SPACESHIP ZOMBIE CRUISE

FILE ENTRY 37.0

Bella Starr

With Adrianna tucked in the corner of the Celestial Sea's bridge, I lean over Halo and listen as he breathes. As he inhales and exhales, it sounds like his windpipe is squeezing around each breath. I place two fingers on his neck and feel for a pulse. His heart beats fast, laboring as it pumps blood through his body. As I look at his face, his eyes flutter open and close.

"Can you hear me?" I say.

"I can," he replies. "Just struggling."

"I can see why." I brush his hair back from his eyes and feel his forehead. "You're warm."

I don't want to consider the implications of what that means. He could be running a low grade temperature from the injury, or he could be...no, I'm not going there.

"Can you stand?" I say. "Or better yet can you sit in the communication officer's chair and do your technical magic?" I add a smile that I hope will spark a reaction.

"I can try," he replies. The act of talking takes a tremendous amount of effort, like it drains what life he has left.

Cautiously, I roll Halo over on his back and pull on his hands to help him sit up. He groans. It reminds me of the way an infected sounds. I glance at the steak knife. Cygnus Lo had contaminated the blade with the blood of several infected passengers and crew members of the ship. As much as I try to ignore the fact, it's likely that when Lo stabbed Halo, the tainted blood passed to him. He may only have a matter of time left, and not much time at that.

I dip my shoulder, put his arm around my neck and heave him up from the floor. I strain from the effort as Halo teeters on his feet. He points to the correct computer console and I help him over to sit. Holding the knife and the katana in my free hand, I do all I can to assist him into the chair.

Halo leans over the console, head sagging between his shoulders. With one elbow he props himself up and uses his other hand to press the touchscreen comm system. I place the headset over his scalp and position the mic close to his mouth.

He taps the screen and wheezes, swaying sideways in the seat. He's the only person I know who has a chance to get the comms up and running.

"It looks like the comms were deactivated by flipping a switch on this control panel," Halo says. "It could've been on accident or on purpose, but we need an authorization code of some kind to reactivate it. I'll keep trying, but—"

"But what...Halo, what's wrong?"

He pitches forward but catches himself before he face plants into the instrument panel. To help him, I set the knife on top of the counter. He's dwindling away, growing weaker by the second. I glance back to see Draco grinning the kind of grin that makes me want to wipe it off her face.

I turn to steady Halo—and I'm jolted by a force I didn't see coming—the collision plasters me to the floor and spills Halo out of the chair.

Before I see who plowed into me, I hear Draco's grumbling voice as the woman scrambles on top of me. She positions a leg on each side of me, pinning me to the floor with the blade of the katana held between us like a guillotine hovering inches from my neck.

At my side, Halo pants for air, his face ashen gray, sweat beads streaming down his cheeks. He looks like he's on the verge of fainting or dying. The thought of him succumbing to the infection and turning into a mindless zombie is too much for me to fathom.

Draco puts all her weight on the hilt of the sword and on the top part of the blade, forcing it closer to my throat.

As the blade nears my neck, I realize Draco isn't just trying to stop me from sending a call to Earth, she's actually trying to kill me. In my peripheral—infected blood dried and wet sticks to the blade—the same sharp edge that's slicing into my palm. It may be my imagination, but I feel the infection seeping into my bloodstream. It's sickening. Indescribable to process with my mind.

My energy wanes. Draco is taller than me and somewhere inside those lean arms and toned biceps there's an unseen strength.

I lose sight of the blade as it dips below my chin, drawing closer to my throat.

Draco seethes, her cheeks flushed red and her nose and mouth twisting into an awful display of murderous intent.

My hopes and dreams flood my mind. A future that might never unfold if Draco snuffs out my life.

I can't go out like this, at the hands of a greedy and selfish corporate head on a power trip.

Draco pushes harder on top of the blade, the razor edge cutting deeper into my hand. My body recoils as I sense the virus coursing through my veins.

I squirm and scoot to the other side—toward the hilt of the sword—dropping my elbow, allowing the tip of the blade to strike the floor. With Draco off balance, I thrust my knees up and vault the woman off of me. Draco's lanky frame skips over Halo and collides into the back of the chair in front of the communication console.

Motion draws my attention to the back of the bridge, and it isn't Adrianna.

Two infected crew members storm into the bridge, wearing the standard white button-up shirt and black trousers of the ship's officers. I consider only two possibilities of where they came from...one of the doors on either side of the bridge entrance, or they broke out of the staterooms down the hall.

I roll away, bringing the sword up and around in my left hand, sticking the blade into the heart of one of the crew members, an infected woman. Using the sword as a pivot point, I fling the dead woman off the blade and into the midsection of the other infected crewman. The corpse and the other infected bounce off the far wall and then collapse to the floor.

I leap to my feet, eyes burning with retribution, focused on Draco, my back to the bridge entrance.

As I stride up to Draco, the infected officer trips over the woman's body on the floor, but he scrambles up to his feet and starts lumbering in my direction. With another swipe of the katana blade, the infected crewman falls to the floor without his head. With a quick look behind me, I check to make sure Adrianna is okay—she's trembling with terror but alive nonetheless. With the girl safe, I march toward Draco. The time has come for the woman to pay for her transgressions, but first I need her eye to authorize the comm system. Unfortunately, I need her alive to accomplish that.