CHAPTER 129: A DEN OF SNAKES.

The last known signal from Alfred’s phone was the Majestic pearl hotel. It was near the Wescott international airport. Sunshine had not known where they were heading until they were almost there. If she had know their destination early, perhaps she should have told Nimo that it was a wasted trip.

She had been to the Majestic Pearl hotel in her last life in the third year of the apocalypse. It was not the crown jewel of old days whose balconies draped in peonies, marble floors shone like stars and the walls echoed with beautiful piano music.

Instead, it was a place with a dead zone filled with mist, spores and snakes, normal and mutated. At the time when she came by, a superhuman named Dominic and his team had just killed the mutated cobra which ruled the territory and wiped out most of the den.

Mutated snake gall bladders were used in medicine and poisons. Snake meat was edible and the snake skins could be turned into clothes. The Majestic snake den as it came to be known as a good hunting ground for superhumans.

Looking at it now, Sunshine could not see any snakes but she could also see what was there: ruins.

"Oh God." Nimo felt a knot tie in her stomach on seeing what Sunshine was also looking at.

Everything around had been turned to dust and acid rain swept off the debris. The main building now stood like a wounded giant in the middle of a waste land. Its front section had been gutted by meteorite impact. Smoke still curled faintly from ground where parts of the hotel had sunk along with meteors.

"It is just as bad in the back." Elio said.

The hotel’s back half leaned at a sick angle but somehow still clung to life, it’s cracked windows and peeling walls sheltering whatever or whoever had survived inside.

"This is it?" O’Toole breathed, eyes fixed on the building. He did not want to say it but it did not seem like anything was living here. The hotel had been abandoned on the day the meteors fell.

If anyone made it out alive, they had to be protected by a divine artifact!

Nimo let out deep breathe. "Let us go in, Alfred could be injured....."

She took a step forward but Major Elio’s arm shot out like a barricade.

"Slow down sergeant. That place....it’s moving." His pale irises sharpened unnaturally_his super sight catching faint shadows flitting past the shattered windows. "Mutated animals. More than one."

Nimo scowled, ready to argue, but the sharp pop-pop-pop of gunfire echoed from inside the hotel.

The group froze.

"You said animals and animals do not shoot guns, are there people inside?" Sunshine asked.

Elio focused his gaze but he could feel something looking back at him, interfering with his focus. He blinked and shook his head.

They heard screaming and Sunshine made up her mind. "Alright, we are moving in now. Everyone, follow my lead and stay sharp."

They entered cautiously through a broken window, the air thick with the sharp tang of metal and something sour. Sunshine guessed it was acid rain residue eating into the weak concrete or bodies of those that died there rotting in the ground.

Inside, shadows flickered in the dim light and Sunshine tightened her hand around the hammer in her hand. If anything came at her, she was flattening it.

"Watch out for snakes." She warned.

Someone in the back whimpered and another cursed. None of them had seen a single snake though. The ground was mushy, like an orange which was about to rot. As for the same, it was even worse the deeper they moved.

Suddenly, Sunshine paused and reached for her gun. Two soldiers pushed ahead of her, weapons drawn and eyes sharp.

Down the hallway, Siegfried and O’Toole saw a group of gaunt, staggering figures pacing slowly. They were thin, their skin looked waxy and some had wounds on their bodies.

"What the hell are they supposed to be?" Siegfried touched the trigger of his gun.

Before anyone could react, a dozen of armed scavengers in patched armor burst from a side corridor. One of them was shouting, "Zombies!"

Siegfried panicked and started to shoot and O’Toole who was equally nervous followed his lead.

"Stop shooting." Sunshine shouted. "Those are not zombies, it’s the red disease which comes from being infected by mist. Keep your masks on because this place could have mist."

"Fuck!" Siegfried cursed.

One of the scavengers did not care what Sunshine thought and he had a gun as well. He shot the sick people and turned to the new arrivals. "More strangers," he snarled. "Shoot first_"

Major Elio’s riffle cracked, blowing the weapon out of the leaders hands. "We are not here for your loot," he barked "we are looking for someone."

The scavengers hesitated and looked at the new arrivals wearily. They would have attacked if weapons were not pointed at them.

"How did you walk in the rain?" One of them asked.

"Are you soldiers?" Another asked.

Behind them, deeper in the hotel, came a shrieks. Animal. Guttural and close.

"You better run." The leader of the scavengers told him right before they disappeared.

Sunshine’s stomach sank. Snakes did not shriek, not even if they mutated. Something else was residing in the hotel.

"We should keep moving forward." She said with determination.

The soldiers followed her. They rounded the corner towards the sound and found a mutated dog the size of a small cow. It was tearing into a woman’s arm, pinning her to the ground using its mouth that was full of jagged teeth.

Sunshine did not hesitate to move. She swung her arm out and smashed the animal on the side of the cheek with her hammer. Major Elio fired at it twice and it dropped to the floor.

Private Kerri dropped to her knees beside the victim. But one look at the shredded flesh told the truth. "It’s too late."

The woman’s breathing hitched her eyes glassy. Private Kerri turned away, shoulders tight.

They pushed on meeting more hazards on the way. A nest of mutated rattle snakes with thousands of feet writhing under the bed.

While some wondered how Sunshine had seen those snakes all the way from where they had been, others set them on fire using the dragonoid.

"This place is hell." Private Kerri declared.

Acid rain was leaking through a cracked roof and hissing against the floor, half rotting bodies were everywhere and they were encountering more snakes although many were young.

Suddenly, Patrick stopped dead in his trucks. His eyes locked on a familiar object lying under a collapsed ceiling beam. He saw something familiar that he recognized. It was Alfred’s pocket watch that had been given to him by his great grandfather.

"Alfred’s pocket watch!" He shouted charging forward.

"Uncle Patrick wait!" Sunshine called out but it was too late.

The soft wet floor gave way under him and he fell waist deep into the jagged gap, a corroded steal rod tore through his thigh. His scream cut through the air.

Siegfried and O’Toole rushed to drag him out while Major Elio covered their backs. Something was moving fast down the hallway towards them and it was slithering very loudly.