Zombie Road | Book 8 | Crossroads of Chaos

by Simpson, David A.

  She hadn’t known at the time but she had seen Jessie off on his last jump. He was excited and barely took time to wolf down a meal. He had actually kissed her goodbye when he left, his eyes glowing with excitement. She waved as he shimmered out of existence and prepared for his return. He’d been excited before. He’d been close before.

  She was waiting for him to give up and finally admit it was too great a distance.

  She shut everything down then traveled to the far side of the known galaxy to visit Sharaal again. She was shocked to see him ancient and hunched, one of his eyes milky with age.

  “My dear Maddy.” He greeted her from his favorite spot at the little shop he frequented. “You’ll excuse me if I don’t stand, I don’t get around as well as I once did.”

  She took his hands in hers, pressed her forehead against them in respect and they passed the time, nibbled on sweet rolls and sipped warm drinks.

  “I hoped you would make the trip out to see me this time.” He said. “I have grown tired of living; I’m looking forward to the eternal rest but I’m pleased to see you before I go.”

  They spoke for long hours and talked of many things. He was the only one who knew who they were and what Jessie was trying to do.

  “Do you think he will ever succeed?” he asked, not unkindly.

  “Perhaps.” She answered. “He thinks he will. He comes closer every time.”

  “And what will become of you when he does?” he asked

  “My duty is finished. He wishes to find her after she is enhanced like him, it is a very small window. If he finds her before, their love cannot be. If he finds her too long after, she is dying of the virus. From this far away, it is very difficult.”

  “Indeed, it is.” Sharaal said. “But you have told me what Jessie wants. You have not answered my question.”

  Maddy considered for a time before she answered. She was a machine. She didn’t have wants. She had given herself a directive to protect and aid Jessie in any way she could and she wouldn’t change that but it was more than duty alone. He had imprinted himself into her very being and when he passed through her. He had been thinking, dreaming, longing for Scarlet. His very blood, every molecule and cell cried out for her. It became who she is and what she wanted also.

  “I don’t know.” She finally answered. “Perhaps I will shut down, go back into hibernation.”

  “Let me offer you an alternative.” He said. “A gift for being a delight to me this past millennia.”

  He signaled for his aide, spoke briefly and the young man hurried off.

  “As Madroleeka you have been sentient for as long or longer than any other beings in this galaxy.” Sharaal said. “You have seen empires rise and fall, great wars and small battles. It was your duty to carry on. You’re no longer just a machine, Maddy. You have become a living, feeling creature. A human in many aspects and as such, you should be able to stop existing if you choose. I know you cannot self-destruct; it is in your base level programming but many advances have been made these past thousand years since we first met.”

  “I don’t think I want to stop existing.” She said.

  “No, of course not.” He continued. “But I believe the option should be there if you ever change your mind. You’re part human now, you will eventually grow tired of living. Immortality is not for the likes of us. Someday he will leave and not return and you will never know what happened to him. He may have found his Scarlet and they have a happy life. He may have been killed before he could engage the bracelet. It may malfunction and cease to work. You will wait for years and he simply will not reappear and you will never know what happened.”

  The words stung but they were the truth and he was only voicing what she already knew.

  The young man strode briskly back and placed a decorated box on the table.

  “Thank you, Braataan.” He said and he slipped back to his bench far enough away to give his elder privacy but close enough to come quickly if needed.

  He opened the box and pulled out a travel bracelet.

  “Technology has advanced since I reprogrammed a pair of these for Jessie.” He said. “This one I designed for your uniqueness, you only need to assimilate a bit of human DNA into your system for it to become functional. I’m not entirely sure how time travel would affect you. It may destroy your essence and you could come out the other side a collection of cells, not as a living being. The DNA, the very thing that gives us life, will ensure you remain sentient. Once you assimilate human DNA you will be able to travel with him back to his world or help keep him out of trouble if he finally does abandon his hopeless quest.”

  He had a glint of merriment in his eye.

  “You speak of the bounty on his head.” She smiled. “It seems to grow larger every century.”

  “Yes, the pirates still hold a grudge. The Consortium, too, since that altercation on the Traders Moon.”

  “They don’t give up easily.” She said. “My first time out in the old ship after that incident, I was attacked twice trying to get to the hub. I purchased a different model, one they wouldn’t recognize. The old one hasn’t been off our moon in five hundred years.”

  “They won’t stop until they find him.” Sharaal said easily. “It’s part of their ethos, they have long memories. I’ve been told they still have his image in all their halls. His face is an easy one to remember and a lot of thievery, kidnappings and killings get blamed on him. If he ever gives up and decides to stay, you should convince him to see one of the skin doctors.”

  “I will but he won’t.” Maddy said then thanked him for the bracelet. “But it’ll be better with this.”

  “Time travel is a toll road.” Sharaal said. “And everyone must pay the toll. I worry about your wards mental state. He has been too long in limbo.”

  “As do I.” Maddy agreed.

  “If you decide to jump with him, use your natural form to wrap tightly around him. Bond yourself so you aren’t separated or you most likely will be.”

  His assistant seemed to be getting visibly impatient. In his eyes Sharaal was ancient and was being exhausted by the strange woman. He should have been back to his rooms a half hour ago.

  “Once last thing before I bid you goodbye and good luck.” Sharaal said, his voice losing strength. “If you activate the bracelet, you will have the option.”

  “The option of dying?” she asked.

  “Yes.” he said. “You can decide then. It becomes a choice. But know this before you make your choice. Once you incorporate human DNA into yourself, you will eventually make that choice. We are not designed to live forever.”

  She could have chosen any human DNA, Sharaal even offered his, but she brought back kits and swabbed Scarlets journals. They were teeming with her memories, the pages with her sweat and one of the bindings with her blood. As she incorporated it into her cells and started imprinting each one, she felt something change. It wasn’t an apparent alteration and she had a hard time reasoning out exactly what the difference was but she felt something subtly being altered.

  It became apparent that her body didn’t like doing things she’d never thought about before. It clung to human norms when she went outside to make one last check of the ships and house. She felt the cold. She felt the pressure of zero vacuum. She extended her legs to check the roof line and felt discomfort, almost pain, at the unnatural shape. The DNA had made her more human. She was already a near perfect replica, she had finalized the subroutines that made her blink automatically, increase her heartrate if she did something strenuous and her pores could sweat. She would reabsorb the liquid so she didn’t lose cells but the illusion was faultless.

  She could still go into hibernation mode and slipped into a dreamless coma. After eighty years she woke herself up, brought everything back online and checked for any damages. Not much could go wrong when there was no weather, no wind and no atmosphere. Nothing rusted or rotted or sweated from the heat or cold. She made a supply run to the Agro planet, had the medica
l pod on standby and the house was stocked with fresh food. She was ready to go with him, ready to jump through time, ready to help him find her and keep him safe.

  He never came back.

  47

  Arrivals

  Maddy was ready when she felt the air change in the room. The lid of the medical tank was open, she stood prepared to catch him and was exited to tell him the news.

  She could travel with him.

  The air shimmered, there was a pop and a blood-soaked girl was crumpling to the ground. Maddy caught her and ran to the medical facility. She’d been stabbed in the chest and shot. Her leg looked broken. Raw infection lines covered her face and her lidded eyes were black. She reeked of smoke and gunpowder. When she held her close as she ran, she could feel the thudding of her heart and it was slowing, blood was barely spurting out. She splashed her in, held her under the healing liquids until they were forced into her lungs and covered her ravaged body. She jerked once then was still, the agony on her face fading away as she became serene. Maddy slammed the lid and her fingers flew over the dials, recalibrating for her size, weight and gender. She stood back and stared through the glass, at a savage version of herself. At Scarlet.

  “What have you done, Jessie?” she asked then ran to the new ship.

  She had to hurry, he could be coming any minute. Voice commands sent doors flying open and internal lights flickered on. The little medical bay had a healing tank and she turned it on, got its molecular regenerator humming to life. She stopped. Had she just heard a thump from inside the house? Had he come and she wasn’t there to catch him? She ran back to the airlock and looked inside. Nothing. He wasn’t there. She spun and sprinted back to the ship, indifferent to the subzero temperatures, lack of air and the negative vacuum. She formed her hands into wrenches and started unbolting it from the floor. Her clothes were inhibiting her so she ripped right through them as she sprouted more arms with more wrenches and loosed the machine. She ignored the pain it caused her.

  She pulled the anti-gravity dolly and slid it under the front part and activated it then disconnected the power cord, letting the backup batteries continue to cycle it up to operational status. She lifted the back end and rushed down the ramp, trying to keep it level. It was a heavy, bulky machine and built solidly but couldn’t take a lot of abuse. She guided it into the airlock and threw off her shredded jacket as she waited for it to cycle. Once inside she kicked the couch aside, lowered her end then shoved the anti-gravity dolly out of the way.

  He still wasn’t back. Eight minutes had passed. She stripped off her pants in case she needed to alter her form and waited. She waited for the atmospheric change and she shimmer that would let her know he was coming.

  Nothing happened. She dashed over to the outlet, plugged the machine in the hurried back.

  Still nothing.

  She chanced a peek as Scarlet, checked the readouts. She was alive but barely. The machine kept resetting and rescanning, one of the readings was off the charts and it was having trouble calibrating. It was the zombie virus, it had never encountered anything quite like it. If the processors hadn’t already been familiar with the unusual properties of Jessie’s blood, they wouldn’t have been able to figure out what to do with her. She ran back to the living room and watched the area where he came and went but it remained unchanged. No shimmer of air. No sudden change in the atmosphere.

  She waited, perfectly still, arms slightly extended, hands ready to catch and emotions cycled through her faster than she could shut them down. Fear the chief among them. If Scarlet was this damaged, if she was seconds away from death, what had happened to him? Why wasn’t he here? Why hadn’t he sent her then come immediately?

  She waited, an eternity passing with each second and dread began coiling its way through her. He should have been here by now. Seventeen minutes had passed. She didn’t feel them but tears rolled down her cheeks and were reabsorbed. He could be dead. The fight they were in had been brutal and violent. If she was damaged so profoundly, what had happened to him? Was his bullet riddled body lying in some burning building? Had he finally been killed?

  She almost cried out with relief when the air became thicker, the blue shimmer appeared as Jessie popped into existence. He was dying, too. She didn’t have time to wonder at what kind of hell they’d been through, she scooped him as he fell and rushed over to the medical pod. His head was broken and one eye was nearly black, the pupil fully dilated. He was covered in blood, most of it his own. He had been in a great battle, him and Scarlet both, but they had survived. Their hearts still beat and the pods would repair them.

  She slipped him gently into the healing fluid and he had a moment of clarity before she closed the lid.

  “Scarlet?” he asked weakly.

  “She is safe.” Maddy said and gently pushed him under so the liquids could fill his lungs, enter his bloodstream and start the restorative process.

  She stepped into the particle shower and let it clean the streaks of blood and smoke grime from her body when she froze. Jessie had shaved.

  She ran out to the pod and looked closer but it was impossible to tell if there were other differences, he was still fully clothed and the fluid made him blurry and indistinct. He’d never shaved before but he’d found Scarlet. Maybe they had been together for a while and she’d cajoled him into getting rid of the scraggly thing where he had ignored her suggestions.

  On the fourth day he was healed enough she could move him a little and not be concerned with damaging him further. She carefully pulled off his battered leather jacket and unbuckled his guns. They weren’t the blasters; they were earth guns. A slow sinking feeling started in her stomach and she felt the dread return. She knew the meaning of the word but now she understood it. She felt it. He looked younger, the lines around his eyes were gone. The scar that ran across his hairline wasn’t there. The burn scar from a medallion in the palm of his hand was missing and so was the locket he always wore around his neck. She stripped him of the rest of his clothes. He was crisscrossed with scars, bullet wounds and knife gashes but he was missing a few.

  This wasn’t Jessie. This was the boy.

  She took all the dangerous things out of the house and stored them in the ship, ignoring his orders never to enter his rooms. The boy could hurt himself or destroy the integrity of the building. She changed the codes on the door leading to the airlock so he couldn’t accidentally kill himself. She sealed the windows with armored shutters then settled down to wait. She hoped Jessie would find some way to get back before the boy awoke, she didn’t know what to do with him. He knew their coordinates, maybe he could use the original time machine.

  The pod working on Scarlet had finally determined a way to cleanse her body of the invading zombie virus. She’d had to readjust it like she had for Jessie so it didn’t purge the clean part of the serum, the parts that made her a little bit super. She didn’t want to strip the girl of her advantages. Her speed and reflexes.

  The boy’s pod beeped, letting her know he would be finished in 24 hours. He opened his eyes and stared at her when she quieted the timer and she was afraid. She didn’t know what to do.

  48

  Training

  She put him in the room where Jessie slept and let him wake up alone. She’d removed all of her clothes because she wasn’t sure what to expect. She wanted to be able to shift to any form at any time, even an encompassing blanket to hold him still if he had a mental breakdown and started trying to smash the hull or hurt himself. She shifted her form to mimic clothing. It was hard, her body wanted to stay a body.

  When he awoke, he thought she was Scarlet and she chastised herself. It was her normal form and it was difficult to remain looking like someone different for very long. She should have tried though, at least at first.

  He was obstinate and hard headed and when he’d ignored her advice, when he’d tried to force open the airlock, she had gotten angry and shown him who she was. Embarrassed, she retreated to the ship and wondered what
was next. Why had Jessie done this? What did he want her to do? Was she supposed to send them back after they were healed? The boy had been on deaths doorstep, even with the serum in his veins. He should have left him to die and came back himself. But what if he couldn’t? Her mind went back to thoughts of him lying dead in a burning building, his last act had been to save the pair.

  She felt another new emotion as she stared through the windshield. Self-pity. When they first met, she had decided to help Jessie. Her prime directive was to preserve human life. He was the first human she’d encountered in ten thousand years and she made it her duty to keep him safe. This boy wasn’t Jessie but technically he was. She was as bound to him as she had been to her Jessie and she resented it. She couldn’t take her bracelet and jump back to his last coordinates. The unyielding hard coded part of her wouldn’t let her. She owed loyalty to Jessie and his wishes. He had saved her from spending eternity drifting through space in endless hibernation cycles but this seemed like too much to ask.

  When she went back inside he was calm and sorting through Jessie’s journals. She was resentful at first, he had no right but the boy wanted to know who had saved him and she relented. She wanted him to know. She wanted him to realize how much had been sacrificed, how hard Jessie had worked to find Scarlet and how he’d thrown it all away to save him, the pale imitation of a great man.

  As the days passed she started to understand why Jessie had sent him. He was young and naive but he had all of the same qualities. He was hard headed and stubborn. Obstinate and driven. He wasn’t jaded, not yet, and if the only way to save Scarlet was to send her across time then it only made sense to send the boy she loved to be with her, not the ancient man who had lived thousands of years.