Zombie

Posted on Sun Nov 10th, 2019 @ 3:35pm by

Mission: For Whom The Bell Tolls
Location: random
Timeline: somewhere during the night
1598 words - 3.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Lieutenant Sullivan walked down a well lit corridor as she idly browsed through a smattering of departmental reports on her PADD. By now, the route she walked from the mess to her quarters had become second nature; she had no qualms about reading while her body navigated on autopilot. The journey was simple - two lefts, a slightly curved section of corridor, and a turbolift followed by a left, a right, and the third door down on the right.

"What the..." Sullivan came to a halt. Something wasn't aligning with her mental model of where she should have been along her journey. "There's no bulkhead door in this section of the ship."

She turned in time to watch the door slide to a close, locking her into a section of dimly lit corridor. Lilith put her PADD to sleep and gave her eyes a moment to adjust to the dark. She quietly padded her way back the way she came, but neither proximity, control pad, or manual override could open the door. A tap of her commbadge provided little more than the aural alert that no communications were available.

"Well s---, now you've really done it Lily. No way back now, you might as well go forward," she muttered to herself. Closing her eyes for a moment, she took a deep breath before deciding to press deeper into the dark. Fumbling to find her PADD, Sullivan switched on the integrated light before continuing.

Her senses were on edge; she could hear a malfunctioning door around the corner opening and closing repeatedly. Like a moth to a flame, she made her way towards the source of the noise, emboldened by the handheld light source she was carrying. Arriving at the scene, Sullivan inspected the door and found a chunk of deck plating protruding into the doorway that was preventing it from closing properly. Timing the cycle of open, shut, open, shut - she passed through the door and shined her light around the room.

Sitting in the center of the open area, a tank made of transparent aluminum dominated the room. Various lengths of tubing and diagnostic scanners were attached, but it was the illuminated display nearby that caught Sullivan's attention. Even from a distance, her visual acuity allowed her to make out the first few lines of text.

[PROJECT PHOENIX TESTING FACILITY]

"Male test subject, species unknown, cause of death unknown... What the hell is this place?"

The tank was empty, its occupant nowhere to be seen. A wet puddle on the floor seemed to indicate he had somehow managed to get out of the tank, but how he had done it was a mystery.

The bandages that were wrapped around him seemed to come loose, leaving wet trails on the floor as they moved with every step. The zombie's eyes were closed as he walked down the hall, arms wrapped in bandages lightly stretched out. It was almost, as if the person inside was sleepwalking, or was being controlled by an outside -and unseen- force.

As it was night, the lighting in the halls was low and he was casting eerie shadows on the walls as he slow-walked by.

One such shadow moved across the far wall, snapping Lilith's attention back to the door she had come in through. Had something other than the door moved? Without making a sound, she carefully stepped away from the tank and moved towards the exit.

The zombie hadn't moved far as he was slow moving, each step a slush that echoed in the silent corridors. The zombie moaned softly as he walked, an eerie sound that carried quite a distance. He turned, and started to walk back, following his prior path. The light behind him cast a long shadow ahead of him as he walked.

"Oh hell no," Sullivan swore under her breath as she spotted the creature. Her heartbeat quickened as part of her body's autonomous response to the fear she was encountering. As quietly as she could, Lilith slipped back into the hall and ran back in the direction she had come from. Further adventure was no longer an option.

Hoping against hope that she had retraced her footsteps correctly, a brief sigh of relief escaped her lips as she saw the bulkhead door in front of her open. Another figure stood in the doorway, but the light from the corridor behind made it impossible to determine the identity of the stranger.

"Hey!" Sullivan shouted. "Hey! Don't let that door close!"

Seemingly unaware of his surroundings, but keenly aware of sounds, the zombie moaned and turned towards the sound.

---

Tarria was up late after she cleaned the bar and the sitting area of the lounge. The kitchen was relatively clean. Paddy was very particular of that. She was particular of the bar and lounge. She had closed the kitchen and had now closed the bar. There was no one in and she wanted to have a little rest. Senior staff could open the lounge if needed. Replicators were active.

She remembered she forgot something down in the cargobay, so went down the hallway to find a turbolift to go down to the cargo bay. She took the lift down and when she stepped in to a dim lit hallway she looked around confused. She never been here before. She turned around to go back, but the lift doors had already closed and the lift was gone. She called it again.

A groan or perhaps a grunt sounded from behind her, a wet soppy bandage touching her arm as the zombie all but walked right over her.

As she felt the bandage tough her hand she turned around half freaked out someone touched her in the dark. She looked at the zombie. Tarria never met a Zombie, or seen any horror movies, she didn't think anything of it. She breathed as she held her shoulder. She pushed him back so she had some space.

"Oh, you scared me." She looked at the man's appearance. He had bandages and it was wet. "Are you alright? Do you want me to call a doctor?" She tapped her combadge. "Sickbay, this is Tarria Sh'ezhinnir, your lovely bartender, I believe one of your patients is wondering here down at deck..." She looked around if she could find a deck number. Usually it was on the turbo lift. But she didn't seem to find a number. And at the same time she winced her hands to get whatever was on those bandages. She then noticed sickbay was not responding. "Sickbay, please respond," She called again. "Hmm, strange," She tried the elevator again. "What is wrong with this thing? And what is that smell?"

The sound of Tarria's voice drifting through the halls had captured Lilith's attention. Her attempt to escape the hallway had been unsuccessful, a crushing blow to her morale for sure. However, the sound of another voice brought her some hope. It meant that at least she wasn't alone with whatever that thing was down in the depths of the ship.

"Oh god, Tarria, is that you?" Sullivan recognized the silhouette as she approached. "Get away from that thing! What are you doing?"

"Thing?" Tarria looked to the mummy behind her. "This is a confused patient. And somehow this lift won't open and there seems to be something wrong with communications." She took the mummy's hand and said, "It's ok, we will get you the help you need."

The creature moaned unintelligeably, arms still semi extended as if he couldn't bend them at all, still trying to walk ahead. Tarria holding his hand only had as result that some of the wet bandages were unwrapping.

"Did you find the room? There was this tank where I think this thi... patient came from. I'm not entirely convinced he's alive, despite the movement," Sullivan grimaced, keeping her distance from but walking parallel to the others. A battle between her fear and her desire to help waged on. Finally, one side emerged victorious.

"Oh fine," Lilith exhaled loudly, speaking mostly to herself. "Do you need help, Tarria? What can I do?"

"Yes," Tarria replied. "We may have to help the patient get to sickbay, the bandages are blinding him and this sticky goo is preventing him from walking right."

Turning at the sound of Lilith's voice, the bandaged creature started towards the other woman. His movements were stiff and uncoordinated as if he had no sense of direction whatsoever. Moaning and groaning, he all but hugged her as he tried to walk through her.

"Aww," Tarria said, "He must like you."

Discomfort etched in her features, Sullivan fought to stifle the swear words building behind her lips. A displeased grunt would have to do as she held the "patient" off at arm's length. "Yeah, well," she muttered, mitigating the smell by taking short breaths, "unrequited love's a bore, sorry buddy. More importantly, how are we going to get him out of here and get him to medical attention?"

Tarria looked around a moment. "Good question, we need a working turbo lift. That's for sure. Power seems to be low on this deck. So maybe there is working turbo lift on the other side. We do have to make a little strole over the deck." She wasn't too scared to get her hands dirty so she gently guide the patient in a new direction.

---

Crewman Apprentice Stef
Resident Zombie
pnpc Lhaes

Lieutenant Lilith Sullivan
Chief Flight Control Officer

Tarria
Bar/lounge manager