Chapter 13
I put my hand out in front of Rayne and pulled her to stand behind me. Neither of us had taken a breath since the zombie had sat up in the hospital bed, and neither of us could manage to form anything close to words to describe what was happening in front of us. Rayne peeked out from behind my shoulder with a look of abject horror on her face, and I was pretty sure that the expression on mine was identical. Even Bob was silent.
The dead alien stared at us for what felt like hours. I found myself reeling backward away from its eyes as they bored into mine. It was disturbing to look into a pair of eyes when there was nothing behind them, especially since they were moving ever so slightly as the alien looked first at me, and then at Rayne behind me.
As I watched it, I realized that one of the strangest parts of watching the dead body reanimate was the fact that its chest didn’t rise or fall. The creature didn’t need to breathe, didn’t need a heartbeat, and didn’t need anything that would normally allow an organism to survive. Instead, it had just sat up in bed as though it had jolted awake from a bad nightmare.
Then, its jaw dropped open as though a string that had been holding it closed had been cut. Its black tongue flopped around in its mouth like a fish out of water, like it had never used it before. A glob of drool slowly oozed out of its mouth and started to pool on its lap. The string of saliva hung down from its bottom lip and quivered every time it moved its jaw.
I saw its throat tense and relax a couple of times, and then a hoarse groan was forced out of its mouth as it tested out its vocal cords. The only sound it could manage was a low moan that sounded like it was coming through sandpaper.
Under the blanket, I saw the alien start to experimentally move its feet and legs, as though it was testing out a new bike for the first time. It bent its knees slightly and flexed its feet, and once it was satisfied that everything somewhat worked, it stopped all of its movements, closed its gaping, drooling mouth, shut its lifeless eyes, and fell back onto the bed in one swift, unceremonious motion. We waited for a moment for it to move again, but it laid still with its eyes closed and its arms and legs unmoving.
“What… the… fuck,” I whispered after about a minute of us gawking at the body. “What the fuck!”
“How did that just happen?” Rayne gasped. “How did… You saw that right? You saw that… that dead body sit up and look at us? Right?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” I replied.
“Good, because I was kinda wondering if I’d gone crazy,” she sighed.
“Nope,” I said. “Unless we both have.”
“Then what was that?” she asked. “That dead alien just came back to life right in front of us!”
“I know, Rayne,” I replied. “I was there, too.”
“But what do you think it was?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I replied.
“Maybe a brain signal went off,” she said. “I mean, it happens to people and animals that die, right? Animals run around when their heads get cut off. Dead bodies twitch after… I mean, I know that wasn’t a twitch, he literally sat up and looked at us and then grunted, but he’s not long dead, so maybe that could be it? I mean--”
“Rayne,” I said as I turned around and put my hands on her shoulders. “Slow down.”
“Sorry, I just…” she began. “I wasn’t expecting all this.”
“Neither was I,” I said.
“It’s a lot to take in,” she said.
“It is,” I replied.
“Well, as long as we’re on the same page,” she sighed.
“We are,” I said. “God, that made me shudder. Its eyes were…”
“Yeah,” she replied. “There’s another thing I won’t be able to unsee today.”
“And it groaned at us,” I said with a grimace. “It was like it was using its body for the first time again. Like it had woken up from a coma and forgotten what limbs go where.”
“It’s dead, so of course it’ll be a bit rusty with its movements,” Rayne said.
“Good point,” I replied. “Any thoughts on what we just witnessed, Frankie?”
“Only that I believe it would be best for all of us to vacate the space station immediately,” the AI replied through Bob.
“I would agree with that suggestion,” I said. “Time to go.”
“Mmhmm,” Rayne agreed.
We grabbed the Nano-Developer on the trolley and wheeled it away from the wall. We pushed it toward the bed with the alien that had temporarily come alive again, and I quickly checked its pulse, just to be sure we weren’t leaving a survivor behind. But a quick check made it clear that the body was well and truly dead, so I hurried after Rayne and joined her in maneuvering the trolley.
“Hold on, Will,” Francine said. “You need to collect some of the solution used to inject the nanobots. It is in the refrigeration unit just over there.”
Bob’s laser swiveled around and pointed toward a small box near what looked like a nurse’s station.
“Damn it,” I sighed as I really didn’t wanna spend more time in the room with the alive-slash-dead guy than I had to. “What do they look like?”
“There should be several glass vials filled with a viscous, yellow liquid,” Francine replied. “Think mucus.”
“Ewww,” Rayne replied.
I hurried back to the station, opened the fridge, and found some glass vials which held a cloudy, yellow liquid inside them. I held one up, and after Bob nodded in approval, I looked around for something to put them in. I found a clear plastic bag on the counter beside the fridge, so I grabbed the bag and piled in as many vials as I could fit. Then, I closed the fridge, turned to go after Rayne, and practically jumped out of my skin.
“Shit!” I shouted as I found myself face to face with the dead guy that had been in the hospital bed just a second earlier.
“Will!” Rayne screamed.
Out of pure reflex, I raised my free hand and punched the dead alien square in the face. My fist connected with its nose, and I heard a crunch underneath my knuckles. Its head was knocked backward so far that I was pretty sure the back of its head smashed into its back.
But, the creature didn’t move, not even to collapse on the floor in a heap. I panted as I caught my breath and stared at the creature, whose head still hadn’t reappeared. And then, I watched in horror as its neck slowly brought its head back upright.
There was a crunch as its spine slotted back into place, and then the alien brought its head even closer to mine, almost as though it was mocking me. Its gaunt face was covered in black blood that was pouring out of its broken nose, but the alien didn’t seem to be affected by it at all. It wasn’t wincing from any pain and didn’t bother to reach up to try and stem the blood flow. Instead, it just allowed the blood to trickle down its gray face and land on the floor in a puddle, along with some more saliva that had fallen out of its mouth.
“What do I do?” I asked as I stared at the alien, who still hadn’t moved.
The alien groaned at me again with a long, hearty growl, and again, my first reaction was to punch it square in the face. Its head flew backward again, but it was back up in a heartbeat, as though its spine had been replaced with an elastic band.
Then, its eye popped out and landed with a squelch in the puddle of its own blood.
“Oh, hell no,” I grimaced as I refrained from throwing my guts up.
I looked back up at the alien’s face and the now empty eye socket. Its optic nerve was still attached and hung out of the socket like a bloody worm, and I was able to see some of the blood vessels before the torrent of blood concealed them.
But, as I looked deep into the socket, I could have sworn I saw something move. Something covered in blood. It was there for a moment, and then it disappeared. It was probably just a muscle or a clot moving around behind the alien’s skull, I decided. Besides, I didn’t know anything about this species of alien’s anatomy, so it could have been anything.
Unfortunately, pondering about intergalactic biology wasn’t going to deal with the current situation in front of me.
I shoved the alien backward, and it stumbled like a newborn fawn between the beds. It almost lost its balance for a moment, but somehow, it managed to remain upright on its feet. I could see Rayne and Bob behind it near the exit of the room. Rayne was watching all of this unfold and was glued to the spot in shock.
I pulled out my gun and aimed it at the creature. Whatever was going on here, it was unnatural, and it needed to be gotten rid of.
“Will, do not shoot,” Francine said.
“Why the hell not?” I growled.
“Because there are oxygen canisters in here and pipes transporting the gas over the entire hospital wing,” Francine said. “If one of those shots gets anywhere near that oxygen, this whole place will go.”
“Fine,” I said through gritted teeth as I holstered my gun again. “But I’m not letting this thing have it easy.”
“I would expect nothing less from you,” Francine replied.
I darted sideways behind the hospital bed the alien had been lying in just a couple of moments ago. That meant that the bed was in between me and the alien. For a moment, the alien didn’t move, and then it heaved one of its legs onto the bed. It leaned forward and placed both of its hands on the mattress, and then it hauled the rest of its body up so it was crouched down on the bed.
“I did not expect you to do that,” I muttered.
I grabbed the bed and spun it around on its wheels a couple of times until I had picked up some momentum. Then, like some Olympic shot putter, I released it, and it went careening into the equipment at the back of the room. The body was thrown off from the impact and fell in a heap on the floor, right on top of its eyeball, which exploded under the body’s weight.
I skirted past the fallen body and started to back away toward Rayne and Bob. I watched as the body started to push itself back up. There were cracking sounds, and I realized that when the alien had fallen, it had landed on both of its outstretched arms and had snapped them, only now they were crunching back into place at terribly gross angles until they were back to normal. Then, the body brought its knees underneath its torso, got to its feet, and slowly turned around to look at us.
Its head was slightly wonky now, which meant its jaw was slightly to the right, but it didn’t stop the alien or even slow it down. It started to drag its feet toward me, and as it did so, another grunt fell out of its mouth.
“Rayne, here!” I shouted as I chucked her the bag of nanobot solution.
“I’ll trade you,” she replied as she caught the bag in one hand, and then she unsheathed one of her knives with the other and tossed it to me. “Look out!”
I turned around just in time as the monster took a swing at me. I ducked under its arm and stepped back out of its reach to give me a moment to gather myself. Then, I raised both my hands, one of which was holding Rayne’s knife in it, and got ready for a fight. There could be only one outcome, and that was the second death of the alien.
It roared and came at me with its arms stretched out in front of it. At the same time, I spun around, raised my leg as I did so, and landed a perfect roundhouse kick in the center of its torso. It flew back across the room, but it landed on top of one of the other bodies and got back to its feet a moment later.
It was starting to figure out how to use its limbs again, which meant it practically sprinted back over to me. I waited for the perfect moment, and then I ducked under its arms again and plunged the knife right into its torso, where I assumed its heart, or at least some vital organ, might be.
The alien stopped in its tracks for a moment in surprise and looked down at the knife sticking out of its chest. It looked puzzled for a moment, and then it raised its heavy arm and gripped the handle. It pulled the knife out slowly, but without much care about whether it did any more damage. Blood spurted out along with the blade as it exited the wound, and then the zombie raised its head to look at me with a smug smile on its face.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” I said.
Even stabbing it hadn’t done any damage. What the hell was I supposed to do now?
“Hey!” Rayne shouted.
She had come out of nowhere behind the body, leaped toward it, and smashed a large glass flask over its head. It fell down again from the impact, and as it did, Rayne pulled out another knife and stabbed it in the face.
The body screamed and lashed out at her. It shoved her backward and sent her flying into a stack of boxes of bandages in the corner, which all collapsed on top of her and buried her.
While Rayne tried to climb out of the pile, I rounded on the alien and kicked it in the jaw. Its head spun around, but it was up in a flash. Instead of coming for me, it started to lumber toward the Nano-Developer, and more importantly, the way out.
“Oh, no you don’t,” I said as I grabbed its arm and yanked it back toward me. It screamed again as I removed the knife from its face and stabbed it in the gut. This time, I kept hold of the knife and danced around the body until I was behind it, where I shoved the knife into its back. I left it in, and the creature flailed around as it tried to reach the blade, which was lodged in the one section of its back that it couldn’t reach.
The alien’s face was now covered in its own blood and there was no way it could see, though I wasn’t sure it needed to. It turned to me and leaped toward me before I could get out of the way as easily as if it had perfect vision. We landed on the ground, the zombie on top of me, and it tried to bite me. Its jaw snapped in front of my face, which I could tell it wanted to rip off, but I quickly brought my foot up under the alien and kicked it off me. One kick up later, and I was back on my feet.
Rayne was back on hers, too, and she pointed over to the door.
“We should get out of here,” she said.
The alien snarled at me and then charged forward again. I looked behind me, grabbed a metal tray, and smacked it across the head with it. It grunted and fell sideways onto another bed, and when it tried to come at me again, I smacked it again.
“How the hell are we supposed to kill this thing?” I shouted. “Francine?”
“I am working on it,” the AI said.
“Work faster,” I said as I punched the alien in the jaw.
“If we get out of those doors at the end of the hall, then we can use our guns,” Rayne said.
I looked over at the doorway, which wasn’t too far away from where we stood. Bob was standing beside the Nano-Developer trolley, and beyond that, we didn’t have far to go until we were far enough away from the oxygen canisters that we weren’t going to blow ourselves up in the process of trying to kill this thing.
“New plan,” I said. “Run!”
Rayne and I turned tail and sprinted toward the trolley. Bob stood up on its hind legs and started to push the trolley out of the room, and Rayne and I ran after it as fast as we could. The creature was fast, though, and it was only a few paces behind us the whole time. It ran awkwardly, and its arms flapped around at its sides, but it was still terrifying to turn back and see that coming at us.
This thing wasn’t going to stop. I wasn’t even sure if a bullet or one of the shots from my Electro-Launch would do anything to it. Besides, it was already dead and nothing seemed to hurt it, so a bullet in its head wasn’t guaranteed to work, either.
We were almost at the door, but the end of the hall suddenly seemed a lot further away. It was like those dreams where I would run, but my destination would just keep getting further and further away no matter how fast I ran.
“Screw running,” I said under my breath.
I came to a halt and rounded on the alien.
“Will, what are you doing?” Rayne shouted up ahead of me.
The body kept on coming. It snarled and grunted, and saliva flew everywhere. It reached out its hands toward me as it aimed at my neck and clawed at my eyes.
I gathered all of my strength and started to run toward it. I let out my own animalistic growl as I leaped forward off the ground, raised my fist, and hit it in the head for the final time.
It was as though time slowed down. I watched my fist connect with the body’s face. I watched the ripple of its skin from the impact and the droplets of blood that spewed out from its mouth. My eyes moved down to its neck, and I watched the skin start to rip open, then the muscles and veins, and then the spine snapped loudly. The other eye bulged as the head disconnected from the alien’s body and flew all the way back through the room. The head hit the wall, bounced off the top of the fridge, and landed on the ground. I turned back to the headless body just in time to watch it crumple in front of me. It folded as it fell and laid in a pile at my feet.
“Whoa,” Rayne said. “Remind me not to piss you off.”
“We should go,” I said as I made my way over to her.
Rayne and Bob grabbed the trolley and started to push it out into the hall. I followed after them once I cleaned the alien’s blood off my hands with a sheet I had taken off one of the beds.
“That was awesome, Will,” Rayne chirped. “You just punched an alien’s head off! I didn’t know you could do that. Did you know you could do that?”
“I do now,” I chuckled.
“You know, I can see why you wear your suit all the time now,” she said. “I felt so much stronger and faster with it on.”
“Yeah, it really gives you the extra boost of strength,” I replied as I discarded the now bloody sheet onto the floor. “That was insane.”
“Yep,” Rayne said. “Totally insane.”
“A dead body came back to life and tried to kill us,” I sighed. “That’s not something you hear about every day. I mean--”
We both shut up as soon as we heard a sound coming from the room we had just left. Rayne looked at me with a panicked expression on her face. Then, we both turned around to look behind us.
The headless body slowly got to its feet. Blood and pieces of tissue and muscle fell out of the gaping wound where its head should have been, but still, it managed to stand upright in front of us. Then, it raised both of its arms as though it was welcoming some Godly message from above.
But instead, all we could see was hell in front of us.
Slowly, all of the bodies in the room started to get out of their beds as they twitched and groaned. Their mouths hung open as they stalked toward us and joined their leader in the doorway, and then we found ourselves staring at a room full of moving, living dead bodies.
And a small army of them were looking murderously back at us.