January 14th, 2009 [Open]

The night passes, and sleep comes in fits and starts. As the new sun starts to rise to the east, Harrisburg is illuminated once again. Shortly after 2:00am, the power went out in the hotel for good, as the generator sputtered out, and ran out of fuel. There were long moments of terror after the generator died, but eventually things calmed down, and rationality took over.

Looking down from the hotel rooms to the streets below, you see the stupid and brave few who dared to try to escape the city leave the relative safety of the hotel. Led by Dan, they at least have common sense enough to stay in the middle of the street, away from alley and alcoves where the undead could hide in the early morning shadows. The group remains in view for about a block before your line-of-sight to them is broken up by the neighboring buildings.

With a sigh and a shake of your head you silently wish them luck as you turn back to the matter at hand - continued survival.

You think it's Wednesday morning. The last several days have been a blur of fright, shock, and confusion. In the near-silence of the hotel late in the night you could almost gather your thoughts before you finally drifted off to sleep.

Thinking back to the night's frantic activity, from the zombie battle, to the splitting of the survivors, and culminating in the packing of the stairwells, you think you might be in a place secure enough to buy yourself and your new-found allies some time to think of an escape. If need be, your group can get in and out of your secured third floor, but it would require a severely organized effort for an outsider to get in, something the zombies don't seem to be capable of. You permit yourself a deep, satisfied breath at this thought.

What's next? Where do you go from here? Zombies walk the earth; you're low on ammo and able, willing bodies; a group of religious nutbags seem to have unleashed a deadly virus on the earth; and the military is shooting anything human-like that moves.

Life is good.

Simon wakes from an unfitful sleep and enters the bathroom to splash some water on his face from the tub, attempting to wipe away the sweat and grime at least.

"What I would give for a hot shower about now." he mutters half to himself, half to whomever will listen. Sighing, he makes perperations to leave the room planning on inspecting the barriers and hopefully take a look around before everyone else gets up. Picking up the axe, and propping the door open so he can reenter later, he looks out the windows as he passes. VERY carefully he makes his way down the stairs to the barricade to check on it, listening all the while for any sounds of the undead.

Outwardly, Henry looks as if he is peacfully sleeping, but the torrent of fright, and horror that consumes his dreams quickly becomes evident....

What the heck is this place.... Oh it must be the mall. Why are all of these animals running amok. Dogs, cats.... They are coming toward me... That one is kind of cute..... Maybe he'd like some treats.... here puppy... Here Puppy. Good Dog. I'll just pet him........ Ahhhhhh He bit me..... Oh my god he's trying to eat my arm. AGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

"Don't EAT ME!"

Henry flys out of bed looking for anything to help him escape... He slowly gets his bearings just as Simon walks out the door.

"Holy shit.... We are in some major shit if there are any mice, or rats in here. I wonder if they can transmit the illness to humans?"

Henry decides to seek out Officer Taylor, and the rest of the group to convey his fears.

Jimmy's sleep comes and goes, his mind races at times he just stares and thinks.....This is the End. All those ancient stories, all those religions, they all told me the End would come, and I never believed. But here I am surrounded, the dead resurrected and very pissed off and hungry.....damn, I'm hungry too....shit Jimmy, you're not losing your mind, you only wish you were. But I have a feeling this is deeper than science and bio terrorism, there is a greater Hand involved, to what purpose and to what end......who fucking knows. Time to find the rest of my group, the "Ante Mortem". Haha, good Latin humor.....the "Before Deaths", maybe if we live through this, we'll start a biker gang.

Jimmy leaves his bed, in better cheer than the night before, to find the rest of the "Ante Mortem" and form a plan for the retrieval of food.

George slept in that morning. His body crumbling from exhaustion after running around the dark hotel, jamming lamps and an end tables into gaps in the stairwells. He didn't fall asleep till almost 4:00 am.

The thin man's dreams were filled with vivid memories of a day last winter when the city was snowbound. That day last winter was perfect, he and Barbara had locked themselves into the theater while the wind and snow pounded at the door. The couple watched "Doctor Zhivago" alone in the empty old theater and made out like teenagers.

As he slept a slight smile crept across his face.

Bursting through the hazy fog of sleep, the frantic voice of Henry was heard. His voice woke George, in spite of the man's wishes to stay in the safe and happy dream.

George sat up and looked at the sparse Hotel room, his mattress lying on the fine carpeted floor (the frame having been used for a barricade), he saw Simon and Henry chatting in the hall. With a hint of anger at the happy memories being robbed from him, George crawled out of his bed.

Kelly rubs her eyes and stretches at the sounds of people talking. Ah, another day in paradise I suppose. Time to get up and get moving. Along with everyone else she was so tired last night a rock would have been a welcome bed. A watch schedule was not even worked out...that would have to be done.

Kelly walks over to the window and looks at the sun rising over the city. This always was one of my favorite times of the day. Guess things are different now.

Kelly's stomach gurgles. Oh yeah...food. Man, I read a Dilbert strip once that said, "Morning Amnesia: Nature's way of keeping you from waking up screaming" I welcomed this mornings "morning amnesia". Kelly walks into the bathroom, pulls her hair back and wets a washcloth to just rinse off her face. God, a shower would feel like heaven. She eyes the freebie mouthwash that the hotel has, uses some of it and just spits it out into the trash can. Well, I guess that will have to do. I hope that supply closet has some more of this stuff.

Feeling at least functional again, she goes to meet up with the rest of the group to start the day.

Your small group slowly gathers in one of the open spaces on the third floor outside of the now jammed emergency staircase. Rubbing sleep from your respective eyes, you begin today much as you ended yesterday - huddled together with the few people it seems like you can really trust in the hotel.

With the rest of the survivors still sleeping, or content to hide away in their rooms, your "team" can plan and whisper without fear of alerting or tipping your hand to the rest of the survivors, or investigate last night's hasty fortification in the hazy, sparse light of day in the hotel hallway.

It's quiet in the hotel, and not just because people are sleeping. The normal city noise is missing, and you still haven't adjusted your way of thinking to incorporate that fact into your sense of "normal."

Thus far, the zombies seem to be less active, and less obvious during the day. That isn't to say that they're not out there. They are. You need only to remember back to your panicked flight to the hotel only a few days ago to testify to that fact. But for some reason, while the zombies are nearly omnipresent during the dark hours of night, one could potentially walk about during the day safely, if the proper precautions are taken.

CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Suddenly, a loud crash draws your attention to the barricaded stairwell. Your worst fears suddenly leap unbidden to the forefront of your mind as you immediately assume the undead have found a way into the hotel...

What the hell was that.

Henry springs to action... Grabbing his ax, he takes off in the direction of the noise.

"Stay in your rooms, lock the doors and be quiet." George shouts to any one he sees in the hall as he races after Henry.

"Shit! Henry, be careful!" Kelly grabs her gun and runs after the others. Shit. Zombies or is it the idiots that went on their own trying to get back in. Some help me if they led some back to us I will kill THEM. We can't let them in here anyway...we have no idea what causes people to...turn.

Fuck me.
Gripping the axe, Simon runs toward the source of the crash, fearing the worst.

Upon reaching the stairwell. Henry holds up waiting for the others before acting.

This is crazy... You almost jumped right into the fire again.... You must have a total deathwish!

"Officer Taylor. What should we do? I'm thinking that I should swing the door open, and you should ready your gun to fire if it is zombies. Or we could peek into the stairwell carefully?"

"Ok but be ready, cause it may not be a zombie"

Henry takes the handle of the door in his hand, and ducking all the while swings it open, putting his back against the wall while holding the door open.

Oh fuck oh fuck.... I hope it's not a zombie....

Henry throws the door open. In the early morning, non-electrically illuminated gloom of the stairwell, little can be seen other than the movement of something human shaped crawling through and over the debris piled on the landing. Dirt, blood, grime, and worse clings to it's flesh as it reaches out towards the relative light of the 3rd floor beyond.

Shit, was IS it? Zombie's certainly aren't smart enough to climb up over debris?

Kelly lowers her gun...clicks on her flashlight and shines it at the shape. "IDENTIFY YOURSELF NOW OR I'LL SHOOT!"

We cannot risk letting anyone back in here. We don't know what the contaminate is.

Spoiler:

"Cha...Charlotte...my name is Charlotte!" comes the reply in a high-pitched feminine voice, as the figure squints and tries to cover their eyes from the police-grade flashlight beam.

Henry leans towards Officer Taylor, and whispers.

"We can't let her in here. Maybe we can get her upstairs, and Quarantine her to see if she is going to turn?"

"Charlotte, where did you come from? Just stay where you are. We can't risk contaminating anyone on this floor."

Not that we even know what "contaminates" someone. Maybe we are all on our way to becoming one of THEM!

"I was hiding in the basement of a building down the street...some...some people went by, and I talked to them...they looked to be in pretty good shape, so I asked where they were hiding. They told me you were in here...hiding on the third floor."

She swallows and does her best to assume a non-threatening posture as she halts her climbing.

"I've been out there since this whole thing started...I don't feel sick...I don't think I'm carrying anything..."

Kelly continues to address the girl, "Charlotte, I'm sorry we can't give you a warmer welcome, but we need to protect ourselves. I hope you understand that. From what I can tell you've at least come into contact with them, right? Did you fight them? Where you bitten or anything?"

Should we quarentine her on another floor? If she turns maybe it's better if we know it right away. I certainly took care of the boy quickly enough. Oh my God...what is wrong with me. I'm already thinking about having to kill this girl. Get a grip Kel...paranoia will not help any of us.

Simon still holding the axe in a death grip, nods slowly and relaxes a bit. "We haven't checked the upper floors yet. Which we should do today. I agree we need to watch her for a bit, make sure she doesn't turn. But maybe we can get the nurse to look her over."