9 Reunion and Disappearance

Bam!

William heaved a sigh when he finally reached the first floor. The hotel itself only have four floors and most of the Xermo were already attracted by the speakers that have been looping the announcement from the government. Even though the electricity was cut, there was still enough emergency generator producing electricity to the speaker.

Thanks to that, the Xermo was attracted out. This gave some people chance to get out of their hiding place and moved to somewhere better. However, the number of survivors in this place could be considered low as many of them didn't manage to protect themselves.

BANG!

Loud sound came from the first floor. William swiftly moved down before he heard the rapid sound of gunshot followed by a lot of dull sound of someone falling down. By the time he reached the first floor, he could see a military car blocking the entrance to the door and also his friend who had just finished cleaning up.

"Yakov!"

The man named Yakov had large built. He was nearly 6 feet tall and had messy black hair. His brown eyes were shining when he saw his friend coming to his direction. Since he was not on duty when the accident happened, he was also only wearing ordinary shirt with a black jacket that was not zipped.

"You sure take your time," Yakov said with a grin. He pushed the bag behind him to William. "That's filled with gun and bullets. How many bags do you need?"

"How much do you have?"

"I only managed to bring out four bags before the police station is razed by the Xermo. The police officers had killed a lot of them, but their number is much more than what we expect." Yakov pushed another bag to William before he took two bags by himself and walked into the building.

William furrowed his brows. "How much time needed to transform into Xermo after you got bitten?"

"I don't know."

"…"

Well, both of them were not researchers, and they were not present when someone changed into Xermo. They could only hope that it would take a long time so that they would not need to fight with so many Xermo.

William sighed and started to climb the stairs. The area was covered with the smell of blood and gunpowder, which reminded him of the battlefield. "There's only one girl that we're going to bring with us for now."

"For now?"

"I'm thinking of taking some people, but the second floor is completely done for."

Yakov turned his head to look at the side and noticed that the second floor's doors were all completely open. It was not hard to imagine that the door didn't manage to hold on facing so many Xermo banging it open and the result was a total disaster. The entire second floor didn't make it.

"The third floor?"

"You better see it for yourself."

When he was cleaning the place out of the Xermo, William also realized that the third floor was breached. There were a lot of corpses along with new Xermo that have just changed after a short period of time.

As they walked up the stairs, they could see the third floor was filled with mess. There was only one door that was still closed, but their instinct as soldiers told them to stay away from that place. It was as if they would regret it if they chose to open the supposedly safe door.

"What do you think is inside the room?" Yakov asked slowly.

William shook his head. "I don't know and I won't go there for now. Isn't it strange that the door in the middle is the one that stay intact?"

Xermo would only move based on instinct, yet they left that one door that was located in the middle. It meant that there must be a reason as to why they didn't dare to open the door. As for what it was, no one knew for sure.

Yakov furrowed his brows. Normally, they would need to try to save as many people as possible because of their occupation as soldiers. But in this situation, they didn't have the capability to protect so many people. Even if they could, it would be only limited to a few people who also could protect themselves.

"$%^&*("

As they reached the highest floor, the two of them could hear curses coming from there. The door was still closed, but there was smell of blood coming out from inside. It alarmed the two of them as they changed the bag's position to allow them hold their weapon in their hands more comfortably.

There was no word they said, but William moved based on the procedure he was taught back when he was still a soldier.

Bang!

With his gun at the front, William banged the door. The scene in front of him surprised him because he could see young master from the first room was beating up his guard. On the other hand, the guard was crouching while holding onto his left hand. There was no visible wound but the guard kept on holding it as if it was his lifeline.

"You idiot! You should have #$%^&*(*&^%$%^&!"

(A/N: you can imagine the curse )

William furrowed his brows when he realized that the door to his room was forced open. There was sign of broken entry as his heart grew cold.

Bang!

Yakov was startled when he heard the gunshot. He couldn't see any Xermo inside the hallway, so he was confused as to why William would suddenly open fire.

"Mind you explain to me why you break into my room?" William asked in a cold tone.

The young master was looking at the gun in William's hand with sweat pouring on his back. He didn't know why, but he had the feeling that if he dared to answer, the bullet would nestle in his head instead of the ground like just now. His eyes were looking at William with wariness.

"What are you talking about?" The young master gathered his courage. "I didn't know anything."

At this time, Yakov's eyes had turned cold. He could see that William was looking at the last door where he was supposed to be staying. It would not be hard to guess that these scums thought that William would not return back.

Leaving a young girl alone in this kind of place?

It would not be hard to guess what would happen afterwards.

"Will…"

"Guard the door."

William's tone was icy cold as he strode passed the people in the hallway. Even though his gun was still directed at them, he made his way back to his own room. Gloria was supposed to be staying here, waiting for him. From the bottom of his heart, he hoped that she was still alright since he only left for a few minutes.

"Roger."

Yakov also followed William and kept his gun aimed at the two people in the hallway. The young master was looking at the gun with fear while the guard was still crouching on the ground, holding on his hand.

'What happened here?'

Entering the room, William could see the mess that the break in caused. The table, cupboard, and sofa that he used to block the door was placed in different location. At the same time, he could see that the carpet was flipped, result from someone running and nearly tripped.

William followed the trail and saw that the door to Gloria's room was forced open. He slowly pushed the door open and saw an empty room.

Tak!

Near the door, he could see a stun gun not far from where he was standing. There was a rubber band around the stun gun, which allowed the stun gun to be on even though there was no one holding it.

'That's a close call.'

Since he was wearing thick shoes, William knew that he would not be stunned by the stun gun that easily. However, he could guess that Gloria must have somehow managed to stun the guard when the latter came here.

"Gloria? Are you here?"

However, what greeted him was nothing more that silence.