by Aaron Bunce
“It’s okay,” Soraya mouthed, then took a deep breath, turned, and moved quietly into her quarters.
Anna followed, but faltered, watching as the other woman disappeared through the door. She turned to the left and looked back towards the corner to her own quarters, then looked left to the elevators. Something rattled behind her, the noise distant and muffled. She tried to track the sound, but the hall was too dark – nothing moved, and at the same time, everything did.
Anna walked quickly through the door to follow Soraya, deciding she’d rather not face whatever they stumbled upon alone. She followed Soraya down the short entrance hall, the gentle glow ahead pulling her forward.
The small kitchenette sat to the right, a pantry to her left. Bottles of pills and small auto injectors sat on the edge of the kitchen counter. One bottle was knocked over, its liquid contents having spilled over the edge and dripped to the floor below.
Anna came to the small living room, a portable battery unit powering an old-fashioned floor lamp in the left corner, next to what looked like a real, leather chair. To her right sat a glass table and another chair, with a two or three foot long aquarium filling the space between. Brightly colored fish swam lazily in the bluish tank light.
The luxuriously appointed space always took her by surprise. It was the kind of place her mother would approve of, only to find reason to complain about later.
A bedroom sat off a hall to the left and a dark hallway to the right – a bathroom and another bedroom. They stopped and listened for a moment, but the gentle hum of the battery unit was the only sound.
“This way,” Soraya mouthed and gestured her slowly down the long hall. Anna followed, continuously looking behind her, struggling with the idea that not stopping Soraya in the hallway wasn’t just foolish, but dangerous.
There is only one way out of their quarters…nowhere to run. Why didn’t I stop her outside? she thought, nervously eyeing the long hall.
Soraya stopped for a moment and listened, almost as if she’d heard Anna’s doubts and fears. Could she? How could any of it be possible?
But the quarters were quiet…no, serene. With the gentle, warm light at her back and the subtle scent of lavender drifting out of the bathroom, she could almost lose track of the chaos plaguing the station. Almost.
If Preston isn’t here, where did he go? Will he come back? She wondered as Soraya ducked into the dark bedroom, immediately moving to the left, where a small closet sat against the wall.
Soraya crouched down and started rifling around in the dark cubby. Anna felt her need, but it wasn’t due to her cold feet. She stooped down behind her, shining the beam of the small light into the dark space.
“Thank you, I was just thinking that I needed light,” Soraya whispered.
Anna sniffed. The air in the bedroom had an off smell here – in almost perfect contrast to the hall behind her. This room smelled sour, like sweat and sick. Soraya rocked back, a pair of white and gray jogging boots in hand.
A snap…pop sounded from somewhere in the room. Anna’s head swung around, her shoulders immediately tensing up. She grabbed a handful of Soraya’s jumpsuit and pulled back.
Her small light wouldn’t illuminate the whole room, but something glinted off the far wall. It was shiny…or wet. The smell grew stronger – coppery, acidic. The hairs on her neck prickled. An urge blossomed deep in her mind, the impulse so strong it made the muscles in her legs start to twitch. Fight or run.
Another pop sounded, strangely reminiscent of someone cracking their knuckles. A low hum filled air, the corresponding vibration noticeable in the decking just as she felt the tickle of moving air kiss her neck. A heater pack glowed to life in the darkness directly ahead, something weaving through the air just above it.
“Baby, is that you?” Soraya asked, turning to the dark room, but Anna heaved her up and back. She missed the doorway and hit the door, smacking it hard against the wall.
“Shit! We need to get out of here…now!” Anna hissed, just as a light blinked on in the hall behind them. The quarters seemed to come alive as electronics clicked and blinked to life around them.
The square of light from the doorway cut through the concealing shadow, bathing the opposite wall in a bright rectangle, before blinking off and on again.
“Pres.t..o…n,” Soraya saw him first, a confusing, bloody mess covering the wall that had been concealed by the dark the moment before. She gasped, her scream splitting the air before Anna could slap a hand up to her mouth. Anna choked and sobbed, fighting back screams of her own, but couldn’t find enough air to make sound.
They slid sideways together and fumbled to pull themselves through the doorway. Anna tried to tear her eyes away, to turn and run, but it was too much for her mind to take…too horrific.
The light flickered again, making the smeared walls seemed to stretch sideways away from where Preston hung, arms and legs stretched wide, his impressive height suspended clear off the ground.
Strange, pulsating matter grew up and out of the skin on his arms and legs, forming what looked like snaking tendrils that coiled up and over the smooth ceramic wall. His head lolled off to one side, the skin pulled back like the gory pedals of a fleshy flower. Preston’s mouth opened and closed slowly, his teeth abnormally large with no lips to cover them.
Every ounce of Soraya’s fear, grief, and horror pumped into Anna’s body all at once. It made her legs shake and back go weak. She felt heavy and sagged halfway towards the ground before she could shake it away.
“What’s happening…to…him?” Soraya moaned, as Anna heaved her back upright.
Run! her mind screamed, and she wrenched them sideways towards the doorway. But it wasn’t just Preston…not just his mutilated body. Another snap sounded, followed by a sinewy pop. Preston’s ribs moved, popping and extending out through his chest, groping and pulling like the grasping pincers of an impossibly large insect. The bones clawed at her neighbor’s back, pulling his bloodied torso further into the messy hole that had been Preston’s abdomen, as if his body was somehow trying to…eat him. The man’s legs flopped once, hanging free just above the ground.
Anna found the doorway and they stumbled outside, falling against the hallway. She couldn’t look away though, even when her mind told her to turn and run – run as fast as her legs would carry her. Preston’s body moved and shook, a trickle of blood dribbling onto the floor. Their flesh seemed to be fusing, or knitting together to make two bodies one.
Soraya’s weight sent them tumbling sideways down the hall, a strangled scream pulling at Anna’s resolve. She pushed Soraya ahead of her, scooping the boots up as they slipped from her hand.
“Go…go!” she managed, clawing at the wall and half-tumbling out into the living room.
They were in the hall, the kitchen, and then moving through the door. Anna slapped the door control once they were outside.
“Lock…lock it!” she gasped.
Soraya smacked her wrist against the reader, but only glanced at the screen, neither woman waiting for the resulting click. Anna swallowed hard and kicked forward as fast as she could, Soraya easily outpacing her.
They slowed down, turning the corner by the elevator, Soraya’s feet slapping against the floor. The lift doors were closed, the floor indicator light glowing unsteadily. Soraya stepped forward and pressed the call indicator, but Anna grabbed her by the arm.
“No…look, it’s moving,” she whispered.
“What are you doing?”
Anna wiped her mouth and looked around, trying to master her panic and gain some small level of control. A light flickered to her right, and then left. The dark hall materialized out of the gloom as the trim lights glowed to life. The power flickered as the space grew bright, but plunged into darkness once again. A sharp bang sounded from back up the hall.
They both looked up to the floor indicator. It flashed two A and then a heartbeat later, three A. Another bang filled the passage behind them, debris rattling noisily to the
floor.
Move!
“It’s moving so slow,” Soraya said, her eyes flicking back towards the corner.
Anna grabbed Soraya’s hand and moved quickly past the elevator, where a solitary maintenance hatch stood in the corner. She turned the locking cog on the top, middle, and bottom, before pulling the door open. The hinges groaned loudly. The top rung of a service ladder appeared out of the darkness.
“Down…quick!” she hissed. Soraya didn’t hesitate and crawled into the narrow, vertical shaft.
Another bang, this one far louder, reverberated down the hall. There was another noise, too, followed by a loud, electronic chime. It wasn’t the door, but the…
Elevator, she realized, a striking wave of skin-prickling fear rushing through her. The elevator was bad? It was a feeling, an intuition.
“Go! Put those on down there,” she hissed, and tossed the boots down into the darkness and then half-pushed Soraya after them.
“Don’t look…don’t look,” Anna whispered, bouncing on her heels as she waited for Soraya to make room on the ladder.
She heard the elevator doors open, heard voices spill out of the lift and fill the passage. They were men – their breathing and voices muffled respirators.
An ugly, loud bang split the air and Anna jumped into the darkness, almost landing on Soraya’s head in the process. She leaned out of the ladder well and grabbed the door to swing it shut.
A man walked out of the elevator and turned to look right at her as the door started to swing closed. He wore a strange-looking hazard suit, the gray material merging seamlessly with gloves and boots, but also a large, protective faceplate and respirator.
“Hey…I’ve got someone. Over here!” the man yelled, moving quickly towards Anna. A beam of blinding light flooded the space, burning her eyes as lamps on the man’s helmet blinked on.
“Hey you, stop! Come out of there!”
Anna wrenched on the door, the criminally neglected hinges groaning in protest. She caught a glimpse of more suited men pouring out of the elevator, black crates clutched in their hands.
The man stopped and leveled something at her, just as the door pulled closed. She heard something click loudly, and then it whined right before a flash of blinding blue light erupted against the door.
The hatch smashed closed, a mind-numbing crash hitting the metal and almost pitching her off the ladder and into the darkness below. Anna wrenched herself upright again and fumbled in the dark for the locking cogs.
Did he just fucking shoot at me? The panic hit her as her fingers curled around the top lock. She slapped it closed, and then reached for the next one down, stopping only to turn her small work light back on. Anna blinked, but it wasn’t just the dark. Bright colors swam before her vision, making it hard to focus.
The middle cog turned more easily, her hand finding the handle almost purely by accident. She dropped down two rungs to reach the bottom one. It started to turn as the top cog slapped violently open again.
Anna slipped and almost toppled from the ladder. She fought, corrected, and heaved herself back up as the middle cog smashed open.
“No!” she growled and shoved the middle cog back closed again. She reached for the top, but before she could grasp it, the middle lock moved. Anna dropped her hands to the middle handle again, fortifying the latch with all the strength she could muster. She felt something pressing on it, twisting with an incredible amount of strength.
“Go, Soraya…faster,” Anna yelled down the shaft.
“I hear you in there! Open this hatch! Do it and come out of there!” the man yelled, his voice buzzing through the metal hatch.
The hatch shook a moment later, the metal ringing with a sharp impact. The pressure on the middle cog returned, twofold. Anna kicked a foot up onto the wall of the small passage. It slipped and she kicked up again, finally finding purchase.
“You shot at me, asshole! Whoever you are, you’re…not…getting in,” Anna grunted, every muscle in her upper body straining. The handle stopped turning, her newfound leverage giving her an advantage. A droplet of sweat ran down from her forehead onto her nose.
The hatch shuddered again, the impact ringing in her ears, and the pressure hit the cog. The handle started to turn, and Anna returned the leverage, a strength she’d never known welling up in her shoulders and arms. And yet, the handle continued to turn. Her strength wasn’t failing, far from it. But her hands were slipping – heat was rising in the tight confines around her, and she was straining. Her palms were growing slick with sweat.
“Go…Soraya, go!” she gasped, looking to the top cog, and then to the bottom one.
“Think, Anna. Think…troubleshoot…” she started to talk to herself, to keep her mind working and fight the panic. She had to think the problem out loud, but the answer bounced around in her pocket, tapping against her leg.
Okay…fast…deliberate. Fast…deliberate, she thought, and then dropped her right hand off the handle and plunged it into her pocket.
The cog wrenched around, her left hand alone bending under the force. Her fingers slapped against her data point, closed around it, and she pulled. Anna’s hand snapped off the middle cog, and she lunged for the bottom one, grasping the handle with her left hand and smashing her data point sideways into the space between the locking arm and the top of the receiver box.
Anna’s hand slipped off the handle, the bottom cog almost immediately snapping up. Her data point shifted and caught, wedging diagonally in the narrow space, but she was already descending, moving hand over laborious hand down the ladder.
“Hold, just hold,” she mumbled, the metal door shuddering violently above, the racket echoing loudly through the service passage.
She heard the lock rattle violently, punctuated by a sharp crack, like snapping glass or plastic. Anna fumbled down another rung, fighting the urge to look back up the shaft. She would make it. She had to.
0345 Hours
“You see? You have no business here. You’re just making things worse. Nurse!” Doctor Misra shouted, pointing towards Janice’s bed. “Get those patients back into their bed. Sedate them, and someone get these people out of here!”
The dull, fuzzy sensation crept up Jacoby’s neck and almost instantly settled like an irresistible weight on his eyelids. He fought the urge to sleep as a nurse wearing a white suit and respirator approached Janice’s tent.
“Take…it…offff, p-p-please,” Jacoby croaked, rolling his head back and forth, trying to catch sight of Lex or Doctor Reeds. He snapped his head to the side and thrashed his arms and legs, doing whatever he could not to tumble back into the black.
“What is wrong with them?” Lex asked, appearing next to Reeds.
“They’re incredibly sick, and there is nothing you can do for them. Now would you please leave, as you have been instructed, and take this man back to his clinic where he belongs?”
“Layla, please, this isn’t right at all…the procedures and protocols,” Reeds argued.
“Ma’am, are you alright? Can you hear me, ma’am?” the nurse asked, unzipping the first layer of the tent surrounding Janice’s bed. “Doctor Misra, we’re getting some really weird readings on her vitals. She is showing in severe cardiac and pulmonary distress. Her heart rate is barely registering,” she said, checking a tablet as she waited for another nurse to close the flap behind her.
“Pamela, get her back into bed and we will draw another series of blood samples. All of these patients are no doubt worse off thanks to our unwanted visitors…putting their already compromised immune systems under even more stress,” Doctor Misra shot back, glaring at Reeds.
“Yes, doctor,” the nurse said before stooping down and unzipping the inner layer of plastic. “Ma’am, I’m coming. Just stay calm.”
Something felt wrong, so horribly wrong. The sense of unease bubbled up from Jacoby’s guts – like a sour wave…like a sickness. Only it wasn’t his, and somehow he knew it.
“Don’t open…it!” Jacoby
croaked, just as Janice exploded off the ground, a wet and feral snarl filling her plastic enclosure.
The nurse fell back with Janice atop her, the boney woman clawing and pounding on her head and faceplate. Jacoby wrenched on the restraints and kicked his feet, but his strength was gone, the Palmer Module hanging like a heavy parasite on his arm.
“Get her off of me…oh my god. Somebody get her off!” the nurse wailed, but everyone was backing away from the enclosure.
“Open that thing up! Somebody get in there and help her,” Lex yelled, shoving past Doctor Misra and moving right towards Janice’s bed. But it wasn’t just Janice now. The other patients were up, pounding on their plastic enclosures and screaming. Black bits of spittle covered the plastic, but to Jacoby it looked like blood.
A tall man stepped out of the crowd, cutting Lex off. “Stop! Do not open that tent! You don’t understand the risks here. These patients are in level-three containment to prevent further viral contamination to this station. That is our number one consideration here. Pamela and the other medical staff accepted that risk when they signed their corporate contracts. I repeat…do not open that enclosure!”
“Risk? From some crazy, sick lady attacking her? Step aside, sir and let me do my job,” Lex said quietly, and brought the stun baton up before her.
“No. I order you to stand down, officer. I am Manis Nazzar, junior assistant to the station secretary. I speak for the Directorate. Doctor Misra has unfettered authority in this matter and already ordered you to remove yourself and this man from her lab. Do it now, or I will have you taken from this place and locked in restraints,” the tall man said, squaring his shoulders and puffing out his chest.
“Someone…get…oh my god! She is…ow…there is something sharp cutting into my stomach! She’s trying to…trying to cut my suit,” the nurse, Pamela, started to scream. Jacoby fought against the restraints again, the pain in the nurse’s voice adding to his panic.
“Layla where is your security team? This is getting…out of hand,” Manis said, turning to Doctor Misra.
