# 59

Leeya wiped her mouth on her arm and then rubbed it in the pool to clean it as she slowly waded past me leaving a wake in the water of blood. I looked down and tried not to look her in the eyes, those eyes right now wouldn't make me happy with what I had just seen them doing. My head started spinning and for a moment I thought I was about to black out, notice how I said black out....men don't faint I guess huh? All kidding aside my head was throbbing my stomach was upside down and the room starting to spin, which is never good standing waist deep in a pool that you were trying to stop cannibalism in. That is something I never thought I would have to put in a sentence. I reached down in the water and splashed some of it onto my face and everything started to clear up. I was still foggy a little but much better. I turned to get out of the pool and Leeya was standing at the top of the stairs that led into the water. She was leering down at me with a look that made it more unpleasant than what I just witnessed her doing. With the way she was starting to look and now all of this, I was starting to doubt Leeya could be saved at all. If she couldn't maybe none of us could maybe we were just prolonging the inevitable.

We were all like a football team down by fifty points trying to get out of bounds to stop the clock. We were going to lose but wouldn't let it end easily. There is something I do miss , football. Something that was seemingly so important and now it doesn't even exist. The stadiums, the teams, the players, all for what? Sunday afternoons now you watched a field to see if something was coming across it for you not for a first down. Baseball there was another one. The only green monster I feared wasn't in left field but was in the room with Fred dead. So many things we as people used as a distraction from our daily lives and issues that we saw as so terrible. All gone, the issues too. I stood there and finally looked her in those hazed silver grey eyes and looked deep for the girl I was falling for. Was she there? Did she already leave and ditch the shell I was staring into? Leeya had to still be in there if not I had a gun and she had a head.

"You OK now?" I asked her. She smirked and walked to a chaise lounge and lay on it. "I need to rest a bit, I don't feel so well" she murmured. I started to climb out of the pool and the weight of my clothes being wet let me know my knee wasn't enjoying the task of pulling me out of the water. Leeya started to throw up on the floor beside her and it was equally nasty that it was chunks of Brent she was barfing all over the floor. I walked over to her and Leeya suddenly sounded like herself but sick and crying "Why didn't you stop me ....why did I do that ..O God O god I can't believe I did that O god get away". I looked at her but she shoved me away and started getting hysterical. I started to come to the conclusion that she was stuck half way between  and the other half was trying to reinfect itself to complete the process. Maybe that was what happened to Unice. I think Leeya had the same feeling.

I ran to Fred and Unice's room and started rummaging through the drawers looking for the chemo packs I had given for Unice. If he had any of the packs I gave him I was using them right now. I glanced over at the two of them and thought it would be me and Leeya in due time. I looked everywhere then realized he was an old school kind of guy. I ran to the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet. There it was two packs with needles left. I grabbed them and while heading back to Leeya started opening one. She glanced over at me and before she could say or do anything at all I plunged the needle into her collarbone area and gave it a full injection. She freaked out and ran from me with the needle hanging out of her. "Why did you do that asshole that hurt." She then ripped it out and threw it into the pool.

I was about to answer her and she ran off down the hallway towards the bedrooms we all had used. "Leeya wait" I yelled as I ran after her. If only I had better peripheral vision I would have noticed the van pulling up in the back of the Hotel to the side of me. "Leeya wait where are you , I had to! come on now don't get pissed it had to be done." No answer but I could hear crying. I followed the whimpers and in the fourth room on the left I found her huddled in the closet crying , hugging her knees. I sat on the floor next to her and put my gun down. " You know I never meant for this. For you , for us. I just wanted to get to my brothers and save everyone. I never wanted to fall for someone, let alone during all this bullshit. But I don't regret it. None of it, you have been a good thing for my soul. And if you turn into one of those "things" out there, well I guess you eat me. I wouldn't have the heart to kill you." She stopped crying for a moment. " I mean If I can find some way to make you better, right or wrong I'm doing it. If that's something to be mad at me for, then get mad. I would stab you with that needle again if I had to." She hugged me and kissed the side of my neck , but it was short lived happiness as we heard the noise in the hallway.

"Shhhhhh someones out there" I whispered to Leeya and slide the mirrored closet door shut in front of us. "Boom ,Bang, slam "things were being thrown around out in the hall or other rooms, I have no way of knowing where it was really coming from and I could hear some sort of muttering. It sounded like people talking or arguing I couldn't tell. I lifted my gun up and aimed it about nuts high to anything or anyone who opened the closet. Leeya started looking better already as she covered her mouth and looked at me with bluish silver eyes. Hey those do look better. Her skin even had less of a pale tone to it she was just goth looking now. I kept my gun pointed and heard something crashing into the room we were in. "BLAM the mirror on the outside of the closet door broke as something slammed the door. "Nothing here man" A deep voice called out from the other side of the door we were behind. "Check real good he had a woman with him and we need one of those" A voice called out from a few rooms away. "You got that right I want her first after we kill his ass" The voice in the room called back out in response. Leeya started to cry but kept her mouth covered with tears streaming down her face.

I pulled out my hand gun and had it on my stomach waiting for a quick swap if I have to go for the gold and ran out of ammo. Leeya grabbed the gun off my stomach and aimed to the door with me. I nodded to her and she nodded back, it was nice having her back in some capacity. I leaned over and faintly whispered " Don't do anything unless they do we don't know how many there are or what they have". She nodded but looked ready to start shooting. Finally I could hear the room behind us against the back of the closet getting ransacked. These dimwits never checked the giant closet door facing them? I wasn't bitching it made our day easier.

"Wait guys ,wait I found people in here but there old and dead" Someone yelled out from Fred's room. It took them a bit longer than we wanted but eventually they muttered and murmured as they walked out and we heard the van drive off. As soon as the van drove off Leeya opened the door in front of us and we got a nice burst of fresh air. But sitting on the end of the bed facing us was a man with a huge gun across his lap. "Think I missed the closet did ya?" He asked sarcastically with a giant grin. Leeya didn't even flinch and blew a better part of his head off into the wall behind him. Wow he hadn't planned that too well had he? Sitting there with a relaxed look and the gun across his lap, not too sharp. We got up and got ready, he couldn't be all alone and that shot would bring company. We ducked down behind the side of the bed and waited.

"Tim what was...O crap Tim " Someone was freaking out and I hopped up as best I could and yelled "Drop it" The man in the matrix style duster decided against listening and raised on me and I thought I had a good line on him but grazed the side of his head when I fired. He flopped to the ground and started frantically trying to hold or grab the side of his head and face to ...sort of keep it together. It was disturbing and made me want to just finish him off for his own good. He was gurgling and spitting now and the pool of blood under his chest from his head area was growing. I leaned over him and dragged his gun away "How many more of you are there huh ?" I asked while staring out the doorway. He couldn't answer I don't think and finally stopped moving.

Leeya came to me and she grabbed the giant hand cannon from the dude that she wasted and we got ready to see what else was in the Hotel. As I peered out of the door frame I could hear the van pulling back in. I grabbed Leeya and we raced down the hall and into the stairwell leading to the second floor at the end of the hallway. I peeked through the skinny rectangle window on the door knowing no one could see me in the dark I was in but I could see them.  I counted seven men now, I think they had these clowns wait and went for more idiots and were going to drop the hammer on us so to speak. Whatever was going on we weren't finding out the hard way.

I grabbed Leeya's arm and we started up the stairs, I told her to follow me to the top if they were searching room by room it was our best chance to have some time to figure out what to do or hide. At the top of the stairs was a small door marked roof access. I thought for a moment and opened the door and looked around. It was just the roof and it had a small brick on the other side  so I grabbed it and placed the brick in the door jam holding it open, must have been used for smoke breaks I bet to hold it open. I hoped it would be just enough to confuse them. Then me and Leeya went to the fourth floor and started searching on the fourth floor for somewhere to be safe and hidden. No drop ceilings crap I was getting good with those, least until I was shot. It was the same as every floor under it but with one exception, it had an exercise room where the pool was. We ran in and I started checking mirrors. Leeya was staring at me and finally said "what the hell are you doing?" I said "This room is smaller than it should be the next room is a solid wall and too far away." Nothing here I tried the hallway and there it was, A picture that was door size and an inch off the floor. I messed around and click it opened. Inside was a room like the rest only nicer, much, much nicer. Leeya climbed in with me and we closed the painting door and locked it behind us.

The room was set up for either a person the Hotel was keeping in secrecy like a star or it was for police when they have witnesses to protect. Whatever the reason I knew it was secret, Fred didn't seem to know about it and he worked here so he said. We looked around it was very well appointed with a king size bed and a full size fridge and it had a huge flat screen that we turned on and it instantly showed all the hallways. It was rigged to the security cameras. We watched the men searching the second and third floors and knew eventually they would be on the fourth. Leeya asked if we were safe and I nodded, but to be honest I wasn't too sure. I had noticed the gap in rooms maybe they would too. Leeya didn't so maybe it wasn't as obvious as it seemed I just didn't know. They seemed to want Leeya and for reasons seemingly evil. I knew if they figured out this room was hiding here we were having a gun fight, I wasn't handing her over to them and they weren't taking her. So far I hadn't done such a bang up job with protecting her and this was my chance to prove to myself and her that I was still a gamer.