Static Screams

“What do you mean they’re not back?” My question was pointless, meant to process the information. I knew Lila recognized the rhetorical question, but she still narrowed her eyes at me. Huffing, I turned my back on the group and headed for the door.

I felt Lila’s freezing hand grab my arm as I turned. “Where are you even going?” She yanked on me to turn me around as she spoke. Behind her Nat was bundling Darren and Wren up in the blankets we’d gathered from the other rooms at the hotel. It seemed Darren knew better than to insist he not be doted on. He already had two blankets on and was allowing Natalie to put a third around his feet.

I pointed towards the door. “To yell for them and see if I can help them find us the way you did.” She blinked at me for a second, and then marched off the direction I was headed, two steps ahead of me.

Darren tried to brush off the blankets and follow, but I waved him off. He had a cut on his forehead that he needed to let Natalie tend to. If he had a concussion he didn’t need to be out in this.

Grabbing Lilas gloves off the dresser I ran after her. I caught up and passed off the gloves, for which she thanked me before rubbing her warming hands together. We braced ourselves at the weight of the blizzard on the doors before pushing them open.

I grabbed Lila and linked our arms together while still under the green canopy, which was vibrating from the wind.

“Holland!” I screamed while Lila shouted for Cosmic. We took turns yelling the four names of our missing friends into the snow. I hadn’t even seen the green canopy through it. It was the flame from Lilas head that told me where to go. An idea sparked and I yanked on Lila to direct us back inside. As we stepped towards the doors, they opened and Logan stepped out, bag in her heavily gloved hand.

“Hey! I’m going in to get-“

“Flashlights?” She cut me off by pulling our larger flashlights out of the bag and passing us each one before putting the bag back inside the door and shutting it behind her. She was brilliant. Beautiful and brilliant. She passed me a road flare before taking Lilas other arm.

I tucked the road flare in my pocket and twisted the ends of the flashlight different directions to power it on. While the intense light didn’t help anyone see, I hoped it would break through somehow. I knew the road flare would make a better light but it had a higher chance of drawing in zombies than the flashlights did.

After ten minutes of yelling their names and flashing our lights, I finally gave in. It was too cold and they were not able to respond.

We pulled our chain of humans into the building, and stood in the entry shaking off the snow and jumping up and down warming up. “Lila go check on the twins, Logan try to see if you can figure out a way to warm the rooms up.”

“What are you gonna do?” Logan asked, stepping forward to rub her bundled hands against my arms.

“I’m going to see if somehow there’s still a working landline here and a phone book. Maybe I can call the party store. I know it sounds like a long shot but I have to do something I can’t just sit here.” I threw my arms up in the air, exasperated, before turning and stomping off towards the office, snow flying off my boots.

The office was secure, but I still pulled the blinds closed and blocked the doors before rummaging through the mess. Eventually my foot found a heavy object that clanged when I kicked it on accident. Pushing all the papers and trash off of it, I was relieved to find it was indeed an old landline. Heavy and beige with numbers half rubbed off.

“Now to just find…” I trailed off talking to myself while I dug on the shelves for a phone book. “Oh wait!” I dropped to a squat and opened the bottom of the filing cabinet. “Aha!” It was dusty but in perfect condition. I flipped through the entire thing like a motion animated book, past the white pages and stopping seventy percent into the yellow pages. “Party Plaza!”

I settled myself onto the floor to take the cramp out of my calves before snatching up the receiver and listening for a dial tone. Nothing. “Shit. I should’ve checked that first.” I picked up the phone to toss it aside in annoyance, and noticed it wasn’t connected to a thing. “Should’ve checked that first actually.”

Once set up again I held it to my ear, and was greeted with the dull noise of a dial tone I thought I’d never hear again.

I punched in the numbers to the store and tapped my foot anxiously while I waited for it to not work. At last a loud ring finally clicked on. It rang a few times and then a dull monotone sound. “Shit.” I dialed again for the hell of it. It rang, and rang, and rang, and then clicked. “Hello?” I felt ridiculous. Talking on the phone during the zombie apocalypse? There was no way this was happening. “This is stupid.”

I started to hang up but then a crackling voice buzzed through the receiver. “Oh! Scarlett!” Holland’s voice sounded muffled and staticky but I knew it was him. “Party Plaza, how can I make your next party plaza-tively great?”

I snorted. I couldn’t help it. “Are y’all okay?”

“Yeah we’re good. We’re gonna stay hunkered down in here until the storm passes. The heat works and we’re okay. Did all of you make it back?” I heard a thud in the background. “Cos, maybe leave the cash registers alone?” Holland shouted.

I sighed, running a hand through my tangled mess of hair. “Yeah we made it back. The store was not a good idea though. Y’all stay warm. I expect to see you as soon as it’s safe.”

“Stay near the phone I’ll call before we leave and if anything happens. You call me too.”

I nodded before remembering he couldn’t see me. Man, this was weird. “Okay, Hol.”

“Peter!” Holland shouted again. “Bye Scar.”

Hanging the phone up I checked the sides to see if there was a volume control for the ringing. I figured I had enough time to head back to the rooms. We probably wouldn’t be calling for a while. I could go get my things and come back. Ensuring the ringer was up loud, I put it as close to the door as it would reach.

As much as I wished I could take it back to the room with me, I knew the number traced back to this phone. If I remembered how phones in hotels worked. The thought made me laugh. It had only been two years since I used a phone. If I’d forgotten how they worked already we’d have other concerns.

When I got back to the room Logan was coming down the branched off hallway. She smiled when she realized I was standing at the door. I couldn’t help but smile back.

“Hey.” I greeted as she reached me. She leaned forward, pressing a kiss to my forehead.

“Hey yourself. Did you find a phone?” She inquired as she pushed my tangled mess of red knots out of my face.

“I did. It worked thank god. They’re safe and staying at the party store until the blizzard calms down.” She nodded, gently removing pieces of debris from my hair. The action felt normal and made the tension in my bones relax a bit. I let myself breathe a few deep breaths before speaking again. “Did you find a way to warm up the rooms?”

Her eyes sparked and she grinned. “Oh boy did I, come on!”

“Hang on one second.” I opened the door to the room, searching for Darren. He was where I’d left him, covered in blankets reassuring Natalie he was okay. His eyes met mine and I laughed at his face. His long beard was dripping with melted snow and his eyes begged me to save him. “Darren, come help me for a minute?”

“Oops sorry Nat, gotta go!” Darren shrugged out of the pile of blankets, pat Natalie in the back, and followed me out of the room. She watched after him with a bewildered and worried look. “Thank you. Jesus, I was actually starting to sweat.” Logan laughed as I shook my head at him with a chuckle. “Everything okay?”

Nodding, I gestured down the hall. “Can you go down to the office and mind the phone in case Holland calls? Logan and I are going to get the warms roomed up.” I stopped for a second, shaking my head. “Sorry no, the rooms warmed up.”

They both smiled widely at me. Darren nodded before turning to head down the hall. A few steps in he turned back to me. “Wait did you say a phone?”

-

Logan readied herself outside of a door labeled “STORAGE” with a proud smile on her face. “You ready?” She asked.

Exhausted and cold, I gestured for her to continue. Still smiling she led me into the room and off to one side.

The shelves were still partly stocked, though some of the items were strewn across the beige tiled floor. Stacks of paper, business card boxes, staplers, pens, and paper clips filled the shelves. A copier that looked like someone tried to salvage it for parts stood off to the side.

“Logan, this is an office supply room.” I tried to give her a smile but I was cold and ready to figure out what she was showing me.

She rolled her eyes. “I know, love. But look!” She grabbed my arm and pulled me around a shelf, where I could now see another door with the label missing. She pulled back on the presentations, sensing my dwindling patience from exhaustion, and just opened the door. She picked up something heavy in a white and red box. Holding it out to me she grinned.

“I didn’t even know that was a thing!” I enthused, leaning forward to take the box from her. It probably weighed about three pounds, and the box promised that it was a portable battery powered ceramic heater. “That’s a mouthful.” I looked up from the box to Logan, to praise her for the find, but found her already looking at me, proudly holding up two more of the heaters. “Woah what how many are there”

“I found the safety procedure for the hotel. It stated one battery powered heater per every two rooms. Initially it was one but they didn’t get enough guests so they lowered it it seems.” She pulled me into the room so I could see the stack of boxes. “So since it’s a ten room hotel there’s 5, plus 2 spares, and one for the office.”

“We should figure out a way to travel with a few of them.” I mused. “Maybe tie them in a drawstring backpack and attach them to our packs somehow.” I trailed off, trying to brainstorm a way to hold on to these items. “How long do the batteries last?”

“The charge lasts for three hours. They go through the power pretty quickly. But it also says fully charged in 30 minutes. So if we find power somewhere we can charge them back up.” Logan read off the information from the packet she’d taken from one of the boxes.

“Let’s stack them up on the dolly over there and take all of them. Also a couple notebooks and pens too.” We worked silently for a couple minutes, packing up our finds.

As we were heading out the first door and towards the half glads “STORAGE” door, I paused. Logan ran into my back. “Wha-“ I shook my head, hand held up. She nodded and waited.

After a moment, a bloody hand smacked into the glass with a wet thwack, and slid down.