A World Reborn: The First Outbreak (5 page)

“Listen, I understand you’ve gone through
an ordeal, but it’s really better for you to just go back to your room and sit
this thing out.” Roy rebutted.

“I’m with the press. If you don’t want to
come out of whatever this thing is as the person who tried to hide the truth
from the public, you’d better tell me what happened and why I just had to crush
someone’s skull with a fire extinguisher!”

Melissa had inadvertently paced towards the
junction away from the elevators, and suddenly heard the elevator ding behind
her, signalling its arrival on her floor. She spun on her heels and started
moving towards it.

“And you better talk quick, the elevator
just arrived.”

“Melissa, don’t get on the elevator! You’ll
be trapped!” Roy started yelling over the radio, but Melissa was already
approaching the opening elevator doors. As she did, she saw two people coming
out; their skin was pallid and their eyes were milky just like the man she had
been forced to kill. They were covered in blood, from their mouths to their
hands and their clothes. And they were shuffling out of the elevator, moving
just as Kyle had. Melissa stopped in her tracks and tried to retreat back around
the corner before they saw her. Her heart was racing and panic was pulsing
through her veins, but she had to know if they’d seen her; had to know if she
was in fresh danger, so she carefully peeked back around the corner in time to
see another three exiting the car.

“Melissa!” Roy called out over the radio,
and the sound caught the attention of the five bloody, sick looking people. One
saw her peeking eye and grunted, increasing the speed of his shuffling as he
turned towards her.

Melissa broke into a blind run, hurrying
towards the right side corridor. She moved quickly, hearing a chorus of moans
and grunts disclosing the other sick looking people had been alerted to her
presence. As she rounded the corner, she saw a scene of utter carnage. Doors
were open, blood was sprayed across the walls and the cream coloured carpet,
and, most pressingly, a half dozen more of the sick looking people were
loitering there. They were moving towards the elevators, and when they saw
Melissa they began to sing out their own terrifying groans and grunts. Even
worse, they were approaching her quicker than the ones behind. More began to
shuffle out of the rooms. It seemed like madness had overtaken the world while
she slept. In a moment of confusion, Melissa briefly wondered if, in fact, her
own previously fragile mental state had collapsed and she had slipped into
insanity. She forced this thought away, knowing it wasn’t true and that she had
to move. They were coming for her. Whatever sickness they had was making them
aggressive; each one had a murderous look on their face and judging by their
blood-soaked faces and clothing, they’d been consuming people just as Kyle had.
If they caught her, the sickness would make them try to eat her, and of all the
bad ways to die, she didn’t intend that to be the one that claimed her.

Melissa turned and ran back through the
junction, turning away from the elevators, and broke into a mad sprint down the
central corridor, heading for the opposite side. She needed to reach the north
side elevators and emergency stairs. Fleeing up the corridor, she saw room
doors that had been broken into, and more people like the ones behind her
emerging. Worse still, the noise and commotion seemed to be carrying up the
corridor, and ahead of her, infected people were coming out of the doors or
from the junctions to the corridors of rooms to the left and right of the one
she was in now. She had to duck low to dodge a lunging grasp from one, and leap
over the low grab of another. Eventually, slightly breathless, she reached the
north side elevators... just as one opened and half a dozen of the infected
sprang out at her running form. She ran on and then slammed into the door to
the stairwell with her shoulder, wrenching the handle to open the door,
stepping through and shutting it quickly behind her. She looked around for some
way to block the door, but all she could see was the dull grey colour of the
walls, and the stairs illuminated by the harsh florescent light.

“Melissa!” Roy called over the radio.

“Roy, they were in the elevator!” Melissa
replied frantically.

“I know. They’ve been distributed amongst
all the floors of the hotel because the elevators are stopping on every floor.”

“What?” Melissa demanded. It didn’t make
any sense, but she didn’t hear Roy’s response. One of the infected slammed into
the door, and whether it was because of the force of the impact or because
Melissa hadn’t shut it properly, the door burst open. Melissa, caught by
surprise, was clipped by the door and tumbled forward, to land with a jolt
between the stairs leading up and down. She dropped the radio and sent it
skidding off to her right, stopping near the stairs leading up. She rolled onto
her back and looked up: three of the sick were approaching her, two men with a
woman bringing up the rear. The closest was literally about to drop on her. She
rolled to the right to dodge his lunge and his inertia sent him tumbling down
the stairs behind her. The second shuffled faster to close in on her, while the
third stumbled and fell onto her hands and knees; where she immediately reached
out to try to grab Melissa’s feet. Melissa pulled her legs back quickly and
managed to scramble up onto her knees. Within seconds of completing the
movement, the second male infected moved forward to wrap his hands around her
throat. She reacted without thinking and punched him as hard as she could in
the gut, but he didn’t seem to feel it; he just continued to approach her. She
punched him again and again, the force of the blows pushing him back slightly
each time. She used the slight window of opportunity to stand up, and then she
grabbed one of his arms and yanked him hard, twisting to throw him down the
stairs to join her first adversary. He fell with an almost comical moan, his
body slamming into each stair and ushering forth a bone-breaking crunch.
Melissa didn’t have a chance to catch her breath as she felt the woman’s cold,
clammy hands around her ankle. She looked down as she struggled to free herself
from the sick woman’s grasp, horrified to see that the woman was dragging
herself forward to sink her teeth into the warm flesh of Melissa’s leg. Melissa
couldn’t get free, so she twisted and brought her other foot down as hard as
she could on the back of the sick woman’s head; once, twice and then a third
time. It stunned her, and Melissa felt the grip loosen around her ankle. She
pulled her leg free and moved quickly towards the radio. She scooped it up and
looked over her shoulder. The crawling woman was moving towards her, and another
two sick people were now in the doorway. Roy was calling her name, begging for
an answer, but Melissa didn’t have time. She started up the stairs, not really
knowing where to go, but anywhere would surely be better than here. Melissa
felt her back pocket as she mounted the stairs two at a time and felt the key
card for her door still snugly sitting there.

She quickly reached the thirty-second floor
and opened the door, slamming it behind her as she went through. She took a
quick look around and wondered if any of the rooms were occupied. If they were,
the people had to be warned, but what exactly could she say to the occupants?

“Roy I’m on the thirty-second floor.”
Melissa said into the radio. “I don’t know what to do. They’re in the stairwell
behind me, and I’m pretty sure they’re on their way up here.”

“You should be fine. They seem to have lost
some mental function. Some of my guys noticed they get stuck behind doors they
can’t simply push open. The only danger is if there are a lot of them and they pressure
the door and break it down. Were there that many?”

“Well hell, I don’t know.” Melissa declared
curtly. She hadn’t taken a good look at them, and wasn’t even entirely sure
they had followed her up the stairs. A loud thump on the door behind her made
her jolt forward; they certainly had followed her. Another pair of thumps
followed, and then a final one, which led to silence. She considered they may
have lost interest, and so slowly turned and backed away, not making any noise
to alert them to her presence.

“I don’t think they’re going to try and
pursue me.” Melissa whispered into the radio, continuing to move away from the
door.

“Get somewhere safe so we can talk.” Roy
instructed. Melissa carefully crept through the corridors, looking for more
people with the same sickness, but saw none. She retreated to her room, swiping
the lock with the key card from her back pocket. She shut the door and leaned
against it, gaining a little reassurance from its solidity. Her eyes drifted
towards the mini bar; she practically ached for a drink.

“Okay Roy, I think it’s time for you to
tell me what’s going on.” Melissa said bluntly, moving to the mini bar, opening
it, and grabbing one of the small bottles of whiskey while she waited for Roy’s
response.

“I honestly can’t tell you exactly what’s
going on, but I can tell you what happened.” Roy answered, sounding
unnecessarily cryptic to Melissa. He relayed what he’d seen on the security
cameras; what had happened immediately after, with the complete loss of control
of the computer system, and then proceeded to describe more recent events.

“It was a blood bath. All of my security
staff are dead, except for Donna who’s trapped in this damned security room
with me. Hundreds of guests were bitten within the first hour, and the ones
that didn’t get sick like the ones who bit them... they were torn apart. Jim
said they were eaten alive. But I guess you saw that yourself.” Roy said,
reminding Melissa of what she’d seen. Hearing this, Melissa cracked open the
bottle and drank, and once it was empty, dropped the bottle on the floor.

“So, what is it? Some kind of virus? Like,
rabies or something?” Melissa quizzed.

“Your guess is as good as mine. All I know
is they injected themselves and then everyone they bit either got sick like them
or... well...” Roy trailed off.

“What’s the deal with the elevators?”
Melissa asked.

“After the malware finished whatever it was
doing to the computer system, the elevator’s started running again, moving top
to bottom, stopping on every floor. The people who stayed in the elevators were
trapped when they reached the lower floors; whole families were trapped like
fish in a barrel. Now the elevators are slowly distributing the infected people
on all the floors. The chime from the elevator announcing the doors are opening
either attracts them to board it when it stops or encourages some of them
wander out. Kyle saw this while he was trying to warn everyone to stay in their
rooms and not to open their doors, but it seems a few of the floors have
already been overrun. One person gets bitten and starts screaming, people open
their doors to come and help. The rescuers are bitten, and their screams summon
more concerned guests; it’s like a chain reaction up and down the corridor. I’m
sure there’re some people still alive on the floors that were overrun who
simply barricaded themselves inside and stayed quiet, but I can’t imagine how
many. Based on the last data we had, we’re estimating at least half of the
hotel guests were either in the casino, on the floor above, or in the avenue
leading to the pool complex. The people trapped outside, as far as we know, are
safe from the hell unfolding inside but are trapped out there, as the external
security gates are closed and locked. The ones who weren’t in those locations
are either in their rooms or outside the Seraph complex altogether.”

Melissa listened to what he was saying. It
sounded crazy. If she hadn’t seen evidence of his account with her own eyes she
would have thought it was a figment of his imagination. But what she had seen,
she couldn’t deny.

“How many of them do you think there are?”

“Thousands, with the bulk of them on the
casino and entertainment floor above, plus maybe a few hundred dispersed
through the hotel itself. With the cameras out though, we can’t tell which
floors they’re on.”

“Great. Are the police on their way?”

“If you’re in your room, you’re in a better
position to tell me. Go to the window,” Roy requested, “and see if you can see
any squad cars.” Melissa trotted over to the glass and peered out, trying to
look down into the street.

“I can’t tell. There is some kind of
commotion in the streets, but we’re in Vegas, it could be anything.” Melissa
informed him. “Listen, is there any way to get out of the hotel? Did the
security shutters completely lock us in?”

“Yes. We can’t even escape to the pool
complex. The damned security gates have blocked every exterior door.”

“No external lines of communication?”

“No, something’s blocking our cell phones
and the external phone lines have been cut.”

Melissa thought for a second. It didn’t
make sense; the malware, the lockdown, the cutting of all lines of
communication. Something else was going on here.

“So, what’s the plan, Roy?” Melissa
queried, going back to the mini bar and hastily grabbing another small bottle
to drink.

“I’m not sure there is a plan. Donna and I
are trapped in this room. You’re on the thirty-second floor and all of my team
members are dead or missing. There’s only one thing we could do, and I couldn’t
ask you to do that.” Roy answered vaguely. Melissa finished her second drink
and tossed the bottle beside its empty friend.