Hotel Room 212 - Chapter 1

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She knew before she even opened her eyes that she was back in the world created by The Council. There were no restrictions, no beeps to be heard and when she flexed her arms she did not feel the usual sting of needles. It was bittersweet. Unrestrained though she knew she was still imprisoned in something bigger. Brought here to do the same thing she'd done countless times before. 

They found another. 

With a sigh of resignation against her want to remain in the unknown, Sophie opened her eyes. The familiar crack across the ceiling brought with it a nostalgia that did not stir any feelings of happiness. It created an odd mixture of hate and excitement. No matter how many times she traveled the world she knew to be outside of these walls, it was always different. Not in the sense of danger or environment, but in that of company. Well, yes...and environment. Yet only in the physical and not the dangers that awaited them both. 

Those were always the same. Had always been the same. Yet her immunity to their bites never made it easier. Lifting her unbound arm, she surveyed the multiple scars visible below her sleeve. Grimacing, never really able to get used to it, she grabbed the material bunched up at her elbow and pulled it down to cover them. They matched the many scattered over her fair flesh. Bites she had taken to protect herself and the people she was guiding. Most were thankful, some were bitter with pride. The bitter ones never made it to the end. Their pride eventually weighed their steps down until their bad choices led to their end. Good riddance. 

A deep breath escaped her as she rolled to her side to finally acknowledge the man she knew lay beside her. Only to pause with her cheek just barely skimming the scratchy surface of her pillow when finding she was alone. Had it finally stopped? Did she finally satisfy whatever means they had when first placing her here? But then, why bring her back? A moment of panic so rare to her stirred within her chest. She felt its weight as if a piece of the decrepit ceiling finally broke off and pinned her to the bed. They were changing things and in that she felt a sense of paranoia she hadn't revisited in some time. 

Opting to finally rise rather than allow the troubling thoughts to fester, because that never did any good, Sophie rolled across the worn, stained mattress and stood. Her limbs were a bit sluggish, a good tell on just how long she'd been laying there. Normally one would feel the ache and soreness, yet she felt nothing other than their abnormally slow reaction to her desire to move them. A side effect to the person that she was and what they'd done to her, a high tolerance to pain wasn't always as amazing as it sounded. Sometimes it hindered her and caused more problems. Thankfully, a sore body wasn't life threatening. 

From the corner of her eye she saw movement and turned to appraise herself in the mirror. Their choice of clothing for her was typical. Tight cloth brown pants, heavy boots, a t-shirt and a matching brown, body-hugging coat zipped up to her chest. That extra layer was new. Perhaps they would be dealing with weather changes this time around. Just another way to make it difficult; as if it wasn't hard enough.

Her fingers slipped over the engraved surface of the dog tags visible where the coat and t-shirt formed a V. They rested against her heart, a constant reminder of where she came from and whom she left behind. She was actually thankful to the council for allowing her to keep them. She'd never forget.

A peculiar glint near her leg drew her attention to the holster strapped to her thigh. It contained a knife, a prime choice of weapon for this hell. Her lips pursed in thought before pinching thin with angst. Again, something new that had her standing still for a moment before quickly looking around her. They never armed her. Least not in the beginning. It put her on edge in thinking that the dead would swallow the room at any second. 

Trying to force that fear back down her throat where it was threatening to rise with the burn of bile, she stepped away from the mirror and walked to the large bay window. It brought back the sense of familiarity as she did the same thing each time they started her here. Stepping just to the side of it, she gently moved the drape to peer out. Assess her situation - early morning. The sun hadn't even risen above the treeline yet. There were a few dead straggling about the front yard but nothing she couldn't handle. 

Maybe this time she was supposed to make it to the summit on her own. Maybe this was her final trial. Thirty days. That's all she had to make it to the summit. Delaying her start for any reason was out of the question. 

Letting the drape fall back to its place, she walked towards the dresser, it had always been her first target to pick clean. The council must have anticipated it. Placed calculatingly upon the top in the very center was a folded piece of paper. Its edge was held shut with a wax stamp from an ancient period of time, yet it fit this world in an odd pairing that made sense. It only managed to add to her current unease as she cautiously plucked it from the oddly polished surface normally covered in dust. Tucking her finger between the folded pages, she slid her nail along the edge to break the seal and open it. It was handwritten, scrawled in an elegant cursive that drew her in.

Your time is short. You are the prey. Slit your wrist and start the trail. Carry nothing but your crimson breadcrumbs and this letter. Beware, for he is not the only hunter. Find your end in the basement.

"Fuck," this was all different and she was terrified of what that meant for her. Knowing it would only cause more problems for her to delay, Sophie retrieved the weapon she was at first relieved to receive so early and slid the sharpened blade across her wrist. She did so without a flinch or wince of pain. Her blood coated the blade and began to drip immediately at her feet. With trembling fingers, fighting a strong desire to disobey, she placed the knife down on the dresser beside the letter that she quickly picked back up and shoved into her pocket. As soon as its weight dropped, she heard the hungry groan of the dead coming from the hall. They would trap her if she remained. 

Racing for the door of the empty and decaying hotel room, she threw it open, barely glancing at what she was running into before she moved out into the hallway. One look to her right found the evolved dead barreling down the corridor towards her. Others pounded on the doors of the rooms they were locked within. Their marked numbers falling from the vibrations to be lost in the debris that littered the hallway. The loud clatter of metal only adding to the terrifying atmosphere being drowned in the growls of the dead and their breaking fingernails scratching into the wood that would not contain them. It was only a matter of time before they broke through.

One of the doors buckled beneath the weight of the dead behind it. The loud splintering of wood terrified her and forced a reflexive response that had her jolting away to press up against the opposite wall. A quick scan affirmed that the door held up but wouldn't for much longer. Pushing her fears down with a trained precision, she immediately ran in the other direction towards the stairs at the far end of the hall. She had to make her way to the basement. So quickly made into bait for their new venture and chosen - if the dead didn't reach her first.

Out of breath and nearly out of time, Sophie practically fell against the metal door leading to the stairwell. The desire to hug it rose up midst the anxiety propelling her through into the narrow shaft that would lead her into the depths of the building. She ignored the dark that enveloped her in wake of the foremost need to keep the dead from pursuing her when she closed the door. Never had she been more grateful to hear the click of security when the latch engaged.

The sudden push of their weight against it quickly nudged her away with a comedic hop from the cold comfort to turn and greet her unwanted guests. Smiling with the hint of humor that never seemed to fully escape her, Sophie gestured to the handle on the door.

"Pull, don't push." She mimicked the motion they were supposed to make while they tore pointlessly at the door. The thick glass offered her little solace in watching their decaying faces smash and tear apart against the opaque window. A sight one would think she was used to by now. She accepted knowing that it would never be an acquired sight and no matter how many times she watched their frail bodies fall apart, she would never be insensitive to it.

Darkness hugged her back. The window, now blocked by the dead merely offered a sliver of light at which to guide her. However much she wanted to stay within the reach of daylight, she knew she couldn't linger. First she stepped closer to the door to smear her blood across the inside of the glass. By now she knew the dead's coagulated blood and gore had erased all traces of her own.

Whoever was tracking her, whether he would be friend or foe, she still had an obligation to him in helping him find his way to the summit. If his first trial was to find her then she would make sure he did.

Approaching the bannister, she enveloped the cold steel in her hands and leaned over it slightly to peer down. Every few flights she could make out the identical sliver of light streaming through the glass window of the stairwell doors. Enough that she could make her way down mostly with few surprises.

She still had nothing to protect herself. They had cleared the stairs of the typical garbage that littered them erasing all possibilities of her finding anything that could be used. Ever mindful of this danger, she started her descent, checking each bar of the bannister on her way down. She had hoped for a loose one. Something she could possibly kick or pull free to use but the council had been careful in the path they forced her to take. They deliberately kept her vulnerable. She hated it.

Reaching the bottom, she approached the door slowly, being careful in her quiet steps to not alert any that might be lingering nearby. Before she even touched it she leaned close enough to peek through the window. There were no dead in sight. Yet the quiet could be just as eerie and as her hands lingered over the push bar that would place her where they wanted her to be, she hesitated and pulled her fingers back. A part of her wanted to refuse the instructions given. It was too easy. She had always had a high defiant streak. Had it been just her life she was juggling, she would have walked away, instead she placed her hands to the bar and pushed before she could think better of it.

"Go figure," she muttered with a release of an agitated breath. The door didn't budge and when pushed again it creaked but still refused her entry. She knew it had seemed too easy. Turning back, she started the climb back up to try the next flight of stairs when she heard the slam of a door from several flights up. Before she even saw them, she heard the groans of the dead echoing through the stairwell. The sound was deafening in her current imprisonment. She could not go down and the further she ascended it became clearer that they intended for her to be trapped here.

With merely three flights separating her from the walkers that hunted her, Sophie jumped back down a flight given no other choice. She knew the door to be locked but she was running out of options and the groans of the hungry dead were growing louder. Panic-driven adrenaline assisted the hard kicks she threw at the second story door. At first it refused to budge, not even giving so much as a creak to satisfy her hectic decision. One quick look up gave evidence to the fast approaching horde that pursued her.

Knowing she was on the precipice of causing herself bodily harm, she threw all her weight into it as a last ditch hope and with a cry of joy poisoned with terror, she crashed through. Her body hit the carpet with a jarring jolt that made her teeth rattle yet she still smiled and even chuckled a bit. It was, however, but a minute allowance of celebration before she was forced back into full awareness as the dead corralled around the last flight making their way down to her. She kicked out, slamming the door back in place but the damaged frame would not hold it.

Quickly scrambling to her feet, Sophie searched for anything that could be used to prop between the door and wall. Finding nothing but a luggage trolley, she pushed it over and lodged it into place. It wouldn't hold them long. The bars were already bending and as their weight forced the teeth-chattering screech of metal against metal, she jumped back, turned tail and ran.

They wouldn't be far behind; she had to find another way to the basement.

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