Zombie Fever: Outbreak by B.M. Hodges

the boy’s arms and legs together and when he was finished he rushed to the toilet to scrub his hands and arms.
    Sheldon turned to the teams who were gaping at the unfolding scene near the café’s open doors, “Okay, people. I have your room keys,” he held them up and gave them a jingle, “Get your luggage from your cars and go to your rooms for now. We need to take care of this situation.” He thought for a moment, “Team interviews are cancelled for the time being. You can change out of those soiled clothes into more comfortable attire. If we need you for re-shoots in the morning, we’ll inform you tonight. For your own safety, please remain in your rooms for the time being.”
    We stood there frozen until Quaid called out authoritatively, “You heard the boss, get moving!”
    That broke the spell.
    We made our way around the totaled rally car, now a fixture in the interior of the hotel lobby, trying to skirt around the area of lounge that was now possibly teeming with the virus. We retrieved our bags and followed Kip to our rooms.
    The rooms were sparse but clean. I was disappointed to find two twin beds in our room, preferring to cozy up to Jamie in the same bed. But she was happy, preferring as usual to sleep in separate beds, claiming I had the ‘jimmy legs’ and would kick and knee her tushy throughout the night when we slept together.
    I sat at the foot of my bed, took the remote and turned on the television to see what stations we could pick up. There was nothing but fuzz and when I called down to the reception desk to complain there was no answer. Bored, we rummaged through the cabinets below the TV and found a DVD player and some Hong Kong action movies and Malay serial dramas. I was already getting antsy being locked up and we’d only been in the hotel room for twenty minutes.
    I looked at my watch, it was only 4.30 pm.
    “Let’s do some exploring.” I suggested.
    We took a couple of bottles of water from the mini-fridge and opened our door. But there was Felix, across from our room on a folding chair reading a newspaper and eating an apple. He looked up from his paper as I opened the door and firmly shook his head, ‘No’.
    I closed the door.
    Crap.
    Jamie flopped back onto one of the beds, “I guess we nap,” was all she said, closing her eyes.
    But I wasn’t tired so I put in one of the Malay dramas and tried to follow along without English subtitles.
    The hours ticked by.
    Around six thirty, there was a knock on the door. Felix was standing there holding our ‘dinner’ which consisted of polystyrene containers crammed with bee hoon noodles, bits of boney chicken and stir fry veggies. “Looks like we’re confined to quarters for the night,” I told Jamie who was still lying on her bed feigning sleep. Felix nodded and shut the door.
    It was very frustrating to be locked away like prisoners. And both of us were going through withdrawals from lack of internet and mobile devices. It was a complete lack of social media, period. I tried the front desk again to check on the television but there was still no answer from reception. I called half a dozen times just to see if someone would answer, letting the phone ring for five minutes at a time. Then I opened the door to see if Felix had anything to say, but he wasn’t talking to us either. After I closed the door, we could hear him and the other cameramen guarding the other team’s doors down the hall, chatting away in Malay, laughing and gossiping, oblivious to our needs.
    We were so bored we went to sleep around eight when we, the chattiest of girls, ran out of things to talk about.
    Crack!
    Deep into the night a loud noise woke the two of us.
    It was a loud blast ringing out from the darkness.
    “What was that?” Jamie whispered from her bed.
    I recognized that sound. There is a flock of black crows that lived in the trees near our HDB block. Sometimes the flock would grow too large and the government would issue a temporary permit to