Life Among The Dead (Book 2): A Castle Made of Sand by Daniel Cotton

possible hiding place on
his way back to his companions. He needs to get them to the
employees only staircase by going through the dining area and
kitchen. They follow him under a walkway that spans over the
reception desk and offices so guests can look down upon the pool
area.
    Traveling through the gloom, they come to a
restaurant in the hotel. The open space is recessed into the floor,
with a bar in the middle like an island amid a sea of shadow. A
stainless steel breakfast area glitters in the modest light.
    The management had shown Eli where his men
would need to bring their equipment through, after breakfast hours
and before final checkout. The owners wouldn’t want patrons seeing
the tanks of insecticides coming in, or the men in coveralls
depicting dead roaches. As much as possible, they would need to be
discrete.
    The breakfast buffet is slick with blood, and
a scarlet smear runs across the floor from a swinging door. It
leads to the dark sitting area they have just navigated. Eli is
about to warn his party, but is too late. His daughter shrieks out
in fear. The sound stills his heart, and he pushes past the boy he
calls Chachi to get to her.
    A man in a white apron has her by one of her
blonde pigtails. The dead man has only one arm to use in this
painful game of tug-o-war. Her resistance drops him to his knees.
The girl hunches over, pulling away as hard as she can. The corpse
loses his balance and falls to the floor, taking her with him.
    Eli howls an unintelligible roar as he pins
the zombie with his knee and draws a blade from his belt. He has to
saw through the rope of hair to free his little girl before
plunging the blade into the ghoul’s skull.
    Dustin is more scared than he has ever been
in his life. Near the point of hyperventilation, he feels his
nerves abandon him. He becomes very aware of how full his bladder
is. A thumping draws his attention to the swinging door that leads
to the kitchen as more undead cooks push their way out. Folks who
once made a living feeding others are drawn to the sounds of a
meal.
    The small girl screams again, too petrified
to run. The sight has the opposite effect on Dustin, who can run
just fine. He rushes out of the nook and into the dark dining room,
toppling over chairs and shrouded tables in his mad dash to
safety.
    As he heads towards the lobby, two figures
fall from the elevated walk, landing with a sickening crunch.
Before the corpses can recover from the posthumous injuries, Dustin
leaps over them like an Olympic hurdler. He doesn’t break his
stride until he exits the hotel.
    Alone in the Camaro, he tries to calm himself
down. He notices his bladder no longer feels full and he smells the
warm aroma of urine.
    The uncomfortable, cold wetness of his pants
aside, Dustin’s hands cease trembling as he places them on the
wheel. He is ready to resume his original plan. From here, all he
needs to do is take a right and head to the bridge, and then north
all the way to Fallen where he can live out his dream.
    A helicopter cruises along the street
unusually low, taking the path he intends to follow. He watches it
pass over the hospital and rows of unmoving cars that he knows will
make his journey tough, but hopefully not impossible. The flying
craft mesmerizes him as it curiously reduces its altitude once it
approaches the expansion. A sudden nosedive transforms the chopper
into a fireball.
    “Fuck me!”
    The motionless traffic becomes a chain
reaction of explosions heading his way. His eyes are wide with
shock, taking in the rapidly advancing carnage. His brain won’t
engage and put the Camaro into gear. Glass shatters in the adjacent
buildings due to the concussive force of the blasts. The chaos
ceases as fast as it started, leaving Dustin dazed, but he is
finally able to put the car into drive and edge to the road. He
can’t believe he’s just witnessed such a disaster, or that he just
sat there while it closed in on him. He feels ready to proceed, but
he’ll