The Purge: Hotel

The Purge: Hotel Chapter 9

     Guests were confused at the sound of the fire alarm. When all you want is protection from the outside, where do you retreat to when your shelter is on fire? There was a deep worry about what to do next in their situation. Some guests wanted to find the fire and combat it, rather than find an escape. Others guests tried to return to their rooms, and were finding that they were locked out. Everyone was now caught in the hallway without direction. Groups with different agendas and directions started to form, as Scott and Sarah made their way to the fire escape within a group of their own. The group that Scott and Sarah mixed into was a group going through the motions, without a clear thought of what they were getting into.

      People were staring at Scott's appearance and becoming concerned that the Purge was at their doorstep. Many people have bad memories of past Purges and the thought of no longer being safe was alarming. Scott did his best to avoid answering questions about what had happened to him. He knew that there wasn't time to sit and talk about it. He wanted to get off of the fourth floor and farther away from the fifth level before it spilled over.

     The corner was congested when they reached it as the group bottlenecked in the fire escape. Scott grew anxious the longer it took to get to their destination. The wait agitated him. Sarah could sense his frustration. She had been in traffic with Scott plenty of times to understand his mannerisms. Feeling trapped made Scott antsy. He needed to move, and knowing that this crowd was a ticking time bomb, only made it worse.

     Before they could reach the door, paranoia became reality. Screams came from the fire escape as the crowd began to push backward. The Participants had made their way to the Safeties, and the violence began. Scott grabbed a hold of Sarah and they pushed their way back into the hallway as the panic was getting the attention of the rest of the guest. There was nowhere to go. The only escape in the opposite direction was the elevator, and when the doors opened, more horror presented itself to the fourth floor guests.

      Three men, wearing partial firefighting gear, including oxygen mask, carrying axes, stepped out of the elevator, giving false hope. Some guest ran at them, thinking that they were there to rescue them, and they were sadly mistaken. When the fleeing crowd got close enough, the men raised their axes and started whacking away at the defenseless guests.

     The crowd started to sandwich together as violence came at them from both sides. Scott and Sarah were caught in the middle. They could see the attacks of the firemen, but the violence from the stairwell was out of view. Sarah still held the large tenderizer, tightly, with both hands. A few feet away, Scott saw that a guest also held one of the tenderizers in his hand. He got the man's attention and started putting together a plan. Finding calm faces in the crowd, Scott started to recruit guests that were willing to fight back. As his group grew, they linked up with another group with the same idea. When the two groups combined, they started pushing their way toward the elevator. On the way, Sarah offered up her weapon to someone better equipped to use it.

     Moving forward, the group gained attention, and the crowd started to part, letting them through. The two men with the tenderizers led the way and met with the firemen first. The ax wielding maniacs didn't expect to see two armed men escape the crowd, and they were distracted by attacking people trying to escape. One of the guests was able to slam a tenderizer against a fireman's wrist, causing with to drop his ax. It didn't take long for it to get snatched into the crowd. The other two firemen attacked the guest and fatally wounded him. While the firemen were getting the best of the first guest attacker, the second man attack with his tenderizer, slamming it against one of the firemen's helmet. The blow sent the man to his knees, and the crowd made sure that he didn't get up. The last fireman went to raise his ax, but the group rushed him and took him to the ground, hard.