Zombie survivor

Chapter 5.

"What exactly did Jackie tell you?" I asked Halston.

We all looked at her.

"She said she didn't have much time, that her father was taking her to some kind of ship in the Atlantic. But she said we had to leave Canada as soon as possible... she said things were already getting out of control...” She explained in a whisper.

"I don't like the sound of that" Alex said.

"We have to leave" said Jeff.

"What?”

"Leave the city as soon as possible, now that we can.”

"The airport will be closed.”

"That won't be necessary" mentioned Austin: "Buffalo is only a couple of hours' drive from here.”

"Buffalo?”

"And then?" Sam asked.

"From there we'll see, but at least we'll be back in the States.”

"When do we leave?" I asked.

"In the evening" answered Jeff. "They won't let us leave the hotel before then, it will be a getaway.”

"How exactly do you plan to leave?" asked Sam.

Vanessa ran to the other side of the building, we followed her confused. Then we saw the street behind the Hotel, it was much smaller in size and was completely deserted. I followed the path with my eyes, it led to a series of alleyways where there would probably be no danger.

"That way.”

"Perfect" Jeff admitted: "We need transportation.”

"We can get some in the hotel parking lot, there's an exit down this street" I reminded them.

They looked at me puzzled.

"Stealing?” Sam asked.

I hadn't thought about it. But then I realized that half the city was probably already dead? Was it justifiable to do so at such a time?

"Relax Legolas, the owner of that car must be dead by now" Austin assured him.

Sam elbowed him, she hated being called Legolas. Alex and Austin did it from time to time, especially the latter, ever since the girl had won the State Archery Championship.

"Sounds good to me, I think the situation justifies the theft" Jeff mentioned, though not very convinced.

"And those things on the street... won't they follow us?" asked Halston.

"We're not even sure what they are" mentioned Austin.

"Of course we are" replied Vanessa: "We all know what they are.”

He looked at us expectantly waiting for someone to say it, but I don't think any of us were ready to admit it. We all had our suspicions, and I bet they were the same.

"Like the rumors about that town several years ago" Sam mentioned quietly.

"Zombies" Alex said at last.

No one said anything, no one wanted to discuss it at that moment.

"In the evening we leave here, pack everything. As light as possible, I'll tell a few people to come with us" mentioned Jeff: "Everyone in the parking lot is ready, we leave at ten o'clock.”

***

We waited a long time sitting in the reception of the Hotel with nothing interesting to do, at any other time I would have preferred to be in the room, but at that moment the more people I was surrounded by, the better for me. And apparently, I was not the only one who preferred to be alone, several guests had decided to take the room as a sanctuary.

All of them sitting on the floor, talking to each other in whispers; or simply keeping silent. The atmosphere there was too funereal, you could feel the tension. I couldn't take my eyes off the monsters outside the glass, they had grown tired. Now they were only hitting the glass slowly and feebly, and just in time, for a c***k had already begun to mark itself right in the center.

The Hotel managers turned on the television again, one watched it attentively while another climbed to the roof to try to accommodate the huge antenna, they communicated by radio constantly asking if they could see any image. But at that moment, there was only static.

Vanessa was next to me, as bored and overwhelmed as I was. She was fiddling with a strange ribbon. Janet and Jeff were cuddling in the corner. Alex was at the front, constantly looking at his watch to check the time. But it was just after six o'clock in the evening. He was about to reassure the boy, to tell him that there was still a long way to go when the television picked up something.

Everyone stood up quickly, interested by the image. It was a newscast, although I couldn't correctly identify which one it was, it was probably a local one. The audio was too bad to understand anything. The employee radioed his colleague and told him that we were almost there. Seconds later the transmission cleared.

A woman was watching the camera as she briefed the viewers. Below her, you could read the strips of information moving from right to left. It read headlines like, "South Korea reports three new cases on its territory," "Communications lost with Hawaii Island," "Vatican shootings reported," "England closes borders," and many more that I didn't pay enough attention to.

"...so far twenty-three countries in the Americas, Asia, and Europe have reported at least two cases, while three nations have been considered under attack: Canada, Japan, and China. Africa, for its part, has been ordered to close all its borders in a desperate attempt to avoid catching this virus, which, according to CDC researchers in the United States, could be the most deadly of all times, they also stated that they do not know its origin and any possible treatment. But we have yet to hear any official statement from any government of the affected countries.”

Murmuring started around the room.

"For those of you just tuning in, we will repeat once again the list of infected countries, all under control; although soon expected to continue to increase: Germany, with ten reported cases; Bolivia, eight; Colombia, twelve; South Korea, seven; France, with four reported cases; Greece, thirty-two; Italy, with three reported cases; Morocco, eleven...”

I looked around me, people were turning pale and letting out gasps as they heard what was going on in the world, especially since many tourists hoped not to hear their countries on the list.

"In all these countries, the cases have been controlled and the sick are already in quarantine; while the authorities take their respective security measures. Meanwhile, in Canada, Japan, and China, the number of cases is unknown, which, when not controlled, led to the collapse of many of their cities and towns. It is known that in Canada communications with the entire south have been lost, while China has problems in the west. Japan alone in its capital, hours after announcing the cancellation of the Summer Olympic Games, which were to be held on…”

I was startled when someone grabbed you by the shoulder, as I turned around I could see Jeff, he was bringing all his luggage with him.

"We have to leave now.”