The Guardian (Coranite Chronicles) (9 page)

“Life support?”

“Still online.”

“Good.”

They both eagerly removed their helmets and tossed them to the ground.

Kite asked, “How about life signs?”

His eyes fixed on the screen, Berik shrugged. “Scanners aren’t working right. There’s some interference…and some decks I can’t get readings on.”

Kite walked over to Berik’s side and saw a map of the ship on screen, then tapped him on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s head to the bridge.”

Berik nodded, picked up his gun and followed the captain out of the cabin.

Kite glanced about nervously as they walked through the hall. The corridor felt tighter than usual, almost as if the walls were closing in; he could barely see how far the walls were apart.

They swung their flashlights side to side, giving them fleeting visibility of the walls and floor. Kite aimed his light at the ground. A shadow slowly crept into view. At first, he thought it was his imagination. He raised his light and moved forward, just to confirm. After looking at the figure for a few seconds, he realized it wasn’t his imagination. There was someone standing against the wall.

“Hey, you there. You should’ve said something.”

The figure was silent.

Kite grabbed the person by the shoulder. “Hey! I’m talking to you!”

The person dropped to the floor. Kite nearly jumped in shock, and then stooped down to see what was wrong. There was a large open wound on the back of the body. He briefly checked for a pulse and found none.

“Creepy…” Berik shined his flashlight at the spot where the body had stood. Right at that spot, the wall had been formed into a protruding spike. It looked like the wall had pierced the man’s back. “What do you think happened?”

Kite inspected the spike closely and shook his head, looking absolutely baffled.

“A freak accident,” he said. “Somehow, the wall melted and molded into a spike. During the confusion of the battle, the guy lost his footing and fell into it.”

Berik laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Kite glared at him.

“Nothing. Your explanation was…quite something.”

Kite scoffed, “Well, what’s your rational explanation for this?”

Berik shrugged. “The wall became alive and attacked him.”

Kite grunted, “No wonder my head always feels lighter when you’re in the same room.”

Clang!

Berik and Kite straightened up and stood back-to-back. They raised their rifles, aiming toward the opposite ends of the hall.

“W-what was that?” Berik stammered, his hands trembling. He gazed fearfully into the darkness, searching for the cause of the noise.

“Don’t panic,” said Kite coolly. “It’s probably just a crew member.”

“
Oooo…Uhhhh…Aaaahh…
” Many eerie groans and grunts filled the air. They started softly, and then grew louder, as if the sounds were getting closer.

“And what’s that?” said Berik. “They’re rehearsing for a moaning choir?”

Then came the shuffling and scuffling noises. It sounded like something heavy was being dragged across the floor. Shadows flickered on the wall. Several silhouettes came into view from both sides of the hall. Kite stared for a moment. Then he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw they were just Federation soldiers.

Kite lowered his gun. “See? It’s only the crew.”

Berik was unconvinced and kept his gun aimed at the oncoming soldiers. “No, no, no! Captain, don’t you know anything about these situations? It always happens this way! You think they’re human…but they’re not!”

Kite raised a brow. “What?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of zombies? Zombies are—”

“Shut up about zombies!” growled Kite. “There’s no such thing!”

“Take a look for yourself!” shouted Berik. “Just take
one
good look at them!”

Kite sighed and raised his sights back to the soldiers. He watched the soldiers carefully and noticed that they did exhibit some characteristics of zombies: they staggered with each step, moaned unintelligible words, and moved sluggishly. Some of them were even quite injured, a few missing limbs here and there. Was that all the evidence he needed before he declared them to be zombies? Maybe they were recently injured and were suffering in a lot of pain. If that were the case, it would be extremely rude of him to just stand around and stare while they gasped for help.

“Permission to open fire, sir!” said Berik.

“Denied.”

“But, sir!”

“I refuse to be a part of your overly imaginative fantasies, Berik.”

Kite headed over to help out the nearest injured soldier. However, after his initial step, he felt a strong grip clinging to his ankle. He was about to turn back and yell at Berik—but then he realized it wasn’t him. Berik had not moved an inch. He looked below and saw that the person, whom he had confirmed to be dead, was holding onto his ankle. An injured soldier was one thing—but a soldier coming back to life was something else entirely.

Kite gasped, “
Holy
—FIRE!”

With the barrel of his rifle centered on the body on the ground, Berik held down the trigger and let the bullets fly. The shooting sounded like intermittent static that drowned out the noise of the soldier’s groans. Berik tried to veer his shots away from Kite’s foot, so as not to accidentally harm him. After the body was riddled with holes, Kite was free from its grasp. He kicked the corpse away.

Berik swung around toward the other soldiers and fired upon them.
Kite imitated his smooth motion and fired at the soldiers on the other side. The rapid shots echoed deep into the darkest reaches of the corridor; fiery illuminations sparked from the tip of the barrels. The bright flashes gave them clear view of the soldiers’ emotionless expressions.

“AAAAH! GET AWAY! I HATE ZOMBIES!” Berik screamed wildly in the confusion. The only thought racing through his mind was that he was going to die. They were greatly outnumbered and there was no way for them to escape.

“STOP! DON’T SHOOT!” A loud voice tried desperately to overcome the sound of the rifles. “ STOP! PLEASE! DON’T SHOOT!”

Kite stopped and said to Berik, “What did you say?” Berik continued to fire upon the downed corpses with relentless anger and fear, but Kite slapped him on the back of the head to bring him back to his senses. Berik lowered his rifle to see that the corpses were no longer moving.

Kite said, “Didn’t you just say to stop?”

Panting heavily, Berik said, “I didn’t say anything.”

“It was I who told you to stop,” said the mysterious voice.

Kite slowly lifted his gaze.

A large lizard crawled along the ceiling and said to them, “Hello.”

Kite rubbed his eyes before glancing back at the lizard. It seemed to be smiling at him.

“That’s not something you see every day,” commented Berik.

“It would be nice if you would stop hurting our companions,” said the lizard in a monotone. “Please.”

Kite played along, considering the possibility he might very well be going crazy.

“I-I’m sorry, but who are your companions?”

The lizard replied, “The bodies that you are shooting. It would be nice if you refrained from shooting them. They mean you no harm.”

Berik whispered to Kite, “You know what? I’m beginning to think we might be having some kind of hallucination.”

Kite nodded. “Yes, you’re right. Must be something in the air. Maybe we should just head back to the ship. I don’t think we’ll do any good here if we’re delirious.”

“Hallucination?” The lizard hissed in laughter. “I assure you this is no such thing. Can a hallucination do this?” The lizard stuck out his long sticky tongue and licked Kite’s cheek. Disgusted, Kite shivered and wiped off the slimy black saliva that oozed down to his neck.

Kite blurted, “Disturbingly real…but that’s not enough to—”

The lizard wrapped his tongue around Kite’s neck. Kite angrily grabbed the tongue and flung it back at the lizard.

“Okay, okay! You’re real! I’m convinced!” Kite growled. “Just stop…with that…and start explaining.”

The lizard grinned. “We are A.I.”

Kite’s brow rose slowly. “Artificial intelligence? You’re a…robot?”

“We are not robots. We are an illegitimate race known as the Cyzoms. Humans accidentally created us thirty-five years ago. Since then, we have learned to adapt and survive on our own. We are A.I. that make use of organic bodies.”

Kite glanced at the corpses and then made firm eye contact with the lizard. “So let me get this straight: you need bodies—humans…”

“Do not misunderstand,” said the lizard. “We need hosts. Whether it is animal or human doesn’t matter. As long as the creature is dead, we can make use of them. It just so happens that this vessel has many dead humans. Though human bodies do make good hosts, as they are quite handy for performing tasks—”

Kite said, “Just so I understand this correctly…. You did not kill these men?”

“The crew was dead when we arrived,” the lizard said. “We are scavengers, not hunters. When we saw that this vessel was nearly destroyed, we came in search of parts and bodies. We need technology and biological units to grow in number, and to repair or upgrade existing units. However, we are not an aggressive race. We only seek to live—not to kill.”

His arms crossed, Kite turned to Berik. “What do you think?”

Berik shrugged with a blank look on his face.

“What?” Kite said. “No insight to share? What happened to your vast, wonderful knowledge of zombie outbreaks?”

“I don’t know,” Berik replied. “I seriously thought one of us would’ve been eaten by now. One person usually survives. Maybe two…if it’s a guy and a girl. If it’ll help save our lives, I’d be willing to pretend I’m a—”

“Forget I said anything,” Kite cut him off.
 
Then he asked the lizard, “Okay, um, undead lizard creature. Let’s say I go along with this story. Tell me, why did the human Cyzoms attack us?”

The lizard replied flatly, “We only planted the Cyzom ‘seed’ into their brains a half hour ago. It takes time for the nerve cells, microchips and circuits to merge. They are like babies, learning to walk and talk for the first time. The human bodies are especially harder to control. For my body, I need to have a speaker in order to project voice. But those who inhabit human hosts can learn how to use the natural human voice, if they wish.

“And more importantly, the level of their A.I is the most basic. In order to promote individuality in our learning algorithms, every newborn Cyzom is given a fresh start.”

Feeling embarrassed, Kite flushed and glanced over the scattered bodies. He had panicked when he saw the dead body come back to life and merely assumed it was dangerous. But now that he knew they were only trying to get a handle of their human hosts, he couldn’t help but feel a bit remorseful about killing them. The idea of computers taking over human bodies was still unpleasant, but killing them when they were only beginning their first steps at life was even more so.

As if he had read Kite’s mind, the lizard said, “Do not worry about ‘killing’ them. We were never truly alive to begin with. We do not fear death.”

Kite snuck a look at the lizard’s face. He thought he saw a hint of sadness somewhere in its cold visage, or at the very least, it sounded like there was a sorrowful note in its monotone voice, if that were possible.

“Even so, I’m sorry—I really am.” Kite paused. “We’ve got to hurry to the bridge now, but if there’s anything you need, just let me know. My ship is right out there, and we’ve got plenty of stuff you can use.”

The lizard nodded. “Thank you for the offer. We appreciate it.”

Kite eyed the lizard for a moment. “I think we forgot to introduce ourselves. My name is Kite Ruthers, I’m captain of the starship
Hercules
, and this here is one of my rookies, Berik Slinks. What should we call you?”

The lizard said, “You can call me Vincent.”

“Vincent?” Berik sounded disappointed. “What a
boring
name for a cyborg zombie thingy. You’re supposed to have like a serial code or something. Maybe we should call you HLT071—”

Kite elbowed Berik in the stomach. “Vincent is a nice name. Definitely easy for us to remember.” He turned to Vincent. “Well, Vincent, you can follow us to the bridge. It’ll be a quick stop, and after that you can come aboard our ship and take what you need.”

CHAPTER 6

Living Gargoyle

“Go ahead,” Kite told Berik. “Open it up.”

“You sure you don’t want to open it?” asked Berik.

“I’m sure. Just open the door to the bridge.”

“Really? You don’t want to do it yourself? You want me to open—”

“What? Are you scared? You think someone will jump out and eat your face off?”

“No, I’m not scared. I just thought you’d want the…pleasure of opening it.”

“I don’t want it,” said Kite. “You can have it. Open it.”