in the hotel.We'll be the ones who have to worry about them."
That didn't make Scooter feel much better, but he supposed that she was right.
"All right," he said. "Let's do this."
Chapter 2
They came upon the front entrance. A big glass window had been smashed. Blood covered the shards. A couple laid in a tangled embrace nearby, hair pulled, blood across each of their faces. Scooter walked past them and moved toward the broken window. His feet crackled on the glass.
"I think it's okay," he said, stopping to listen.
"I don't hear anything either," Marianne agreed.
Julie stared into the opening. "Are you sure?"
"I think it's okay," Scooter repeated. He stepped in through the window.
His eyes searched all around the main foyer. He could see a few more bodies lying on the ground. One was spread across the reception desk.
"It smells really bad," Julie said. She stepped behind him and looked over his shoulder. "I meanreallybad."
Scooter couldn't disagree. Yet he took another step further. "How about we head down there first?" He pointed toward a hallway.
"I don't know if that's a good idea."
"It'll be fine."
They made their way toward the hallway and stopped once they reached it.
"Is that fresh?" Julie asked. Blood soaked the carpet.
"I think so," Scooter replied.
"Shouldn't it have dried?"
"Maybe it just happened."
He regretted speaking as soon as he uttered the words. Julie's eyes opened wide. She clutched her knife tighter.
"Or it might be that it takes longer for blood to dry in here," Marianne offered as another explanation. It didn't seem to make Julie feel any better.
Scooter stepped onto the carpet. As he did the blood sucked at his boots. He shivered at the sound.
"Come on," he said. "Let's not think about it."
He led them down the hallway.
Not far into it, he came upon a body. The back of its skull had been ripped open. Brain matter dripped out of the wound. Unlike the blood, this was a lot harder to ignore.
He shivered again. Julie whimpered.
They kept going.
Scooter tried opening a few doors as they made their way, but most of them were locked.
"We should've grabbed some keys from the reception," Marianne said.
"You're right," Scooter admitted. He looked back down the hallway and decided against it. "Let's keep checking for now. We can get the keys later."
They continued.
It was Julie that first noticed the open door. She pointed to it, but made no motion of going forward. She waited for Scooter to lead the way. He held his axe up in front of him and stuck his head inside.
There wasn't much to see from where he was standing. It was obvious that the room had been wrecked. There was a television that had been knocked down from its table. A chair had been overturned. But he couldn't see anything else in the room.
"Stay here," he said.
"What? Why? Where are you going?" Julie's voice spouted out the questions quickly.
"I'm going to check it out."
"You're going in?"
"Uh-huh."
"On your own?"
"It'll be okay. Just stay here."
Julie turned and stood closer to Marianne. "Don't be long," she told him.
As he walked into the room, his heart began to race. He made his way down a small corridor, passing a small bathroom on his left. He couldn't see any signs of a struggle in it, though that didn't seem to matter. He knew that he was about to see something soon.
He took a step further. And another.
He kept expecting someone to burst around the corner and grab him. No one did.
Then he came to the end of the corridor and saw into the room.
"Shit," he said.
On the bed was a young woman. She was completely naked, her body was badly bruised. There were deep tears in her face. Thick red lines, caused by fingernails. There was no one else in the room.
"Scooter," Julie called. "Are you okay? What do you see?"
He glanced over his shoulder. "It's…nothing."
"Nothing?"
"It's…no, it's nothing." He turned to leave. He didn't want Julie seeing this. She was frightened enough by all that they had come across already. This wasn't going to help.
"Nothing? Tell me, what is it?"
Julie didn't wait for a reply. She walked into the room and headed straight for him. Marianne followed.
Scooter raised his hand to tell them to stop, but he hadn't acted fast enough. They got to him before he could move.
"What it it?" Julie asked again.
Scooter didn't need answer. Julie's mouth dropped open at the sight of the woman. Marianne looked disturbed as well.
"She's…she's…" Julie hurried out of the room. He could hear her retching.
Scooter and Marianne went to see if she was okay.
After a minute or so, she said that she was. She also apologized. "It's just that she looked around my age. She even had the same hair as me."
Scooter hadn't noticed that at the time, but they did both have long brown hair.
"What should we do now?" he asked. Even he was starting to second-guess their decision to search around. It didn't look like they were going to find much other than death.
"We should go back and get the keys," Marianne said. "Those rooms should be empty."
Of course, Scooter thought.He should have realized that before.
"Are you okay with that?" he asked Julie.
Julie nodded. Though barely.
"Come on, we'll just take a quick look," Scooter added. "We shouldn't keep everyone out there much longer."
Chapter 3
John and Alice were sitting on a curb when they returned. Emily's head was resting in the old woman's lap. Buster was at her side. They looked more than relieved at their return.
"Any luck?" John asked.
Scooter helped the old man get to his feet. "We found a few rooms at the end of the hall."
"A few rooms? Don't we only need one?"
"Well, we were thinking…"
"Scooter wants to stay on his own," Julie blurted out, unhappy with that decision.
John looked at him, questioningly.
"It's not that," Scooter explained. "We talked about it and agreed that it would be a good idea if we split into different rooms so we wouldn't have to cram into one bed."
"You and Marianne agreed," Julie corrected him. "I still think it's a crazy idea."
Scooter ignored her. "You and Alice can have a room to yourselves. Julie, Marianne and Emily can share one too. I know Emily likes being near Buster. It'll h
elp her get a good sleep. I think it'll be good for you too, Julie."
"But that doesn't mean you need to be on your own." Julie turned to the others for support.
"Look," Scooter continued before anyone could give it to her, "the four of us with a dog in one room would be too much. We wouldn't get a good rest. We'd have to share a bed. Or one of us would have to sleep on the floor. It doesn't make any sense when we have these empty rooms."
"But…"
"It'll be okay. I really don't mind staying on my own."
"Are you sure?" John asked.
"Yeah." The truth was that Scooterwanted to stay on his own. He had had a lot of different thoughts floating through his head over the past little while and he needed to try to make sense of it all. He couldn't do that with everyone around. "I'll be fine. Besides, the rooms are all close together. If there's any trouble, we'll have no trouble getting to each other."
"Do you think there'll be trouble?" Alice asked. She had gotten to her feet and was standing beside them.
"No," Scooter said. "We haven't seen any of those creatures around. We're pretty sure that it's going to be safe."
Marianne nodded in agreement. Even Julie had to admit that no matter how worried she was they hadn't seen any of thosethings.
"The thing is that we don't think we should stay here longer than one night," Scooter added.
John looked puzzled again. "A night? Why? I thought that you said it was safe."
"It is. But there's a lot of damage in there. A lot of death." He stopped short of giving a description. They would see it soon enough.
"Should we keep moving on?"
"No, it'll be good for us to get some rest. I know thatI'm tired." Everyone knew that Scooter was trying to make it easier for John. Though the old man had been doing a good job of keeping up, things were beginning to wear on him. "I think weall are."
John decided not to argue. Hewas tried. He couldn't pretend otherwise. "If you think it's a good idea."
"We all do." Scooter turned to Marianne and Julie. They agreed with him once more.
"Then let's go in."
Scooter picked up Emily and walked her to the front of the building. But before he entered, he told her to close her eyes. He didn't want her seeing more than she had to.
Glory (Book 4) Page 6
