The Vampire's Rival

Confront

Jamila and I made it back to the orchard then waited to see if anything had changed or if our absence had caused alarm. We crouched near the raspberry bushes to look through them for any movement. I turned my head to Jamila. Even in the dim warm light that spilled out of the hotel, I could see the small cuts on her face from the thorny raspberry brambles.

"Hey, come here," I whispered in the dark, moving closer to her.

"What?" she asked, looking around nervously. "What's wrong?"

I smiled and placed a soft kiss on one of the cuts on her cheek, just below her left eye. The cut sealed closed.

"Nothing. Nothing is wrong," I whispered.

I landed more soft kisses over her face and neck and shoulders, sealing every tiny cut.

"Mmm," she hummed, sliding a hand absently along my thigh. "When this is over, promise me we'll stay in bed for days."

I kissed her lips.

"Weeks," I whispered. "I promise."

"Good," she breathed back.

We kissed once more and then, feeling a lot better than I had in days, I led us towards the Hotel's backdoor...

...and into hell!

"What is happening?!" Jamila screamed when I suddenly yanked her from the path of a Scavenger who'd been barrelling towards her with bloodshot eyes bulging out of their sockets, and drool pouring from their bared teeth.

The Hotel was in chaos!

People running and screaming. Others jumping on those running. Teeth tearing at flesh. Growling. Screaming. I was starting to see why it had been so easy to get in and out of the place.

The contagion had been spreading during our escape!

"Ghouls!" I yelled over the din, pulling Jamila behind me. "Stay close!"

We ran past the hordes of zombies and Scavengers, trying our best to dodge zombie teeth and the stampede of panicking Scavengers.

"Where did you say Anette might have taken Hadley?" I ask Jamila, just as I slapped a zombie that was rushing us, extending the slap, and bashing it against the wall. Jamila broke one of those 'break in case of emergency' box cases, grabbed the axe inside, then cut the zombie's head clean off. Its lifeless body fell to my feet while its head continued to gnash its teeth at me for a few seconds as I held it against the wall. I let go of it and it fell with a wet plop, rolling a few feet away.

"The kitchen," Jamila answered, expertly brandishing the axe, and making me drool over her just a little. "I followed Anette there once, but she didn't come back out for days. I searched every inch of that kitchen and couldn't find her. There must be a hidden room or something!"

I pulled off my hotel uniform shirt and wiped as much gore from my face and arms as I could before untucking my T-shirt. "Alright, let's get to that kitchen."

Barging into the kitchen was like landing in another world. It was utterly bizarre to say the least. Jamila and I stood at the door looking around, totally confused. The kitchen was the epitome of calm, filled with vampire drones dressed in pristine chef whites, all focussed on quietly doing various tasks, moving like well-oiled cogs of a machine, preparing dinner for the night. Except for the quiet hissing of a pressure cooker, the gurgling of boiling liquid in saucepans, rhythmic knife chops against cutting boards and utensils bumping into chrome or other dishes, it was tranquil and serene and peaceful, and it smelt amazing in here.

The ultimate juxtaposition to the zombie apocalypse going on outside the kitchen doors.

I watched these once proud, powerful, independent vampires shuffle around, emotionless and worse than dead. Their intense focus on the mundane, was even more lifeless than the zombies outside that door, and that chilled me to the bone. Rage against Barret Fisher climb my throat, and I had to fight the need to scream and try to shake them all awake.