GalaxyZombicus

Galaxy Zombicus

Piper Leigh

You can’t really blame me for sneaking out to that
underground club. Sure, the shambling zombie hordes had breached the borders
and a lockdown was in effect, but
come on
! A girl could go crazy staring
at the same four walls for weeks on end. So I caved. I went. I locked lips with
a hottie who certainly
looked
healthy enough—right up until the second
he bit me. That’s how I found myself on Zombicus, one of several quarantine
planets. Where, as luck would have it, I met Benson, the potential security
guard of my dreams.

I might be facing death, but my sex life has never been more
alive.

Galaxy Zombicus

Piper Leigh

Chapter One

It would be just my luck to meet the man of my dreams the
day after becoming a zombie.

Frighteningly soon after that fateful event, I found myself
stuck in a long line snaking from the underbelly of a spacecraft offloading on
the planet Zombicus.

Zombicus is essentially uninhabitable, except for a narrow
band of rock around its equator. Isolated planets that normally wouldn’t be
considered for habitation were being put to use all over the galaxy in an
attempt to stem the zombie outbreak. With little vegetation and no animal life
to help spread disease, destinations like Zombicus were perfect for quarantine
facilities.

A small town containing some utilitarian staff housing, a
general store and a bar had sprouted near the facility. Other than the town and
the requisite spaceport, there was nothing to see except barren rock in every
direction.

So there wasn’t much to look at during offloading other than
the facility.

Roughly C-shaped, the structure had been carved into a
hollowed-out mountain, its top open to the sky. Giant columns of rust-colored
metal rose hundreds of feet into the rock face. Amber lights marked the
walkways between the supports. In the pre-dawn darkness it looked exotic, sort
of. In the sober light of day I knew it would look like what it really was—a
detention center for the unfortunate.

No one
wants
to be a zombie. But with the virus
spreading across the galaxy as fast as a solar wind, few of us have a choice.
I’d been stuck in my tiny apartment for weeks since my city had been
quarantined. I knew going to an illegal underground bar was a bad idea, but my
neighbor and friend—make that my
former
friend, Cynthia—had thought we
needed a break. A few drinks, she’d suggested, some company besides each other.
I’d wanted something to look at other than the inside of my cramped and messy
space.

So I caved. I went. And I got bitten, not former BFF
Cynthia. Life just isn’t fair.

Who knew that cute guy on the dance floor was a NewZee? He’d
looked safe. He was a great dancer and a smooth talker. He bought drinks for
the whole table. He didn’t smell of rot or anything. He was into me. Hot guys
with lots of credits rarely are. I should have known then.

One kiss, I’d thought, what could it hurt? It wasn’t as if I
was going to take him home. Though if things had gone differently, I might have
and quarantine be damned.

One kiss. That’s how he got me.

I can’t shake the memory of my own shrill scream echoing in
my ears as he bit me—
hard
. Music ceased, faces turned in my direction.
Bouncers came running…

The next thing I knew, I was on a quarantine ship.

Which is how I’d landed on planet Zombicus with a whole
bunch of the recently bitten. Where my Romeo ended up, I have no idea. I hope
he rots at his earliest convenience.

I followed the line of NewZees into the facility proper and
onto the floor of the roofless cavern. Once more I gazed up at my new home.

That’s when I saw
him
.

For a prison guard, he was mighty scrumptious. Tall, ripped
and blond. They didn’t make them better than that. His gaze met mine as I
passed beneath his guard post. Dazzling eyes as blue as lasers, I noted. His
lips quirked into a half-smile and my stomach fluttered.

Okay, I know, he’s a guard and I’m technically a prisoner,
but hey, with nothing else to occupy my mind, a smile from a gorgeous guard was
the highlight of my day. I watched him until I disappeared inside.

Supposedly once we’d arrived we’d be given medical
attention, which amounted to drugs to slow the decay. It was essential that
treatment be administered as soon as possible after being bitten. Its
effectiveness depended on many factors, species and metabolism being just two
of them. Even then the length of time it took to become an actual zombie was
hard to predict. For some people, it happened really fast. Without treatment,
becoming a zombie was an imminent certainty.
With
treatment, we had a
better chance for a little more life before the inevitable decline. That was
the best science could do at present while we all waited for a cure.

Still, a small bit of hope flickered to life. On medication,
I might still look okay for a while. Maybe I’d still have a mouth to smile back
with the next time I saw that guard.

The inside of the facility didn’t look a lot different from
the outside. The same metal columns rose from the cavern floor to the open
roof. Numerous walkways criss-crossed the columns, providing access to rooms
and staircases. Accommodations for the residents had been carved out of the
stone itself. Restricted laboratories and secret access halls were rumored to
have been built into the mountain. But from my vantage point, the overall
effect was a monochrome wash of brown metal and rock, broken only by the wan
glow of more amber lights. The whole place needed a rethink.

I glanced up at the swirling orange-and-brown sky above and
wondered if there was anything on this planet not pulled from the brown
palette. I pictured one of the well-known designers, the ones who dressed the
intergalactic cruise ships, having a go at the place. It certainly needed a
little…something.

Aboard the spacecraft, we’d already been separated into
levels of wellness. The newly bitten, or NewZees, got the rooms—if you could
call them that—with the most amenities. We received exercise and recreational
programs along with a regimen of drugs. Supposedly we had the run of the place,
escorted of course, until we started trying to eat the other patients.

As they marched us along a curved walkway on an upper floor,
force fields on the doorless entries deactivated. We each stopped in front of a
room. Mine was decorated in—you guessed it—brown.

With a sigh, I stepped into my new home.

Aside from the unfortunate hue, it wasn’t all that bad. I
had a comfy enough bed, a desk and chair, and a sizeable entertainment screen.
I tried to think of it as a bargain-rate hotel. One I’d eventually be checking
out of, even if I knew it wasn’t true. That the room’s open entrance was barred
with a transparent wall of electromagnetic death kind of gave it away. I guess
I’d given up my privacy along with my liberty.

The force fields reactivated with a sizzling sound that
resonated throughout the hallway. Things echoed here in this rocky hideout. I
shuddered to think of the sounds I might hear in the night, echoing up the
walls. With the entire place made of stone, there was little to dampen sound.

I sat on the bed and stared out at the honeycomb of rooms on
the other side of the arced cavern. Desolate faces stared back. I guessed we
were all thinking the same thing, coming to grips with what all this really
meant.

An overhead announcement told us to settle in before an orientation
meeting in an hour. I heard the thump of the guards’ boots against metal as
they walked the perimeters, making sure every NewZee had gotten to their
allotted space. A rogue zombie, even one in the early stages, could cause a lot
of trouble in a place like this.

I glanced up just as a guard stopped by my room—and
amazingly it was the guard I’d seen outside. All blond hair, blue eyes and
broad shoulders. I smiled at him. I’m sure he wasn’t supposed to interact with
the residents, but he grinned back. I hoped my room was on his regular route.
Hoped even harder that he had codes to my door.

His smile vanished quickly as another guard passed by going
the other way. They nodded at each other. The other guard’s gaze flicked toward
my room and I quickly looked down at the floor. I figured there might be a rule
against fraternization. No sense in getting the blond guard in trouble. He was
the only attractive thing in the drab scenery.

The thought of seeing him pass my room every day was the
only thing keeping me going at the moment.

* * * * *

Orientation turned out to be a holographic slideshow of the
facilities, including the recreation rooms, galley and sundeck. Yes, they had a
sundeck complete with lounge chairs, a fake beach and sunlamps overhead for those
of us with low rates of decay. It all seemed civilized enough, if you
overlooked the guards and the force fields and the fact that we couldn’t leave.

After orientation we returned to our rooms to await the
required medical. I didn’t see the blond anywhere. I hoped he’d be escorting
us, but I was disappointed. Maybe his shift had ended.

The rest of the day flashed by in a flurry of medical tests.
I’m sure whole pints of blood were taken. I received a healthy dose of prodding
and poking. It felt as if I’d been worked over by a group of sadistic vampires
by the time we were finished. My head spun from all the blood they’d stolen.
I’d thought that part was bad enough, until they’d started inoculating me with
more needles.

Finally satisfied I was enough of a human pincushion, they
concluded their torture and released me into the care of another guard. This
one didn’t seem so friendly as he unceremoniously ushered me to my room. Once
there, a sign flashed, telling me supper was in an hour. I didn’t feel like eating
but going the night without food didn’t seem appealing either.

Dinner, we were told, was full of nutrients designed to
preserve tissue and slow the spread of the virus. At this point I didn’t feel
much different, physically. Everything seemed to be working the same.

Including my libido.

The blond guard was back on duty, standing at the front of
the mess hall when we filed in and took our allotted places marked with room
numbers.

With the tour and the lectures, I hadn’t really had time to
talk to anyone for more than a few minutes. A bit of “so where you from?” and
“how’d you get bitten?” amounted to all the conversation I’d had since being
snatched from that bar a couple of days ago. When I saw the guard’s familiar
face at the front of the room, it was like greeting an old friend.

I glanced up and smiled, trying not to make it too obvious.
Maybe he’d just been trying to be nice. And if that was the case, I didn’t want
to embarrass myself.

His blue gaze caught mine. He didn’t smile.

Instead, he winked at me.

So we
did
have a thing! What kind of thing I couldn’t
tell yet, but he definitely seemed interested.

I looked at the blond guard and smiled again. His dazzling
gaze shifted back to mine, held for a moment with a look full of promise then
darted away.

* * * * *

The seclusion of my room was almost welcome after the
clatter of hundreds of plates and utensils and scattered conversation. Yet, I’d
made a few friends over dinner. I’d talked to a woman from Solda and another
from clear across the galaxy. Everyone had a biting story to tell. The
blue-haired, yellow-skinned woman from Novan had been bitten by her own
crèche-mate. A red-furred woman from a planet whose name I didn’t even
recognize had been bitten by her daughter. They’d been here just a week and the
daughter was being held for testing in some other part of the facility.

I reckoned everyone had a story, but the fact that the virus
had spread to parts of the galaxy I didn’t even know existed scared me more
than I cared to admit. How were they ever going to stop something that could
spread so far, so fast?

I had the awful feeling I wasn’t getting out of this
facility.

Night descended with a cacophony of moans and screams that
drifted up from the lower levels. The open structure and rocky surfaces only served
to funnel noise all the way to the sky. In the room to my right, the
blue-haired woman from Novan keened an eerie wail that made every hair on the
back of my neck stand at attention. Low, rhythmic grunts came from the
red-furred woman through the wall to my left. Sounds full of anguish and terror
engulfed me.

It seemed the reality of being stuck in this place had
seized everyone at once.

Sitting on the bed, I leaned against the wall of my
enclosure and sighed. I knew the consequences of a zombie bite. Newscasts
showed scores of people being loaded onto spaceships, supposedly to keep the
rest of the population safe. But it wasn’t working, was it? Not if I’d been
bitten mere blocks from my home.

I knew it was likely I’d spend whatever time I had left at this
facility. Still, I had hope. Judging by the cries of despair, no one else did.
And I don’t know where that hope came from. Did everyone else know something I
didn’t? Was I just being naïve?

Footsteps came to a stop outside my room. I glanced up.

The blond guard stood beyond the force field.

“Do you ever get used to it?” I asked.

He glanced out into the open space lit by those tiny orange
lights that seemed to illuminate paths into the abyss. “No.”

“So why are you here?” The question slipped out. I shut my
mouth hard, afraid he hadn’t had a choice, but then he responded.

“To help.” He waved a hand, the one that wasn’t resting on
his weapon, at the rest of the cavern. “These people need help too. I’m not a
doctor or a researcher. Science isn’t my thing. But I still want to do what I
can.”

“It must be awful watching people come here only to worsen
and…” I couldn’t bring myself to say, “go stark raving biting mad and then
slowly decay”.

The ghost of a smile crossed his face. “I only guard this
level. I don’t see anyone once they leave.”

“Still…” I didn’t have anything to add to that. We all knew
what happened. After.

I got off the bed and walked to the entrance of my room,
staying just out of reach of the force field. It vibrated with invisible
energy, bristling the tiny hairs on my arms. I could see him better in the
light leaking out of my room.

He had blond hair shorn with military precision. Though he
needed another shearing because tufts of it still tried to curl at the ends. I
tried to imagine him with a head of those golden curls and suppressed a sigh.
Blue eyes caught the light and glowed like a cat’s. I had no idea what planet
he came from, but if everyone had eyes like that, I wanted to go there.