Mana

Hotel

Chapter 9

It was on the border between New Hampshire and Vermont that we'd found a little hotel to settle in. For how long, we were unsure. First, however, we needed to clear it.

"Mason, Cam, and I will go in on horseback. Katie, Chi, take the kids if we don't make it back by 4:00. I'll start a fire in the back if and when it's safe." Everyone nodded to the plan. I got out of the car and went around to open the trunk.

"This hotel looks pretty small. It'll be easy to clear, no?" Mason asked.

"I hope," I mumbled. I handed Mason a pickaxe. Cam got the axe. I took my crowbar. Before mounting Wanda, I tied up her foal to a nearby telephone pole "Be good, Créme." Only a few days old and he'd already taken after Deidre's bad attitude.

Mason and I mounted Wanda, Cam took Deidre. We set off towards the hotel. Mason and Cam would take the lower floors. I'd take anything five and over.

"You should've taken Max as reinforcement. You're suicidal for going in alone," Mason scolded.

"Listen, I'm pretty expendable. You guys are taking the lower floors for a reason: so you can escape easier. You guys can function with one less."

"No, we can't!" he cried. "Ariana, you'd better be really careful and yell as loud as you can if you're in danger. Please." I nodded, and he tapped his "Pogan920" ring to my "Mettox" ring. I sighed and gently whipped Wanda's reins.

We picked up the pace until we were about a hundred feet away from the building. Wanda and Deidre were hidden in the trees on tight knots. I entered first, and the stench of decay made me put up my shirt and gag.

"Holy shit," I wheezed. A woman who'd obviously shot herself in the head was decaying at the front desk. I kicked her corpse off and grabbed a business card. "Smithsfield Hotel" was printed in bold black. I started up the stairs while Cam and Mason explored.

On the second floor, an undead man was lumbering around. He was easy to take out, and I moved on to opening every door and readying myself to fight anything squirming around inside. The first few doors I opened led into empty rooms, but of course I found a whole family that had committed suicide. Images of Brandon dying flashed across my head, and I hadn't even noticed the hand on my shoulder.

When it made contact, I spun around and swung. I hit a man with brown hair square in the temple. It shattered, and he fell to the ground. He was alive when I'd hit him.

"Fuck!" I quickly checked for a pulse, and nothing was coming up. I opened his eye, and his iris showed no movement. I'd accidentally killed this man. But this did raise questions: was there another group of survivors in the building?

I took his leather jacket and threw it over my dirty gray t-shirt. I took the pistol he'd been carrying, and all of the extra rounds fit nicely in the jacket's pocket. His boots were big, but I could manage. I set off farther down the hall.

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Floors one through six were cleared. Mason and Cam joined me at the stairs, and I told them about the man I'd accidentally killed. They couldn't shit my paranoia, but of course we were all ready in case we faced any more survivors who knew this Mystery Man. So, we ascended to the seventh floor and braced ourselves.

When we'd arrived, the halls had been filled with human murmurs. I was the first to speak.

"If anyone's here, show yourself." Two women came from behind the farthest corners of the hall. Both held their bats at the ready. However, when they saw the leather jacket and boots, they panicked.

"Where's Shawn?"

"Dead. I accidentally killed him." The older-looking woman of the two approached me.

"What do you mean 'accidentally'?"

"I had been scouring the fifth floor and he scared me. I accidentally bashed his temple in. What's more to it?" This older woman started sobbing.

"That was my son! You monster!" She marched towards me, but I pulled out the gun I'd taken off of Shawn. She stopped and put her hands up.

"I don't want to fight. I want to negotiate."

"What is it?"

"We have two kids from Canada that we took from their molester father. We also have two horses. Take the horses and the kids and return to Canada. We're willing to share rations for your trip." The woman was shocked at the chance at liberation.

"You were in Canada? Why did you leave?"

"We have ties here, at least most of my group does. And we had to escape Lapierre, whose molested and raped most of his daughters." A bubbling rage over Lapierre was rising in me, but I breathed deeply and continued. "Will you take the kids? We can't afford to feed them."

"Yes, we will! Oh, thank you!"

"Just make sure you don't take the youngest boy. He's my brother." She nodded, and we all began the descention, back to the horses. All of this by three.

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"Miss Ariana, please don't leave me and my brother behind! I'll do anything!" Millie wailed.

I consoled her, but told her the truth. "Millie, of course I've grown fond of you, but my group, we can barely feed ourselves. This is for your own good. You and your brother will go back to Canada, to the cities, where you'll have plenty to eat. Please, just go with these ladies. Please." My heart panged from seeing the tears streaming down her face. Her brother clung to my leg and pouted. The older woman, Victoria, pried the pouty boy off of my leg. "Please don't hate me for this. This is for your own good. Millie, please stop crying..."

"Ariana! Please, let us stay!" The other woman, Isabel, began hauling Millie to Wanda. She took a lot of convincing and one change of pants to get on the horse. When she was on, all four started off. I wiped my eyes and watched them begin to disappear from sight in my rear view mirror. I started up the car and drove it towards the hotel parking lot. We parked and unanimously chose to stay low to the ground for safety purposes. Quickly, we set up camp. We all got our own rooms and agreed to scour any nearby food marts as soon as the sun came up. Until then, we explored and looted rooms for anything of use.