Page 23 of Hollow Child

There was a loud banging on the other side of the door, and Max was on his feet, grabbing his weapons from his knapsack.

“Get underneath the piano,” he told me over the sound of zombies groaning and howling.

“Zombies!” Samara shouted a warning from the other side of the dining hall only a moment before twenty zombies came crashing through the doors.

I leapt to my feet, grabbing my walking stick as I did, and I dove under the baby grand piano.

Ripley immediately pounced on the quickestzombie, while Max faced off against another with brass knuckles in his left hand and the billhook in his right. Remy had long ago insisted that we learn how to fight ambidextrously, but Max had taken to it much better than I had.

At the top of the grand staircase, Remy suddenly appeared and shouted, “Max, watch out!” as she took aim with her crossbow. She fired and a bolt flew through the zombie’s decaying gelatinous skull, spraying thick green goo all over as it exploded.

Then she raced down the stairs, hurriedly loading and firing at other zombies as she did. Lillian followed just behind her, armed with her hatchet.

A moment later, Castor, Polly, and Samara ran into the lobby from the neighboring dining hall.

Between the six of them, and a serious assist from Ripley, they decimated the zombies relatively quickly, leaving a splattering of guts and flesh all over the fine furnishings.

“Is everyone okay?” Lilian asked after the carnage ended.

“Yeah, I think so,” Caster said, just as a zombie stirred next to his foot, and he stomped on its head to finish it.

“Are there anymore zombies?” Remy asked, but she didn’t bother waiting for a response before pushing through the double doors to go into the next room.

Max came over and helped me out from under the piano. “How are you?” He brushed back my hair so he could look me in the eyes. “Nothing got you?”

“No,” I assured him. “They never came anywhere near me. How about you?”

He smiled. “I’m always good. You know that.” He kissed my forehead, and his hand without the brass knuckles went to my belly.

Ripley came over and rubbed up against me, whichwas her own way of inspecting to make sure that I was okay.

“Where did all those zombies come from?” Lillian asked. “Were they free roaming around?”

“No, they were in the kitchen,” Castor explained. “In the pantry, and I moved a stovetop out from in front of it because I thought there might be food –”

“Wait.” Lillian cut him off and held up her hand. “Someone had blocked off the door with something very heavy, and you just moved it to the side and opened the door right up without checking anything? Hasn’t anyone ever told you about Chesterton’s Fencing?”

When Castor shook his head, Lillian went onto explain, “Do not remove a fence until you know why it was first placed. Because if you don’t, you have a tendency to release something that was better kept on the other side of the fence.”

Remy returned from the other room and said, “I didn’t see any other zombies around.” Then she turned to me and Max. “We cleared the rooms upstairs. You can rest comfortably and lock the door so you’ll be safer.”

“Any room except for Room 238,” Lillian said as Max and I gathered our things. “That one is mine.”

“I’ll go up with you to make sure that everything is clear,” Remy said.

Ripley ran on ahead of us up the stairs, but I moved slowly. The plush carpet felt amazing on my bare feet, but everything still hurt.

Remy led Max and me most of the way down the hall, pausing in front of Room 236. “I think this is a nice one.” She opened the door, peeking inside, and then nodded. “Yeah. This is perfect.”

It was dusty, but otherwise clean with a large queen bed in the middle. That was all I really cared about, and Max and Remy hit the blankets in attemptto release the dust.

Once they’d finished, I laid down and let out a delighted sigh. “Oh, this is heavenly.”

“Glad you like it,” Remy said. “Boden and I will be in the room across the hall, but right now I’m going down to the engine room or whatever to see what they’re doing. You two just stay here and rest.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” Max said with a salute. She smirked and left, and he turned back to me. “It’s stuffy in here, isn’t it?” He went over and opened the sliding doors to our private balcony, letting in a fresh summer breeze. “Much better.”

“Why don’t you come sit with me?” I asked, patting the bed beside me.

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