Noticing the ashtray on the table I remembered I had a pack of Luckies and fished them out. I lit one and inhaled a lungful of blue smoke, took a mouthful of beer and felt strangely content.
If this is my lot then it could be a damn sight worse.
I suppose hell is being trapped in one’s most uncomfortable and unfamiliar environment for eternity. It is therefore relative; hell for one man could mean heaven for another.
I discounted the possibility that I could be in hell. For a start, I’m not religious and have never believed in its existence anyway, but being a solitary person by nature being alone has never really bothered me. Nor has the sunshine. And I am partial to a beer or two. So how could this possibly be hell?
I had finished my third beer and went inside to pour a fourth. I had a good buzz on by this stage, augmented by smoking, and the idea of a midnight dip was appealing. I hadn’t washed since my arrival, and a good dunk in the pool felt just the ticket. When I had splashed the water over me at the poolside I had done so without thinking about the possibility of the water being contaminated, but it seemed as clear and clean as if it had been dredged that morning.
In my beer buzz I had forgotten all about trying to get out of the complex with the availability of free beer literally on tap. With my beer I went out the pool edge and procrastinated.
Should I start exploring now?
Firstly I had to locate a tool to jimmy the glass doors open, then even if I did get outside the complex it was the middle of the night and I was getting pretty drunk. I decided I would put it off until morning, and resolved to get myself in gear the following day to seek out some answers as to what the hell had happened to me and why I was here.
All this thinking on top of the beer and I was becoming tired, almost lethargic. I reasoned it was because of a combination of stress, a significant fall and a blackout, and that my body was actually under a deal of strain. Not to mention the head injury, although that by now had healed over well and wasn’t causing me much discomfort.
I stood and stared into the water, the reflections of the palm trees shimmering on its surface, amplified by the bright lights of the reception area and restaurant. It had a mesmerising effect, and I almost drifted off to sleep standing up. That sparked me into action, and taking a deep breath I launched myself head first into the pool, still carrying my beer, almost without thinking.
The coldness beneath the surface seemed to prick my whole body with thousands of tiny needles, but almost instantly I adjusted to the change in temperature and felt as alive as I ever had. I surfaced and a huge laugh burst from my chest. I felt euphoric, free and awake for the first time in this place, and the water seemed to wash away any sense of foreboding I had up to that point.
I dove under again and propelled myself the whole width of the pool underwater, noticing that the silence beneath was even greater than that above the surface. The only sound was my own heart pumping in my chest and the blood rushing to my ears.
After my swim I felt invigorated, but still exhausted. I swallowed another small beer in the café and played a couple of games solo on the pool table in the games area. I tried the computer again in the corner for signs of connectivity, restarting and rebooting it, but again nothing.
The beer took its effect and I decided to head back to my room. I took the back route past the pool outside reception and through a maze of small pathways, all lit and maintained pristinely with small cacti bordering them. The whole place had an air of extreme seclusion. I couldn’t quite get over the silence. Apart from my own actions I hadn’t heard a single other noise bar the wind, not even a cat’s meow or a dog’s bark, not even a cricket singing in the bushes.
Something terrible must have happened here, I thought. Something that I survived.
That gave me a renewed sense of resolve and instead of locating my room I realised that because I held the master key I could simply sleep wherever I wanted. I could sense dawn was breaking as I threaded up through a row of apartments and located another staircase. Caution prompted me to take a second floor apartment subconsciously, and at the top I took a random left right left until I stood in front of Room 314. It seemed as good as any.
I let myself in and turned on the lights. The room was empty. In the fridge there were two identical bottles of chilled water, so I opened one and headed to the bedroom off the main living area. The bed had been perfectly made up and the sheets were clean and soft. I climbed in and was asleep almost immediately. I didn’t even bother to lock the door.
83%
After a breakfast of bread, grapefruit and baked beans I began my hunt for the janitor’s closet. The Sun Royal complex was made up of two distinct sections within two outer rings of apartments. The outer ring bordered the main road at the eastern end and scrubland was on all of the other three sides. The scrubland was fenced off by a wire mesh fence, 10 feet high all the way around to prevent ingress of animals I suppose, and apart from a section at the south east corner at which only a six foot solid wall separated the apartments from the main road the whole complex was pretty secure.
The inner ring of apartments all fronted onto the pool areas, with a pool in each section separated by the café and games room on the top level and the restaurant on the bottom level.
I figured any maintenance area would be kept well out of sight of the paying guests and I was right. It was located behind the restaurant and accessed by the spiral staircase in the games room which I had encountered on my first evening but had thought led to nothing.
The numbers this morning flashed 83% when I awoke in Room 314. I had only had a couple of hours sleep as the sun was still in its ascent when I emerged but I felt fully refreshed, if a little hung over. Instead of skirting around the pool to get to the restaurant for breakfast I simply plunged into it and swam to the other side, then hurled myself out dripping and straight into the refectory. I considered pouring a sangria but resisted and a couple of cups of superb coffee got me in the mood for the search.
As I descended the staircase I noticed that this was definitely the most neglected area of the hotel. Dust was strewn on top of piles of chairs, and there were various unopened boxes casually piled in corners which meant this was not an area for casual habitation.
The maintenance closet was built in under the stairs, and the door had very helpfully been left unlocked and indeed wide open. Rooting through a pile of oily rags I found some very useful tools, a powerful torch, and, bingo, a crowbar. I uncovered a heavy duty workman’s belt with various pockets and pouches for holding them in. I put it on and stuffed into the pockets a pretty serious looking foldable knife (a little blunt but serviceable), a chisel and a can of oil.
With my new found equipment I headed back up the stairs and out of the games room back to reception.
The sun was blazing and I paused for a moment to take stock of my options over a cup of ice cold sangria from the tap in the café bar. It steeled my nerves and I realised I was actually getting pretty apprehensive about leaving the hotel compound. However unknown my situation was, at least I was seemingly safe and well stocked within. Leaving was almost admitting to myself that something was wrong, and I was having trouble doing that. I felt giddy, a bit shaky, but having the crowbar galvanised me and I felt more equipped to deal with an exploration now I had some kind of weapon at least. I sank another sangria and that helped even more.
Back in reception I stood in front of the glass double entrance doors and took a deep breath. I didn’t wish to smash them open since they may offer some sort of protection, however feeble, should I need to make a rapid retreat back inside the hotel. Try as I did I couldn’t find the resolve to go to work and actually start prizing the doors open. I must have stood there for a good few minutes, just starting at the doors and wondering what was going to happen if I stepped outside the grounds of the hotel.