“I guess it’s clear,” he said, and opened the door.

Immediately, a zombie, lying on the floor, lurched forward and bit into the pointed toe of one of his shitkickers.

Juan jerked back with a startled yelp and Katarina shot it in the head.

She pointed at the zombie's arms. It was a woman dressed up in a flowered dress and highheels. “No hands. Couldn't knock back.”

“Well, there goes that theory,” Juan said with a frown. He flashed the beam of light around the small supply room, saw that it was clear, stepped in and located the fuses.

In the darkness behind him, he kept hearing people calling out, “Clear” as they moved methodically through the basement.

Juan returned to the fuse box and began replacing the burnt out ones. He worked quickly, safely and efficiently. “That power surge the first day really fucked things up. I wonder what caused it.”

Katarina continued to watch the darkness, her flashlight making long sweeps and occasionally illuminating the other people in the basement.

“I got it,” Juan exclaimed.

Suddenly, the basement filled with light as the overhead fluorescent tubes lit up. Machinery began to growl to life. Everyone let out a gasp.

“Clear,” someone's voice called out. “All clear.”

***

In the lobby, Linda turned as the lights came to life, illuminating the rich dark wood and fancy furniture.

“Wow,” she said in awe.

The elevator on the right side of the lobby chimed and the doors opened. A little girl staggered out, looked around, and rushed toward the nearest person.

“Freaky zombie kid,” Ken shouted.

Panic swept the room as they realized the armed guards were in the basement. Around Linda, people picked up bricks. Linda picked one up and hurled it at the girl. It hit her in the chin and knocked her back.

Linda smiled as her softball years paid off.

Another brick went careening toward the zombie and knocked her back.

There was a flurry of excitement as people continued to pelt the child with bricks, until she fell backwards onto the ground.

Linda ran up and stared down at the growling face of what had been a child then slammed the brick in her hands down on the girls head, shattering it into bloody chunks.

“Clear!” she shouted with satisfaction.

***

In the foyer to the ballroom, the last elevator opened. Travis stood ready, his gun aimed. Nerit stood beside him, also ready.

Inside was just a body, a truly dead body. It was the hotel manager.

His emaciated form and the condition of the elevator let them know he had either starved to death or died of dehydration. He was curled into a tiny ball, clutching his wallet. Pictures of his family spilled out from between his fingers in clear plastic sheets.

Travis leaned over and looked at the pictures, then up at Nerit.

“I guess we're done.”

Nerit nodded.

Just like that, the day from hell was over.

Chapter 8

1. Beginnings…

There seemed to be very little time to sit back and enjoy their victory. Almost immediately, the clean up crews came in and began the messy job of removing the bodies. Anyone, who was strong and able enough to help was drafted into some part of preparing their new home for occupancy. Katie was exhausted, but knew it was necessary.

She reported in for her next assignment and joined the rest of the survivors in the hard work.

First, the bodies were removed and discarded out the loading dock behind the kitchen into a large truck. Wearing kerchiefs over their noses and mouths as masks, the hardiest of the survivors set about dragging the bodies out using hooks specially crafted for the job.

Sheets of plastic were used to wrap the corpses up then they were dragged out.

Nerit and a few of her trainees covered the disposal of the bodies from above. Tucked into the windows and balconies, they took out any zombie trying to get too close. So far there hadn’t been any major incidents. A few zombies made runs at the truck only to be taken down by the snipers.

Jason was part of the crew that was sent in to rip up the rug in the dining room. They cut it into long swaths that were then rolled up, put into plastic bags, then hauled out after the bodies. Some of the women and younger girls were given gloves and large buckets of water with bleach to clean up the blood splatter. Not a nice job, but a necessary one. Anything that was contaminated by the blood and innards of the zombies was removed.

Katie helped Stacey scrub down the kitchen floor and walls. They had to literally scrape up some of the gunk. Gretchen, the librarian, and a girl with red hair whose name Katie could never remember, also came in after awhile to scrub up the blood and gore.

“You know,” Stacey said after awhile, her light hair hanging in her eyes. “I really hate zombies.”

“That does seem to be the general consensus,” Gretchen said with a laugh.

Katie scraped up what looked to be an intestine and chunked it into a bag. “Is it just me or is this getting easier to deal with?”

“I think I've stopped noticing the smell unless it’s really fresh,”

Stacey answered scrubbing away at the floor with a bristle brush.

Jason walked through, lugging a heavy bag of carpet. His hair was in his face, as usual, with only his eyes visible between his bangs and his mask. Behind him was his possible new girlfriend, Shelley. She was a cute teenage girl Jenni had saved a few weeks earlier. Katie caught Shelley sneaking a peak at him and smiled to herself. Life did go on whether you wanted it to or not.

Because of Jenni’s leg being twisted, she was reduced to sitting in the elevator scrubbing up what little blood had been in there. Juan supervised the finishing of the walling off of the doors and windows.

Jenni was convinced he had her stuck in the elevator just so he could keep an eye on her.

Katie knew this was exactly the case. Jenni’s determination to keep going had resulted in her sprain being worse. Juan was too frazzled by the wounds on her face and her body to let her out of his sight for too long. Katie thought it was sweet.

Travis came through the kitchen a few times. He was helping lug bodies down from the higher floors. They exchanged awkward glances. An unspoken promise had passed between them, Katie still was unsure if she would fulfill it.

A sense of relief permeated the atmosphere of the hotel. With so many people working, things were taken care of rather quickly. All the doors into the hotel were double-checked to make sure they were secure. Any windows close to street level were blocked off. Katie knew that a few crews would be working deep into the night bricking up all street level doorways. Only the loading dock was going to be left operational, but only because the doors were thick metal and very secure.

As the sun set, the hotel came alive with lights. People that weren’t directly involved in the cleanup, such as the sick, disabled, elderly and the children, were brought into the hotel. The smell of bleach had wiped out the reek of death and the up stairs windows were letting in cool, fresh evening air.

Manny and Peggy took up a place at the front desk with a clipboard and a map of the hotel interior. Katie, feeling lightheaded from all the bleach fumes, walked into the lobby to join the growing number of people gathered there.

“Okay. What we’re going to do is call out names. You will come up and get your room assignment and key,” Peggy announced to the group assembled.

Katie favored her bruised arm as she leaned against a pillar and listened to the names being shouted out. She felt very tired. Her hands were bright red, despite the gloves she had worn during clean up. They reeked of bleach. She couldn't wait to take a shower and get rid of that smell.

Jenni was curled up with Juan on a sofa. Juan had his arms wrapped protectively around her. Jenni glowed with pleasure. Katie noted that Jason and Shelley were hanging out together with Shelley’s kid brother. It seemed to be the night for pairing up.

There was a soft nudge of her hand and she looked down to see Jack giving her a wide, toothy doggy grin. She smiled and stroked his ears, making him a happy boy.

Things were moving along smoothly with the room assignments until Steven Mann and his wife went up to the desk. It didn’t take long for there to be raised voices. Mr. Mann had been the man around town as the primary investor in the hotel. He had been rescued from his very swanky mansion only two weeks before with his wife. Katie had heard stories of how the rescuers had staunchly refused to carry out massive trunks of clothes and shoes for them. Finally, the Manns had come with one suitcase each, but were very bitter about the situation. They both refused to do much work around the site. Resentment against them was growing.

“We are used to a certain quality of life and we have been forced to rough it here. I demand that we be placed in the finest suite. That is what we are used to and based on our former lifestyle, it is only right,”

Steven said.

Katie shook her head.

“The bigger suites are for families that are still together. We have you on the fourth floor in a very nice room with a king size bed. It’s all about fitting the needs of the people,” Peggy answered firmly, and held out the key.

“Well,” said his wife, “if we are forced to live this way I demand room service now that there is an actual working kitchen and hotel.”