GalaxyZombicus Read online

  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.

  A sudden thought knifed through my mind—I wasn’t going anywhere. Ever.

  I forced it back into a tiny box in my brain and concentrated on the gorgeous guy in front of me. He had full lips to go with those amazing eyes. Lips that promised searing kisses. Strong jaw, muscular shoulders and a thin waist completed the yummy picture.

  I read the name on his ID tag. “Benson. That a family name or a given name?”

  “Both. In my culture we have only one.”

  “That simplifies things, I guess.”

  He smiled, showing dimples at the corners of his mouth. Could he be any more perfect? Could life be any crueler than meeting him now? “It does. Do you have a given name, resident 54681?”

  “Janeece. My family name is far too long and complicated.”

  He gave me a little bow, as if I were royalty or something. “Nice to meet you, Janeece.”

  Though I prided myself on being independent, I had to admit I liked his old-fashioned manners.

  “One of the nice things about my job is that I get to meet people from all over the galaxy,” he added.

  I guessed that much was true. I never would have met the blue-haired woman back home. She seemed nice enough. I still didn’t even know what system the red girl was from. “So tell me about this planet of yours where people have only one name.”

  Benson glanced up and down the walkway. The cries and moans slowly died off as people settled in for the night. He checked his chrono. “I have a couple of minutes befo
re my next rounds.”

  Then he told me about the cool blue planet he came from covered mostly in oceans. He described huge water farms that produced sustainable forms of algae that could be made into almost any kind of food.

  “This must be very different for you.” I pointed at the stone wall on the far side of the structure. “All this rock.”

  “It is, but I like different. I’ve seen a lot of the galaxy this way.”

  “Until now.”

  He shook his head and I could imagine those phantom blond curls tumbling over his forehead. “What I mean is, the entire galaxy passes through these doors.”

  “Never to leave.” Everyone’s melancholy seemed suddenly to be weighing on me.

  “Don’t think that, Janeece. They’re working very hard to find a cure.”

  Intellectually, I knew scientists toiled day and night at that task. Emotionally, I just wanted out. I ached to turn the clock back a couple of days, tell my ex-friend to party without me and just stay in that fateful night.

  “Do you think you could lower the force field and I could go with you on your rounds?” Until now I hadn’t thought I was claustrophobic, but the thought of not being able to leave suddenly had a snaky feeling crawling up my spine.

  “That,” he said with a sad smile, “is definitely against regs.” He glanced down at his chrono again. “And I have to go.” He looked up and fixed me with that knee-weakening smile. “But I’ll come back as soon as I can.”

  I watched with a sinking heart as he walked off into the amber shadows of those ever-present lights. The day had been filled with new experiences, but now, alone, the full reality hit me like a blow to the stomach.

  I sat on the bed and tried not to think about being bottled up in here forever. It wouldn’t be forever, I realized. Sooner or later I’d be sick enough to get moved downstairs.

  Sick. A euphemism if ever I’d heard one. We were ill, or at least we would be, but “sick” in this case meant “shambling, moaning mad”.

  Exhaustion must have caught up with me because I drifted off, dreaming I was back home in my own apartment, sleeping in my own bed. I had to go to work tomorrow, came the drowsy thought. Maybe I’d have a party on the weekend and invite some friends over…