On the way to Tia’s room, I tapped my ear cuff and said, “Call Tia.”
About half a minute passed before she picked up, “Yea?”
“Where are you?” I asked.
“My room.”
“Tia, can you open your door?”
“Sure.” there was a click and the door to Tia’s room swung open, revealing Tia herself, “What do you need?”
“What do you mean?! There are zombies outside the hotel and I killed the ones here." I jesterred to the corpses littering the floor.
“Wait WHAT?!” Tia suddenly had a pistol in her hands.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t hear them?!” Caeden groaned, pushing his sunglasses farther up the bridge of his nose, “It doesn’t matter, for now, we gotta check on Titania.”
I nodded and started moving toward her door, the others falling instep behind me. We reached the door and I knocked three times.
A nervous and scared sounding voice came from behind the door, “W-who is it?”
“It’s us, Lyn, Caeden, and Tia. Can you open your door?” I responded calmly.
The door swung open with a hiss, and there stood Titania, wide eyed, “What’s going on?”
“We don’t know yet.” Tia stepped forward and gave Titania a hug, “Now let's go check on the rest of the hotel, shall we?”
I led the group down the hallway to the elevator, before motioning for everyone to get in. I got in last and pressed the button for floor one. The ride was over in a few seconds and was announced with a ding. This attracted the attention of all the infected.
“Are you guys ready??” I grinned back at them.
Caeden and Tia nodded while Titania shook her head.
“You can stay in the elevator Titania.” Tia moved in front of her once me and Caeden had moved out and we all opened fire.
It took 5 minutes. All the infected were on the floor, dead for the second, final time. I crossed the room to the window and looked out.
“I’m guessing we got 5, maybe 10 minutes before the infected come after us. Want to get in the van now?" I turned to the group, and they all nodded, and we ran to the van. I was the last to get in, covering the others while they each took the blood test and got in.
“Well. that was fun.” I said cheerfully while the other stared at me in horror, “let's get going now. Where do we have to go next, Titania?”
“Huh? Oh..uhh I’m not sure, let me look.” She pulled out her computer and opened it up, typing for a bit before saying, “we are going to Chattanooga.”
“Alrighty!! All of you should rest. I’ll make sure we get there safely.” I said over my shoulder as I climbed into the driver’s seat. Caeden climbed up into the passenger seat beside me, presumably to make sure I didn't do anything dangerous. I grinned and slammed my foot down on the pedal and we raced over the road in the direction of Chattanooga.
We were an hour from arriving in Chattanooga when my ear cuff beeped, “Answer.”
“LYN. thank god.”
“Nick?”
“Yes, it’s me Nick.” He paused before saying, “Where were you staying last night?”
“The Larit Hotel in Memphis. Why do you ask?”
“Did you not know?”
“Know what?”
Nick’s voice rose as he said, “You’re lucky to be alive right now. They’ve declared that part of Memphis unreclaimable, and they bombed the hotel.”
My eyes widened and I didn't say anything, exchanging glances with Caeden.
“Lyn? Are you there?”
“Y-yeah..i'm here.” I replied, “Anything else on the news I should know about?”
“You sure?” Nick asked hesitantly.
“Yes I'm sure Nick.”
“If you say so…” Nick sighed before saying, “Someone called the CDC around the time you would’ve been waking up.”
“And?”
“They said everyone in that hotel is dead.”
“Disconnect.” I swore silently before raising my voice so Tia could hear me, “Caeden, Tia, you two need to get working on posts NOW.”
“Why?” Tia shoved her head through the space in between Caeden’s and I’s seats.
“Because everyone thinks we are dead.” I responded.
“I’ll get your computer, Caeden.” Tia disappeared into the back of the van and reappeared a moment later and handed his computer to him. He nodded, pushed his sunglasses up his nose and turned on his computer.
“Caeden, it’s your birthday tomorrow, right?” I asked suddenly.
“Yea.”
“Good. and you had better keep the present I got you.”
“I guess.” Caeden sighed, closed his computer and leaned his head back. I glanced up to one of the signs.
“About 15 more minutes.” I muttered, “Titania, where in Chattanooga are we going?”
There were a few clicks and then: “The Chattanooga Convention Center.”
“Alright.” I slowed down as we approached city limits, “Tia, Caeden, did you both make posts?”
“Yep.” Tia said as Caeden remained silent. Tia reached up a hand and shook him. Failing to produce a response she announced, “He’s either dead, or he’s asleep.”
“Probably asleep then.” I smiled, then added, “Feel free to wake him up however you want. I’ll take the blame if he gets mad.”
Tia grinned and slapped Caeden on the head, producing a groan as he woke up.
“What was that for?!” he put his hand to where Tia slapped him.
“Lyn asked you a question.” Tia smiled.
“Did you make a post?” I asked once more.
“Yes i did. Now let me sleep.” Caeden closed his eyes only to be slapped again by Tia.
“What the heck?!” he twisted in his seat to glare at Tia.
“We are like, almost in Chattanooga.” I said for her.
“Ugh.” Caeden turned forward and crossed his arms.
Tia giggled before slipping back to where Titania was.
“Alrighty. Tia, you go to the far corner of the stage, Caeden you stay at this one, I'll take the corner in the front." I announced as Titania climbed the steps to the stage.
“Alright.” Tia set off at a jog to her assigned spot while I walked to mine.
“Hello folks! Thanks for coming today.” Titania began her speech.
I tapped my ear cuff and said, “Open channel to Tia and Caeden.”
“Are you doing this for any particular reason?” Caeden said after a single beep.
“Not really. Just so we can communicate to each other in case- "I scanned the crowd then raised my eyes and bit my tongue.
“Lyn?” came Tia’s voice. “You okay?”
“Hold on let me-” there was a bang as I pulled the trigger on my rifle.
“Lyn?!” Caeden’s voice sounded worried, “Don’t tell me-”
“Yep.” I sighed, scanning the rafters carefully, firing again before saying, “we were right. There are people who don’t want Titania to be governor. And they are willing to kill her.”
Tia groaned and it was followed by a bang. “Wonder how many there are?”
“Probably two to three each side, maybe four.” Caeden announced, two bangs going off in rapid succession.
That’s when things started going wrong.