---

With every strike, weight and force amplified by the plate tethered to his knuckles, Elijah could see the person's face cave in a little bit more, visible features replaced with crimson mush and a thick flow of ruby fluid. Every hit connected with a grunt of effort, signifying intent. In seconds, the body was still and unmoving. Near him, a few more straggling bodies moved in his direction, but were cut off by another person, a woman gripping a bar in her hand. Her voice was tinged with the elegance of a French accent and she called to another woman following her to stay back, then proceeded to swing the weapon in her hand. His eyes followed the shower rod as it connected against the side of one of the bodies, a gray-skinned woman, who retaliated with a swing of her own.

Elijah got to his feet and made for another straggler, keeping them at bay as the other woman held her ground. Staring down its bared teeth and open wounds, he could see the horde down the hallway, crowded together. Just loud enough were the sounds of Toto's "Africa", however tinny it sounded at the time, coming from a phone on the ground. Judging by where the song was, there was a small amount of time left, but all time would be gone when the gunshots started.

---

"What is that?"

The kid smiled, brandishing it in front of himself. "You know what it is."

"We're not supposed to have those. Ms. Forrester's gonna get mad!"

"She won't get mad if she doesn't know. Just relax."

He stared into the end as his thumb carelessly slipped through the hold. The other heard a click.

---

The bullets ripped through the stragglers coming up around all of them in the hallway. Elijah ducked instinctively, covering his ears. When it stopped, he dropped his hands, hearing another man's voice from down the opposite of the hall.

"Hey! Over here!"

Elijah turned and saw the man, who was dressed in a security outfit. His thoughts instantly went to the message he heard over the intercom, remembering the voice. This was the person who called out to the survivors.

"Come on, hurry!" the man exclaimed, waving over to the group. "Let's go! Now!"

"Mallory!" Elijah heard the woman exclaim as she pointed towards the security door. The other woman, who Elijah assumed was this 'Mallory', began shuffling toward the horde, only to be pulled towards the door by her partner, who then lunged for the door to hold it open. Past the window, he could see an older man reach for something. The woman in the doorway looked as she pinned the doors open, calling out to him with an outstretched hand. "S'il vous plaît ne pas!"

Mallory had slowed down, barely covering any distance as she shuffled quietly towards the door. Elijah turned around to the blonde-haired woman behind him, herself still being in the doorway to the stairwell. With as much as he could, he struck the crazed monster he tangled with, knocking it to the ground. In the distance, the crowd began to move towards the area where he and the rest were currently. Immediately, he sped to the doorway and grabbed the woman's hand.

"The security door's open," he said, short of breath. He began to pull her out of the doorway and towards the security door. "We don't have time to wait; just get to the door! I'll get the other one!"

He let go of the blonde-haired woman's hand and ran to the opposite wall, stopping just in front of Mallory. "Come on, lady, we have to move right now. Follow me and do not let go," he told her, grabbing her by the hand and leading her towards the door. Beyond the window, he could see the older man fumbling with the controls, putting two and two together with the woman holding open the door. With a free hand, he reached out to attempt to get his attention.

"Hold the fuck up, man, we've got survivors!"

”Got it!” She replied as Elijah went after a woman who seemed to be moving like she was out for a stroll. Breaking into a bit of a run, she clapped the security guard on the shoulder as she passed. ”Fall back to the door!” Without waiting for a reply, she reached the door and pushed by another woman. ”Clear the doorway, give ‘em space!”

Just inside the office she looked about briefly and spotted movement, some older fellow was making a dash for the door control panel; she could read the panic on his face. ”HEY!” She shouted, using her Army ‘command’ voice. ”Touch that and I break your fucking knees!” Turning back to the door, she made ready to help if needed.

Cole Anderson

Everything kind of happened in a bit of a whirl once Cole came banging on the door. He was rushed into the room as some security guard, he assumed, helped them in before he started putting bullets into the heads of three zombies that had been chasing him and Charlotte. The only thing he could really do was stand protectively over the woman while he watched the violence go on. It seemed justified, but it was horrifying as these were actual people with lives and families, trying to murder us out of the blue and getting shot like dogs. Something told him that this was worse than some serious case of bath salts.

Once the door had closed he breathed a sigh of relief, putting his back to the wall and tapping his fingers against his brass knuckles as he looked over at the control monitors. Grotesque images covered the screens, nothing but chaos, violence, and those things running amuck. This had slowly devolved from fire drill to emergency to fill out survival of the fittest in the last few minutes, and now they were stuck in this room with strangers while those things pounded on the door. Before he could turn his attention to Charlotte, the door opened again, and the security guard tried to help more people into the room. It seemed like it was going to get a bit crowded after all, but it was comforting seeing actual normal human beings. They could sure use the help.

As the people were coming through, the other man in the room who had argued with the security guard went to shut the door on the people coming it. His conscience wouldn’t allow it, he couldn’t just stand by and watch people die. After all, he was himself let in and could have been left to die. So he came up behind the man and grabbed his around the waist, yanking him away quickly from the controls before he had a chance to push them. ”Not so fast asshole, this isn’t all about you.”

This led to a bit of cursing and an elbow to Cole’s face, which in his profession as nothing unusual as he reared his head back and shook off the daze. He grabbed his arm, pinning it behind the man as the MMA fighter grabbed the back of the man’s head and slammed it into the desk, pressing it against it and keeping his arm very painfully pinned back.

”Charlotte! Make sure you close that thing once everybody gets in, and not a second sooner or later. I’ll keep this guy in check. And you, you piece of shit. If you so much as look at me funny I’ll break your arm in five places and throw you out there with them, you hear me? You’re lucky I don’t do it now after that stunt.”

”You-... bastard!” snapped Carter, jerking only slightly ”Let me go! That door, shut it! You idiot!” Carter snarled, jerking slightly again. ”If your such a tough guy then get out there and break their arms!” Despite Coles’ warning Carter struggled to break loose, jerking harder though in vain. His face was red in fury and he breathed heavily between grunts of effort and fury.

Mike fired off another round in the hallway, the bullet striking an undead surfer between the eyes. With a snap back of his head and a throaty grunt, the zombie collapsed to the floor. Mike looked to his left, then back to his right. He could hear savage screams from down the hallway to his left, and make out the silhouette of two men and a woman madly running in his direction. The fierce gag-like screams came from them as they flailed their arms wildly amid there dashed toward Mike. “Shit!” Mike hissed.

To his right, four of the slower undead staggered in his direction, he could see more coming from further away, through the now collapsed doors. They were about to be swarmed. “Seal the door!” the Aussie security guard cried to the blonde woman Charlotte as he hurriedly holstered his gun and literally shoved the last of the newcomers through the doorway as the three runners closed in, their faces bloody and their eyes red with murder.

@Heretic@Slim Shady

With the two men struggling to get the upper hand on each other, Charlotte took a step back, frantically watching as the additional guests hurried into the room. She mourned her friend, wishing that somehow, Alex was one of those making their way inside the room, but it was too late for that. When the security guard fired off the last few of the rounds into the undead and ordered her to close the door, she did just that.

Once the door was shut all the way, Charlotte breathed a sigh of relief. She eyed everyone in the room, glad they were safe for the moment. But that didn't meant there couldn't be a new threat from within.

"Hey, let him go now it's alright."

She had turned to Cole, pulling on his arm to get him off the man who was practically asking for trouble in an attempt to diffuse the situation. Once there was some distance, she grabbed his chin and pushed it to the side, noticing what might become a bruise but nothing the slightest bit serious.

"That was a close call."

---

June stumbled inside, eyes wide as Mallory was dragged inside by a scruffy looking American. June grabbed her stunned friend by the shoulders and dragged her away from the door. Both of them would be dead were it not for the kindness of these strangers. Something something, human condition, something something, what do we owe to each other. Either way, she was glad to be safe from the marauding madmen on the other side of that security door.

Mallory, numb, leaned against the bag wall and sat down, clutching her knees to her chest and staring at the floor. June frowned, patted her on the knee and promised to return. There were people to talk too. She decided to ignore the bumbling man that had to be restrained, the one who almost killed Mallory by closing that door.

"Merci, merci, merci." She thanked the security guard with the pistol, her voice cracking. Despite her inner cynicism, he was truly a good man to put himself at risk. She also turned to the blonde woman and dirty blonde man. "Merci! Thank you, monsieur, madame. We died without you." Her english was heavily accented and flawed, but the ideas were hopefully conveyed. The events of the last two minutes were hitting her in waves. The french woman staggered over to Mallory and slid down next to her, breathing heavily. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall, trying to calm down.

"C'est de la folie. Je ne peux pas croire cette merde!" She swore, letting her bloody shower rod clatter to the floor. She wiped tears away from her eyes. She was alive. Alive and save for now. Relief and dread for the things to come washed over. Mallory was not processing the events at all, staring with glazed eyes to the floor. Hopefully she snapped out of it soon, she was the far greater english speaker of the two. June just tried to relax and tried to pick up what she could from the conversation.

E L I J A H

Elijah's ears were ringing. Whether it was the gunshots, the blood rushing to his head, the spike of adrenaline, or the overwhelming stress of the situation, he couldn't tell. Everything sounded muffled, as if the sounds were coming through several layers of heavy blankets. On his hands and knees, he stared at the floor, hair having fallen partway out of the makeshift bun he'd made only some time before. His eyes trailed over to the brass plate on his hand, chunks of rotted flesh and blood caked across its surface. The smell of congealed blood wafted into his nostrils, and his senses became more clear. He could finally feel the pain beneath the plate.

An audible sigh erupted from his throat, his lungs burning with the strain of exertion as he brought himself up to lean back on his knees, hearing words he couldn't understand from one of the French women. His other hand deftly maneuvered through the knots of the power cord, slowly pulling them loose so the plug could slip through and unwind itself from his fingers. Once the wrap was loose enough, the plate slipped away from his hand and dropped to the ground with a clang, its sound masked by the encroaching roar of the things outside the office. He could see the bruises coating his hands, the misalignment of his knuckles from using such a makeshift weapon with no regard for padding. In hindsight, it was a foolish decision. In the moment, it was one he was glad to make.

In that same moment, he took a few seconds to look around the area, taking note of the people in the room. There was the blond-haired girl he met earlier. To his right, the women they joined on the way here. In front, the security officer, and with him were three others he'd never met. Beyond them, a small first aid box, and it looked like it was unopened. Elijah thought about his wounds; the broken knuckles on his hand, the cuts from the glass. He wanted to fish through the contents, find something to maybe alleviate the pain, but he knew consuming resources would deprive them from anyone else. Chances are others were hurt more than him. It was better to wait.

"So," he began, capable of a weak laugh, "how's your vacation going?"

It wasn’t until Elijah got through the door with the second woman, and the door closed, that she realized she’d been holding her breath. During those eternal seconds, she’d heard a commotion behind her but had been too fixated to look. Now she turned and saw the panicked man, whom she’d guessed was trying to close the door early, pinned to the floor by a new guy that she vaguely recognized; there was also a woman about her age trying to convince the second fellow to let the first guy up.

As the collective adrenaline rush started to ebb and one of the, apparently French, women thanked them all, Eliza felt a rather strong need to just scream for like an hour; but unfortunately or maybe fortunately that wasn’t really possible. Not trusting her self to speak for a bit, she thanked the security guard with a pat on the shoulder. Her arms went slack and her fingers lost their strength, causing her to drop her bar. The world seemed to fade out for a moment, before a voice beside her made her focus.

”Huh, what?” It took several seconds to her brain to process what he’d said. ”Sorry…kinda zoned out there for a moment.” Absentmindedly she ran her fingers into her braided mass of hair to scratch her head. ”My vacation? Well it started on a shitty note, before all this, and has been downhill since…”

E L I J A H

"Heh, yeah, you're telling me," Elijah responded, another weak and nervous laugh following. He shifted his legs out from beneath him and sat back against the wall next to the doors, bringing his knees to his chest and resting his shaky, bruised hand in his lap. Again, he looked around the room at the group of strangers, his eyes eventually on the silent one next to him. He watched as she stared absentmindedly into space, eyes dark and vacant.

"Hey, lady," he called out to her friend, waving to catch her attention before pointing to the one he had previously escorted inside. "She gonna be alright?"

---

June glanced up at the man that had saved Mallory. He pointed at Mallory, asking if she was...something. June couldn't piece the rest of his question together. Given his general body language, she guessed he was asking if Mallory was going to be okay. Whatever it was, she didn't want to mess anything up so she decided to respond nonverbally. June gave him a small smile and then touched Mallory on her shoulder. Mallory glanced up and looked over at June.

"Mallory?" June asked tenderly. Mallory blinked. June cupped the side of her face and began speaking in French. "Come on, Mallory. I need you to snap out of it, please. I need your help. I don't know how to speak English, not nearly as well as you do. Please. I promise you we are safe for now, okay?"

Mallory slowly nodded. "I...I'm sorry, June. I'm...scared." She said, with an apologetic tone.

June, inside, relaxed. It was good that Mallory wasn't going to be totally useless. Of course, she did care about Mallory. Mallory was her closest friend since...well, forever. But she didn't want her friend to be a liability, that was for sure.

"That's okay, Mallory. But I need you to focus. You're very good at English. Me? Well, I'd never dirty my tongue with the speech of these clumsy tongued Americans." She joked. Mallory smirked as well finally letting her weapon fall limply in her lap and getting a good look at her surroundings for the first time. They were inside the security office. Those...things were outside, and the idea filled Mallory with a great deal of dread. To be honest, she could feel something inside her mind twisting. Perhaps she did need more time to recurperate from such a traumatic experience. But there was no time. There was no time for a sit down with a pyschiatrist. The situation was still ongoing, she needed to be here, in the now. For her friend. It wasn't over yet. Just bottle up everything inside! That always went well and was perfectly healthy, Mallory mocked herself, bottling up her emotions for now. She had a terrible headache.

The taller frenchwoman put one hand on her forehead, and then gave a little wave to Elijah who had asked her about her wellbeing.

Cole Anderson

Cole held Carter down long enough to allow everybody to safely get in before he released the man, shoving him away from the controls and into the center of the room as he leaned his back to the controls, crossing his arms and sighing. It wasn't much effort on his part to restrain him, he was a professional, but it was very concerning that he had to fight not only those things outside, but also the not sick people in the room he was in. He didn't know which was worse for their health, although he could only hope people kept what was left of their humanity and tried to work together, not for themselves. "Oh don't worry, I've done plenty of that buddy. It would just be more useful and break yours first."

He was surprisingly calm in the situation, at least comparatively, considering him and Charlotte hadn't gotten much of a scratch on them the whole way down considering they took the elevator shaft and were one of the first people in the room. He did, however, notice the tug on his arm as he turned to face Charlotte, feeling his sharp jaw line get pushed to the side as she inspected his jaw. Definitely some bruising, but nothing serious or he hadn't dealt with, and Carter wouldn't be terribly hurt besides maybe a mark on his head either. If he wanted to hurt him he would have. "Yes, it was, but you did a wonderful job with those doors dear. We're safe for now, but we can't stay here forever. Worst of all, getting out of that door again is going to be much worse." Cole pointed this out, seeing bodies pile up and bang on the door, faces plastered, teeth bared, and probably screaming their heads off outside there. The psychological warfare of just hearing them, seeing them, knowing they were only a few feet away sent chills up his back.

He put a comforting arm around Charlotte, pulling her in for a quick embrace as he whispered in her ear. Don't worry, we'll get out of this. Just be careful and stick next to me. I don't know how much we can trust these people. In all honesty he had no reason to trust her either, he only had spent the one night with her, and before that they were strangers, but these situations often drew people together very quickly, and frankly it was nice to at least put some kind of faith in someone. Hopefully this trust would not be broken, and as quickly as he had embraced the woman, he let go and went back to crossing his arms and scanning the rest of the room.

"Well, as much as I love some good banter, we have a bit of a problem going on outside. And, quite frankly, this is a hell of a lot worse than a fire drill. We're safe for now, but we're gonna have to find a way out of here and somewhere to go. We can't all stay in this place forever, and there's no telling what the rest of the island looks like. If it's anything like this place, and the phone lines are down, it's going to be a long time before we get any help." Cole addressed the room, looking around at all the people, making a mental note of all of them. He would try to spend more time getting to know them later, but for now he turned to Mike. "I'm assuming most of us are tourists here, so you're probably the only one with any knowledge of our surroundings. Do you have any idea how we could get all of us out of here? I have a bad feeling the longer we wait, the harder it's going to get to get out of here. Once everybody else flees, we're going to be the only thing on these things' minds."

Mike stepped back slowly from the door, almost transfixed at what he saw through the plexiglass. What were once coworkers, friends, and happy-go-lucky tourists were now rotting, flesh eating, abominations. Clawing and banging at the sealed down like a pack of hungry bears, or demons. He shook his head slightly, now wasn’t the time to fall apart. Not now. These people needed his help. He was hotel security after all, protecting them and any others that might still live was his duty.

He had initially ignored Carter and the other man whom had restrained him. ’Shame the bloke didn’t go ahead and snap his arm... he thought pettily to himself. After all, that fool was about to seal him and the rest outside to be eaten by those creatures. A broken arm would’ve been the kindest punishment for such cowardice and selfishness.

Aside from Carter, Mike knew none of these peoples’ names. For now, all he had to go on was looks and character behavior. Carter was a lost cause, and Mike honestly wouldn’t be too hurt inside if the selfish prick was torn apart anytime soon. The man who had restrained him seemed like the useful type, and the best help that Mike might get in securing an escape for everyone. The two women who were paired he was still unsure of, true enough they had gotten here alright, but the one speaking French seemed at her wits’ end. Certainly not the one I’d lend my piece to. Mike thought.

The shaggy American seemed like he could be of help too, as did the other woman who had joined them. Mike wiped the sweat from his forehead as Carters’ restrainer spoke to him, “Well,” he started ,”firstly, your right about the phone lines. Since the whole mess started I’ve been trying to reach anyone I could. The police, the ASDF, the ADF, but nothing. No phones, no radio, no power. It’s a bloody damned mess...”

He walked past the collective group, adjusting his tan colored shirt as he pulled out the rolling chair at the control panel, turning it around and having a seat. “I’ve been monitoring the security cams all over the hotel itself. Outside and in. Things are even worse outside, hell, you can see smoke coming from the beach.”

”So what?” demanded Carter as he rolled and massaged at his arm ”Your saying the whole damned island is probably like this?”

“I wouldn’t quite say that,” Mike said ,”wiping at his brow again ,”I imagine the police are handling things in Moresby. The mayor may even have managed to get ahold’ of the ADF. But God only knows when they’ll get this thing... contained. I don’t know about the rest of Banoi, but the resort seems to be completely... overun. The hotel, the bungalows, the beach...”

Carter swore under his breath, crossing his arms and falling backward against the wall at his back. Mike stood and approached Cole, hands at his sides ,”Now, about you folks getting out of here, I do know a way, but it’s risky.”

”Spill it.” Carter demanded uncrossing his arms.

Mike glared sideways at Carter before turning his eyes to Cole and the others ,”The underground garage is only a little ways’ from here. Cars, vans, buses, plenty of rides for all of you. You can steal a ride and drive like hell for Moresby. I’ll bet they’ve got refugee centers set up there.”

While the others talked around them, Eliza found herself looking down at Elijah’s arm; more specifically at the bandage around it that was started to look a little pink in places. ”Hey,” She said, nudging him in the shoulder. ”I wanna take another look at your arm. I think I saw a bit of glass still in it before.” Not really giving the man a say in the matter, she put a hand on his shoulder and steered him towards the large wall mounted first-aid kit.

Unlatching the case and swinging it open, she was impressed with what she saw. It was not emergency trauma kit, but it was very well stocked. From the kit she pulled out some tweezers, cotton swabs, a bottle of isopropyl alcohol, a pair of bandage scissors and some aspirin. Sure it did have some heavier pain killers, but Elijah didn’t exactly seem like he was suffering greatly. Setting it all on a near-by counter top, she then poked about the office eventually turning up a cupboard full of plastic wrapped shirts, identical to the one the security guard was wearing. Snagging one, she returned to Elijah.

”I’m no Medic,” She said, trying to lighten the tone a bit, but not doing too well; off to their side, the security guard was suggesting they lift something from a motor pool and make for the city. ”That said, I’ve done plenty of stuff like this…bit of an operational hazard in my job.” Holding up an arm, she showed a plethora of small to medium scars of various age; on that ran across the back of her hand was still a bit pink-ish and had the last traces of scabs.

Unwrapping Elijah’s arm, she used the tweezers to take a cotton swab and dab the blood that had welled out of the cuts; fortunately it seemed to just be some capillary bleeding and nothing more. Ditching the bloodied swab, she apologized and then started poking about in the cut, eventually being rewarded with two small chunks of safety glass. Another bit of probing to make sure she didn’t miss anything, she then took a new swab, dosed it with a tiny bit of alcohol and used that to clean the wound.

Once all that was done, she tore open the plastic bag and then used the scissors to cut the shirt into a few strips. One was folded up and placed over the cut, before the other was used to wrap Elijah’s arm much more securely than either version of the previous bandage. ”There, that should hold you until a real medical type can have a look at it.”

That all done, she moved a bit closer to the others. ”Hey I’m Eliza, can I just throw my two cents in?” She said by way of an introduction. ”If this place full of rich-ish tourists got blindsided by whatever the fuck that is.” She added, waving towards the door most of them had just recently piled through. ”Do you really think the local gov is doing anything? Shit goes bad, the tourists are usually the first ones out…bad PR if they get killed and all that. My money says either the local gov is either already dead or under siege; I don’t know how many folks lived in Morseby, but I’m guessing that place make here look like a spa day”

She started pacing back and forth as her nerves jangled. She was terrified, much like everyone else no doubt, but she knew she needed to stay calm, they all did if they wanted to stand a chance in hell of getting out. As she moved by the security guard, she stopped and looked at him. ”What about a port, or a marina? We get there, get a boat…something long range, and head out to sea. It’d have radios and all that, and I know the Aussies or the Kiwis generally handle SAR work in these parts, so we’d just need to start transmitting a distress.”

"Pleasure making your acquataince, Eliza, I'm Charlotte. Though you make a good point, I think we should at least drive by," Charlotte chimed in, watching some of the survivors in the room but not reading too much into their emotions. If they favored one option over the other, then that was their prerogative. "We catch a ride to Moresby and gauge the situation. Worse comes to worse, we could go on a boat but then we'd have to stock up on rations. If that's the case, we might as well get some while we're in town, so it's not a wasted trip."

Charlotte then addressed the security guard who had suggested the idea in the first place. She didn't know his name, but she didn't need it to get him to do his part. "I hope you have enough rounds to spare for us to be able to get to the garage safely, because otherwise there'll be at least one of us looking like one of them out there, and I'm sure all of us want to leave the hotel grounds unscathed."

Charlotte stood close to Cole the entire time. She agreed with him regarding his opinion of the others. Their close call with the middle-aged gentleman had occurred only moments after their arrival, and she already didn't like him. If they had to sacrifice someone for whatever reason, he'd be the first to go simply because of his selfishness. The French girls also worried her a bit. They weren't a threat per se, but she had some concerns on whether they could pull their own weight. Charlotte quickly pushed that thought aside though since she hadn't gotten her hands dirty just yet, so to speak. She'd had some close calls, but nothing crazy enough to make her stare death in the eyes.

E L I J A H

"Hate to be the bearer of bad news," Elijah interjected, running his bruised hand over the new, tighter-wrapped bandages over his arm, "but this 'Moresby' place you guys are talking about is likely fucked, especially if it's an urbanized area. Higher population densities mean higher casualties, and if these things are what everyone's turning into, you can expect a deathtrap waiting for us..."

Finding some free space on the desk away from the controls, Elijah took a seat and leaned against the wall, resting his hand in his lap. His breathing, still labored, staggered with a mix of adrenaline and stress. His mind was racing, trying to put together solutions to get to safety, but things were looking grim.

"Assuming we had to go through this 'Moresby'... how much foot traffic does it get? Is it possible to reach it from the underground? There's no possible way that all these people would have immediate access to the sewers; they wouldn't be strong enough to lift the covers off the manholes. If we're going straight into dangerous territory, the underground sounds like our best bet. Not the fastest, but the road of least resistance."

Cole Anderson

Cole turned to Mike and nodded, breathing out slowly as he weighed the options in his head. If what he was saying was true, then they might have some chance to get out of the hotel. But where to then? He mentioned Moresby, but at this point that was merely speculation. "Well that would seem to be our best escape route then, but I'm not so settled on driving straight into the city. Yes they may be holding out there, but what if these things came from there? We could be walking into a death trap and we have no idea. And even if that isn't the case, I'm sure everybody in this resort had the same idea. Which means, those things out there are going to follow them to the city." Cole pointed at the zombies just outside the door, furthering his point.

"These things are attracted to people, they eat people, they don't seem the brightest but they damn sure are fast and scary. If we want to be safe, we should go somewhere where other people aren't. Which honestly, our best bet may be the beach. It's probably abandoned by now, maybe a few stragglers, but nowhere near the shit storm here. Plus, most of the people in the panic probably left a lot of supplies that we can survive off on until we get some help. My first priority is shelter and food, and once that gets established, maybe we can try to get some radio contact and signal for help, or find out the city is safe before we all go driving down there. I can't speak for the group, and frankly I don't care what you guys decide to do, but that's my plan and I'll gladly take the help of anybody who wants to come with. If some of you decide elsewhere, then good luck to you and hopefully we can all make it out of this alive."

Wow, that was a lot more talking than he thought he was going to do. Something inside of him just propelled him to voice his opinion, speak to the others, work together to survive like it was an instinct. It was like he was almost making it his job to make sure that they all got out of there alive and that he wanted them all to work together. And while some of the cast seemed less than willing or unstable at the moment, Cole knew they had to put aside their differences. It was us versus them, and if they started fighting among themselves then they'd have no chance. Although, he had a bad feeling that elsewhere the remaining human survivors would be turning on each other out of greed and a will to survive. If we didn't keep humanity in a time like this, what made us better than them?

Cole rubbed Charlotte's shoulder, trying to ease her a bit as he could clearly see he was looking tense. Although it seemed their opinions differed slightly, he hoped he could convince her to at least hold off going to Moresby for the time being until they knew more about it.He turned to Mike, leaning a bit closer and looking at the other survivors while he talked. "So, we can get out of here using those cars, and we're working on where we're gonna go with those cars. But, there's also the problem of how the hell we're gonna get to the underground parking garage from here. Because, frankly, I don't think those kind gentleman on the other side of that door will let us by so easily."

Mike checked his memory at the inquiry of ammunition, made by the blonde woman named Charlotte. He had fired three rounds initially when he had first opened the door to allow the others’ in, then either two or three in the hallway after, he couldn’t remember. It all seemed a hazed blur now. Aside from the remaining rounds in his gun, he had three more clips at his belt. “I should have enough, yes,” he said to Charlotte ,”at least to get you folks to the garage.”

It was then that the bearded American with long hair spoke up, and what he said Mike found to be nothing but hard possibility. Whatever this outbreak was, it surely wasn’t just limited to the resort the more he thought about it. He knew the city wouldn’t exactly be Friendly Square, but surely all of Moresby hadn’t fallen to this. Had it? The very idea sent a sharp chill up Mikes’ spine and made him shudder. The metal image of the entire city being overrun by these... creatures, was unbearable. Thousands of people reduced to half-devoured corpse piles and walking nightmares, their groans and snarls a devilish chorus echoing the city.

Mike sighed raggedly and and stepped forward. Everyone was more or less venting their own opinions on what course of action to take. The bearded man seemed unfavored towards Moresby, but had suggested that if they did go there to use the sewers or some underground method. “I wouldn’t recommend the sewers,” Mike said ,”in truth, not even Moresby. I mean I say there might be refugee centers but... maybe not. There is an airport at Moresby, but I doubt that any of you lot are pilots and who’s to say it isn’t overrun as well. You may be rght, mate, Moresby... I don’t know... I just don’t know...”

Frustration caused Mikes’ temples to throb. He hated the idea of directing these people to the city only to send them into a death trap. But what if he was right in regards to survivors and refugee centers? What if they tried to go somewhere else and ended up dead when Moresby in fact was the safer choice? No one inside the resort had any idea as to the situation across the rest of the island, and that was the source of his uncertainty.

The man with Charlotte also chimed in, and he too was against the Moresby plan. It was then that he mentioned the beach... Of course!
Mike waited for him to finish speaking, taking in every word the man said. Quite the natural leadership skills... he thought to himself. Mike had no intention of leaving himself, he had things here still that needed to be handled, but this fellow it seemed had what it took to get the rest to safety.

Mike stepped forward and raised his hand slightly like a school boy before speaking ,”You said the beach,” he pointed his finger at Cole ,”That-that-might be your best bet mate. You and whiskers here are right about Moresby, ‘not a great idea. Too many ‘what-if’s’. But there’s a lighthouse near the resort beach ya’ see, and not twenty minutes before Perkins over here showed up I was getting some warbled radio contact from there. I’m thinking there’s’ someone there, and-!”

Mike stopped and abruptly, his eyes lighting up with a proverbial “ah-ha” and he ran over to a nearby billboard, just beside the control panel that he was manning earlier. He reached up and with a slight pop snatched down a [u][ur=i.ibb.co/MpNMkwt/EDC096-A4-0-C16-47-E… and hurried back over to the huddled people, tripling slightly over Carters’ discarded crowbar though ignoring the fact completely. He held the map out in both arms in front of himself and the others.

“Here’s the lighthouse.” he pointed to a small circular marking northeast of the gas station marked on the map. It sat at the top of a cliff that could be reached by traversing up a winding road. He suddenly pointed to the blonde woman who had been patching up the bearded man, “You said ‘marina’,” he then pointed to the top fat left of the map ,”there’s an old marina here, can’t say if there’s any operating boats there, but it’s worth checking. That’d be an immediate ticket off the island if you could find one.”

He then pointed to the marked hotel bungalows and Golden Beach, “I’d stay away from there,” he then pointed to Diamond Beach and the accompanying bungalows that sat out over the water ,”there... I’m not too sure about mate. And there off to the left is the main highway leading to Moresby...” he looked at Cole and the others questioningly.

“I can open the garage door outside from here, but I’ll need to stay here and seal it back up. I can give you my gun,” he said to Cole ,”There’s an elevator down the hall that leads straight to the garage. Its up to you folks...” he said finally.

She nodded politely to Charlotte, but couldn’t help making a bit of a face when the other woman still suggested a ‘drive by’ of the city. Outbreak 101,She found herself thinking. Stay the FUCK away from urban centers if at all possible. Watching the others, she was glad to see that Elijah and the other fellow, the one who’d stopped the Asshole from closing them out, were against driving to Moresby though Elijah’s idea about trying an underground way to the city struck her as probably even a worse plan. No where to go but forwards or back, and far to easy to get turned about in same-y tunnels.

Mike was talking about finding food and somewhere secure when the security guard perked up and rushed over to a billboard, returning moments later with a map of the resort. He pointed out a lighthouse and mentioned the possibility of survivors, as well as the fact that the most probable route would take them right by a small marina. So far that seemed like the best idea to Eliza, and judging by the faces round her there was some agreement to that; and if they were in luck, there’d be a boat they could nab, heave to by the lighthouse, take off anyone there and then get the fuck out of the area. ”Lighthouse seems like the best of a bad situation.”She muttered, not realizing she’d spoken out loud.

Mike was talking about staying behind to close the exit behind them, and she guessed man his post until the end or rescue. She wanted to tell him to forget that and come with them, but the look she saw in his eyes as he talked about giving the other fellow his gun, she doubted anyone could change his mind. ”Speaking of weapons,” She said finally. ”Is there anything else around here that we could use or improvise? One nine mil and a crowbar aren’t going to be enough.”

"Moresby is a no-go then."

Charlotte turned away from everyone else and took a few steps towards the control monitors, leaning forward to rest some weight on the edge of the panel. She gazed at whatever footage was available, that which hadn't been blacked out by the chaos and destruction going on outside. But this time, Charlotte didn't pay all that much attention to Alex's lifeless body. She sighed, looking instead at the hordes spread out throughout the hotel. The others were right, the town would be crawling with the undead left and right. Every corner, every home, every store... She was not too fond of the fact that their options were extremely limited, but it was what they needed to do in order to survive.

On the other hand, their chances were a little better with Cole carrying a handgun. She was glad Mike had been that generous, even going as far as presenting them with a map. The layout didn't look all that complicated, and she made a small mental note to bring up the marina at some point. All they needed was for one key to be left behind in order for them to leave the hellhole they were in.

"Also, who's driving?" she suddenly chimed in, turning around to face the others once more after Eliza made her comment. "We might as well figure out seating arrangements now because an extra few seconds out there could turn deadly pretty fast."

---

June tried to make out what she could. Everyone was deciding whether or not to go into Moresby. "We did not go to Moresby. Too many people." She said, trying to weigh in but flubbing the grammar a little. She placed her hand on Mallory's shoulder, and the taller brunette placed her hand on June and offered a weak smiled before looking up at the rest of the group.

"I'm not sure where to go, so I'll leave that up to you all. I hope you'd take my friend and I with you. I'll try not to be as much as a burden." She said apologetically, biting her lower lip. "That was...a poor performance. I'm Mallory, and this my friend June, by the way. We're from France." She gestured to her friend and herself, and June waved again.

Mallory sighed, knitting her fingers together anxiously. "Are we sure help isn't coming, though? How long can we stay in here before we have to leave?" She asked. They were safe in here, and Mallory was not at all eager to leave the safety of the security room. Though she was a little bit more composed and she was very well spoken, the knawing ball of dread in her gut hadn't left her. She seached for Elijah with her eyes. While everyone was wrapped up in conversation, she would take the chance to thank him for saving her life.