Unleashed: A Science Fiction Horror Adventure (NecroVerse Book 1)

by Aaron Bunce

  “It is not unusual to experience short-term memory loss during medical crisis. I’m happy to report that we’ve taken dramatic measures to stabilize your vitals, predominantly your heart rate and blood pressure, and your condition has improved considerably. We’ve detected some fascinating abnormalities in your blood, as well as some irregularities with the electrical impulses in your brain and are working to pinpoint the exact root of this condition. We’re learning so much,” Doctor Misra explained, as she picked up her clear pad and started tapping on the screen.

  “Abnormalities…brain?” Jacoby keyed in on the fact that she hadn’t answered his question about Doctor Reeds. She also said his condition was “fascinating”, and they were “learning so much”.

  “Yes. We took some in depth scans while you were unconscious, and are confident they will pinpoint the source of your…well, the exact cause of your condition. Once we have more time to study your scans, we’ll know more. The Palmer Module on your left arm is monitoring and managing your vitals through an advanced series of electrical impulses and injectable compounds. It is state-of-the-art, and will keep you very comfortable. It’s very important for us to accumulate as much data about your symptoms as possible. Beyond what you told Doctor Reeds in the clinic, have you experienced any other…strange or unusual sensations or urges? Heard, smelled, or seen anything strange?”

  Jacoby listened to her talk and watched her mouth move, but it was all he could do just to keep his eyes open and draw his next breath. He closed his eyes, when he opened them again, the room felt brighter. Jacoby blinked and realized that there were other people standing around Doctor Misra…watching him, writing on pads, or talking into small devices. The closest leaned in and whispered into the doctor’s ear. They all wore masks, too.

  “Smelled? Heard?” Jacoby groaned, trying to make sense of her questions. “I…I felt fine, but now I can’t seem to–”

  “We can only help you if you are honest with us, Mr. Mason. It is very important, you must know that. Have you had contact with any station personnel recently…share any drinking containers, dining ware, perhaps share physical contact – touching, kissing, or sexual intercourse?”

  Jacoby’s mind spun, his sluggish thoughts keying in on her last word. Sexual intercourse? A distant and very small voice echoed in his mind. He couldn’t understand what it was saying, but a profound sense of unease settled in. The questions troubled him, even though he couldn’t quite articulate why.

  “No…I wasn’t feeling well, so I just stayed in my…room, and slept.”

  Doctor Misra eyed him, tapping something on her tablet. Jacoby tried to return her gaze, but there was something unsettling about her dark eyes – she was studying him.

  “Very well. We can talk more later, after you have had a chance to rest. For now–”

  “How…how long will I be…here? I want to…go home.”

  “I cannot say,” Doctor Misra said, pulling a data point out of the pocket on her jacket and holding it to her ear. “Yes. That’s right. Type three containment is crucial, for all of them. Do it right away. Yes…seal the quarters, even if there is someone inside. Then swab and scan everything,” she said, then pressed the data point to her chest and leaned in to the man next to her. Jacoby tried to focus in on his face, but everything was too blurry. “Try series two. I want to see how long it takes the stronger sedatives to kick in.”

  “Rest, Mr. Mason. We’ll take good care of you.” The doctor tapped her data point and turned abruptly and swept away, her white coat billowing out behind her. The others trailed behind her, their footsteps the only discernable noise.

  The device on Jacoby’s arm beeped as he turned his head to watch her leave, a sickly cold sensation trickling up his arm and into his chest. His heart shuddered painfully in response. He pulled in a breath and pushed it out. Everything felt half speed – his heart, the blood moving in his veins, his thoughts...so…painfully…slow.

  A chair creaked quietly behind him, and then a man cleared his throat. Jacoby turned his head slowly, but he couldn’t see them.

  “Hello? Who is there?” he asked, his voice gravelly and hoarse. The chair creaked again, but whoever it was didn’t respond.

  Jacoby closed his eyes. A pressure formed somewhere inside his skull, behind his eyes, but he felt heavy...and so incredibly tired. His vision went fuzzy and a muffled, white noise filled his ears.

  Jacoby swallowed hard, his next breath burning in his throat. The room faded to black.

  0250 Hours

  Anna sat perched on the hard, metal sink for what felt like an eternity, her legs propped up and shaking and her feet smashed against the door. Her ass fell asleep long ago, and the more she thought about it, she wasn’t sure if she could feel her feet either.

  “I need to move. We’ve been sitting here for hours,” she hissed, and started to pull her feet away.

  “Wait…no!” Soraya whispered, pulling half out of the small shower. “Wait-wait-wait…what if it…if it is still out there? It could be right outside, in the hall! What if it got through the door?”

  “It? That was your husband…that was Preston. You saw what he did…what he tried to do. If he got through the door, then we’re…” Anna trailed off and turned back to the door, trying to ignore the stabbing pain shooting through her backside, and failing. She winced and held her breath, listening, unsure how to continue.

  “I don’t hear anything,” she said after another lengthy pause. Then before Soraya could argue, let her feet drop numbly to the ground. Fire erupted up her legs as the prickly, crawling sensation moved from her toes all the way to her hips.

  Anna massaged her legs and fumbled her data point out, waking it up with a tap of the screen, trying to force her attention onto anything but the pain. She pulled up her contacts and pressed on Jacoby’s profile, trying to connect for a video chat, but the network icon spun and glowed red.

  “Damn, I can’t connect. It won’t connect, the network is down.”

  “That wasn’t him, Anna. That wasn’t Preston. It couldn’t be,” Soraya said, her eyes locked on the door.

  “You can’t just run out there…”

  “It wasn’t him. He would never say those things…do those things. It wasn’t…wasn’t…” Soraya said, cutting Anna off. Her voice trailed into an inaudible mumble, but then she sat up suddenly, unfolding her body with surprising ease from the small shower. “I need to go find him. He needs me. He needs help. I…I can help him.”

  Anna caught her before she reached the door, her arms impressively muscular.

  “What are you talking about?” Anna hissed, struggling to hold her back. “You saw it…his face. His face split open, Soraya. His stomach…the bones…the blood? What does that to a person? It was him, he was with you.”

  Anna fought to hold her back, but Soraya easily pushed her across the small bathroom. Her back hit the opposite wall but she fought back and wrapped her arms around Soraya, pulling and twisting to keep her away from the handle.

  “Stop!” she hissed, grunting and fumbling to counter Soraya’s impressive strength. “Just stop. Please, we need to think about this for a second, have a plan…before we open that door.”

  Soraya struggled for another moment, the muscles in her chest and shoulders flexing like cables against Anna’s arms. Anna’s grip broke and she scrabbled for another hold.

  “I don’t want you to get hurt. I don’t want to die,” she hissed, and Soraya finally seemed to hear. She turned on Anna, tears pooling heavily in both eyes.

  “I don’t know what is happening,” Soraya said, her lip quivering and voice breaking. Then she came forward and threw her arms around Anna. She trembled, crying softly, and squeezing them together.

  Anna tried to think of something to say – some wisdom to help Soraya past her grief or to make sense of what happened, but nothing came to mind. She didn’t understand any of it, how could she help someone else?

  Soraya shifted, her cheek coming to rest against
Anna’s neck. The warmth of her body instantly bled through her clothes, the closeness of their bodies suddenly intensifying. It wasn’t just the intimacy of their embrace, although she couldn’t deny that. It was a bond, a connection, a smell that perfumed the air around them, and a resulting spark of familiarity deep inside. It was infinitely complicated and simple at the same time, a flicker passed through their skin-to-skin contact.

  Anna slowly returned the embrace, her hands gliding down the other woman’s back. Every muscle, smooth curve and line, even down to her bra strap felt surprisingly familiar. The spark inside continued to grow, until it flowed throughout her chest and midsection. She felt the warmth trickle into her arms and legs, the sensation seemingly circling between her legs.

  Soraya shifted. She wasn’t crying anymore, but she wasn’t letting go either. What was she feeling? Was it normal? Could Soraya feel it, too? Her thoughts immediately turned back to her intimate romp with Jacoby, but also how good she’d felt after – strong, so full of energy, like she was years younger.

  Anna felt the garbage can at her feet, even though she couldn’t see it. She’d gotten sick at the clinic, the strange bloody blue color permanently fused into her mind – the same color that also spattered the garbage can a foot away.

  Soraya pulled away finally, sliding away but taking ahold of Anna’s hands. She was calmer now, but just barely. Anna didn’t just see it, but felt it somehow – a ball of barely contained grief, panic, and fear bubbling just beneath the surface.

  “What should we do?” Soraya asked, her voice so low it was barely a whisper.

  “For starters, we need to get out of this bathroom. Then we need to contact someone and find out what is going on.”

  Soraya nodded and moved aside so Anna could move over to the door. She pressed an ear to the cold metal and held her breath to listen. Nothing.

  Anna slowly unlocked the door and turned the handle. The mechanism clicked loudly and she froze, the noise seemingly filling the small bathroom.

  Damn, stupid, loud piece of crap….ahhh, she cursed silently. Anna hovered before the door, waiting and listening. Again, nothing. She eased the door open the rest of the way and leaned out, tilting her ear to hear better down the hallway.

  “Shit,” she breathed. The hall light had gone out, leaving the entire space before her dark. She crept forward, feeling her way along the wall with one hand and leading Soraya along with the other.

  Anna approached the end of the hall, a white glow from the porthole window in the living room to the right providing the only light. She stopped just before the door, her eyes struggling to focus in the dim light. Several dark, blocky shapes lay on the ground, while a panel hung loose from the ceiling.

  The light panel glowed on the wall, but didn’t respond to her touch. Anna stepped between the debris on the ground and ducked under the hanging panel. The door was still closed – she could see that much, but the wall was bowed in on the lock side, the ceramic panels and plastic moldings either cracked and disfigured or missing entirely. She couldn’t entirely tell the extent of the damage in the dark.

  Had the lock held? Would it open if they needed it to?

  “Maybe we can just wait here…until the network comes back up or help arrives?” Soraya suggested, quietly.

  Anna shook her head and moved in as close to the door as possible. Something moved out in the hall – an empty and surprisingly loud banging and scraping. She fought the urge to jump away and listened, trying to discern what or who it was.

  “Stop for a second and listen. What don’t you hear?” she whispered, turning away from the door. She waited for a response, but was listening more intently to whatever was just beyond their door in the hall.

  “Air…I don’t hear the air,” Soraya whispered after another long moment.

  Anna nodded, curling her fingers into the gap at the top of the door. She could push them through almost two full knuckles deep. The door must have been knocked clear off the rails. Even with power, it wouldn’t open – just another problem she would have to consider.

  “Don’t…” Soraya hissed as Anna reached for the door control pad, but pulled away before pushing it.

  Think, Anna. Don’t try to open the door until you’re ready to leave. If you open it now, it might not close again if something is out there.

  Turning away from the door, Anna moved to duck back under the damaged ceiling panel just as her data point vibrated and started beeping. She fumbled the glowing screen up and frantically slid her finger down the side of the screen to turn the volume down, but it was too late. The noise had already been made.

  Working quickly, Anna pulled up her messages, but the application was busy downloading a large packet of previously unreceived communications. She tried to stop the action, to create a new message, but an error popped up and the connection icon once again flashed red.

  “Damn-damn-damn,” she cursed and immediately held it up into the air, turning and moving to try and reacquire the signal. She stopped moving right before the door, the data point’s clear screen tapping hollowly against the metal. Whatever signal she’d found was gone.

  Anna exhaled in frustration and turned back to Soraya, but stopped. Her breath drifted in a visible fog between them. The air was cold out here, but worse, getting colder. She hadn’t noticed it while locked in the bathroom, but here it was undeniable.

  “We can’t stay here. Climate control is off with the power, so it is going to get really cold in here,” Anna said, and Soraya nodded immediately, although her gaze turned to the door. Anna knew the unspoken question. Is it still out there…whatever it was?

  “We get the door open, and run. We run past whatever we see and go straight for the elevator. We get the hell off this floor, and find someplace with power…find someone that knows what in the hell is going on. Deal?”

  Soraya nodded.

  “Good, but first you need to wear something warmer than that,” she said, gesturing at Soraya’s bathrobe.”

  Anna immediately moved off to her dark bedroom and used the light from her data point’s screen to change clothes. She pulled on clean underwear and then slipped into an olive-drab maintenance jumpsuit, rolling up the sleeves to just above her elbows. Soraya settled next to the bed and watched quietly as Anna picked up her code scanner and small tool pouch off the small desk and stuffed them into pockets, before sliding on her boots and clipping a headset onto her ear.

  “I guess I’m going to get my time working on a door after all, Lana,” she mumbled under her breath, and started rifling through outfits hanging in the closet. She pulled out a light-tan jumpsuit, the fabric worn and frayed in several spots.

  “Here, I think this might fit you,” she said handing it over. Soraya accepted it without word and laid it on the bed. She immediately untied the thin robe and pulled it down.

  “Lunar Technologies I.F.P Maintenance? ‘I.F.P’?” Soraya asked, picking the jumpsuit off the bed and pointing to a patch on the chest.

  “Jacoby and I lived and worked in the lunar colonies for a while after leaving earth. Industrial fusion products held the contract for maintenance on the colony’s forty-some fusion reactors. It’s not as fancy as it sounds,” she laughed, “I crawled around in service ducts all day, checking electromagnet temperatures and coolant levels. I practically lived in that jumpsuit, or ones like it, while we were there.”

  “Sounds interesting. You’re full of surprises, girl,” Soraya said, and Anna didn’t have time to turn away before she stripped her shirt and pants off.

  Ever the critique of her own body, Anna immediately felt a pang of jealousy. Soraya slipped the jump suit off the bed and lifted a shapely leg to slide it on, the data point’s cool, white light highlighting the attractive and muscular curve of her thighs and backside.

  She patted her belly subconsciously as Soraya lifted the other leg into the outfit and pulled it up, her muscular stomach flexing impressively in the pale light. She pushed her arms into the sleeves, hefted
it up over her shoulders, and pulled the zipper up. Soraya stopped before reaching the top, the fabric squeezing tightly around her breasts.

  “It’s a little tight,” she said, looking up and catching Anna staring. “This must have been huge on you?”

  “Well…I was a little bigger back then,” she said, self-consciously. The memory of backpacking across half of North America popped into her mind. She tried to push the stray thoughts away, but for some reason they grew in her mind and started to push everything else away. The room spun and her knees suddenly went weak. Soraya lunged forward and caught her hands…and then she gasped.

  Anna tumbled into the memories. First, they were backpacking across the old Midwest, the old sun-scorched cornfields of Iowa and Nebraska hovering like brown husks on either side of the road. They slept in abandoned houses and barns, huddling together for warmth, and ate whatever they could find.

  The Rocky Mountains spanned before them in the distance, the jagged, snow-covered peaks hovering just beyond the light layer of pollution-ionized atmosphere. She saw the transport appear from behind a mountain, the thruster blast cones lighting up the sky like a sunrise. They watched the launch from the magna train cargo car, the landscape whipping by them so fast it all blurred together. The thrill coursed through her, just as it had when she watched it – it was the realization, the idea that they were finally breaking free from her family, his father, all of it.

  She heard the police, the One-Federal agents shouting and yelling for them to stop and “drop to the ground”. The voices woke them from a dead sleep, driving them from the moving train when it reached Denver. Jacoby took a misstep as they ran to hide in a warehouse and fell into an old feed hopper. They hid there all night, flicking hungry rats away and waiting for the police to give up their search. When the sun rose the next morning they went straight to the launch depot and bought their tickets for the lunar launch. Somehow, Anna felt the rings on her fingers, and the weight of her mother’s necklace around her neck, but they weren’t there anymore. She’d pawned it all off to buy Jacoby’s ticket off world.