Apocalyptic Chaos

Chapter 10: Nelson

I walked down the hallway, looking for my mum. I just woke up from a long nap and I couldn't find her. My tail wagged nervously as I looked for her. If you couldn't tell, I'm a fennec fox, but not an actual fox. I'm more semi-human than you might think. Mum took me in after she found me on the streets of New York 5 years ago.

I headed towards the front desk, hoping that I may find her, but there was no one there. I hopped onto the chair and looked at the items on the desk. There was a mug, a pen, a couple of pamphlets, and a small blue book. I spun around in the chair a few times, trying to think of all the places she could be. I was about to set off and look for her again when the door opened and two people walked in.

"Oh hey!" I said and jumped off the chair," Welcome to Bath Bed and Tears! My mum isn't here so I'm the replacement at the moment."

The taller one started reaching for something in his backpack and the other just looked at me quizzically.

"Are you... a fox?" She asked.

"Yep," I said proudly," A fennec fox to be exact."

"Well, we were wondering if we could rent a room for a bit."

"Of course!" I said and ran to the desk to grab one of the pamphlets, "We have multiple different rooms to pick from."

They took them and sat down in the chairs nearby to choose. I started wandering off again looking for my mum. There didn't seem to be anyone in the halls, let alone my mum.

"Hey, fox guy!"

I turned around and saw one of them waving the pamphlet in the air.

"I think we found a room." The shorter one said.

I walked towards them," What room did you choose?"

"We decided on the 'Candyland' one right there." She said,

I nodded and looked on the key rack for the key to that room. The Candyland key looked like a candy cane. I grabbed it and gestured to them to follow me. We walked down the hallway until we got to their door. Curiously, it was in line with the other three booked rooms. Another confusing thing was that the halls were still empty, no one had left their rooms for a long time.

"Where's everyone else?" One of them asked.

"I don't know. I was looking for my mum before you got here." I said, looking up and down the halls," Well, anyway, here's your room and the key."

They walked into the room and were obviously surprised by the details within the room. There were candy cane pillars around the room, the ceiling was made of gingerbread. It looked like the inside of the candy house in Hansel and Gretel. The corners of the ceiling had cream cheese frosting holding the walls and ceiling together. The floor had taffy of some sort lining it, like a carpet. The bed looked like a sugar wafer, with licorice on the sides. It was heaven.

"I hope you like it and you can tell us if there's anything wrong with it," I said and waved goodbye.

I continued walking through the hallways, at this point just looking for anyone. That's when I heard something down the other hall. It sounded like someone stumbling around and bumping into the wall. I quietly made my way towards it and found someone in the halls walking around aimlessly. She saw me and started stumbling towards me.

Hi, there!" I said, glad to have at least found someone," Are you lost?"

She looked extremely puzzled," Why... Why aren't you running?" she asked in a raspy voice.

I was confused, "I don't know why I should be running, and I'm here because you look like you could use some help."

She chuckled," Damn right I do."