The Event: The Beginning (14 page)

              "Still want to do this, or just head back to the car and get the group to safety?" I asked Roger. I wasn’t sure I wanted to take on four, even with our guns.

              "If we don’t take them out now, what happens if they find the hotel? We would have to deal with them then. But if we engage now, who's to say there aren't more that would come running?" he said. I saw his point, and had already considered that myself.

              "Good point. But what if we just let them go, and the see us leaving? We would just lead them right to the group anyways. I say we go for it.” I told him. He mulled it over for a minute or two as we watched the four infected interact. They really were acting like a pack. As informative as this was, I pulled my pistol, nodded to Roger, who readied the shotgun, I aimed and fired. My bullet caught the closest infected right in the forehead, dropping it instantly. It also caught the attention of the other three who immediately began screeching and looking around. They were moving, so I couldn’t get a good bead on another one this far out, but they were staying close together. Finally one stopped long enough to let out a loud, long scream. I took advantage of it being still and fired. I caught it in the throat, which turned its scream into a gargle, but it didn’t go down.

              The largest one must've seen the flash, or just me as it turned and ran straight at us. Roger stepped around the corner into view and raised the shotgun. I dropped to a knee and fired as both uninjured infected ran at us. I caught one in the leg and it stumbled, but didn’t fall. As they got closer, Roger fired. The buckshot caught the lead one in the chest and it stumbled to a stop as the force of the shot hit it. My next shot hit the second one in the shoulder. It didn’t slow it down however so I fired again, this time hitting it in the chest. If these things reacted like a human did, it would have dropped immediately, but it only faltered a step or two and kept coming. Roger fired again and the head of the closest infected exploded. The body teetered there for a second, then fell in a heap, twitching like it still wanted to come for us. The second one that I had shot twice tripped and fell only a few yards from us. I stood and fired at its head, three shots in quick succession. It finally stopped moving.

              The one I had originally shot through the throat was now making its way towards us. It kept snapping its jaws and making a sound like it was trying to clear something from its throat. Blood was pouring from its wound, so obviously I had hit something vital. It stumbled a few more steps, then fell. It tried to get up several times, but fell back down each time. I waved for Roger to hold his fire. I started walking towards it, keeping an open eye out for others. Every time it tried to get up, it seemed weaker. Finally it stopped trying to get up at all. As I moved closer, I could see it still breathing, but even that was slowing, and eventually stopped. I just looked at Roger after we made sure it was dead.

              "So they can bleed out. Interesting.” I said to him as I raised up from the body. "Let's get back to the car, I want to secure that hotel quickly. Then we will call a meeting." He nodded in understanding and we headed back to where we left Alan. I hoped he didn’t panic and drive off with the gunfire. As we rounded the RV we had hidden behind, I saw Alan pulling out and moving. I waved to him and he started moving towards us. He must've been looking for us and was coming to meet us.

              I motioned for him to stay driving as he pulled up to us, and Roger and I climbed in. Roger got in back as I climbed in front. I nodded at Alan and he drove off, heading back towards the main road. We kept our eyes and ears open, but saw no sign of infected along the way back. I wasn’t entirely sure our little skirmish would have gone unnoticed.

              I radioed back to the group and told them that we would be pulling out as soon as we got back, and to start gathering everyone back up. I was told that Jeff and Dave had already set a watch and had people staying close to the RV's anyways. I let them know we would be back in about five minutes, if that long, then signed off. We continued on, still listening and watching for anything out of the ordinary. We saw nothing but a few birds take flight, so I hoped we were in the clear for a little bit.

              Pulling back into view of the group, it appeared that there was no one outside of the vehicles. I radioed to confirm that, and then informed the drivers to just follow us. We could hook the car back up to the trailer after we got to the hotel. Alan waited just past the gas station until the first of the RV's made it to the entrance, then started moving himself. We drove back under the interstate without incident, seeing another gas station on the right, along with what appeared to be a couple of restaurants. I hoped maybe they still had some edible food left in them.

              Alan turned into the hotel parking lot and pulled the car up near the entrance. Everyone else pulled in and parked where they could, but with enough room to move out quickly if needed. As Alan stopped, Roger and I were looking at the hotel. Most of the windows seemed intact on the ground floor, which was a good sign, and there didn't seem to be any sign of fortification, which meant there was a very good chance no one was inside, or had tried to stay here before. He killed the engine and started to hand me the keys. I shook my head and told him to leave them here. We all got out as others started piling out of the RV's. I saw mostly the men getting out with weapons, and it appeared most of the women and children were staying inside. It just seemed to be a natural assumption that the men would clear the buildings, and the women and kids would stay behind, safe, until we did. I tried not to foster that train of thought, as there were some men I didn’t trust with a weapon, and some women I would trust who were better shots. Unfortunately, I had a lot of macho men and old fashioned guys that still had that 'protect the women and kids' mentality at all costs. While I had old fashioned values myself, I also understood that if I wanted to protect this group to the best of my ability, I needed to use the best people for the job, and that included some of the women.

              Leaving that fight for another day, I waved to the others to form up near the door. I already had my armor and weapons on as well as Roger and Alan. Roger handed the shotgun back to Alan, who put it back in his back holster. Everyone was checking ammo and armor as we prepared to go in.

              "Alright, here's the deal. It looks like most of the windows are in good shape. I'm assuming that means no one has tried to use this place as a hideout, so we shouldn’t have any problems. No less than two people per room, and try not to shoot each other. Alan, Steve, and you four go to the second floor. You five hit three with Dave. Jeff, take these five and go to four, I'll take Roger and the rest on one. Once we have cleared all floors, we will pull the rest in and start securing the windows. Any questions?" I stated. I wanted to do this quick as it was already past dark. Everyone just stared at me and shook their heads, so I motioned we were ready and went in.

              We went in and spread out, looking for the stairs as well as movement. The air was stale, and there was some trash laying around, but nothing that screamed of infected presence. The others found the staircase and headed up. Roger and the rest of us finished sweeping the lobby and front desk area. Finding nothing, we moved to the hallway and prepared to start checking the rooms. Since there was a hallway going either way, we decided to go to the left one first. Since there was no power, I hoped the doors would be unlocked since they used the keycard type locks. Otherwise we would have to kick in each individual door.

              Roger and I stayed together, and I used hand motions to instruct the others to leap frog rooms. Once everyone had a hand on a door handle, I nodded and we all turned them at the same time. They opened easily and we all stepped inside. Roger went first since he opened the door, and as he went into the room, I turned into the bathroom and checked it. While this was a decent hotel, the rooms were normal sized and therefore easy to clear. I cleared the bathroom and shower and stepped out as Roger was raising up off the floor from checking under the bed. We stepped back out into the hallway about the same time the other two teams did as well. We nodded at each other and continued on.

              Room after room we went, taking turns opening the doors. The air was musty everywhere but we saw no signs of human or infected. Some of the rooms looked like they were left in a hurry, but for the most part everything was clean. It took us about half an hour to clear that first hallway, which pushed the time to around ten pm. We jogged back to the lobby area and began clearing the other hallway. The doors opened just as easily down there and it went about as quick. The only exception was there was a conference center down this hallway as well as a laundry room and some supply closets. Around ten thirty we finished that hallway and met back up in the lobby.

              "You two, go tell the rest to start gathering their things for the night and start coming in. you two head upstairs and see if any of them need any help clearing rooms. Roger and I will start securing doors.” I pointed to the men I was making assignments to. As they went to their new jobs, Roger and I went to check the outside doors to make sure nothing could sneak in on us as we slept. We walked down the hallway to the end door first. It was also a keycard lock, so I stepped outside and shut the door while he waited inside to let me back in, but when I pulled on the door, it opened easily.

              "Is there a lock on this side?" I asked as I stepped back in. we checked the inside of the door, and it did have a keyed deadbolt. I stepped back out, heard him turn the lock, and pulled. It didn’t even budge, as hard as I yanked on it. I finally knocked and Roger opened the door for me. I turned the lock back and we jogged to the far end of the hallway to check that one. As we went through the lobby the first of the group came in with food and supplies. We waved to show there was nothing to worry about since we were running, and continued to the end of the hallway.

              We saw it was the same type of door as the other end, so Roger went outside this time and I turned the lock and waited for him to knock. The door shook as he yanked on it repeatedly, but it held. I opened it back up for him and we relocked it. We walked back to the lobby as more people filed in. None of the other teams made it down yet, so I instructed the people to spread out on floor two and find a room, but keep the drapes closed. Roger and I then headed for the stairs to check on the rest of the teams.

              We opened the door for the second floor and listened for movement. Hearing nothing, we proceeded to the third floor. Again, we heard and saw nothing. Moving up one more to four, there was again nothing. We moved up again to five and we heard footsteps and hushed voices. Seeing movement, I flipped my flashlight on and off to get their attention. Two lights swung and hit me, and a voice called out 'who goes there?’

              "Dave, it's me.” I called out, recognizing his voice. The two lights lowered so they weren't right in our eyes as we walked down the hallway. The two other groups came out of the rooms once they heard our voices. They were all at the far end of the hallway, so it appeared that they were finishing this floor now. That meant the other team must be up on six already.

              "So far they've been all clear.” Dave told me as we met up in the middle.

              "Good. The first floor was clear and is secure, but the windows and such aren't boarded up yet. I told everyone to keep the blinds closed for now, but I would like something done with the big windows in the lobby." I told him. The other men came up from the end of the hallway once they finished the rooms and told us they were all clear. "Let's go find some way to secure those lobby windows then, and then we can all get some sleep in peace. I told everyone to start finding rooms on two so maybe we can leave the ground floor empty just in case."

              We made our way downstairs as there was only six floors and I verified Jeff's team was finishing up that floor now. We met the others coming up the stairs to floor two and waited until the stairs cleared, then finished heading down. In the lobby people were still lugging in supplies, some of them obviously very sleepy. I sympathized with them as it was a little after eleven at night now. Once the last people were in, I had Jeff, Roger, and a few others go with me to check the vehicles for anything we might need tonight, then shut them up. We didn’t lock them as it would take too long to figure out which keys went where in the morning. As we came back in, I made sure the doors were shut and locked, and we began the process of blocking them up.

              They all had a keyed lock that we turned, but the glass could easily be broken and the building entered that way. We closed all the blinds and kept our lights away from the windows as much as possible, but I still wanted more security. We moved some of the tables from the lobby and the conference table to the big windows and set them on their sides so they blocked as much as possible and set chairs behind them to keep them up. Once we did as much as we could do, I set four men as guards and told another four to find a room to sleep down here to relieve them later so everyone could get some decent sleep. I headed upstairs to talk to Michelle and the girls before finding my own room.

              I knocked on the door and Michelle answered. She was alone as the girls decided to have their own rooms. We made small talk for a few minutes and then I left her to get some sleep. I checked in with the girls, and they were already pretty much asleep, so I left them alone. After talking with a few more people, just to be sure that everyone was okay, I then headed downstairs to find my own room. I wanted to be close just in case anything happened since I felt it was my responsibility to keep them safe.