Day 3 – 16:08; Denver, CO United States:
We travel on in the vehicle I had picked out at the zoo. Kassandra is sitting in the console seat, between David and I, in the front. She passed out some time ago and is leaning against me. It makes it hard for me to drive this way, but she looks so peaceful, I cannot bring myself to wake her. David is pretty knowledgeable about Denver, so he is watching for places to stop. Much like Kassandra, Dwayne is passed out in the back, behind my seat, leaning against the window with his head laying in his left palm. Cheyenne is laying across the backseat, asleep, with her head in Dwayne's lap. She must be pretty exhausted too. She would never get that close to Dwayne.
After an hour of driving around in circles, trying to find a safe haven to rest for a bit, we eventually come into Downtown Denver. Just as the heavy rain begins to slow down in its falling, we come across the famous 16th Street Mall. According to David, 16th Street Mall is a pedestrian and transit mall, stretching one and one-fourth miles down 16th Street. Luckily for us, the mall has over three-hundred locally owned and chain stores, fifty restaurants, and the Denver Pavilions. That means there is plenty of shelters, and hopefully, plenty of food too. It is only the end of the second day of this zombie apocalypse, so there should be some food left in some of these places.
Or is that just wishful thinking?
"Just park over there at that Plaza hotel, for now. Let's go in there, make sure it's safe, and then we'll pick a room for each of us to stay in for the night. We'll go start getting whatever we might need from the shops at the mall, tomorrow," David makes a plan.
After parking the Chevvy Impala we were riding in, we all walk into the Plaza hotel through the front doors. Dwayne and Kassandra are both still in the process of fully waking up, but the rest of us are alert and prepared for the worst. Throughout the ridiculously large lobby, not a single zombie can be spotted. It seems we are safe for now.
David continues on ahead of us, dropping his guard a bit. He walks to a door that reads "employees only" and attempts to open it. As expected, it is locked by a key pad connected to the door knob. David comes back around to the front desk and climbs over. Once behind the counter, Dwayne and I both climb over as well. Cheyenne stands in place, watching, and Kassandra stays next to her, rubbing her eyes.
"I'm looking for where they keep the keys to the rooms," David informs us, in case there was any question of what he was doing.
"Here they are!" I find them in a drawer on the opposite side of the desk that David is searching on. David comes over to get them from me.
David takes off the rubber band that is holding the cards together in a neat stack, puts it in his pocket, then takes five cards from the pile and sits the rest on the shiny, marble surface of the desk. He sticks one card into some sort of machine and holds the other four in his hand.
"What does that do?" I wonder.
David slips over to the desktop computer next to the machine and wakes it from its Sleep Mode by jiggling the mouse connected to the modem.
"It makes the cards usable for certain doors," David informs me.
"You know how to use that thing?" Dwayne is impressed.
"Not exactly. But I've seen it done plenty of times. I can probably figure it out."
After a few minutes of working with the computer, David hands us each a card key. He activated the rooms closest to the lobby on the bottom floor, just down the main hall. Each room is located next to each other, two being on the opposite wall directly across from the other three. The rooms all look really nice. I am sure they would have been expensive in a normal situation. My favorite parts about them are the king size beds and the huge, pearly white bathtubs with broad, metal shower heads that are so clean I can see my reflection on some of their surfaces.
The doors to each room are considerably heavy, so any danger is unlikely to come our way; therefore there is no reason to check out the rest of the building at the moment. Each of us wishes each other a good night, as we enter our rooms.
I lock the deadbolt above the doorknob and close the latch for the door stopper just to be extra secure. There is no way a zombie could get in here, and I know that, but I cannot help myself.
Relief fills my entire being just seeing the working shower as I enter the bathroom. Eagerly, I turn the water faucets on and mix the hot and cold water to a comfortable temperature. I prefer a rather hot shower, now more so than ever. My clothes fall to the floor, and I kick them off to the side of the room, close to the fancy toilet with its neatly folded toilet paper. Radiating warmth touches my naked skin all over like a hug from a bear. It is comforting; as each drop of water falls down my body, slowly losing its temperature, many more replace it, hiding its loss from my nerves. I almost forgot how soothing a hot shower could actually feel. The shower is a good mask for the few tears I shed, as well.
...Why am I crying?
Much has happened in the last few days, but I am not sad at this moment in particular. My memories did not even trigger until I started crying so it could not be the pain of what has passed. I suppose it is the release of the stress and tension in my heart that has built up so much during our adventure. It truly was close to a tipping point. Questions still remain unanswered. But for now, I need to just let go; feel each tiny droplet of the mist spray across my chest.
Half an hour passes, and the rushing water comes to a minor dripping. I plant each foot, one by one, onto the soft matting next to the bathtub. The snow-white towel dries my body quicker than I expected, so I do not spend much time using it. I slip back into my underwear but leave my shorts on the floor, then exit the bathroom.
I jump with a twist and land back first on the soft bed, bouncing a bit with impact. I almost forgot what it feels like to sleep in a bed, just like with the shower. I have not been this relaxed for awhile, and it began to seem as though I never would feel this sensation ever again. In realization of my swaying faith, I close my eyes and pray to my God.
I'm sorry, God. You've helped me through this disaster, but I almost lost my hope in Your mercy. I understand now, Father, and I thank You so much for protecting me. From the bottom of my heart, LORD. I love You, and I pray You forgive me. And if this is Revelations, I pray that You take me Home to You before the real Hell comes. I know that Mom and Dad will be there waiting for me... Just... please help me find Melody... In Jesus' name... Amen...
I toss and turn for probably an hour at the least, unable to sleep. Moans and groans of infected humans echo from behind the walls of my room. To be honest, I am terrified. That is when someone knocks on my door. It startles me too much to check it, but the knocking continues on, so I get up. I walk to the door and peer through the peephole to see who is on the other side. Much to my relief, it is just Cheyenne.
I kick myself for not predicting this happening.
Cheyenne lays next to me in my bed, stripped down to almost no clothing. She came to my room explaining that all the noise from the zombies was making her too anxious to sleep. Cheyenne wanted to be with me, to feel safe. Now she is fast asleep, and it did not take long for her to fall, considering how much she was panicking just a moment ago. It is a charming trait to see. Witnessing her contentment warms my heart, and I am finally able to sleep through the restless commotion beyond the walls, right alongside Cheyenne.
Burning white strikes my eyelids, abruptly waking me. I forgot to close the curtains over the windows before falling asleep last night. I lean up with a groan and wipe the sleep from my eyes. I scoot to the edge of the huge bed and step off onto the floor. I walk to the bathroom to get my dirty shorts and put them on. A faint moaning comes from outside the bathroom, so I leave and check it out.
"Oh, morning," I say to the barely awake Cheyenne. She gets off the bed, grabs her clothes, and passes by me into the bathroom, wearing a sullen face the entire way.
She completely ignored me...
We all meet just outside the hotel's main entrance. Just as David had informed us, there are tons of restaurants and stores, as far as the eye could see down the street, so we decide to start our investigation from where we are and go down the road, until our hands are completely full. Kassandra, Cheyenne, and Dwayne choose to check out the many restaurants to gather sustenance, while David and I search other stores for any other supplies we may need.
The first store David and I choose to enter is a hardware store. There is not much we can do with tools and labor equipment, but we can use some of the things in here as weapons. Before starting our search, we scope the entire place for zombies. Thankfully, there are none to be found. David walks back to the front of the store, behind the counter where registers are located and grabs a few bags to begin collecting tools with.
The next store David and I explore is an automotive retailer, for obvious reasons. Most of the place has already been raided it seems. Just as we start walking through, a zombie appears from the end of an aisle. I immediately put my guard up. David quietly puts down the bag he was carrying, to the floor. His hand shifts around in it for a few seconds, and steadily he pulls out a rather large sledgehammer. Stepping closer, foot by foot, to the zombie, he firmly grips the handle of the sledgehammer with both hands and begins reaching it back behind his head. The zombie is alerted just as David gets close and prepares to lunge at him but it is interrupted with a quick and hard swing from the hammer. The creature is sent flying into one of the shelves of the aisle. The shelf begins tilting over. In a rush, David attempts to stop the rack from falling. Without thinking, I hurry to his aid.
"Argh...! It's no good; get back, Ben!"
David gives up trying to stop the shelf from falling. It is so weighty and tall, both of us are straining our backs. We both jump out of harm's way, and the shelf crashes into another shelf on the next aisle over. I wipe the sweat from my forehead, but David does not look as relieved.
"What's wrong?" I ask him.
"That made a lot of noise..."
Oh no...
A terrifying outcry rings through the building. The roar is a combination of the voices of many infected people coming from deeper into the store, where customers generally would not be allowed to go. I am frozen in fear, but hearing David trip over the infected body with its head busted open snaps me out of it.
"Let's hurry up and get everything we can," David says, running from place to place, grabbing random bottles and packages.
"R-Right..."
At first, it is tough to move my legs. My mind is back in reality, but my body is still petrified. With every progressive step, my tightened muscles begin to loosen up, until the fear is gone for good. My slow pace turns to a running motion, to the opposite side of the store. While gathering vehicle fluids and other things for our car, a zombie latches onto my back. Before I can react, it bites hard into my neck, devouring even the muscle tissue. As I holler in agony and try to shake it off, David comes to my rescue yet again.
"Duck!"
David swings the sledgehammer down vertically as I stretch my head as far from the zombie as I can. The zombie only has half of a body, so it is easily knocked off. I am lucky David has such good control with that thing. However, I cannot take a breath yet. A horde of zombies is coming for us.
"Just take whatever you have so far, and let's get out of here," David rushed me, pushing zombies away and bashing others with his hammer. I scurry to pick up the bag of supplies I gathered and rush for the exit. Without a moment of hesitation, David takes a flat, metal bar from one of his bags and shoves it through the handles on the front doors, outside the automotive store. He bends the ends of the bar a fair amount, with a few hits from the same hammer. The group of zombies slams against the door, trapped, while David and I make our escape down the street. We never look back.
After gathering as many supplies as we could hold and find, our entire group met back up about halfway down the street and began walking together.
"So what did you guys find?" Kassandra asks, starting a conversation with curiosity.
"We got some hand tools and power tools to use as weapons, until we find something better," I answer her.
"It's not much, but it will have to do for now. Let's just hope we don't run into any more hordes like we saw in that one store," David states.
"A horde?" Dwayne is beyond shocked.
"Yeah, we accidentally made a bunch of noise, and the zombies came after us. One of them got me," I replied while pointing to the tape around my neck. Blood was seeping from beneath, but it was the best thing we had on us to bandage the wound.
"Are you okay?" Kassandra asked in somewhat of a worried panic. I guess they did not notice before.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. It's just a flesh wound. Anyway, what did y'all get?"
"Food for days, mane," Dwayne replies proudly, holding up a bag filled with food of various kinds.
"We got some alcohol too!" Cheyenne is also very proud, and apparently ready to loosen up later.
"You did get water and stuff to drink other than alcohol, right?" David drinks very rarely, but he is also genuinely concerned about our current supply of water and fluids to stay hydrated.
"Yeah, yeah. I got some water and soda right here, buzzkill."
"Oh, hey, look! Here are a few clothes stores. Let's go in and check them out," I notice and point out to everyone else.
"I'm going over to Recess!" Kassandra states while running across the street to the clothing store called Recess.
"Hey, wait! We need to stick together! Any of these places could have zombies inside," David demands in irritation.
"Don't worry, David. I'll go with her," I reassure him.
"Alright. Just be careful, Ben. You're still hurt."
"Don't worry."
Everyone else goes to other stores, while I chase after Kassandra. I run inside Recess and look around for her, but I do not see her anywhere.
"Kassandra! Kassandra, where are you?"
I continue to run through the store, listening carefully. There are not any zombies in sight, but my worry does not cease.
"Kassandra—"
"Hang on a second, Ben. Jeez."
I stop when I hear her compressed voice from within the women's dressing rooms to my right. After sighing and catching my breath, I look at the dressing room and softly smile. Then I shake my head.
How did she pick out clothes so fast?
"Well don't just stand there, Ben. Go try on some clothes."
My attention had left, but hearing her voice, I turn back to look, and she is wearing a new outfit. The thin, pink, short-sleeved shirt tucked into the high waisted black shorts fit her really well. With the outfit together, the shorts almost look like a skirt at first glance. I almost cannot say I have ever seen her wear such an upscale outfit. I am sure she enjoys the fact that the clothes make her look a bit thinner, as well. The only thing that did not fit the outfit was the foam clogs, called Krocs, on her feet. I was also not quite as impressed with the shirt being so low cut. It revealed more cleavage than I really wanted to notice. She notices my embarrassment and pulls up the shirt a bit in the front, giggling to herself.
I try to hide by looking and walking away, but I do not walk for long. It did not hit me until now, but this store surprisingly still has a lot of clothes. It barely looks touched.
After looking around for a good while, I take a set of clothes I had picked out to the men's dressing room with me. Kassandra laughs at me when I come back out.
"What?"
"You really like wearing khaki shorts."
The outfit I decided to wear for now is another pair of khaki shorts to replace the battered ones I was wearing previously. My friends make fun of me for it, but I do really like wearing khaki shorts. I am not completely sure why; I just really like the way they look on me. I did not want to get anything too fancy anyway because it will probably just get ruined later. So for a shirt, I just got a red, graphic T-shirt that reads, "Believe Recieve Become." The slogan is a reference to a passage in the Bible, a collection of texts studied in the practices of my religion. For footwear, I just grabbed a plain, black and white pair of Obverse skating shoes.
Everyone's hands are completely full walking back to the hotel, with the sun setting in the horizon; each of us carrying two big bags apiece. David, Cheyenne, and Dwayne are also each wearing one of their new outfits. David is dressed in a solid white, blue collared shirt, with a blue stripe across its chest, a new pair of reading glasses, blue jeans, and boots. Cheyenne is wearing a stylish, black, sleeveless shirt with a skull design on its front, a black sports bra underneath, showing through the holes in the side and the horizontal slits going all the way down the back, gray jeans, and the same shoes as me. Dwayne is wearing a fitted, gray tank top, tucked into his tan, baggy cargo pants that fall, held up by a brown, leather belt with a silver buckle, over his stylish, brown boots, a small, gold chain around his neck, and a small, diamond earring in each ear.
There are zombies in the hotel, but they still do not give us any trouble in the main lobby. I sit in the kitchen area with David, helping him as he cooks a meal with the new food and ingredients Kassandra, Dwayne, and Cheyenne gathered earlier. As I am cutting vegetables, my mind begins to wander, and I worry for the safety of the rest of my friends. It seems like we all just got to be together again. Now we are all separated like we were at the start of this madness.
Vzzzzzt—
My phone's vibrating?
I almost forgot I even have a cell phone. I put it in the pocket of my new shorts earlier, totally subconsciously. I lay the knife I am cutting with on the counter in front of me, wipe my hands with a soft, white rag, then reach into my pocket and pull out my phone. On the screen, it tells me Ty is calling me. It baffles me how he is calling me because I still have no service, but it is an interesting coincidence.
"Hello?"
"Oh, SHIT, sweet! You actually answered! How are you guys doing?"
"I got attacked earlier, but we're alright now. We got new clothes and food and stuff."
"Cool. Where are you guys at?"
"Who is that?" David asks from across the room.
"It's Ty...—" I answer David, then finish answering Ty, "We're still in Denver. Not sure exactly where. All I know is that we're at a hotel on 16th Street."
"I gotcha."
"So how are you calling me? I don't have service."
"Facepage Messenger. Your Wi-Fi must be on."
"Oh yeah, you're right...but I didn't put in the password for the hotel's Wi-Fi."
"I took the password down last night," David informs me.
"Oh okay. That's how it automatically connected. Well, that's cool. Anyway, where are you guys at, Ty?"
"I have no idea. We're at a Nights Inn. We were riding for a long ass time, so I think we're in another town. I don't know. There weren't any signs. Everything is like destroyed out here. This is one of the only buildings standing."
"Tell him to look up where he is, real quick."
"Hey, Ty, did you hear David?"
...
I did not get an answer.
"Ty? ...Ty, are you there—"
"Yeah, hang on. I'm looking up where we are on my phone... Says we're in Boulder."
"Where is he?"
"He says he's in Boulder. Do you know where that is?"
"No, I told you I don't know where—"
"I'm not talking to you, Ty."
"Yeah, we can look it up before we leave tomorrow. Tell him to stay there. We'll meet them there."
"Alright. Hey, Ty."
"Yeah?"
"David said don't go anywhere tomorrow. We're gonna— ...Crap. My phone died."
"He'll probably figure it out."
"I don't know, it is Ty we're talking about here," I laugh.
Creeeeaaak—
The door slowly opening startles me. I catch the sight of the hand of a person coming through, just before I turn around and quickly grab the knife on the counter. I turn back prepared for the worst. The last thing I expect is to see a young lady standing in the doorway. By the look on her face, she is surprised to see us, as well.
Is she a zombie? I can't tell.
Her face lights up, as she stumbles up to me in a sudden rush.
"Ben—" David begins to defend me but halts when he witnesses her pinching and pulling on both of the cheeks of my face. I am slightly weirded out by this woman, to be frank.
"Ha-HA! You're a real boy! A real, live boy!"
"...Umm...what?"
David tries to hide his laugh, but I can hear him crack up a bit. This is not cool.
"Babe. Stop pinching on the little dude's face. He's not Pinocchio," another person that appears to be wonted walks in. This one is a young man with long, black hair, some facial hair, and a scar on his neck. The couple appears to be in their late twenties. They look perfect for each other, from the woman's long, messy, black hair, to their similar style; like hippies, basically.
"Hey, Ben, who are you talking to—" Kassandra walks into the kitchen a moment after the woman lets go of my face.
"Oh, cool. There's more of you guys?" The man responds to her presence.
"Yo, when is the food gonna be ready—? Who are y'all?" Dwayne enters as well, just after Kassandra.
"Oh, wow! You guys have a whole group, huh?" the woman asks with excitement.
"Well we have one more too, but I guess she might be asleep already," David informs her of Cheyenne, to avoid any further surprise.
"So...who are you two?" I am ready for this awkward confusion to be over.
"I'm Lacie!"
"And I'm her future husband, Nick."
"Nice to see we're not the only ones alive out here. I'm David."
"I'm Kassandra... Sorry I've been drinking a little."
"It's okay, we're high as fuck," Lacie laughs.
"Whoa, y'all got weed? Oh, and I'm Dwayne."
"Yeah, y'all wanna smoke?" Nick offers.
"Hell yes, dude," Dwayne eagerly accepts the offer.
"I'm good. But I'm Ben. Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet all you guys too," Nick replies.
"Now, let's go get high!" Lacie cries out with enthusiasm.
The strangers, Nick and Lacie, take Dwayne and Kassandra to their room to smoke marijuana, while David and I finish making dinner. Then we clean up and prepare to eat.
The dish we made tonight is curry. I quickly say my blessings, so that I can begin eating. I do not hesitate in the slightest to take my first bite. As I chew, the spices instantly hit my tongue. The very faint but very authentic, burning sensation on my tongue reminds me of the nice shower I had last night. This is a feeling it seems I have not been able to experience for a long time, as well. For the last four days, all we have had to eat are smaller foods and snacks we gathered back when first started our trip. A real dish that does not come very often really helps to release the stress that you have carried over the many days passed.
Both David and I finish our plates, but no one else has come back to eat yet. As David covers the food to keep it from getting too cold for everyone else, I leave the kitchen and head for my room. When I step in, a mist is filling the room, sitting almost still in the air. Cheyenne is sitting on the bed with her back and head propped against the wall. Her vaping is the cause of the mist. It is a type of smoking, but instead of tobacco and smoke, it is water vapor that is made from burning chemicals mixed with nicotine.
"Hey," she greeted me.
"You know, the food's done."
"Cool, what did you cook?"
"Me and David cooked curry."
"Sounds good. I'll go eat in a minute."
I walk over to the bed and climb on, crawling over to the wall. Then I plop down beside Cheyenne.
"You probably missed a chance to smoke too," I laughed mentioning the marijuana nearby.
"What do you mean?"
"We met this couple that—"
Ahhhhhhh!!
"W-what was that?" Cheyenne drops her vape pen and begins to tremble all over.
"Somebody's in trouble...!"
I spring from the mattress and rush for the door. Down the hallway I see my friends, Dwayne and Kassandra come running out of the couple's room in a panic; Kassandra is crying. David opens up his door to see the commotion as well, across the hall from me. We look at each other and begin running to the scene. Dwayne falls to the floor almost immediately after leaving the room, puking uncontrollably.
"No! Let go of my husband, you monster!"
David and I finally enter the room, and I freeze. The sight before me is sickening. This may be the most unnatural thing I have witnessed by far. An infected human lies across the floor, with a body that looks as though it has been forcibly stretched out. It has no legs, only arms and hands that it uses to crawl about. David and I catch it in the process of doing the unthinkable; devouring the body of Nick entirely whole. The monster has no jaw, and once the body is swallowed, it shows off an incredibly long tongue, as well. The stomach organ itself protrudes at the bottom end of, what I now call, the Creeper's half-body, filled with a digesting Nick.
I shake off my fear and quickly grab Lacie's hand, forcing her to run away with the rest of us. I can hear the Creeper still hissing from the room as we escape down the hall. Nothing remains of Dwayne except for the pile of vomit on the hallway floor, and Kassandra is nowhere to be seen either, so I assume they are already locked in their rooms like the rest of us soon will be. David rushes into his room, as do I, with Lacie in tow. As fast as I can, I slam the door and lock it tight. Lacie escapes my grip and runs to Cheyenne, crying in her arms with a loss of sanity.
"What happened?"
...
"Ben, what happened?"
"Some kind of zombie... It..."
"What?"
My heart will not stop pounding in my head. It hurts... I can't breathe correctly. No matter how hard I try. I have never been more terrified in my life. The scene I just witnessed, seconds ago, will not stop flashing in my mind. It plays over and over. How could something like that exist? God would not do this. So how can this happen?
"Ben. Ben! Snap out of it!"
"Her husband... It ate him, Cheyenne... It ate him whole!"
Cheyenne's eyes widen with horror as she covers her gasping mouth. She did not even see the atrocity, and the repugnance is still very evident. None of us could have ever imagined witnessing something so extreme.
The metal vent in the ceiling collapses to the floor. Dropping simultaneously with the vent, a Creeper appears from the duct in the upper limit of the room. My fear rises to its peak once again, just as I finally began to relax.
"What is that thing?" Cheyenne screams in horror.
My life flashes before my eyes. If it has been using the ventilation system to move throughout the building, it could have killed us in our sleep last night. With this realization clouding my mind, my feet are frozen to the floor, while the rest of my body trembles.
The Creeper looses a terrifying hiss, then crawls toward me at an incredible pace. Cheyenne tugs on my arm with increasing force, until my feet are able to move once again. I try to pretend that I am not scared.
I can't die in this place. Not when I'm so close to finding my little sister, Melody. I have to live.
I regain my courage and take the lead ahead of Cheyenne, opening the door to our room quickly. We escape past someone that was coming near the door on the outside, which I barely notice in the hustle. I realize that person is Lacie, so I halt and turn to her direction to warn her of the other Creeper, in my room. Before the door to my room closes itself shut completely, the Creeper lunges through the doorway and onto Lacie's back. The weight of the Creeper causes her to fall to the floor, and the zombie proceeds to devour her alive, head first. I can hear her muffled screams from inside the Creeper, as her body kicks and fights against it. Seeing this monstrous sight unfold before me a second time causes me to begin losing my sanity. Tears stray down my cheeks.
"Grab everything you have! We're leaving, NOW!" David commands as he stabs the same Creeper in the back of the head, killing it instantly. Everyone is in the hallway, and before anyone questions his reasoning, several more Creepers reveal themselves further down the hall, some dropping from vents in the ceiling. Knowing we are outmatched, we all turn and run for the main lobby doors. I look back over my shoulder to see the now lifeless corpse of Lacie protruding halfway out of the mouth of the dead zombie. David had killed it before it was able to finish devouring her, but I suppose she had already died during the process.
We all jump into the Chevvy Impala. This time David is the driver, Kassandra hops into the far left side in the rear, Cheyenne gets in the middle, next to her, while helping me into the far right side, and Dwayne is in the passenger seat.
"Where are we gonna go?" Dwayne asks David.
"We're going to meet up with Ty and the others."
"You know where to find 'em?"
"Yeah. Here, hold onto this, and read me the directions when we get close to the turns."
"Aight."
Dwayne holds onto David's smartphone which has a map showing on its screen, as well as directions to the hotel Ty and our other friends are located at. As we drive away from the disastrous scene, into the darkness of the night, Cheyenne wraps her arms around my head, slowly pulling me against her, comforting me. Even the warmth of her embrace and the gentle touch of her hand slowly running through my hair is not enough to ease my soul. I feel as if I could never be the same, after this catastrophic night.