We were just twenty miles or so from Michael’s coordinates. According to the map, they were right smack dab in the middle of a small town named, White Sulfur Springs.
The name sounded familiar to me. I kept feeling like I heard about it on the History or Discovery channel. The thought was eating away at me during the drive. It was something I’d heard of. I simply couldn’t quite place it, and I found myself agitated at my inability to think straight. Lack of sleep and stress was really starting to pay its toll.
The twenty mile trek was relatively uneventful. We saw some Zs, but they were spread out, and of no real consequence to us. I don’t think it would have mattered any way. The three of us were quiet, caught up in our thoughts about our journey thus far, and what Avalon may have, or would bring us.
As we pulled into the town, we passed a welcome sign that read, “White Sulfur Springs Founded in 1900,” in green letters. Once again, AVALON was spray painted on the sign in red paint.
We were there.
“Looks like something may actually be out here,” Kyle reluctantly said, glancing back toward Michael after seeing the sign. He shifted a little higher in his seat, and was looking around the town trying to catch a glimpse of some other indication that we were in the right place. I could tell that even Kyle was sold on the prospect of finding Avalon.
I maneuvered the Hummer through the small town. We passed a pizza joint called Godfather’s Pizza, which had its front window smashed in. We also drove past a hotel called The Village Inn, which was almost burnt to the ground. The sign was the only thing unscathed by the fire, standing up above the building giving the illusion that a person could still stop in and get a good nights rest.
There was a billboard that said, “White Sulfur Springs, Home of The Greenbrier Hotel.”
“The Greenbrier Hotel, that’s where we’re heading,” Michael spoke from the back seat.
Kyle gave me a look I couldn’t decipher, but I guided the Hummer down the street to the far side of town. Calling this place a hotel would be an understatement. It looked more like the White House. It was giant, and completely out of place in the quaint town, much like our bright yellow Hummer. At least the size of a few football fields, the white hotel was lavishly landscaped, and beautifully built. It was clear that this was someplace special for someone.
“Something’s strange here,” Kyle murmured staring out the window. “We’re driving through a town, and there isn’t a single Z.”
“It reminds me of that rich neighborhood Sophia lived in,” I replied and cautiously continued up the drive toward the entrance.
As I braked, I made the comment that the hotel looked abandoned. There was nobody greeting us, or even milling around; the front door was smashed in, and actually had what looked like a hand smear of blood running down the front of it.
Kyle looked back at Michael “Okay, now what?” It sounded like a challenge.
Michael shifted in the back seat, looking out through the side window of the Hummer.
“I’m not sure,” he replied, with a tone of frustration at the repeated questioning. “This is supposed to be it. The instructions I received told me to head to the Greenbrier Hotel, and we’d be escorted to the facility.”
I parked in the roundabout that looped under an awning in front of the half-rectangular front of the building. Kyle opened his door, as did I, and we stepped out of the Hummer.
“Do you hear that?” Kyle asked me.
I paused, and tilted my ear up. Just barely audible over the dull roar of the Hummer’s engine, was what sounded like the beeping one would hear when a garbage truck backs up. It was followed by some ever so light dings in the distance.
“I do. Where is it coming from?”
Michael joined us, saying, “It sounds like construction.”
“You’re right. Those are hammers dinging, and bulldozers moving around,” Kyle agreed.
“I think it might be coming from behind the hotel.”
We were so focused on the background noise that our guard was down. Too down. Kyle was the first to notice them. There were five zombies advancing on the Hummer. They were coming up on the driver’s side, my side, and on top of me before I had a chance to react.
“Look out!” I heard Kyle scream. I had two of them pulling me to the ground when in an instant, each of their skulls exploded in a red spray, followed by the other three. All five of them fell lifeless to the ground.
I sat there completely stunned. I had no idea what had just happened.
Kyle instinctively dropped to the ground, but Michael just stood there looking around.
“Rooftop,” Kyle whispered as he crawled under the Hummer. There were four faceless men with helmets and some sort of black plastic looking body armor looking down at us.
“They have silencers.” No wonder I didn’t hear anything. I noticed them too, but only because they all appeared to be aimed at my head.
“Don’t move. Don’t run. Do you have a ticket?” one yelled down to us in an almost monotone voice.
Michael, his feet still rooted to the ground pulled out a batch of paper, which he waved in the air.
“Yes! We have tickets! Please tell me this is Avalon!”
The armored men lowered their weapons, and three more emerged from the front door of the hotel.
One of them walked over with an outreached arm, asking to see Michael’s tickets. The trooper reviewed them, then stepped back to make a call via his built-in helmet intercom. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but I assumed he was checking on the validity of the ticket. Finally, he strutted back towards Michael.
“Welcome to Avalon, Mr. Hoskins.”
Michael stood a little taller for a moment, saying, “Thank you.”
In that same moment, I was surrounded by the other two, who were screaming at me.
“Were you bit? Were YOU BIT?” one of them demanded. Still reeling from the incident, I didn’t say anything. Kyle came to my rescue.
“If he was bit he’d be coming after you by now.”
“Nobody asked you. Keep quiet!” was the response.
I looked up at that one, mumbling, “I’m okay. No bites. Let’s just get inside.”
“He’s covered in blood, but it looks like it’s from the creatures we just took down.”
Another replied, “Let’s put him through the chamber.” We’ll know soon enough.
He ordered me to step away from the Hummer, and to fall in line with my friends. We were marched up the steps of the hotel. Kyle turned back as one of the troopers got into the Hummer. He drove it around the backside of the building.
“Are we going to get that back?” asked Kyle.
“It’s yours. We’re just parking it,” a trooper responded, while glancing at his remaining buddy.
I remember thinking that he had a smirk under that damn facemask of his.
Chapter 19
Just follow instructions, and everything will be okay at the other end…
We were led, at gunpoint, inside. As we stepped into the lobby, the fresh smell of death flooded my senses. A wall by the concierge stand was charred black and glass lay melted on the ground where someone had clearly thrown some sort of homemade Molotov cocktail bomb. Also, a large chandelier had fallen in the middle of the room, shattering atop a creature that was still pinned under the weight of the fixture. Inanimate, its head was bleeding out all over the carpet from what looked like a large caliber gunshot.
We were then directed out the back past a few Olympic sized swimming pools, one of which was tinted with dark, red, blood. I winced when I realized that there was a creature slowly wading around at the bottom of the deep end. One of the troopers saw my facial expression, and said, “Thing fell in there. We haven’t had a chance to pull it out yet.” I wasn’t sure why they wouldn’t just put the thing out of its misery.