Phone wasn't working. Abbie held it in every position she possibly could, but she couldn't seem to get a signal. On the TV, the news was descending into chaos.<br/><br/>She stood near the window, squinting into the sun. She grabbed the phone and angrily SHOOK it, hoping that might give it some sense. Nothing. A tower must be down, or the traffic must be too heavy.<br/><br/>She was suddenly very scared. All she wanted was to crawl into a bed and snuggle up with Mr. Warmy Bear and let this whole thing end.<br/><br/>And get out of this damned dress.<br/><br/>She ... darn it ... she wanted her mommy.<br/><br/>But Birmingham was a good 20 minute drive from here, and who knew how long that would take to walk? That's not to mention traffic and the fact that no buses seemed to be running. And without the phones, her parents must have been ridiculously worried about her, needing to get in touch. She wanted to say she was safe. She wanted to say she longed to be with them. She wanted to find Steve and get him to drive ...<br/><br/>Holy schneikies. She had the keys to his truck.<br/><br/>She pushed back into the little hotel ...<br/><br/>Door locked. Would have been good to remember to grab the key.<br/><br/>She headed to the front office, self-conscious about the way her light blue gown hung around her form, feeling very silly in it in the light of day all of a sudden. She pushed into the office to confront a small crowd, stepping forward to the apparently Asian-ish woman working the desk. In the background, several people were arguing about zombies. Which, she didn't know if the others knew this, weren't real.<br/><br/>"I need a key for room 17. I locked myself out."<br/><br/>She spotted a security camera.<br/><br/>"And can I see the footage from that?" She knew the girl probably wouldn't do so, but she needed to turn on the megawatt charm. "It's just ..." Play a little dumb, Abs. "My boyfriend? He kinda took off, but he didn't take his car? And I wanna know where he got to?" The implied questions would make her seem dumber, more helpless. She couldn't help it. She just did it.<br/><br/>As the girl behind the desk stared at her, Abbie realized something: She had a land line phone. And so did Abbie, back in her room. Maybe daddy could come save the day after all.<br/><br/>"And if that's not all toooooooooooooooooooooo much trouble, can I use your phone?" She put on her best cheerleader smile. Who could deny her?