SPACESHIP ZOMBIE CRUISE

FILE ENTRY 13.0

Bella Starr

A twilight glow bathes the Sea Breeze Deck of the Celestial Sea, the floor lights shimmering off the water in the pool. The atmosphere should have been perfect for relaxing in a lounge chair and drifting off to sleep, if not for the sick man charging at us, snapping like a rabid dog.

The moral obligation to save a life stunts my impulse to run. As I will myself to flee from the man with the ravenous eyes, I slow a step and snatch the woman by the crook of the elbow and jerk her toward the cafe lights.

The woman resists, unsure, her face a mask of confusion. "What's wrong with him?"

I yank her arm, drawn in two directions. One—stop and convince the woman with the sloshing drink to tuck tail and run. Or two—let go of her arm, run, and leave her for dead.

Option two—since the woman refuses to move—transfixed and unable to react decisively. Instead of running, she backs away, realizing too late the threat the sick man poses.

I sprint toward the cafe, turning back to look as the man picks up speed. "Come on!" I say.

The woman comes to herself, slings her drink aside, and turns to run, the contents of her plastic flute splattering across the deck as it bounces off the floor.

The sick man roars, an unearthly sound, like an alien creature ready to shed its human host. In three lunging strides, he catches up to the woman. As she starts toward the cafe, the man rakes his fingers through her hair, snatches her from behind, and throws her down.

She screams.

I hesitate at the cafe entrance, my hand searching for the door. My throat constricts as my heart tries to crack my sternum open and burst out of my chest.

While backpedaling, I almost fall down.

What's the man doing? Why is he attacking her? I watch, my pulse throbbing in my neck, trying to pound its way out of my throat.

The man crawls on top of the woman, growling like an animal.

In defense, she slaps and scratches. She wails, high-pitched and ear ringing as the sick man, Adrianna's father, sinks his teeth into her neck. Blood gushes and pools on the floor.

I pause at the door, glaring back at the—what am I seeing? Am I really seeing it? A man killing, no, eating...

He continues to hold the woman down and tear the flesh with his teeth.

She stops screaming and stops moving.

I know what that means. My stomach twists and spasms. I feel faint, trembling as I watch the carnage. The man had killed the innocent woman. Murdered her in cold blood, but it was more than murder. It was savage and cannibalistic.

A voice yells in my ear... the other man, the woman's boyfriend, is back with a staff member.

The staff member, a young Asian woman, squirts between the boyfriend and me, and orders the man to stop, to leave the woman alone, but he ignores her demands.

The staff member yells again and this time the man looks up, his face covered in red.

His eyes are milky white and bloodshot. They possess an inhuman character. He's sick... infected, and he's lost his mind.

The boyfriend shoves me aside and rushes toward the infected man. That's what he has to be, infected with a virus or something much worse.

"Get off her!" He crashes into Adrianna's Father, and both men tumble across the deck and splash into the pool.

The staffer hurries to the woman and hovers over her. The poor girl isn't moving, her eyes staring into space.

Seconds tick by agonizingly slow.

I inch forward, my neck tight, pulse raging. Whip my head around to the pool. The water roils and froths from arms and legs slashing about in the fray.

I move toward the pool's edge, my eyes locked on the action.

The water calms and turns red.

The boyfriend floats to the top, motionless. A moment later, Adrianna's father breaks the surface, sputtering water from his lips.

Nearby, the dead girlfriend turns her head to the staffer. Her eyes have the same glazed over look as Adrianna's father. She's alive again, her nose and mouth wrinkling into a nasty snarl.

The staffer doesn't notice the girlfriend is awake, still focused on the infected guy trying to get out of the pool.

I'm perplexed by all this happening. Maybe the revived girlfriend was never dead as I thought, only unconscious? None of this makes sense. The woman has lost too much blood.

The girlfriend groans, which makes the staffer glance down as a set of teeth bite into her ankle, drawing blood, crimson oozing out and spilling onto her shoes.

The staffer's scream explodes out of her mouth. She kicks and stomps at the girlfriend, freeing herself for a moment, but as she pulls away, the woman's hand snags her foot, and she trips, thudding to the deck. Attempting to crawl away, the woman's other hand grabs her pants leg and uses it for leverage.

As I gawk, my chin sagging, eyes wide open, heart racing, the girlfriend climbs on top of the staffer and bites into her shoulder.

The staffer screams, but the once dead or unconscious girlfriend bites her again, going for the throat, for the kill, like a predator, an animal. Somehow, the infection had spread from the sick man to the dead guy's girlfriend in a matter of seconds.

But it's not over. The man I encountered in the elevator, Adrianna's father, rustles in the pool, reaching and slapping his arms at the floor, but he can't find a hold on the slick deck to pull himself out.

As I watch, dazed, the boyfriend who's floating in the pool, his blood a cloud around him, wakes up and starts flopping in the water.

I think to run past the infected girlfriend and the dead staffer. There's a path between the woman and the pool's edge. The narrow passage leads to the elevator, but it's a risky decision with Adrianna's father in the pool slamming his arms on the deck. If I don't time it right, the man might grab my foot or trip me.

The commotion on the Sea Breeze Deck has drawn several spectators to the cafe entrance. Men and women gather in the doorway and block my most obvious path of escape as more of them show up.

To my left, I see a counter with stacked towels.

If I can't escape...

I dart for the corner and drop to my knees behind the counter. The way it angles to the pool, it offers the perfect hiding place. As I duck and peek around the corner, the two infected men in the pool figure out how to climb out. Before long, the girlfriend pushes to her feet and runs toward the onlookers at the cafe entrance, the infected men following in her wake.

The infection has passed from one person to another. Three people in minutes.

I suck in a breath.

On the pool deck, the staffer sits up and cranes her head toward the cafe entrance. Her eyes, white and glazed. Her mouth curled, teeth showing.

Make that four people infected and changed into something inhuman.

The staffer bolts to her feet and joins the attack. From the other side of the counter, I shake, goosebumps flashing over my forearms as the infected passengers chase after the onlookers, who are no longer spectators, but now are prey on the run.