Subliminal Propaganda Zombification

Just for the heck of it..

"Space, the final frontier..."

"Shut up, Dewey," Buddy answered for the crew as they orbited out of the space station's gravity field.  His heart was heavy for the mission.  It always was when he had to go back to Earth.

"Ah, Chief.  You know it wouldn't be the same if I didn't say it," Dewey reflected, a bluish cast across his face from the computer screen.  He grinned, the stud in his nose sparkling.  "Now, you are gonna give the date-Star Date Twenty Seventy-Two...and we're all gonna say sayounara to this s**t-hole rust bucket for a couple of weeks."

"Watch your language, there, Drew," Buddy said sternly, his eyebrows knitting together.  "There's a lady present."

"Sorry, sor-" he began.

"This lady could out cuss Dewey in two seconds, Captain," Santana Del Artinez, or Goldie to her friends, shot back from her passenger seat.  She flipped her long brown braid behind the seat and hit the thruster controls. 

"My mama always said watch your mouth around the ladies, even if the ladies aren't much good at being ladies," Buddy explained once again to his crew.  "And I will honor her memory by doing just what she taught me."

"Yeah, yeah," Goldie laughed.  "Let's get this clunker going."

"Sure do wish I could watch a Star Trek," Dewey mused.

"Shut up, Dewey."  This time Goldie chimed in with Buddy.

*****

Throughout the course of mankind's history, a catastrophe of epic proportions was always just around the corner.  The Carrington Event signaled the end of the world in 1859.  In the year 2000, the Y2K bug was to humble the masses.  2012 marked the end of the Mayan calendar and therefore the end of time.  World War III raged in 2011, but finally ended in 2014.  Every year a new disaster was narrowly diverted, and just as the years before, 2045 held special significance to the world.  An asteroid the size of Italy bounced its way towards Earth, eager to crash into the planet's soft surface and grind its way merrily to her core.  For three years the military and the world's top scientists knew of the asteroid's existence and its collision course with Earth.  They worked day and night to find a solution to their sizeable problem, and two weeks before it entered the atmosphere, they came up with an answer.  And as a backup plan, they had Skylab.

Skylab was built in the late 1990s.  Ten years after it's birth came Skylab A, then Skylab B.  Each new space station was better and more technologically savvy than the last.  In 2033 the latest two Skylabs were all dismantled in favor of a new space station that could hold three hundred thousand occupants.  In order to regain some of the spent money, over half of the space station was converted into a one of a kind hotel for the elite, each room with it's own rotating view of Earth.  The original Skylab was considered space junk and not worth the money it would cost to haul it in, and was left in space to orbit whatever moon it could find.

The United States and China funded the new space station, named AlTerra.  Complete with Artificial Intelligence staff, AlTerra was top of the line.  There were two 3D movie theaters on the bottom floor and three on the top, twenty-nine swimming pools, three malls, fifty-four restaurants and four driving tracks.  AlTerra was a behemoth, even in space.  Korea, Iceland and Japan each created their own stations, but none were comparable to AlTerra.  Twelve years later, AlTerra was still number one, it's manufacturers confident with each revision to stay ahead of everyone else. 

When the asteroid was discovered by Drew 'Dewey' Daniel's father, the military was not worried.  The scientists would figure it was a mistake, it would miss Earth by mere inches, they said.  But after countless hours of running scenarios all coming back with the same answer, the scientists were sure Earth was in trouble.  And so began their own private mission.  AlTerra was full, but somewhere, Skylab sat empty and running on fumes.

Skylab could hold twelve hundred bodies.  Nothing like AlTerra, but it was only needed for the scientists and certain military.  At most, one thousand would need to be escorted to the space station.  The military began its hunt for the once considered space junk, and after only a year and a half, located it.

Space, they discovered, was big.

The remodels began as soon as possible.  The scientists assured the military only bare essentials would be necessary, their stay would not be that long.  Four months, tops.  Just to be certain any major catastrophes would be over on Earth.  If, that was to say, they would need the hulk at all.  No entertainment, no nanobots, no artificial intelligence.  Food rations, water rations and air rations were they only things loaded onto Skylab.  This wasn't going to be a vacation, after all.

With two weeks left before the Earth was to be bombarded with outer space rocks, Skylab was full to the brim with rations.  No one asked any questions, and only a few were told answers.  The mission finished as covertly as possible for the military.  And then two scientists discovered the asteroid's weakness, and set hurried plans into action.  Luckily for Earth, the hurried plans worked, the asteroid was diverted, and Skylab was once again forgotten.

*****

"Good job, everybody," Buddy automatically chimed when the ship was a safe distance away from Skylab.  "Let's set this baby on autopilot and head to Earth."

"I'm going to head to the loading dock, Captain," Goldie said as she clicked the last button and pulled off her safety belt.  "I want to double check my weapons inventory."  She slid fluidly from her seat and bounced to the artificial gravity lever.  "Hold on, people."

A whoosh resounded through the dark room as gravity kicked in and objects collided with the floor, seats and Dewey's desk.  He grabbed for the miscellaneous tablets as they began to inch silently towards the edge, cursing under his breath.

"Careful now, Dewey," Goldie said, making her way around him.  She wrapped her braided hair into a ponytail perched high atop her head.  "You know, velcro has been around for close to a hundred years."

"You know, velcro, blahblahblahblah," Dewey mocked her.  "I hate the noise it makes when you rip the two pieces apart.  Sets my toes to quivering."  He explained more when she questioned him with a raised eyebrow.  "Like fingernails on a chalkboard?  You know."

"Sure Dewey.  Whatever you say."

*****

Santana Del Artinez and Drew Daniels were both born off world.  For Goldie and Dewey, this trip to Earth was their first.  To them, Earth was just a rock and all rocks look the same.  Buddy, however, lived his first sixteen years on Earth.  He wished the planet was still hospitable.  He would give up stale recycled air for the real thing any day.

"Watch the wheel, would ya Bowers?" Buddy called over his shoulder.  No response, but he wasn't expecting one.  Bowers didn't speak.  Big and black with platinum hair, Bowers was the brawn.  As far as Buddy knew, he had never spoken.  Hell, as far as Buddy knew, Bowers wasn't his real name.  But he was good in a fight and Buddy was more concerned with backup than with Bowers' history.

The crew had a few hours to kill before they arrived on what was left of Earth and Buddy wanted to be certain his crew knew what they were getting into.  He followed Goldie to the loading dock.

"What's up, Buddy?" Goldie asked when the heavy steel door slid open. 

Buddy closed the gap between them in three quick strides and pulled her close to him, breathing in her scent.  "I'm your Captain on the ship," he answered.

She laughed; a raw, rough cough from deep within her.  "Well, you're not acting like a Captain right now."

"You're right."  He lowered his lips to hers and kissed her tenderly, his hand rubbing the small of her back absently.  "I want you to be careful," he said after he pulled away.

"I always am," she replied.

"This isn't the same as those fake missions they train you with while filling your head with lies."  The vein above his temple throbbed angrily.  "I've been to Earth.  Before and after.  It's not pleasant."

"Buddy," she said and sighed quietly, "I'm rechecking the weapons, I've brought double what we need.  What else do you want from me?"  Her own face was beginning to flush.

"I wish you hadn't volunteered," he said.

"Well, I did and now I'm here.  You got something else to talk about?"

He stared at her for a moment, her anger giving her skin a glow in the dim cargo area.  "Yeah.  I came to help, so you could get this job done."

"All right, then.  Let's get to it."

They finished an hour later and before she could make her way to the door Buddy found a soft spot between three weapons crates.  He pulled her to the floor, their bodies hidden by semi automatic weapons, grenade launchers and EMP guns.

*****

"I want to give a debriefing," Buddy said as he snapped his pants together.  "You need to be there too."

Goldie slid her shirt over her head.  "I hate debriefings."

"Yeah, well this one may save your life.  Report to the bridge as soon as you can."  He opened the heavy door and left as she continued getting dressed.

*****

By 2050, entertainment was the hottest commodity.  Gone were plasma television sets, wireless computers and bulky DVD players.  Born in the midst of technological wars came the 4DSEC, short for Four Dimensions of Solid Entertainment Console.  The projections were life size, complete with wind and smell for the viewer.  Video games made a massive comeback and throes of couch potatoes flocked to the stores to buy one.  Sold relatively cheap, within six months nine out of ten households had one.

In 2051, the entertainment moguls decided the risk was too great to expect people to buy their equipment.  A few thoughts were jokingly brought to light about subliminal messaging, and the failed first attempts in the 1970s.  Rock stars coded secret messages in their songs and vendors used the idea to boost sales of certain concession stand items, none of which did any good.  What began as a joke soon became an idea, and that idea led to a possibility.  S.E.M.'s, or Subconscious Encoded Messaging was born.  Nanobots would help the viewer 'see' the hidden message, and trigger a desire to purchase whatever the message told them.  With 4D technology, the messages could be layered so the subject would receive several messages at once, and still charge per commercial.  The FDA had no set standards which left the entertainment industry open for business as they saw fit.  Plans were drawn and the first tests were implemented.

The original test subjects, Mary and Geoffrey, passed with spectacular outcomes.  There was no animal testing, as the subjects had to be literate.  For thirty days the two were kept under close surveillance to watch for any type of reaction, and none came.  When the industry felt it had waited long enough they released the two back into the populace.  And for the record, nothing was actually wrong with either of them.

Four months later, after the testing was considered successful the first nationwide S.E.M.'s were launched in the premiere showing of Space Zombies.  A small target audience was needed to receive funding, and the low budget film seemed ideal.  The idea was simple.  Nanobots were piped through the air vents, with the crowd sucking them up by the handfuls.  Four shots of hungry viewers were shown, quickly followed by hamburgers, pork chops, baked chicken and salad.  A slogan was added, Hungry? Eat us! and the moguls sat behind their colossal desks in their plush chairs and waited.

The results came quickly.

Newspapers and reporters covered the stories in every state the movie was shown.  Lines were formed in the supermarkets with hungry patrons arguing over who got the last cut of chicken.  Within hours of the movie and the S.E.M.'s release, the meat and lettuce in every grocery store in the area was sold.  Once again, the moguls saw this as a success and began to prepare for the second stage of their plans. 

They released more S.E.M.'s in the blockbuster movies, excited at the prospect of fattening their wallets.  The men in the white lab coats proved hunger, sex and violence were the best way a message would enter the subject's mind so they kept the original slogan, Hungry? Eat us!  When the public was finally made aware of the S.E.M.'s, thousands more flocked to the theaters just to see if their minds would react to the messages.  Soon, it became a nationwide contest to guess what the message was about.  Japan, Korea and England caught on quickly and mass produced their own S.E.M.'s.  It was the latest and greatest in technology, patented by the entertainers.

*****

The tiny mess hall was just large enough to hold Buddy, Goldie and Dewey.  Bowers stayed in the cockpit as he already knew the dangers.  Lights blinked on cold steel consoles mounted against the walls and somewhere a refrigerator hummed.  No updated technology existed on the remodeled ship.  It was strictly a cargo vessel for AlTerra.  At least, it once was.  The crew gathered around Buddy in the cramped space to listen to and heed his just warnings.  Everyone wanted to come back the same as they had left.

*****

After several months of subliminal bombardment to thousands of nanobots in each person's body, the nanobots reacted.  As with any technology, it becomes outdated.  Nanobots were designed to self update every three months.  If new S.E.M.'s were reachable to the public, they would update accordingly.  The first problem with an update occurred approximately seven months after the successful release of Space Zombies.

The self updating nanobots were also programmed to become self preserving.  They began to mutate, and as they mutated, the subliminal messages became hard wired instructions.  No one is certain why the slogan Hungry? Eat us! persevered, although a rumor was leaked after the initial mutation that as a joke, one line in the S.E.M.'s was 'I'm a zombie.'  The rumor was never verified, but the outcome pushed the rumor closer to truth.

Ronnie White sat at his breakfast table, pushing a mess of scrambled eggs across his plate when the nanobots mutated inside his brain.  Their electrodes sank deep into his frontal lobe and ripped away his free will.  He turned to his wife, who complained the entire time they watched Space Zombies and proceeded to fork her right cheek.  She screamed in terror and pain before Ronnie pulled his fork free and sunk it deep into her neck.  Then she screamed no more.  His plate of eggs forgotten, he dug out the tender flesh and began to eat her as his breakfast.

Alba Jerry was another horror fanatic, and was first in line to see Space Zombies.  Her nanobots played havoc with her brain as she sat down for lunch in the high school cafeteria.  She managed to break two fingers of her best friend's hand while attempting to suck off her nose before security was able to subdue her with tasers.  As she lay in a bloody heap, her friend in hysterics and vomiting beside her, another teen, Calvin Riden, attacked two teachers and the janitor before sprinting outside and scaling the fence.  The school closed for the rest of the day.

Across the United States, people of all ages were changing.  They attacked the closest person to them whether it was stranger, friend or foe.  Panic spread throughout the world.  It didn't take long for the public to realize the S.E.M.'s changed agendas, and began turning people into zombies.  They demanded an answer and a solution from the moguls. 

The bigwigs in the entertainment industry issued a statement clearing them of all wrongdoing, and instead blamed the scientists who made the nanobots.  Because the nanobots were self preserving, they self mutated and somehow changed into zombie nanobots.  Soon, they were known as zombots.  Within weeks the entire world was affected and it seemed the zombots were spreading at an exponentially increasing rate.  Earth hunkered down and waited for the government to take care of the situation.

The problem, the government scientists soon realized, was that not everyone who became a zombie saw a movie with the S.E.M.'s implanted.  There was another way the zombots were infecting healthy people.  A bite, a sneeze, or a hard blow was all it took for the zombots to move from person to person.  It was a technological savvy common cold.  Masks were issued to the public, while the government continued to wear full body hazmat suits.  Towns were torched to stop the possible spread of contamination along with the residents. 

Not long after the second outbreak, the governments realized there was no destroying this cold.  They began sectioning off the areas least affected and attempted to keep the human race alive.  A single nanobot could reproduce and destroy a person's frontal lobe anywhere from two hours to two months after being infected.  EMPs had no effect on the zombots, nor did radiation.  As a last resort, the zombot's host was killed, but even that didn't stop them.  The zombot's simply kept firing electrons through the brain of the dead.  In some cases the host was beheaded but the zombots pulled the head to the body and stitched the nerves back together.  The only way to destroy the host was by burning, but it was soon discovered that sent the zombots through the air.  Finally, it was decided Earth was a disaster zone and it was time to make other arrangements for the noninfected.

*****

"Are you fricken shitting me?  I heard all the stories before and know the warnings, but...s**t.  It's different when you're headed there."  Dewey's eyes were bright, but not with fear.  "Can I shoot one?"

Buddy held his temper only by biting his inner cheek.  "Hopefully, Dewey, we won't run into any.  But if we do, don't shoot.  Behead them.  It'll buy you a few seconds...and any amount of time is a blessing."

His crew was quiet, which meant they were listening.  Buddy continued, "The hazmat suits run on rebreathers.  They are supposed to be safe...but one never knows.  The only, and this is important guys, the only symptom is a metallic taste, like blood, in the back of the throat.  If you taste that, you have at max two minutes before you're a zombie.  I want you to stop whatever it is you are doing and let the person you are with aware of your situation.  We will be moving in teams of two.  The area is supposed to be secure, but once again, one never knows.  We should be arriving in another hour, so check your suits and get your gear from Goldie, Dewey.  I want to be ready when we hit that rock."

A red light flickered above the doorway, Bowers' signal for turbulence ahead.  The crew and Buddy headed back to the cockpit.

"Space junk, people.  Buckle up," Buddy announced.

*****

The space junk was from AlTerra, when it was in working order.  After the outbreak on Earth, people shuttled to AlTerra, the obvious plan to live out their lives.  But the zombots made their way there as well, and within a week everyone was dead, dying or undead.  Thousands of scientists were killed before the world realized what happened, and at least three unmanned shuttles made their way to AlTerra before the spacestation was declared inhospitable.  When the zombots ran out of living hosts to survive in, they mutated again and attacked the artificial intelligence of AlTerra.  Now, twenty years later, it was a ticking time bomb of zombies.  The zombots raging through AlTerra were estimated in the hundreds of billions, and a wide belt of no fly zone was issued for safety.  Slowly AlTerra was eating herself just as the hungry snake ate its own tail.  The space junk was proof.

The only saving grace for the human race was a small, outdated and long forgotten space station called Skylab.  By the time the government became aware of the true damage to the population, the United States barely had half a million non-infected people left, and most of those were fanatics.  Once again the men in white constructed a plan.

Only a handful of the populace could be transported to Skylab, the rest had to stay on Earth.  Rotating shifts were considered, but in the end an old fashioned drawing was held to see who would live off world.  Of course, certain political figures, government agents and scientists were automatically moved, but there was still room for close to nine hundred bodies.  Dewey's father was one of the scientists, along with Buddy's mother as a government agent that left in the first shuttle.  Goldie's family was picked in the drawing and Bowers was discovered by Buddy on a previous mission still on Earth.  Twenty years later and Skylab was becoming cramped.  It was time to find an answer for the zombots that worked.

*****

"We are about to hit atmosphere, Capt'n," Dewey said, his nose close to the monitor.

"All right crew.  T-minus fifteen minutes.  Everyone ready?" A quiet murmur issued around him and he glanced to his right at Goldie.  Her eyes were wide with adrenaline as the front of the shuttle began to turn orange then red from friction.  Earth loomed in front of them, silent and deadly.  Buddy's heart jumped once, twice as he remembered his teenage years when the world was civil and then the quick turning of the populace.  His girlfriend was one of the originals. 

She had begged Buddy to watch Space Zombies until he finally broke down and agreed.  The opening night and two hours before they were to leave he came down with a stomach virus.  He convinced his girlfriend to go on and take a friend to see the movie, silently happy he was going to miss it.  Zombies weren't exactly his cup of tea.  She turned, he didn't, and because of that Buddy blamed himself for her misfortune.

The landing area came into view as nothing more than a small grey dot in front of them.  Buddy hit the thrusters to slow their descent.  The dot grew and became a square of asphalt with thick concrete walls surrounding it.  To the left of the square was a school with boarded windows and a rusted playground that at one time held children. 

"Brace for impact...three...two...one..." Buddy unbuckled his lap belt after the slight jolt from landing.  The craft was dead center in the concrete square and no one had come to greet them yet.  "Dewey, watch for movement.  Goldie, you're with me.  Bowers, you wait on Dewey."

The hazmat suits were worn but still useable.  Buddy slid into his and zipped up the back with an attached length of cord.  Goldie held his rebreather in position while he snapped it in place.  In turn, he helped Goldie into hers, and they both pushed Bowers into his.

"You're too damned big, Bowers," Goldie huffed.  Bowers smiled, his missing front tooth noticeable.

"Okay, check your air.  We'll test outside.  If its clear, we can all take a deep breath of real air," Buddy ordered.

"Except me!" Dewey yelled from the cockpit.  "I wanna breathe real air too!"

"You're a computer nut, Dewey.  Since when have you ever wanted to leave a computer screen?" Goldie countered, her voice tinny from the suit and stale air.

"...since now..." Dewey paused for a moment.  "All's clear up here, Capt'n."

Buddy took a deep breath, his lungs ready for clean, fresh air.  It wasn't just the rebreathers that made the air taste metallic and stale.  He had noticed it in Skylab and in the ship.  All the air was going bad in space.  "Remember, we're here to collect and report.  Don't go sightseeing."  He felt along his pocket, finding a familiar button and pushing it.  Static ran across the air waves bound by a circular pattern.  Bowers grunted.

"What's that?" Goldie asked.

"My tunes," he replied, his voice clear over the background hiss.  A slap of music began accompanied by horns.  Bowers' head began to bob in time to the music.

Tell me doctor, where are we goin' this time?

"What is that?" Goldie asked again, her voice clearly agitated.

"Huey Lewis and the News." 

Take me away, I don't mind.

"It helps me prepare." Buddy shrugged.  "Besides, Bowers likes it." 

But you better promise me, I'll be back in time.

Bowers hit the code to open the door.  Goldie holstered her weapons as Bowers swung onto asphalt, his own guns at the ready.

*****

The apocalypse came and went in the year 2052.  Done in not by earthquakes, floods, asteroids or fire, mankind was destroyed by its own creations and possibly someone's idea of a joke.  The people that were called in the drawing left Earth with a longing nothing could satisfy, and the people that stayed wished they could go.  More people were infected daily, until many fled to more secure locations and erected small townships, most underground.

One such location was an asphalt and concrete square, no more than sixty feet wide.  A corrugated metal hut stood in one corner, with a steel keypad set into the concrete on the left of the door.  Scientists and mechanics worked side by side to man the derelict computers that kept what was left of the United States in contact with Skylab.  The area was quiet underground as the computers blinked silently in the dark, awaiting instructions.

Two fingers, crooked and bloody slammed into one of the keyboards.  Another blink and the screen went black, plunging the room into darkness.

*****

Buddy waited anxiously for the two words he wanted to hear from Dewey.  Thirty feet stood between him and the metal corrugated hut, and he wanted more than anything in that moment to walk those thirty feet breathing fresh air.  He stood in silence, not wanting anything to interrupt Dewey's announcement.  Finally a hiss sneaked into his ear.

"Air's good," Dewey said.

Buddy sighed, his heart suddenly twenty pounds lighter.  "Get your suit on, Dewey, and get out here."  He ripped at the mask and breathed deep, inhaling fresh air and foul odors at the same time.  Goldie wrinkled her nose and placed her mask back across her nose.

"Just give it a minute.  You'll get used to the smell," Buddy prodded.

"It stinks."

"It doesn't stink.  It smells.  Something you don't get up in space or on a ship.  It's not filtered, it's real," he continued.

"It stinks."

"It does stink, Capt'n," Dewey agreed.  He jumped down from the ship and joined Bowers.

"Fine, it stinks."  Buddy sighed.  "Let's just get inside."

The day was a storybook beautiful day.  White fluffy clouds of cotton floated on a cartoon blue background, with a wind promising spring.  The only thing missing was animal noise.  No birds chirped, no crickets sang and no dogs barked lazily.  There was nothing but silence.  Most of the animals died not long after the initial outbreak.  Not from the nanobots themselves, they could only work with human DNA.  Zombot reflexes were quick and their aim was sure.  They grew hungry and when there were few humans left, they began feeding on any animal they could find. 

*****

The odor grew stronger as they moved deeper underground.  Buddy thought hard, but could not remember if the cloying smell hidden beneath the staleness of the purified air was there before.  Grey met grey in a long narrow hallway as the steps finally gave way to horizontal floor.  The lights flickered and threatened to die like their brothers.

"Where is everyone?" Goldie asked.  "Is it always this quiet, Captain?"

Buddy shook his head.  "No.  Something's wrong.  Watch out."

Bowers moved to the front, his blonde hair green in the dim fluorescents.  He signaled to Buddy, then pulled Dewey down another dark hallway.  Goldie continued straight until they came to a set of glass double doors.  She looked at Buddy for confirmation.

He nodded, his heart thudding heavily in his chest.  They were going in blind because of the frosted glass and every nerve in his body told him to turn around and leave.  She slid against the wall, guns drawn and waited.

The steel handle was slick in Buddy's sweat soaked gloved hand.  He grabbed the handle twice before he had a firm grip.  Taking a deep breath, he swung the door open and stepped inside.  Goldie followed.  At first Buddy could see nothing.  The lights were dead in the laboratory, and with only a few computer monitors working the room was swathed in darkness.  As his eyes adjusted, however, he began to make out the hulking shapes of outdated computers, desks and chairs.  They walked the rows back to back, searching for people but finding none.  When they circled the room and returned to the doors, Buddy felt confident there was no one with them.

"Stand guard," he whispered.  "I'm going to look around."  Goldie nodded, her eyes wide but calm. 

Papers carpeted the linoleum around the partition surrounding several computers at the center of the room.  Buddy made his way to the computers, their monitors glowing a bright blue.  He glanced back at Goldie, then hurtled the low wall. 

*****

Coffee cups littered the floor amongst piles of paper.  A half eaten Danish lay undisturbed on a paper plate, its filling congealed.  Two rows of computers sat in a semicircle, all facing one large screen, now ripped and dark.  Buddy moved quickly between the rows, hunting for a computer that worked. 

"Capt'n!" Dewey's voice whispered urgently in his ear.  Buddy lifted his gun, almost squeezing the trigger as he swatted at his ear.  He had forgotten about his earpiece.  Unfortunately his mic was in his helmet, which was with Goldie at the door.  He could only listen and wait.

"Capt'n!  Oh, god, where are you?"  Buddy bit the backs of his lips.  He looked for Goldie, but she was watching the door.  "I need help...I'm lost.  Bowers left me!  He just ran away..."  His voice was full of desperation.

A working hum came from the computer when Buddy swatted the power button.  He wanted to find Dewey, but knew he had to warn Skylab first.  The mission was a bust.  They would have to find a new drop zone, maybe from the Koreans or Russia. 

The glass door exploded.  Buddy watched as glass rained around Goldie, her arms crooked and protecting her head but never letting go of her gun.  She turned and sprayed the doorway with bullets, a scream tearing from her throat.  Buddy jumped the partition and ran towards her, his legs pumping with adrenaline.

"There's nothing!" she yelled.  Her hair was plastered around her face from sweat and her mask began fogging.

"Quit breathing so hard!" Buddy ordered.  "You're not going to be able to see!"  His eyes swept the area around the door but she was right, no one was there.

A low growl carried its way through the air to the right of the room.  Buddy stared into the darkness of the hallway but could not see any movement.  "We need to leave, now," he said quietly, taking her elbow.  "Get on the com and tell Bowers and Dewey to meet us at the ship."  He pushed her slowly away from the noise.  There still was no movement but the tremor of the growl was growing.

"D****t.  How many do you think there are?" she asked, her eyes now on the hall in front of them, watching the doors to either side.

"Too many to count.  Tell Bowers and Dewey to get to the ship," he ordered again.  He turned his back to her and watched the way they came.  The growling now held snippets of teeth gnashing, with the numbers growing.  A fleeting glimpse of his past surfaced, and he was ten again, still on Earth.  He wandered down a back alley and came across a rabid dog.  The sounds of the dog snapping at him with foam dripping from its muzzle filled his ears.  If they could keep quiet perhaps they could make it outside and back to the ship.

"No answer from Dewey or Bowers," Goldie said.

"Maybe they're already out-"

A wail comparable only to a banshee issued from a darkened doorway to Buddy's left.  He turned as a creature flung itself towards Goldie, grabbing her mask with its bloodied and broken fingers.  She screamed and emptied her clip into its belly, dark liquid spraying her suit, but it continued to claw at her face.  The mask caved in as Buddy pulled the trigger to his own gun.  The top half of what once was a scientist's head flew against the wall and stuck to it like a dirty toupee.  The rest of the creature fell to the ground, twitching.

Just as a loud noise would set off a skittish dog, the growls turned into snapping and wails as the zombies ran towards Buddy and Goldie.

"Run!"

*****

The stairwell was in sight.  Dozens of men and women, now nothing more than living dead creatures, gnashed at Goldie and Buddy's heels.  They were fast, and mowing them down with Goldie's weapons weren't slowing them down enough.  They came from every direction, their teeth bared and many of their bones broken from fights between them.  The nanobots were becoming smarter.  Rumors flew on Skylab at the potential the nanobots actually had.  Buddy was seeing it firsthand.

Goldie reached the door first, throwing herself into it.  "The code, Buddy!  I need the code!"  Her helmets was lying against her back, the hazmat suit a bloody green.

"4-4-8-5-6!" he yelled between shots.  A buzzer sounded.  She had missed a number.

"Shhhhhiiiiiiiitttttt!" she screamed, wiping her hands on her suit and trying again.  Buddy was halfway up the stairs, the creatures only a few steps below him.  He shot two in the head and watched as they fell to the ground, and then was revived a few seconds later.  The mass grew closer together and small fights broke out between them.

A hiss resonated through the chamber and light shown through the open door.  Goldie ran through and was waiting for Buddy on the other side.  "Shut it!  Shut it!" he bellowed, his foot barely passed the door.  She pushed it shut as the first few made their way to the top of the stairs, their hands reaching around the door.  Buddy helped her and when the door shut, fingers to several hands fell to the ground. 

They stood against the metal hut for a moment, absorbing what had just happened.  Goldie's suit was covered in blood, her hair straggly around her sweating face.  Buddy knew he was sweating as well, but his suit seemed clean.

"You need to get out of that suit.  We can't risk contamination.  We've got to hurry."  She nodded and stepped away from the door.  "You okay?" Buddy asked.

"Yeah.  Sure.  Just, you know.  Scared shitless right now.  I've never seen a damn zombie before, let alone have one jump on me."  She stopped.  "Oh, s**t.  Am I contaminated?  I mean, my mask-"

Buddy shook his head.  "No.  If the zombots had gotten to you, you'd already be one."  He unzipped her suit and pushed it carefully to the ground so she could step out.  "I think your suit got the most of it.  Let's just get back on the ship."

"Bowers, Dewey..."

"We can't go back in."  They moved away from the corrugated hut towards the ship, their guns at the ready.

"You FRIGGIN' left me!"  Dewey lurched from behind the ship's loading platform and grabbed Goldie's forearm.

"S**t, Dewey.  You almost lost your head," she countered, slinging her gun to the side.  "I tried calling you.  Your com must be out."

"Dewey, you okay?" Buddy asked, carefully pulling Goldie to the side.  Dewey turned his attention to Buddy, his pupils black and dilated.

"You left me, Chief," he sobbed.  "It was dark in there...and the noises...slurping and growling..."

Buddy backed away slowly taking Goldie with him.  "Where's your suit, Drew?"

"I LOST IT! I LOST IT IN THE DARK!  I TOLD YOU-" His eyes fixed on Goldie's gun and suddenly he leapt through the air, higher than humanly possible.  Goldie fell to the ground, her rifle blocking his mouth as Dewey scrambled on top of her.  She belted him quickly in the face, breaking his jaw, but he continued his attack.  Buddy ran to her and grabbed Dewey by the shoulders, trying to wrestle him off.  He was strong, much stronger than the one-hundred-pound-soaking-wet Dewey Buddy knew, and he clung to Goldie as if his life depended on it.

Bowers appeared from the depths of the ship and ran straight towards them.  He whipped his hand to the side as he passed what was Dewey and quickly drew it back to him, wrapping a steel wire around Dewey's neck.  It sunk through the flesh quickly and Dewey's head rolled to the side, his broken maw snapping open and closed.  The body fell the opposite way and Goldie pushed herself backwards quickly to get away.  Buddy watched in horror as the body twitched for a moment and then began to crawl sideways, hunting for its head.

"Let's go, let's go let's go!" Buddy cried, hauling Goldie to her feet and running to the ship.  She jumped inside in front of him as he turned for Bowers.  "Bowers!"

Bowers shook his head and held out his arm.  An ugly, red wound ran deep into his arm.  He had been bitten.  Buddy hesitated only a moment before slapping the hydraulics button for the door.  He ran to the cockpit and saw Bowers had already prepared for their departure.  The ship was warm and ready.

"Buckle up, Goldie.  It's time to go!"  He slammed into the captain's chair and reached for launch lever.  In front of him stood Bowers, guns to the side and waiting for the mob that was quickly breaking through the corrugated hut.  His blonde hair glowed in the dying light as he began to shoot the creatures leaping towards him.  Buddy pulled hard on the lever.  Bowers glanced back and watched the ship leave the Earth.  He shot two more, then turned the gun on himself.

*****

When the mob became a speck behind Buddy, he began to relax.  The controls were set, it was only a matter of hours before they were back to Skylab.  Someone else would have to make the trip soon to refill supplies.  None of Buddy's crew was able to.  He leaned his head against the neck rest, closing his eyes.  Half his team.  He lost half his team on a routine mission.

"Damn," he muttered.  He wiped at his mouth.  "Goldie, let's get Skylab on the com, I want to brief them before showing up."

Goldie was silent.  Buddy turned in his seat check on her, but she wasn't behind him.

"Goldie?"

He rechecked the auto-pilot and stood up, staring into the gloom.  He was alone.

"Goldie?"  One of her Desert Eagles lay on Dewey's desk.  He picked it up and moved further into the ship.  The mess hall, the bunks and the small entertainment room were all clear, leaving only the cargo area.  He checked her clip-all the bullets were there.

The door opened on silent hydraulics and Buddy stepped inside.  His eyes swept the room and on first glance, the room was empty.  He began a sweep of the room on his right, moving slowly with the wall to his back.  He found her braced against a carton, crying. 

"Hey, hey.  It's okay," he murmured, dropping to his knees beside her.  He swiped away her tears without thinking and pulled her to him.

When she pushed away, he let go.  She hid her face, drooping her head, until he reached out and lifted her chin.  Buddy looked into her eyes and noticed her pupils were dilated.  She grabbed his arm, her mouth hanging open.  A scream split the silence of the ship and Buddy winced involuntarily.  She bit down on his reaching fingers, her teeth slicing cleanly through the two middle ones.  His scream of pain joined hers and for a moment Buddy could almost make out words in her wail.  The zombots were mutating again and becoming smarter.  He yanked away from her, running towards the door.  He had to warn Skylab.  He had to reset the autopilot to take them back to Earth.

She screeched again and came after him.  He slid through the door a split second before it closed and engaged the lock. 

He made it to the cockpit as the taste of blood boiled up his throat.  His legs began to fight against him as he lurched into his chair.  The zombots were working quickly on him, he was certain.  His arms grew heavy.  He grabbed for the auto-pilot lever and pushed with all his might.

It didn't move.

Goldie stood in the doorway, her face shadowed in blue light.  She pulled her head up and focused on him with her glazed eyes.  She smiled, her grin crooked and out of place. 

"We...are...evolving..." Her voice echoed through Buddy's head.  He wanted to cover his ears, but his arms would no longer move.  Realization dawned on him as the zombots overtook what little was left of his brain.  The voice was inside his head.  Her mouth hadn't moved.

They were adapting.

She moved towards him, shuffling as her body adjusted to its new commands.  He noticed her movements, though jerky, were more human-like than before. 

They were adapting, and his ship was headed directly to Skylab.

She screamed again, only this time an answering wail screeched inside the small ship.  His mind continued to shut down and in his final moments he realized the scream was coming from him.

His lips turned upward in a gruesome grin, matching Goldie's.