Hotel Selten

A Coward Choice

“That’s cowardice, Ophelia.”

Thilda opposed her plan, “We need to fight back no matter what! We need to protect the hotel, not to leave it behind!” Ophelia sighs, “If we keep fighting we will lose eventually! We don’t know how many armies they prepared.” She stopped as she bursts another batch of men with water. “We should surrender and retreat somewhere!”

“No! We are gonna fight.” She turns around and walks away. Ophelia runs after her and grabs her arm. “Your comrades are dying, Thilda! We can’t fight anymore! We can’t!” She looked at her in the eyes, “We need to retreat, we can come back if you want, just… Let us go somewhere!” Thilda looks at her, “I don’t want to become like you who just run away from problems!” Ophelia silenced, lowering her head.

Thilda again was gonna walk away until Hugo joined, “Maybe we should follow Ophelia’s plan!” He was still carrying Miss Eve who was still unconscious. He was all sweaty and he was panting. “Are you gonna be a coward too, Hugo?” Thilda looks at him. “No! I am not, but we need to save the residents before we save the hotel, a lot of us are dying and getting taken away. Please, Thilda, open your mind!”

The black-haired teenager looks around, there are few of them are already dead, laying on the grassy lawn which now is almost covered in blood. She noticed an army carrying Marceau out of the hotel. She ran and stabs him in the neck and grabs the girl out of him. She went back and hands Marceau to Ophelia. “Fine, say it to others. Just run and don’t turn around, okay?” 

“How about you?” Thilda sighs, “Don’t worry about me. Get the others, now!” The other two nod as they ran and get the other residents. Thilda stood with the other remaining warriors, Peony, Adam, and the other 5. “Just attack! Don’t stop. Once they are few, let’s run with the others.” The rest nods as Thilda leads them. They fought the charging armies and defended the others who were running. They never stopped slashing their weapons and killing enemies. 

Ophelia and the rest start running in the depths of the forest. Others were carrying wounded residents. They just ran and ran. They were thankful that the enemies never anticipated this. They encountered a few of them and immediately kill them so they won’t alert the others. They stopped in an unknown part of the forest, they started to take a rest.

They sat under the trees as the others put down the wounded ones. “Blaise, please tend the others, some are losing much blood!” A girl exclaimed, Blaise, luckily, has some of his devices and starts to aid some of the wounded ones. Ophelia starts to pick some dry twigs. “What are you doing, Ophelia?” A little girl said she smiled at her. “I am gonna create a bonfire, it will be chilly sooner for us.” The little girl gasps, “Can I help, please? Pretty please?” She giggled, “Sure, just be careful. Only get some of these little ones and no more.” The little girl nods as she picks some dry twigs too.

Hugo was sitting beside the unconscious Miss Eve, some of the residents go near them. “Will Miss Eve be okay?” He looks at them, he was so tired and stressed out, he only managed to nod. The residents who came near seems to understand his situation right now and left them alone. 

Back to Ophelia, she and the little girl, who was Cherelle, start to pile up the twigs in one particular place. The brunette teenager wipes off the dust in her hand. She looks at Cherelle, “That’s all. Thank you for helping.” The little girl smiles cutely as Ophelia kneels on the dirty ground. She starts to rub two twigs on each other to make kindling. Minutes later, there was smoke slowly forming as she blows it slightly and drops it on the other twigs. The little girl gasps as the fire slowly form. She grabs some rocks and puts them around the little bonfire they have.

“Wow!” Cherelle claps, “Is this your another magic, Ophelia?” Ophelia shook her head, “Just a little survival knowledge. Now, I will get some food.” “Can I help again?” She looks at the little girl, “Just stay here okay? It’s dark anyway.” The little girl dismayed but she nods as she watches the fire dance in front of her eyes. The teenager grabs a big stick and puts the tip on fire to make it her temporary torch. She walks around to find food. She found some edible mushrooms, “Maybe this will work for tonight.” She grabs some and puts it on her shirt, like what she did before when she was chased by police. 

She passed by a river, “Jackpot.” She went on its riverbank. After piercing the other end of her torch in the ground, she starts rinsing the mushrooms in the river. She puts it back in a temporary pouch made through the edges of her shirt, she didn’t mind it getting wet. She came back to their little base with the mushrooms. Some residents are piling up near the campfire. She approached her backpack and grabs a shirt of her then puts all the clean mushrooms there. 

She looks at the campfire and she thinks it’s too small for them to get heat even you are far away. She collected some more wood and starts throwing them in the fire, making it bigger. She adjusted the rocks to have more space for the other woods. “There you go.” She came back to her tree, well, where her bag was. She grabbed the mushroom in her shirt that became a small bag. She joined the others in the campfire as she pierces the mushroom with small wooden sticks.

“I didn’t know you got survival skills,” Blaise commented as he finishes patching up a wounded man on his legs. He joins them on the campfire as he feels it gets cold. “I wonder where are Thilda and her company.” Ophelia’s eyes widen as she remembers them. She sighs, “Just hope that they survive and just finding us.” He looks at her, “They let their selves be left in the hotel alone!?” He exclaimed, the others heard them as starts to worry too. “Yeah, to fend off the others from following us.” She keeps piercing the mushrooms in sticks. “How many of us are here?”

“20, we lost half of the population of the hotel.” Ophelia sighs as she still piercing the mushrooms with sticks. She counts the remaining mushrooms, “Well, I get more mushrooms, for now, one mushroom for each resident. Just put them near the fire and wait for them to get cooked.” She stands and wipes the dirt on her knees and legs. “I’ll cook them for others.” Ophelia nods at Blaise as she lights up her trusty temporary torch and went on her way. There was a faint voice saying, “Who wants to help me out?” followed by a lot of “Me!”

She found a whole patch of mushrooms, “Oh, thank you heavens.” She grabbed them one by one and puts them on the spare shirt that became a temporary bag for her. She collected a whole bunch again and rinse them in the nearby river. “I should tell them there’s water here.” She puts the mushroom back on her shirt bag and went on her way to the camp.

She heard some faint voices again, but it’s not coming from the residents in their temporary camp. She hid behind the tree and saw some silhouettes just coming near. She sighed in relief as she gets familiarized with their voice. She stood in the path they were taking and waits for them. 

“Is that Ophelia?” An enthusiastic voice asked, Ophelia waves at them. “Maybe it is!” The silhouette who seems has big hair runs towards her, it was Peony, the one and only. “I thought we will never find you!” She hugs Ophelia. “We will find them, Peony, we just made sure we lost the other guys before going to their path,” Thilda commented, with her messy hair gets blown by the wind.

“It’s getting cold, where are you guys staying?” A male voice asked. “Follow me.” Ophelia and the rest went back to the camp. They arrive and there was a lot of  “I thought you are not coming back!” and the likes that welcomed the warriors. The eight of them joined in the campfire as Ophelia and Cherelle, who insisted to help, pierce the mushrooms on a stick and gave it to others. Ophelia cooks her mushroom and minutes later eats it. “Gladly we ate dinner earlier, or else we need more mushrooms.” Blaise joked, which made the others giggle. 

They had a fun time, some time later, the others slept under the tree. Ophelia, on the other hand, is still not sleepy. She just feels tired, she rests herself under the tree. Thilda and Peony were still not asleep too. “Why aren’t you sleeping?” Thilda asked her as she joins them in the campfire. “I am not sleepy, my mind keeps me awake when I try to sleep. How about you guys? You have a tiring day.” The black-haired teenager was playing with the fire by swinging a twig in it, “We need to guard, even we ran away, they can still find us. We should not let our defenses down. You don’t want to wake up in a research facility or prison, right?” She looks at Ophelia who shooks her head.

“Well, why don’t we talk so we could not get sleepy?” Peony suggested. “Well, talking wouldn’t hurt, so sure. But be aware of the surroundings.” Thilda said as she throws the twig into the fire and rubs her hand. Peony looks at Ophelia, “Since you are new, well, a week isn’t old, why don’t you share your life before you got in the hotel?” Thilda looks at her as Ophelia gets pressured.

“Well… I can only tell the one in Germany… Since I have memory issues before I was here…” “Alright, we understand.” Thilda said as she plays with a leaf. “Well, I spend my 5 years here with my grandma, my parents died in a plane crash.” Peony gasps, “We are sorry for your loss.” Ophelia smiles, “I am now okay with it. I studied here and well… Live here. There ain’t nothing much to say about me, I lived a boring life.” Both Thilda and Peony look at each other. “Well then, I think that’s enough. My turn!” She rubs her hands as she looks at them.

“Well, I was living in Ireland before. I have a family before, I think there was a war… Then, when I and my family get in the boat, the heavens must be mad at us, there was a storm. I got separated from my family. I spent months just wandering around the streets. Someone actually adopted me, but due to I have something not normal for them, they were terrified. I decided to leave the place. That was tough for me since I only 10 years old at that time. Until Miss Eve found me near the border of Germany. She brought me to the hotel and this became my home.” 

“I never knew that you faced your childhood too hard.” Peony looks at Ophelia, “Nah, it’s fine. Your turn, Thilda!” Thilda sighs, “Well, I grew up in the hotel, I was born there. My mom died when I was young. Miss Eve told me how brave she was, I was inspired to be like her. I trained and have friends, one of them was Peony. I actually taunt her before that she is weak, but I love how she proved me wrong these days. Even though almost in my life is like a curse, I found happiness in the hotel.” 

“Are you crying, Thilda?” She looks at Peony, “I am not!” The girl in the pink dress giggles, “Still the same as before.” They all laugh, it was stopped by a noise in the bush.

“What was that?”