style="font-size:15px;"> Ramses crawled on the windowsill and pushed the ladder away, which crashed down on and buried the ghoul under its weight.
Ramses’s leg got caught in the jalousie, and he collapsed on the floor head down. Ksenia was fast enough to move away.
He sat up beside Ksenia and looked around. It was an office room. They were safe now. He tried to get up but slipped on the office linoleum and fell down. This made him laugh, and he broke the wind. But he was not embarrassed at all. It was really a moment of relief.
The security guard shut the window.
“Oh, thank God,” Ksenia said through the pain in the ankle to the people who were standing surrounding them. “Thank you, whoever you are.”
“Yeah, no problem,” Andy said. “Privet! And welcome to the Arkaim Hotel – your home away from home.”
And he extended his hand toward her.
Ramses rose to his feet and looked out the window. The crowd of the living dead had become bigger. They were raising their hands toward him and scraping the wall.
“Damn! That was close!”
He shut the window and started shaking everyone’s hand. He was beside himself with joy.
Ivan, the security guard, helped Ksenia to her feet and sat her on the little couch.
Ramses had the strange feeling that he had lost touch with reality. They had escaped death by the skin of their teeth. Now they were surrounded with people. Living people. Who were here to help them. And who did help them by saving their lives. He could not believe they were safe again.
The hotel people brought them steaming coffee in thick clay mugs with cookies and snacks. They gave Ksenia a warm blanket, and she wrapped herself into it.
It got noisy in the hallway, as people were curious about the newcomers and tried to look into the room. Andy asked Ivan to wait outside and not let anyone in.
Drinking the coffee and digging hungrily into the food, Ramses gave a glance around the room. It was spacious. A heavy mahogany desk sat in the middle of the room. Certificates on the wall. Bookcases full of books with gold spines. A woven rug on the floor.
“This is my office,” Andy said. “My former office, to be more precise. We don’t use the rooms and offices on the ground floor anymore.”
The moans of the living dead roaming outside reached their ears. It was getting dark.
“Too dangerous,” Goran added, though there was no need to say the obvious.
Ramses nodded. “The fuckers.”
Ksenia briefly told their rescuers about their adventures.
“I’m very sorry about your father,” Andy said.
After a knock on the door, a desk clerk entered the office and gave Andy two keys.
“Your room is still free, Mr. Campbell,” Andy said handing him one of the keys. “It’s an ordinary key. We’re currently out of power. So no key cards so far.”
“It’s a massive power outage,” Ksenia said. “Around the whole city, I guess.”
Andy nodded. “So I see. We’re accommodating new guests, though.”
Ramses smiled and clutched the key. “Thanks, man. But we won’t be able to pay you for the next week. With the situation around.”
“It’s a civil war out there,” Andy said. “What are you talking about? Like I said before – welcome. We’ll have to think all together how to get out of this mess and survive.”
Ramses shook the key in his hand and said, “I really appreciate that. I guess I have to earn my stay here now. I’m pretty good at lots of things. I can be useful.”
Andy flashed a smile. “We’ll think about it tomorrow. How does that Russian proverb go? The morning is wiser than the evening. Sleep on it. Tidy yourselves up and have a little rest.”
“Yeah,” Ksenia said wearily. “We sure need it.”
Andy turned to Ksenia and gave her the second key. “And this one’s yours, Ma’am.”
“Thank you,” Ksenia said. “I hope there’s a shower there.”
“There is,” Andy said. “One more thing. Mobile connection is down too. So don’t lose your walkie-talkie.”
He gave them other important instructions and told them the nurse was not in the hotel. Her shift had been over before the chaos started, and she had gone home. All staff members were trained in basic first aid procedures, and they could save a choking person in a restaurant but their skills did not include treating ankle injuries. There were two medical doctors among the hotel guests. One of them refused to help, though. The other one was in Steven Clayton’s room. Ramses was happy to hear that his friend was still alive.
Ramses looked impatiently at Ksenia. “Let’s go.”
He helped Ksenia to walk up the stairs to the fifth floor. She was limping very badly. The desk clerk and a floor concierge helped Ksenia go up to her room.
“My room is on the right, next to yours,” Ramses said. “Just knock on the wall if you need something. I’m a pretty good masseur.” He winked.
“You better get me that doctor,” she said.
“Yeah.” His face got serious. “I’ll try.”
Ksenia closed the door and went straight to the bathroom to take a shower.
Ramses left the backpack in his room and went out again. It was dark in the hallway. He came up to Steve Clayton’s room and knocked on the door.
“Come in,” a raspy male voice said in English. But it didn’t belong to Steve.
Ramses opened the door and stepped into half-darkness. In the dim light of burning candles, he saw Steve lying in the bed, his eyes closed, his face covered with lacerations and bruises. An old man about seventy years old, with a gray beard and mustache, clad in a gray tweed suit and wearing spectacles, was sitting in a chair beside Steve and reading a book with a golden cross on the cover. The Holy Bible.
“Hi,” Ramses said. “Who are you?”
“My name is Dr. Erich Brodde,” the old man said, without getting up. He spoke with some European accent, which Ramses could not yet place. Dutch, maybe?
“What are you doing here?” Ramses asked.
“I’m a priest,” Dr. Brodde said.
Ramses’s heart sank and skipped a beat.
“Oh my God,” he said. “What has happened? Is he dead?” He came up to the bed.
“No,” Dr. Brodde said. “He’s unconscious right now. He has a head trauma. But he’s breathing. He’s alive. I hope
