User blog:1dra7/Undead - Chapter 1: Hotel Inservice

“So,” Dylan said to his seating partner, “What brings a pretty girl like you to the island? My mommy and daddy are going on vacation and we just love, love, love, love the island—did you know that an indigenous species to the island is the Croatian Bear? Yeah, I heard it in science class!”

“Do you ever actually shut up?” Myra snapped.

“How do people ‘shut up’? I hear people say it all the time but I don’t see how you can shut a person!”

“Is everyone on this plane an annoying douche?” Myra asked, sitting up and looking around.

She stood and approached a seat nearby to her where a scrawnier gentleman sat with his legs crossed. He had on a blue sweater-vest and khaki shorts. He read a book solemnly to himself. She looked down at him and said, “Scoot over you have a new friend.”

He stared at her and jumped over to his right a seat and began to stare out of the window. Unluckily for him, Donny sat in front of him. He turned back and continues to make remarks about his job relocation to the island.

“Can’t you see he’s actually trying to do something productive? How about you shut up and watch the movie,” Myra snapped again.

“Thanks miss,” the gentleman said.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“You’re welcome…uh…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Rory,” he said, staring at her breasts.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Rory,” she finished.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">The plane remained silent as the passengers read or watched the in flight movie Night of the Living Comedy Show. It was some dumb movie parody about comedians running for their lives in the apocalypse.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">In first class, Dakota sat alone next to three other elderly men who drank wine. Ahead of Dakota, however, next to the exit of the plane was a blonde headed man with spiky hair and blue eyes. Dakota tapped him on the shoulder and introduced himself.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Hi, you seem human and not completely boring, I’m Dakota.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Erm…Everett? Nice to meet you.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“I like your hair.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Are you gonna’ be creepy or are we gonna’ have a nice conversation while we wait for the plane to land?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“We will be arriving within the hour,” The pilot called from the plane’s intercom.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“I’m so excited, Jay!” Johnny exclaimed.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Yeah…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“What’s wrong?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Nothing. You’ve just…said you were excited like fifteen times and it gets old after a while.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Is everyone on this plane mean and hateful?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“No that’s just Myra.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“I can hear you!” she shouted from the front of the class section.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“I wasn’t trying to hide it,” he spoke back.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Some people on this plane are trying to read, can you stop shouting?” Rory asked from the seat next to her.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“You know, I hear the coffee on the island is so fresh it makes your taste buds beg for more!” Donny exclaimed randomly.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">Myra closed her eyes and smacked her hand on the palm of her face and laid her head down onto her lap.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">The plane abruptly landed in the airport of the vacation resort island. The group of vacationers stepped out onto a concrete road and gathered their luggage together. They headed out in their various rental cars, all except for Dylan who met with his parents.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">As luck would have it, Johnny, Dakota, Jay, Myra, Donny, and Dylan made their way into the same hotel resort: The Paradiso Exotic Resort Hotel (also known to island natives as the PERH). They each walk in at different times and check in. Myra is caught by Dylan, and he shouted to his parents, “Look! It’s that cool girl I sat with! Haha!”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">Myra simply grinned and left with her key and luggage hand in hand. “Enjoy your stay,” muttered the grumpy concierge.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">Jay and Johnny were roommates at the resort hotel. They checked into the same room and immediately fought over who would have rights to the room’s hot tub. Jay eventually won, and Johnny went to relax on the deluxe sized bed they both (reluctantly) had to share.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">Jay relaxed and enjoyed the tub’s warm bubbles warming his skin and Johnny enjoyed a nice nap.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“I say we hit the beach tomorrow,” Jay said, exiting the tub after thirty minutes of soaking. Johnny sprung awake and asked Jay to repeat what he said.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">Myra checked into her room and threw her bags down. As she exited her room, she turned to see Dakota heading into his. “Weren’t you a part of that trainwreck of a flight?” Myra asked him.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Oh…yeah, I was,” he spoke nervously. He giggled and entered his room nearby to hers, and she simply ignored it and walked back into her room and dove right into her bed.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">Inside of Dakota’s room, he approached the bed only to find Everett sitting there in his underwear. “So we agreed. I do this and you…you pay for my room?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Of course sexy,” Everett replied. Dakota sighed and approached him.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">As Dakota sat on top of his clean chest, he bent down to Everett’s lips, only to be shocked when Everett punches Dakota in the throat and tosses him off of the bed. Dakota fell unconscious while Everett laughed maniacally and riled through his room, stealing Dakota’s wallet and personal possessions.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">He exited the room and headed back to his own, where he prepared for a nice long sleep.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">For them all, they resided on the eighth floor of the hotel. At exactly three A.M, Donny awoke to the sound of his rumbling stomach. He left his room and approached the elevator where a vending machine illuminated the empty hallway.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">A small girl stood inside of the open elevator, banging her head on the wall. He backed up with his dollar in hand and looked at her. She turned to him and revealed cold and dead eyes. He tilted his head to see if she was a late night mind trick, but alas she was not.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">She hissed at him, and he backed up. She screamed and lunged at him, falling on the floor but grabbing his leg and tripping him. He tumbled to the ground and tried to crawl away, but she managed to bite into his ankle and claw up his left leg.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">He screamed and tried to kick her off with his right leg, but she grabbed it and bit into it as well. The elevator suddenly closed and went downward to the first floor. Donny’s screams caused the entire hallway to awaken.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">Johnny sat up and quickly opened up his room door. He peeked out to smell blood, and saw Donny on the floor just down the hall from his room as he was being torn apart by the girl. He slammed the door and backed up.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Dude...what was that?” Jay asked, rubbing his eyes.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Th—Th—The business guy…he was being…ea…ea…ea—“

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">Jay stood and opened the door back up to peek out into the dimly lit and beige hallway. He too saw Donny being torn apart and slammed the door back.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Is he…” he spoke in panic, “being…eaten?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">Johnny backed up to the window and looked out to spot a fire escape ladder that led down to the ground. He looked out onto the streets to witness dozens of people frantically screaming and running around for their lives while being chased by shambling and/or fast people with blood dripping from their mouths.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Is this...really happening?” Johnny asked himself, looking back to the door.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Get back!” Jay screamed, diving back from the door as another cretin such as the girl burst through. It was a man with a chunk of skin hanging from his lip. It shambled inside and Johnny panicked.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">Myra exited her room with a frying pan in hand, investigating the chaotic scene. She looked to the ground to see Donny’s corpse crawling across the ground at her, and she screamed. Suddenly, the girl from the elevator turned back to her and shrieked back at her. She ran and Myra quickly smashed her head in with the frying pan.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">She approached Dakota’s room and kicked in the door. Dakota suddenly opened his eyes from the floor and realized where he was. He questioned as to where Everett was, but Myra did not respond.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">She dragged him outside and pointed ahead, speechless, to Donny’s crawling corpse. Dakota gasped and backed up.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Don’t leave me; you don’t know what’s out here!” Myra whispered and yelled at the same time.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">Dakota nodded and approached Myra. Suddenly, they heard Jay screaming. They approached his room and peeked inside to find a shambling man attacking Johnny ferociously. Jay kicked and punched at the shambler, but to no avail.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">Myra bashed the frying pan into his skull, effectively knocking it off and rescuing Johnny. She looked down to his throat and sees a gaping hole and a torn artery. Jay quickly lunged   for a bath towel from the dresser nearby to the hot tub and threw it at Myra.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">She understood what to do and wrapped it around Johnny’s neck. As she tied it around the wound she felt a single tear fall from his eye. “Don’t worry – you’re gonna be fine!” she mumbled.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">She walked back to the door and shut it quietly to avert attention from their scrambling. Jay and Dakota, together, slid the dresser against the door to barricade it.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“I—I’m scared, Jay,” Johnny mumbled from his seat. His vision became blurry and he began to feel faint.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">They all looked down at Johnny in a somber silence.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“This is God’s way of punishing us,” he replied to their silence. “This is how we pay for our sins.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“This is…this isn’t what we think it is. It can’t be,” Dakota spoke.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Then what is it?” Myra asked him sarcastically.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“I—I don’t know!”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">A sudden shriek from the hallway proved to be enough to scare them all into submission. They all looked at each other with confused frowns. Jay suddenly turned back and remembered the fire escape.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">He grabbed chair from a small dining table in the corner of the room next to the kitchen and smashed it through the window. The shambling infected banged on the door from outside while they made their way through the window and onto the fire escape.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">Jay grabbed onto Johnny and hauled him out with him. He let him onto his feet, but Johnny proved to be unable to walk. He fell to his feet, and Jay lifted him back onto his shoulders.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“I don’t—“ Johnny paused as he writhed in pain, “—want to be a burden.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">Jay ignored him and walked along the large red fire escape from the back of the building. They approached a ladder, and Dakota took the first climb down to the seventh floor. As Dakota reached the next escape floor, a flaming infected man burst through the window and tumbled over the railing. Dakota peeked inside to see a hallway in flames from a collapsed kitchen and chandelier.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">Jay climbed down last with Johnny still over his arms. They continued their trek and climbed down another ladder to the sixth floor. As Myra reached the grated floor, she looked out to spot a truck with flames spurting from inside the driver seat. She shrieked and covered her eyes as the truck sped through the wooded fence of the hotel and smashed into the first floor.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">The impact threw them down. Jay tumbled over and threw Johnny onto the railing. The impact of being thrown snapped his head back, ripping the towel and allowing more blood to gush through. Johnny took one last breath and closed his eyes.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Jo-Johnny no!” Jay ran up to him and shook him. He re-applied the towel to his wound and cried softly to himself.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">The railing and grating suddenly shook, and the floor collapsed onto the fifth floor’s fire escape. Johnny’s chest penetrated one of the collapsed railing columns. The blood sprayed onto Jay’s face, and he screamed. He dove through the window, and Dakota and Myra followed as the escape continued to collapse on itself.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">The three maneuvered through the hallway until meeting a horde of the undead presence next to the elevators. One remained open yet stalled as a boy inside cried for help.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Help me! I don’t want to die!” he screamed.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“I recognize that whiny scream from anywhere,” Myra spoke.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“The brat,” Dakota replied.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Dylan.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">The horde ignored them as they pressed by, as they were busy clawing at Dylan who is almost reachable by the undead.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">They took an alternate pathway through the hall and ended up at a deluxe suite. Myra kicked in the door and stepped inside with her bent frying pan. She only saw a man in a tuxedo on his bed next to his wife in a bridal gown both with bullets in their heads. She lowered the pan and shut the door behind the three who entered shortly after.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“What do we do now?” Dakota asked.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“We…um…tie bed sheets up and make a rope?” Jay questioned.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Get OUT!” shouted a voice from inside of the bathroom. Out stepped Everett with a pistol. He aimed it at them and kept his finger on the trigger.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“You!” Dakota exclaimed and charged up to him. He slapped the gun out of his hand and punched him straight in the nose. Everett fell back on the floor and twitched for a moment.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“What the – you just broke my nose!” he shouted at him.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">The screams of trapped child in the elevator echoed far, and attracted more of the shambling dead into the hall.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“I don’t know what your beef is but both of you need to stop before they hear us and make themselves at home on our bodies,” Myra broke them up.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“He certainly made himself at home on my throat,” Dakota said, starkly.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">Dakota walked over and grabbed Everett’s pistol and shoved it in his pocket. “This is mine now.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">A sudden crash is heard, and several of the undead are heard being electrocuted by live wires outside of the room. Dylan’s voice is still heard screaming, but from a different level of the hotel.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“The elevator crashed,” Everett commented.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Leave him as bait,” Myra recommended.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“It’s a child, Myra!” Dakota exclaimed in shock to her. They turned to Jay who still mourned the loss of his friend. They quietly consoled him, but perked him up only slightly to get the move on. Everett was forced by Dakota to tie together bed sheets and make a rope.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">They kicked out the window and tossed the rope down. It barely made it to the window beneath. Myra went first and kicked in the glass to the room only to find another shambling dead tied up to the bed with chains.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">She approached the door while the others came down and looked outside. Not a soul was there.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">As Everett approached last, he walked in behind them with Dakota in front. He snuck his hand up to Dakota’s waist, but Dakota slapped his hand away. “You won’t be getting this back.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">On the fourth floor, they exited to see sparks inside of the elevator shaft. They left off to the emergency stairway and fled downward. They arrived at the concierge desk through the emergency exit to find him dead with an arrow through his skull.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">They exchanged worried looks, but had no time to ponder what happened. A massive horde of the undead remained inside the hotel and outside. They quickly charged through them and exited the glass doors of the building. They raced to the back side where little to no infected remained.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">There, they saw the collapsed fire escape and Johnny with his chest pierced but crushed under the weight of the escape. However, Jay investigated closer to find he was reanimated from the bite after all the damage he endured from the impalement.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">Johnny had one loose hand and he clawed at Jay. Jay backed up and sobbed to himself. He collapsed onto his knees and cried into his palms.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">Dakota approached Johnny and took out Everett’s pistol, aimed at Johnny’s head, and pulled the trigger.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">Blood spattered onto the brick walls of the hotel and the infected took wind of the noise and fled to it in place of Dylan’s screaming.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">They, together, even with Jay’s mourning, climbed over the truck and dove into the back yard of a floral company. They entered the back of the building and approached a glass house of roses inside of the building. A small radio lied next to it, and Everett grabbed it. He flicked it on and played the static filled message it left to the group.

<p class="MsoNormal"> Infestation --- --- --- hundreds of casualties --- --- --- military outpost in --- --- --- Saint Antonio --- --- --- hospital filled --- --- --- Quarantined apartments --- --- --- arrive to survive 

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Looks like we’re about to find out where Saint Antonio is, aren’t we?” Dakota asked the group, looking around. Everett smiled for the first time in his journey with the group he at once betrayed by punching Dakota in the throat.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“No hard feelings, eh?” Everett asked them all.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%">“Plenty of them,” Dakota replied.