"Oh no!" We all froze in front of the hotel with our jaws to the floor.
The telephone booth that Zack and the guys had pushed in front of the hotel doors to keep the zombies away was shoved far from the door. The doors glass was broken and shattered all over the sidewalk.
"We got to get in there fast! And be prepared!" Zack pulled open the door and headed inside.
"No..." Ross's jaw fell open and tears came to his eyes as he stopped abruptly when we entered through the doors.
Riker stopped behind him, realizing what Ross was seeing. Lynn came up beside Riker and grabbed his hand and gave it a big squeeze. I watched Ross's face as it melted with heartbreak.
"Ryland?" Ross walked closer to their hunched over brother, who was engulfing human body parts left and right. He was crouched over a dead body.
"Ry? It's me Ross? Ry?" Ross slowly inched closer to the creature that was not paying any attention to him. Ross gently set his hand on Ryland's shoulder. His shirt was covered in tears, rips, and blood.
"Ryland...." Ross whispered with tears in his eyes.
The brown haired boy slowly turned his head slightly to see Ross in the corner of his eyes.
"Ryland?"
He turned and hissed at Ross, causing little drips of blood and pieces of partly chewed human flesh to land on Ross's hand. He pulled his hand away quickly and started backing away slowly, "Ryland it's me! Ross!" Ross spoke louder.
The boy slowly turned and stood up. He cracked his head left and right, making a crunching noise with his dead, brittle bones. Ross stared into the dull, lifeless blue eyes and knew that it wasn't Ryland anymore. His beloved brother was history. All those years of concerts, birthdays, countless Christmases.... were gone. It was all flushed down the drain.
"GAHHHH!" Ryland roared with blood stains all around his mouth. His eyes grew dark as he charged towards Ross.
Ross covered his eyes with his hands, waiting to be devoured by his once loving brother.
POW!
Ross uncovered his eyes to see Ryland's corpse lifeless and oozing all over the ground. Ross walked over to his brother's body and knelt down beside it. He watched as the blue eyes turned back to their regular brown color and then suddenly to a lifeless grey. Riker came and stood beside him, putting his hand on his shoulder.
"Uhhhhh," Their mourning was shortly interrupted by a group of zombies that had apparently broken in and were heading straight towards them.
Riker shoved the gunless Ross backwards and held up his gun.
POW! POW! POW!
He shot three zombies in a row, all in the head, leaving their heads to explode the gross gunk everywhere.
Zack handed me and Jeffrey some extra guns he had. Jeffrey ran ahead of me, killing zombies left and right. I stood back and watched for a moment, wondering if this was what my life had come too. I watched as my friends sat and fought for their lives.
Riker and Lynn were double teaming the zombies back to back. I noticed them exchange occasional glances at each other.
Jeffrey and Zack were just going berserk, trying to rid the hotel of zombies completely.
"NO!" I turned and saw Ross cowering against a wall as a zombie cornered him.
"Hey that looks like-!"
"Roxanne! No!" Ross yelled, still gunless.
She was groaning strangely, sort of like she was chuckling. It's kind of weird. She still looked perfect as a zombie. The only difference was her eyes had a darkness to them, but then again I always knew I didn't like her.
"Help!" Ross called, "Don't do this, Roxy!" Ross tried to search for something to stop her, but he didn't have anything and he was pretty much cornered.
She got really close to his face, still chuckling awkwardly. She put both of her hands on the wall beside him so that she was trapping him. She inhaled deeply, taking in his scent deeply. She smiled once more and grinned an evil grin, "Rahhhhh-sssssss" She groaned.
POW!
I shot her right in the arm below the shoulder. She turned at me angrily. She charged at me, roaring like a maniac.
POW! I shot her again, right in the heart. She shook violently for a second and then exploded, like her whole body went flying in a million different directions. There wasn't really anything left of her, not that I really cared.
"Jordan! You actually killed her!" Ross cheered excitedly, pulling me in vigorously for a hug.
I pulled back and smiled up at him, "Trust me, killing her wasn't very difficult!" I laughed for a moment.
Then it hit me.
"I just killed someone..." I dropped the gun on the ground and fell to my knees.
Ross looked sorry for me and knelt down, "You saved me. You did what was right."
"Everyone keeps saying that! But it doesn't feel right!" I cried. I couldn't shake that guilty feeling in the pit of my stomach.
"Guhhh!" Ross turned to see some zombies coming towards us slowly.
"Jordan, come on! You'll get hurt if you just sit here, let's go!" Ross grabbed my hands and tried to pull me up, but I refused to get off the ground.
"I deserve it!" I cried.
"Jordan!" Ross yelled. He turned to see two corpses with decaying skin and blood dripping from their faces coming towards us.
He grabbed my gun off the ground, "Jordan, get up!" Ross yelled behind him to me. He aimed at the zombies.
Little did I know that a corpse was sneaking up behind me. I turned and before I could open my mouth to scream the corpse grabbed my hair and banged my head against the ground.
Then everything went dark....
All I could see was a bright light shining in my face as I slowly tried to blink my eyes open. I covered my eyes with my hand.
"Where am I?" My voice sounded strange almost like it wasn't me speaking at all. I began to start to wonder if it was even me who said that.
"Is she alright?" I heard a familiar voice, but I couldn't remember a lot of things so I couldn't tell who said it. My head was still ringing like a freight train.
"Yeah, she's fine. She just needs to rest a little bit and watch her head." Another voice echoed through my mind.
My eyes were burning from the bright light shining in my face that I thought was a flashlight. I closed my eyes and listened.
"Jeffrey, will you watch her?" Zack's voice asked.
"Sure." He responded.
"No, I can do it!" Ross whispered. I realized he was the first voice I had heard a while ago.
"No. It's fine." Jeffrey responded.
"No, really, I'd like too." Ross smiled down at me, "She saved me, twice! It's the least I can do."
"Well, I saved you the first time, and she's my best friend, I think I can watch her." Jeffrey was getting annoyed.
"Jeffrey." Zack called him over, basically saying to let it go.
"Fine." Jeffrey stood up and walked away.
Ross gazed down at me, pulling the covers over me. He turned his attention to Zack who was pacing around, "I wish I knew where everyone else was."
"I'm sure their fine." Rydel tried to set everyone's mind at ease.
"If they aren't back soon I'm going to look for them!" Zack almost yelled. Rydel grabbed his hand and stroked his cheek, calming him down.
"They'll be back." Ashleigh said, "They have to come back!" Ashleigh cried.
"I just can't believe they left you two alone with just Ratliff for protection!" Riker sighed.
"Hey!" Ratliff took offense.
"They were scared!" Ashleigh explained, "Caleb would never have left me unless it was absolutely necessary!"
"Or if he was trying to protect Kariann." Jeffrey rolled his eyes.
Ashleigh gave him a death stare.
"Everyone stop!" Ross joined in, trying to be quiet because he was sitting by me, "They'll be back. Let's just be patient!"
"We've all lost a lot of people we care about." He continued, "Ryland.... and Roxanne."
I wanted to wake up and slap Ross is the face, but I just kept listening. I mean, had he learned nothing from the Barbie trying to bite his face off?!
"We just gotta keep the faith."
Everyone sighed and no one said anything after that.
Ross turned back to me, grabbing my hand and holding it while I 'slept'. I sorta wanted to pull my hand away because of what he said about Roxanne, but his hand felt kind of nice, to be honest.
I was really annoyed because I wanted to stay up and listen and fan girl some more over the fact that I was holding Ross Lynch's hand, but the ringing in my head was getting worse, so I just fell asleep.
DING!
We all tensed up as the elevator ding went off and the doors slowly opened.
I sat up abruptly. My head still sort of ached, but I wanted to make sure everyone else ok.
Caleb and Kariann came back into the room.
"You're back!" I tried to stand up to hug them, but I felt super dizzy. Ross could tell so he sort of helped me sit back down.
"We were worried sick about you guys!" Ashleigh hopped up on one leg and wrapped her arms around her brother.
"What's wrong with you?! You could have gotten yourselves killed! I told you to stay here!" Zack yelled at them.
Caleb sighed with tired eyes, "We were worried about you so we went up just to check around the hotel, but then we saw the zombies had broken in. I tried to save them, but Ryland and that other girl were.... well it was too late, so I grabbed Kariann and we hid until we thought it was safe to come back down."
"I'm sure you were very worried about Ryland! You've been jealous of him flirting with Kariann ever since we got here!" Riker argued, shoving Caleb backwards.
Caleb didn't fight back, "Listen, I didn't want anyone to get hurt!" He shoved Riker back, but Kariann and Lynn jumped in between them.
"Stop fighting!" Kariann gazed up at Caleb with wide, heartbroken eyes, "We're safe! How many people have to die for us to stop fighting? We need to work together if we're going to make it out alive!"
Caleb smiled weakly at her and nodded, returning to his sister's side.
"So what did you and Kariann do while you hid?" Ashleigh smirked.
Caleb slid to the ground by Ashleigh's chair and rolled his eyes, thinking back of what happened.
"I'm getting really worried!" Kariann paced back and forth.
"Me too!" Megan agreed, cuddling with Rocky on the ground.
"We can't just sit here and do nothing forever!" Rocky complained.
"Well, we don't have to not do anything!" Megan pulled Rocky's shirt, pulling his lips into hers.
"GUYS!" Caleb yelled at them, "This is not the time for you to have a little make out party! Our friends and family could be dead and you're gonna sit here and do nothing about it?!" Caleb scoffed.
Kariann ignored them as she went over to the other room where the elevator was. She pressed the button.
"What are you doing?!" Caleb called after her.
"I'm going up to look for them!"
"You can't go up their alone!" Ryland chased after her, "I'm coming with you."
"Uh, no way! I'll go with her!" Caleb joined both of them by the elevator.
"Caleb! Kariann! Ryland! No!" Ashleigh yelled.
"Stay here, Ashleigh!" Caleb commanded.
"I'll stay with you." Ratliff took Ashleigh's hand and smiled. She grinned back at him.
"Well we're coming with you!" Rocky and Megan joined them.
"No way! You'll just make out the whole time! You could get us all killed!" Ryland fought back.
Roxanne walked up and joined them, "I'm coming too. I don't wanna be stuck with those losers..." She muttered to herself as she turned to Ashleigh and Ratliff playing pattycake.
"Guys! Why don't you all just wait a little longer?" Rydel begged.
"We have to, Rydel." Rocky explained, "Ross and Riker could be in danger."
Rydel hugged both of them, "Be careful and come straight back!" She stepped back as they all entered the elevator.
She watched as the doors shut behind them.
"Oh my gosh..." Megan muttered as the doors open and the place was over run by zombies, "Press the button! Let's go back!"
"No! We haven't even found out what happened to them! What if they're here and need our help?" Ryland began holding up his gun.
"We're no help if we're dead." Caleb added.
"Caleb's right. We need to go back!" Kariann tried to press the button, but Ryland stopped her.
"I gotta find my brothers!" He darted out.
"Ryland no! Come back!" Rocky yelled after him.
Caleb pressed the button to go down, but before the doors could close, Rocky escaped. Megan ran behind him.
"Rocky no! You're too hot to die!" Roxanne chased after them too.
"You guys!" Caleb yelled, opening the elevator doors.
"Ryland!" Rocky yelled as a corpse attacked Ryland, biting deep into his skin. Rocky shot at the zombie, but it was too late.
Ryland had been bitten.
"Kariann come on!" Caleb grabbed her hand and they both jumped into a supply closet. It was dark and all they could hear were gun shots and screams.
"What are we gonna do?" Kariann whispered into the darkness.
"We wait." Caleb continued.
"What about everyone else?" She continued.
"Their goners." Caleb replied bluntly.
Kariann sighed and reached around for Caleb's hand in the dark, "Everything's going to work out alright, right?"
He didn't reply, but squeezed her hand gently.
Caleb sighed as he remembered the events from the past couple of hours. He and Kariann had sat in that closet for what seemed like forever.
Then he suddenly remembered something.
"WE LEFT MEGAN AND ROCKY!" Caleb jumped up and yelled.
"Oh my gosh! Megan!" I cried.
"Everyone stay, I'll go look for them!" Zack stood up.
"That's my best friend! You have to let me go!" I begged.
"No way! That's way too dangerous." Zack shook it off.
"I'll go with her. There weren't any zombies when we left! We should just go look for them! They're probably in a closet or hiding behind a desk or something!" Ross began.
"Don't send the weakest, no offense, people to go!" Jeffrey argued.
"You said yourself you can tell when someone's a fighter at heart!" I reminded him.
Zack paused in thought. He slapped a gun in Ross's chest, "Be careful. And if you're not back in 10 minutes I'm coming."
I nodded heroically as we headed towards the elevator.
"But-!" Jeffrey argued.
"It's ok." Zack stopped him from chasing after us.
The elevator doors shut and we were heading back up to the lobby.
Zack sighed, "I have faith in them."