Cole Anderson
Suddenly, there was a voice echoing over the intercom. It sounded like it was coming from somewhere in the hotel, considering the alarm went quiet when the man spoke. This was certainly bad, especially since the man clarified that it was
safe in the control room. Did that mean that there wasn't anywhere else safe in the hotel? Or outside of it? Despite the alarm telling them to all get the hell out of the hotel, this guy wanted them to make it to the security room. He didn't want to stay in this damn hotel anymore, but what choice did he have? He had no idea where to go once he got out. And there was no telling if anymore of these... creatures, out there.
"Well, it looks like that's where we're gonna go. We really don't have any other options." Cole said, looking over to his fellow survivor. She seemed very distressed, vomiting, her hair a mess, quickly packing whatever she could. He didn't blame her, and if it wasn't for the pure adrenaline and survival instincts kicking in, he would be a mess too. This shit was scary. But hiding and being scared wasn't going to save his ass, because it looked like nobody else was going to.
Cole peaked out of the door, looking left and right. It seemed most of the zombies hadn't made it to the top floor, the barricade preventing them. However, that also means they couldn't use the stairs to go down. He remembered there being a fire escape in his penthouse, remembering what the man had said over the intercom earlier.
"It looks like our best bet to get down there is the fire escapes. We may have to do some balcony hopping until we find a good path for getting on the fifth floor. That's 15 floors down. And I have a bad feeling that the farther down we go, the more of those things we're gonna find. Maybe there'll be other survivors too."Was he really going to go up against these drug infected, sick, mutant humans hell bent on killing him? What if there were more than just two? And what if there were more people in trouble? Could he risk saving them all?
"Come on, let's go. The sooner the better at this rate. Just grab whatever you can as a weapon and stay close to me. As far as I'm concerned, it's kill or be killed once we get down there."Alinda had taken the short time on hand to change into her clothes. Pulling her black jacket over her top and buttoning it, and sliding her jeans over her shorts.
She had heard the voice on the intercom too, and was slipping her sneakers on as she listened.
The fifth floor? Fifteen floors down? In a hotel overrun with these psychos? Forget it.Of course her rescuer was right; what other options were there? No cell phone, no signs or sounds of other people. No immediate rescue effort to be seen. For all they knew this was happening all across the island. They couldn’t just stay here, waiting for a rescue that could be days, or not at all. They needed to find a safer place. The security room was really their only shot it seemed. And if there were others in the hotel that survived, surely they heard the announcement as well. They would be heading to the security room too, surely.
When her new companion mentioned finding a weapon, she rushed over to her suitcase. After rifling about and tossing some clothes to and fro, she pulled a small switchblade from within her bag. She stood and flipped it open with a sharp
click, and then closed it back.
”Got this after I left the airport,” she said as she slipped it in her right front pocket
”All types at a place like this, and I couldn’t exactly bring my gun from home.”She reached over and grabbed a bottle of water from her nightstand, and a bag of corn chips, tossing them to her rescuer, since he was the one with a bag. She went ahead and slipped her cell phone into her back left pocket, and grabbed another bottle of water from her bag. She had started to leave when she briskly spun around and grabbed a flashlight from her nightstand.
”Alright,” she said, looking to the man,
”that’s all I can really think of. Lead the way, stranger.” she finished, tossing him the flashlight.
"The name's Cole... Cole Anderson." he said, catching the flashlight in his hand. It was weird to him, and he had finally realized that the two literally didn't even know each other. They just met a few moments ago because of... that dead body outside, and now they just agreed they were going to work together to survive. It was weird that in times of need, humans instinctively just banned together. There was no reason for him
not to trust her, after all. Hopefully with that switchblade she would hold her own. He didn't know how many things were out there, and there were only so many he could hold off with just MMA gloves on. Speaking of MMA, it just occurred to him that she also had know idea who he was. He didn't know if that was a good or bad thing, and he honestly expected most people not to know about him, being a small celebrity.
"And you are? Just to be formal here, I guess. That, and so I know what to shout to get your attention." he whispered, chuckling and trying to at least make a little light of the situation. The two of them made their way down the hallways, dimly lit by the alarm as Cole flipped the flashlight on. As expected there was little resistance as they made it to his penthouse, swiping his key card and entering his hotel room. Closing the door behind him, he walked over to the balcony and took a good look at his surroundings.
"Holy shit." he said abruptly, flicking off the flashlight and shoving it in his pocket. As far as he could see, there were several crashed cars, a few houses on fire, corpses ripped apart and scattered around the island. Random debris, luggage, and trash thrown everywhere. Although it was clear that some of those corpses were walking around, some faster than others, aimlessly walking around the island. These fuckers were everywhere, and it seemed they were lucky to have been on the top floor and woke up only to the two of those zombies. Would they still be alive and gotten through the night if they were somewhere else?
Cole looked down at the fire escape, and it seemed somebody had already used it, from the broken glass and blood trailing down it. It only went down maybe 5 floors, but it was a start. There were other blood trails on the balcony, but it seemed as though those people had taken a one way ticket to pavement town. He didn't try to see if those body were below him, even though he had a feeling if they were, they either had walked away or eaten like a chicken wing at the bar.
"Let's get a move on then." he said, careful where he was stepping as he walked onto the fire escape. After helping Alinda got on with him, he slowly descended the fire escape. The sounds of alarms, burning fires, and screaming, both near and far, assaulted their ears as they went down. Most of it was coming from the island around them, but some of those screams were also coming from the hotel itself. They knew that their were survivors, but how many were actually safe.
As they got to the 15th floor, the end of the fire escape, it seemed like there were three corpses on the balcony that led to it. One was slumped against the wall, and two others were almost right in front of the stairwell, looking like a few chunks missing from them. Apparently whomever had fled his penthouse party hadn't made it very far.
"Oh god... just, watch your step."Alinda nodded rather blankly
,”Alinda, Cole. My names Alinda. I’m a-uh... journalist from New York.” She was still trying to process what was happening. Her panic for the moment was gone, replaced by unsurity and... doubt?
It seemed that she still couldn’t seem to process this. These people overcome with some kind of madness. She avoided looking at the dead man on the floor nearby.
She followed Cole past the now dead woman and to his own suite out of hers. Fortunately there were no more of these psychos to contend with, for now anyway.
Though what little optimism she clung to seemed to dissipate as she heard Cole swear and joined him in looking down below at the chaos.
”Oh my God...” she said bleakly, seeing more of these afflicted people below, hearing screaming and witnessing as the island itself descended into hell it seemed
,”They’re...everywhere. The island. What the hell is this? Cole, what-“ she stopped herself from asking. He, like her, had no idea what was happening.
She complied with her new companion as he lead her down the fire escape. It took every fiber of her being to constrict the fear that tried to overwhelm her. Any second she expected one of these blood-washed lunatics to leap from a window and drag her inside, or knock her from the fire escape down to a crushing death.
She took steady breaths as she followed Cole, keeping her arms pinned at her sides as she followed. At the sight of the corpses at the base of the fire escape she had to clench her throat tight to avoid vomiting.
My god! she hissed
”Have they been eaten? Are these afflicted people cannibalizing each other?”She couldn’t bear it anymore, she leaned over the railing nearby and released a torrent of puke over the side, clear and putrid.
Well, it did seem in fact like they were eating each other. He had guessed they were at least biting each other, remembering back to when the large man almost tried to bite him. But to think they were eating each other? It was a lot worse than he thought. Also, it seemed like they weren't attacking each other. Most drug addicts usually didn't care about whether they hit their fellow drug addicts or not. With this some kind of illness? A virus? But to have spread this quickly already... Something much worse was going on here. He wasn't so sure that any of them were safe at this point. This was hell.
"You may want to try and keep some of that left in you. If this island has gone to shit like this, I doubt the McDonald's is open." Cole said, gently patting her shoulder, trying to at least calm her down a bit. If his body wasn't full of adrenaline, he stomach would most likely turn as well. This stuff was just... gross.
As they descended to the balcony he turned on the flashlight, taking a good look around the room. It was small, a bit of a mess, some dried blood. Nothing stalking around the corner anyways. After helping Alisha down from the fire escape, one of the dead bodies started to move.
"Alright, hopefully the stairs aren't barred off on this floor. If not we're gonna have to find another... What the hell?' the body creaked and cracked as it turned it's head towards the two of them. It was a middle aged woman in a business suit. Her arm was almost to the bone and her torso was eaten to ribbons, but she slowly shambled over to them, going to get up. The other two bodies, although not as damaged, slowly started to rise as well. The lady made a screaming sound, launching after him.
"What the... how is she even still alive?" he said, seeing her body launch at him. He side stepped out of the way, grabbing the back of her neck and sending her off the balcony. There was a loud screech followed by a sickening splat, other zombies on the ground turning to see what caused the noise. It seemed like her screams attracted some friends, as banging could be heard at the door. The other two zombies were slower to get up, but they were only mere feet away from them.
Cole looked down and saw that their was a balcony down a floor and to the left, although it wasn't close enough to simply jump without risking a 15 foot drop.
"Look, we need to get to that balcony over there. I want you to start climbing across, the windowsills are big enough for you to stand on. Just hug the wall, go slow, and don't look down." Cole said, as one of the other two zombies approached. He kicked it square in the chest, causing it to stumble and fall back. Even louder banging could be heard on the door, and it didn't seem like it was going to take much more.
"Look I'll be right behind you, just go. We don't have too many options, and I really don't wanna go back up. This might be the best chance we have."Alinda just couldn’t process this. That woman, she looked like a
corpse. A live, moving corpse. She had to stop herself from freezing up as she saw what she saw, and when this man effectively threw her over the railing. Alinda didn’t know what she felt, aside from terror obviously. Disgust, wonder, additional fear?
She felt weak at the knees as she saw the other two “corpse-people” begin to rise up.
The banging at the hotel door seem to snap her out of her sub-catatonic state along with Cole urging her on. She blinked several times as he directed her on what to do.
Climb across window seals huh? Alright, simple... In truth she didn’t care for the idea, but what else could they do? No point in turning back. The door was obviously out of the question, as was a fifteen story drop.
”Right,” she said with forced confidence
we've got this. Climb across and jump, simple. Just... watch our back.” she said, indicating the creatures that persisted back in the room.
”Look, here...” she handed him her knife from her pocket as she stepped up onto the nearby, narrow, windowsill.
”Kill them.” she insisted.
Cole nodded, catching the switchblade in his hand and snapping it open. He watched as she climbed up on the window sill. He really hoped they weren't coordinated enough to follow them, but what other choice did they have? He at least needed to clear the other two in the room. That would give enough time for his new companion to get far enough over where they wouldn't be in any danger.
"You're doing great, just keep it up. Don't worry about me."Although the truth was, he was most certainly worried about himself. One of the two remaining zombies, the one he hadn't kick, charged at him, but instead seemed to throw a punch at him. He blocked, caught a bit off guard by it as the zombie pushed him into the balcony. He now half hung off of it, trying to keep his feet firmly planted while holding the man off of him. The zombie bit into his shoulder, but the leather protected him, the teeth having a hard time piercing the hard leather shell. This gave Cole just enough time to shove the blade right through it's eye socket.
After a few quick stabs to make sure it was dead, the body seemed to pin him against the balcony as the other zombie approached. Struggling fiercely, he managed to slide the body off of him just in time to throw a left hook at his attacker. It stumbled back, and Cole didn't give it any time at all, following up with a clean roundhouse kick, snapping it's neck in an awkward spot and having it lay in a heap. Only moments after this he could hear the sound of the door breaking, holes starting to peak through and soon hands were clawing out.
"Shit." Cole muttered, knowing there were seconds left before that thing burst. He had to risk a jump. All those years of parkour would have to pay off, as he leaned back at the edge of the balcony, hoping to take a running start. As soon as he took a deep breath the door burst open, and several of the things sprinted towards him. Only a mere few feet away he dashed himself, using the railing as a stepping stone before launching himself off the end of the balcony. A hand was mere inches away from grabbing his leg, but now out of the reach of the zombies, he was sailing towards the balcony, hopefully in reach of anything. He extended his arms out as far as he could and managed to catch the bottom of the railing with his right hand. All that adrenaline running through him was the difference, in inches, between living and dying a horrible death.
"Well hey, uh, I made it like I said."Alinda dropped down onto the balcony, falling to her knees slightly from the impact. She stood briskly and looked back up, the things above snarled and growled, though didn't seem to be leaping after them. Fortunately. All they did was flail about at the edge, roaring in fury and waving their arms at the pair. She looked to Cole then back up abruptly, and then back to him again.
"Knife," she held her hand out
,"you can fight man, I need a weapon."She hoped they didn't have to do that again. Despite the much needed adrenaline surge, she didn't like the idea of tight-roping along balconies and windowsills while waves of cannibals tore at them.
"We need to go, get to the security room. That or... maybe a car? I mean we might could make it to the parking garage. What do you think?" In truth Alinda didn't want to be at this accursed hotel any longer, she just wanted to flee, to get away and maybe find a ship or a plane or some way off of this island now.
"I don't know... I'm more worried about right now and getting out of here alive. Come on, the security room is up ahead."
