SPACESHIP ZOMBIE CRUISE

FILE ENTRY 23.0

Bella Starr

My gaze crosses the grated floor to the wall opposite of the gravity drives. A long extension ladder hangs on a series of hooks.

"Help me." I rush over and try to lift the ladder, but it's too high up and too heavy for me to handle by myself.

Astra and Halo catch on. They run over and take up positions on each side of me, and we lift the ladder in unison.

The infected crew members sense we're trying to escape. In response, the four of them stumble forward and stretch toward us.

With Astra on one end and Halo on the other, and me stuck in the middle, we raise the extension ladder over our heads, turn our bodies around to face the approaching threats, and then lower the metal rungs into position, providing a barrier between us and the infected people.

"Go," I say. "Push them back."

Halo, Astra, and I drive the ladder into the torsos of the infected. We force them backward, toward the low humming gravity drives. The crew members of the Celestial Sea claw and scratch, protesting violently with inhuman sounds. But fortunately, we caught them off guard. They were standing too erect when we drove the ladder into them.

I help shove them back, bending my legs and lowering my center of gravity, gaining the advantage.

The wounded engineer with the gashes on his cheek and forehead is closer to me in the middle of the ladder. He stretches his hand out for my shoulder, coming up short. But his fingers adjust on the fly, scrambling for my forearm, which is wrapped with the paper towels. Now the makeshift armor doesn't seem like the best idea. I wonder if it can stop the biting force of a set of human teeth? I don't want to find out.

I slink away and manage to withdraw from his reach. As I lean to one side, I glance down at the floor next to the gravity drives. I failed to notice it earlier in the darkness. But as I look at the cylinders, the red lights continue to blink and the small amount of light available reveals a line of long pits that run under each drive. The pits are likely intended for maintenance purposes and appear to be deep enough to serve as a trap.

"Look below the gravity drives," I yell as we push the infected backwards.

Halo peers over the ladder rail. "Good idea."

"Time to finish this," Astra replies, her voice straining, eyes ablaze with intensity.

The heels of the wounded engineer edges closer to the maintenance pit. The other infected crew members are in the same predicament.

I push, summoning all the strength I can muster, my labor turning into a desperate roar of determination.

Halo buries his shoulder into the rungs of the ladder, driving with his legs, and on the other side, Astra digs in for the final push.

Halo's end of the ladder slams into the side of the gravity drive. The infected crew member closest to him loses his footing and falls into the pit.

The woman with the hard hat, the other infected man, and the wounded engineer fight back harder against Astra and I. To help us, Halo rolls his body in toward me, using his weight to gain more leverage.

It's three on three. A stalemate.

Then the load lightens and we gain ground on the three infected people.

The wounded engineer swipes at me and misses, and then plunges into the pit. For the first time, I realize that someone else, a fourth person, has joined us, assisting us in the push for survival. With a final shove, the woman with the hard hat disappears, falling into the maintenance pit along with the other infected man. All four of the infected crew members are trapped, trying to escape by jumping and clawing for the top ledge, but to no avail.

Halo, Astra, and I collapse, out of breath, our bodies drained, staring up bleary eyed at the person who put his shoulder to the grind and helped save our lives.

"Thanks," Halo says.

"Glad to be of assistance," the man says. Thin wisps of gray hair fall across his forehead as he lowers to a knee, panting. "Name's Apollo Bream, Chief Engineer, or at least, I was..." His eyes drift down to a grotesque wound on his forearm, blood streaks trailing down to his hand. "I don't have much time left. Already feeling feverish, but thank heavens I was able to do something worthwhile before I turned into a blasted infected."

Apollo's strength evaporates and he pitches forward. He lands on top of the ladder that rests near the edge of the pit where his former co-workers stammer to climb out of the hole...but thankfully they can't escape. All they can do is make a lot of awful, blood curling noise.

"Maybe you can help us?" I say, and proceed to tell him about our mission to get him to stop the ship before it reaches Earth.

"Good idea," Apollo gasps, "but sorry, it won't work. I've already done all I can from here. I was able to dial back on the engine's output somewhat; we're no longer traveling at two percent the speed of light. At this point, we may have reached Uranus, tomorrow Saturn. Next day Jupiter and so forth. But I can't slow us down anymore. It's a fail safe that only the Captain on the bridge of the ship can initiate a full shutdown."

"Why's that?" Astra asks.

Apollo pushes up on an elbow, grinning in obvious pain. "A full shutdown would stall out the drives and eliminate gravity from the ship. We'd be floating around like the old days of space flight."

I notice the older man's strength waning and help him lie flat on his back. He grows more faint and pale by the second.

"I feel myself fading," the man says, his eyelids drawing together until they close. "You know what you have to do."

He exhales a ragged breath. Wheezes. Gasps for air.

And then he's gone.

For my own sanity, I check his pulse and realize something that I'd feared all along. He's dead. He has no heartbeat.

I refuse to contemplate what this means for Caprica. I don't want to think about it.

Before the virus has a chance to reanimate Apollo and revive him, and turn him into one of the infected, we roll the chief engineer over the edge of the pit until his body crashes to the floor below. His former crew members tear into his flesh, and a moment later, Apollo wakes up, his eyes milky white, stomach ripped open, intestines visible.

At that moment, I have a sickening feeling that these people are not only sick or infected, but they are truly...zombies.