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The soft scrap of my slippers as I moved sluggishly across the floor was a quiet echo as I took the last few steps toward the entrance door of the motel. In the window I could make out a few shadows through the curtain with the provided light from the full moon, the white beam illuminating one figure I recognized immediately while providing a glow of direction in the otherwise pitch black darkness of the O.
I grabbed the cool round door knob once the lock had unlatched and opened the heavy wood barrier to find Commander Hendricks and two guards standing on the porch and the steps. “Hey Abby, sorry to wake you.” Hendricks said to me as I moved aside to let them in.
“It's alright, sleeps over rated.” I croaked back with a lazy smile. “What do we have?”
“Ricks team. He brought back a small group, five adults and three children.” He told me as he waved his two men to bring in the people. Three men came in first, each with a small child in their arms, followed by the two women and the guards.
“How many rooms?” I asked no one in particular as I looked on at the group, the smell of burnt wood or campfire lingering around them.
“Four.” Hendricks answered for them after a moment of silence. The commander was good at studying the information the people provided at the gate, he liked for them to know he was paying attention just as much as he liked knowing who was in his town. “This is Ryan and his son Conner.” He introduced me to the first man. “They'll need a room.”
Ryan was a taller, slim guy that looked to be about in his thirties. He had dark hair, dark eyes and a short dark beard. The boy he was holding, Conner, was just the opposite, light skin and blonde hair. He was sleeping but I could guess his eyes were probably blue.
“Alright.” I answered him as I went around the front desk to retrieve keys and hand them out after introductions and according to Hendricks’ direction.
“This is Lucas and the little one he's holding is Lexie. They will need a key.” Hendricks said indicating to the two of them. Lucas was about my height, five-seven-ish, with a little extra weight around his waist; he wore round glasses and shaggy dirty-blonde hair and had a kind smile. The little girl Lexie was awake and gave me a shy grin and wave while she halfway hid her eyes behind her dads face. Her curly strawberry blonde hair complimented her tiny figure and highlighted her blush lips and cream skin.
“Here is Lucas’s brother Owen and Owens wife Emily and their daughter Madelyn.” He told me. Owen looked like his brother, maybe shorter and slightly more overweight. He also had curly blonde hair and light eyes, probably in his late thirties. Emily was a little taller than her husband with a slimmer figure and light brown hair. She was all wide eyed and worried as she stood protectively by her husband and smoothed her sleeping daughters’ dark hair as she slept comfortably on the man’s shoulder.
“And finally, this here is Paige; she'll need her own room.” Hendricks said finishing with introducing me to the last girl. Paige looked my age, but maybe a year or two younger. Her shoulder length hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail with bangs that lay flat and almost in her eyes. The color was hard to gauge in the muted light of the desk lamp but if I were to guess it looked auburn. She had long lashes and full dark lips and was pretty, I could tell that much even though she was dirty like the rest of the group.
“Welcome to Thompson Falls.” I told them with a smile as I handed over the keys. “I'm Abby.” Quiet and tired murmurs of thanks were followed by polite refusals of the sandwiches I offered before I showed each of them to their rooms. Once they were settled I went back to where the Commander and his two guards were waiting for me. Hendricks had made a pot of coffee and was pouring himself a cup while the other two leaned against a wall. The smell was strong in the room and I guessed he made it extra stout for his long night ahead.
“How are they?” He asked before taking a cautionary sip of the hot beverage. He was dressed in tan cargo pants and a tan shirt with his gun belt securely around his waist.
“They didn't say too much, but they all looked really happy to see the beds in the rooms.” I smiled as I sat down in the chair closest to me. “And the showers.” I told them and they chuckled.
“You look beat girl, you should get some rest.” Malik, one of the guards, said to me. He was dressed almost identically to Hendricks, but his stalky, darker frame and long dreads gave the garments around him a more defined look. Josh, the other guard, was close to an exact opposite of Malik, his white skin and bald head where a contrast to his dark gray cargo pants and black t-shirt. Both men were attractive, in their mid-twenties and were rarely seen one without the other.
“Oh, I'm only here in physical form,” I told him, while I stifled a yawn and tucked my legs up under myself. “the rest of me is still passed out in my bed.”
“Why don't you go back and rest Abby,” Hendricks told me. “I'll clean up here after I finish my coffee, there's no need for you to be sleep deprived.”
“What's the story with Rick’s team?” I asked, ignoring him. “And where was this group found?” Hendricks only gave me the stink eye for a moment before telling me what I wanted to know, while Malik and Josh held back snorts and laughter.
“Rick's team was over in the Dakota's gathering medical supplies when we last had contact with them. They were circling around and heading back through the northern part of Wyoming when they found this group. They were coming from the Honor Camp near Newcastle; they say the place was overrun with kooks.”
“And the eight of them were the only ones that escaped?” I asked surprised. Honor was a large settlement with numbers close to our own, not to mention it was once a prison of sorts, so its security was really good too.
“They don't know for sure.” He said nodding his head in the direction of our sleeping guests. “They each said it all happened so fast that when they saw an opportunity to escape, they took it.”
“Wasn't Honor under Vampire protection?”
“Yeah.”
“But, their facility is almost as secure as Thompson Falls, add that with the vamps...” I trailed off, unsure of how to continue.
“That's where the details get a little strange.” Hendricks said; his tone in agreeance with my own confusion. “From the sound of it, they were kook spawn and not your regular munchers, but the neckers should have been more than capable of running them off.” Commander Hendricks shook his head in frustration as he relayed what had been told to him, to me.
The reason vampire protection is so sought after is because they don't lose. Their stronger and faster and their senses are better than humans. Even if it was a large group of kook spawn attacking Honor, they would have heard them way before they reached the town and could have had the problem handled without losing anyone, let alone the entire community.
“Are we sure about them?” I asked him, indicating that I meant our new sleeping guests. “…or their story?”
“No.” He told me without hesitation. “But for now we have nothing else that says otherwise. It seems unlikely that a group of zombies were able to overrun a town under the protection of vamps and wipe out more than three hundred people, but until we know for sure, that's what the story is.”
Commander Hendricks downed the rest of what was left in his cup, and then went to the pot to pour the remainder in his thermos. The information that had been told to me tonight was having a hard time taking root in my brain, I wasn't sure if it was because I was so tired, or the fact that the story itself seemed outlandish, time and more information were needed for me to make any sense of it.
“What's the plan then?” I asked him. I knew that the Commander wouldn't just let this go, and once Rick's team was debriefed and he had all the information available, we would be learning more on our own.
“The plan for right now is for you to get some sleep.” He told me in a disapproving tone. “Then, and only after you don't look like road kill, we'll talk more about what to do.”
“Fine. But if its beauty sleep you’
re after, then we're all screwed.” I said to him as I stood getting ready to go back to my room.
“I'm leaving these two here for the night.” He said jutting out his chin toward Malik and Josh.
“I figured.” I said to him as I turned to smile at my two overnight guests. “You guys know the drill.” I said to them as I began to walk down the hall. “Just make sure I have enough food left to feed the locals.”
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