Chapter 2

Chapter 2
Brandon POV

I took off my pocket watch and read the time. My eyes catch the picture of my blood family. I miss them so much, but in this new world, we must think of the ones around us and not of the ones that we may have to point our guns toward. Well, that is, if they are infected. “One bite is all it takes,” a man once told me before his death, before he got infected.
Chris yells, “Brandon, what time is it?”
I respond, “A quarter of eight.”
He looks at me, “Why have you been wandering off in your head lately?”
I replied, “Just sleepy,” which is true, but is not the right answer. The answer is the nightmares; I have had this traumatized feeling ever since we slept in the abandoned hotel. We heard loud moans and bashing to the walls all around us, all night. When we checked the building, we found two recently killed bodies. They couldn’t be turned, because the zombies took everything but the bone out of them. The bodies were of a man about 6 feet tall grabbing tightly to a little girl around 3 feet tall.
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Right before my eyes is Caesar’s Palace. Daryl says, “Big, huh?” as he takes out the last Twinkie from his backpack. He unwraps it slowly. Chris turns red-faced. He says, “You told me we had no more Twinkies. That’s why I gave you the last two of mine, and I saw you eat them both right in front of me.”
“We’ve known each other for years, at least. I would think that you would know by now that I lie often,” Daryl says, smirking.
It was my turn to break up the fight. I take out one of the three Twinkies from my backpack and toss it to Chris. “It’s f***ing cold, we are all tired, so let’s just get inside,” I say, smiling.
Jackie is so sleepy she is dragging her feet on the floor. Daryl sweeps her from behind and starts carrying her to the elevators. I see Serena also ready to pass out, so I support her with my arm, from behind we can see Tyler being dragged by Sage and Chris.
We all huddle around the elevator. The highest floor number is 46. I click the up button and call out, “Open sesame.” The doors glided side to side. On the floor of the elevator is an industrial suitcase. Sage, leaving Chris to hold Tyler by thelselves, goes to the suitcase and checks it. There is nothing in it but papers, which are useless for us unless Chris, the Asian, can make an origami rocket launcher and ammunition.
We board the elevator and go up to floor 46, where everyone chooses their rooms. Daryl takes Jackie to the honeymoon suite. Chris drops off Tyler and Sage in the room right beside Daryl’s. Then I pick the room next to them; Serena picks the one next to mine; Chris drop off Tyler in the last room and chooses the room right before him, which was between Tyler and I.
Chris, Daryl, and I then proceeded to search the hotel for any survivors. But all we found was a room full of suicides.
We all then decided to retire to our rooms and enjoy the rest of the night.
I rest lightly, listening to my pocket watch tick--a beautiful noise indeed when the whole world is silent. A loud grunt emerges; it is Tyler’s snoring 30 feet away. I smile, knowing that even though Tyler’s overly excessive snoring disturbs me, at least I was sleeping in a bed with a pillow and a blanket. Wait a second…a silk blanket.
The next morning I wake up seeing a distorted object in the shape of a human in my bedroom. I rub my eyes. It’s Serena. I stand and walk to her seat and see that she is sleeping. I give her a nudge, and she awakens immediately, yelling, “SHIT!”
“The group was looking for inventory and told me to stay to wake you, but I guess I accidently fell asleep in this chair,” she explained. I smile and laugh loudly. “It’s ok, it happens to everyone.”
We go down the elevator, stopping at each of 15 floors until we find Chris walking down the hall.
“Hey, Serena, if you wanted alone time with Brandon, you just have to say so,” Chris says.
I laugh and take Serena by the waist. “You’re just jealous because I get more affection then you,” I reply. That makes Chris mad as hell.
In this new world, love, compassion and affection fuel our hunger and addiction. It is no longer money. Having wealth can’t compete with being around the ones you care about. Poverty doesn’t compare to being alone, which is a great fear of mine, a fear shared by everyone around us.
Daryl arrives in time to break it up. “I’m not trying to force you not to fight, but at least save the weapons for our enemies,” he reminded.
We start out on our quest for the great casino. We walk for what seems like an hour but is really a few minutes, and there it is, in the distance. As we approach, we see some human-like figures coming toward us. Chris grabs his gun with one hand and raises the other one making a number two sign. He half crouches and looks at us still standing straight, gesturing for us to get into position. It takes another minute or so until we respond.
“What the hell are you doing?” Daryl asked with a confused face that mimics the others around us.
“God, you guys don’t know military signs,” Chris sighed, standing up. “This sign means stay alert,” he says, showing us the sign again.
“Ohh, I thought you wanted to take a crap or something,” Daryl says, while Chris stands, forming his pissed-off face.
“Shut up!” a familiar voice orders. “Put your guns on the floor and kick them toward us.”
We do as we are instructed, then we raise our heads to see who these people are. We all gape at the sight, and Daryl mumbles something. “Alyza?”
We are confronted with a group of women wearing camouflaged uniforms with name tags in large printing. The leader approaches. She is Latin and tall with wavy long hair and a nametag that had imprinted Alyza. She was followed by Kenzie, Zwick, Mendez, and Olivia.
“Daryl?” she said out loud. Then she looks at all of us and counts to the number 10.
“You guys actually made it. Huh…even total retards can survive a zombie apocalypse. Maybe we’re not really doomed after all,” she says.

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We asked where they were headed and they pointed at our destination, the casino.
I yell, “Drinks on me!” We all head toward the casino. The door hinges are rusty and we have to work together to open the large metal door. As we walk in, the door shuts behind us, making a clucking sound, followed by a ringing noise. We look back, but see nothing suspicious. We continue inside and smell something rotten that hits us in an overpowering, repugnant wave.
Once we are inside, Daryl looks around and says, “Gotcha” as he flips the light switch. The lights turn on. The place looks horrible--beers splattered everywhere, blood on the walls, and, yeah, the usual four dozen zombies on the ground.
I look at my watch and say, “Ohh, boy, we don’t have enough time for this.”
Kenzie shushes me, awakening the first zombie. its moan awoke another, and soon many of them returned to consciousness. We take out our guns and begin to shoot. Daryl, with his amazing d’eagle, Chris with his double-barrel shotgun, Serena with two M19 pistols, Tyler using an M-A1 go into action, as the rest of the group, armed with SR9 pistols, stands there for a moment before joining us. I’m using my shotgun, a large pump-action Spas 12. We keep shooting and shooting until all the bullets are lost in the flesh of the foul creatures we used to call people. They just keep coming, so we decide to flee.
As we raced out of the casino, the Hummer pulled over next to us. The two marines jumped out as we, including the 5 new girls, packed into the Hummer. The older Marine slammed the door without getting in.
“Get in” I begged.
“We’ve done our job, now go do yours” he commanded as he fires into the approaching swarm.
“Go god damn it” Alyza shouted.
Reluctantly, I drove away, leaving the two men to gave their life to us be consumed by the ever growing menace to humanity.