ID + 2 Days

Chitto and Tala could not agree who was going to sleep where since Tala wanted to sleep next to the door in case some shit were to happen during the night and Chitto said that the bed was way too big and plush for him. So they both crashed on the couch, letting the big screen TV run all night.

The next morning, they got up and after checking the internet where they could not find anything about any zombies wandering around, they turned on the cable and looked at the local news. No better luck there.

“It’s still early. That zombie shit… it takes time to spread,” Chitto reasoned. “I just hope we did not buy all that shit for nothing.”

“Really?” Tala said looking at him strangely, then scoffed and said, “Dumbass.”

Tala tried calling Howey but he was not answering even after the tenth attempt.

Not hungry after eating half of that Italian restaurant last evening, they decided to wait for breakfast and started to stream some of the zombie series, just to get their knowledge refreshed.

“You see, it's a blow to the head! It always works!” Chitto said while watching a particularly gruesome scene.

“Of course it's a blow to the head! Everyone knows that!” Tala answered him. “How else you're going to kill a zombie?”

“Promise me, sis, if I get bid... you'll put me down and out. Don’t want to go stuttering around, eating people and causing shit.”

"What?”

“I’m saying if I get bit-”

“Why would you get bit? Are you planning to go out and go, ‘Hey, mister Zombie, please, please, bite me, I want you to bite me, please, mister Zombie!"

"No, of course not. But, you know... if I do get bitten... I want-"

"Don’t worry. I promise. I'll put your lights out," she said and reached for the hammer that she left by the couch, just in case.

"No, not with the hammer."

"Then how... I promise it will not hurt," she said, trying the hammer, tapping it against her head. "Auch. Actually, it freaken' hurts!"

"Really? Let me try?' he said and she passed him the hammer, and then he raised it up and knocked her just lightly on the head with it.

"Auch!" she screamed and jumped up, but Chitto expected it, and had already jumped out of the reach of her back-head slapping hand.

"Now, I'll have a bump!! That hurt! You, dumbass!" she raced after him, could even catch him. But what would have been fun in that? He defended himself good, running to the bedroom, smacking her with the pillow then running to the bathroom and opening the show as if water was toxic and she could not get wet. "Stop spraying the whole bathroom! Someone will have to clean that shit!"

"Yeah, I'm tired of cleaning. We can call someone to come."

"No, you clean that! Use one of the wet towels. And then, call and ask for more towels, you... water monster."

Tala suddenly had an urge to eat. She could order breakfast to be brought in, but that would just raise questions in her brother's mind who could not understand her appetite, and she was not going to get she stepped to the window and watched the world, deciding to visit a little delly shop and get something to eat there.

“Maybe we can run back to the airport, see what happened there. Maybe they would have some kind of explanation about the maintenance guy who went berserk.”

“Chitto, he did not go berserk. His eyes were popped out, all white, he was trying to bite into people, the way he moved... don't kid yourself, okay? We saw what we saw. Alright?”

“But... it can't be real, can it?”

“I know what I've seen. Don't need to see it two times to believe it.”

Chitto sighed and joined Tala by the window looking at the busy world being so boring outside, but then got bored fast and decided. “Well, okay... if it's not the airport, I'm going to hit the swimming pool.”

“Yeah, I don't blame you,” Tala said, suddenly feeling a bit of relief knowing she'd get some alone time. “Just don't forget to take the extra door key. ”

“Oh, yeah, I will need that. The hotel guy said I can use that key to open the door to the swimming pool.”

“Yeah, take your new backpack with you. I may run outside”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Go for a run? Outside? They have a gym here, you know.”

“I know. But I want some fresh air, And Chitto, watch out for yourself. Okay?”

“You too, sis. I won't be long.”

Chitto could not believe he was the only one in the pool. A fifteen-meter lap pool might not be as big as he'd like it to be, but it was covered in big, luxurious-looking tiles, with Roman columns around it, making it look ten times better than any school swimming pool he ever swam in. And the water was just perfect, almost too warm.

He made a few fast laps, then dived down and swam from one side to another.

"I wish Tala was here. She would love it," he thought, suddenly feeling very lonely. "Not fun if you have nobody to enjoy it with."

So, he decided to do a few laps, pushing himself till his lungs burned and he could hold it no longer. He hugged the side of the pool, folded his hands for support, pressed his head down, and stared at the city that was busy going to work twenty floors underneath him. "What a life. I could really get used to this. Hope it does not end."

He thought about his classmates, two or three good friends he had there, thought about what they were doing right now, and what was going to be with him now that he was not going to go to school. "I'm screwed either way. If there is a zombie apocalypse... or if there is no zombie apocalypse... I'm just so screwed. What the hell am I going to do?"

"What can I do?"

Fear suddenly gripped him, and he decided to shake it off by pushing himself hard, harder than the last time, wanting to drain all the bad thoughts out of himself.

"Still... I did not want to go to school looking all roughed up," he said and then remembered his face was looking just fine that morning, so normal he completely forgot about being slapped by his father. "It's better this way. Sooner or later I would not take that shit from him, and what would happen then? Hard to know. Better this way. Let the apocalypse come if it wants to. Let it all end..."

Exhausted, he swam for a few more laps, and then, not knowing what else to do, he jumped inside a big jacuzzi that was located right next to big, panoramic windows.

He enjoyed thinking about what his friends would do if they could see him, the powerful water jet hitting his whole body, relaxing him. For a while, he looked down at the ants that people had become, admiring the view, thinking how lucky he was to be able to experience something like this. He even dozed off for a minute, but then jerked himself up, fearing a zombie might come to bite him.

Seeing he was still alone, he switched the jet stream up again, letting the water massage his neck and shoulders. But all of that got old and boring and with nobody to talk to, he sighed and went to the shower, thinking about the day ahead and what he could get for breakfast.

Someone else entered the pool space, he heard it clearly, the sound of flopping sandals as they moved across the tiled floor. He peeked out of the shower, saw a middle-aged guy with a bold head taking his towel off and stepping on the pool stairs to get in the water. As the man tilted his head to look toward the window, Chitto saw a normal rounded face and felt a huge relief washing over him. "No more zombie shows. Really. Now I'm scared of even fat old farts. Ridiculous," he thought as he grabbed his towel, ready to go to his locker and change.

The door opened again, and he turned around, What he saw were the eyes. Big and white. Not human. And he froze.

But only for a second, because the eyes blinked, and Chitto blinked as well, and as the zombie raised its hands to try and grab him, he moved back, running backward, over the seats, around the lockers, and out of the room.

The zombie followed, and Chitto for a second thought if he should scream for help, his eyes turning to see the guy in the water doing laps.

The only way that guy would help me is as a distraction, Chitto thought, but then decided not to run around the swimming pool and went straight for the main door, leaving the pool area behind.

In his swimming shorts still dripping the water and with the wet white towel in his hands, he ran toward the elevator doors, pressing them frantically as soon as he came. One showed to be on the seventh floor, the other all the way down in the lobby, moving up with numbers slowly rising.

“Come on, come on, come on,” Chitto urged it to hurry, looking nervously in the direction he came from, hoping the door would stop the, even feeling bad for the guy who stayed inside.

Should have warned him! Why did I not do that?! Dumbass! Should have screamed, said something! But all the thoughts froze as he saw the door suddenly flew open.

“Shit, this guy is not brain dead,” he mutter as he saw the zombie jump out, turned to face him, and broke into a crazy run after him, screeching something even crazier along the way.

“Tala!” he instinctively screamed for his sister's help.

In an instant, he understood he could not wait for the elevator any longer as the zombie was going to reach him in a matter of seconds.

So, he ran down the hall and slammed open the door to the emergency exit, hitting the stairs, jumping down three, four at a time.

“Zombie!!” he screamed now, wanting to warn everyone as he ran down the stairs. “Help! Tala!!”

He looked up trying to see how fast the zombie was following him and was glad to see that it could not match his speed. Actually, it fell a few times and rolled down a whole flight of stairs.

Chitto ran down another floor, then stopped for a second, thinking if the zombie got knocked out. But then, he saw its hand grabbing the rails and Chitto continued to run down the stairs.

“It's smart!” he said, and then continued to run down, “Tala, they're fucken' smart!!! Apocalypse!! Tala!!”

He made the ten floors down in a few breaths and grabbed the door that led to his floor, hoping and praying it would open.

And it did, and with the relief, he ran toward his room.

A few steps before he came to face his door, he realized that he left the key upstairs. He banged on the door, hoping Tala was back.

“She should be back! Where the hell is she!!!” he thought, banging his clutched fist against it some more.

But the door was shut tight.

“I... I can run up! Get the key!! Use the staircase on the other side of the corridor!” he thought and ran toward it, the plan forming inside his mind to run up to the twentieth floor.

But there was no emergency door on the other side of the hallway, just a locked-up utility room.

“Maybe she was in the bathroom, She must be in the bathroom,” he thought, looking down the empty hallway, and deciding to run back to his door.

A few seconds later, he made it to the door and banged his hands against its hard, not bulging surface, calling his sister, not understanding why she was not answering and opening the door. And when the emergency door opened and the zombie stuttered out, he continued calling her, then turned to call anyone for help.

But no doors anywhere got opened, no stranger came out to help and Chitto's time was up.

The zombie jumped on him and Chitto could do nothing but wrap the towel around his hand and shove it inside the zombie's mouth, releasing his hand while pushing the towel into its mouth, covering its face, pushing it away. But the zombie was so much stronger, and it pushed back, trying to wiggle its head out of the towel, at least enough to free his mouth so it could sink its teeth into Chitto's raw flesh.