The Infection

Chapter 2

Henry did not hear the chaos that was currently unfolding on the seventh floor. He was not aware that someone had filed a complaint, and one of the employees would go up to the man's room on the seventh floor, to ask why the man was making so much noise. The thing that was once a man would hear this voice, and would charge straight at the door. The employee would make the mistake of opening the door in a fit of anger, and he would be the first one to be bitten. 

The thing jumped the employee, his teeth clomping onto the man's nose like a dog. The employee would scream as his nose was ripped off, and the thing would continue to eat away at his face as guests and other employees would go into a total panic. The thing stopped once the employee mimicked the same movements the thing once did, the only difference was that he was missing more parts from his face. 

The thing ran after a random guest, and the woman did not have any time to escape, as it bit straight into her arm, ripping away a chunk of flesh. The woman screamed, reaching out for help to anyone who could possibly aid her, as the thing took more bites. 

The employee lied still after convulsing, and would shortly stand up, a growl flowing from the lips of what was once a man. It charged toward the woman's face, as her mouth was open in a loud pained scream, her tongue sticking out, as if beckoning this other creature to bite it off. 

The cycle would continue, and the now creature trio would attack anyone that stood in their way, leaving behind a mess all over the hallway of the seventh floor. People who attempted to escape would be either chased down or up the stairs to the other floors, or would be jumped on the elevator, that would unfortunately open up on the bottom floor. 

The man that Henry had liked was the first one to be killed on the first floor, his jaw bitten off by two creatures that would charge him from the elevator. 

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Henry thought he someone was playing a horror movie super loud next door, until he realized the screaming was actually coming from his floor. The screams were blood curdling, and for a quick second, Henry was hoping it was some kind of messed up prank. The running footsteps and pounding against the walls already told him that something far worse was taking place. He also heard inhuman screeches from something he could not decipher, as he slowly made his way toward the door of his suite. 

He jumped when something crashed against the door. 

"HELP! GOD! HELP ME! HELP -''

The woman screamed when something else slammed into the door, and what followed made Henry vomit on the white carpet. He fell on his ass, dragging himself until he hit one of the couches in the living room. The woman had been screaming, but her screams were cut off, turning into a muffled mess. It sounded like someone was stuffing meat into their mouths, chewing loudly. Henry clapped a hand over his mouth to keep from making a sound when blood began to seep under the door. 

Oh god. Please let this be a dream. 

Whatever was tearing into the woman had abandoned her, and started running into the hallway toward more screams down the hall. It was silence for a second, before the woman started to move. She made the same inhuman screech Henry heard before, and took off running down the hall like whatever that had attacked her. Henry waited for a few minutes, before standing up on shaky legs. He pulled out his phone and dialed 911. He walked over to the window, speaking softly into the phone. 

"911, what is your emergency?"

"Something is h - happening in the P - Pierlock Hotel. I'm on t - the 10th floor. I - I think a woman was just murdered by the door of my suite."

"We have already sent a police officer on the way."

"What?"

"We have gotten multiple calls for the Pierlock Hotel. Please stay on the line, the police officer is on his way."

Henry ran back inside of his bedroom, taking a peek through the large window. Henry dropped his phone, the 911 operator now invisible to his ears. People were chasing after people; it was like a massive ant farm. Only the people that were chasing after the others didn't look human anymore. Blood was seeping out of their mouths, and there were bodies on the ground, as these things were tearing into them. He saw a couple swarm an older man as he tried to get away on his boat, blood flying out. 

Henry didn't realize the tears that were streaming down his face as he tried not to make a sound, his legs giving away beneath him. He lied by the window, sobbing softly as he listened to the carnage that was happening around him. He didn't know how long he had lied there, but at some point, he fell into a deep darkness. 

He awoke much later, and when Henry dared to take a peek in the window, there was no longer people running around. The fake people were standing around, and some were slowly walking, their faces looking up. Henry stood up, listening to the hallway. Silence, except for several groans coming from the hallway. Henry wanted to open the door, but the last thing he needed was letting whatever was out there into his own suite. His stomach grumbled, reminding Henry of the room service he will never have, but his hunger didn't mean shit at the moment. 

He remembered his phone, and ran inside the bedroom to pick it up. The 911 operator had most likely hung up on him, and he wondered if the cops had ever shown up. But something told him that they were most likely dead, or they hopefully made it out. Henry searched around for any sort of cop cars in the front of the hotel, but he didn't see a single one. 

A thought crossed his mind, wondering if whatever this was…was happening all over the town. Henry took a deep shuddering breathe, and he dialed the only person he could think of. He put the phone to his ear, but there was no answer. 

"Typical," he muttered. 

He sent multiple texts to his sister. 

H: FUCKING ANSWER ME.

H: SOMETHING BAD IS HAPPENING ON THE ISLAND. 

H: PEOPLE ARE DEAD. CALL THE FUCKING COPS OR GOVERNMENT I DON'T GIVE A SHIT. PLEASE DO SOMETHING. 

At the worst moment, his phone died. 

"Aw fuck."

Henry tore through his luggage, finding his phone charger. He plugged in his phone, wondering what his sort of project his sister was working on at the moment. She worked in advertising within a business, and she took a lot of pride in her job. To the point where she would always ignore her phone. She never picked it up, and she once did freak out over an emergency she wasn't aware of, but that really wasn't anything important. 

Henry had dialed her while drunk one time, after his girlfriend had dumped him. It didn't sit well with him, and he made a lot of threats of what he wanted to do to himself, and his sister did not show any mercy on his ass when she confronted him about it. After that incident, he never touched a drop of alcohol again. He hated worrying his sister. 

She was the only one he gave a damn about, minus their father who had a habit of cheating on all of his wives. And yes, they were considered step siblings, but they only had each other, and they made sure to always keep close. He thought of his last joke to her, calling her his adopted sister, as she hit back with her own roast. It was a constant thing between them that they they both found hilarious. 

He bit back a sob, telling himself to keep it together. His sister had always been stronger than him. Now it was time for him to do the same. He took a deep breathe, trying to come up with any sort of plan. Surely there was something else that he could use to contact anyone. It came to him, and even though he had a strong disdain for this kind of shit, perhaps it could help him in this sort of situation. 

He was grateful for still having Wi - fi, and he started to scroll through social media, trying to see if any idiot young kids posted something before they died. It was an awful thought, but in today's world, people have been killed over stupid shit like that. It didn't take long to find something. A kid in his early twenties had filmed these things running after people on the street. He was filming the video from a window, and it looked like he was three floors from the creatures. 

Henry had a better look at these things, and they were terrifying. 

Blood was flying from their mouths as they chased after people, and their eyes were a pure white. Henry continued to scroll through social media, stumbling across several that had kids filming themselves, begging for help. One video made Henry's blood run cold when he saw the things swarm several police officers on the streets. 

"Fuck."

Henry dropped his phone back on the drawer, wondering if the public was even taking this seriously. He wouldn't doubt a lot of people were making fun of this, but what if someone important got a hold of this information? Was some kind of infection taking place on the island, and was the government going to take some kind of action?

Or like in many zombie movies Henry had seen, were they going to be left to fend for themselves?

Henry snorted. 

"Jesus. Did I seriously just think that? Fucking zombies. Is that what they are?"

He began to pace back and forth in the room, trying to come up with a plan. Surely there was some kind of way to escape from the building, but even if he did manage to pull this off, there were more outside, possibly all over the island. 

Unless he were to get his hands on a boat, he would have a chance. 

Henry took a peek out the window, staring at the boats on the dock. He could barely see blood splatters on several boats, and there were several creatures standing by the docks. 

"How the fuck am I going to do this? I'm on the 10th fucking floor…"

One of the creatures in the hallway let out a screech, and the entire group that was wandering the hallways ran toward the familiar ding of the elevator. Henry knew better than to do something so stupid, but maybe he could take a peek, to see how many he was dealing with. He slowly opened the door to his suite, holding his breathe to keep from screaming, knowing that someone's blood was right below him, along with whatever else had been ripped from her body. 

There were about ten of them standing in front of the elevator, all moving and groaning in sync. The hallway was covered in blood, and there were bloody handprints all over the hotel doors, and some of them were wide open, revealing more blood splatters. Henry could see the elevator number was slowly moving to the 10th floor. 

"What the fuck?," he whispered. 

Another door slowly opened, about two doors down. It took Henry a second to realize it was the door to the boy's room. The boy took a peek outside, his eyes wide. Blood was all over the boy's face. The older fat man Henry had also seen before was standing behind him, his hand firmly on the boy's shoulder. He made eye contact with Henry, and his eyes went wide in shock. 

The elevator opened, and the infected were all making their screeching sounds, reaching out for the elevator. The older man suddenly picked up the boy and ran toward Henry's suite. Without thinking, Henry opened the door wide for the duo to enter his suite. He closed the door behind him, but not before seeing more creatures in the elevator, all groaning toward the infected group on the floor. 

The older man was breathing heavily, a hand against his chest. 

"Thanks, man. We needed to get the hell out of that room."

The boy was standing stock-still, a backpack over his shoulders. The toy train was still in his hand. Henry's heart instantly broke seeing the kid like that, and he knew that his parents were no longer around. The boy stared off into space, as the older man reached out to take the backpack from the kid's shoulders. 

"Is it fine if the kid lies down on your bed? He's exhausted."

"It's alright. I highly doubt housekeeping is going to care anymore," Henry said without an ounce of humor, gesturing to the bloody footprints the two had left behind when they stepped onto the woman's blood. 

The older man whispered into the boy's ear, and he led him away to the bedroom. Henry listened for the creatures out in the hallway, but if they had heard them, they would have been attacked. 

Henry took a peek into the bedroom. The boy was sitting up in the bed, and the older man came out of the bathroom with a wet towel, to clean the boy's face with. Henry watched the man speak to the boy softly as he cleaned him up. 

The boy clutched the train to his chest, his fingers digging into the toy, as if it was his lifeline. Henry bowed his head, not wanting to look at the boy anymore. 

He thought of his sister, wondering if he would ever see her again. 

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Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn