Necropolis: Tales of the Survivors

The Hotel

The Hotel

Alex drove down the road, searching for the first suitable place to stay for the night, can’t be too small, but it can’t be too big either, need somewhere that I can defend easily enough, if it comes down to that. After an hour of driving, he spotted a mid-sized hotel; the hotel had once had large glowing letters on the top of the building, what remained spelled out ‘the day In’, the other letters were laying in pieces on the asphalt.





Looks good to me. Alex pulled up to a stop right outside the doors to the inn. He killed the engine, grabbed his .45 and the holster from the dashboard and climbed out of the jeep. He glanced over his shoulder, the sun was about halfway past the mountain range, Bastards will be coming out soon, I better clear this place out, then I can rest a little easier. He turned the flashlight mounted to his gun on and kept his grip on the gun firm.





He pushed one of the glass doors open and stepped inside, slowly bringing his gun around the room in a circle. The hotel had definitely seen better days; the carpet had thick stains here and there, a handful of bodies littered the room, most of them were picked clean, right down to the bone. There was garbage, junk and other bits of refuse scattered about the room. All clear, for now. Best shake the nest a little. He spotted a metal garbage can lying on the floor a few feet away, that’ll work. He ran towards the can and gave it a swift kick, sending it flying up into the air. The can smashed against the staircase with a loud clatter, cans and other bits of trash fell out, adding to the noise.





Alex felt a chill run up his spine when he heard the telltale shrieks from the second floor, and off to his left. Guess they heard that. Three of the zombies came running; two females and a male. Alex grabbed a small perforated black cylinder from his belt and pulled the pin; he tossed it into the center of the room and dashed out the doors, rolling onto the asphalt.





There was a loud bang, accompanied simultaneously by an intense flash of bright light. The force of the sound blew the glass out of the doors. Time to clean house. Alex stepped back into the inn through the shattered frame of one of the doors. The three zombies were on the ground, snarling and thrashing about, they would continue that for a while, unless someone were to end their existence with a well-placed bullet. Bastards may not like light, but that flash bang would have disoriented a normal person, light sensitive bastards never stood a chance.





He stepped towards the closest zombie, it was male, and either it was freshly turned, or it had stayed well fed, there were no signs of decay, just a ragged bite wound on the left side of its neck. A bullet to the thing’s skull ended its flailing. The other two were both females, and they were not in good shape; large chunks of flesh had fallen off of them, leaving rib cage and various muscles exposed, haven’t eaten in a while, bodies are eating themselves instead. Alex fired a round into each of the zombies before moving upstairs.





There were more of the zombies upstairs, they weren’t a threat, they were locked behind doors and barricaded inside, someone was living here, maybe the male. Alex ejected his magazine and slid a fresh one in, shoving the old one into an empty spot on his belt. After a few minutes of searching, he found a room at the end of the hall that would be a good place to rest. It had a single window, covered over by a piece of plywood, it wasn’t nailed down, just sitting there, propped against the wall. There was a bed in the corner of the room, it wasn’t particularly great, just a mattress laying on the floor, beggars can’t be choosers. There was also a small collection of supplies, a few water bottles and some packaged foods. Two dressers flanked either side of the doorway, Alex shook his head slightly, nice plan, make up a barricade, keep quiet, wait them out.





Alex closed the door and slid the two dressers in front of the door. He turned around and examined the supplies. Some of this stuff is just past the expiration date, if it was the guy downstairs, he couldn’t have died too long ago. Alex watched the sun set from his window while he ate a dinner of canned peaches and a bottle of water. Can’t remember the last time I actually watched the sunset, I'm usually too busy scrambling for shelter.





Alex sat at the window for a while, until the sky started turning dark blue, then he stood up. I can hear them from here, those god-awful screams. Alex spit out into the night sky before putting the board back up against the wall. He laid down on the bed and after a long time off staring at the cracked ceiling, listening to the hungry cries of the damned, he drifted off to sleep.