Zombiegrad. A horror novel

The man slumped into his chair and seemed to calm down. He slurped his beer, clenching his jaws in anger. He crumpled the empty can and tossed it on the floor.

Andy’s eyes turned into slits but he did not say anything.

We’ll have to close the bar and withdraw all the liquor from rooms, he thought.

Goran got upon the stage. “We’ll check all the possible holes, through which these schizos could get into the hotel. We have to check the food supply as well. As far as I remember, it’s going to be enough for two weeks. If we ration the food, we’ll be able to not worry about it for over three weeks. I just need the exact number of people staying at the hotel. The data at the reception desk are messed up. We’re going to check every room in this building. Door-to-door. Each of the fifteen stories. I guess, the government is not going to help, so we have to keep up somehow until the air is clear. But, people, I’m telling you, the situation is crappy.”

Just as he said those words, the lights in the room went suddenly out.

“See?” Goran said.

“As if we haven’t had enough,” grumbled one of the hotel guests.

Goran turned to Andy. “Shit just keeps piling up.”

Andy cringed at the swear words. He looked wearily at others. “Goran, would you be so kind as to not swear? Save our ears, please.”

“Okay, no problem,” Goran said. “Pardon my French, ladies and gentlemen. I’ll swear in my native tongue, then.”

The conference room had been designed so that it was in the northern wing of the hotel and it wouldn’t be so stifling hot here during summer meetings without air conditioning. The sun was up, and the light was sufficient in the room. But Andy did not want to think about the time when the sun would go down.

“Let’s hope the power outage is temporary,” Andy said.

A dark-complexioned man in his forties raised his hand, “Sir? Do you have a power generator in this facility?” He spoke in English with a heavy Turkish accent.

“Yes, right,” Andy said. “Actually, we do but we haven’t got it installed yet. They delivered it to us two weeks ago.”

“Well,” the man said. “I’m a trained civil engineer. I could be of some help here.”

“Thank you, sir,” Andy said. “What’s your name, please?”

“Erkan Zorlu.”

“It’s a stroke of luck that we have you here, Mr. Zorlu.”

The man nodded and smiled. “Call me Erkan. Glad to be of service.”

“Fuck!” Goran exclaimed and slapped his forehead with his hand. “I mean, sranje! The fridges! Of course!”

Andy looked at Goran. He didn’t frown this time. He started getting used to Goran’s cussing. “What about them?”

“The perishable food supplies will go rot soon without the power if the outage is permanent. We have to do something about it.”

Andy nodded. “Yes, you’re right.”

“And also water,” Goran said. “Back in my teenage years, I was in the siege of our city during the Yugoslav Wars, and we suffered from lack of water.”

“Yes,” Marcel said worriedly.

“Yeah,” Goran said. “We gotta fill all the bathtubs and all the receptacles we can find with water.”

“Besides, there is the water in the pools,” Andy remarked.

“We also have to keep the drinking water and non-drinking water separate,” added Erkan.

“So, water won’t be a problem,” Andy said.

“But we have to do it fast,” Goran said. “Who knows what will happen next? Water supply cutoff?”

“I’m afraid to even to think about it,” Diana said. “And also about the heating cutoff.”

People got agitated about the current problems, and it was getting noisy in the audience. It took Andy five minutes to call everybody to order.

A young man raised his hand. “Can you give me a gun so I could protect myself and my family?”

The red-faced troublemaker snorted. “A gun! One gun won’t help you much if you come across a crowd of those bloodsuckers. You’re walking meat for them.”

“Now this is really a big problem,” Andy said. “We have only five firearms in the hotel. They’re with the security guards.”

The family man looked disappointed.

It’s six, actually, but they don’t need to know about my shoulder holster, Andy thought. Besides, it’s still a drop in the ocean.

“We never needed so many weapons,” Andy said.

“Nine firearms,” said Marcel’s partner, a tall guy, wearing a black sports cap. He showed his Kalashnikov and a handgun and pointed to Marcel’s same set of arms. “Count us in.”

“And what shall we do then?” said the family man. “I got a wife and two kids in my room.”

“Oh man,” the tall cash messenger said. “There’s a lot of stuff you can use here for killing— knives, forks, table and chair legs, hammers, screwdrivers, pool cues. Take your pick. Hell, you can even kill using a fucking mascara pen eyeliner.” He tossed a pellet of chewing gum into his mouth.

Marcel said to the man, “Gleb, you’ve always been a professional.”

Gleb sat back, smirked and started chewing the gum.

“What are you talking about?” said the red-faced beer drinker. He had opened another beer can already. “Without arms, we’re all going to be fucking fodder for those freaks in no time!”

There was a general commotion again, and Andy had to dismiss the meeting.

“We’ve had enough of talking,” Andy said. “The sooner we begin doing something, the better.”

After the meeting, everyone was given a task to do. Some people helped to reinforce the barricades near doors, dragging all the sofas, tables, chairs, hassocks, and whatnot from the upper floors to block the doorways. Erkan Zorlu went into the basement to install the power generator. The sanitary engineer and two technicians helped him. The garage door had to be sealed, and Erkan could handle a welder’s equipment. He did his job in three hours.

The chambermaids continued to serve in the rooms. Some of them sought to escape from fear and depression, and they wanted to be around people. They were glad to be useful again. The guests were supportive and helped the maids. It seemed ridiculous to be complaining about dirty linen or dirty pillows in a critical situation like this when everything was falling apart. Some of them put their rooms in order themselves.

The waiters and waitresses went back to their duties. Due to the shortage of waiters, some of the guests volunteered to help out at mealtimes.

None of the guards were gone during the beginning of the chaos. Many strong men among the guests offered to be guards.