The 11th Floor: Awakening (5 page)

“So, where am I now?” he wondered.

Luke looked all around the room for identifying papers or signs, but could find none. He opened the desk drawer, but the only thing inside was a Bible. As
he
pushed the Bible aside, he noticed that it was a little thin and weighed almost nothing. He flipped the cover open to examine it and noticed that every single page inside was torn out. In place of the pages, someone had written “I.O.U.” Luke chuckled, finding it mildly ironic that someone stole a Bible, page by page. Lying behind the empty Bible was a pen with lettering on it. Luke grabbed it. It bore the name of a hotel chain in Las Vegas.

“I’m in Vegas?” he asked himself.

Luke went over to the window and pushed a bit of the curtain aside. Sure enough, he was overlooking the strip, which oddly was lit up as normal but completely empty of people and activity.

“This is starting to look more like what I expected.”

He picked up the phone and dialed the front desk. He hasn’t expected anyone to answer. To his surprise, there was a man’s voice on the other end.

“Hello. Front Desk.
Lou speaking.
How can I help you?”

With a gasp, Luke slammed the phone down. Not more than five seconds had passed before the phone in his room rang. Luke backed away, knowing who it was, and just let the phone ring. They’d found him already. He was hoping he would get the jump on them for a change. It was too soon and he wasn’t prepared. He needed to get out of there. Soon, he w
as sure, they would be coming for
him and he wasn’t ready for a confrontation.

Rushing over to the door, he cracked it open. He didn’t see anyone around, so he pulled the door open the rest of the way and moved quickly into the hallway, closing the door behind him. As he walked down the hallway, he kept telling himself that this must be a dream and he needed to find a sign.

Up ahead, Luke heard the elevator ding and noticed a gorgeous young woman walk out. He slowed his walk a bit more to watch her. She was stunning and the male in him wanted to check her out a bit more before she was gone. Additionally, he was suspicious
of this reality and also wanted to make sure she didn’t spin around with Lou’s face and try to kill him.

The woman stopped in front of a door and began fumbling through her purse, most likely trying to find the room key. A few doors down, Luke noticed movement. The odd black dog creature was standing in a doorway, licking his chops. It sniffed the air then turned its head in the direction of the woman. Clearly it noticed her as it began walking in her direction.

Luke yelled out, “Hey!  Watch out for that dog!”

The woman looked at Luke, then over at the dog, and let out a scream. Luke took off running toward the woman. The animal also began running, as it growled. Its eyes were swirling red vortexes that signaled nothing but trouble for the two of them. Almost on top of her, Luke ran past the woman and kicked the dog as hard as he could. It flew through the air and landed well down the hallway with a yelp and thud.

As Luke kicked the animal, the woman managed to find her key and get the door open. Both she and Luke ran inside and slammed the door shut, locking the deadbolt, as if the animal could work a door knob and had a card key. It seemed like a reasonable response at the time, but Luke felt foolish immediately afterwards.

“What the hell was that thing?” asked the woman.

“Nothing good, that’s what it was,” replied Luke.

“Well, thanks for the save back there, Mr.—”

“Williams. Call me Luke.”

“Thanks, Luke. I’m Amanda.”

“Under other circumstances it would be a pleasure to meet you, Amanda, but I think we’re both in trouble here.”

“What do you mean? Can’t we just call the police or animal control about that dog thing out there?”

“Umm, not exactly.
Do you want to hear a story?” asked Luke.

“Excuse me, Boss,” said Lou.

“Yes, what is it?” asked Nate.

“The intruder is back. You wanted me to let you know.”

“Excellent, begin making the preparations that we discussed.”

“Are you sure, Boss? I mean, did you check with HIM first? I know it’s not my place, but he has strict rules for our line of work and this plan doesn’t exactly follow protocol.”

“Don’t worry. He allows me some leniency on certain matters and this recurring issue with Mr. Williams will be dealt with accordingly. The interfering has to be stopped before it becomes a problem for all of us, up here and down there. Catch my drift?”

“Yes, Boss.”

“Now stop questioning me and go make the preparations as I ordered.”

“Sure thing, Boss.”

Lou turned and headed out of the room, leaving Nate alone with his tablet of names.

“Mr. Williams will think he has a choice, but he’ll learn otherwise,” said Nate with a laugh.

Amanda just stared at Luke for a moment, taking in everything he told her.

“So … you’re saying that this is a dream,” she finally said to him, “and if we don’t wake up, we will be killed and taken as trophies for the devil?”

“Yes.”

“You realize that you are insane, right? Or at the very least, you watch too many horror movies.”

“I’m not insane. You have to trust me. I’ve been reading up on controlling these dreams and I think I can protect you until we get out of here.”

“Come on, Luke, this isn’t the Matrix and I’m pretty sure we’re not on Elm Street.”

“Did that animal out there look like something you’ve ever seen or heard of before today? Did that look like something from real life?”

“I’m not going to say that I ever saw anything like that dog out there, but I can’t claim to know every single species of animal on the planet either.”

“What about everyone else?
Hmm?
Where is everyone else? I’m telling you, this is a dream world and we have to get out of here. I think the trick is to realize you are dreaming by finding a sign, some kind of abnormality or impossibility, and once you do that—”

Luke paused for a moment at the sound of scratching at the door.

“Shit,
it’s
back. Listen, for now, take my word. We need to get out of here before that thing gets through the door. I’ve seen what that thing can do, and believe me, you don’t want to be its target.”

“What do we do? We’re upstairs in a hotel. That door is the only exit.”

“Maybe not,” said Luke, looking in the direction of the window.

The scratching at the door turned into banging.

“Forget it, we’re too high.”

Luke picked up the toaster and threw it at the window, hoping to smash through but the toaster just bounced off the glass with a loud rattle. Luke grabbed the end chair by the back and began hammering on the window, but it just wouldn’t break. He finally gave up after a few good swings and dropped the chair by the window.

“Any other ideas, Luke?”

Luke stood with his eyes closed, and his head slightly tilted back for a few seconds. When he opened his eyes, he ran to the desk and pulled open the drawer. Without looking in the drawer, he reached in and pulled out a gun.

“There was a gun in there? How did you know there was a gun in there,” asked Amanda.

“I didn’t. I just really concentrated on wanting a .44 magnum and told myself it would be in there.”

By that point, the creature’s banging and scratching was beginning to pay off. The door had begun to splinter and crack.

“Well, that’s a little convenient, don’t you think?”

“Never mind that now. Any second now, that door is going to bust apart and that thing out there is going to come in here. You need to be somewhere else. Go hide in the
bathroom back there. No point in both of us being in harm’s way. Besides, I have the gun, you don’t.”

“Okay! Good luck!” she yelled, as she ran into the bathroom and slammed the door shut.

The banging and cracking sounds at the door continued and Luke could almost see the hallway through the broken door. He grabbed the desk, threw it down on the floor, and turned it top-side toward the door to use as a shield. Luke crouched down behind the desk and leaned his forearm on the edge to help steady the gun and provide better aiming. He squatted there for a few seconds with the hammer cocked, aiming at the door, watching it further splinter apart with each hit. Everything seemed to slow down around him as he waited and watched, until eventually the door completely blew apart from the repeated pummeling.

With nothing standing in its way, the creature came running in. Once in the room, it jumped into the air as if it was trying to hurdle the table Luke had thrown down to use as cover. Maybe it was adrenaline helping, but Luke was able to react quickly and aim at the now airborne creature. He pulled the trigger and the gun kicked like a mule.

“Jesus H. Christ, what is all the noise,” asked Walter. “I’m trying to get some damn sleep here.”

He reached over and switched on the lamp next to the bed. He picked up his glasses from the desk and put them on. He was an older retired man in his mid-70s and had bad cataracts. Without his glasses, there was no way he would be able to see the phone to dial the front desk, which is exactly what he intended to do.

“The amount of money I’m paying to this hotel,” he complained as he dialed the phone, “I shouldn’t have to put up with this crap.”

“Hello. Front Desk.
Lou speaking.
How can I help you?”

“Hi Lou.
This is Walter, upstairs in room 415. Some inconsiderate jerks are making a ton of noise up here.
All kinds of banging noises and yelling going on up here.”

“I apologize, Sir. Why don’t you come down to the front desk and we’ll get you set up with a new room?”

“Damn right you will. I’ll be right down,” said Walter, as he slammed down the phone.

Walter put on his slippers and then opened the door to his room. Once the door was open, the banging noise ceased. Out in the hallway, he looked both directions but was unable to find the source of the noise. This angered him even more because he was really looking into giving that rude noisemaker a piece of his mind.

He turned and began walking down the hallway toward the elevator, when he heard a loud bang from up ahead. This was a different noise than before, and having spent a considerable number of years in the military, he recognized it immediately as a large caliber handgun. When he looked up to the location of the sound, he saw a large black dog-like animal scurry out of a room up ahead. The animal then stumbled across the hallway and knocked up against the wall. It shook its head and then staggered off down the hall and around a corner, out of sight.

From the door that the animal had exited, a younger man holding a gun appeared, probably trying to determine where the animal had gone.

The young man turned his head toward Walter and yelled, “Hey you!”

That young man with the gun must have been the one making all the racket earlier, so Walter suddenly decided that he would not be giving anyone a piece of his mind after all. He didn’t know why he was shooting at the dog, or if he intended to shoot at someone or something else next. Scared, Walter turned and ran back down the hallway away from the man with the gun, heading toward the stairwell instead of the elevator.

Bursting through the stairwell doors, Walter hurried down the stairs as fast as his elderly legs could take him. After descending two of the four flights of stairs, he encountered a huge pool of blood near the door for the second floor. Carefully avoiding the mess, he navigated around the blood and continued down the stairs. Once at the bottom, he noticed the walls were covered in blood with bloody handprints all over the place, like some kind of demented child’s finger-painting project.

Walter hurried across the lobby and up to the front desk where a man stood, consulting a computer screen.