by Barone, Cenz
Nobody answered him, Kenny could only quietly watch on and he knew he did not know what was making this happen but was sure the authorities had no idea either going by the news reports. But Kenny like others who had experienced it did realise that there was some evidence for how it spread and how people become mad even if the news outlets had not began officialising the cold hard truth. The truth Kenny knew almost a couple of days previous. His mind now began to drift back to that moment when he first encountered it, when he first saw it up close and personal and when the act he saw challenged and changed everything he had understood about the world, about life, about death and about reality.
Chapter 8 - Remembering Hotel Hell
Kenny's eyes drifted towards the fireplace, it was an electric fire which was opposite the television and to his left and was put on earlier by Grant. Kenny was glancing at it from the side. Within the fireplace was electrical flames, bustling as they were on the side of two white pillars and golden mesh gate on the just before the electrical flames. There was some sweet smelling scented oil contraptions near it that bustled up spray, but as he focused on the electrical flames he started to reminisce, the continuation of the other day. And so Kenny began to daydream.
Again it all started in the diner for him, inside that damn diner attached to the hotel he was staying in he thought. Once the moment in the diner when the woman ran in screaming for help from the streets in the early morning had passed and he had been out and returned to the hotel shortly after he was kind of shaken from what he had just witnessed but he was determined to carry on with his day and he was just looking forward to spending the evening in the hotel which was just going to be him with some snacks and some beers, he was also thinking of using the late night gym, just for the spa later in the evening, so he could relax in the Jacuzzi and sauna, but as the day in the hotel wore on, it was all good, so he thought.
Kenny, who had gone to his room and put down the incident in the diner to the insanity of the woman, even though he had disassociated himself from it, he could not help but think of it in the confines of his hotel room. Again he replayed in his mind scenarios and the only one which made sense was that she was drugged up or maybe she was beaten up by a partner of hers. The beating might have caused her injury. In retrospect ascribing her behaviour to drugs or mental illness was ridiculous on Kenny's part, but it was so unreal that he had to give himself an answer, a logical one at that time.
Inside his hotel room Kenny was brushing up on some of the directions he was going to take as he was due to leave the hotel the next morning to go back home to his dorm in the university near Bristol, where he was from. His allocation to come down to Oxford to sit this exam was part of some administrative error in regards to places to sit in the university near Bristol. So he had sat several exams in an examination centre within Oxford centre, and now considering all his examinations were over he was eager to leave. But it was when he was in his hotel room and about to leave that he saw the unreality of it all, and so he began to recall the minutes preceding the strangeness.
Kenny was sitting by his desk with a mirror in front of him, checking the map and making notes, he had the window open slightly and the television was on. On the television was some sporting highlight show. His phone was also streaming some videos online that he was watching on occasion but paying scant attention to. His main focus was on the satellite navigation device, he was coding it just to be sure he could get out of the centre of the city, because he was confident after bypassing this hurdle of making his way back home he would be fine but the city centre was like a maze. As he was doing this on the desk and his reflection visible before him he heard commotion from the outside.
The noise from outside was beginning to make Kenny pay attention, even though so much noises bypassed his hotel, because he was near the city centre, yet he felt something was odd about the noises he heard outside. He put down the satellite navigation device and stood up, looking for the television control. The television controls were on the white coloured bed, it was neatly laid as room service had entered to change the sheets at his request because the previous evening he spilled some food on it. Kenny took the television controls and put it off.
As soon as the sound of the television went off, he heard the noise louder. Then he went towards the window to shut it. He started to realise the noise was just yelling, and it sounded quite aggressive but he figured due to being near the city centre maybe there was some kind of traffic accident or perhaps there was some kind of football match today. He had been contending with fans of teams earlier in the week on the streets so maybe this was something happening right now.
As he came towards the window, he was about to close it. But before he did he naturally took a glance outside not expecting anything noteworthy to see the source of the commotion and the noise. He could not see anything from his position, the car park was below him but his gaze was rooted to the far right which went onto the street that allowed a view of the main road which went into the city centre. He did not think anything more and he was about to close the window when he heard a scream, it was not the yelling or the low pulsing noise he heard earlier on but a horrific scream.
Kenny stopped his movements in his tracks, now this scream was something which stood out to him. It sounded like someone was in pain. So naturally he peered out the window but could not make out where it was coming from. He had not seen anyone in the large car park below so he lifted up the window and opened it as far as it would go and upon doing it he felt immediately the burning on his skin from the sun when he placed his face outside.
When he leaned out of the window, there he saw it. To the very left about 10 meters from his window in an area of the car park which was spacious and which made him have to peer his head fully out. He saw a man holding onto a woman appearing to bite her and she was screaming, it was a painful scream. Kenny had to double check he was not seeing things, was this for real. An attack in broad daylight, he watched as she seemed to succumb onto the floor and the man went on top of her. The woman appeared frozen in shock whilst her baby in the push chair cried loudly but was quieted by another man who in the same trance like state, they looked like they were on drugs did the men. Kenny watched as the man held the baby and bit into it. Kenny from his vantage point when he first saw them attack this woman and her baby, he just knew on sight it was a biting motion. He was just frozen at watching this, unable to think if this was a joke or maybe a prank that was secretly being recorded to be put online by some prankster’s, he often watched videos like that when procrastinating.
Before he could react, some construction workers had seen this from a location where works was happening in the building next to the large hotel he was in. Kenny saw them walking over, there was about 3 construction workers. Each was carrying hammers and screwdrivers and they swore at the two men. The raised voices not intelligible to Kenny to hear what was said but it was obviously cursing and then they were as horrified as Kenny was at the violence taking place in the daytime.
Kenny could not believe his eyes as the two men who had bitten into the baby and the woman now stood up to face the three construction workers and they went towards them, one of the construction workers was shouting at the two men, pointing a tool at them threateningly, again the words said were hard to decipher for him due to the floor Kenny was on being quite high up in the large hotel. But Kenny watched as the two attackers did not seem to be slowing down, and then one dived towards the man with the tool pointing and shouting. This man held a screwdriver as his tool, and Kenny watched as the man swung the tool across the air as though not wishing to harm the man but to warn him off. Only upon doing this movement, the man he lashed out to grabbed his elbow and bit into it, taking a huge chunk of flesh.
This made Kenny feel sick, sicker than he did earlier at the sight of the two men attacking the woman and baby, he just felt like this was real. Kenny shook his head observing it, trying to be calm. He muttered "This is not a joke, seriously i
t has to be a joke though" he questioned himself, full of contradictions and his voice was trembling and he peered into other parts of the car park, which was mostly stacked with vehicles but it appeared nobody else was down in the parking lot on this warm day, the day was still beautiful with clear blue skies and the sun shining down, it just did not sit well, the entire scene.
Again Kenny fell back on this being a prank and he was looking not just for other people who were hiding in the pushes filming a scene for a film or it was a prank made by internet video bloggers which he originally thought. Kenny though watched the blood peer out and the man's scream and painful cry out from having his elbow bitten into was so genuine, either they are great actors or genuinely in pain he thought. He then saw the blood near the baby in its pram, that baby was not moving but the woman who Kenny assumed was the baby's mother was struggling on the floor, she was bleeding profusely. Kenny started to realise it was real, what he was witnessing it had to be. The pram with the child was knocked over and the baby was half visible but the woman on the ground who was shaking with blood from her throat was trying to crawl. Kenny could see all this from the high floor he was on, the third floor.
Kenny was going to call out but was stunned at what he was seeing and was too scared to shout out, he was just speechless, and one of the men hit one of the attackers in the head with the hammer and hit him again on the arms and legs. Such blows from such a big man were surely going to disable him and knock the attacker out, or even break his bones but the attacker seemed unfazed and without flinching continued to approach the man with the hammer that was backing off slowly, stunned it appeared his blows with the hammer had no impact. At this moment both began to wrestle, until the man who came to the aid of the woman and child was bitten from the attacker who merely looked down at him and tore at his ear. Thereupon, taking him to the floor and buried his teeth into his back followed by biting down.
Someone from the hotelier staff team came out of the hotel room and saw this taking place, they entered the parking lot through the electronic doors. Kenny saw this person enter the parking lot, but then as the staff member took in the sight taking place, they wisely turned tail and ran back inside. One of the in a trance like attackers then followed one of the men who approached them into some wooded area near where the construction work was going on. This was the third man who upon seeing his colleagues attacked ran away.
Kenny backtracked from the window, and was slowing snapping himself out of the shock at the sight outside. He turned and straight away went to his phone that was on the desk. His hands were shaking as he moved towards the king size bed. He tried to take off the streaming video, and tried to locate the dial for the phone on his mobile. His hands were making it hard for him to type the numbers in so he could phone the authorities, but after several goes he calmed himself down. Kenny quickly went back towards the window to continue to witness what was happening. Finally he dialled 999, but this was only after having to correct the dial number three times, due to his fingertips involuntary hitting the wrong numbers out of nerves. But when he did manage to strike the correct three numbers it was amazingly engaged.
“Engaged, what the hell that is impossible” in disbelief Kenny said, he then dialled it again and again and again but again there was no answer. He added "Impossible. No way is it engaged". Kenny stared outside to see what was happening, and there he noticed the two men who had been bitten appeared to be losing blood. One was unconscious on the floor, and the other was shouting in extreme pain as one of the attackers was hovering over him, rolling around with him. It was then Kenny saw the woman who was torn apart, her throat ripped open stand up and she stood there with a powerful steely glaze in her eye staring straight up at the hotel Kenny was in.
Terrifyingly the woman's eyes centred on Kenny who flinched backwards at the slowness of the woman's movement, the way she no longer seemed in pain and was just vacant in her expression. His heart seemed to stop beating, such was the fright he had, but he then went back to observing outside the window. Despite Kenny being three floors from the ground floor he felt so vulnerable and he watched as the conscious man on the floor who was wrestling with the attackers, was pleading towards the woman "Please, get him off me. Help me. Call the police, do something. I need help".
The man on the floor being attacked managed to kick the attacker off him, the attacker went backwards as the man being attacked saw his friend on the floor unconscious and then looked at the woman who just stood there as though in a trance. The attacker he pushed off him was slowly standing up and the attacked man shouted towards the woman in reference to the man attacking him "He is on drugs, he fucking bit me". The man holding his injured arm with desperation in his voice glanced at the overturned pram and back at the woman "We have to get out of here lady".
The attacker appeared to be finding his bearings, the man who was attacked then lost his voice as he saw as the woman stare at him. Her head turned quickly to penetrate him. The construction worker who had come to her aid saw her eyes were an unnatural colour, she just did not look normal because they were glazed and blue. Her skin having receded into blotches and her wounds were so horrific with the open wound of her throat pouring with blood, it was obvious she was different.
To the man so close it was troubling to see her stand suddenly, without any murmur or indication she was hurt or in distress as she had been earlier on, and why he attempted to stop her being attacked. The man on the floor watched as the woman went towards him and jumped on him, her body locking onto his, his fright and weakness at his already sustained injuries meant he could not fight her off quick enough before she clamped her mouth around his neck and she tore at his flesh, making him scream in agony. The possessed woman throttling him with her teeth around his neck and her hands digging into his shoulders, Kenny looked in astonishment not just at the woman suddenly attacking the construction worker who came to her aid. But he noticed the baby appeared to be moving in the same abnormal way from under the pram. The man the woman attacked on the floor was laying there helpless, shaking and his body was twitching. The original attacker of the man who the man kicked off was now moving towards the man on the floor being attacked by the woman to feast his teeth back into him.
The woman then stood up from the man on the floor and saw someone else walking their dog along a path alongside the car park, which was covered up by bushes and trees on occasion, designed to limit the country path being exposed in the city. The dog walker was oblivious to what was going on as they were listening to their music and walked on a small path at the back of the car park which was just a cycling path. Kenny could see the woman's gaze at her and the male attacker of the woman originally and he also could see the dog walker was still not aware of the dangers as they walked on, not even looking into the hotel car park, they likely had taken the path so many times, why would they care to look Kenny thought. Kenny shouted aloud at her "HEY RUN, YOU HAVE TO GO”. He called and shouted louder but the female dog walker walked on. The music blasting in her ears, the woman who had turned followed the dog walker into the forest area along the path, herself picking up speed until she broke into a slow shuffle to a brisk jog and Kenny noticed the woman was moving faster towards the dog walker now with her back to the psychotic woman heading her way. The male attacker then went onto the man on the floor and was biting at him, chewing his flesh and the man on the floor appeared unconscious, just like his friend who was still unconscious near this chaotic scene, whilst the baby infant was crawling in such an unnatural way towards the victimised men.
Kenny tried 999 again and his hands were beyond reason with their shakes, he was petrified and he was definitely sure he had witnessed multiple murders but multiple people so badly injured getting back up and becoming extremely violent, he never imagined he would see such things, never. What did this mean he asked himself, it could not be a trick because it was just too real he thought. "Come on! Come on!” Kenny shouted as the engagement of the 999 number continued but he k
ept trying, but then outside his hotel room he heard loud noises, someone screaming. He stopped himself from moving, he just froze and just stood there, his attention no longer concerned with what was taking place outside his hotel window but what was happening on the outside of his door, in the hallway of the hotel. He had image of an attacker seeking to attack him, for being a witness.
Kenny muttered “What the hell is going on”. He swiftly went towards the door of his room, and placed his ear up against it. As he did so the noise seemed to disappear. He heard movement away from his door, as though some commotion was happening well away from directly outside his hotel room. So Kenny opened his door ajar, ever so slightly and looked either side of the long corridor and there he saw it. Up ahead a staff member covered in blood reeling on the floor, he could tell it was a hotel staff member by their uniform. “He bit me, help, help!” the staff member crying said, he laid there begging for help. Other people had opened their doors themselves attracted to the noise outside and some peered through the peephole without doing anything more, because the commotion Kenny had just witnessed, was just one of many strange events trickling into regular people, not just in the hotel but beyond it. Others whose curiosity got the best of them, people like Kenny came outside their hotel rooms and went towards the staff worker, going towards with caution but the staffer laid there holding his leg, in agonising pain he implored “Someone call a doctor, I need help, please for fucks sake get the police, get someone here” the staff member continued to beg.
A lady wearing a dressing gown said "999 is engaged, someone is being attacked out there" the lady in the dressing gown herself on the same side of the building as Kenny had also witnessed the attack in the car park. "Take him down stairs” a burly man said with massive muscles and he was shouted at by the staff worker on the floor who replied “No. Do not take me down stairs. That’s where she is. She fucking bit me just take me into your room”. The burly man disagreed and told him, thinking the man was delirious “You are bleeding mate. You can’t just stay up here. We have to take you downstairs to the lobby. And get an ambulance here".
