by Cenz Barone
The staff member grabbed the burly man's leg. The man had smart navy trousers on and blood was pouring out of the lower part of his trouser as the staff member with fear said aggressively to the burly man “Listen to me you. Down stairs is a maniac she is biting everyone, I am not going back down there, why do you think I am up here”. Another woman wearing a business suit, who appeared to be like Kenny aware something horrible was going on said “He is right. Something is happening. I have been hearing weird noises outside. Something is going on" she was incoherent to those not in the know. The burly man studied the blood riddled carpet which led to the corridor of the hotel floor which was outside the various people’s room, the burly man saw the trail of blood and the sickening injury of the hotel staffer worker, it was obvious he had more or less crawled, or forced himself up to the floor
Another woman who was still in her night gown said "In the parking lot someone has been murdered" those unaware all looked at the woman in the dressing gown as if she was crazy but Kenny added in support of her "She is telling the truth. I saw it to. I have tried phoning 999 but nothing is going through. It must be engaged". The muscular man was angry as he replied to the ashen faced group "999 cannot be engaged, just listen to yourselves" his tone one of disbelief as he reaffirmed his general frustration by saying "You are all making no sense. What is wrong with you people” the woman in the night gown said “Phone them yourself if you don’t believe us” but the burly man shook his head and stated, trying to take charge “Just help me move this guy downstairs”. The burly man was taking pity on the injured staff member but nobody moved on the muscular mans instruction as the staffer pleaded "Don't take me back down there. I do not want to go back down there, I told you what is happening, stop not listening to me. It took all my strength to get up here. Just take me into one of your rooms and we can keep trying for the police in there".
The leg injury was a gnash and the burly man thought the staff member had just cut himself as opposed to being bitten so he complained to them all "You are all acting weird, I am going down to phone the police. Just find some towels for him”. The burly man did not want to take the man downstairs against his will so he made his way down the stairs as the staffer shouted at him "No mate. Do not go down there, she is attacking everyone. Stay here it is safer".
But the burly man ignored him and went on and the group around the staffer who were all strangers in this hotel were looking at each other with uncertainty. The staffer of the hotel shouted to the burly man who was walking down the corridor heading to the stairs "She is fucking insane. We have to get the police here". The staff worker continued to shout hysterically but then began to sob through his words. A lot of it was at this point ignored by the small group around him because they all realised something grave was taking place outside beyond the hotel as well as within it.
The burly man was too confident for his own good, in regards to how to handle any given situation, even if it was one as strange as what he was presently facing, but in truth he had no idea the severity of what was taking place. Eventually, he reached the downstairs of the hotel, and was in the lobby. He saw the front desk near the automatic doors, and there on the floor was a steam of blood and it was a scene of pandemonium. He ignored the blood and went towards the front desk and called out "Hello is anyone here?" he was calling out to a side room, an adjacent room near the front desk and he thought someone was inside so he kept calling out. He could hear the injured staff workers voice carry from the above floors but as it was on the third floor, the voice sounded like thudding from afar.
The burly man leant over the desk and went to lift up the phone but as he did so the dial was dead. He was about to cross into the area beyond the front desk when he heard noises to his rear. The burly man turned and knew it was coming from the diner which was attached to the hotel, near the lobby. The same diner Kenny ate breakfast in earlier in the morning and the diner the man had also frequented previous mornings. So the burly man made his way across and went through an open door and down a short orange painted corridor which zigzagged before he reached the edge of the corridor, and he stared inside and the blood on the floor near the front desk was miniscule compared to what the scene was within the diner. There he saw blood all across the floor with several windows that provided a view outside onto the streets smashed, it was clear some kind of violence had taken place, but he was unsure what it meant.
His heart rate was pumping but he walked inside and called out "Is anyone here? I need help, someone is hurt upstairs, one of your staff members, and your phone is dead at the front office" he was becoming fearful because his reason was now giving way to a knowledge something horrible was taking place. He struggled to rationalise the chaotic scene within the diner. But the further he stepped inside and the more he called out, the more he began to realise the injured staff member upstairs was not without genuine fear for a reason. He headed towards the source of the noise, coming from the direction towards the kitchen, but the burly mans thoughts were interrupted as he then saw a woman on the other side of the open kitchen counter that had shelves of food and drink within them, none of which had been served but all of which looked fresh, as though prepping for lunch time.
He saw through the shelves the back of her head and as he walked closer he noticed the woman wore a staff uniform, so he raced towards the counter hopeful for official help. He exclaimed in urgency "Excuse me Miss I..." as he reached the edge of the metallic sliding area of the open kitchen he saw she was on her knees and before her was a man dressed in a chef uniform and around him was blood. The entrails of his stomach were wide open as the female staffer was munching over his body, the thick ponytail in her head bopping up and down with each munch she took.
The burly man backed away from the kitchen counter, recoiling in horror and in a whisper muttered "What the fuck are you doing lady?" his eyes not believing what he was seeing and he felt sick at the sight. The female staffer looked possessed as she turned from eating at the chef, and then she stood up to face the burly man. Her skin was grey and her eyes dead, she snarled at him and he motioned backwards at the sight, she screamed viciously at him.
Kenny who had by this time come down the stairs and was at the tail end of the diner area, having himself decided to go and assist the burly man who was backtracking away from the female staffer. Kenny could not see the female staffer of the hotel but only hear her screams, a scream Kenny would hear so often from this moment forth. Kenny called out to the burly man "Hey mate what is happening?" the burly man turned around, shifting out of the sight of the female staffer who was screaming at him, but before the burly man could say anything out of nowhere near a section of the diner which was a blind spot, that led to a utility room a person burst out of the doors and rushed up to the burly man. Kenny observed in the background as the burly man was grabbed by this man who was bleeding from his arm as he said "Help me, please help me get out of here" the man who burst out thinking help had come, and had been hiding, but instinctively the burly man reacted by punching this male in the jaw which sent him onto the floor, the punch was expertly delivered as the man was on the floor knocked out. He was injured himself and the burly man surveyed this person who sought him out for him, he was confused what was happening and felt like he had struck someone in dire straits, but the thoughts of the female staff member in the kitchen eating at the body of the chef crept back into his mind.
The burly man, turned to the kitchen area, and hearing clattering as if the woman was seeking to come out from behind the kitchen worktop, caused the burly man to run towards Kenny, Kenny was horrified at the scene of violence in respect of the burly man knocking the injured man out and was thus frozen to the spot. All the burly man shouted as he rushed to Kenny was "She is fucking eating him man. Run! For sucks sake run" Kenny watched as this burly, who was tough looking ran fearful past him. The confidence and self-assurance washed away from him, his skin pale in fright as he headed for the exit of the diner to go back into the hot
el lobby.
Kenny could not forget the sight of fear and dread on this hard looking man's face. The burly man had rushed out of sight of Kenny at this point and Kenny alone in the back of the diner saw the female staffer whom the burly man had seen which caused him so much dread. There she was on the other side of the kitchen counter used to serve food from the main kitchen, with blood dripping down her mouth, and evidence she had been feasting. Kenny saw her murderous glare, was terrifying to him.
He felt like he would urinate himself in this moment as the girl in her hotel uniform screamed at him and then Kenny saw she jumped over the worktop, pushing herself by instinct, it was a violent thrust but she quickly stood up and headed for the man whom the burly man had knocked out. The woman fell on top of the knocked out man, landing on him right Kenny whom she ignored for now. Kenny just stood there, still frozen and saw as she tore at the unconscious man's face, ripping off his ear and chewing on it. Kenny instantly backtracked and moved towards the small corridor to the diner’s rear and back towards the hotel foyer. What he witnessed was identical to what he saw from his hotel room, only now he was within a few meters of it taking place. It made the experience far more sobering, if that was even possible.
As Kenny went out into the foyer he saw through the motion sense doors which went to the car park that the burly man was on the floor being attacked by two other people who were as Kenny saw it, ripping at him with their mouths. Kenny felt sick and went into his pocket as he held his phone and hoped the signal would improve or maybe 999 would no longer be engaged. Instinct took over Kenny as well at this point because he rushed back up the stairs heading towards his hotel room, back to floor 3. It was dangerous to go into the car park because an attack was happening and besides his car keys were in his hotel room.
As he headed up the stairs, he was once more dialling 999, even though he knew many other people in the hotel had done so, but his hands were shaking so much he could not hold onto the phone. When Kenny reached the floor his room was on, he saw that of the group around the injured staffer, many people had gone, and there were only two more people around him. Kenny reached the group with the injured staffer on the floor, losing consciousness as one of the two people said to Kenny.
"Everyone has gone back to their rooms. What was that noise down there" asked the person but Kenny was too dazed and overcome with horror at what he had just seen to say anything, he was looking around at them unsure what to say. The noises downstairs were getting louder and it seemed like the outside beyond the hotel was closing in on Kenny. A man in a suit arrogantly shouted at Kenny and said "Well? What the hell is going on down there?" Kenny replied honestly "I do not know. It is..." the man in the suit had a text go off on his phone and went to address this, rudely ignoring Kenny. Kenny then observed the injured staffer and Kenny thought of the scene outside in the parking lot when he saw that woman and her baby being attacked, plus when he saw the burly man head on downstairs and himself being so overcome with fear he rushed away from a frightful sight of that female hotel staffer. Kenny felt like he was going to go sick but he heard the words of a woman, one of the two who had stayed in the corridor with the injured hotel employee say "Relax sweetie".
Kenny saw this woman was very tender with the injured staffer who was slowly losing consciousness. The blood from his wound had by this time caused a small pool of blood to develop even though he had towels wrapped around the injury. The woman who was roughly in her 40s and was very caring with him despite the loud noises downstairs which were horrific to hear as screams seemed to seep in through the walls from the outside. The woman said "You’re going to be okay sweetheart, the ambulance is on its way” he was speaking more weakly and more incoherently was the injured staffer who said "I want my mommy". The woman tending to him, who was stroking his forehead and said with a smile "She will be here soon, they are all coming to you" she just wanted to keep him awake and knew nobody was coming, as far as she knew but she wanted to reassure him, she treated it with an abject coldness, but not in an indifferent uncaring way, but a professional way, as though she was use to showing compassion to those in absolute pain, and dying.
The man in the suit was still typing his text, as Kenny now heard a voice from his phone. He looked down and realised that his call to 999 had gone through, he lifted up the phone to his ear and spoke excitedly "Hi, I am at the Muncie Travel Lodge on Archway Avenue, Oxford city. There is a group of people in the parking lot attacking other people and a man has been bit, there is also a person here who is really hurt, you better...” but then Kenny went dead quiet, listening, he was obviously interrupted, as the man in the suit and the compassionate woman overlooking the injured hotel staffer looked to his direction. Kenny continued to receive the call, and now rather than talking towards, he was being spoken to as he said “Uh-huh, yeah...yes I understand...okay thanks”. The 999 call went dead as they hang up the call and Kenny knocked off the connection.
“Well, what did they say” asked sneeringly did the man in the suit standing over the woman with the injured man. Kenny could see both of these people looking at him for an answer as he remained quiet, nervous and unsure. Eventually Kenny replied “They said they had a phone call to this hotel 1 hour ago, a police unit is on its way here and have been receiving calls from here and this area for a while...”. The man in the suit interrupted Kenny and said scathingly “Ridiculous police call out times. How late can they be...” But Kenny then interrupted the man and said “No, you don't understand. She said the police unit has not been in contact for over 45 minutes, they have no idea where their unit is, another will be dispatched shortly she said but they are dealing with calls on a priority basis, but they know we are here”.
The man in the suit huffed and puffed and said “Fuck this. I am making a run for the parking lot, they can fine me for not paying, I am not staying here”. Kenny tried to muster up some objection to this man in the suit doing so but was too weak to do so and too scared. The man in the suit went down the stairs and out of the hotel. The woman cradling the injured young hotel staffer still spoke to him calmly despite the madness happening all around them. "He’s nearly dead” said a distraught Kenny. The woman ignored Kenny and his lack of sensitivity but Kenny was not trying to be unkind, so the woman addressed the injured young man “It is okay, you will be okay. Your mother will be with you in hospital. You are not dying, you will be fine. You just cut yourself” her tone upped in its efforts to be calm and reassuring. But to Kenny she was not appreciating what was happening, even though Kenny felt like he was blindly connecting the dots, as outrageous as it seemed rationalise to him.
So Kenny told her “I would get away from him if I were you Miss, I saw someone who was injured outside in the parking lot be attacked. Do not call me crazy but it was as if they were dead and they came back and attacked the people who tried to help them”. The woman turned to Kenny and angrily said “I am a nurse sweetie. I have never heard such a ridiculous story, so please go back to your room. You are no use out here. The police are on their way you said, so I will wait and the ambulance will come” she was very patronising but Kenny unperturbed asserted “I am warning you lady” and with a school teachers quip she told him “Just go back to your room, I am in control here”. It was befitting considering Kenny only a few years finished compulsive education since going to college and then university for the degree.
Kenny made his way down the corridor and cursed the naive nurse under his breath. So he reached his door and turned back to see the nurse stroking the by this time very quiet hotel staffer, she was stroking his forehead and providing reassurance, her other hand was pressing on his injured leg. Kenny entered his hotel room and then locked the door, just like everyone else who had left the corridor after the burly man had ventured downstairs had done. Once Kenny had tightly locked his door, he heard the faint reassuring nurse speaking to the man. Kenny though was aware something beyond the norm was happening and he had to think and look out for himself. So he clos
ed his curtains of his window, not wishing to have any eyes fall on his own room from those murderous outside. He did though see before he shut the arrogant man in the suit burst out of the car park in his very small good-looking sports car.
But now he now turned his attention once more towards his phone but the signal was so weak at this point, whereas earlier on it was so strong. So he did not understand what was happening and thus he waited, he trusted someone would come. All the calls to the police and emergency services had been placed through, but he was overcome with tiredness and in the darkened room he remained, despite it being light outside.
He sat near the radiator and curled his legs up towards his chest as he remained with the drawn curtains, the television and lights in his room off. He had the phone near him but stared ahead, trying to process what he had just witnessed and scared about was taking place in the hotel parking lot, outside in the corridor and what he had witnessed in the hotel diner. Kenny was panting heavily and breathing like he had no control over his body and his hands shaking manically before him and then he felt his head sting, with a shooting sensation of pain. The panic and shock becoming too much with his adrenaline pulsating through his body, and then in this heightened state of physical and mental arousal he passed out where he sat, his last thoughts being to phone his parents to tell them what had happened but it was too late. His body and mind just began shutting down due to what he had witnessed within such a short space of time, and so he was without conscious thought, now his body and mind shut down in panic. Nature taking over, as Kenny obviously joined the flight over fight direction.
