GalaxyZombicus (5 page)

We won’t starve to death
, came my blackest musing
yet.
Without further medical intervention, one after one we’d become
mindless zombies trapped in our cells. With no way out, we’d be forced to eat—

I finally succeeded in dragging my thoughts away from that
scenario. I forced myself to think about the brief time Benson and I had spent
together instead. I clung to memories of our passionate lovemaking.

Our lockdown stretched for days on end. I was beginning to
believe I might spend the rest of my life trapped behind that force field when
suddenly one day, an announcement echoed through the speakers, saying lunch
would be served in the mess hall on the usual schedule.

Whatever had been happening downstairs, it seemed things
were maybe back under control. I sighed in relief. If the other residents
blamed me for their incarceration, their resentment would eventually dissipate
and they’d be left with only the scandal about Benson and me to discuss.

Lunch brought a welcome change in routine. I headed into the
mess hall with the rest of the residents from my level of the facility, who
stared at me and whispered. I might be the subject of gossip, but I was still
relieved to be let out of my cell. I took a seat at the end of a long table and
ate in silence. Whispers continued to drift over from the surrounding tables,
along with furtive glances in my direction.

“Hey.”

I glanced up to find the yellow-skinned woman standing
beside me.

“Okay if I sit down?”

“Please,” I said with relief. I didn’t want to spend any
more time alone with just my thoughts for company.

She took a seat across from me and we ate in silence while
whispers about both of us raged at the next table.

“Sorry to hear about your recent adventure,” she said
finally.

“Always happy to provide a diversion,” I said darkly.

That made her laugh. “Well, you did that.” She fell silent
for a moment, then said, “Not that it makes any difference, but I thought they
should have left the two of you alone. I mean, what can it hurt? We have no
idea how long we’re going to be here, or if we’ll ever get out…”

I merely nodded. What was there to say?

“And it’s not like we’re criminals. We haven’t done anything
wrong.”

“Technically, I’ve done a lot wrong.” Which was true enough.
I’d defied quarantine, gotten bitten and fraternized with a guard. I was lucky
to be eating unshackled in the dining hall.

“Technically,” she agreed. “But I still think they could have
allowed you a little happiness, for what it’s worth.”

“Well, thanks.”

A buzzer sounded, followed by an announcement that lunch was
over. Guards appeared to escort us back to our cells. I recognized none of
them. I guess they thought they’d better rotate the roster, just in case any
other residents had developed relationships with their captors.

I filed out after everyone else, walking in a long line
snaking back to our cells. One guard took the lead, one brought up the rear.
The last place I wanted to go was back to my room but I followed the line
obediently, staying just ahead of the rear guard. We’d reached a bend in the
corridor when a humanoid woman I didn’t know stopped suddenly, insisting she’d
left something in the mess hall. The guard at the rear groaned and escorted her
back to the lunch area while the queue continued on toward the cells.

Just as I began to shuffle forward again, a hand covered my
mouth from behind.

I tried to scream, but it covered my nose as well, stopping
me from being able to draw a breath. My feet went out from under me as someone
dragged me backward into darkness.

“Shh! It’s me.”

I recognized the voice. Benson.

He loosened the hand across my mouth. “Promise you won’t
scream.”

I nodded and he let me go.

We were in what looked like a massive curved tunnel roughly
carved out of the mountain. Benson swiftly crouched at the opening, fitting a
large grate back into place. He had something bulky strapped to his back. He
glanced back at me, gaze pleading for silence. Out in the corridor, the woman
who’d forgotten something in the mess hall passed with the guard who’d gone
with her.

Once the sound of their footfalls dwindled, Benson screwed
the grate back into place and rushed to my side, taking my hand. “Come on.” He
motioned down the odd tunnel, where a giant fan stood motionless. “It won’t
take them long to figure out that the ventilation system isn’t running. We have
to be past this corridor before they start it up again.”

“Wait!” I tugged on his hand. “Where are we going?”

“Out.”

“
Out?!
If we leave we’ll become…” I didn’t want to
say it.

Benson dragged me forward a bit. “No we won’t. I have
something.”

“What do you have?” I wasn’t going anywhere until I found
out.

“Shh, I’ll explain it all when we get somewhere safe.”

“But where will we go? We can’t go home.”

“Does it matter where we go? No, we can’t go home, but we
could make a life somewhere else. I know we haven’t known each other long but
we
do
have a connection…don’t we?”

I nodded. We did have a connection, one that I could see growing
quickly into something bigger.

“Then come with me. Please? At least we’ll have a chance.”

I desperately wanted that chance. And if I waited any
longer, that opportunity might pass. Of course, if we made a run for it, we
could also get caught and shoved back in the cells. Or maybe this mysterious
“something” Benson had wouldn’t work and we’d turn into zombies…and infect
every remaining human on Zombicus.

I decided even the
possibility
of freedom, health and
love was worth the risk.

We quickly reached the fan and climbed through its
motionless blades. “There’s another one farther down,” Benson said. “We have to
get there fast!”

I didn’t question him and together we ran full-out.

“The surveillance system is off in the utility hallway and
on the staff entrance,” Benson panted. “I’ve got the system rigged to look like
it’s still on. It’ll take them a while to figure it out. I hope.”

That seemed like a long shot to me, but I kept running as
Benson briefly and breathlessly outlined our escape route. I hadn’t used my leg
muscles for much beyond sex lately and they protested with a multitude of
aches. Sure, I’d worked out in the facility’s gym. Sorta. But this was a
full-out, terror-fueled run.

The tunnel curved again, slowing us, but we kept rushing
toward the utility corridor, the decline gentle but steady as we descended the
levels. Facility personnel used that doorway. It had a security system. I
prayed that whatever Benson did to the surveillance would hold, the thought of
a possible cure and freedom spurring me to run even faster.

We met another of those giant fans and climbed through.

“Why haven’t they figured out the ventilation system is
off?” I whispered.

“Because I’ve input security codes that tell them to check a
possible malfunction. That can be overridden, but they’ll have to run
diagnostics first.”

We passed another grate. Guards walked by in the tunnels
beyond. More guards than usual, it seemed to me, but they weren’t running
anywhere. Whatever Benson had done, they hadn’t gone on high alert yet.

After what seemed like endless twists and turns, we ended
our journey in the ventilation tunnel on the second level. One huge fan stood
between us and the final grate. A stretch of corridor lay beyond that. We’d
have to make it down that exposed passageway to get to a set of stairs leading
to the exit.

Benson glanced at this chrono. “We’re running out of time.
Once they’ve figured out the ventilation system’s been sabotaged, they’ll
wonder about the surveillance.” He motioned toward the silent fan. “You first.”

I climbed through the blades and turned to wait for Benson.

Above me, I heard a clunk as the machinery engaged. The fan
began to power up.

“Benson!”

He gave me a desperate look when the fan blades jerked.

I held my breath.

The blades began moving.

I opened my mouth to scream just as Benson jumped—

And landed on the floor beside me.

The blades picked up speed. I sighed, putting out my hand to
help him to his feet. “That was too close.” He nodded. “We have to get out of
this ventilation tube.”

Benson undid the bundle on his back. “Here, put these on.”

The breeze from the massive fan snatched at our clothes as
we struggled into our disguises. We were now kitchen staff, complete with
one-piece jumpsuits, hairnets and mouth coverings. With the wind shrieking around
us, Benson pulled a tool from his pocket and unscrewed the grate. After a quick
glance to make sure the passageway was clear, we stepped out of the tunnel. He
wedged the grate back into place and grasped my arm.

“This way. Walk at a regular pace. We don’t want to look
like we’re in a hurry.”

My heart pounding, I made myself stroll beside Benson. We
turned a corner and the final stretch of corridor lay before us. Guards passed,
moving faster this time. I guessed security was beginning to realize something
was up. A couple of guards looked in our direction and I couldn’t hear anything
over my pulse beating in my ears. But Benson’s disguises appeared to work,
because they gave us no more than a cursory glance as they moved on.

The back of my neck itched with the urge to turn around and
check the hall but we continued to walk as though we had all the time in the
world. We reached the stairs and skipped down them leisurely toward the staff
entrance.

Now only the exit door itself lay between us and freedom.

Benson stopped at the access keypad and input a code.

A red light flashed. He swore softly under his breath.

I wanted to hop from foot to foot with impatience and
anxiety, but I worried about what the cameras might see. A couple of staff
leaving after a shift was no big deal. Someone hopping around anxiously might
be.

Benson input a new code. I held my breath.

The light flashed green.

The door swung open and we strolled through it into the
yard. Now we just had the guardhouse to get past. Once through, we could
hopefully get to a transport and leave the planet.

A transport rumbled by just outside the facility grounds. I
stomped down on the instinct to storm the checkpoint and rush toward it.
Instead we walked toward the guardhouse in that same easy stroll we’d taken
down the utility hall. Benson gave the sentries a cheery wave. Apparently
deciding we looked okay, a guard leaned through the window of the booth and
pressed a button. The giant gates ground open. I barely managed to keep myself
from passing out due to a heady combination of both anxiety and relief.

We stepped through the gates and onto the busy highway that
led to the spaceport. The road wasn’t made for pedestrians. I feared for my
life as vehicles whizzed by.

“What now?” I had to shout to be heard above the roar of the
traffic.

He pointed to a settlement of low-rise buildings off to our
left. “There’s staff housing over there. Let’s head that way.”

In the medical facility behind us, an alarm went off.
Instinctively I turned my head.

“Don’t look back,” Benson said. “We don’t want to give
anyone the idea we have anything to do with this. Just keep walking.”

“Won’t they be looking for us now?”

“By now, probably.” He smiled. “But they won’t be searching
for a couple of kitchen staff going home after a shift.”

“We don’t have anywhere to go at the housing facility.”

“I have a place.”

“It’ll be too dangerous to go there.”

“That’s probably the first place they’d look,” he agreed.

“So where are we going?”

“We need to get off-world as fast as possible.”

“But they have scanners at the spaceport. They’ll know we’re
infected.”

Benson put his hand in his pocket and brought out a
pressure-loaded syringe. “They
would
…unless we’ve taken this. I’ve
already had mine. This one is for you.”

“What is it?”

“Very likely the cure. They developed it from the blood of
the red-furred woman’s daughter.”

“Gryl’s daughter?”

He nodded. “Turns out the virus just raced through her
system. Even with the drugs, she went downhill much faster than most.”

A transport whipped by us. Benson stopped talking for a
moment until the sound of its motor retreated enough for me to hear him again.

“But then they found out something pretty amazing. The virus
went through her daughter’s body so quickly, it burned itself out. So they
started studying her.” He held up the syringe. “And this is what they came up
with. They’re still testing it, but it’s removed all traces of the virus from
everyone they’ve tried it on so far.”

“What about Gryl? Did she get better too?” I’d been so sure
Gryl was dead.

“She did. They tested it on Gryl and refined it a bit more.”

“So all those people they were dragging off downstairs were
actually working the virus out of their systems?”

He shook his head. “Most were just getting worse. For some
reason, Gryl’s species seems to hold the secret to beating this thing.”

Shielding me from view with this body, Benson reached for my
arm and pulled up my sleeve. I felt a brief pressure as the drug entered my
system, then nothing.

“The faster this gets into your bloodstream, the better. In
a couple of days you’ll be completely healthy. Their scanners won’t pick up
anything. We just need a place near the spaceport to hide out.”

Chapter Five

Transports came and went along the road. Apparently it
wasn’t unusual for staff to hitch a ride because all the traffic was headed
either to or from the spaceport, with the housing and medical facilities the
only real destinations. I held my breath as the giant hulk of one of those
transports cruised to a stop beside us. It hovered, bouncing up and down
slightly.

One glance at the giant sheets of metal bolted to its side
made me want to run in the other direction. It didn’t look safe for human
passengers. Ground transportation on this planet sure wasn’t pretty. It looked
as if the whole thing had been made from scrap metal and spare parts. And it
probably was. The outer planets made an art of recycling.

A huge door in the side opened with a shriek of protesting
metal. Inside, rows of workers sat on crude benches. The seats could be folded
against the wall when the transport carried goods instead of people. I guessed
it made one trip to the facility with supplies and one back loaded with
workers.

I held my breath as we climbed in, afraid any one of those
staff members might recognize us. Then I remembered that our mouths were
covered. With only our eyes showing, it wasn’t likely anyone would identify us.
As it was, none of the staff gave us much notice. They resumed their
conversations as soon as we sat down. Some got up to stretch their legs or talk
to friends on other benches. Benson and I stayed where we were and pretended to
doze while the transport headed for the staff lodgings.

I had almost drifted off to sleep for real when the
transport stopped at the low buildings housing the facility’s workers. The
structures looked like smaller versions of the medical unit, made of the same
brown-orange girders and hollowed-out stone. Staff filed off the transport and
headed for their apartments. Others drifted toward the neon sign of a local
bar.

“Why are we getting off here?” I asked Benson when everyone
else had dispersed. “I thought you said this would be the first place they’d
look.”

“I said
my
apartment would be our obvious hiding
place. Not someone else’s.” The mask still covered his mouth, but I could hear
the humor in his voice.

“We’re going to hole up in someone else’s house?”

He nodded. “There are quite a few of the security staff in
the infirmary right now. But with this new treatment, they won’t take them off
the roster just yet. They’ll be needed to help handle the exodus when everyone
is cured and ready to be returned home.”

It sounded reasonable enough. Except for the part about
living in someone else’s place. “We’re going to break in to an apartment?”

“Not break in.” His eyes crinkled at the corners. “I work in
security. I have the code.”

“But still—”

He grasped my shoulder and turned me in the direction of one
of those low buildings. “We’re not going to damage anything. We’re just going
to live in a friend’s company housing for a couple of days. Although…”

“Although what?”

“We may have to borrow a bit of money from his account…just
for a while.” He held up a hand. “Once we’re off-world I can access my bank at
home and pay him back. But we’ll need funds to get on a ship out of here.”

We reached the staircase that led to the upper floors of the
building and began to climb. The unit Benson had in mind was on the second
floor. We walked along the curving hallway until we came to a doorway that
looked pretty much the same as all the others. Benson punched in a codes and
the door swung open.

The unit’s owner didn’t spend much time housekeeping.
Blankets lay in a twisted mess on the bed in the corner. The apartment’s only
chair had practically disappeared under a mound of discarded uniforms. A small
table was littered with dirty cups and plates.

“Not the fanciest accommodations,” Benson said, pulling off
his mask.

I tugged off my own face covering. “I suppose we can clean
up a bit.” I stuffed the bedding into the sanitary and put the dishes in the
sonic washer.

That made him laugh. “Poor Lanny will be wondering who
straightened up when he gets home.”

“And who took money out of his account and ate all his
food.”

Benson put his arm around me and pulled me close. “Nah, the
money will be back in his account before he gets home. The food…well, I’ll put
in a bit extra to cover that.”

“But if they’re going to let everyone out, why couldn’t we
stay?”

“It’ll take a while for them to process everyone. It could
be months before everything’s cleared. And…”

“And what?”

“I’m facing disciplinary action for fraternizing with a
resident.”

“You’d have to do time? For what we did together?”

“I’d have to have a hearing and then they’d decide.” He
found some clean blankets and made the bed. “When we got together, it looked
like the whole universe was going down. I figured in the long run it wouldn’t
matter.”

“But now things are better?” Was this where he told me it
was time to part ways? That our relationship was just a fling, a diversion in
bad times?

“Things
are
better. I want my old life back.”

I had to ask. “With or without me?” Before he could answer,
I added, “I mean, it’s okay if you’ve changed your mind. You got me out of that
place.” I looked at my arm where he’d injected the drug. “You cured me. It’s
not as if you owe me anything else.”

Benson gripped me gently by the shoulders. “I want you in my
life, Janeece. Wherever I have to go now to start my life over, I want you with
me.”

“But where will we go?’

He closed his mouth over mine, giving me a taste of what I
could expect as the afternoon progressed. Then he pulled away. “Does it matter
where we go?”

I thought about that. I’d had a life. Not a really exciting
one, but a life nonetheless. I’d worked, hung out with friends. I had an
apartment not much bigger than the cell I’d just left, but it was mine.

“The whole galaxy’s in a mess. We just need to find a place
that’s safe so we can hole up for a while and let things calm down.”

Now that they had a drug, life
would
get better. For
the first time since I’d been bitten, I felt truly optimistic. I moved in
closer and kissed him again. “Any idea where we should go?” I asked when we
came up for air.

“Being a guard, I heard things. Rumor has it the situation
is far more stable in the Rodan quadrant. I also started keeping track of the ships
that routinely came in to port. There’s a spacecraft due to depart for Rodan in
a couple of days.”

I’d never been there. I hadn’t done much traveling at all.
But after all the adventures I’d had in the last little while, an extended stay
in the Rodan quadrant didn’t sound so bad.

I pulled him down on the bed beside me and kissed him with
everything in me. He murmured something that sounded infinitely sexy in his own
language. I didn’t understand the words, but his fervent tone got the message
across clearly enough. We got up long enough to strip off our borrowed uniforms
and toss them in the sanitary before reclaiming the bed.

I gazed into his eyes, seeing my own desire mirrored there.
He gave me a smile full of promise then swiftly claimed the top, pinning me
against the soft blankets.

We didn’t need to worry about how much noise we made here.
Anyone listening would blame the racket on the unit’s rightful owner. Benson
grasped my wrists, holding them above my head. I retaliated by hooking my legs
around the backs of his knees and drawing him closer. I wanted him inside me
now. But Benson seemed determined to torture me by taking his time.

His hot mouth teased the sensitive skin beneath my ear,
setting off landmines of pleasure all down my spine. I bucked, encouraging him
to begin more energetic activity, but those little kisses continued down over
my collarbone until they reached my breast.

I gasped as his lips closed around the tip of one hard peak.
The feel of his hot mouth on my sensitive skin made my body move of its own
accord. I rocked against him, rubbing the hard length of his cock against my
clit. He moaned softly, his warm breath gusting over my breast.

I unlaced my legs and planted my heels against the bed so I
could move him into the position I wanted. His lips left my breast and he
raised his head. The hungry look in his eyes was all I needed to see. I angled
my hips and took the tip of his hard cock inside.

With one sure stroke, he entered me. He released my hands,
giving me the freedom to grasp his butt and pull him deeper still. He filled me
completely. The sensation of his cock, so hard and deep, nearly took my breath
away.

He gave me no time to recover before leisurely pulling out
as far as my hands would let him then thrusting fully inside me again. That
tantalizingly slow push and pull drove me crazy, and it went on seemingly
forever, until every muscle in my body tensed, ready for the orgasm to come.
Benson obliged by quickening his pace. Faster, harder. His rhythm becoming
sloppy. He’d begun this game in control, now he was the one coming undone.

His mouth crushed mine and our tongues tangled together,
mirroring what our bodies were doing. He moved even faster and I arched my hips
to meet every thrust. What we’d done in the facility had been tame compared to
this. We’d worried that every sound, every movement might be witnessed. Now we
were free.

At that thought, my body tightened, squeezing him. Benson
groaned a strangled oath. Someday I had to ask him what all those mysterious
words meant. At the moment I didn’t care as I became lost in the pleasure
sweeping me away. Benson thrust into me one last time. He whispered my name as
he came.

He stared at me, eyes glazed with passion. “Janeece,” he
said again with the same reverence.

I smiled. “Wow, that was…that was…”

“Intense?” he supplied.

I nodded. “Guess we were kind of holding back in the
facility.”

He withdrew and rolled to his back, tucking me close beside
him. “Guess we were.”

“So what now?”

He kissed me on the forehead and pulled away. Getting up
naked, he crossed the room to look in Lanny’s pantry. An array of pre-packaged
meals in vacuum-sealed containers lined the shelves. Most people stocked up on
that kind of food these days. You never knew when you were going to get locked
down and not be able to shop for days. The stores were never sure when they’d
get the next shipment.

“Now,” Benson said, “I’ll make you a gourmet meal of…” He
pulled a container from the shelf. “Mocorran bean soup.”

My stomach growled obligingly. “Sounds good.”

“And tomorrow we’ll see if we can get secure transport on
any ship departing within a couple of days.”

Two days and then we’d be off this forsaken planet and back
to our lives. I pictured the cure raging through the galaxy at the same rate as
the virus. Things likely wouldn’t go back to normal that quickly. Already most
planets in the galaxy were running on skeleton crews. Shaky financial markets
barely kept businesses running. Unreliable power sources made things even more
unpredictable as the galaxy struggled to maintain the most basic of its
infrastructures.

But at least there was hope. As the cure helped people, more
could return to work. It would take time, but the galaxy would recover. Within
all that upheaval, it seemed unlikely they’d be looking for a couple of
fugitives. Or so I hoped.

* * * * *

Two days later, we found ourselves on the spaceport grounds.
The planet’s giant red sun had barely crested the horizon. Two of Zombicus’
moons still battled across the sky. The cold air stung my cheeks. Gusts of it
made walking difficult.

Giant ships squatted on the ground. Some looked like huge
eggs with silver-white hulls and ovoid shapes. Others hung together with
multicolored spare parts. The thought of traveling through space in one of
those brought a pang of terror.

“Don’t worry,” Benson said, noticing my panicked expression.
“The ship I’m looking for is in a lot better shape than that.”

We walked between the massive vessels. The overwhelming
sizes made me feel very small.
Any moment now, this will all be over and
I’ll be starting a new life on a nice planet somewhere.
I chanted that
thought like a prayer.

“We don’t want to use the main office.” Benson pointed to a
metal structure that branched off in all directions. It didn’t look any more
solid than some of the ships. “Just in case they’re monitoring for unscheduled
departures. We’ll have better luck if we can bargain with the ship itself.”

I scanned the vast landing strip. “Which ship did you have
in mind?”

Benson’s gaze swept over the assortment of vessels. He
pointed to a gray circular craft. “That one. It’s big enough that we’ll have
some privacy and small enough to attract little attention. And it’s headed for
the Rodan quadrant.”

I agreed with him on that. The authorities would likely keep
a closer eye on the manifests of the big ships.

Benson squared his shoulders. “Let’s go talk to the
captain.”

The captain turned out to be a green-scaled female. She wore
only loose trousers, leaving her breasts bare. A belt bearing her insignia as
well as a holster for a mean-looking weapon cinched the cloth at her slim
waist.

The captain’s lidless black eyes swept over us, noting our
uniforms from the facility’s kitchen. She motioned for a crewmember to bring a
scanner. I held my breath as the invisible beam passed over me. Benson feigned
a relaxed posture. I don’t know how he did it. Maybe because he’d been cured
just a little longer than me and felt more certain of the outcome.

The machine beeped. A green light glowed on the handle.

We all relaxed a little, even the captain.

“You’d be more comfortable on the
Andromeda
.” She
motioned in the direction of one of the giant ships. Her green-scaled hand
ended in long black claws.