Demon Hotel (Zombie Apocalypse Series, Book 1)

by C. M. Chidgey

  I shook my head. “I’m fine, I’m just tired.”

  “Well you haven’t eaten, you should come down for dinner.”

  “I really just want to sleep.” I muttered.

  He sighed. “Fine, but I expect you to be at breakfast tomorrow Tink.”

  I nodded silently and he left without another word. Realising that I was still in my clothes from yesterday I took a quick shower and pulled on some pyjamas. Surprisingly I fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.

  Chapter 5

  The next week passed slowly, I was still sleeping a lot, but I made myself go down to meals so that Lucian or Danielle didn’t keep saying things to me. When I didn’t see Edward or Cora for a few days I headed up to their room to find that Edward was still sick. He looked weak and fragile and personally I didn’t think he had enough strength for his body to heal when he had so little food. It didn’t take very long for me to decide to start giving him my meals when I began throwing up the contents of my stomach. Figuring it was simply a waste of food I thought Edward needed it more than I did so every meal time I collected my food saying I was going up to eat with Edward and Cora so that they weren’t alone. I poured my food into Edwards bowl on the way up and then gave him the double portion telling the twins that I had already eaten my food.

  It may have been silly, but I couldn’t bear to see Edward not getting better so I was ok with making the sacrifice. The only one who knew about my lack of meals was Eric and luckily when I asked him not to he didn’t say a thing. The spider incident wasn’t mentioned again and some nights he spent the night in my bed, which made it awkward to keep the throwing up thing a secret, but I still managed it. We didn’t go on anymore scouting trips for the rest of the week since we had managed to get so many things from that shop Jack and Lucian decided we could have a break.

  What really drove me crazy though was the way that Lucian kept looking at me as if he could see straight through me. What was even worse was the unwelcome surge of jealousy I felt every time I saw Lucian with Elizabeth or another girl. Something must be wrong with me if I was feeling like that right? We still had arguments although I simply didn’t seem to have enough energy to put all of my effort into it cutting our arguments shorter than they would have normally been.

  I was now worried out of my mind that Lucian had somehow found out what I had been hiding though because I was called to room 215 and now walking there with Eric on my heels. I walked in without knocking to find everyone sitting around the table. Eric closed the door and stood next to me as I waited to see what they had to say.

  “We want to know what’s going on Mckenzie, you’re losing weight, but from what we can see you’re still eating. You look pale most of the time and you seem to be sleeping more than usual so spill it. Are you sick?”

  I bit my lip refusing to meet his gaze. “I’m fine.”

  “You need to tell us if something is wrong love.” Danielle said.

  “She’d be fine if she didn’t keep giving her food to that kid.” Eric muttered under his breath.

  “Dammit Eric.” I hissed at him, but it didn’t make any difference because of course everyone had heard.

  “What kid?” Elizabeth asked with a frown.

  I shook my head and suddenly felt like crying as I thought of Edward. Oh my God, what the hell was wrong with me?

  “What’s he talking about?” Lucian asked me.

  I sighed forcing tears back. “It’s Edward, he’s sick and he wasn’t getting better he didn’t have enough strength. So I added my food to his and gave it to him, he didn’t know, but he says he’s been feeling a little better so it must be helping.”

  “I told her not to do it.” Eric grunted when everyone kept quiet.

  “Yeah, well I’m not about to let a kid die.” I hissed at him.

  “If he’s going to die, then why bother wasting the food?”

  I looked at him in shock and disgust. “You unthoughtful bastard.”

  “Unthoughtful?” He yelled. “If I’m so unthoughtful, then why the hell did I bother taking care of you when the camp was taken? I could have just left you to fend for yourself, but I didn’t.”

  “You know what? I have absolutely no idea why you did because you are not the person that you seemed to be then!”

  His next words were cut off by the sound of the door banging open and Peter running in before yelling. “It’s Edward, Kate wants Jason to get there, but she thinks he needs some Medicine we don’t have.”

  “No, he was getting better!” I insisted as Jason ran out of the room.

  Peter nodded with tears in his eyes. “He was, but then this morning he started feeling worse.”

  “Ok, well, what medicine does he need?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know, Kate said we would probably only be able to get it in the hospital.”

  “Ok, well then we’ll go to the hospital.” I said looking around at everyone, but they didn’t look too keen on the idea. “What?”

  Jack sighed. “Taylor, it’s in the dangerous area of town, we avoid scouting there.”

  I stared at him in disbelief. “I don’t care if it’s in Tim buck two, I am going with or without your help.”

  “Don’t be so stupid Blondie, it’s dangerous on a normal day, but you’re not exactly the healthiest person here right now.” Lucian growled.

  “I don’t care Adams, I’m not going to stand by while a kid dies.”

  He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “Fine.”

  I stared at him in surprise. “Fine?”

  He nodded. “I’ll go.”

  I snorted. “You can’t you’re the leader guy.”

  He smirked at me. “I’m sure I’ll live Tink.”

  “I’m not sure this is a good idea.” Jack said. “No one is going to volunteer to go to that area.”

  “I’ll go.” Peter said.

  I shook my head. “No, you stay here with Edward and Cora, I’ll go.”

  Lucian glared at me. “I just sa-.”

  I glared right back and cut him off. “If you’re going then I’m sure you can keep an eye on me Adams.”

  “Ok, fine.” He muttered. “But you have to promise to do what I tell you. If I say run, then you run.”

  I snorted. “Fine.”

  “First, you’re having something to eat, go with Dani to the kitchen.”

  “No.” I said crossing my arms.

  He raised his eyebrows. “Why not.”

  “Not unless you come with me.” I insisted. “I’m not letting you out of my sight, the moment I do, you’ll go without me. I’m not as stupid as you might think Adams.”

  He smirked at me. “Ok then Tinkerbell, we’ll go to the kitchen first.”

  “I’ll come too.” Eric said.

  I glared at him. “I’d rather you weren’t around me right now.”

  Lucian’s lips twitched and Eric looked angry and spat. “Fine, I’ll see you later.”

  I grunted and didn’t respond to the kiss he planted on my lips before storming out of the room. I felt like an idiot for not noticing what he was like before now. Anyone who could say something like that about a child made me want to punch them and he wasn’t any exception.

  Lucian cleared his throat. “You ready?”

  I blinked and looked at him. “Yeah, let’s go.”

  “Peter, go and tell Jason to meet us in the lobby so he can tell us what we are looking for.”

  He nodded. “Thanks for doing this guys, I really appreciate it.”

  I gave a small smile and nodded as Lucian patted him on the shoulder before pushing me towards the door gently with his hand on the small of my back. His hand was warm through my t-shirt and I tried not to miss the touch when he let go as we stepped into the hallway.

  We were silent as we headed down to the kitchen and I gave a silent laugh when we reached it. “Wow Adams, we made it down here without arguing once.”

  He grinned. “We need to save our energy Tink
.”

  “I guess so.” I admitted with a shrug as he walked into the room where food was kept. Luckily his back was to me so he didn’t see the grimace when my shoulder twinged with pain.

  My hip and shoulder were mostly better by now, but there was the occasional reminder that it wasn’t fully healed yet. I wasn’t about to let Lucian know that though, I was pretty sure he would use any excuse not to let me go with him. I was still unsure on how I was going to force down food in front of him, despite not having eaten for a few days the idea of food still made me want to find the nearest toilet.

  “What do you want to eat?” Lucian called. “If you could have anything what would it be?”

  I chuckled. “Bacon.” Honestly at that moment I probably couldn’t have stomached it, but on a normal day I would have died for some bacon.

  His laugh echoed into the kitchen. “I wish Mckenzie.”

  “I’m sure everyone does.” I said before sighing. “I don’t know, pick whatever Adams, I’m not bothered.”

  I heard the sound of tins moving around before he walked back in and threw a tin towards me. My reflexes were considerably slower, but I managed to catch it after juggling it a few times before getting a grip on it.

  He raised an eyebrow. “Huh, your catching skills not up to scratch Mckenzie?”

  “Sorry, I haven’t exactly been practicing lately.” I murmured as I pulled the ring pull on the tin of pineapple slices.

  My hands shook until it came loose and the tin opened up. I started fishing out the slices and eating them slowly ignoring Lucian’s gaze directed at me.

  “I know you haven’t been eating Blondie, but I’m not so sure that’s all that’s up with you, what gives?”

  “I told you already, I’m fine.” I said refusing to admit to myself how much I liked that he cared.

  “Come on Tink, your Dad would never forgive me if I let something happen to you an-.”

  I cut him off right there suddenly pissed off at myself for thinking he cared. Of course he didn’t care he was just worried about what my Dad and his Mum would think if he didn’t make sure I was ok. “I said I’m fine Adams, you don’t have to worry about the promise you made, I’m pretty sure you’re keeping it.” I hissed before slamming the still half full tin of pineapples on the kitchen counter and walking out ignoring the look of shock on his face.

  He followed close behind me. “Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed or something?”

  I grunted. “Whatever Adams, let’s just get this done.”

  Jack and Jason were waiting for us in the lobby when we arrived. Jack handed us both a backpack and earpiece while Jason spoke to Lucian, telling him what we needed. It must have been some kind of long word or something because Jason gave Lucian a pen and he wrote it down on his hand so that he wouldn’t forget. When Jason was done Jack said.

  “Kate and I will be listening in, since you’re going to the hospital I would pick up as much medicine as you can. If you find any medicine you don’t recognize, which is likely in a hospital Kate will be there to let you know if you should leave or take it.”

  We both nodded just as Gordon arrived carrying some weapons and handed them over to Lucian. He put a pistol into his back pocket, strapped a shotgun to his back and carried some kind of machine gun. He looked badass and was definitely higher on the scale of male hotness right then than he usually was. I forced my eyes away when I realised I was outright staring, but was annoyed with myself when I realised Gordon had noticed and was smirking at me. Great, he was probably going to tell Lucian later.

  “You ready Tinkerbell?” Lucian asked jolting me back to what we were about to do.

  “As ready as I’m going to be.” I answered.

  He looked me up and down, I thought he was checking me out for a second and was about to say something, but I realised he was looking at my weapons when he said. “I think you should have a weapon out, just in case.”

  I smirked at him. “I can have this sword out faster than you can blink Adams, don’t you worry about that.” It was true usually, but to be quite honest I wasn’t sure how fast I could pull my sword out at this precise moment. I was probably being too stubborn and it was stupid, but I guess I was a little irrational at the moment for some reason.

  He shrugged. “It’s your call. Let’s get going.”

  Instead of going across the street like on the last two scouts we went around the side of the hotel and headed behind it.

  “What exactly makes this area so dangerous?” I asked him.

  He glanced back at me as he continued to walk. “More chance of zombie encounters, even during the day and there have been for lack of a better word zombie dogs sighted.”

  I snorted thinking that zombie dogs seemed less dangerous than human ones, but Lucian clearly guessed what I was thinking because he added.

  “Zombie dogs run fast Mckenize, have a more vicious bite and have a more acute sense of smell. I’m pretty sure you realise how bad all of those things are in a zombie.”

  I frowned. “You’re right, I don’t want to see these dogs.”

  He chuckled. “No one does, now shush we are getting close.”

  “Ok.” I said dropping my voice to a whisper officially freaked out about coming face to face with one of the dogs.

  I didn’t know if it was the fear, or just the nausea I had been feeling lately or a combination of both, but I felt my stomach turn over followed by an intense pain making me wince.

  “You ok?” Lucian murmured without even looking behind.

  “Yeah, just stubbed my toe.” I lied knowing he would insist we turn back if I told the truth.

  “Ok, we just have to go to the end of this alley and cross the road to the hospital. Looks good so far, can’t see anything lurking around.”

  “Ok.” I whispered terrified that something would come around the corner. Something was seriously going on with me, I had taught myself to stop getting scared of these things a while ago. I would have gone crazy if I jumped at every sound, but right now goose bumps were covering my flesh and I actually felt like crying.

  A scraping sound coming from behind me made me squeal and jump before automatically grabbing Lucian’s hand. He gave a deep chuckle squeezing my hand reassuringly.

  “It’s just the wind pushing a box Tink. I thought you were tougher than this.”

  I gave a slight laugh and tried to brush it off. “Just the dogs freaking me out I guess.”

  “We probably won’t come across one.” He said, but I knew he was only saying it to make me feel better. He had no clue if we would.

  I nodded and quickly pulled my hand away from his realising I was still clutching it. “Sorry.” I muttered.

  “Don’t worry about it.” He replied and we headed down to the end of the alley.

  I was thankful for the lack of sun today, it meant there wasn’t the unbearable heat to deal with, but it meant the wind kept blowing things, making me think that something was behind me constantly.

  The road separating us from the hospital was completely empty excluding the odd car. Lucian grabbed my arm and we ran to the hospital and through the doors without an incident.

  My stomach was still painful as we headed to the pharmacy area and I still kept silent about it. We reached the pharmacy to find the shelves still piled with pills looking completely untouched. Wow, people must really be afraid of this place if they hadn’t come to the hospital for anything.

  I immediately headed to the area containing ibuprofen and paracetamol, I knew what they did and I knew they would be useful so I pulled my backpack off and started stuffing it with them. I was vaguely aware of Lucian talking to Kate through the earpiece finding out what things did.

  “Taylor?” Kate said drawing my attention to her.

  “Yeah?”

  “See if you can find any syringes and scalpels in there.”

  I frowned looking around. “Where would they be?”

  “Just check the drawers.”

 
“Ok.” I said moving to the nearest ones, pulling them out and rummaging through. I had made my way halfway through the room when I stumbled and clutched onto the edge of the counter, wrapping my other arm around my stomach.

  Luckily Lucian was looking intensely through some boxes and didn’t notice so I took a deep breath and continued my search through the drawers. Typically I was nearly at the end when I found a drawer absolutely full of syringes. Grabbing handfuls of them I stuffed them into my backpack.

  “I got the syringes, still no scalpels though.”

  “Five more minutes guys, then I would get out of there.” Jack said.

  I continued looking through drawers asking Lucian as I did. “Did you get what Edward needed?”

  “Yep.” He responded now just shoving things into his backpack randomly.

  When Jack told us we should get going I pulled one last drawer open to find scalpels, it wasn’t a huge amount like the syringes, but there were about five.

  “Bingo.” I said grabbing them and shoving them into my backpack before zipping it up and pulling it on. “Time to go Adams.”

  He finished zipping his own up and pulled it on before heading out of the door. We were almost at the front door when the pain in my stomach ricocheted up from painful to unbearable. I gasped and cried out before my legs gave way and I fell down on the spot. Lucian had turned around on the spot before I had even landed and seemed to be kneeling next to me abnormally fast.

  “What’s wrong, what happened?” He asked seeming panicked trying to help me up.

  “I don’t know.” I gasped. “Stomach just hurts so bad.”

  He cleared his throat looking uncomfortable and muttered. “As in like woman issues?”

  I snorted and groaned when it got worse. “It’s too painful for that.”

  “Kate, what’s happening, what’s wrong with her?” Lucian kept asking not even giving her a chance to talk.

  “I’ll be fine.” I insisted and tried to get up only to cry out again and fall down as my vision swam, which obviously only made him panic more.

  “Lucian, calm down.” Kate insisted. “What exactly is happening to her?”

  He told her I was having stomach pains as I felt a wetness between my legs and glanced down, but saw nothing through the dark denim of my jeans. I reached down and touched my jeans before pulling my hand away to find it covered in blood.