Bella Starr

I want to speak, to say something, to call out to Caprica to see if my friend is playing a trick on me, but my voice hangs in my throat, dry and desperate to believe anything but the truth... that Caprica has not become infected and turned into one of those flesh-eating things.

"Cap?"

The growl rumbles like an air cycle engine that grows more intense as it lifts from the ground and speeds up through the sky. That's where the resemblance ends. In the middle of a feverish fit, Caprica smacks her fists against the bathroom door.

I know what she wants. She wants to break the door down, sink her teeth into my flesh, and devour me.

With my tank top, I can imagine the scenario... my skin ripped from my arms and shoulders. I hug myself, rubbing my hands over my biceps, trying to swallow the dryness in my throat. Slowly, I take a step toward the door, my hand extending toward the knob.

I freeze inches away.

Finally, my voice loosens with a creak. "Caprica? It's me, your friend. It's Bella."

Caprica explodes into a fit of fiery rage, beating and kicking against the door. The thin panel separating us rattles within the frame but holds up under the onslaught. But for how long?

"Caprica. Snap out of it!"

She batters the door, every strike laced with fury.

I try to wrap my mind around what's happening. I recall what transpired on the Sea Breeze Deck moments before, how the passengers appeared to die before my eyes and then come alive again, but in a zombified state. There are no other words to describe the transformation. With all my heart, I hope Caprica is only sick, infected with a virus, which means we can cure her.

My voice squeaks as I try to speak, wanting to say something else, but realizing the more noise I make, the more livid Caprica becomes. In the moments that follow, as I remain quiet, she calms on the other side of the door, emitting low-pitched sounds.

I edge toward the stateroom entrance, which is half open from when I bulldozed through it.

At the door, I slip through, the hinges whispering in the gloomy silence, save for my friend's angry grunts and growls.

My body quivers, heart thrumming against my chest. I blink. In the long hallway, I glance back at Caprica's open door, moving away from her stateroom, heading toward my room. As I pick up the pace, my heart still thumping, looking back, I collide with someone.

My chest heaves as I turn around and see Halo with his pinched eyebrows.

"What's going on, Bella?" he asks. "Was there a fight out here or something?"

"Yeah." Astra walks up behind him, frowning. "I heard a lot of banging and, oddly enough, growling. Did someone bring a dog on the cruise?"

I don't know how to start or where do I begin? The only solution I can come up with is to show them, so I grab Halo's wrist and pull him toward Caprica's stateroom. Astra follows, caught in an invisible wake, the air drawing her forward.

"What happened to the door?" Halo says.

"Be quiet," I reply. "She's in the bathroom and she can't seem to get out."

"Caprica? What's wrong with her?" Astra asks. "Is she throwing up? I told her to slow down on the alcohol."

"Quiet," I say.

In response to our voices, Caprica pounds against the door, annoyed that she can't escape the bathroom.

"Let her out," Halo says.

I block his way. "No, we can't. Something's wrong with her. She's sick."

"Sick? Really, Bella? Come on..."

"Yes." I force my hand into Halo's chest. "I'm serious."

"I've never seen alcohol do that to her before." Astra's voice is as quiet as she can manage. She seems to understand that we don't need to further agitate Caprica.

"She's infected." I add nothing else, allowing the last word to sink in.

"Infected?" Halo's eyes narrow. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know for sure. All I know is that other people are infected, too." I motion them back into the hall and close the stateroom door. The latch clicks against the frame but doesn't lock, broken after I rammed into it.

I go into detail about the infected passengers and what I witnessed on the Sea Breeze Deck.

"Do you know how crazy that sounds?" Halo says.

"I know what it sounds like, but it's true."

"Something's definitely not right with Cap," Astra says. "What are we going to do? We have to get her help."

I lean against the wall and run my hand through my hair. The dark strands slide through my fingertips.

A deep breath and a sigh help me think. "I know. If we can find the Sick Bay or the Infirmary, whatever they call it on a ship, we could get a doctor or nurse to help."

Halo nods. "Which floor do we look on?"

Astra lights up. "There are brochures in my stateroom. They might show us where to go."

"I've got a better idea," I say.

"Like what?"

"I told you I spent the night before we boarded the ship studying the layout of the decks. This is the crew deck where Space Venture employees stay, but above us is the first passenger deck. Just one floor above us."

"Where we might run into more of the infected people you talked about." Halo shakes his head. "That doesn't sound like a good idea."

"It's probably not smart, but we have to do something, and the floor above us is also where the Sick Bay is located. There's a doctor on staff. I remember reading about it."

"Let's go then," Astra says.

But I hesitate.

"What's wrong?"

"What if the doctor is infected, too?"

"Another distinct possibility," Halo says. "But we're not sick, so maybe there's a chance the doc isn't either?"

"As long as the doctor didn't get eaten by the other infected people." Astra's eyes grow large. "The first place sick passengers would go would be there."

I take all the information in and let it settle in my mind. It's a lot to grasp, but I've seen all of it with my own eyes. Believe it or not.

"There's a little girl on the ship somewhere," I say. "Her father is one of the infected people I saw on the top deck. We have to find her. Her name is Adrianna."

"Her parents are regular passengers, right?" Halo asks.

I nod. "I led their tour group. Adrianna was afraid of the inoculations, but your father calmed her down and talked her into it."

"We can look for her on the next floor while searching for the Sick Bay."

A door springs open at the far end of the hallway. A man falls to his knees, his gut retching. Before he finishes throwing up, a woman leaps onto his back and bites into his neck. The man cries out, his voice shrieking through the long corridor. Now, Halo and Astra have witnessed it firsthand, which might make them move faster and with more purpose.

It does.

Moving in the opposite direction, Halo and Astra start for the short intersecting hall that will take us to a stairwell and the elevators.

Behind us, the woman tears into the man's neck in a bloodletting frenzy. Then, without warning, the man who'd grown quiet, face down and unmoving, wakes up, shoves the woman off of him and pushes to his feet. Both of them stare at each other with white, bloodshot eyes, and then cast their gazes down the hallway at us.

In a surreal moment, the two infected passengers charge toward us, blood and gore soaking their clothes.

I push Halo and Astra toward the elevators.

As we flee, I can't shake the overwhelming realization that our cruise has turned into a nightmare that's far from over, one that we might not escape.