512 Sentiments, At a Lodge by the Roadside (1/2)

Day 126 - 7:32 PM - Royal Lodge, E Absecon Blvd., Absecon, New Jersey, United States of America

Along the empty boulevard, a small family-owned lodging with a great view of the Absecon Bay. The rooms looked dated, and it was low in terms of quality compared to the other lodgings dozens of meters away along the same road. The security of the place was questionable, and the facilities were not functioning for the most part. Furthermore, the apocalypse turned it into a dilapidated building filled with a bloody mess.

Nevertheless, if one was looking for a quick lodging in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, it was one of the best options.

After all, even though the security was not up to standards, it was easier to clear as it had a lesser number of infected wandering around or trapped inside its walls.

Now, a group of fifteen people was currently spending their time in this place for the night.

Of course, it was no other than Mark and Mei, together with the survivors of Bally's Casino.

With Mark and Mei around, clearing the infected and the problem with security got addressed without question. Cleaning the rooms that they needed to use fell in the hands of the survivors.

They had no questions against it either. What mattered was safety. They had no issues for doing menial labor after it was secured.

Nevertheless, they never thought that it would be quite hard than they imagined.

Rotting corpses left inside the rooms almost made their stomachs turn upside down.

Although these survivors had seen the infected daily since the outbreak, a dead, decomposing corpse was still different. Not to mention that they had to clean these disgusting, rotting piles of flesh that already stuck to the floor and walls.

Fortunately, they only had to clean three rooms on the second floor of the lodge. They picked the area above the office on the first floor that was easier to clean than the others.

While the survivors cleaned the rooms, Mei stood guard. Mark, on the other hand, left for an hour.

When he came back, they were yet to finish cleaning as the rooms were too filthy.

Then, it was when they heard Mark speak.

”Hurry up cleaning so we can cook a meal.”

That was when they noticed the two strange-looking rabbits that Mark had on his hand.

They looked like cottontail rabbits, but they had long, sharp fangs instead of incisors.

But seeing the rabbits, what came into the minds of the survivors was not doubt if these animals were edible or not. What was in their minds was that they never tasted fresh meat ever since the outbreak started.

It had been four months already. Some of them could not help but swallow their saliva because of that thought.

Seeing that, Mark and Mei could only shrug as they prepared the rabbits together.

When the night came, they were already eating a well-cooked meal after a long time. It was just a plain salted stew. The seasoning they found in the kitchen of the lodge was not even enough. From the looks of it, other people might have searched the place already long before.

Nevertheless, the taste of meat almost made them tear up.

Mark and Mei left the group to their own and ate in another room. After all, this arrangement was better for the survivors as they only met Mark and Mei today.

The survivors ate energetically. It was until the survivors noticed one of them. The other female mutator, Sandie Miller, was only staring at the bowl of food in front of her.

She was a woman in her mid-thirties. She was not beautiful, and she did not have an attractive body, either. However, what made her stand out from the group was that she was compassionate to everyone.

”Sandie, what's wrong? Did you not like your food?”

Arnold asked as he was the first to notice her.

Sandie snapped out of her daze because of the question. It was when she noticed that everyone was staring at her, waiting for her answer.

”No, I'm fine. The food is delicious. I just had things in my mind.”

”Is it about your family?”

Felicia asked as she stood up from her seat next to the unconcious Morgan and sat beside Sandie.

Most of the survivors that were stranded in Bally's Casino were either tourists or employees around the area. Sandie was one of the former, and she was with her family. Her husband and two children. Unfortunately, their family was among the first casualties of the outbreak in Atlantic City, and it was the very same incident that turned her into a mutator.

Sandie shook her head to that question.

”I'm still sad about my family, but that's not it. It's just... There is still a lot of us this morning, hungry and worrying for the future. Now, we have food, but there's only thirteen of us left.”

Hearing that, everyone could not help but feel down. It was the worst atmosphere breaker. However, no one wanted to rebuke Sandie. She was the mother figure of the group, so they understand her sentiment. What she said was also correct.

When they escaped the Casino, Sandie even asked Mark if they were the only ones left, which he nodded as a response. It just meant that either everyone else was already dead or already turned.

They were the only ones left of their group. All of them were too shocked by the events that happened earlier. It caused them to not think much of anything else aside from their survival.

Now that things had calmed down, the emotions for those events started to haunt them.

”It is better if we don't think about it too much.”

Arnold said, which made everyone look at him. After all, what he said was quite cold-hearted and was not like him at all.

Nevertheless, when they saw his expression by the gloomy fire they had, he was obviously feeling down. Then, Arnold continued.

”Let's just think that they already escaped the hardships that we are going to experience from here on out. Remember that we are following Sir Mark and Miss Mei, but we are never sure what we will find while following them.”

”That's true.” Felicia also spoke. ”Living in this world now was no different from being thrown in the middle of the Amazon forest, hard and deadly. In the least, none of them will struggle like us.”

”They are dead, we are alive. That's all that matters.”

Ernst also spoke. What he said, however, earned him everyone's unfriendly glare.

”Huh? Did I say something wrong?”

Ernst noticed their glares and was confused. He was just stating facts, after all.

”We are trying to cheer everyone up! You idiot with no social skills!”

”Ouch!”

Arnold knocked on the head of Ernst. It was a friendly knock, but it sounded quite heavy. Ernst could only hold his head in pain while staring at Arnold with an expression that did not know what he did wrong.

Seeing that, everyone laughed.