The antique clock in the lobby ticked.It was 8 o'clock in the evening.
In normal situations, this was the most energetic time for people, but now they were trapped in this
place because of wind and snow.
Perhaps because the doors and windows of the hotel were all closed, the carbon dioxide produced by
the burning fire in the lobby made people's minds a little sleepy.
Everyone was listless and looked anxious and haggard.They leaned against their family members and
warmed each other.They could do nothing but wait.
"No one will come to save us tonight."
Someone sobbed softly and looked at the snowy weather outside.It was dark.
The blizzard outside sounded like ghosts crying and wolves howling, which was quite gloomy.
Christina closed her eyes and was half asleep.
Beside her, Crystal held Geoffrey in her arms and they had fallen asleep.
Barbara hugged the quilt and curled herself up.She was nervous and could not rest.She opened her
eyes from time to time to look around.
Chandler protected them by their side, while Charles and a few other men were on the other side
chopping wood furniture with axes to support the fire to keep on burning to warm up everyone.
At night, in addition to the constant howling sound of the snow outside, it was the sound of Charles and
the others chopping wood with axes.
Most of the tourists here were rich people who had never done physical work.
They were also not good at holding axes or using them, and they kept making the banging sound
because they always hit something else.
The night was so quiet that it made people panic.
Christina listened to the sound of Charles and other men chopping the furniture.
Instead, she was relieved and fell asleep.
But just as she was about to fall asleep, a scream came from outside.
Christina jumped up in shock.
Some people in the lobby also noticed the strange sound and turned to look outside vigilantly.
However, it was dark outside the thick glass wall and there was nothing.
Suddenly, a figure ran past with a panicked expression.
The light of the fire in the room faintly shone on him, and it could be seen that it was a figure of aman.
But the man outside looked pale and he seemed to be startled as he kept shouting.He pounded on the
door with his hands.
The look in Christina's eyes was a little frightened because she clearly saw that the hands of the man
outside were stained with blood.
"Open the door”
"Open the door for me!"
The man at the door shouted anxiously as he pounded on the thick door of the hotel.
Many people inside woke up and everyone looked fear and hesitant.
They didn't understand why someone suddenly appeared outside, and his hands were stained with
blood.
Christina and Charles did not move.
At this moment, a tall and thin man came out of the crowd and walked towards the door step by step.
Christina saw clearly that the man was the photographer who had instructed the tourists to lock the
doors and windows.
Before everyone could speak, the photographer opened the door.
In an instant, the wind and snow swept over into the hotel.
Some people sitting near the door shouted in an uproar.
The wind and snow at night were weaker than expected and were not so strong, but the temperature
was still very low.The big fire in the center began to extinguish under the wind and snow.The
photographer acted quickly.
He pulled the man outside the door in and immediately closed the door again.
The photographer asked him directly, "What exactly happened?"
The man was stared at by everyone, and he looked panicked, "I, I really didn't mean to kill him..."
"Ray locked the food storage room at the back kitchen.I wanted to get the key back, and then I
accidentally..."
He seemed to have been too startled.His big hands were red and swollen from wind and snow and
were stained with blood.He covered his face directly.
The man was crying uncontrollably and kept explaining.
"We were fighting at the back door.Ray had the keys to all the exits of the hotel.He wanted to freeze me
to death outside, so I dragged him out.We were fighting, and I wanted to grab the keys from his waist...I
didn’t mean to do it.I really didn't mean to do it.It was Ray who turned around and fell off the cliff
himself"
Ray was dead.
Everyone was surprised to hear the news.
"So did you get the key back?"
Someone shouted anxiously.
Sympathy was no longer worth mentioning at such a critical moment.
They didn't care whether Ray was alive or dead after he fell to the bottom of the cliff.
What they cared about most now was that the food storage room had been locked.
The man was crying uncontrollably as if he had a mental breakdown.
"I didn't mean to it.I really didn't mean to kill him."
He seemed to be really scared and slumped to the ground, muttering those words over and over again.
A man ran up impatiently to check if he had the key on him.
The next second, he cursed in frustration, "Bastard, you didn't get the key back!"
A few people in groups ran to the back kitchen with serious expressions, and Christina also followed
them.
Sure enough, the food storage room at the back kitchen was locked by a large steel lock.
Since the key was lost, such kind of steel lock could only be broken with a strong laser or an electric
saw.It was impossible for any man to break it with an axe.
There was no food supply anymore.
Everyone was instantly sleepless.
Crystal's face turned pale and she hugged Geoffrey tightly in her arms.
Both of them stiffened helplessly.
Chandler walked over and patted them on the shoulder, but at this moment, everyone's expression was
so grim that they could not even say a word of comfort.
"We don't even have food now..."
A few women couldn't help but burst into tears, "Why did god do this to us? The furniture will be burned
out soon.We will have no food to eat, and the people at the foot of the mountain can't come up in time
to save us."
A middle-aged woman ran towards the fire in the center of the hall as if she had a mental breakdown.
She picked up a big torch, waved it around, and cried awkwardly, "No one will come to save us..""
"We will all die."
"We will all die here!"
She cried and shouted in despair.She threw the torch held in her hand at the thick curtains on the
window.
"We are going to burn down this hotel to make it be buried with us.They harmed us and tricked us into
coming to this devil's place.This place is hell!"
Everyone in the lobby seemed to be enveloped by the desperate smell of death and lost the hope to
survive.
There was no one who went to stop her.
The torch quickly lit the curtains and the flames burned up.
Christina tried to squeeze through the crowd and scolded angrily, "You're crazy.I don't want to be
burned to death!"
Her words, "be burned to death" awoke some people in the crowd.
If there was a fire in the hotel, then they would be burned before they were frozen to death, and there
would be no place for them to hide from the wind and snow, Christina wondered if it was because the
doors and windows were closed and the air in the room couldn't circulate that made these people lose
their heads.She was so angry that she reached out regardless of the flame and pulled down the
burning curtains.
Dragging the curtains which were on fire, she quickly threw them into the big fire in the center of the
hall so that other places would not be ignited.
Charles immediately ran over to help her.
Seeing that her hair was on fire, he hurriedly took off his coat and patted her on the back.
"Christina, some of your long hair is burnt." Christina scolded the crowd angrily, "Whoever wants to die
can go out now.Don't get in the way here!"
Everyone looked at her and they felt too guilty to say a word. Everyone lowered their heads, and fear
had been suppressed in their minds.
In particular, most of the tourists here were people who enjoyed wealth.
They hadn't suffered from difficulty at all.
Now, they were trapped here like refugees, and it was uncertain whether they could survive.
How could they be able to pretend to be strong at such a tense moment? Crystal and Chandler
huddled together.She tried to hold back tears in the corner of her eyes.
The disaster was more frightening than she thought.How could she learn to be calm? The temperature
was low and everyone was in an unstable mood.
An old man suddenly had a stroke.
The photographer seemed to be a doctor as well.
He professionally diagnosed the old man who had suffered a stroke and looked up to tell his family, "He
had a cerebral hemorrhage."
Although Christina did not walk over, when she heard the words "cerebral hemorrhage" she felt a little
nervous.
Her father Donald almost died because of a cerebral hemorrhage a while ago.It was a very urgent
serious illness.
"What should we do?"
"I need to take my father to the hospital immediately..."
The family members around the old man were crying nervously, but when they looked at the
snowstorm in the darkness outside, their voices became helpless and desperate.
"Please save my father”
"We can't just watch him die..."
Several family members cried and grabbed the photographer's arm.
The photographer only shook his head at them.There was nothing he could do.
The old man's family members had been crying, and the blizzard was howling outside.The crowd
suddenly quieted down, and the silence made people panic.
Geoffrey was still a little boy.
When he heard them crying on the other side and talking about death, he trembled with fear.
Christina sat down next to him and covered his ears under his hat with both of her hands, not letting
him hear the sad cries.
As for the matter of life and death, no matter how sad you cried, sometimes there was nothing you
could do.
In addition to the majority of people who warmed themselves in the lobby of the hotel, a small number
of people were more willing to go back to their own suite to wait in their small space.
Suddenly, there was an urgent running sound on the stairs.
"I saw a car on the west side of the mountain with binoculars..."
His words immediately cheered everyone up.
One man was an astronomy enthusiast.He carried some high-powered binoculars with him.
From the high-rise suite, he found three cars with headlights on at the west side of the mountain with
his binoculars.
"The rescue car is finally here..."
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