Better off Undead

Chapter 9: The Coming Storm

"Amber?"

She stood before him, her stance rigid, tough, determined, but her face soft and vulnerable. She held a gun in her hands – some old looking revolver – but as he stepped closer her grip on the weapon loosened, and her hands dropped to her side.

"I don't need you," she was saying. "I don't need anyone."

His body was almost pressed up against hers now. They could feel each other's breath. He reached out a hand, and placed it tenderly upon her cheek. "But it's better with two," he said softly. She smiled then, the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. Her whole face smiled with her lips, her eyes lighting up like Christmas lights. He leaned in a little closer... and she kicked his feet out from under him, sending him sprawling to his back, arms thrashing out in every direction.

"Eli, I swear to God, if you don't get out of this bed right now I'm going to leave your worthless ass here to be eaten!"

"Amber?" he tried to say, but groggy and dizzy as he was it came out more like, "Murhguhl?"

"What?" she demanded, and gave him a few seconds to answer. He rolled around on the bed, still more than half asleep, trapped somewhere between dream and reality that left him far too confused to understand exactly what was happening. She kicked his feet again, harder this time, still trying to wake him up.

His eyes opened at last, but everything was blurry. He blinked, feeling the crustiness around his eyelids, and after a few moments could make out the general form of the woman standing at the end of his bed. "I knew you'd come," he said, not really fully aware he was even talking.

Amber's eyes went wide. She scoffed in annoyance and rolled her eyes. She kicked him in the feet again, still harder. "In your dreams, you perv. We're being overrun. If we don't leave, and I mean right now, we're as good as dead. So get your ass out of this bed or I'm taking your keys and leaving you here as bait."

Realization slowly dawned on Eli and his face flushed red. He rolled out of the bed and grabbed his bag off the floor. He must have been much more tired the previous night than he'd realized, as he was still fully clothed. He hadn't even taken off his shoes. I must reek, he thought distantly. Actually, considering that there probably wasn't running water anymore, everyone in the group probably smelled pretty awful. At least there was that, he figured.

Amber had already turned and was hurrying out of the room. He stumbled after her, drunkenly, his faculties not yet fully restored. "Hey, wait!" He called, reaching blindly for the door knob. His hand hit only air. Since the hotel was due for demolition, most of the rooms had their electronic locks removed. The rest didn't even have doors. This room was one of the former, so he stuck his hand through the hole left by the missing door handle and pulled. "What do you mean, we're overrun?"

Amber was already part way down the hall, but she stopped and turned around. She motioned with one hand to the window at the end of the hallway, just to Eli's right, and said "See for yourself."

His brow furrowed in confusion as his sleep addled brain tried to comprehend her meaning. He turned by sort of rolling himself along the wall until his head was positioned before the window. Immediately he was forced to slam his eyes shut against the unexpected brightness of morning. Slowly, he pried his eyes open, bit by bit, until he could make out some general shapes and blurred images. In order to get some degree of privacy, he had chosen a room on the second floor, all the way at the end of the hall. This should have afforded him a good view, but in the brightness of the early morning sun, he had trouble making anything out.

"See... what?" he asked. The image was clearing, but nothing was evident. Slowly, he began to notice that one of the blobs seemed to be wavering, as if being blown by the breeze. As he focused on it, the blob began to separate into multiple blobs, until he realized with a grim horror exactlywhat it was he was looking at.