Chapter 15

 

My sense of direction officially sucked, I must have been at this for hours, but I just could not find that chamber. The others had probably almost made it back to the hotel and I hadn’t even found Bethany yet. The strangest thing was that I hadn’t come across any guards at all. At first I thought that it was just coincidence, but I started stomping down corridors to draw attention to myself and there was nothing. I started to worry that maybe they had discovered that we had escaped and gone after them, but I would have thought I would have heard some kind of alarm go off if that had happened.

Knowing there was nothing I could do right now I continued my search up and down corridors. It made it difficult because all of the corridors were similar, but I distinctly remembered the torture chamber having a black door and from what I could tell so far all of these had wooden ones.

My whole body was aching from the affects of the torture and if it had only been my life on the line I probably would have hidden somewhere and rested for a bit, but as it was I had to get to Bethany. I was on the verge of screaming in frustration when I finally caught a glimpse of a black door out of the corner of my eye. As I stopped and looked at it I realised that there could be more than one black door in this place and if this wasn’t the one I could be at this for hours longer.

At the sound of a scream coming from inside though it pushed that idea from my head and I shoved the door open to find an ugly little skinny man holding a hot poker towards the girls who must be Bethany’s mouth as he said.

“Go on put it in your mouth and suck it little girl.”

He seemed so engrossed with his goading that he hadn’t heard my arrival. That clearly had to change.

“Hey!” I yelled as I took aim with my machine gun. He looked up immediately in shock and I hissed. “Why don’t you suck on this motherfucker?” Pulling the trigger I deposited a round of bullets straight into the ghastly face that would probably haunt this girl forever.

“Bethany I take it?” I asked as the man toppled over unmoving.

“Dude, I thought that Cora girl had way too much faith in you, but man I’m ready to get down on my hands and knees and kiss your feet right now. That was awesome!”

I chuckled and walked over to the wheel for the chains. “No need for feet kissing, we have more pressing matters right now.”

The minute I lowered her to the ground I found the key for the manacles and unlocked them. She immediately started rubbing the feeling back into her shoulders and wrists before grabbing her clothes and getting dressed. I was glad to see that the guy hadn’t gotten the chance to hurt her as badly as Eric had me.

I realised that she must have been around the same age as me when I got a proper look at her face. She had shoulder length black hair and pale blue eyes, she was extremely skinny and I wandered how long she had been a prisoner to these soldiers.

“So, where are we headed, are we getting the others out now?” She asked as she grabbed the now dead soldier’s machine gun.

“Oh, they are already on their way back to the hotel, they’ve probably made it back by now actually. We should get going.” I started for the door, but when she didn’t move I stopped and looked at her questioningly.

“A guy called Lucian doesn’t lead that hotel by any chance does he?”

I frowned. “Yeah, why?”

She swallowed. “A guy came in here earlier and spoke to this guy about sending the attack on the hotel, all the guards were going to have a meeting about it, but this guy stayed here obviously.”

I guess that explained the lack of guards in corridors anyway. “What sort of attack?” I asked. “What do you know about it?”

She shrugged. “Not a lot, but I know they were sending zombies, they said that the group was getting too strong and could become a threat so they had to be wiped out. They were sending them this afternoon since they would be unprepared for so many zombies in daylight.”

“Shit!” I yelled. “We have to get back, it’s probably too late to warn them now, but I can still help.”

She started following me out the door and down the corridor, but when I heard her footsteps stop I stopped and turned around.

“How are you guys doing for ammo and shit there?”

I shrugged. “We haven’t got a lot, but we get by why?”

She grinned. “What would you say if I could lead us to a truck that we could take back filled with ammo, guns and explosives?”

I grinned back. “I’d say lead the way.”

 

I was glad that she was doing the leading and that she seemed to know where she was going because it would have taken me so long to find my way out of there since I wasn’t really sure how I had finally reached it in the first place.

The guards must have still been doing their meeting thing because we didn’t come across anyone until we reached what must have been the car garage where two men were standing watch. We each shot one without hesitation before Bethany lead the way inside. As she had said there was a huge truck completely full with all kinds of weapons.

“How did you know about this?” I asked.

She grinned. “That guy spent more time talking with other guys than he did torturing.”

“Hmm, I guess we should have thanked him for this before I killed him.”

“Keys!” She exclaimed after opening the drivers side door and pulling down the sun visor.

I grinned and started to climb in, but paused as I caught sight of a blue sports car. I had no idea what type it was, I wasn’t really good with car names, but I knew it was fast and fast was exactly what we needed to get to the hotel in time, but we also needed the weapons.

Bethany grinned at me. “Go, I’ll bring the truck.”

“Thanks.” I said before giving her quick directions to the hotel.

Luckily she was familiar with the town so it didn’t take much explaining before I was heading over to the car, climbing in and starting it up with keys also found in the drivers side sun visor. They were way too overconfident that no one would escape. I checked the gas glad to see that the guards had been nice enough to fill it up for me and revved it. It resulted in a guttural echo around the garage before dying down again. I grinned, I had never driven a car like this, but I had always wanted to. Not knowing the names didn’t mean I couldn’t appreciate a good car when I was in it.

I glanced in the wing mirror to see Bethany chuckling and shaking her head at me as she started the truck. Realising the garage door was still closed I ran over to the control panel next to it and pressed the up button before running back and climbing back into the car. We had to wait less than two minutes before the door had risen. Eager to drive this car, get out of here before guards came running and get back to the hotel I stuck my foot down and shot out of the car garage. It took me a few seconds to get my bearings and figure out which side of the building I had come out of.

When I discovered it was the back I braked before turning around until I was heading in the direction of the hotel. It didn’t take long for me to leave the truck behind and as I had suspected the car was amazing to drive. The abandoned cars on the road were obstacles, but I dodged every one of them without a problem. If speed limits had still been in place I would have broken every single one, I drove the hell out of that car determined to get back as fast as I could.

Even if I hadn’t known that I was close to the hotel the fact that there were a lot of zombies in the area would have been a big give away, I didn’t stop though, I drove straight through them. The damage it was causing to the bodywork of the car made me wince, but a damaged car was the least of my problems right now. It wasn’t long before the road was so thick with zombie bodies that the car was surrounded.

The clearing in front of the hotel was just up ahead, who knew how long it would take these zombies to break through the doors? I revved the engine, put it in gear and stuck my foot down, it was like a rocket shooting through the zombies. It sliced through them like butter as if they were little more than an inconvenience. The only way of telling when I reached the centre of the clearing was by the approach of the hotel out of the top of my windscreen. It was an estimate, but it was all I was going to get, I kept my foot on the accelerator as I braked and jolted the steering wheel to the side until I was donuting the car.

Just as I had expected it spun round in circles taking zombies out with the back end of it with every turn keeping them at bay. It was only then that I realised it had been stupid not to get some weapons off of that truck. I still had my machine gun and sniper, but I wasn’t sure how many bullets were left and I was now trapped in an army of zombies.

Like all car donuts, it eventually came to a stop and the engine cut out. Before the zombies could approach I opened the door, climbed out and scrambled on top of the roof before I took aim and shot zombies in the head left, right, centre and back. They dropped dead creating a low wall with their bodies making the progress of the other zombies slower as they tried to get to me, but it wasn’t nearly enough and it wasn’t long before my bullets ran out.

I threw the machine gun down and lifted up my sniper, which was absolutely shit for close range. After one shot though I discovered that it didn’t help when there was only one bullet left in the damn thing either.

“Shit!” I yelled before hitting a zombie over the head with the butt when he got too close.

Now was the time to run for it, but where the hell could I run to? I looked around, the closest escape route was a ladder to a roof of a building close by, but there were at least four zombies between me and it and I had nothing to kill them with. I was being surrounded on all sides though, it was either take the risk or stand there and get eaten. The choice wasn’t a hard one, using the sniper as a barricade between me and the zombie’s mouths I ran over the bonnet of the car and shoved towards them. It felt like pushing my way through twenty of the damn things even though I knew it was four and they almost bit me so many times that I lost count.

When I reached the ladder I turned around and threw the sniper towards them forcefully giving myself the small amount of time needed in order to get up the ladder without being dragged down. Quickly turning around I grabbed the highest bar of the ladder I could and yanked myself up. I thought I was out of reach when my foot was grabbed. My arms were already so weak that they could barely hold my weight up as it was. Expecting them to hold the weight of a zombie too was just a bit much.

My fingers were slipping on the bar, I kicked downwards hard knowing that I had only seconds. I felt my foot collide with the zombies head and it let go, not wanting a repeat of that I forced myself up a few more bars before slowing down and struggling to make it to the top. My whole body was trying to shut down, I needed food, I needed water, I needed sleep and I was in so much pain that breathing was even difficult, but I refused to give in. Giving in had never been an option with me and it wasn’t about to become one.

I climbed onto the roof when I reached the top of the ladder, my legs were too weak to hold me up for long though and I felt my knees hit the ground before I leant forwards trying to catch my breath. It was like the air was low in oxygen and I couldn’t quite pull in enough to breathe properly.

“Focus Taylor.” I whispered to myself.

I had, had panic attacks before, they felt like I was starving of oxygen and I made it through them, this was just the same. Well, almost the same, I hadn’t been in unbearable pain during the panic attacks.

“Mckenize, look out!” My head snapped up and I looked towards the hotel at the sound of Lucian’s voice.

I caught a glimpse of him standing at the window of the top floor where room 215 was before I noticed the zombie about two feet behind me having just climbed the ladder. When the hell had zombies started climbing ladders, stairs they could climb, but ladders? That was completely new and I can’t say it was an improvement I liked.

Adrenaline kicked in and catching my breath was no longer a problem when the zombie dove towards me. I rolled over onto my back and kicked out towards him sending him stumbling backwards, but not far enough to stop him in his advance. After sitting up I shuffled backwards refusing to take my eyes off of him so he couldn’t sneak up on me and bite me. I moved my hands around me trying to find some kind of weapon, but unless the tiny pieces of gravel on the concrete were going to kill him I came up empty.

He pounced again so I kicked him in the jaw snapping his head back. The moment I did there was a whizzing sound followed by the sound of bullet sliding into flesh and he fell down motionless. I was panting and quickly got to my feet, it didn’t take me long to find the shooter. Lucian was standing at the same window with a sniper.

I grinned at him and gave him a thumbs up, he smirked in response, but then I was distracted by the sound of the truck Bethany was driving. She wasn’t surrounded by zombies yet, but I could see her on the outskirts of the army. Apparently she wasn’t as crazy as me and hadn’t driven into it trapping herself. Knowing that I needed weapons I ran across the rooftops away from the hotel.

When I was close enough that she could hear me I yelled her name as I ran down the closest fire escape. She saw me and redirected the steering wheel until she was headed in my direction. When she reached me I was far enough down to make the jump onto the back of the truck with ease. I rolled into the landing to stop myself from twisting an ankle or something equally stupid. She didn’t stop driving, if she stopped moving the zombies would be on us in seconds.

“Man, we have some serious zombie killing to do!” Bethany shouted.

“That we do.” I agreed as I started searching through the weapons. “Wow, there is so much here, this could do us for years even with the amount we are going to have to use to take these out.”

“How awesome am I?” Bethany asked and I could hear the grin in her voice.

I chuckled. “I’m thinking you’re pretty awesome right now.”

“So, what’s the plan girl?”

“I’m thinking, drive in and shoot the hell out of them.”

“You’re my kinda girl Taylor.”

I chuckled, but cut myself off as my eyes fell on a weapon just right for this situation. “Oh my God, I’m in love!” I gasped as I reached for it.

“Sorry, but I’m no lesbian.”

I snorted. “Not you, there’s a gatling gun!” I exclaimed.

“No way!”

“Yes way, ok plan is drive in I take out as many as I can with this baby. Then we grab swords or whatever and take out the remaining undead bastards.”

“Ok, you ready?” She agreed and I could hear the excitement in her voice. She got as much enjoyment out of killing these things as I did.

I grunted as I lifted the heavy gun into position and shuffled towards the back of the truck. My joints screamed in agony at the effort it took, but I took no notice and loaded the gun making sure more reloads were close by.

“Ok, go!” I shouted.

She floored it towards the hotel and the second I could get an aim on a group of zombies I pulled the trigger. The vibration of the heavy gun as it fired bullets was going to kill my arms I knew that, but I can’t deny that it felt good to kill so many zombies at once. It probably had something like five zombie deaths per second going on and I loved it.

As Bethany drove through the zombies were knocked to the side leaving them damaged, but not killed. My gun corrected that the moment they came within sight of my killing machine. They weren’t just injured, they were beyond repair as zombie brains blasted everywhere and some body parts came right off as the bullets collided with them. The place was going to look like a massacre when we were done.

When we reached the clearing in front of the hotel she drove around in circles as I really let the bastards have it. The thought that these things had once been human used to bother me when I killed them, but since they had wiped out everyone I had that night at the camp I had stopped caring. Now I just wanted to kill as many as possible in an attempt to avenge their deaths, I knew that would never really happen until I killed Eric, but for now this was the best I could do so I was going to do it the best I could. The soldiers were still human, but as far as I was concerned in my eyes they were just another zombie and they needed to die, If this army had been soldiers I could have just as easily killed them without feeling one bit of guilt. I probably shouldn’t let myself be so set on revenge, but it was too late, soldiers and zombies had pissed me off too many times for me to go back.

With such a super powered gun Bethany only had to circle the clearing five times before the bullets started hitting thin air more than it did zombies. Not wanting to waste the bullets despite the fact we had more than we needed now I put the gun back where I found it and grabbed a sword. The sword was unfamiliar in my hands and I really wanted the one I had left in the hotel, but it would do the job just as well so I dealt with it.

“Time to get off the truck!” I shouted at Bethany.

“Cool!” She exclaimed before breaking so hard that I actually fell over backwards with a grunt.

“Ow, little warning next time!” I complained pulling my aching body to my feet.

“Sorry!” she shouted as I heard the driver door slam closed, but I was pretty sure it was automatic rather than actually feeling any kind of remorse about it.

She climbed into the back the same time that I jumped out and beheaded the first zombie I came to. Weird as it might sound using another sword just didn’t feel right, my manoeuvres felt clumsy and I felt like a sword fighting novice again. Bethany’s weapon choice turned out to be two long knives. She was like some kind of super ninja, she moved fast stabbing zombies in the head just as quickly as I was able to take them out with my sword.

I was so intent on my zombie killing that I didn’t notice Lucian until he was right next to me. At first I thought he was a zombie and turned to decapitate him, luckily for him though he was prepared and blocked my attack with my sword.

He smirked at me. “You hate me that much Tinkerbell?” I glared at him, but he made me forget about his annoying nickname by handing me over my sword. “Thought you might want this Blondie?”

I practically snatched it out of his hand before shoving my temporary sword into his hands. “Yes, I could kiss you right now!”

He chuckled. “No one’s stopping you.”

I blushed before pulling myself together. “Shut up Adams and get to work, we have zombies to kill.”

He grinned. “Yes ma’am.”

Before I could stop myself I leant up and kissed him full on the mouth. I stayed there just long enough to see the shocked expression on his face before giggling and heading off to take out a zombie that was advancing on Bethany from behind.

The three of us were like pro zombie killers as we dodged and killed repeatedly, we also saved each other from being bitten so many times that I lost count. Even though it had appeared that there weren’t many left there were still a fair amount there since the area was so huge. As we fought the men we had taught to fight zombies a few nights ago began making their way out, getting more confident the more of us there were. A few of the women even came out, but they weren’t nearly good enough in the fighting department yet and they became more of a liability than a help. I got so close to being bitten once trying to save one of the girls that I had actually felt the zombies’ teeth touch my neck before Lucian took him down with a look of rage on his face that was kind of scary. The girl started apologising immediately before running inside and that was the end of the help from any of the women today.

It felt like we had been fighting for hours and I was only getting worse. My back was sore, my stomach was sore, my…… hell who was I kidding? Every damn part of me was sore. Eric had certainly been thorough with his little weapons that was for sure.

“Man, how are you still going?” Bethany panted as she walked over to me. “I’m exhausted and you had it way worse in that room and you were in there so much longer.”

“I’m fine.” I said stubbornly, yep stubbornness was definitely one of my worse traits. “You can go inside if you want.”

She wiped sweat from her forehead and nodded. “I think I will, I’m beat.” Well at least one of us could accept that they needed to rest anyway. “Have fun.” She called as she walked off towards the closed hotel doors. They were opened for her, but closed as soon as she was through.

I looked up in time to see a group of ten zombies coming for me from all sides. The first four were killed much slower than I could have usually, but four of the remaining zombies were a little closer than the other two I was looking at so I turned away from those two to take on the four first.

“Mckenzie!” Lucian roared when I swung my sword.

Too late I realised I had broken one of my own damn rules. Never turn your back on a zombie no matter how far away he is, I should have killed those two first and then turned to the other four. It had only been days ago that I had scolded one of the men for doing exactly that and now I had done it. I was already swinging for the four and their heads were now rolling on the ground, but I couldn’t turn around fast enough to raise my sword again. My eyes met the rotting green face of a zombies’ before he collided with my body and I tripped over backwards giving him even more of an advantage. My sword skittered along the concrete as it jolted out of my hand and his mouth descended on my neck.

I was going to be fucking zombie food! I didn’t even scream, I was so angry with myself and just so exhausted that no sound could escape my throat.

Images of my Dad and Lucian’s Mum flashed through my mind then and something exploded inside me. No, there was no way I was going to let their deaths go without revenge! With a strength that I didn’t even know I still had inside me at that moment I grabbed the zombie by the shoulders and shoved him away from me so forcefully that he rolled onto the ground next to me. I rolled the other way and grabbed my sword before turning back in time to see the zombie taking another lunge at me. My sword sliced through his neck with ease and I grabbed the foot of the second zombie before yanking hard sending him tumbling to the ground. I knelt up, lifted my sword and bought it down straight through the zombies’ eye and into his brain.

I was breathing heavily and before I could catch my breath my upper arm was grabbed and I was pulled to my feet. My movements were clumsy as I swung around to slice through my attacker making it easy for Lucian to grab my wrist and stop me mid swing. I looked up to see his black eyes flashing angrily at me, what the hell had I done?

“You have some explaining to do young lady.” He growled.

I frowned at him, not even coming up with anything to say back, I was seriously confused.

“You just nearly got yourself killed by making a stupid mistake that you would never make!” He added.

He was right, I had, but I did have a pretty good reason for making it. I was barely standing up it was only expected that I would make some mistakes right? Then again he didn’t know how bad shape I was really in, which probably explained his sudden crazy manhandling.

I yanked my arm out of his grip and defended myself. “Everyone makes mistakes Adams.”

He sighed and ran his hand through his black hair. “I know, just be careful ok? Or go inside and get some sleep, we can deal with it out here now, there aren’t many left.”

“I’m fine.” I protested before turning away and heading to the last three zombies on this side of the clearing.

I glanced back in time to see Lucian shaking his head helplessly before heading to the other side with the others who were killing off the last twenty or so there. The fact that it took me about five times as long to dispose of the three zombies as it normally would was just more proof that I really needed some rest or something and maybe some seriously strong pain killers to stop the throbbing vibrating throughout my entire body.

When I turned back towards the others Lucian was walking towards me and the men were heading into the hotel. There were no living zombies in sight so I headed towards Lucian meeting him almost halfway with the slow steps I was taking.

“Are you going to tell me what happened to you Blondie or are we going to argue about it?”

I snorted. “I’ll argue with you tomorrow Adams, I’m too tired right now.”

He sighed and put a hand on my back to lead me to the hotel, but the moment his hand touched my back I let out a wince loudly enough that it didn’t go unnoticed. His eyebrows drew together in concern as he dropped his hand and looked down at me in confusion. That probably would have been the moment that he made me tell him what had happened, but the sound of an engine had us forgetting about it. We looked at each other once before running towards the hotel. The adrenaline began pumping through my body again allowing me to keep going. When we were almost at the truck I knew that we wouldn’t make it to the hotel before they would arrive.

“Behind the truck.” I hissed at Lucian, but he was already heading that way.

Knowing that if we had to face the soldiers we would be at a serious disadvantage with our swords against their guns I grabbed the first few guns my hands landed on at the back of the truck before running round to the side with Lucian and kneeling down with him before dropping them to the ground.

I had snagged two handguns and a machine gun, without giving Lucian a chance to take first pick I grabbed the handguns.

He smirked at me. “You like your pistols don’t you?”

I grinned and shrugged. “Machine guns always seem a little out of control, I’d rather aim and hit someone with every bullet than waste so many bullets firing randomly and hope they hit.”

“Hmm, I guess that makes sense, but not everyone is as good a shot as you are.”

I smirked. “Did you just give me a compliment Adams?”

He chuckled, but shut up when the sound of brakes squealing came from the edge of the clearing on the other side of the truck. We stayed as silent as we could when we heard the sounds of doors opening and closing followed by footsteps before a soldier said.

“What the fuck, how did they kill them all, Eric said they were low on ammo and most of these zombies have been shot?”

I recognised the voice as the leader of the guys who had come for me when he spoke. “Clearly the zombie idea failed, I say we just burn the hotel down, guard the entrances and kill anyone who comes running.”

“Hey, is that one of our trucks?” Another asked.

I gave Lucian an evil grin, he knew what it meant, I wanted to make them pay. He shook his head seriously, but I ignored him and stood up before walking around the end of the truck.

“Hello boys.” They all looked up at me in shock and I continued. “I do hope I misheard, because I could have sworn you were suggesting burning the hotel down.”

“You!” I leader guy yelled. “H-how, yo-you were at the camp, we took you there!”

I gave an exaggerated sigh. “Yeah, I got bored so I came back.”

“Who is this?” They guy who had first spoken asked.

The leader guy didn’t take his eyes off of me. “It’s Taylor Mckenzie, but she was locked up. I took her there myself!”

“She must have had help on the inside.” The first guy insisted.

I grinned. “As much as I would like to encourage the whole blaming of other soldiers I’m afraid I had no inside help. I must say I was extremely disappointed in how easy it was to get out, I hoped I might get to kill more of you in the process.”

“There are watch towers!” Leader guy yelled.

I smirked. “There are and I’m afraid you’ll have to replace the guards in every one of them.” They stayed silent so I added. “Now, since I’ve killed so many zombies today I’m going to give you the chance to leave, but if I ever see you here again I’ll kill you.”

“And if we refuse to leave?” The first guy asked.

I grinned and loaded both of my pistols. “I kill you.”

One of the guys snorted. “She’s bluffing, we should just shoot her.” He actually raised his gun to take aim at me, but before he could even focus on me I shot his hand holding the gun.

He roared in pain dropping his gun to the ground. “She shot my hand the fucking bitch!”

I raised an eyebrow. “You’re lucky my aims so good I could have hit anything. So what’s it going to be boys, death or leaving this place and never coming back?”

They looked at each other before retreating back towards their truck, but I had caught the look in their eyes.

I sighed. “Adams.”

That was all I needed to say, he jumped round the truck at the same time the four soldiers turned towards me with guns raised, the guys who hand I had shot pulling a hand gun from his belt.

Lucian took down the two closest to him before I could blink and I took aim shooting the other two in their heads, but I wasn’t fast enough before the leader guy shot a bullet. Unprepared for the shot I didn’t have time to even attempt to dodge it, but luckily his aim wasn’t so grate so it only grazed my shoulder making a slight wince escape my throat, but hey what was a little more pain to add to my body?

“You ok Tink?” Lucian asked immediately.

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m good, but there are going to be more Adams. They are going to come looking when they don’t hear back from them.”

“I know.” He agreed. “But we’ll deal with that when it comes, for now we should get these weapons inside and you should get some sleep and see Jason.”

I grunted. “I’m fine, I just need sleep.”

“Do you always have to be so stubborn?” He growled.

I didn’t bother to answer the question because the answer was apparently yes. It seemed that I just couldn’t stop myself even when it was in my best interest to just give in.

“Fine, I’ll see Jason after I sleep.” I mumbled as I followed him towards the hotel slowly, picking my sword up from the floor where I had left it after wielding the pistols.

He just grunted and carried on towards the hotel, the doors were opened and we walked in, but before they were closed behind us Lucian looked at one of the guards.

“Get a group of men to get the weapons inside out of those trucks.”

The guard nodded and quickly went in search of some men, they lobby was packed with the people who were here to start with and the women from the camp. I wandered if Cora was ok for about five seconds before she ran over to me and wrapped her arms about me. I flinched, but hugged her back as she shouted.

“You made it.”

“I told you I would.” I assured her.

I didn’t notice Bethany had walked over to me until she said. “Girl, you should get some of those pain killers, you look like hell.”

I smiled at her. “I’m fine.”

She frowned. “You keep saying that, but you were tortured and th-.”

I winced as she said it just before Lucian interrupted her with a roared. “You were what?”

“Man, give her a break, this girls been through a lot!” Bethany said nudging Lucian.

Lucian ignored her and kept looking at me. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me Mckenzie? I knew you shouldn’t have ever gone to that place!” He yelled, everyone in the lobby had gone silent to stare at us.

“We haven’t exactly had time to sit and chat since I got back!” I shouted back.

“You shouldn’t have been out there fighting!” He growled. “You almost got yourself killed several times, you’re too damn stubborn for your own good! And what the hell was that stunt with the car? You drove yourself into a trap!”

I glared at him and shoved him in the chest. “Well, somebody had to do something since you were willing to sit inside until you were surrounded by zombies, the building couldn’t hold up forever!”

“We were making plans!” He insisted. “At least we are sensible enough to actually make them rather than charging into danger!”

“Yeah, well sometimes you have to take chances Adams and I took the chance and it paid off so stop being an asshole about shit that’s already happened.”

“You’re always such a fucking hypocrite!” He yelled. “If that plan had been made here and someone else was going to drive the car you would have refused to be a part of it, you knew it was a hopeless plan before you came driving in there!”

“Well, I’m sorry I didn’t realise it was so wrong of me to care about other people!”

“It’s not caring about other people that’s the problem Mckenzie, it’s the fact that you don’t give a shit about yourself! You can’t fucking accept that people aren’t ok with you risking your life for them every damn day! Are you that fucking broken that you can’t understand that it’s possible for people to care about you?”

I had been ready to yell right back at him until that last sentence, it was only the other day that he had been assuring me I wasn’t broken. I knew it was a lie of course, but it had felt good to hear it and now he had just thrown it back in my face. After opening up to him he had used that against me and it hurt more than all the torture I had taken from Eric. It wasn’t as if he had, had the courtesy to say it in private either, he had just told nearly everyone in this hotel.

“You’re a fucking cruel bastard!” I hissed at him before slapping him around the face so hard that his neck made a clicking sound.

He grabbed his red cheek and before he could recover I stormed towards the elevator and walked inside thankful that it was already open on this floor and I didn’t have to wait for it.

Tears were running down my face before the doors opened on my level. Not wanting anyone to see me I walked as fast as I could to my door and walked in, closed the door behind me, grabbed the chair from the desk and pushed it under the handle so no one could come in especially that asshole.

After sheathing my sword into its cover, which was on the desk where my other weapons had been put too I headed for the bathroom. I needed food, water and sleep, but I was also in desperate need of a shower. Taking care of my thirst issue first I turned on the water in the sink and scooped handfuls of water into my mouth. My throat was sore and I struggled to swallow at first, but after a few mouthfuls it slid down more easily until my thirst was quenched.

I didn’t spend long in the shower, I just couldn’t cope with the spray constantly beating down on my raw skin. Tears were rolling down my cheeks when I climbed out, I was crying from the hurt Lucian had caused me and I was crying from the physical pain I was in. I wasn’t entirely sure which was harder to deal with, but they were both hurting like hell.

I dropped my towel in front of the mirror to examine the damage that had been done. Most of the time my injuries would look worse than they felt, but in this case they felt just as bad as they looked, if not worse. I was covered in scratches, cuts, bruises, bright red marks and my back was burning so bad that I was afraid to look at it in the mirror.

Before my legs decided to give out on me completely I pulled on some underwear and a too big t-shirt and climbed on top of my bed. I thought I would be awake for hours as I tried t block out the pain, but luckily I was so exhausted that it overcame its attempt to keep me awake and I fell into a fitful sleep.