The hotel, though clearly elaborate and lively at one time, was now hollow and dead. It had a foreboding aspect. It gave Penny the creeps. She stayed close to Leon, even though she was beginning to find his company wasn't completely soothing. He was big and strong, but barely ever spoke. In fact, Penny had hardly noticed him before he helped Howie today. He had only been with the group for a few weeks and it occurred to her that she didn't know much about him at all.

He stepped out of the bathroom back into the hotel room they were checking. Empty. Just like the last three. No surprise. Looked like the group that now lay out on the lawn didn't stay in these rooms at all. Penny followed him back into the hall and down to another door.

"Hey," she said.

"Mm?"

"Thanks for-for earlier."

He turned the knob, but it was stuck. He stood back and kicked the door hard. The sound of cracking wood echoed down the hall. If he replied, she didn't hear it. He stepped inside. Penny followed, marveling a moment at his strength.

"Wow..."

She noticed a few smears of blood, remnants from his skull crushing moment outside. She looked away.

This room was different. Clothes and food wrappers were tossed about. Cans of soda littered the room. A pair of denim shorts, a size small sweater, a few hair ties. This was clearly a female's room. Leon began searching through the mess, but Penny didn't. Something had her eye. On the bedside table sat a photo of one blonde teen girl, one redheaded teen girl, a smaller blonde boy, and an older man with his arms around them all. The redhead in the photo was wearing the sweater she saw on the floor.

Her chest tightened. It was the girl she'd seen outside, the one that had grabbed Howie. She looked about Penny's age. The girl had lived here, if only briefly, and now her life force is smeared on the door, marking her death.

Who was she? How did she get here? Were the others in that photo with her? So many questions plagued Penny.

"Hey," Leon said, with a serious look. His dark green eyes didn't bore into her, asking unspoken questions. They were soft, like they understood. "There's nothing here. C'mon."

He put a hand on the back of her shoulder and steered her out. They began walking toward another room, and Penny tried to nonchalantly wipe a few tears away.

Leon stopped abruptly, which gave her pause. She followed his eyes and saw a door was ajar ahead. Open doors were sometimes a cause for caution in the pre-apocalypse, but it was never a good thing these days. Sure enough, when they sneaked inside, there was some blood spattered about. It was a room with two beds. One unmade bed was covered in speckles and a lamp lay overturned on top of the sheets. The metal was bent at the base as though it had struck something hard. The smell was putrid. The blood had darkened. Whatever happened in here, it looks like whoever had been involved was long gone.

The other bed had only half as much gore covering it. There was two duffel bags laying atop, spilling over with supplies.

"Jackpot," Penny said.

She turned to flash Leon a smile, but he was already heading toward the bathroom, as had become their routine. Penny shrugged and went to the duffel, slipping between the two beds where only a bedside stand separated them. She dragged the duffel to the edge, set her knife beside it on the bed, and started pawing through.

Batteries, flashlights, a few knives, neither of which bigger than the one she'd just laid down-

She felt the shift in the air as Leon walked up next to her, silent and unspeaking as always.

She saw a silver device sticking out of a pocket in the duffel and snatched it.

"Yes!" An iPod.

She started to continue, but her body felt something wrong. The fine hairs on her arms spiked up as goosebumps covered her. It was the way Leon was standing. He was much too close.

Wrong! her brain screamed. Her heart seemed to agree, because it started to race, pumping it's fear into her ears. She turned and screamed out of shock when she saw it wasn't Leon.

She saw the giant gash in the undead's face, splitting it in two. One side seemed to fall away from the bone, the skin around the eye drooping with slack. He had bled heavily all down his front. He reached out for her. She had stepped back, nearly falling on the bedside stand. The knives were too far. The best she could do was grab his gruesome, puffy face and push the skin felt like melting wax beneath her fingers.

"Nooo!" she cried, using all her strength, but feeling the fresh-ish undead push against her, using all the strength left over from the human that used to reside in the body.

Penny closed her eyes. If she lost this fight, she wasn't going to see those jagged teeth coming at her. But then she heard a loud thump. The undead slackened, and then fell. Penny was free.

Her chest heaved. She saw Leon standing there, holding his claw hammer tight in his right hand, his left held out to her. It took a moment to accept that she wasn't dying. A moment she was grateful for. He held her steady as she climbed over the dead undead lump on the floor.

"What you find?" he asked, nodding toward her free hand. She hadn't even realized she'd kept hold of it through the scuffle, but now she felt the sides biting into her fingers. She loosened her grip.

"iPod," she said. She studied it a moment. "This better work and have some good music. I almost died for it."

She pressed the button and the front lit up. Twenty-seven percent. Leon handed her the knife she'd abandoned on the bed.

"Thanks," she said, feeling a little embarrassed. He just grunted and went back to search the duffel bags for himself.

She busied herself with the device. To her delight, the music app was full of rock and country. At least she saw Korn on the list. She plugged in the earbuds that were attached, hoping to calm her speeding heart. She stared at the grounds, far beyond the dormant war zone outside, out into the trees and the sky and let herself go.

Repulsion invades me
I say goodbye-

Penny ripped the earbuds out, freeing her eardrums. Her brows pulled together in concern. Something just fell in front of the window...it almost looked like a swimmer in a swan dive. She was sure of it. It looked like-

But it couldn't be!

"Leon we have to go out!"

He gave her a look, nodded at the undead, "He's gone."

"No, not that," she said. "I saw something fall outside."

---

Penny saw Missy on the lawn. She hadn't moved from the position she fell in. Blood ran from between her lips. Her eyes were glossed over. Her neck was twisted oddly. There was no need to check for a pulse, Penny knew there wouldn't be one.