Desi

I could hear the infected ripping into Jonah, even though we were halfway back to the lobby. It wouldn't hold them long, considering how many of them there were. The horrible sounds and the familiar pound of my feet running, made the surroundings around me melt away.

As if I was hallucinating, the walls fell away, oak trees and evergreens growing quickly out the red carpet on the sides of me. I could almost feel raindrops falling onto my face, beading down my cheeks then I was froze, the hallway returning to it's painted walls, and lining doors.

But my imagination wasn't quite done with me, reanacting a reoccuring nightmare. I saw a memory of Cody, on his knees at the end of the hallway, blocking the last curve into the lobby. Durbin tugged at my arm, yelling at me to keep moving, but I couldn't hear his voice, even though he was screaming in my face. The only thing I heard was Cody's whisper.

“You have to kill me.”

My eyes trailed down to his exposed calf, and saw the fresh bitemark he had gotten in the woods. I shook my head, hoping that this hallucination of Cody would just disapper. But he was still there, pleading at me to kill him.

Durbin suddenly stepped in front of my vision, lifting me up and throwing me over his shoulder, carrying me around the curve and through the spot I had seen Cody. I kicked at Durbin's stomach and he let me down abruptly, telling me to get it together.

We took the last few steps to the entryway to the lobby, stopping as Durbin leaned in to whisper in my ear.

“We don't want to create a panic,” he said. “Just walk as quickly and casually as you can to the elevators. We have about a minute until they flood in here.”

I nodded and took one last glance over my shoulder, to see my imaginary Cody standing a few feet away from us, his eyes midnight black, blood dripping from his mouth. That was all I needed to get my ass in the lobby.

Durbin and I both weaved through the people, occasionally giving people hard shoulders when they didn't get the hint to get the hell out of our way. People gave us dirty looks, but that was about all, because they had no reason to worry.. at the moment.

I heard a guard yell Durbin's name, but he just ignored him, pressing forward through the crowd. I saw a group of men clustered at the bar, clinking their shot glasses together before downing the liquor. A man and woman sat entangled on a couch, barely coming up for air, as their mouths stayed locked. There were so many guards in the lobby, I almost thought that they knew what was going to happen, but then I remembered Durbin secretly changing the guards shifts, putting almost all of them in the lobby, hoping most of them would die with the camp's inhabitants.

Finally, the silver doors to the elevators stood in front of us, Durbin pressing the up button. I tapped my foot impatiently, waiting for the elevator to come down. Durbin looked casually over his shoulder, eying the hallway we had come from.

“How will we know when they enter?” I asked him, keeping my eye on the elevator light.

“When we hear the screams,” Durbin said quietly as the elevator dinged and the doors slid open.

Right when we stepped in through the doors, and planted our feet on the tiled floor of the elevators the first of the screams began.

“Right on time,” Durbin said, cocking his gun, pointing it through the open doors in case there was anyone that suddenly ambushed the elevator.

Of course, the doors stayed open for that extra ten seconds and I saw the unveiling of the infected feast in front of me. The cluster of men at the bar, picked up their barstools holding it in front of them, and whacked anyone that got in their way of the front doors. The man and woman who had been making out on the couch were now seperated, the man fleeing for the door while the woman layed motionless on the floor, an infected man feeding on her stomach. Pure pandemonium ensued, guards shooting their guns everywhere, even at people who weren't infected.

The doors slid shut, closing off all of the screams, the horrible, ever-torturing elevator music taking its place. I pressed the button for the top floor, our destination. Durbin would be heading to the roof, and I would be going into Vivian's penthouse.

“Let me see your gun,” I told Durbin, holding out my hand.

Confused, Durbin handed the gun to me. “What are you--”

I cut off his voice as I shot a round of bullets into the elevator speaker, the music slowly dying and fading away completely. I handed the gun back to Durbin, a smile on both of our faces.

“You have no idea how long I've waited to do that,” I almost laughed, the moment not seeming real after what I had just witnessed.

Durbin chuckled, looked down at his gun and then looked back at me. “You should take this with you,” he said, holding the gun out to me. “That way I know you'll be joining us on the roof.”

“No,” I told him, shaking my head. “You need to have it. You need to keep everyone safe.”

“So you're telling me you're just gonna go in there with your bare hands?” Durbin sounded amused, but his face showed true concern for me.

“Not exactly. I do need a couple of things from you.” I grabbed two things from his belt, trying my best to tuck them in my pockets, even though they hung out.

“What are you going to do with a pair of handcuffs and a knife?” Durbin asked, actually sounding worried now. “You're not planning on torturing her are you? That will take way too long.”

“I'm gonna give her a taste of her own medicine,” I told him simply, summing it all up as the elevator doors slid open.

“Well, Desi,” Durbin said, turning to face me. “This is it. Goodluck.”

“Thanks, Durbin,” I told him, holding out my hand for him to shake.

“What the hell?” Durbin said, grabbing my hand and pulling me into a bear hug. “I helped Cody get all the way here, I deserve more than a handshake. Thank you for all you've done for me. For not killing me when you had the chance and getting me off the liquor.”

I patted his back once, and he let me down on the ground, taking a deep breath.

“I'll see you soon,” he told me, just as Cody had, not wanting to say goodbye. Without another glance, he walked out of the elevator and towards the door to the stairs that would take him to the roof.

I stepped forward, gripping the knife with one hand, knocking on Vivian's door lightly with the other. I heard her heels clicking across her wood floor as she made her way to the door. She opened it and started speaking before she even saw who was at the door.

“What the fuck Mario?” Her voice was annoyed. “What the hell is going on down there....” She trailed off, her eyes widening as she took me in.

“Weren't expecting me, I take it?” I asked her, a smile creeping at the corner of my lips.

I kicked at the door, knocking Vivian back, and slamming it into the wall. Vivian stumbled, one of her stiletto heels breaking, her hands grabbing for something to steady her.

“What have you done?!” She screamed at me, her face turning as red as her hair.

“Oh, just unleashed your creations,” I said nonchallantly, stepping slowly towards her, weilding the knife in my hand. “You should have seen it. It was everything you've ever dreamed of.”

Vivian shook her head violently, her hair becoming wild around her face. “Do you have any idea how many people are dying down there?”

This made me laugh. I laughed the hardest I'd laughed in months, my stomach burning as I gasped for air. I gripped the knife tighter and spoke, closing the distance between us. “Like that actually matters to you?”

Vivian's lips closed, her throat tightening, cutting off any words she might think about saying. I could see fear in her eyes, her hands gripping the table behind her so hard her knuckles were turning white.

“You created this. This is what you live for, remember? I would have thought you would be clapping your hands with joy at the infection blooming once more right at your doorstep. You have front row seats, and now you're scared?”

Vivian stayed silent, her feet slowly moving herself around the table, putting it between us.

“You have no right to be scared!” I yelled at her, my rage spilling out of me. “This is what you did to thousands of families. This is what you did to my family. I had to bash my mother's head in with a lamp and watch as my dad threw himself out of the second-floor window so that he could eat me. I should be home with my family. I should be applying for colleges. I should only be worried about if I look good for a date or if I lost my phone at that one party. I should not be worrying about if I'm going to live to see the next day or if someone else I love is going to die. You did all of this Vivian. No one else but you, now you need to accept the consequences of your actions, because you're not getting out of this room alive.”

Vivian seemed to snap out of it as her lips curled up into a sneer. “Are you going to be doing the honors of killing me, Desiree?”

I braced the side of the heavy table and threw myself around the side, gunning for Vivian. She tried to turn and run, but she tripped in her broken heel, sending her straight down onto her knees. I made it around the table, diving down ontop of her, her body sliding around underneath me, trying to break free.

She turned herself over with such force it almost knocked me over, and as I steadied myself she started clawing my face with her long fingernails. I could feel as each nail, broke through my skin, blood forming with every scrape.

I brought the knife to her throat, the cool steel against her skin, making her go still. We both breathed heavily, air coming through Vivian's teeth as she clenched her jaw, trying to pull away from the blade. Her gaze penetrated mine with so much venom and malice.

“Do it already!” She yelled at me, spit flying from her mouth. “What are you waiting for? Isn't this what you've wanted to do all along?! You've got me alone! Now finish it!”

I slid the handcuffs from my pocket, clicking one cuff around Vivian's wrist and the other to the leg of the table. Her eyes trailed from mine, over to where she was now bound.

“To answer your question from earlier,” I told her, rising off of her, to stand beside her as she rolled over to grab the cuff that linked to the table. “No, I won't be doing the honors of killing you. But I do know some hungry infected that are making their way up here now, through the staircases, and I'm pretty sure they would just love to take a bite out of you.”

“No!” Vivian screamed, shaking her arms violently, trying to somehow pull the handcuffs off of the table leg. “Please!”

“Before I go, Vivian,” I said, crouching down beside her. Her head flicked towards me, a snarl escaping from her lips as if she was infected. And she was, with rage. “I just want to know what you think Brielle would think of what you've done?”

Vivian's eyes widened when I spoke her sister's name, a quick sadness appearing before she blinked it away. “Don't you dare say her name! You don't know what she would think. You didn't even know her!”

“What I do know,” I said quietly, so I could make sure she was listening. “Is that she was a child. 'Your little angel', you called her. She never would have wanted this if she was alive. She is probably crying in heaven right now, watching more innocent children like her, die everyday because of what you've done.”

Vivian's eyes filled with tears and for the first time, I saw something from her that amazed me. A tear slowly dripped down her cheek, falling onto her cuffed wrist. She glanced away from me, and I took that as my cue to get out of here.

I stood up from my crouch, when Vivian spoke, her voice erased of any human emotion she might have had just a milli-second ago.

“Do you want me to say 'hi' to Cody when I'm dead?” Vivian sneered, her glistening eyes watching me, waiting for my reaction, waiting for me to pummel her face, or just kill her now so she didn't have to die by the jaws of the infected.

I smiled sweetly at her. “I'll be the one saying 'hi' to Cody, considering that he's alive and waiting for me on the roof, so that we can leave in your helicoptor.” I stepped away from her and started to walk towards the open door, hoping that she wouldn't say anything, but of course she had to get the last word.

Vivian was laughing. “He's dying, you know.”

Those words were the only thing that stopped me from walking out that door. I spun around to face her, gripping the knife tight in my hand again, ready to go back and slit her throat.

“He's going to die,” she sang melodically. “He's going to die. He's going die.”

Vivian's song was cut off by high-pitch screams coming from the staircase on the opposite side of the hallway. I spun back around, glancing out the door to see the infected had finally made their way to the top floor. They opened their jaws, baring their bloody teeth, when they saw me, breaking into a sprint. I quickly glanced to the opposite door, the staircase to the roof.

I ran back inside Vivian's suite, knowing that I couldn't lead them straight up to the roof. I had to bring them inside Vivian's suite. I glanced at the clock on the wall, and saw that it was six-thirty. Please, I prayed, just leave me. Get out of here while you still can.

The first of the infected entered the room, a big burly man, with blood coating his beard. The rest filed in as I reached the sliding glass door to the balcony. Vivian was curled into a ball under the table, gripping its leg like it might keep her safe. I ignored her pleas for me to uncuff her, to save her, but even if I wanted to, I wouldn't have had time, they were already swarming the vast penthouse.

I grabbed the handle to the glass door, and slid it open, slamming it shut behind me, watching as the burly man pulled Vivian out from under the table with such strength that he pulled the cuff off of her wrist, taking all the skin from her wrist and hand with it. Multiple infected began to tear at her, blood spraying everywhere, coating the floor and walls, splashing onto the glass door.

I backed away from it, my body shaking, as I ran into the railing of the balcony. I spun around, gripping the thick metal tightly, letting the knife fall from my hands and watch as it fell down into the chaotic, infested streets below me. When it finally hit the ground, silently because of all of the screaming people, the pounding began behind me on the glass door.

I looked over my shoulder, the wind blowing my short black hair into my eyes. All I could see were infected through the door, pressed against the glass, trying to get my scent, their fists shaking the door as they pounded against it.

Trying to block them out, I glanced back over the balcony, my heart lightening when I heard the beat of helicoptor wings. Finally, I thought myself, go, hurry.

I thought of how silently the knife fell down to the ground, how peaceful it seemed, and I found myself leaning over the balcony, wanting to fall to a peaceful death myself. I took a deep breath and pushed forward when a voice stopped me.

“Desi!” He yelled. “Don't you dare fall from that balcony!”

I spun around, gazing towards the roof to see Cody leaning over, holding out his hand to me. The pounding on the glass door continued, small cracks grazing through it now, only moments until it shattered, but for some reason this didn't effect me at all.

The world went quiet and the only thing I heard was Cody telling me to grab his hand. I ran to the door, leaving only glass between me and the hungry zombies, and jumped as high as I could, not even touching Cody's fingers.

I frantically glanced around the balcony for a chair or a table, but there was nothing, only the metal bar of the balcony railing. I stepped to the side, pulling myself up onto the railing, balancing my feet on it before standing up completely. The wind tried to knock me off, whipping at my hair and my clothes, hoping to send me to my death, but I held my arms out to my side and looked up ready to grab Cody's hand.

Only it wasn't Cody reaching down for me; it was Ryder. Cody was beside him, begging me not to lose my balance, telling me to grab Ryder's hand now. Ryder desperately stared at me with his ocean eyes, and I knew that if I fell off this balcony it would kill him just as much as it would Cody, if not even more.

I still couldn't reach, even standing on the railing and tears started to prick at my eyes.

“Jump!” Cody and Ryder both screamed at me, as the glass door shattered.

I jumped, knowing that if Ryder and I missed hands, I would either fall to my death or fall back to the balcony and be eaten alive. But as if an angel had lifted me up, I somehow grasped Ryder's wrist as he grasped mine, and I lifted my other arm to hold onto his tightly. I lifted my legs as infected reached for me and Ryder effortlessly lifted me up onto the roof.

Somehow, which I never thought would have happened, Cody, Ryder and I ended up in a group hug, all of us grasping firmly to one another, as if we might all fall apart at any second.

The snarls from below us reminded me of how imminent the threat was, and I pushed myself away from them. “We have to get out of here NOW!”

Cody and Ryder both took one of my arms, running me to the helicoptor with its blades beating, ready for takeoff. We all loaded on, Cody strapping my seatbelt on for me as Ryder crawled into the pilot seat. I glanced at a terrified Aundrea who was holding on tight to Durbin, whom gave me a thumbs up. Doc sat on the other side of me, his hand rubbing my shoulder comfortingly.

Just as Ryder started to lift the helicoptor off of the landing pad, a flock of infected burst through the staircase door, screaming as they sprinted towards us. They glared at us with their midnight black eyes, and I only did one thing as we flew away from the roof of the Hell Hotel.

I stuck my arm out through the open helicoptor doors, and waved my middle finger in the air.

.