Trust is not something that is given easily, it is something that has to be earned.  Even with close friends, you are hesitant to trust them with your deepest and darkest secrets since you do not know what they will do with the information.  But when you find out who you can trust, you divulge everything to them since they will be your closest confidant and never cross you.  It is a hard decision that you have to make to trust someone and for so many people it does not come easy, knowing that there is someone out there that is looking to hurt you.

Fet and Dutch are enjoying their time together and making the best of a terrible situation.  When Dutch gets tired of wearing the same clothes day after day, she suggests that the couple head over to her apartment and pick up more of her wardrobe.  When arriving at the apartment however, they find that the door has been bolted shut from the inside.  Fearing the worse, Fet kicks the door in to find out who the intruder is, but is shocked to find that Nikki, Dutch’s girlfriend is hiding in fear.  Dutch is taken back and wants to go back to the old ways to ensure Nikki’s sanity, but Fet is not too keen on just sticking around.  With no important questions being asked about why she has not contacted anybody, he knows that he will be shelved as his role has been replaced by an old flame.

Eph has made it back to New York with a bullet hole in his shoulder and is ready to come back home, but thinks twice about it when he scopes the bar across the street.  Pounding down shot after shot, he finally arrives at the apartment only to see that the group has grown by another person.  Wanting to talk to Zach and Nora, Dutch suggests that he sleep it off before he says something stupid.  Waking up with Nora patching him up, Eph hears that Kelly has made another attempt on getting Zach and she was close to getting him this time.  Knowing that his bioweapon is not going to be produced, Eph is out of ideas, but finding out that Stoneheart was behind the hit on him, he has come up with a new target.

Eldritch Palmer is getting bored in his building and wants to get out.  Convincing his new assistant Coco to go along for a ride, the two are starting to truly bond.  Even when Coco asks him about the news that was delivered about Ephraim Goodweather, Palmer keeps his cool and tells her everything that she will be able to read in the newspaper.  But Palmer’s plans run deeper than he will allow Coco to understand, but the young woman is getting closer than any woman has ever been to the old man.  Wanting to find out more about Palmer, Coco takes him up to his room and even though he does not believe that he can please her, Coco has her mind set on making him feel young again. 

Heading to a Stoneheart warehouse, Abraham and Fet have stumbled on to something that they did not expect to find, a breeding ground.  While inspecting the worm pit where the feelers were conceived, the two are attacked by the fast little vampires, until they see a stranger arrive at the door.  The Ancient’s new hunter, Mr. Quinlan looks over the area and is able to destroy the feeler threat unlike anyone has been able to do.  Knowing Abraham’s story, Quinlan wants to know how a mere mortal was able to hurt the Master.  Before the story can even be started, Quinlan senses the Master’s presence in the building and continues on with his hunt.  Finding the Master in his new body, Quinlan is ready to attack and complete his lifelong mission, but Fet is taking matters into his own hands by setting up explosives to take down the building.  Before the battle is able to commence, the ceiling drops separating the two vampires and the fight will be held off until another day.

This episode gave you a good look into the Ancient’s new hunter Quinlan’s past.  Seeing him on the gladiator stage killing a man twice his size with ease, Quinlan is said to be a half breed of man and demon.  The only reason he says in the city is to find out more about the humans and their tendencies.  Although the killing does not please him, he has made a name for himself and could never be defeated.  Keeping his skills sharp while hunting for the Master, many years later he is shown approaching a town that is being deserted.  As tales have traveled about a giant living in the castle who only comes out at night and attacks the towns’ people, he knows it is the Master, but he has shown up too late.  Now with his travels bringing him overseas to America, Quinlan is ready to end this chapter in his life and put an end to the Master once and for all.   He will need help, but right now with the Master getting away, he will not allow Abraham or Fet to further assist in the hunt.

I really liked how this episode brought some storylines together.  With Dutch finding her past love Nikki alive and well, the emotions that Fet has to deal with will change him going forward.  Even after having a drink with Eph, he might continue his quest to be happy with Dutch, but at this point, he is defeated and cares little about what is happening.  Young Zach is starting to bond more with the group and I don’t think we are getting to see it all.  With Abraham telling him all kinds of facts without Eph knowing about it, Zach seems to be curled up at the old professor’s feet looking for a bedtime story.  Palmer is starting to get some play, which is good since he has been near death his entire life, but what is Coco really looking for out of the relationship?  It will be interesting to see what comes out in the next episode since we know that Eph has put a target on Palmer’s chest for killing his friends in Washington, but producing the bioweapon should be his first priority since it is easier to kill a man than a vampire.  Stay Scared!

Sometimes doing the right thing can land you in more trouble than it is worth.  Not knowing how far others will go to do what needs to be done can leave you wondering who you can really trust.  As there are always drawbacks to doing what needs to be done since there are always people out there that are looking to benefit from your mistakes.  You should never give up on your mission, no matter how difficult it can be, if you are doing the right thing, then you will never have any regrets. 

Eph has made it safely to Washington D.C. and has found his friend Rob Bradley right where he left him.  As Eph comes clean about what has happened in New York to his friend, Rob has plenty of contacts to make something happen.  Calling Leigh Thomas, an old friend, Rob is able to match her up with Eph so something can be put in the works.  Leigh is able to make an appointment with one of the bigger drug firms to get Eph’s new bioweapon looked at, but she knows that it will take more time.  While Leigh is working her magic, Eph and Rob talk to the head of the National Guard and are able to get him to agree to a small scale test in New York before the weapon gets mass produced.  Eph is flying high with everything that has gone his way, but nothing is ever as it seems.

Nora is left in the apartment to take care of Zach as his father is away on business again.  As Nora talks to the young boy, she sees much more of his father in him than Zach would like to admit.  Heading down to the police station to see what is happening with the Red Hook cleanup efforts, Nora is happy to see that everything is going off without a hitch.  But when heading home for the night, a ‘feeler’ sacrifices itself in front of the car causing Nora and Zach to take refuge in the nearby church.  Kelly rises from the shadows since she has found her son, but Nora will not allow the vampire mother to claim the boy.  Calling for help, Nora and Zach have to find a way to stay safe until reinforcements arrive and take care of the threat that is hunting them.

Gus is grilling Angel about his past, knowing that the old dishwasher is actually the legendary wrestler, Gus will not allow him to back off.  Gus is holding up in the restaurant since he does not have a home to go back to and wants to make himself useful while there.  When Aanya gets a delivery request from her father, Gus and Angel decide to accompany her since the city is far from safe.  After making it to the apartment, Gus gives up his story to gain the trust of the two, but before the group is able to leave they are attacked by a couple of roaming vampires.  Gus jumps into action with all that he has learned over the past couple of days and makes sure that Aanya and Angel understand what is happening to the city and why they should be afraid.

Eldritch Palmer is getting fed up with being put on the back burner.  Eichorst keeps leading him on, but now with the next phase of the plan about to take place, Palmer wants his assurances that the Master will do his part as well.  Eichorst is not willing to divulge any information about what is happening with the Master to Palmer, but knows that time is growing thin and the Master’s transformation needs to take place quickly.  Heading down to the Master’s crypt with Bolivar, Eichorst is ready to receive the power that he has been promised by the Master.  Kneeling to his god, Eichorst is shocked to see that Bolivar has become the chosen vessel for the Master.  Not understanding completely why he was not chosen, the newly bodied Master wants to make sure that Eichorst will always be by his side.

With so much that happened in this episode, you only get a couple of moments of the core characters Abraham, Fet and the new member of the team, Reggie. Since the storyline is mostly focused on Eph getting his virus into production, you don’t get a ton of New York time, but you do have a new Ancient hunter that is ready to take to the streets and defeat the Master.  Needing more human hunters to take to the streets by day, he is not too happy in being called in to kill the thorn in the Ancient’s side when they could have taken care of the problem many years ago.  I can see Gus getting called back into service for this, along with Angel since the old wrestler has a ton of fight left in his heart, even though he has a broken body.  It is also apparent that Eph has a bullseye on his back when his two new friends in Washington have been gunned down because of his bioweapon.  Now Eph will have to find out where the information got leaked from that alerted Palmer’s men to his whereabouts, along with his plan.  The season is almost halfway over and the story just keeps getting better and better every week.  I cannot wait to see what happens with Angel and the little relationship between Nora and Zach that seems to becoming more of a mother and son story, even after seeing Kelly and her new children.  Stay Scared.

I still remember the long and sleepless night that I experienced mere hours after watching the original Dawn of the Dead. I told myself it was just a movie, zombies weren't real and to go to sleep, but the instant I closed my eyes, those blue-gray faces were staring back at me and that was it. I was awake, I was terrified and as I look back now, I realize that the living dead are still to me the most terrifying monster on the planet.  

Yet on the eve of the premiere of AMC's Fear the Walking Dead I've seen a few articles concerned that we may be experiencing a zombie overload. That the living dead are overexposed and that this may mark the end of their popularity. For one I think that's just silly, The Walking Dead franchise as a whole is showing no signs of slowing down, and I think there's good reason for that. It goes beyond the gore and the awesome zombie kills that we enjoy week in and week out. The fact of the matter is...the living dead are terrifying for all of us and still relevant today.

In fact these creatures have been on quite an evolutionary journey when it comes to storytelling. In the George Romero era of living dead filmmaking they were merely the device to exposing a larger problem in our world. They helped to symbolize consumerism, geo political conflicts, you name it. They had become quite literally, our problems personified as soulless, flesh eating corpses. But modern times call for a modern zombie and what makes them so scary today...is that they represent fears that are more grounded in reality. 

What The Walking Dead has managed to do, is focus upon perhaps one of our greatest fears of all time...our fear of death. The living dead in Rick Grimes/Daniel Salazar's world personify a bastardization of our natural purpose in life to go out, live a good life, say goodbye to our loved ones and pass on so that we can be remembered fondly. This new universe denies the world of that foundation to our society, and now these poor people have to not only fear the end of their lives, but the horrible fate that waits for them after they pass away. That cerebral concept and take on the genre is why these creatures make us shudder.

But I also think it goes a little further than that. The living dead now represent as a whole, the horrible events of our world, the unstoppable forces of nature that we all fear will badly disrupt our lives and our societal norms, allowing us to shiver in fear of seeing it all come crashing down and then return to the safety of a world that may be on the brink at times...but still has hope for a future. In so many ways, the destruction of these creatures, the fight for survival by a handful of people represent that hope and the struggle to bring order to chaos. 

Truthfully I could go on for hours about how the zombie has evolved over the past few years, but maybe we will save that for another time. The important thing is that after so many years of lamenting in the darkness of VHS these powerful creatures are now at the forefront of pop culture, entertaining us and scaring us all at once and while some may think they are outstaying their welcome or have become boring, I have a feeling tonight's companion series to The Walking Dead will prove otherwise as it brings new life to the already rich mythos of the living dead and no doubt finds new ways to terrify all of us. 

Now I know that the Zombie Apocalypse might be coming and we all need to have our plans in place for when it actually takes place.  I make no reservations that I love the Stanley Hotel and if I am going to go out, I might as well be in the place that makes me happiest.  I could think of no place better to be held up than in a haunted hotel for when the world ends, but there are some things that will have to be done to secure the location so the only worries will be the ghosts and not the flesh eaters moving up the mountains looking for a nice piece of you. 

First, you will have to board up all of the windows on the first level.  This should be the easiest thing to accomplish since there is plenty of old wood lying around, in the form of tables and pianos.  But that is not the only concern with there being three entrances on the first level, you will have to make sure that they are all taken care of.  The main door would be the easiest since you just have to move the Stanley Steamer car in front of it, but everyone would forget the coffee shop entrance as well.  It would be great to be able to just let the basement area go, but there is a staircase that leads into the hotel from there, so you have to take care of that. 

With the front all locked down, you will have to worry about the back door as well.  It is a majestic walk way and even with gates all around the estate, there are plenty of openings that a zombie could find its way into.  You will need to board this off for sure and I would hate to say it, but the whisky bar will have to be sealed off, along with the ball rooms.  With the heavy doors already in place for this, all you have to do would be to block them with something heavy. Now most people would chose to move to the higher floors in the hotel and just block off the staircases, I do agree with this way of thinking, but the main staircase is massive and it will take a lot of work to get it blocked off before being attacked by a flesh eater.  So if you are able to get the main entrances blocked off instead, you will have plenty of time to make other alterations to the building.  

Now you will have to take care of the guests that have turned.  With over a hundred rooms in the main building, this will take up a majority of your time.  Get a key and start clearing out the rooms one by one would be the best way to take care of this.  Starting with the outlying rooms first, you will have the threat cornered so they will not be able to move around too much and become less of a nuisance.  The center rooms on the floors should be the last to take care of since there is little to no chance to stop a horde of the undead from taking over the hallways.  

So, you have secured the main floor, you have killed off all of the zombies in the hotel and possibly created some ghosts of your own it is time to take over the hotel and call it your home.  With your choice of rooms, you will be able to select anyone that you want to stay in, providing you have not splattered too much blood all over it.  But let’s just say that the barricades downstairs do not hold, are you done for?  Not just yet.  The rooms are pretty secure and it would take several zombies to push through them and there is not enough room for this to happen, and as long as you are quiet, you should be fine until they move on.

If they decide to take up residence in the hotel however, what would your next play be?  Well, there is a clock tower that you can move up to and the door would be easy enough to put something on top of to keep anyone from muscling their way in.  This should be a last resort since the tower is fully exposed to the elements and if it is cold outside you may find yourself freezing to death, Jack Torrance style.  So the long and short of it, make sure that the zombies do not find a way into the hotel since it is not the stronghold that you may be looking for.  If you are not able to secure the first floor, there is no use in trying to ride out the threat in the hotel.  After the zombies make it up the main staircase, there are two staircases on each floor that they can choose to go up, along with the skinny servant’s staircase as well. 

Overall, this would not be the best place to try and ride out the zombie apocalypse.  The hotel is not made to withstand this sort of event, it is a majestic location, not one to survive the end of days.  Even with the deadbolts on the doors and apparently inside of the closets as well, there is too much that will have to be done and when it is all completed and you have not been chomped yet, you will have to find an easy way to get in and out of the hotel.  There is a fire escape that you can use, but once the zombies see you using it, I am sure they will be camped out looking for their next meal.  Sorry to say that my favorite place on earth is not the place to survive the zombie apocalypse, unless of course you would like to become a ghostly guest…until you get hungry and need to find someone to munch on. Either way, here's a ton of pictures of all the places I talked about in this plan (and a special surprise picture), and maybe just maybe it will help you come up with your own ideas on how to survive the Zombiepocalypse Stanley Hotel style.

Oh my goodness, I do not know what to say about my trip thus far, but it has been a blast and I was able to get my picture with Lord Dunraven, selfie style.  So let’s get you up to date, first night someone was sitting on the side of my bed when I was sleeping and I am pretty sure that it touched my leg.  The second night, I heard tours outside of my room that were not there and someone was trying to tuck me in.  What on earth could happen on my third night?  Well, let me get the day out of the way first.

Now, I know that it might be hard to believe, but I have a hard time talking to people, but when you get me going on something that I know a little bit about, you cannot get me to shut up.  This happened when I was talking to one of the guests at the bar. Wanting to know more about the hotel and the history and mostly the haunted rooms, I got going about what has happened to me while staying on the fourth floor. Now, I am far from an expert on this subject, but I have stayed at the hotel at least one time a year over the past three years and have been on the tours and have stayed in three haunted rooms now. 

Before I knew what was happening, a group was surrounding me and asking me questions about what happened and what I know.  This was a little bit different for me, since the only time I have a crowd surrounding me is at work when I am running a training and I get paid to do that.  Remember, I am paying the hotel for the experience, but am more than happy to give up all the information I know.  When the crowd moved along, thanking me for the stories, I was introduced to a woman psychic who wanted to hear more about the room and what I felt and wanted to see what was going on.  So I, my friend and the psychic all moved up to the fourth floor to check it out. 

Since the sun was down and I usually adjourn to my room when that happens to watch The Shining every night, this seemed like a good idea.  When we walked past my last haunted room 401, she was able to point out that I had stayed in there.  I know this was covered during my talk with the crowd, but I do not know if she was paying any attention to it when I was rambling for so long.  She could feel something coming out of the room and it was a dominate male and asked how my stay was in there.  Since it was good the first night since I passed out, but the second night was a little rough and she told me why.  Since I had a couple of beautiful woman with me in the room when I entered the first time, Lord Dunraven was happy with me, but the second night, they did not come back in and he was a bit upset.  A little disconcerting.  Next time the ladies get to stay in that room!

We made it to my room and we all sat on the bed.  With my friend, myself and the psychic looking around, she went to work.  Now, my thought about what the person was on the side of the bed and tucking you in was that it was a parent and a sick child. The Night Two post was not up, so she could not have known my suspicions, but she came out with the same thing.  Now that is pretty cool, so we tried to talk with the mother and child in the room for a about an hour, then called it a night.  She gave me notes for the next time I stay in the room to bring a toy with me, or have a child come in and the child ghost will interact with either of them.  Good notes for room 407 if anyone wants to give it a try.

After we decided that there would be nothing more for the night, my friend and the psychic parted ways for the evening.  This was a great experience and I hope more people try it to see what else they can find in these haunted rooms.  I thanked the ghosts staying in my room for a fantastic time and hoped they enjoyed my company as much as I enjoyed theirs.  As I turned off the light and laid my head down on the bed, I heard an explosion that rocked my room.  Everything rattled and I shot up and checked the hallway to find nothing.  With the windows open, I could hear the people on the patio all still talking and not varying from their conversations about what that sound was.  Not knowing where to go next, I called the front desk and asked them what that sound was.  They did not hear it either and just chocked it up to another story for the room.  This did not have me rattled and I wanted to know what caused the sound that only I heard.  I know what the doors sound like opening and shutting and most of the time slamming on the lower levels, but that was not it since none of those make anything in the room rattle.  I don’t know.

I will probably never know the cause of the sound, but that is just the fun of the Stanley Hotel.  And this morning when I woke up, all of my electronics were drained of their battery life.  That was strange because none of them were on during the night.  If I had to guess, the kid in the room went crazy and started playing with them all.  My cell phone, iPod, recorder and camera were all drained.  Can I explain it?  Nope.  Do I want to? Nope.  This is the most active trip I have had at the Stanley and I am not making any of these things up to impress you, it is what I have heard.  I still have not seen anything yet, and although I want to, with what happened at the end of my bed the first night, I am pretty sure I will run out of the hotel if I actually see a ghost.

Add this hotel to your bucket list, everyone needs to find a good place to getaway and I could think of no place better than the Stanley.  Even if you are not one for ghosts, the location is beautiful and now they have a hedge maze in the front to add that much more too it.  There is so much history around the area and how F.O. Stanley helped to transform Estes Park into what it is today, it is really worth a look.  Thank you as always to the Stanley Hotel for the great visit, I am working my plans for it next year already!

I will admit it was a fun filled first night of myself trying not to freak out when feeling someone on the end of my bed.  Was I frightened?  Yes I was, but I quickly got over it and decided that whomever it was, was trying to take care of my ailing legs.  That’s my story and I am sticking to it, I don’t care what anybody says.  I did not run and I did not scream, so you know what, I think I handled it well.  So onto my second day at the famed Stanley Hotel.

If you have not been playing attention to any of the news on the Stanley since about March of this year, you may not know this, but a hedge maze has been installed.  With all of the love towards The Shining movie over the years, they thought it was about time to make sure everyone knows which hotel this really is.  Most of the guests these days have more and more questions about the book and the movie than the majestic hotel itself.  I will admit that my love for the movie is what brought me up here, but I will stay because the location itself is just so freaking beautiful. 

There is another reason why the Stanley Hotel is trying to Shine it up these days as the Timberline Lodge from the movie (the exterior of the Overlook Hotel) is by trying to call itself "The Shining Hotel" as well.  The Stanley should never lose this title, but every place that has been associated with the movie is trying to capitalize on this, I think there is a rebirth of horror fans out there that is starting to love the story and the movie and if they don’t do their research, they will never know which hotel should be given credit.  Although both of them should be, the Stanley is the place that gave King the idea.

Sorry for the rant.  So I have tried the hedge maze a couple times and have given up.  I stink at mazes and even though it is not fully grown yet, there is plenty of work going on, on a daily basis to make sure it looks great and continues to flourish.  When kids start passing you and finishing on their first attempts, it might be time to reevaluate your status as a grown up maze runner, just saying.  It is fun and I will beat it before I leave, but at this point, I am not even going to let it worry me.

I took one of the daytime Stanley History tours, as I do on most of my trips since each tour guide tells you something different that you might not have heard before.  Even with all of the stories being the same, their delivery makes the stories that much different.  One of the things that I like about this tour as well is that it brings you into the Lodge and the Main building to see at least the exteriors of the haunted rooms, along with the stories behind them.  My group was lucky to have me along and all got to see room 407 and we got a little bit more in depth about what happens in it.  This can be a blessing and a curse at the same time since I am still staying in this room and don’t want to get to scared to stay any longer. 

So I already had the basics covered in this room, the smell of tobacco, it comes from the closet.  They still think that it is Lord Dunraven, but no reports of him touching anyone in this closet, just in 401.  Having someone sitting on the edge of the bed while you are sleeping, check, happened to me.  Being tucked in during the dead of night, we will get to that soon, but there is a story of an ex solider sleeping on top of the covers only to find himself being tucked in very tight like a burrito.  Items moving locations around the room and the lights being played with during the night.  Wow, who would want to stay in a room with all of this going on?  I guess I kind of do, I still want to witness more.  After the tour was over, I decided to head back up to the room and try to investigate further.  

Waiting for nightfall, I shut everything down and gave a shot at an EVP session.  Now I am not an expert at this and still have to listen to the results, but I did feel a little creeped out while doing it.  After that, it was getting pretty late and I decided to turn in.  Hearing the story about the covers being pulled up over someone that was not under them, I decided to give that a shot.  But it did get pretty cold, so I covered my legs so I could fall asleep.  Low and behold when I woke up around midnight, the covers were pulled up to my shoulders.  Now could this have been a ghost or could I have gotten cold and pulled them up myself?  I remember pulling the covers up most of the time, but when I am on vacation, I tend to forget some things.  Now what was interesting was the tucked in factor. 

What I think about when getting tucked in is having the sheets pushed under your body so you do not roll around too much when you are sleeping.  Now this got close to happening more than once.  My sheets were depressed in the openings I left between my body and the pillows.  When I say depressed, I mean that they were pushed down, not just resting there.  Interesting to say the least and I hope not to be turned into a burrito tonight when I do it again, but I would like to know who is doing it.

I still have not heard the kids playing in the hallway yet, but I did hear something else happening in the hall a couple times.  You can tell when the tour groups as moving through the floors and I could have sworn that I heard one outside of my room a couple of times after 9pm, but when I opened the door to see them, there was nobody there. Pretty strange and there is no place that they could have gone since I can hear the doors opening and closing, and everyone that heads up and down the staircases.  I don’t know how to explain this, it is just different.  

Well, that is it from the second day and night.  Hope to see and witness some more, but you never know what the Stanley will have in store for you.  And a positive note, there have been no séances in the hall ways this trip.  

There are few things in life the genuinely get me over excited, but the one that always gets my gears going is my annual trip to the Stanley Hotel.  Could it be because of the history that this hotel has to offer?  Could it be that I love ghost stories and would like to see one? Or could it just be that it is a beautiful location and I am in dire need of a vacation? I am thinking yes, to all of these.

I have never hide my feelings about coming to this hotel and even though the audio on The Shining channel was not working, I was able to amuse myself with a little ghost hunt on the fourth floor.  Now when I booked the room this time, I did not ask for any room in particular and when you make a reservation online, they send you an upgrade email.  I responded with a fourth floor request, along with a haunted room.  Receiving the confirmation email back, it said only one could be accepted, so it was the fourth floor request. Little did I know that when I arrived at the hotel I would be given a haunted room.  YES!

So I am staying in room 407 for a couple of nights and I have found out a couple more things about this room that I did not know before.  We all remember the stories about this room smelling of cherry tobacco, but I did not know anything beyond this.  Upon our last trip up here, we did not feel anything in this room and I think it is because we did not know what to look for.  There are other accounts in this room that have reported some strange phenomenon and now I am starting to believe that there is someone staying in this room with me. Guests have reported being tucked in at night, while they are sleeping.  Now I am a sleeper that will toss and turn all night and wake up with the covers on the floor all of the time, but last night, this did not happen.  I woke up with the sheets still on me, but that could just be a coincidence since I actually slept like a log after something else happened.

Another report from the room is that people have felt someone sitting on the edge of the bed while they are sleeping.  Now, this did happen to me.  Like I said, I toss and turn all night, but the side of the bed that I was not on had a little bit of resistance.  I kicked a little bit to free it up thinking that the sheets were a little tight, but when I was able to get my foot to where it wanted to go, I felt the bed lift as if someone had just gotten up.  Now that was a little bit freaky at the time and I did not want to look to see who was there for several seconds.  When I got the urge to move again, I got up and grabbed my camera to see who or what was there, but I was too late to capture anything.  And my camera being across the room did not help either. 

After that, being awake and not being able to fall back to sleep, I walked the fourth floor halls for a couple of minutes.  I did not feel anything at the time since it was only about 1 a.m. and nothing really starts to happen until 3 a.m., at least that is when the kids start running up and down the halls, giggling like children should.  I am excited to see what happens tonight as I have my camera and recorder ready to go.  My windows seem to be fine as of now, if you remember my last trip up here, I had a window fly open and one that would not stay shut.  Who knows, I am just ready for whatever as you never know what the Stanley Hotel will have in store for you.

It is difficult to get through to someone that is in a state of denial.  Not willing to believe what is happening right in front of their very eyes, there seems to be no way to convince them that anything else could be happening as well.  Without wanting to give in to what they have witnessed, you just have to keep at it to make sure that they are able to tell what is real and what is just in their mind.  This takes a lot of time and effort and may seem to be a waste of time when doing it, but in the end, they will thank you for taking the time to make sure that they understood what has happened.

When Dutch finds out that Fet has been arrested by the council woman’s extermination squads, she needs to get down to the station to get him out.  With Nora by her side, the two propose a trade of information when it comes to detecting the virus that will not require a quarantine.  Nora breaks out the ultraviolet light and shows the council woman what an infected person looks like up close and even though it is a fool proof way to detecting the outbreak, it may not be enough when she discovers that her nephew has been infected.  The council woman now has to come to a decision that she has been asking her people to go through with for the past couple of days and be okay with it, but everything changes when your family is involved.

After being freed, Fet is ready to show the extermination squad what can be done with their vampire hunting methods.  Since the squad has only being using their police issued weapons, they do not know what else can kill these creatures without just taking off their heads.  Wielding their silver weapons, Fet and Dutch arrive at the latest apartment complex that has not been fully cleaned and show the police what they are capable of.  Dropping the vampire threat like a bad habit, the commander sees what the effect of silver can be on these infected, but has seen a new threat in this building as well, the spider children that are quick as hell and are able to climb walls.  Without an answer for this new breed yet, Fet shows off his exterminator skills by finding a vampire hiding in the wall.  Knowing that they are getting smarter, the conventional hunting tactics by the police along with Fet and Dutch will need to be revamped and quickly.  

Eph has been able to secure a fake ID from one of Dutch’s friends and is looking to make his way to Washington to get the new virus mass produced to save the city.  When Nora declines to go along on the trip, along with Zach refusing to leave until he finds his mother again, Eph is left on his own.  Being able to board the train without any problems, Eph sees his former boss Dr. Barnes on his way to Washington as well.  Eph has to keep his head down to not be recognized before completing his mission and even with a new look, everyone seems to be having a moment of déjà vu when passing him in the walk ways.  Trying to get off of the train before being discovered by the security team, Eph meets up with Barnes and the two battle it out, leaving the head spot of the CDC vacant. 

Abraham is in a race against time to find the vampire's book since Palmer is looking for it as well.  Stopping by another man’s warehouse that is an expert at procuring these types of items, Abraham puts everything he still has on the line to insure that it can be located.  Palmer is using his current community love to find out where the book could by hiding by using the church to locate it for him.  Either way, both men are searching for the same thing and one will have to give when it finally resurfaces, but how do they know that it is in the city itself?  Since both men know each other inside and out, there will have to be some sort of showdown between them as they will not allow one another to win at anything now.

Pretty good twists and turns as this episode played out.  With the ‘feelers’ being seen more often now, you are able to see as Kelly is searching for Zach and I have a feeling that she is going to find him very soon, especially while Eph is out of the city.  Eph is looking for anyone that will listen to him in Washington and will need to get his virus pumped out as quickly as possible, but even with the change in his appearance, (looking like Darren Cross from Ant-Man) everyone still knows his face and he will encounter more trouble than it is worth.  Nora is trying to help out the council woman while showing everything that she knows about the infection since she and Eph found the first stages of the infection.  

Zach is left on his own and it looks like his mother is getting closer to finding his location, so it will be a pretty easy feat to find him until the others make it back to the building.  Dutch and Fet are on their game, showing the new exterminators how to kill off the vampire threat with silver and hopefully give them some new pointers when hunting since the vampires are seeming to get smarter with their hiding places.  And now there is a new hunter that has shown up in town, welding his large sword and seems to have his own contacts that are able to bring him to any location he needs to be.  The next episode may tell us a little bit more about what the ancients plan to do when it comes to killing off the Master and with their new warrior arriving, it may be time for Gus and the Silver Angel to come back out of retirement and lay it all on the line.  Stay Scared!

If you do not have a way to find out what has happened in the past, you may never know what the future will hold.  With so many strange things happening these days, you are left to question what might actually happen if one of these things gets to biblical proportions.  No matter what your plan may be when it all hits the fan, you will find that there was one point in history that mimics your exact situation, but are you or were the people that lived through it prepared?  You can learn a lot from the past and even though you should not live in it, you can definitely learn plenty from it and possibly find new outcomes before things start going downhill.

Eph, Nora and Fet are transporting their infected vampire down to the most populated area in Red Hook to see if their virus will actually work.  Dropping off the test subject, the group waits and watches as the vampire does not go below ground, but finds his way back to where he worked.  Following the host into a mental institution, the group sees that there are plenty more test subjects and they will need to check them out after nightfall to make sure that the virus will actually work.  The group decides to break up during the day as Eph needs to find a way to connect with his son once again, Nora needs to relax and Fet is planning to blow the subway line out of Red Hook to keep the vampires from spreading.

Dutch has hung back with Abraham to bounce some ideas off of the old professor. Finding out that the Palmer’s old assistant is no longer at the millionaire’s side, she looks to locate the right hand man that allowed her to live a couple weeks ago.  Finding out that Reggie Fitzwilliam has a brother that is stationed out on the infection free Staten Island, she and Abraham make an outing to talk to the former assistant.  While Reggie does not believe that he can turn on his former employer, he knows how serious the problem is around the city after seeing a vampire blitz that has taken out all of New York’s top money men with the exception of Palmer.  Taking Abraham’s card, Reggie is going to have to look deep into his soul and find out what kind of man he really is.

Gus is on his own after the band of vampire hunters he was running with have been destroyed.  Looking to clear his head, he tries out a new restaurant and finds out that the staff is not too bad to talk to, with the exception of the over protective busser. With a full stomach, Gus returns to his home to find his mother has fully changed into the threat he has been trained so well to kill.  Not wanting to fight, much less kill her, Gus is able to avoid several strikes from her stinger, but then she falls dormant for a second and the Master takes control of her body.  Talking to the only remaining hunter, the Master knows that he will not be any trouble without help from the ancients and since Gus is now alone, there will no reinforcements to protect him.  Leaving the house, Gus stumbles back into the restaurant for another meal, but the older busser Angel is not too happy to see the former convict return.  Gus believes that he knows the older man, but has to be sure so he hangs around the back ally to confront him and in a way, his dreams come true.

Abraham is still trying to find the book that he and Palmer were looking for when together in their youth.  Back in 1966 and Abraham was still a young and able hunter, his research pointed to a vampire next to a monastery that held a great library.  When arriving, the two see that it has been torn to shreds and the young boy that they found hiding out said that his mother burned it before their arrival.  With only one living person in the building, Abraham continues his hunt into the catacombs but Palmer is visited by Thomas Eichorst who brings good tidings and the secret of immortality.  Upon his return to the main floor, Abraham is shocked that Palmer has given up on the hunt for the book, along with wanting to eradicating the vampire threat.  Although Abraham has not lost his determination, he is fight a losing battle, especially when losing his only money stream.

Finally, an episode where I liked all of the characters that played a role, even Zach.  Bonding time between Eph and his son was a good idea, but taking him to a place where the family used to go may not have been the wisest decision as Kelly is still on the hunt for her boy with the ‘feelers’ who has a fantastic sense of smell.  Abraham was not as snarky towards his crew and for good reason, they are able to bring him the information that he has been longing for.  Nora and Eph are working together pretty well and when they find out that their infection is working, they see that the Master knows it as well and commands his minions to kill themselves before any further damage can be done.  Knowing that they can win this, Eph wants to get ahold of Washington to get the drug mass produced, but Nora is having second thoughts about it since it was only one test and she does not know if it will be as promising the second time around.  Then Fet got to blow up the subway, but was taken in by the peace keepers, even though he is trying to help.  I can see a huge blowup between the council woman who has taken control of Red Hook and Fet coming up since he will take matters into his own hands and not ask anyone for their permission.  I cannot wait for the next episode and I hope the characters continue on the up and up and this week you even get to meet the old wrestling legend, The Silver Angel!  Stay Scared.

It is hard to imagine what would happen if an entire city is brought to its knees by a virus that cannot be stopped.  Quarantines are great ways to keep it confined to an area, but what about the family members that need to come and take care of their loved ones? You always need to put family first, but if you are entering an area that you know you may never leave, would you be willing to sacrifice your life for them?  I would hope so, but if they tell you to not come and help, you are left with a dilemma since you might be the only person that is left in their lives.

Eph and Nora have created their vampire plague, but there is a problem with it since it kills the host.  Needing to tone it down, Nora takes the reigns while Eph tries to show his son what they are doing.  Zach is still broken up over his mother and is taking more steps to make his father’s life a living hell since he will not allow his boy to see the woman.  After trying to escape the safety of the apartment building, Eph brings his son into the lab and shows him exactly what has become of Kelly, but still Zach only hears that his father is going to kill his mother, rather than making her better.  Zack tears apart the lab while his father is not looking out of spite and Eph is having a hard time reaching him.  While performing the next test on his surviving vampire subject, Eph looks into the cold dead eyes and speaks to the Master and tells him that he will not give up and he will die before becoming one of these creatures that roams the streets at night.

Dutch has found a missing person poster when trying to find Zack and needs to know who put it up.  With Fet’s help, Dutch returns to her former lover’s mother’s home and sees that she is still not welcome there.  Even though she is alive, her girlfriend’s mother will not take any excuses for what Dutch had done to her mental state and will put all of the blame on her if she is found dead.  Dutch does not know how to handle the resentment, but Fet has a plan and work will keep their minds occupied so no further pain will be felt.  Fet wants to take out the subway line, so no more people can enter the city and become the walking plague that has taken over the streets and with Dutch’s help, he will be able to make it happen quickly.


Eldritch Palmer is remaining safe on the top level of his building, but when Eichorst comes to pay him a visit, he knows that something is wrong.  With the blow up at the food bank, the Master requires an extra set of eyes on Palmer and his faithful rock star Bolivar will serve him well.  But Palmer will not be baby-sat by anyone while he is moving forward with the plan and even though the Master can watch him through the eyes of the infected, Bolivar is sent into another room while he works.  Palmer has to apologize to his new assistant while these changes are being made to his arrangement, but will continue to be himself until the plan comes to an end, but what he does not know is that he is being hunted by someone new.

Abraham Setrakian takes a late night stroll and finds a vampire to execute, but for a different reason than before.  Collecting the blood and worms, Abraham returns to the apartment and starts cooking the "ingredients" until they are fully dissolved into a liquid form.  Injecting the new solution into his eyes, the reaction is fierce and almost kills him.  When Nora is able to revive him from his short slumber, Abraham has to come clean about what he has been doing to keep himself young and being ninety-four years old, he will not be able to fulfill his duty of killing the Master without this pick-me-up. Regaining his strength and snarky attitude, the professor is back up to full speed and ready to take on the world once again.

Gus has agreed to become the hunters’ eyes and ears during the daytime, but now it is time for him to start training.  Being given only two bullets to drop two vampires is not enough and he is forced to use hand to hand combat tactics against his second kill.  Pulling out the vampire’s stinger, Gus now knows how to kill the creatures without silver or sunlight and is ready for his first assignment.  Running as a diversion to Palmer’s building, Gus is able to gain access to the main elevator and takes his new friends up to the penthouse to kidnap the millionaire and figure out his part in all of the madness.  But Palmer is prepared and when the undead hunters arrive on the scene, they are shot with ultra violet light and although he is immune to it, Gus is forced to flee the building while his trainers have been killed in front of his very eyes.

I liked this episode since more is being discovered about Abraham and his methods of staying young and spry, and even having him open up to someone else about what he has to do.  But not wanting Eph to know about this will be a big issue in the long run, I can see it now, but that will be a bridge to cross when they get there.  I will come right out and say it, I am tired of the Zach breakdowns since he refused to see what is going on around him and someone will lose their life trying to protect him when the time comes and it will be a stronger character and I will be calling for his head.  Between Eph and Nora, the vampire plague is ready and they will have their first medical trial very soon, but they are being watched by the Master through the infected eyes of their latest patient and there might be a problem when they try to release it back into the wild.  Twists and turns are abound in this and I have not even touched on the councilwoman that has made Staten Island clean from the vampire threat and what she has been asked to do about the main island. There will be another power struggle coming shortly as secrets are being kept from the wrong people and someone will not be able to do what they want to do, when they need to do it.  Stay Scared.