SPACESHIP ZOMBIE CRUISE

FILE ENTRY 33.0

Bella Starr

Under the red glow of an emergency light, Halo sidles his way down the dark stairwell. I'm behind him with Adrianna clinging to my waist. Behind the girl and I are Draco and Lo. As we make the first landing, shadows cloak the back of Halo's head. Sneaking along, we turn right and continue down one step at a time.

Glimmers of the emergency lights reflect off the blade of Halo's katana. To begin with, I think it's the light that paints his sword a crimson hue, but then I realize what I see is blood. Infected blood. Enough to make me feel squeamish.

To distract myself, I glance at Adrianna. The darkness shades the girl's glassy eyes like a pair of marbles in the gloom. I remember how frightened the girl had been in the medical bay at Neptune Shores. Here, the girl trembles even more as she hugs my waist.

Cygnus Lo and Electra Draco are the slowest getting down the stairs. Every time I look back, I catch them checking out the shadows behind them, searching for signs of infected passengers or members of the ship's crew. I can't blame them because I'm doing the same thing. Lo has his knife and Draco holds the wrench like a baseball bat.

At the bottom of the stairs, Halo crouches and peeks around the corner. I hover over his shoulder and peer into an open corridor with a bank of elevators much like the ones above us where we encountered the last group of infected people. But from what I can gather, the hallway isn't what concerns Halo; it's the open area to the left, back toward the middle of the ship that gives him the most pause. That area is home to the piano bar where we entered the ship. The piano player who sang the romantic ballad is no where to be seen, only an empty and dark area with a three story ceiling.

Halo squints his eyes, looking over his shoulder, past me. "Where do we go from here, Draco?"

"In the corridor between the elevators, there's a door. Do you see it?"

Halo flicks on the flashlight—which we'd dropped in the chaos upstairs—but he'd picked it up when it was over. We don't want to risk using it too much, only when necessary. He shines the light and keeps the bright circle on the doorway in question.

"That's it," Draco says.

"It's locked," Lo says, "But Electra has access to all areas of the ship."

"Good," I reply. "Let's move."

Halo switches off the flashlight and darts across the hallway and stops at the door between the elevators.

"Will we see anymore of those sick people?" Adrianna asks, tugging on my shirt.

"I don't know, but stick close to me and be ready to run."

The girl blinks and nods.

Adrianna and I dash over to meet Halo. Next, comes Draco and Lo. At the door, Draco nudges her way up close to a dark glass panel to the right of the door. She taps a tiny circle at the bottom of the glass and then nestles her face closer, allowing a retinal scanner to read her iris. Knowing the advanced nature of Space Venture, the specially designed contact lens in Draco's eyes probably deactivates her retinal clearance if she dies. So more than likely we need her alive to enter the bridge and access the ship's computer systems.

A red light skims over Draco's eye and then a computerized voice says, "Access granted." And the locking mechanism within the doorframe unlatches and the passage opens.

Everyone scoots inside and Halo shuts the door.

I lean against a wall and exhale, Adrianna brushing up to my side. We're in a narrow hallway that bends around the backside of the elevator and continues on for at least a hundred feet. At the end of the hall, the space opens up into an anteroom where the door to the bridge awaits us.

Smeared blood stains the wall on one side and gives me a metallic taste in my mouth when I swallow. "It may not be as safe in here as I thought," I say.

"Keep your weapons ready," Halo says as he moves to the front of the line again and takes point.

As we move down the corridor, I tense up each time we pass a side door. Halo checks each one; they're all locked. Draco tells us the doors are staterooms for the Celestial Sea's officers. With that in mind, I assume any of the officers who weren't on duty when the virus broke out, might still be trapped in their rooms. I'm right. When Halo pounds his fist on the third door in line, whoever is on the other side, erupts into a fit of infected rage. Thankfully, the virus seems to affect a person's ability to think in abstract ways. An infected has enough sense to want out of a place they're trapped in, but they can't examine something like a door and remember how to open it. That lets me know that someone like Caprica isn't acting in their right mind, as a matter of fact, they aren't acting in their mind at all. They are incognizant of who they are or what they are doing. In some strange way, that gives me a certain level of peace, knowing that my friend isn't herself. And neither is Astra if she's lost her battle with the infection back in the freezer.

I grip the katana sword in my right hand while holding Adrianna close to my left side. And once again, Draco follows me with the wrench and then comes Lo with the steak knife he picked up along the way. Every time I glance back, both of them have their heads on a swivel, eyes peering cautiously and suspiciously at the stateroom doors as we inch our way down the hallway. Being vigilant is good. Truth is, we need everyone alert and on their toes to maximize our chances of survival. If one goes down, it will make it that much harder on the rest of us.

At the end of the hall Halo checks both ways, and then fans out to the right. I take the left, helping him make sure the anteroom is safe. There are two doors on each side of the main entrance of the bridge but no other ways in or out of the anteroom.

"How do you plan on sending a message to Earth if the comms are down?" Draco asks, standing at the door, hesitating in front of the retinal scanner that permits access to the bridge. "I'm wondering because the Celestial Sea utilizes the most advanced in communications technology. How do you propose you're going to operate such advanced equipment? Especially since it seems to be out of commission? No one has been able to send or receive a video call or message of any kind since the outbreak started."

"That's a good question," I reply, turning to look at my friend. "Halo is a tech whiz. It's one of his many talents."

At the compliment, his lips turn up at the corners.

Draco nods and then nestles her right eye up to the retinal scanner and waits for the door to unbolt and allow us into the bridge. When the scan is complete, and the door ajar, she looks behind Halo and I at Cygnus Lo.

Lo flashes his knife at me and grins maliciously. Then his face twists into a snarl and he thrusts the soiled blade forward. My world tilts on its axis and slides toward the havoc that only death can bring, and although I see it coming, I'm powerless to stop it.