Chapter Forty

Todd was poised to shoulder ram the door, and Cynthia and Jessica aimed their guns to intercept a charge from within the vampire’s room. Behind them, Addey clutched her knife to throw. Groups across the hall had already smashed open doors, the assault running its course throughout the third floor.

“On three!” Todd yelled at them. “One. Two. THREE!”

The door easily burst from its hinges. They barged into the living room. The carpet, the furniture, the amenities were each of the same rich caliber as James Sorelli’s. The open bar’s mirror reflected the dismay and puzzlement on their faces.

Nobody was home.

Addey inspected the kitchen, and Jessica and Cynthia ransacked the bedrooms. Todd checked the bathroom. After minutes of searching, they regrouped.

“There’s nobody here,” Todd spat. “It’s like they packed up and left.”

Addey walked behind the bar. The vent in the corner was closed. She pushed against the steel surface, and there was no way to gain access from their side. It was blocked from within.

Todd was behind her, sensing her realization. “They’re getting ready for something. They’re all in hiding.”

Jessica eyed Addey, the woman suddenly deflated. “Then it looks like we’ve got a fight on our hands, and soon.”

Cynthia was unable to speak for a moment. “W-we can’t fight them. We’d be nothing against them.”

Todd tried to combat the breakdown of morale. “Now wait. If they’re hiding, that buys us time. We should gather everybody in the facility. The greater the numbers, the better off we are, right? Let’s say we meet in the cafeteria. How about it?”

“Fine,” Jessica agreed. “Then let’s find out what everybody else is up to, and we’ll go from there.”

They left the room. The hallways were congested with confused workers. They too had entered empty rooms. The chatter level had risen, worried faces uniting with fearful conversation. Addey too was scared. The pit of her stomach twisted with the anticipation of an attack. The boning knife in her hand was insignificant. There was nowhere to run. She could retreat, but the monsters would sniff her out in due time.

Richard was still missing. Dead, she had to assume. Brenner was also in the facility somewhere. What was he doing about the monster threat? And Herman was in the medical wing recouping. The way things were playing out, she wouldn’t have an opportunity for a visit, though it pained her to think that way.

Todd and Jessica were shouting above the hallway’s din at her. “Let’s check the second floor. Let’s see what the level-one zombies are up to. They might help us.”

“Don’t be naïve!” Addey’s warning exploded from her throat. “You can’t recruit those dead assholes. Herman’s in the medical wing because of the level ones. They can’t be trusted. Both of us were attacked in a storeroom by them. They revealed to me that they crave human flesh. It’s been an act all the time. They hate people food. They’re goddamn liars.”

Todd’s eyes sharpened. “Then that’s all the more reason to break into their rooms.”

He rushed to the elevator. Jessica had stolen Angela Mooney’s key card, and they swiped it on the register. The console button flashed from red to green. “Level two it is,” Jessica whooped, trying to psyche herself up. “We don’t have much choice, Addey. Think about it. We have to secure an escape before this shit boils over.” She called out to everyone else, “Who wants to go back home? I’m not working another fucking second in this infernal hellhole!”

Rampant cheers were unleashed. Addey kept silent, knowing she was dead on paper. Who else would be after her if she trod on American soil again? Government spies, the military, the FBI, immigration services—the list would never end. She didn’t want to die, but she also didn’t want to run from the government the rest of her days. There was no happy medium between safety and escape. All she could do was follow along with the crowd.

In seconds, the elevator filled up, Addey being the last to enter. Everybody watched the lit-up buttons change. After the short trip down, the doors opened. The walls and carpet were of the same fancy accommodations for the level-one zombies, but the workers were missing. Nobody collected laundry or was poised to perform room service. There was no visible blood either. The excitement and energy were sucked from the moment.

“What do you think, Addey?” Jessica asked her. “Safe or unsafe?”

“Always unsafe.”

Cynthia crept between them. “It’s so quiet. Nobody’s here. What the hell is going on?”

Todd took the initiative and kicked three times until room 211 caved in around the lock mechanism and popped open. He swept the living room, bypassing the floral-print couches and plasma-screen television. The place was abandoned. The others combed the rest of the rooms for signs of the level-one zombies.

Addey couldn’t unglue her eyes from the industrial-size refrigerator, the giant steel contraption. It was three times the width of the average appliance, a juggernaut.

“You shouldn’t be concerned with that.” A shift manager from upstairs, his name tag reading Marvin, warned them. He was five feet tall, wide around the belly, his hair three different waves of natural color: white, gray and black swirled together. “Leave it be.”

Addey turned her head at him. “What’s in there? I’m tired of playing along with your stupid rules.”

Marvin reached out to shove her from the kitchen, but Todd roundhouse-kicked him in the gut. He skidded backward and lost his balance, and through the pain, he managed to say, “Listen. Brenner is around here somewhere. He’ll take care of this. This place has thrived and functioned because of his efforts since day one. This is meant for our protection.”

Todd tugged on his hair, testing the roots. “Then where the hell is the reliable bastard?”

Marvin spat a combo of spittle and blood onto the floor. “I don’t know. But I believe in him. I really do.”

“He’s not on our side.” Jessica was incensed at the ridiculous man. “The bastard’s playing us. He hasn’t spoken on the intercoms. He’s probably set sail on a boat and is way the fuck away from here by now.”

Cynthia shook her head. “Wait. Listen to the walls. I hear movement.”

Addey pressed her ear against the wall. The foundation was shifting. The scratching and dragging of objects against concrete resounded, as did the continual sloshing of water.

“We still have time,” Addey decided aloud. “What are the rest of the rooms like on this floor? Anybody left alive?”

A series of startled words and abrupt screams delivered her to the east side of the corridor. The calamity resulted from an incident inside the break room. She slowed her steps outside the door. The burgundy carpet was soaked through with crimson, the floor a bleeding wound. Nobody dared to enter, so Addey did so alone. She couldn’t touch the walls for support, for they too were slathered in red. The ceiling dripped and pattered, every inch of the room sodden.

She cast aside her repugnance and sloshed through blood to further investigate. Edges of rib bones, femurs, metatarsals, fragments of skulls and sternums littered the strange concourse. The remains were picked clean, the rest either eaten or carted to a hideaway. The vending machines that spat out organs were ripped from the floor and beaten in, the fronts torn open and the contents stolen. The wine, hard alcohol and beer storage was untouched.

Meat was all they wanted.

“Over here, Addey.”

Jessica had snuck into the room. An air vent had been removed from the wall. Bloody trails and footprints surrounded the tiles outside the homemade exit. Jessica said, “Here’s their escape hatch.”

Addey put it together. “They slaughtered everybody on the floor and then shoved on like it was nothing.”

“But why didn’t they go after us on the third floor?”

She already knew the answer. “That’s because I wounded James Sorelli. He fled, and I’m sure that’s why everybody else did too. We were onto them. They had no choice but to regroup. We had the edge over them.” Feeling her courage deflate to a degree, she added, “But not for long.”

Addey glanced behind her shoulder. A crowd formed at the outer edge of the spreading blood.

Jessica smiled at her. “We’re the only ones with balls around here.”

Todd called out from the hall, waving them back into the hallway. “This is the best plan I can come up with. If anybody has a better idea, speak up. I need a group to wake up everybody in the living quarters. The gym, the movie theaters, the courtyard, you name it—look everywhere and bring the people here. We will regroup in the cafeteria. I’m sure the sublevel people have either escaped or died by now. There’s no time to be afraid. This isn’t war. This is survival. Now go!”

Nobody moved. Todd doubled the insistency of his words, rehashing his previous commands, “The back half, you guys wake the residents. The other half, stay in the cafeteria and start throwing out ideas about how we’re going to save our fucking asses! Damn it, now GO!”

The panic was infectious. Everybody split up, the elevator filling up and going down to the first floor with raucous mobs. Addey and Jessica waited their turn. Six loads of people later, they traveled down to the ground floor and began the process of collecting everybody that was still alive in the facility and ushering them into the cafeteria.