Damaged Goods

A Zombie SF story by Wuckster

Second Science Officer Jenn Hartounian furrowed her brow in concentration as she attempted another incision in the alien organism's abdomen. The carapace-like ebony skin had proved too hard for a standard surgical knife to cut through, so she had turned to the high-powered laser knife. Choosing to err on the side of caution, she had started on the low-power setting. The skin had put off a foul-smelling smoke reminiscent of rotting fish and burnt hair, but she had only managed to put some minor scratches into the surface. She thought she might eventually break through, but she also didn't want to be there all night. Throwing caution to the wind, she opted to flip the laser knife to high power. As soon as she hit the switch there was a flicker in the overhead lights, followed by a complete blackout.  

An eerie silence descended as the normally unnoticed whirring and humming of various machines and equipment suddenly stopped running. 

"You've got to be kidding me," Hartounian grumbled as she dropped the now dead laser knife to the table. "We're on a multi-trillion dollar spacecraft with the most cutting edge technology and all the bells and whistles money can buy and a stupid laser knife blows out the power circuits? And where's the emergency backup lights? I can't see a goddamn thing in here."

As if on cue the room became dimly illuminated with dull orange tinted lights. The vital equipment including the oxygen generator and the temperature regulator whirred back into life, but all non-essential tech remained without power.

In a fit of irritation, Hartounian swiped the useless laser knife off the table and it clattered with a resounding noise as it hit the floor. The lifeless alien organism seemed to be mocking her with its bulbous, pupil-less eyes as it lay motionless in the dissection tray. Other than a couple of long, thin antenna-like appendages sprouting out of its head, it was little more than a big black football shaped shell. While she was certainly curious about the inner workings of its body, it wasn't worth knocking out the power in the ship. Who knew how many other possibly vitally more important experiments had been interrupted elsewhere on the ship due to this needless annoyance?

She could feel the frustration bubbling up again and almost knocked the tray off the table and the alien specimen along with it, but managed to get herself under control. It was only a minor setback after all. Surely the maintenance crew was already on top of whatever malfunction had occurred and the main power would be back up in no time.

A warning alarm went off on her personal telecom unit, meaning an urgent transition was about to come through. She shifted her focus to the device on her wrist when the mechanical voice informed her that all crew were to convene on the ship's bridge immediately by order of Captain Grady.

*

"This is completely unacceptable! You need to get this fucking piece of garbage up and running right now! My shareholders will not stand for even a tiny drop in profits! We're on a tight schedule and every second counts! Chop chop! Time is money!"

"You need to get out of my face and back down, Silvaggio," Captain Grady said as she gave the man in the custom three-piece suit a solid shove in the chest. "I'm the Captain and this is my ship. As long as we're spacebound, what I say goes. You got that? I don't take orders from civilians on my ship. So you can tell your shareholders to buck up and deal with it."

"Fucking bitch," Silvaggio muttered as he straightened his tie and patted down his hair.

"Oh yeah, and Chaz? You might want to consider sucking on a breath mint. That liver and garlic sandwich you had for lunch is coming back with a vengeance."

He blew into his hand and sniffed before taking out a small bottle of breath spray and spritzing it into his mouth. She couldn't help but notice that he continued to hover around and stare at her.

"You got something else you want to say, Silvaggio?"

"As a matter of fact I do. If you don't get this junk heap back up to full capacity in the next five minutes, your ass is going to be canned the second we set down on Earth. Capisce?"

"I'll take that under advisement. Now get out of here and let me do my job, will you?"

He glared at her for a moment before finally walking off.

Chaz Silvaggio had been nothing but a giant pain in her neck since the moment they had left Earth nearly eighteen months ago. While it was true that the Megalon Corporation, which he represented, had footed a large portion of the bill that had made the expedition possible, it was first and foremost a mission of scientific inquiry and exploration. There were profits to be made, but as far as Grady was concerned, that was pretty far down the list of priorities. At the moment she needed to determine what had gone wrong with the ship and how to get it back to fully operational. And having some corporate douchebag screaming in her face with his rancid breath wasn't doing anything to help accomplish that.

She was still waiting for a final diagnosis about the cause of the mass shipwide power outage, but the early reports from Chief Technical Officer Branson suggested it could be a while before full functionality could be resumed. In the meantime, it seemed prudent to conserve as much energy as possible and that meant limiting usage of the ship to only its most vital operating components. The backup generators could keep the basic survival necessities running in the whole ship for a while, but there was still a limit and perhaps those resources could be put to better usage. To that end she had ordered the entire crew to the bridge. She planned on shutting down the rest of the ship until Branson gave her the all clear. It had been a few minutes since she had sent out the summons, and people were starting to trickle in.

She spotted her best friend Jenn Hartounian walking in with a lab tech who she thought was named Jefferson. She tried to have at least a passing acquaintance with every member of her crew, but there were a lot of names and faces to keep track of and he hadn't been the sort who left a big impression.

Hartounian made eye contact with her and gave an overly formal salute as she strode over followed by the tech. "Awaiting orders, O Captain my Captain."

"Knock it off, Jenn. I'm not in the mood right now what with the whole lack of power situation." The tech whose name she wasn't sure of looked at her expectantly. Grady smiled and nodded and hoped he would understand it as a dismissal. He put his hands in his pockets and wandered off to join a group of techs who had just made their way to the bridge.

"So about the power outage," Hartounian said as she chewed on her lips. "I think I might be a tiny bit responsible. Gave a little too much juice to the old laser knife a few minutes ago."

Grady blinked her eyes and then let out a small laugh. "No, I don't think maxing out a laser knife would be enough to knock out the whole ship. Besides, we've been getting reports of outages in different sections of the ship for quite some time now. The freezers in cold storage have been down for hours from what Officer Jankins is telling me."

"What about the corpse-sicles? They're going to thaw out and get all smelly."

"I wish you wouldn't call them that," Grady said with a shake of her head. "They were people, you know. They had loved ones and what they chose to do with their remains after their deaths was noble."

"I know, but it kind of creeps me out. I make bad jokes to cope."

The ship was transporting several cadavers that were intended to be donated to the medical research facility on the Arcturus Station. It would be a shame if they decayed and became unusable.

Hartounian looked like she was going to say something else, but then Grady received a signal on her telecom unit. "Hang on a second, Jenn. It's Branson. Hopefully he's got it figured out and we can get back on track."

The telecom crackled and then Branson's voice came through. "Captain, do you read me?"

"Loud and clear. Go ahead."

"I've determined the cause of the outage. After going over the external sensor readings I've concluded that we've somehow managed to fly into a large radiation field. Until we can get clear of it, there's no way to get the main power restored."

"A radiation field? But that's impossible! We've charted our course extremely carefully and this is a well explored region of space. That can't be correct."

"I'm sorry, Captain, but there can be no doubt. I've triple checked the results and I can say with absolute certainty that we are smack dab in the middle of a radiation field."

"How can this be? This is a well-trodden route. There are no radiation fields along this path."

"Excuse me, Captain?" one of the ship's junior navigation officers raised his hand from where he was sitting at a nearby console. "I could help but overhear your conversation with Chief Branson and I think I might have an explanation. You see I, uh, altered our course a few days ago."

"What?" Grady was livid. "Why is this the first time I'm hearing about this? Our travel routes are plotted meticulously in advance! Not just so we don't get ourselves hopelessly lost in space but to avoid predicaments just like the one we find ourselves in now! Who authorized you to make that change?"

The navigation officer turned red as he sank in his seat and looked at the floor. "It was Mr. Silvaggio, ma'am."

"Mr. Silvaggio isn't in command here. I am. Why didn't you come to me immediately and let me know?"

"Mr. Silvaggio said he would personally see to it that I was demoted to latrine duty if I didn't do what he said. He also said there would be a hundred credit bonus for me if I kept it between us."

"Oh he did, did he?" Grady fumed as she clenched and unclenched her fists in rapid succession. "You stay right where you are. I'll deal with you later. Silvaggio! Get over here now!"

Silvaggio had his arm around a young blonde lab tech's shoulders as he told her a crude joke. He laughed loudly at his own jest, but the tech just looked uncomfortable. She seemed relieved when he let her go in response to Captain Grady shouting his name.

"Ha ha, I'll totally be dipping the wick in that later," Silvaggio chuckled as he walked over. "What's up, your Majesty? You get this piece of shit working yet like I asked you to or am I going to have to take charge and get things done around here?"

"I've just been informed that you gave orders contrary to my command to alter our course. Do you care to explain yourself?"

"Well, yeah, I studied the star charts and I figured out a way to shave close to five weeks off our flight schedule. We had to make up for some lost time after you insisted on side-tracking us to go out of our way and visit that worthless rock a couple months ago. You're welcome, by the way. It's called taking initiative."

"It's called undermining authority, breaking the chain of command, needlessly endangering the lives of the entire crew, and arguably mutiny. That 'worthless rock' was a previously undiscovered dwarf planet. The loss in time represented by the few days we took to do a flyby is negligible compared to the wealth of scientific knowledge we gained. And even if that hadn't been the case it was my call to make. And now I'm afraid you're leaving me with no choice but to throw you in the brig."

Silvaggio let out a loud hearty laugh and then stopped when he realized no one else was laughing. "Wait. Are you being serious right now? If you try to lay a finger on me I'll make sure you never set foot on a spacecraft ever again. They won't even let you ride public transportation by the time I'm finished with you. Seriously, I don't have time for this shit. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go get my dick wet." He turned to walk away, but Grady grabbed him by the shoulder, whirled him around and decked him in the face. He fell to the floor and clutched at his nose, which was bleeding profusely. "You stupid cooze! You shouldn't have done that. You're finished! You hear me?"

Captain Grady summoned security and a moment later Silvaggio was being hauled away in cuffs by two large men in black metal-plated armor.

"Well, that was entertaining," Hartounian said. "Way to show him who's boss, boss."

"He's lucky I don't jettison his ass out the airlock," Grady muttered as she lifted her telecom unit near her mouth. "Chief Branson please standby to shut down emergency power to all unoccupied areas of the ship. Once all crew members are accounted for I'll give you the word. Keep life support systems running on the bridge and whatever areas you need access to for repairs. And, oh yeah, keep it running in the brig as well. As much as that scumbag deserves to freeze and suffocate, it's not my place to pass that sentence. We'll keep him alive. He doesn't have to be comfortable, but he'll live."

*

"Do you fucking morons have any idea who I am?" Silvaggio shouted at the guards who were escorting him down the long hallway that led to the detention area. Emergency power hadn't been cut yet to this part of the ship so the corridor was dimly lit with dull red lights.

"You're making the biggest mistake of your pathetic little lives! I'm Chaz Motherfucking Silvaggio! I buy and sell little pissant rent-a-cops like you every day before breakfast! I'll fucking destroy you! I'll take everything you own! Your house, your furniture, I'll take your goddamn dog from you! I'll fuck your wives right in front of your dumb asses. Hell, I'll fuck your daughters, too, if they're not total musk oxes. I'll shit all over your stupid faces and then make you wipe my ass with your tongues! You hear me? You'll wish you were never fucking born, bitches!"

"Shh," one of the guards said as he stopped suddenly. "Did you hear that?"

"The only thing I heard was the first cracking sounds of your whole worlds about to crumble," Silvaggio sneered.

"It sounds like someone calling for help. Do you hear that?"

"Yeah," the other guard said. "It's coming from behind that door."

"So are you knuckleheads going to see what's going on or are you going to stand here with your thumbs up your asses?" Silvaggio asked. "You could actually make yourselves useful and help someone instead of wrongfully persecuting an innocent man."

"Keep an eye on him," the first guard said. "I'll investigate." The guard punched in his security clearance on the entry panel and the door slid open. "Oh shit!"

"What's going on?" the second guard asked as he ran forward.

Silvaggio creeped afterward and looked over the guards' shoulders. The walls of the room were splattered with blood and a foul odor wafted from the room. A young blond man was laying on top of a table with his chest cavity splayed open. There was an older bald man and a middle-aged woman with auburn hair standing over him, both of them completely naked, but with oddly waxy looking skin. Their eyes were glassy, mostly white and decidedly dead looking. They moved stiffly as they dug their bare hands into the young man's body and tore out chunks of flesh and internal organs. Their mouths were a bloody mess as they feasted hungrily on anything and everything they could dig out of the man's abdomen.

Somehow the young man was still alive and he turned his head as he heard the sound of the door opening. "Help me! Please!" he called out in a shaky voice.

"Hang tight!" the first guard shouted as he reached for his sidearm.

A third glassy-eyed person, this one a young woman in a white bloodstained lab coat suddenly emerged from behind the doorway and bit the first guard right in the neck. A geyser of blood sprayed everywhere as she tore a chunk of meat out of his throat.

"Cut me loose!" Silvaggio shouted to the second guard. "I can help!"

The guard fumbled with his keys for a moment before unlocking the cuffs that bound Silvaggio's wrists.

"Sayonara, sucker!" Silvaggio said as he shoved the second guard into the room as hard as he could and then turned around and took off running down the hallway. The sounds of gurgling agonized screams followed him as he fled.

*

"What's wrong?" Hartounian asked. "I mean, besides the obvious situation with the power outage."

"Two of the techs who work in the morgue haven't been accounted for," Grady said. "Leslie Martinez and Bjorn Jorgensen. They're not present on the bridge and they're not responding to direct calls on their telecom units." 

"Isn't the morgue near the brig?" Hartounian asked. "You could ask those security guards to check in on their way back from locking up that asshat."

"Good idea. Corporal Ramirez. Corporal Flansky. Please come in. Do you read me?"

She was met with static. She tried again and once more received no response.

"Why aren't they answering? Chief Branson. Can you pinpoint a location on Corporals Ramirez and Flansky?"

"Aye, Captain. Give me a moment. It's hard to get anything done quickly with our current power limitations. Here we go. Flansky appears to be in the morgue while Ramirez is walking down Corridor 15A."

"That's odd. What about Leslie Martinez and Bjorn Jorgensen. Are you able to get a fix on their locations?"

"One moment. I'm getting a message that Jorgensen's telecom unit is unoperational. As for Martinez... she is also in Corridor 15A. About twenty meters behind Corporal Ramirez but moving in the same direction."

Grady frowned. "What about Chaz Silvaggio? Can you get a fix on him?"

"Let's see. He appears to also be in Corridor 15A. About three hundred meters ahead of Corporal Ramirez. And now he's made a left into Corridor 19C. He appears to be heading roughly your way."

"Oh he is, is he? Thank you, Branson. Standby for further instructions." She switched off her telecom unit and reached for her sidearm. "Something strange is going on and I'm going to get to the bottom of it right now."

She stepped out into a dimly lit hallway with her gun at the ready. She could see a figure at the other end moving swiftly towards her.

"Silvaggio, is that you? I don't know what you think you're doing or how you managed to escape custody but if you don't stop where you are right now I'm going to blow your brains out."

"Sorry, lady," Silvaggio said. "There ain't no way in hell I'm stopping. There's fucking zombies on my tail."

"Zombies? You expect me to buy that load of crap? I don't know what you're playing at, Silvaggio, but you'd better not come another step. I'm serious."

She saw another figure in a security uniform turn around the corner and start walking stiffly towards her.

"Ramirez? Is that you? How did this weasel get away from you? Don't worry, he's not getting away from me."

Ramirez responded with a loud inhuman croaking snarl. Right behind him two more stiffly moving figures came around the corner. One appeared to be a naked woman who was also making snarling sounds. The other was a young blond man with the entire front of his body ripped open. His intestines were spilling out and dragging wetly on the floor behind him as he lurched along.

"What in the living hell is going on here?" Grady asked as her jaw dropped open.

"I told you, there's zombies on this ship," Silvaggio said. He had almost reached her and wasn't slowing down.

"What in fuck's name did you do, Silvaggio?"

"You think I'm responsible for this? I don't know what happened. You're the captain, lady. This shit's on you."

"Get back on the bridge, right now. I'll try to hold these things off."

"What, so you can just throw me in a holding cell later? I don't think so." Silvaggio punched Captain Grady in the face knocking her to the ground. He took her gun from her and turned around and fired down the hallway. The shots bounced harmlessly off of the security guard's armor as the walking corpse kept stumbling relentlessly forward.

"Fuck this, I'm out of here," Silvaggio said as he tucked the gun into his waistband and took off running down an intersecting corridor.

*

Hartounian heard gunfire coming from out in the hallway and went to investigate. She was met with a scene that her mind couldn't make sense of. Captain Grady was slumped over on the ground while three animated corpses approached slowly but surely down the hallway. Without stopping to think Hartounian grabbed Grady under the shoulders and dragged her back onto the bridge. The door to the hallway slammed shut behind her. She snapped her fingers in front of Grady's face and shook her gently but persistently. After a moment her eyes snapped open.

"Silvaggio?" she muttered.

"I didn't see him," Hartounian said. "You were on the floor unconscious and it looks like there's a lump on your head. What's going on? What are those things in the hallway?"

"That bastard," Grady gritted her teeth as she stood back up. "I'll have to deal with him later." She grabbed her telecom unit and called Chief Branson. "I need you to cut all power to the rest of the ship immediately. Including the brig. Divert all resources to the bridge and whatever you need to perform repairs. And I need the bridge to go on immediate lockdown. Seal all the doors. I don't want anyone or anything getting in or out. Do you copy?"

"Aye Captain," Branson responded. Power shutdown procedure has been initiated. I'll get the bridge sealed off as well, but it's going to take a few minutes."

"We don't have a few minutes," Grady said. "I need it done right now!"

"I'll see what I can do Captain. Like I said I've already started the power shutdown. It's a done deal, it just takes some time. I'm working on sealing the doors as we speak. Hold on a second. There's some sort of... Who are you? You can't be in here. What do you think you're doing? Get away from me! No! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—"

The telecom unit went silent.

"Branson, do you read me?" Grady shouted into her telecom unit. "Branson! Come in! Do you read me?"

There was no response.

Suddenly the door to the bridge whooshed open and the slab of meat that had once been Corporal Ramirez came stumbling in. He was still in his body armor, but the visible flesh on his face and neck were covered with bite marks and oozing wounds. He wrapped his hands around the neck of the young tech Silvaggio had been flirting with earlier and ripped her head clean off her body. He began chewing on her severed spinal cord.

Utter panic and chaos instantly broke out among the people on the bridge. They began running around in all directions in search of safety, but there was nowhere to go. The junior navigation officer that had colluded with Silvaggio tried to make a break for the nearest door but was intercepted by the corpse of the naked woman and the vivisected blond man as they entered the room. The woman bit into his forearm while the blond man ripped off his left ear and shoved it into his mouth. They proceeded to rip the navigation officer to shreds until little remained but a bloody pulp.

In the meantime, the headless body of the young tech had stood back up and began walking around of its own accord. It grabbed a hold of a science officer and plunged its thumbs into his eyes before snapping his neck. The zombie formerly known as Corporal Ramirez had finished nibbling most of the meat off of the tech's face so it tossed the head aside and went after a new kill. It cornered the tech whose name Captain Grady hadn't been able to recall earlier. It quickly disemboweled him and then began digging out organs to eat. In short order it had retrieved the spleen, the liver, and a kidney and began feasting.

Time seemed to slow down to Hartounian, although less than a minute had passed since the first attack. Each person who was killed began adding to the zombie horde as they quickly rose up and attacked the living. Captain Grady was standing at her side, reaching for her gun but quickly coming to realize it was no longer in her possession.

"Captain! We have to get out of here right now!"

"Branson already initiated the power shutoff to the rest of the ship. It's going to be dark and freezing and there won't be any oxygen! It's sure-fire death out there!"

"Look around! It's sure-fire death in here!"

Captain Grady thought for a few seconds. "There's an emergency supply closet in Corridor 24D. It's got suits in it with their own power sources and life support capability up to twelve hours. The power shutdown takes a few minutes to go into effect. If we can get to that closet and get into those suits we can move about the rest of the ship and maybe figure out a way to put an end to this madness. It looks like we've got a clear path to the door. Go now!"

Hartounian looked around helplessly for a split second to see if there was anyone else they could take with them, but the situation looked hopeless. Everyone was already dead, reanimated, or in the process of being eaten. She said a little prayer for their souls and ran after Captain Grady towards the exit.

They made it out the door and into the hallway, but not without several zombies in pursuit. Luckily the zombies moved relatively slowly and they could easily outrun them. Hartounian was aware that there could be more of them lurking in the halls, but the immediate vicinity appeared to be clear. The lights were growing dimmer, the air seemed like it was getting thinner, and it felt like temperature was starting to drop. The power shutdown had definitely been initiated. The conditions were still suitable for survival, but they wouldn't be for long. They had to get to that supply closet.

Captain Grady knew the ship intimately and was able to lead them to Corridor 24D by the quickest route possible. She located the door that led to the supply closet and they ducked in as rapidly as possible, making sure the door shut securely behind them.

"How in the hell did we get zombies on board the ship?" Grady asked as she started to don a suit.

"I can only venture guesses without having a specimen to study," Hartounian said. "Maybe the radiation field triggered something in the cadavers. Or maybe one of the alien viruses we have in our collection of samples got loose when the power went out and infected them. Or maybe the cadavers were already infected when we picked them up and they got loose once they thawed out. Whatever happened, I'd wager it began with those bodies we were transporting and then it spread quickly from there."

"Talk about damaged goods," Captain Grady muttered. "That's the last time I'll be accepting any shipments from that supplier. Assuming we get out of this alive. Well, we got our suits. That's a step in the right direction. Now we've got to figure out how to get rid of a whole bunch of zombies. Then maybe we can get the ship out of the radiation field and try to get back home."

"We need to take this one step at a time," Hartounian said. "How are we supposed to get rid of the zombies?"

"According to all the stories I've read you've got to nail them in the head. I don't know if that actually works or not, but we're not going to get anywhere without weapons."

"Sounds great," Hartounian said. "Where might we find some?"

"We're a scientific vessel, not a military ship, but we do have a small supply of weapons in the security office. It's located in corridor 18A. That's about a ten minute walk from here under normal circumstances. These suits are a little clunky and are probably going to slow us down a little, but hopefully not so much that we can't still outrun any walking corpses we come across."

It appeared that the power shutdown sequence had completed by the time they stepped back out into the hallway. The suits had oxygen and kept them nice and warm. They also had had headlamps that illuminated a narrow area in front of them wherever they looked. Otherwise they were surrounded by pitch blackness.

Hartounian could hear her pulse pounding in her ears as she made her way down the dark hallway, making sure to keep Grady in sight. She wasn't as familiar with the layout of the ship as the Captain was, especially without any light. They could communicate through their telecom units, but she still didn't want to get separated. She feared she could become hopelessly lost in the dark without Grady guiding the way.

She had no way to keep track of time and had no idea how many minutes had passed, but it felt like they had been walking through black endless hallways for hours. Hopefully they were getting close to their destination. She couldn't see anything other than the back of Grady's suit and it was difficult to hear anything other than her own breathing and heartbeat.

They came to an intersecting hallway, but Grady continued on straight ahead. Hartounian happened to glance left and right down the hallway. She didn't see anything, but then she turned her head left one more time and let out a shriek as her headlamp suddenly illuminated a grinning face with glassy dead eyes, one of which was dangling out of the socket. The lips had been chewed away and there were deep scratch marks across the forehead. Hartounian recognized the curly brown hair. It was Chief Branson. Or what remained of him at any rate. "Grady! Run!" she shouted as Branson lunged at her. She managed to dodge clumsily out of the way as his teeth clacked noisily a few inches away where her shoulder had just been. He reached out and tried to grab her arm, but she shoved off of him and began to trot laboriously. The suit was slowing her down a lot more than she cared for.

"We're almost there!" Grady transmitted to her. "It's a right at the next intersection and then three doors down on the left! Don't slow down!"

Hartounian thought she could hear footsteps thudding behind her as she willed herself to go faster. She turned around the corner hot on Grady's heels and then counted three doors. She let out a sigh of relief as they made it inside and the door slammed shut behind them.

"All right," Grady gave her a pat on the back and a thumbs up. "We made it! Let's grab some weapons and then we can-"

There was a loud explosive noise and Grady's helmet shattered. The right side of her head exploded and splattered Hartounian with blood mixed with bits of flesh, brain, and bone. Grady dropped to the floor instantly dead.

Hartounian turned her head and her headlamp showed another figure wearing a suit and pointing a gun at her. "Don't shoot!" she shouted as she held up her hands as if she were surrendering.

"Holy shit. I thought you were zombies. Damn, I blasted the fuck out of that bitch. Oops. My bad."

"Silvaggio?" Hartounian asked.

"At your service," he said with a grin. "Hang on, I'd better shoot her again to make sure she doesn't come back." He fired the gun multiple times into Grady's head and body until he emptied the chamber. "There. That ought to do the trick. Now that was satisfying. Thinks she can throw me in the slammer? I'm Chaz Motherfucking Silvaggio. I always come out on top. Too bad that bitch had to learn the hard way."

"What are you doing here?" Hartounian asked.

"Looks like I had the same plan as you. I realized the power was shutting down so I hustled over and grabbed a survival suit. Then I came over here to score some more weapons, since I already used up all the ammo in the gun I took from Captain Bitch Tits here. It's a pretty pathetic collection, but there's a couple of guns in here. Better than nothing. I figure the next step is to book it to the escape pods and get the fuck out of Dodge. You want to come with me? You can keep my bed warm while we wait for a rescue ship to pick us up."

Hartounian had to disguise a shudder of revulsion. "I'll go with you, but I think we should initiate the self-destruct sequence on the ship before we escape. It doesn't look like we have enough weapons to kill all the zombies and I wouldn't want anyone stumbling on this ship on accident and walking blindly into a zombie horde."

"Fuck that. I ain't risking my neck for some hypothetical suckers that may or may not ever come along. Morons would get what they deserved for boarding a ship without taking proper precautions. Besides, once we're rescued we can send in a military operation to clean up the mess. We might still be able to salvage some profits out of this bitch. Can't do that if the ship explodes. You coming with me or what?"

"I can't in good conscience let anyone else risk turning into one of those. I'm blowing up the ship."

"Suit yourself," Silvaggio shrugged. "But I'll be sure to let the Board know you were the one responsible for the damages. Shit, you're going to owe so much money to the corporation your grandchildren's grandchildren will be paying off that debt. But if that's what you really want, go right ahead. I won't stop you."

"Good. Now give me one of those guns, will you?"

"Sorry, toots. There's only two and I'm afraid I'm going to need both of them to save my own skin. Speaking of which..." He fired another shot into Grady's body. "Better make sure she's really dead. Don't want her biting my ankle or anything. Plus that just feels so damn good! I'd be kicking myself forever if I passed up the chance to experience that one more time."

Hartounian heard a tapping noise coming from the other side of the door. "I think your gunshots drew their attention. There's at least one zombie out there. Maybe more."

"Then I might just have to send you out as a distraction so I can make my escape. I'm sure if they're busy chomping on your lungs it'll buy me time to make it to the emergency evacuation. Thanks for helping a guy out. You're a real peach."

He punched a button on the wall and the door slid open revealing Branson on the other side. Hartounian leaped backwards and ducked behind a desk as the zombie stumbled into the room.

"You're no fun," Silvaggio said with a tsk. "Guess I'm just going to have to waste this sack of meat." He opened fire on the zombie hitting it several times in the head until the gun was empty. It fell lifelessly to the floor with a wet splattering sound. "Looks like I'm down to just one gun. Better make it count. Have fun with your little plan to blow up the ship. I'll be getting on an escape pod if you change your mind. I hear it gets lonely in those pods and I could stand to keep my knob greased." He gave a little salute with the remaining gun as he threw the empty one to the ground and walked out the door.

Hartounian took a moment to compose herself before standing up and surveying the room. She had noticed there was a map of the entire ship hanging on the wall. She took it down and folded it up. She searched the desk drawer and found a box of ammunition that matched the empty gun Silvaggio had dropped as well as a manual that contained the code she would need to initiate the self-destruct sequence.. She bent to retrieve the gun when the light from her headlamp fell on Captain Grady's body. She felt hot tears welling up in her eyes.

"Oh Grady. I'm so sorry this happened to you. I wish I could give you a proper burial. Actually, I'm sure you'd consider it an honor to go down with your ship. I'll make it happen. And I'll make sure that sick bastard doesn't get away with this either."

She unfolded the map on the desk and studied it carefully. There were two spots where it was possible to activate the self-destruct sequence. One of them was from the bridge, but that wasn't preferable, since for all she knew it was still crawling with zombies. Luckily the designers had considered the possibility of the ship being hijacked by terrorists or space pirates and had installed a secondary panel that actually wasn't located too far from her lab. She studied the map until she was pretty certain she knew where she was going, then folded it back up and tucked it in her belt for future reference. After making sure the gun was loaded and then after saying one final goodbye to her fallen friend, Hartounian stepped back out into the hallway.

She was greeted by pitch blackness and utter silence whereupon she took a moment to orient herself and then began walking slowly but purposefully down the corridor, making sure to turn her head frequently to keep tabs on her surroundings as the headlamp only lit up a small area directly in front of wherever she was looking. She kept thinking she heard noises coming from behind her or off to the sides, but the light continued to reveal nothing but empty hallways.

The walls periodically had signs on them labeling the corridors and by referring to the map as needed, she was able to keep herself on the correct course. It felt like she had been continuously clenching her stomach in a knot for hours. Her pulse raced and she could feel her palms dripping sweat inside the suit. It was exhausting to be staying constantly on high alert, but she knew if she let her guard down for a second she might meet a sudden horrifying and gruesome death.

It seemed as if she had been walking for an eternity, but she finally found herself in the correct corridor and a moment later she located the panel. Being of vital importance, it had its own small power generator and wasn't subject to the power shutdown in the rest of the ship. The monitor flashed into life and the light from it seemed excessively bright in contrast to the darkness of the hallway. The self-destruct code was a complex series of numbers and symbols and it had to be entered twice in order to initiate the sequence. She typed slowly on the keypad, trying to make sure she didn't make any errors.

Was that a faint moaning sound coming from off to the left? She turned her head and lit up the hallway, but didn't see anything. She held her gaze for a few breaths and then turned her attention back to the monitor and continued keying in the code. Just a few more keystrokes to go and... there! It accepted the first entry as correct. Now she just had to enter the whole thing once more.

This time she was certain she heard a moan and a shuffling of feet to the left. She readied her gun and turned her head. The lamp continued to show nothing but an empty hallway. Then she felt a prickling sensation on the back of her neck. She whirled around and the lamp lit up a tall man in a security uniform looming over her. His neck and throat were completely ripped open and she could see his exposed esophagus pulsating as he swallowed. Without hesitating she fired the gun in the zombie's face and it dropped to the ground. She swiveled her head in both directions to see if there were any more undead lurking about, but the hallway appeared empty so she returned her attention to the monitor and resumed inputting the code. It felt like it was taking a torturously long time, but she didn't want to rush and risk making a mistake.

Finally she had typed the last digit in the code. The monitor displayed a "processing" message and a little animated circle turned for an agonizingly long time before it finally confirmed she had entered it correctly and the self-destruct sequence had been initiated. A red clock popped up on the screen displaying twenty minutes and began counting down. If she was going to have any chance at getting out of this alive she had to make her way to the escape pods. She pulled out the map and studied it for a moment. She didn't have far to go. If her luck held out she should make it with plenty of time to spare.

Hartounian turned a corner and found herself in a hallway she recognized. 10A. Her lab was in this corridor. It was where she had spent the vast majority of her time during this expedition. She doubted she would ever see it again and felt a sudden intense feeling of loss.

There was a banging sound originating from directly in front of her and a zombie in a shredded white lab coat lurched into her field of view. It was a young woman who Hartounian thought she recognized from the geological studies team. Her name was Laurie or Lizzy or something similar. Or it had been when she was alive. Currently her chest cavity was torn open, her ribcage was exposed, and her beating heart was visible. She was currently blocking the hallway Hartounian needed to go down.

She raised her gun and fired at the zombie but it appeared she missed as it kept walking towards her in the unnerving stiff fashion in which the undead seemed to move. Hartounian fired again and this time she hit it in the shoulder, but it didn't slow down. She heard a noise coming from behind her and turned around to see a naked older man shuffling towards her. She was getting boxed in and was already running low on ammunition. She fired at the man and his head exploded in a spray of blood and gristle. He dropped to the ground but there was another zombie with half of its face chewed off standing right behind and coming her way.

Hartounian turned back around in the other direction and fired again at the zombie in the shredded lab coat. This time her shot found its mark and the walking corpse fell to the ground. Unfortunately she could see several more figures looming just beyond and approaching her slowly but steadily. The sounds of numerous inhuman groans came wafting down the hallway. She spotted the door to her lab just ahead and to the right. If she hurried she might be able to reach it before the zombie horde caught up to her.

With the power down she had to open the door manually. It swung open easily and she ducked inside and closed it behind her. There was no physical latch and no way to lock it without power, so she hoped it would just hold the zombies at bay long enough to buy her some time to figure something out.

Her headlamp lit up the body of the alien specimen she had been studying when the power had first gone out. It was still in the tray on the table where she had left it. She briefly considered trying to wield it as some sort of blunt object, but then she found the laser knife on the ground. Her suit had an internal power supply and a universal input jack. She connected the laser to her suit and turned on the power. There was a satisfying buzzing sound as it came to life and lit up the room with its bright red glow. She turned the power to its maximum setting just as the zombies came bursting through the door.

She pointed the laser knife at the first zombie as it reached towards her with a hand that was smeared with blood and bits of entrails. There was a crackling sound and the room started to fill with smoke as the zombie's flesh first burned and then started to melt. It let out a gurgling sound before it collapsed in a puddle of guts and bodily fluids. She turned the laser onto the next zombie and liquefied it. She advanced forward, carving her way through the zombie horde until she made it back into the hallway. There was a clear pathway in the direction she needed to go, so she took off at as fast of a trot as her suit would allow. She had no idea how much time had been lost fighting the zombies, but clearly there wasn't a second to lose. In some undetermined amount of time, but less than twenty minutes, the ship and everything inside was going to be vaporized.

She could hear footsteps lumbering behind her, but she couldn't take the time to worry about that. The hangar that housed the escape pods was just a few corridors away. She willed herself to move faster even though she could tell she was physically exhausted and reaching her limits. Pure adrenaline was carrying her forward at this point.

At last she turned a final corner and found herself in the escape bay. It was pitch black, but her headlamp was able to pick out a large circular hatch in the wall that led to a pod.

"Hey doll-face, glad you decided to join me after all."

She turned around and saw Silvaggio standing near a hatch with a cocky grin visible through his helmet.

"I thought you would have been long gone by now," Hartounian said. "Why are you still here?"

"Yeah, I ran into a bit of a problem. There's no juice in the ship and all of the pods seem to be dead. I can't figure out how to turn them on. But you're a brainiac, aren't you? One of those nerdy chicks that's into science? You know, normally I wouldn't give someone like you the time of day, but you're not too hard on the eyes for a science dork. We can use that big brain of yours to solve our little technical issue here, and then we can use the rest of you to have some fun once we make our escape. It's nice and cozy in those pods."

"How can you think of that at a time like this?" Hartounian said in disbelief.

"What can I say, I'm a machine. Plus, I'm a big picture kind of guy. I like to think ahead and plan what comes next. That's why I'm so successful at business. And, hey, you should consider yourself lucky to have an opportunity to be with a guy like me. No offense, but I'm way out of your league. Now what's the deal with these escape pods? Can you get them working or are we just going to sit here and die like a bunch of chumps?"

"Well, first of all, since these things are kind of vital, they should have their own power. But you're right. Something must have gone wrong because this is dead as a doornail. But the good news is you have a power supply in your suit." Hartounian unhooked the laser knife and connected the cable that led to the hatch.

"Is that right? Shit, that would have been useful to know earlier."

"Then, it's just a matter of flipping on the power to the pods." She hit a switch and the hatch slid open, revealing an extremely small capsule that was lit up with an array of blinking lights.

"Well, look at you go," Silvaggio said. "I bet you're the type who reads all the instruction manuals when you buy shit. So how exactly do these pods work?"

"They've designed them to be as idiot proof as possible," Hartounian said. "There's a big red button on the panel. You just buckle yourself in, push it, and the pod will blast off and initiate a distress signal."

"Nice," Silvaggio said. "Thanks for the crash course in escape pod operations. Much appreciated. Unfortunately they're a lot smaller than I thought they were. It looks like only one of us is going to fit in here." He pulled out his gun and pointed it at her head. "As much as I would have liked to throw you the old bone, I don't think it's going to happen. So I guess I'll just be taking the pod and getting on my way. And don't look now, but it looks like you've got yourself some company. If you hurry, maybe you can get one of the other pods up and running before those zombies make you their lunch. Anyway, so long, toots."

Hartounian looked behind her. There was a swarm of zombies entering the room, led by one that looked familiar. It was wearing a tattered suit just like the one she wore with a shattered helmet. The body and head were littered with bullet holes and the face was barely recognizable, but there was no mistaking her former captain and best friend. Grady had come back as a zombie.

Silvaggio still had the gun pointed at her as he started to back into the hatch. He turned his head to look where he was going and Hartounian seized on the moment. She was no longer connected to the laser knife, but she was pretty sure she still had at least one bullet left in her gun. She pulled it out quickly and shot Silvaggio in the gut. A look of surprise came across his face as he dropped his own gun and clutched at his stomach, where blood was already starting to pour out.

Hartounian grabbed him by the arm and pulled him out of the hatch. She used the momentum to spin around so he was placed between her and the horde of zombies. Then she gave him a solid shove and he was engulfed by the undead. They broke through his helmet in a matter of seconds and then the zombie that had once been Grady ripped the top of his scalp clean off exposing his brains. The zombies dug into his skull cavity and began greedily scooping them out and eating them.

Silvaggio let out an agonizing scream as he reached his hand out towards Hartounian before he disappeared beneath the writhing mass of bodies and fell silent.

Hartounian wasted no time leaping through the hatch and into the escape pod. She slammed down on the red button with her full weight and then quickly buckled in. The hatch sealed shut behind her, there was an intense vibration and then a sense of acceleration and before she knew it she was out among the stars.

Looking through the view panel behind her she could see the ship shrinking into a tiny silver dot. Then it suddenly lit up in a fiery explosion before fading to black.

She finally released a breath she hadn't even realized she had been holding. And then the tears came and she broke down in deep gasping sobs. She cried until there was nothing left inside her and then she sat in numb silence for a while. She had a nasty headache from the crying and felt uncomfortably hot and sweaty. The escape pod had its own life support system so there was no reason to remain in the suit. Now that the acceleration had slowed down she could unbuckle safely and strip out of it. She was overcome by a wave of dizziness and nausea as she stood up to the extent the cramped space of the pod allowed. She felt strange. Almost feverish. But she had just been through an extremely traumatic experience. Hopefully someone would hear her distress signal soon and come rescue her.

She managed to get the suit off and got hit with another wave of nausea. This time she couldn't keep it under control and she reached for a sick bag and threw up. She took several deep breaths and then was sick again. Her head was pounding and she felt like she was burning up. What was going on? She had never felt this sick in her life. That was when her eyes strayed down and she noticed the bite mark on her wrist.