SPACESHIP ZOMBIE CRUISE

FILE ENTRY 39.0

Bella Starr

Halo lies on the floor awaiting a far worse eventuality than anyone in his predicament should have to face, to be transformed in an unimaginable way by a virus I have yet to fully understand. As his life trickles away, all I see is Cygnus Lo's knife in the hands of Electra Draco, slicing through the space between us, arcing higher, aimed for my face.

I pull away from the blade, my body leaning backwards at a thirty degree angle, my chin sinking as far into my neck as possible. For a split second, I hang in midair balancing my weight on the heels of my feet as the knife finishes its course and cuts between Draco and I, missing me by millimeters.

I had witnessed Halo do the same maneuver once before. When we were Kendo sword fighting back at Neptune Shores, he'd performed a backward roll and came up on his feet. He was reacting to almost the same type of assault that Draco threatened me with now. I caught him leaning too far to one side and his response was to dodge a downward swipe of my bamboo sword by backpedaling to clear the edge of the blade. But his retreat left him vulnerable. I countered by whipping my sword around in a sideways arc as Halo somehow bent his body backwards, maintaining his stance on his heels. As my weapon streaked by his chest and missed, he fell back and rolled, springing up to land on his feet with his sword ready to counterattack.

I had tried the same maneuver before in practice sessions with Halo but could never pull it off...until now. Well, almost.

As I tumble backwards, I stray to one side, my body coming up in an off balance squat instead of bolting to my feet like Halo had. But I manage to raise the katana above my head in a defensive position. To even the odds in my favor, Draco is wounded. She can do no better than limp after me in a feeble attempt to catch me and stab me with the knife.

But when Draco sees the katana, she skitters to a stop, the knife lowering as she realizes she doesn't have a chance to win a battle against a sword.

I rise, wielding the blade. "If you even think about throwing that at me, you better make sure you hit your target, because if you don't, you'll regret it."

Draco snarls and starts toward me, but Halo, from a prostrated position, catches the woman's feet between his ankles and twists his body into a roll toward me.

Face first, Draco pitches forward and hits the floor.

As Halo lies on his back, he whimpers, suffering from the knife wound. Finally, he goes still and quiet as the last remnants of strength leave his body.

I snatch the steak knife from Draco and level the katana at her. "Get up and get back to work on the comms before I give up hope and decide to stick you."

Draco moves like a sloth, but she pushes up, crawling some of the way, and pulls herself agonizingly into the chair.

"What do you expect to accomplish by this?" she says, head angled back at me. "If anyone comes, it'll be too late by the time they get here. We'll all be dead, or worse, we'll be one of the infected."

Impatient rage burns through me. Instead of replying, I stomp on one of Draco's injured feet.

She wails.

"When you get control of yourself," I say, "do yourself a favor and make the call."

Draco growls in frustration, but after several deep breaths, she opens a channel and says between sharp gasps, "This is Electra Draco...calling Space Venture Headquarters...please respond."

With the katana, I prick the point into Draco's cheek, drawing a dribble of blood. She flinches and stares back at me with vengeful eyes.

"Tell them we need rescue, and about our situation," I say, "but don't say a word about me and my friends."

Draco faces the touchscreen panel. "HQ," she draws in a pain-labored breath, "this is Electra Draco, come in, please. I'm issuing an official S.O.S., we are in need of rescue. There's been a viral outbreak on the Celestial Sea. We require immediate assistance or we'll all perish."

There's a bit of static and then a voice says, "S.O.S. received."

A pause in the transmission. "Did you say a viral outbreak?"

"Affirmative," Draco says.

"We thought it was pirates."

"No, the emergency beacon was the only thing the captain could do under the stress of the situation."

"Understood. We'll warn them to suit up as a precaution." A brief delay. "Coordinates locked. Help is already on the way, should be there in a few hours."

"Excuse me?" Draco replies.

"After we picked up the emergency beacon on the piracy channel last night, a special forces unit was dispatched by the Federation and are in route to your position, which is several hundred thousand klicks from the orbit of Uranus. Stay put and wait for assistance."

"How can they reach us so fast...all the way from Earth?"

"We've been told that's classified information," the voice replies.

"By the way," Draco says, "there's something important you need to know." I apply pressure with the blade to her cheek again, warning her to choose her words wisely. It garners another vicious glare from Draco. "The viral outbreak is what we can only term as a...zombie outbreak."

"Please clarify," the voice replies with a hint of concern.

"That's right," Draco says. She adds a few brief details about the uniqueness of our situation, stating that people had gone rabid, something that's believable given the history of gravity drives. All of what she says is under the duress of my blade. After she finishes, she waits for a response.

"That information will be passed along. Again, stay put in a safe location and wait for help to arrive."

"Loud and clear," Draco says. "We'll be here." She ends the transmission, prompting me to lower the sword.

I pause in deep thought, wondering how our fates are going to play out. A long moment passes, and then Halo gasps for air.

As I shift to check on him, I lower the sword to the floor.

That's when Draco leaps at me and knocks the katana from my hand.

I manage to cling to the knife in my other hand, but Draco latches onto the hilt and wrestles for control of the weapon.

Losing ground, I struggle against Draco's momentum as I'm forced backwards.

In the corner of the room, Adrianna cries out.

I try to pull the knife away from Draco, but the woman fights against me, forcing the blade lower between us. Once again, she shows her strength. She's simply stronger than me, but I remember her weakness—her wounded feet.

I raise my knee and stomp my shoe down onto Draco's foot. The woman screams in agony. Seizing the opportunity, I gain control of the knife and shove it into her abdomen. Her eyes grow large and her mouth gapes open. She seems to be in complete shock that she has met her end at the hands of a teenager. A little girl. With only the resistance of Draco's final breath, I lower her to the floor and watch her bleed out and die.