Gladiator

by Barry Solway

  The three zombies were in between the robots and Beast, who slightly blocked the way. As the zombies bent over Riley, they had allowed Jeff, Jon, Nick and Evan to surround them. Everyone stood there, no one wanting to move first. Suddenly Jeff stepped forward and punched one of the zombies hard across the jaw. The zombie’s head snapped sideways, then he glared at Jeff. One side of his lower jaw hung at an odd angle.

  Jeff took a step back. “Damn,” he swore. “Get them!”

  Jon dived in trying to tackle the zombie and drag him to the ground. As bad as they looked, the zombies were incredibly strong. The one Jon tried to tackle easily picked Jon up and threw him against the wall. Evan and Nick waded in and drug the man down. While they were strong, they still had horrible balance and weren’t particularly good at fighting. Still it was taking three of the boys to hold down just one zombie.

  Mel scrambled backwards and stood up. She had agreed with Jeff to stay out of the way of the fighting, but in either case, she was more concerned about the robots than the zombies. Jon was back on his feet fighting solo with the woman zombie and not doing very well. The third zombie had grabbed Nick from behind and was trying to squeeze his head. Screaming in obvious pain, Nick flailed as he tried to fight it off.

  The robots skittered backwards, trying to get a shot at the boys, but the zombies were in the way. Gorgeous stepped sideways, away from Beast, heading towards the robots and drawing the attention of one of them. That’s when Beast moved.

  He shot in and grabbed the zombie that was attacking Nick. Yankeing the zombie away, he threw it at one of the robots. The zombie slammed into the robot, sending both of them backwards. An arc of electricity shot from the spear, but it hit the ceiling. The zombie landed with a sound like a too ripe tomato being thrown against the wall. Riley and Beast had found a weapon.

  The second insect robot pivoted to fire at Beast, but Gorgeous jumped in. The robot pivoted to Gorgeous, then back to fire a quick shot at Beast. It missed by feet, then turned back to fire at Gorgeous. As Gorgeous backpedaled to get away, Beast grabbed a fourth zombie and threw it at the second robot.

  Mel did a double take. Where did the fourth zombie come from?

  Evan and Nick sat on the first zombie while Jeff kept punching his face. The zombie flailed, landing hard blows on Jeff and Nick, but Mel thought they had it under control. But Jon was struggling with the woman zombie. She had fallen and he was sitting on her chest, but she still kept punching him in the face. He tried to swat her hands away and land punches of his own, but it didn’t seem to be having much effect.

  Mel darted in next to Jon. “You’re being too nice. Move out of the way,” she snapped. Jon leaned backwards, still pinning the woman to the ground as Mel drew back her leg and kicked the woman in the head. Her head snapped sideways, then lolled back. She tried to grab Mel’s leg, but Mel jerked her leg back and kicked the woman again. The woman’s eyes were bulging now and her tongue hung out of her mouth. Blood dripped down the side of her head from a cut and Mel could see a lump forming on her temple. With a guttural yell, Mel drew her foot back again. She kicked the woman in the head, until she realized that Jon was yelling at her to stop. Breathing heavy, she took a startled step back from the woman, who lay motionless. Her eyes were still open, staring at them without seeing.

  Mel stomach roiled and she quickly turned away.

  Beast grabbed one of the robots and smashed it into the floor. Two of the legs had sheared off. The other robot skittered around with a gelatinous white blob on top of it. White tentacles wrapped around the legs and tail, wrenching them sideways. With a snap, a leg broke lose at one of the joints. A white tentacle oozed into the opening of the joint. A moment later, the white substance seeped out of another joint and the entire arm fell off. Seconds later, sparks flew from the empty socket and the robot collapsed to the ground.

  The fourth ‘zombie’ had been Mirage.

  Mel shook her head, trying to focus. Jeff and the first zombie. She turned back to the boys. Jeff was still punching the zombie in the face, the man looked nearly as bad as the woman. Mel looked for the third zombie, but it was crumbled against the wall, it’s head twisted the wrong way.

  “Jeff,” Mel said hoarsely, her voice barely audible. She swallowed and tried again. “Jeff, stop. Don’t kill him.” Stumbling up behind Jeff, she grabbed his fist before he could strike again. Jeff muttered under his breath, an almost crazy look in his eyes. Mel wondered if she had looked like that. Maybe she still did.

  “Don’t kill him. We need information,” she said.

  Jeff looked confused for a moment, but then nodded dumbly and slumped off the man. Crawling backwards to sit against the wall, he stared at his bloody fist. Mel wasn’t sure if the blood was Jeff’s or the zombie’s. Probably both.

  Evan had wrapped his arms around the zombies legs and was still holding on for dear life. Nick sat on the zombie’s stomach trying to hold one of the zombie’s arms down. He had clearly caught a few punches as his face was swollen and he had a bloody lip. Mel motioned for them to get off the man. The zombie sucked heavy breathes through his broken face, but his eyes had a dazed expression and his arms jerked feebly.

  Mel bent down low, trying to get the man’s attention. “Are there any more of you?” she said.

  The man gurgled some words that Mel couldn’t make out, spitting blood in the process. His jaw was so badly dislocated, Mel wondered if he would be able to speak. She put an ear close to his mouth to hear him better.

  “No. All… dead…”

  Mel nodded. “Where is the bridge? The control room?” Another wet gurgle. Mel wiped blood from her cheek. “Please. Please, you have to help us. We need to know how to take over the ship.”

  “No… Sixth door left… on left… go…” the man struggled, barely whispering the words.

  Mel drew back for a second. “The sixth door on the left? Is that the control room?”

  His breathing sounded like he was slurping a milkshake through a straw. Mel realized he was drowning in his own blood. “Get out…” he mumbled. His hand twitched as he reached for Mel’s hand, holding it with a sudden fierceness. “Thank… you…” he whispered. Three more rasping breaths then his body convulsed and went limp.

  The man’s grip on her hand was painful and Mel had to peel the fingers back to get her hand free. She wanted to cry out; wanted to run far away from this man. She shoved those parts down, focusing on the situation in front of her. They had done it. They had overcome the guards and the robots and the door was open.

  Jon leaned against the wall, throwing up. Nick looked like he might start doing the same. Jeff stared at his bloody fist. Evan stumbled over to where Mirage was disentangling herself from the robot, flowing back into her five tentacled form. Beast and Gorgeous scrounged through the wreckage of the first robot, trying to determine if any of the parts could be used as weapons.

  Mel stood. They were missing Sharon. She paused and could hear crying from one of the rooms. Mel wiped the blood from her hand on her pants then straightened.

  “Nick can you get Sharon? She’s in that room. Jeff are you okay?”

  Jeff pulled his eyes away from his fist in surprise, as if he’d forgotten the others were there. “Yeah, I’m cool,” he said. Jeff shook his head. “That dude was tough. Like he wouldn’t stop. I just kept punching him…” Jeff stood and looked around. He walked over to Beast and Gorgeous, grabbing a metal leg from Gorgeous and swinging it side to side.

  Nick looked stunned, but Mel pushed him towards Sharon’s room. “Get Sharon,” she said softly. Nick nodded dumbly but did as he was told. Mel hoped it would distract him from being sick. She bent down next to Jon. “Are you okay?”

  Jon jerked away from her, wiping his mouth. “I’m fine,” he snapped. His eyes landed on the zombie woman but he quickly averted them. “You didn’t have to smash her head in.”

  “I’m know. I lost it for a second. Thanks for stopping me.”

  Jon looked away, unable to meet Me
l’s eyes. But finally he gave a quick nod. “Yeah.”

  Mel stood as Nick and Sharon joined them. Sharon’s face was read and splotchy with tears still pouring down her cheeks. Averting the zombies, she threw herself at Jeff, burying her face in his arms. Mel thought Jeff looked annoyed, but he led Sharon out of the room into the hallway.

  “Everyone, let’s move. Get out in the hall in case the doors close,” Mel said.

  That got everyone moving. Mel helped Riley up and Gorgeous came over to help her as they had originally planned. Beast and the boys took the front, each of them welding a robot leg as a weapon. Jeff had to finally push Sharon away and Mel brought her to the back to help them with Riley. That actually turned into Gorgeous, Mel and Riley helping Sharon, but at least they were moving forward.

  Mel called out to Beast. “He said their were no more zombies, but there must be more robots, so be careful. Look for the sixth door on the left.”

  Beast nodded and they all moved into the hallway. A few minutes later they were standing in front of a door that looked identical to all the other doors in the hallway. Beast pressed the side of the door and it faded away to reveal a darkened room.

  They shuffled in, Mel and Riley bringing up the rear and the door faded closed behind her. Mel let Riley slump down against the wall to rest while her eyes adjusted to the dim red light. The room was medium sized. Against one wall were what looked like cabinets or lockers with suits hanging from them. While humanoid, the suits would clearly not fit Mel or the other humans, at least not well. The arms and legs were too long and the torso too short. Mel wondered what they were for. They looked like some kind of hazmat suit. Helmets rested on the floor under the suits. She had the sudden realization that they must be spacesuits.

  She looked around the room with a mixture of curiosity and despair. This clearly wasn’t a control room. What had the man said? No… Run…

  “Escape pods,” Evan said.

  “What?” several people said at once.

  “Over here. These hatchways lead to escape pods. Look,” Evan said, holding a circular door that he had pulled open. Unlike the other doors, this round door opened on a hinge. Beyond the door was a small tunnel a few feet long and then a round chamber like the inside of a giant ball. Three chairs were in the center and a bench with straps curved around one wall. The other wall had an angled desk with what might be a control panel, Mel wasn’t quite sure. There were cabinets under the bench and above the desk like console. The sphere would be pretty cramped with more than five people in it.

  “Are you sure?” she asked.

  Evan shrugged. “Of course not. But it seems reasonable. And the space suits are there and everything.”

  Mel turned to Beast. “Any ideas? Are these escape pods or ships or something?”

  Beast looked at Gorgeous. “I don’t know why you keep asking me these questions. I’m really not an expert on spaceships. Maybe Gorgeous knows, she’s spent more time in space all of us together.”

  Gorgeous looked inside the small sphere and shook her head. “Not sure what you mean by ‘escape pod’. Interships are used to go from one ship to another in space or to go to space stations if you can’t dock a larger ship. Space stations are like small cities, floating in space.”

  Mel nodded. “I know what a space station is. Escape pod means ‘Small pod that we can use to escape’.”

  “Escape to where? They can’t go far and are very slow. It would be easy for Kathor to catch us if we didn’t get somewhere safe quickly.”

  Mel pulled away from the sphere. “That settles it then. We need to find the bridge and take the whole ship. We would have to anyway, if we ever want to get back to Earth. As far as we know, only Kathor knows the way home.”

  “Who made you the boss?” Jon muttered.

  “What?” Mel said.

  “Screw you. We have escape pods right here, but you want to go hijack the entire ship you don’t even know how to fly. There are probably more robots out there and you have no idea if there or more zombies or not. That guy could have lied to you.” Jon looked at Jeff for a second. “I’m just saying. She doesn’t get to decide what we all do.”

  Jeff looked at Mel with a raised eyebrow. Her heart skipping a beat, she addressed everyone.

  “We don’t have time for this. We can debate it all day and then Kathor comes back and we’re done. Seriously, Anna has to know what we’ve done by now and Kathor might too. He may already be on his way back.” She paused. “So. I’m going to find Anna and try to take over the ship. Anyone who doesn’t want to join me is free to grab one of these interships.” She looked intensely at Jon but he avoided her gaze. “The interships that you also don’t know how to fly.” Mel turned away from Jon and marched to the door of the room.

  Jeff looked at Jon and shrugged. “I’m with her. Sorry dude.”

  “Whatever,” Jon muttered.

  Mel helped Riley to stand. “Let’s go everyone. We may need to split up and check all the doors.” She pressed the door and it faded open as she continued. “The most important thing is to find Anna. She can help us take over the ship.”

  As the door faded away, Mel went to take a step forward and almost ran into Anna. Four robots crouched behind her.

  “Actually, I can’t do that. Sorry Mel, but I can’t let you escape,” Anna said.

  Chapter 13

  Mel’s mouth closed with an audible click. Jeff glared at Anna, pushing past Mel before she had a chance to say anything.

  “What the hell is this?” he hissed.

  Anna looked at him calmly, almost curiously. “You can’t escape from the ship. It’s foolish to try. I’m not going to help you do something that can’t succeed and may just end up getting you killed.”

  Jeff opened his mouth but apparently couldn’t think of anything to say. Closing his mouth, he scowled at Anna and then turned and scowled at Mel. She shrugged helplessly, as frustrated as he was.

  “Why can’t we take the escape pods?” Evan asked.

  “They aren’t escape pods. That’s kind of cute, actually. They’re designed to transport people between larger vessels. The pods are slow and have very limited range. You would run out of fuel after a few thousand kilometers and be floating in space. And thousands of kilometers in space is literally nothing. If you took the pods, you’d either float off into nowhere and freeze to death in a few days after the batteries ran out, run out of breathable air or die of dehydration. Or you might get caught up in the planet’s gravitational pull and burn up on entry into the atmosphere. The pods aren’t designed for planetary entry.”

  Evan nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks.”

  Jon was standing next to Evan and pushed him roughly. “Really? You’re thanking her for turning us in?”

  Mel sighed. She had been wrong. Not only wouldn’t Anna help them, she was actively conspiring against them. “Why are you stopping us, Anna? We weren’t going to take over the pods anyway; we wanted to take over the ship. You could help us do that. You still can.”

  “I’m surprised you’re that naive,” Anna said. “Kathor hears everything you say. And he can see everything you see.”

  “The translators,” Evan said.

  “What?” Mel said. Aghast, she touched the spot in her skull where Kathor had implanted the translator. Of course. The translator obviously picked up everything Mel heard and passed it on to her brain somehow. And it also had the ability to read expressions and body language and translate those as well. So it made sense that it had access to everything she could see. Mel thought she was being clever looking for cameras, when they had all been the cameras.

  Mel repressed the urge to rip the translator out of her skull. This would make any kind of planning almost impossible. Another thought suddenly occurred to her. “Can the translators read our minds, too?”

  Anna looked sympathetic, but she shook her head. “No. Thought patterns are too dispersed to do anything like mind-reading.” Anna hesitated for a moment. “But there
is something you have to be careful about. Sometimes when people think, they hear a voice in their mind. If that voice is too intentional, like you’re almost sending a signal to start speaking, then the translators can pick that up. It’s called sub-vocalization. So you can think, but be careful with talking to yourself.”

  “You still haven’t explained why you’re betraying us,” Mel said, her voice flat.

  “I’m not betraying you, Mel. I’m really not. You can’t take over the ship. It’s run by computer and only Kathor can command it. You don’t think he would actually leave the ship if there was a chance one of us could take it over, do you?”

  Actually, she had. She was starting to feel like a complete idiot for ever thinking they had a chance. And for putting her friends in harm’s way. She could feel everyone staring at her and wondered if they blamed her for almost getting them killed. Not as much as she blamed herself.

  “Sure, Anna. Tell yourself that if it makes you sleep better at night. Meanwhile, I see you’re here to escort us back to our comfy hotel rooms. I’m sure you’d hate for us to get lost or hurt or anything.”

  Anna’s mouth set in a hard line. She was about to say something, when she paused and cocked her head slightly to the side. “Kathor wants to see everyone back in the main room. He has something to tell you. Please leave your items on the floor and follow me back.”

  Two of the robots stepped forward as Anna backed away from the door. They waved their spears at the others until everyone had dropped the improvised weapons they had ripped off the other robots. Everyone slowly filed out after Anna, their heads hung low.

  Mel came out first, right behind Anna, glaring at her back as they walked down the hallway. Anna had known the whole time that Mel planned to escape, and she let her do it. Mel could never trust her again. Kathor had done something to the girl, brainwashed her somehow. Clearly, Anna wasn’t someone they could trust to help them escape. She wouldn’t forget that lesson.

  The great room was already cleared of the dead bodies and remains of the robots. A wave of nausea gripped Mel as she remembered the woman that she had kicked in the head. During that moment, she hadn’t felt a thing. The thing needed to be done and she had done it. But killing that woman hadn’t served any purpose at all. Grabbing Anna, she spun her around.