As he runs through the door Kenny faces the fact that the woman with the amputated leg will not survive. He simply won't be able to carry her all the way in time. Kenny also promises himself that he will not be captured alive to languish in chains her. As he thinks that he grips the knife harder.
Carlotta seems to have recovered somewhat from her paralyzation and swears when she steps on the monkey. "Well then come her you little idiot." She snarls at it as she moves past it reaches out a hand. She moves in the direction of the chained women.
The hallway is completely black when Carlotta starts to move. She has to wait for Kenny to flicker on his small phone-light. Nothing impedes them as they move along back towards the room with the chained girls but the racket behind them continues to intensify, even through the closed door the constant sound of scritching and scratching continues unabated.
There is a light switch on the wall just outside the door into the slaughter room.
Carlotta rushes into the room where the women are chained.
Carlotta rushes away from the light, through the dark slaughter room, nearly tripping over the hose on the floor and down into the room where the women are chained.
So horrific have been the last few minutes that she almost does not notice the overwhelming stench.
One of the women starts to scream when Carlotta rushes in but realizes who she is, just in time. "You're back." The words are filled with gratitude.
Outside, in the hall, where Carlotta has just left him, Kenny observes that the monkey does not want to go in the slaughter room. Most likely the smell bothers him.
Edit: Entering the room Kenny will once more see that the room has electricity and running water both.
If the key opens the shackles then we can free the women. Kenny searches for anything to serve as clothing for them and hands Kathleen a knife if she is freed.
The skittering sound...Kenny tries not to think about what it might be.
The key does fit the manacles. The woman with the missing leg perhaps weighs seventy or eighty pounds you would guess. Some of the other women help her, but she is feverish and mostly oblivious to what is going on. There are no electrical cords in the room with the women.
Checking the outside room might take a while with just the little light. Or you could flip the light switch.
Carlotta helps support the one legged woman and making sure that they are all moving along in the right direction heads towards the exit.
The key does fit the manacles. The woman with the missing leg perhaps weighs seventy or eighty pounds you would guess. Some of the other women help her, but she is feverish and mostly oblivious to what is going on. There are no electrical cords in the room with the women.
Checking the outside room might take a while with just the little light. Or you could flip the light switch.
Kenny turns on the light and looks for anything that could be used as a weapon. He arms any of the women who seem lucid if he finds anything.
The lights flicker on to reveal a white tiled floor and white tiled walls, with the large cutting table set in the middle.
The room has a large metal sink, cabinets along two walls, the hose attached to a wall faucet, a drain in the middle of the floor, and the basket of heads near the door to the prison. There are also bloody stainless stell hooks attached to a pulley system above the table.
One of the women begins shrieking as she sees the gruesome heads of former victims. Another whimpers. Kathleen tries to be strong and urges them towards the door, grabbing a large boning knife as she passes the cutting table.
The hall outside is still dark, though the light shining from the slaughter room allows more visibility than before. The hallway seems empty.
Kenny is of like mind and heads back to the stairs to the kitchen.
Helping the crippled and sick woman move along makes the progress slower than it might.
The 'T' intersection is reached and with it the hallway to the room under the kitchen. As Kenny and Carlotta pull even with that hallway, a light turns on at the very end of the hall. There are people at the secret door.
Helping the crippled and sick woman move along makes the progress slower than it might.
The 'T' intersection is reached and with it the hallway to the room under the kitchen. As Kenny and Carlotta pull even with that hallway, a light turns on at the very end of the hall. There are people at the secret door.
Carlotta gulps and holds on to her knife ready to fight them off if she has to.
Its impossible to tell how many are down there (unless you want to just stand still and count them as they enter the hall) but it does appear to be at least three people.
Kenny nods in agreement and point in the other direction. This way we might not have to face them all at once if they split up to look for us.
Carlotta starts moving backwards towards the room where the dead woman is, much as she hates to do so.
The hallway quickly gets darker and darker as the group moves away from the intersection.
The maimed woman slows down the two carrying her but one gets the feeling that the group at the secret door were not too eager to venture into the hallway. Also, one thing that was easy to gloss over at the time, but which seems strange on further reflection was the fact that they were all carrying lit flashlights, even after turning on the hall light.
The door is now just ahead, the door behind which Kenny killed the old woman. It is still closed but there are a myriad of sounds coming from behind it, a symphony of strange noises. The scritching of feet, the shrieking of crickets, the howls of apes and guttural voices chanting words in some unknown tongue. Its horrible. The monkey, almost forgotten, shrieks and darts past the door at breakneck speed.
"What is that," asks Kathleen, even more scared than before, as you move close to where you know the door is - it is possible that she ahs not seen the doorway as Kenny's light is not that bright. Past the door, the hallway continues on in darkness.
Kenny has no intention of finding out what is in that room. He proceeds down the hall further.
The group slowly passes two more doors. Behind them the sound continues unabated, a hellish symphony of calls, shrieks, scratches and rumblings.
The hall at last ends at what looks like a duplicate of the secret door on the other end of the hall.
Kenny tries the door. If it leads up then they will head that way.
I'm sorry, I'm really busy right now. A little NPCing of Carlotta will probably be necessary : /
Distances seem greater when you are moving through pitch black conditions. Kenny guesses that they have probably walked some hundreds of yards but exactness is hard to tell.
The door opens. The room on the other side is unlit but Kenny's small light reveals the suggestion of a desk, book shelves and filing cabinets. The room looks vaguely familiar.
There is a light switch.
Something crashes in the hallway behind. It sounds suspiciously like a door being wrenched from its hinges.
Kenny darts inside and makes a "Shhhh" sound. Then he feels underneat the door to see if there is a gap that would let light through. If there is one he will try to block it with his jacket. If it feels like he has blocked the gap then he will feel around for the lightswitch and turn it on.
The women follow Kenny into the room and Kenny hears the sound of movement in the hall behind them. Just as he shuts the door he can hear the skittiring sound just beyond his light. Something claws at the door. As Kenny reaches down to feel the bottom of the secret door, Carlotta flicks the light switch on. There is a curious shriek from outside and whatever was there chirrups a bit like a cricket as Kenny can hear it retreating from behind the wall. Something, sounding a little like an ape roars further down in the hallway.
The room they are in looks almost identical to the office room on the other side of the underground complex, the room below the restaurant. There is a small wooden door on the other side of the room, a desk, some book shelves and some filing cabinets.
The injured woman moans. The two carrying her are near the breaking point, having been malnourished and maltreated for some days now. They have managed to bring the other this far purely on adrenaline.
"Put her in that chair. I will piggy-back her when we leave. Carlotta, check the desk. I will look around the rest of the room."
Kenny searches the filing cabinet and looks around for anything the women can eat or drink to restore their strength.
There is nothing in the room of any interest. The books are on hotel management and there are a few note-pads with figures scrawled here and there but it doesn't look like anyone often uses the room. There is no food or drink.
Unless Carlotta finds something then Kenny will pick up the maimed woman and carry her as they all go through the door on the opposite wall.
He tells Kathleen and the other woman: "If we have to fight I will need to put her down. If so, one of you will need to pull her back and the other one will have to back me and Carlotta up."
The door opens onto a set of stairs going up. There is a closed door at the top.
The noise from the hallway on the other side of the secret door grows a little louder and then there is a sound like something exploding in the distance. A woman screams in the distance, somewhere in the underground complex but the sound is muffled in the small room.
The light overhead flickers and dims but does not quite go out.
Kenny tries to force the door open.
The door is not warm to the touch, it is not locked and it does not lead outside. Kenny opens the door just as the light in the room downstairs shatters. Something begins pounding on the secret door, scratching and clawing, trying to open it. Unfortunately nobody thought to block it and it begins to open...
The room on the other side of door at the top of the steps is brightly lit. It is a better furnished office, complete with a computer, a nice desk and carpeted floors. Kenny can see the hotel counter through a broad window in the room. There is nobody at the counter.
The noise through the secret door grows louder as the door opens. Shrieks, clatters, scratches, hoots, babbling, another scream, as of a woman in pain.
"Throught the door!" If guests are visible Kenny yells for them to call the police and an ambulance. He hands his phone to Kathleen to call 911, as well. If there is anything to block the door they came through with he tries to do just that.
"Carlotta, look for alarm switches, fire alarms, anything. Pull them.
If there is nothing to barricade the door with Kenny carries his injured passenger out the nearest door and heads for the hotel. He will scream for help if he sees anyone.
As Kenny exits, carrying the injured woman, he catches a glimpse of firemen, fully suited, moving down the hallway towards the stairs. There does not seem to be any guests or workers in the hotel.
There is a desk that could be pushed up against the door to the stairs. Carlotta is the last up the steps. Nothing follows her, but she and Kathleen slam the door shut and shove the desk against it.
Kenny heads for the firemen or any others he sees outside (assuming he can get outside directly) yelling that the woman he is carrying needs medical assistance. If there are no other emergency responders in sight he will yell for assistance and also see if his cellphone is working.
If he sees firemen on other floors through the windows he will hurl rocks at the windows to get their attention. He will point to the injured woman if they look at him.
Kenny ignores the firemen inside the hotel and heads out, followed by his entourage of women. There are firemen out there and paramedics and policemen and a crowd of people whom Kenny assumes are hotel patrons. Kenny does not see any of the hotel or restaurant workers.
Policemen and paramedics and firemen, about twenty all told, rush forward as Kenny stumbles out of the hotel.
"Inside the hotel...the people who own this place...they cut off her leg and kidnapped these other women. They are probably still in the cellar. It is through the door in that office that we just came out of. There are body parts...these people are killers...just insane."
Kenny trails off as if lost. It is all too much: the heads in the basket, the human butchery, killing the old woman and his hand in her stomach. He still has enough presence of mind to stand behind the police so that they are between him and the door to the hotel. He cannot believe that he is alive and that he actually saw what was down there.
"Carlotta! Give them the camera. Maybe some of the pictures will come out."
Kenny lapses into a withdrawn silence and only speaks when he is answering questions from the police. He shakes and tears run down his cheeks but he does not make any sounds.
Two of the police stay with Kenny, Carlotta and the women. Medics begin treatments on the malnourished women and especially on the feverish woman with the missing leg.
The others look grim but after a moment's consultation, and ascertaining that Kenny means the hotel office, they move into the hotel. Meanwhile some other firemen are walking out of the hotel, shaking their heads.
"No sign of a fire anywhere," says one of the men, removing his helmet.
The two policemen with Kenny and Carlotta (one of whom is technically a policwoman) begin asking questions.
They want name, occupation, reason for being there, why was Kenny down in the basement of the hotel, what happened to the women, and why is Kenny covered in blood.
They ask the last in a very innocent, disarming way.
"My name is Kenneth Eastman and I work for the Sunlight Scoop as a reporter. We are investigating the cannibalism-murders around here and it lead us to this hotel. We checked out the basement and found these women chained up. They cut off her leg...the people that own this place cut her leg off and ...oh my god..."
Kenny takes several moment to collect himself before speaking again
"We gave a lift to Kathleen, one of the women there. She had been hitch-hiking. She said she was hired as a waitress here. We found her in the basement. There were heads in a basket down there. It was like a butcher shop. A butcher shop for people."
"I pulled the fire-alarm. It was a distraction so we could get into the basement. We also found a woman's wallet and purse in a dumpster. They were feeding human meat to people here."
Kenny tries to go on but is overcome by the realization that he ate here as well.
About this time, gun shots ring out from somewhere inside the hotel. They are muted, but distinct. A few more gun shots ring out and then nothing.
The policewoman speaks into her shoulder-mic. "This is Rodriguez. Do you need assistance?"
There is no response. The other officer grimly draws his gun and looks around, a little uncertainly. He is clearly trying to determine whether to go in after his comrades or remain outside to protect the crowd.
To the police officers: "How long will it take for reinforcements to arrive?"
The two police officers ignore Kenny as one of them heads off to call in the gun shots. The other moves closer to the hotel with their gun drawn.
Most of the other onlookers have pulled further away from the building.
The ambulance takes off with the injured women inside it. The firemen are milling about uncertainly.
Kenny spots their truck just about thirty yards from where he is.
All is silent inside the hotel. The sun beats down from its mid-afternoon position.
Kenny runs over to the firemen and asks what hospital the women will be taken to. He asks how badly their conditions are. Once he finds out he tells the firemen that he is going to that hospital in case the police want to interview him further.
Once at the truck Kenny realizes that he is missing out on any potential action here. Instead of driving away he circles around the hotel, driving over low flat ground if the parking lot does not cirlce the building. He wants to see if anyone tries to run out of the hotel to escape the police. He dials "911" on his phone just in case, but does not hit send.
The firemen seem to accept his story. Carlotta gets in the car with him.
The two policemen are standing by the door of the hotel looking in. Nobody seems to be running out.
Perception