Fighting to Survive (21 page)

Juan
walked over and knocked on the door.

“
What
are you doing?
”

“
If
there is one in there, it should flip out and start banging back,
right?
”

Katarina
raised an eyebrow.
“
You
gotta point.
”

Juan knocked again
and waited. There was no response.

“
I
guess it
’
s
clear,
”
he said, and opened the door.

Immediately,
a zombie, lying on the floor, lurched forward and bit into the
pointed toe of one of his shitkickers.

Juan jerked back
with a startled yelp and Katarina shot it in the head.

She
pointed at the zombie's arms. It was a woman dressed up in a
flowered dress and highheels.
“
No
hands. Couldn't knock back.
”

“
Well,
there goes that theory,
”
Juan said with a frown. He flashed the beam of light around the small
supply room, saw that it was clear, stepped in and located the fuses.

In
the darkness behind him, he kept hearing people calling out,
“
Clear
”
as they moved methodically through the basement.

Juan
returned to the fuse box and began replacing the burnt out ones. He
worked quickly, safely and efficiently.
“
That
power surge the first day really fucked things up. I wonder what
caused it.
”

Katarina
continued to watch the darkness, her flashlight making long sweeps
and occasionally illuminating the other people in the basement.

“
I
got it,
”
Juan exclaimed.

Suddenly,
the basement filled with light as the overhead fluorescent tubes lit
up. Machinery began to growl to life. Everyone let out a gasp.

“
Clear,
”
someone's voice called out.
“
All
clear.
”

***

In the lobby, Linda
turned as the lights came to life, illuminating the rich dark wood
and fancy furniture.

“
Wow,
”
she said in awe.

The
elevator on the right side of the lobby chimed and the doors opened.
A little girl staggered out, looked around, and rushed toward the
nearest person.

“
Freaky
zombie kid,
”
Ken shouted.

Panic
swept the room as they realized the armed guards were in the
basement. Around Linda, people picked up bricks. Linda picked one
up and hurled it at the girl. It hit her in the chin and knocked her
back. Linda smiled as her softball years paid off.

Another brick went
careening toward the zombie and knocked her back.

There
was a flurry of excitement as people continued to pelt the child with
bricks, until she fell backwards onto the ground.

Linda
ran up and stared down at the growling face of what had been a child
then slammed the brick in her hands down on the girls head,
shattering it into bloody chunks.

“
Clear!
”
she shouted with satisfaction.

***

In the foyer to the
ballroom, the last elevator opened. Travis stood ready, his gun
aimed. Nerit stood beside him, also ready.

Inside
was just a body, a truly dead body. It was the hotel manager. His
emaciated form and the condition of the elevator let them know he had
either starved to death or died of dehydration. He was curled into a
tiny ball, clutching his wallet. Pictures of his family spilled out
from between his fingers in clear plastic sheets.

Travis leaned over
and looked at the pictures, then up at Nerit.

“
I
guess we're done.
”

Nerit
nodded.

Just like that, the
day from hell was over.

1. Beginnings…

There seemed to be
very little time to sit back and enjoy their victory. Almost
immediately, the clean up crews came in and began the messy job of
removing the bodies. Anyone, who was strong and able enough to help
was drafted into some part of preparing their new home for occupancy.
Katie was exhausted, but knew it was necessary. She reported in for
her next assignment and joined the rest of the survivors in the hard
work.

First,
the bodies were removed and discarded out the loading dock behind the
kitchen into a large truck. Wearing kerchiefs over their noses and
mouths as masks, the hardiest of the survivors set about dragging the
bodies out using hooks specially crafted for the job. Sheets of
plastic were used to wrap the corpses up then they were dragged out.

Nerit
and a few of her trainees covered the disposal of the bodies from
above. Tucked into the windows and balconies, they took out any
zombie trying to get too close. So far there hadn
’
t
been any major incidents. A few zombies made runs at the truck only
to be taken down by the snipers.

Jason
was part of the crew that was sent in to rip up the rug in the dining
room. They cut it into long swaths that were then rolled up, put
into plastic bags, then hauled out after the bodies. Some of the
women and younger girls were given gloves and large buckets of water
with bleach to clean up the blood splatter. Not a nice job, but a
necessary one. Anything that was contaminated by the blood and
innards of the zombies was removed.

Katie
helped Stacey scrub down the kitchen floor and walls. They had to
literally scrape up some of the gunk. Gretchen, the librarian, and a
girl with red hair whose name Katie could never remember, also came
in after awhile to scrub up the blood and gore.

“
You
know,
”
Stacey said after awhile, her light hair hanging in her eyes.
“
I
really hate zombies.
”

“
That
does seem to be the general consensus,
”
Gretchen said with a laugh.

Katie
scraped up what looked to be an intestine and chunked it into a bag.
“
Is
it just me or is this getting easier to deal with?
”

“
I
think I've stopped noticing the smell unless it
’
s
really fresh,
”
Stacey answered scrubbing away at the floor with a bristle brush.

Jason
walked through, lugging a heavy bag of carpet. His hair was in his
face, as usual, with only his eyes visible between his bangs and his
mask. Behind him was his possible new girlfriend, Shelley. She was
a cute teenage girl Jenni had saved a few weeks earlier. Katie
caught Shelley sneaking a peak at him and smiled to herself. Life did
go on whether you wanted it to or not.

Because
of Jenni
’
s
leg being twisted, she was reduced to sitting in the elevator
scrubbing up what little blood had been in there. Juan supervised the
finishing of the walling off of the doors and windows. Jenni was
convinced he had her stuck in the elevator just so he could keep an
eye on her.

Katie
knew this was exactly the case. Jenni
’
s
determination to keep going had resulted in her sprain being worse.
Juan was too frazzled by the wounds on her face and her body to let
her out of his sight for too long. Katie thought it was sweet.

Travis
came through the kitchen a few times. He was helping lug bodies down
from the higher floors. They exchanged awkward glances. An unspoken
promise had passed between them, Katie still was unsure if she would
fulfill it.

A
sense of relief permeated the atmosphere of the hotel. With so many
people working, things were taken care of rather quickly. All the
doors into the hotel were double-checked to make sure they were
secure. Any windows close to street level were blocked off. Katie
knew that a few crews would be working deep into the night bricking
up all street level doorways. Only the loading dock was going to be
left operational, but only because the doors were thick metal and
very secure.

As
the sun set, the hotel came alive with lights. People that weren
’
t
directly involved in the cleanup, such as the sick, disabled, elderly
and the children, were brought into the hotel. The smell of bleach
had wiped out the reek of death and the up stairs windows were
letting in cool, fresh evening air.

Manny
and Peggy took up a place at the front desk with a clipboard and a
map of the hotel interior. Katie, feeling lightheaded from all the
bleach fumes, walked into the lobby to join the growing number of
people gathered there.

“
Okay.
What we
’
re
going to do is call out names. You will come up and get your room
assignment and key,
”
Peggy announced to the group assembled.

Katie
favored her bruised arm as she leaned against a pillar and listened
to the names being shouted out. She felt very tired. Her hands were
bright red, despite the gloves she had worn during clean up. They
reeked of bleach. She couldn't wait to take a shower and get rid of
that smell.

Jenni
was curled up with Juan on a sofa. Juan had his arms wrapped
protectively around her. Jenni glowed with pleasure. Katie noted
that Jason and Shelley were hanging out together with Shelley
’
s
kid brother. It seemed to be the night for pairing up.

There
was a soft nudge of her hand and she looked down to see Jack giving
her a wide, toothy doggy grin. She smiled and stroked his ears,
making him a happy boy.

Things
were moving along smoothly with the room assignments until Steven
Mann and his wife went up to the desk. It didn
’
t
take long for there to be raised voices. Mr. Mann had been
the
man
around town as the primary investor in the hotel. He had been rescued
from his very swanky mansion only two weeks before with his wife.
Katie had heard stories of how the rescuers had staunchly refused to
carry out massive trunks of clothes and shoes for them. Finally, the
Manns had come with one suitcase each, but were very bitter about the
situation. They both refused to do much work around the site.
Resentment against them was growing.

“
We
are used to a certain quality of life and we have been forced to
rough it here. I demand that we be placed in the finest suite. That
is what we are used to and based on our former lifestyle, it is only
right,
”
Steven said.

Katie shook her
head.

“
The
bigger suites are for families that are still together. We have you
on the fourth floor in a very nice room with a king size bed. It
’
s
all about fitting the needs of the people,
”
Peggy answered firmly, and held out the key.

“
Well,
”
said his wife,
“
if
we are forced to live this way I demand room service now that there
is an actual working kitchen and hotel.
”

That brought
outright guffaws from those gathered around.

Peggy
looked up and said shortly,
“
You
’
ll
get room service if you get off your ass and come down to the kitchen
and help out.
”