The Last Infection: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller (16 page)

Chris
had a decision to make and he had to make it quick. If he believed the note, he would have to lead them further into the hotel to reach the elevators. There was a good chance the dead would overtake the entrance and make it impossible to get back out. If they went out into the safety of the street, they would probably never be able to get back inside.

“The note,” he heard himself say. “It said we need to get to the elevator.” His eyes were on Jenn although he was speaking to everyone. Her
face told him she understood the dilemma.

“There’s got to be another way,” she said.

“They’re coming.”

Chris didn’t need to look to know what
Alicen was talking about.

Jake
tried to interrupt the stare down between Chris and Jenn. “Guys?” He pulled at Chris’ arm. “I really don’t think it matters.”

The view outside the
shattered entrance was skewed by stacks of furniture pressed against the doors. The open space between the fittings showed through to shifting shadows beyond the entrance. Chris pushed past Jenn and came to a stop beside Sarah who was already taking in the scene outside. The streets were alive as figures stepped out from adjacent buildings and hidden locations between the burnt out cars and trucks. The sight left little to debate and Chris headed for the escalators.

“Doesn’t look like we have a choice
anymore.”

17.

Everyone was running and Chris wasn’t sure how to keep them going in the same direction. The wide foyer and central corridor of the
casino bent to the right, leading directly to a bank of escalators. The broken mechanical lifts led up to the second floor where at one time thousands of visitors a year would check into their rooms. Presently, the lifts might be the only thing that could save Chris and the others from the army of undead racing after them.

The view of the
street in front of the casino was blocked behind them, not that anyone was looking. The stacks of furniture barricading the doors had little to do with the distortion. A mountain of maggot infested walking corpses pressed their decomposing bodies against the broken glass trying to get in. Another legion of the undead made their way up the short set of stairs from the gaming floor and were now pushing into the foyer and the hall beyond.

A chorus of flesh eating desire
raced after Chris and the other survivors. There was little time to do anything but run. Jafar hit the escalators first and rushed to the top. Chris stopped at the bottom and urged Jenn and the others up ahead of him. Alicen was beginning to fall behind, but Michael and Jake grabbed one arm each and dragged her to the middle of the pack. Chris started up the stairs with the dead only a few steps behind and the smell of their rot engulfed him as he went.

He took three steps at a time and nearly slammed into Jafar when he reached the top. The others were still moving, now crossing the on
ce plush red carpet leading to the check-in desks. The elevators and any hope of escape lay against the far wall on the other side of the wide ticketing floor. Chris and Jafar looked down on the dead and neither man had the words to express the situation they found themselves in. The entire first floor corridor was filled from one side to the other with bodies. A sea of putrid flesh, all twisted and dead, pressed together trying desperately to reach the moving bait.

“What door?”

Chris turned as the first of the dead pushed their way onto the escalator and clumsily started up after them. Jenn was passing the ticket desks and nearing the elevator doors.

“How should I know?”
Chris yelled.

He counted eight elevator doors
as he neared and a nefarious thought ran through his mind. Chris had bet their safety on a note, stuffed in a bottle, hanging in a stairwell for only God knows how long. What were the chances that whoever wrote the note was still alive, let alone still safely hidden away? Something told him they were about to find out very soon whether they liked it or not.

Jafar and Chris were running stride for stride
until they reached the elevators where the others huddled around the first set of doors. Jake and Michael were on opposite sides, pulling with all their might. The doors opened and Jafar and Chris jumped in to help. The split between the two halves pulled far enough for Jenn to slip in. The dark interior offered little hope and she quickly emerged with a frantic expression.

“What the hell am I supposed to do in there?” The question seemed more complicated than it was. “There’s no power. We can’t get that thing to run.”

Chris stared at the door befuddled. He didn’t know what to expect, but somehow he thought the answer would present itself. “Let’s do this one.” He started on the next set of doors and Jafar followed suit. The doors parted revealing an identical picture to the first.

Jafar and Michael moved on
, but Chris stood frozen in place. His eyes were on the tops of the escalators. The sound of the dead was growing and he knew that any second, they would come pouring over the top. He took a moment of desperation to count his remaining shells. He had two rounds before it went empty. He guessed that would buy him about a minute, once the onslaught started.

“Jafar, what do you
have left?” Jafar continued what he was doing, until the third doors parted and he uncovered nothing of use. Chris raised his voice as the weight and frustration of the moment took over. “What do you have left?”

“
One, damn it,” he snapped as he spun around. Sweat rolled down his forehead as he snatched his pistol out of his pocket. “I’ve only got one round left. Is that what you want to know?”

“I’ve got three,” Michael announced.

Jafar and Chris stared each other down as the pressure got to them.

“What the
hell are you two doing?” The question came from Jake and the words spilling out of the mouth of a twelve year old were shocking. The boy gawked at both of them with an awful look of disappointment. “We have five more doors and I can’t open them by myself.” He started toward the next elevator without giving either of them a chance to respond.

The two men looked at each other and nodded. They rushed to the doors and pulled. Jake and Michael
took one side and Jafar and Chris took the other. The girls stood in front of the opening, each peering in a different direction. Jenn eyed the escalators as the first of the dead stepped onto the second floor. Sarah’s gaze was on the sides of the wide room in search of another exit while Alicen was looking directly at the parting doors.

The
breach revealed four massive springs bolted into the floor two stories down, but no sign of the elevator. Seven pairs of eyes focused on the end of a rope ladder swaying gently down the center of the shaft. Chris looked past the others at the growing horde amassing at the top of the escalators and he knew they were out of time. The ladder and whatever end it offered was their only option. He turned his attention to Jafar.

“You lead the way.
” He eyed the dark shaft. “I’ll hold them off as long as I can.”

Jafar handed
over his gun and started for the opening between the doors. Jenn’s befuddled expression left her with her mouth open and nothing to say. That predicament didn’t last long.

“What is this?” she asked Chris directly. “
…some macho man bullshit?”

“We don’t have time for this,” Chris said.

“You’re damn right,” she countered. “Jafar, go ahead. Jake, you and Alicen follow him.” She threw her arms up when nobody moved. “Go, now.”

Jafar
had heard enough. He reached out between the elevator doors for the ladder and a few seconds later, he was climbing. Jake didn’t ask for additional guidance. He urged Alicen ahead of him and instructed her on what to do. Sarah got in line behind them with Michael close by. Jenn set her sights on Chris.

“Get moving,” she ordered.

Chris wasn’t prepared to die. He knew it and so did she. His eyes were on the dead even as he backed his way toward the elevator. They were midway across the room and there wasn’t any way to stop them. The kids were up on the ladder and climbing as Sarah took hold of the bottom rung.

Chris raised the rifle and fired. The round hit with a solid thud,
but it did little to stop the advancing mob. He fired again, this time missing his mark. The shot ripped through the decaying tissue of a woman, but only managed to push her back a few feet. She growled some unintelligible response, but then continued forward for the feast.

The
bolt locked back indicating it was empty and Chris dropped it on the ground. He aimed the pistol as the first row of the dead stumbled closer. A glance over his shoulder showed only he and Jenn remained. The others had disappeared up the elevator shaft.

“Go.
”

Jenn stood with one foot on the ground and the other dangling out in the open space of the shaft.
“Get over here.” She had a firm grip on the bottom rung. “We can make this.”

“I’m coming
, just go.” He took two long steps backward and his head smacked the elevator door. Jenn hadn’t moved. “I can’t go unless you get your ass up there first.”

She jumped off the le
dge and started the climb. Chris turned his back on the dead as they drew within a few feet. The sound of their desire for him encompassed everything. He had to yell for any chance at being heard.

“Hurry.
”

Jenn pulled her foot up and Chris
slipped the pistol in his pocket, and then jumped out into the shaft as the first hand slid across his back. He caught hold of the bottom rung, but his momentum pushed him out. The force swung back and he heard the dead as he swayed toward them. Several swipes hit his back and legs, but none grabbed hold. One good pull brought him up, and then another slowed the swing.

Chris
got a view of a mass of distorted faces pressing through the elevator opening. They tumbled over the side, one after another, trying to reach him. A pile of bodies grew by the second two stories down on the basement level of the shaft. There was no stopping them and they continued the maddening reach without regard for the result.

The way up looked impossibly far. Chris could see Jenn a few rungs ahead
, but the darkness hid everyone else. Thin slits of light from each floor were the only thing to pierce the darkness of the shaft. It was impossible to tell how far they would have to go.

The climb was tiring work and everyone slowed as the sound of the zombie
s died away. It wasn’t long before they were high enough that the way below was as dark as the way above. Chris kept at the climb while his mind wondered how long the kids could handle the task. It was Jafar’s voice that broke the silence from somewhere in the darkness.

“I see
an open door.”

Chris leaned out away from the ladder and search
ed shaft. The light was a good ways up, but it was clearly an opening. They continued to climb at a much slower rate. The light proved to be an open elevator door and a head bobbing in and out of the opening caught everyone’s attention. Chris was two floors below when the onlooker made itself known.

“You’re going to have to hurry.”

The owner had a distinctively feminine voice and the tone said she was in a rush. Jafar leaned out, swinging the ladder below him. He eyed the opening as he swayed closer with each pass. It took several agonizing minutes for him to get the momentum he needed. He reached out with both hands and grabbed the ledge. The swing of the ladder pulled at him in the opposite direction, but he managed to hold on.

Jake climbed up the opposite side of the ladder then used
Jafar as a makeshift bridge. The boy had a discreet conversation with the yet unseen person then looked to Jafar for direction. Jake took a while to follow through with Jafar’s orders, but in the end, the rope ladder was locked in place with the help of a broken chair. Jafar climbed up next and the line moved.

Chris was
the last to go and the whispering conversation above was out of earshot until he was eye level with the elevator door. Jenn and Michael helped pull him up onto the floor and he scrambled to his feet. A long hallway ran east and west, each turning at the ends. The once lavish furnishings gave a hint at the former condition of the hotel, but there wasn’t much of use.

The owner of the faint voice was as tall as Jake
, but much thinner. Chris guessed the preteen was suffering from a lack of food by her dark, sunken eyes. She held onto a smile as she nodded to him and the others. He baby blues were wide, taking in as much of her surroundings as she could while constantly checking down the hallway.

“We can’t stay out here,” she said.

“Why not?” Jenn asked.

She hesitated and her smile cracked. “I shouldn’t have c
ome here. We’re not supposed to-”

“We?” Chris approached and the little girl snapped back in an automatic response. “How many people are up here?”

She shrugged and took another step away. Jenn move in front of him and got down on a knee. “We’re not going to hurt you.” The girl didn’t respond. “What’s your name?” Jenn urged Alicen to join them. “We’re looking for a friend.” Alicen waved and the girl waved back. Her stance softened after a moment of contemplation.

“Mila,” she said
, then eyed the hallway. “We should go.”

“Mila,” Jenn tried to get her attention. “What are you looking for?”

“We’re not supposed to bring in new people,” she said. “You’re going to take our food.”

Jenn looked
up at Chris with concern. He stepped forward and in the softest way he could, he furthered the questioning.

“Who told you not to bring in other people?”

“Nicholas,” she said as if that was supposed to clear everything up. “I don’t want to get in trouble, so maybe you shouldn’t come back with me.”

“We’re looking for two people,” Jenn interrupted. “Tom and
Nell, they would look like your grandparents.”

“My grandparents were eaten,” Mila said
plainly.

Jenn drew a blank. Her mouth opened
, but nothing came out.

“We just want to look for our friends,” Chris said. “We’re not here for anything else.”

Mila started to walk and waved for them to follow. Chris stepped in stride with Jafar and Michael.

“We need to be ready,” Jafar said.

“Ready for what?” Michael asked.

“That little girl’s more scared of whoever’s leading her group than she is of the
greeters we met downstairs.” He looked back at Sarah and Jenn. “Keep your eyes open. Let’s get your parents and get out of here as quickly as we can.”