Chapter 3

Kyla is getting her long black hair braided by her friend, Tessa. She is dreading having to go in to work. It’s not the commute. They’re on a hydrogen refining and storage vessel known as the Fitzgerald. All she has to do is walk down the hall, then take the elevator up, and walk down another hall to get to the bridge, where she works. It’s not the job. Another cup of coffee; Another rice cake; Another day sending maintenance reports, medical updates, payroll information, and overall performance data to the home office.

She’s dreading going in because of a guy. Done! Tess puts the last tie on one of the two massive braids she quickly and expertly formed. Tessa has a lifetime of practice on taller straight-haired girls like Kyla. Tessa herself, having the antithesis of both of these features, is an irony that is not lost on her. He’s just taking things too seriously! Kyla blurts out as if she had been holding it in for a while. I mean, if you told him and he still wants to act like you’re exclusive, or whatever, that’s on him. Tess raddles off. I don’t want to hurt him, though. I should just tell him we can’t hook up anymore.

Tess gets an idea. Why don’t you come with me to mars? You can stay with me at my parent’s. I’m sure Gordo has a friend. Kyla thinks about it for a bit. That’s a long way to travel for a hook up. Tess has a lightning quick comeback. It beats having to see the guy every day, after. The single scene here is basically a long, sad swingers party. Kyla chuckles. I’m serious!… An alarm rings in Tess’s ear. Inaudible to Kyla. Tess simply snaps into and out of attention. Kind off like a dissociative spasm. She quickly looks around for her essentials. I gotta go! Let me know, okay. Her little powerhouse legs sweep her out of the room as fast as they can.

K hates the situation, but she still tries to enjoy her days and have some fun while stuck here. Oh, and she hates her supervisor. And right on cue, she gets a call on her personal computer. It was implanted onto the base of her neck at the age of ten. Some kids get it sooner than others. Depending on your parent’s views and income, some children get it at three, others not until their teens. K. It’s her supervisor. Yes? Her despondence palpable. The skimmer hasn’t been brought back. The sensors are showing that it’s been full since yesterday. Kyla knows that she shouldn’t, but she’s about to order her boss to do something because it’s what he should’ve done in the first place. You should call… He angrily cuts her off. I did! they’re not answering me! They stay quiet or they whisper some shit I can’t understand! Get down there and see what’s going on with them! And if this is some kind of fucking joke they’re playing, tell them to get their asses to my office after their shift! The connection cuts off.

She walks down the hall as she commands her inner pc to call Oscar. The line opens to breathing. Hello? K waits for a moment. A phrase begins to be whispered repeatedly. Like a mantra being employed in a panic. She can’t quite make it out. Hello? Oscar? She waits again. The chanting continues. This time she heard it crystal clear in the beginning. The dead are alive. Kyla has had enough of this bullshit. I’m coming down there! Emmit is pissed! That skimmer better be docked by the time I get there! She boards the elevator and commands it to receiving.

The elevator opens to blackness. The abyss of the hallway is only lit by small emergency strips on the floor. Lights on! A voice in Kyla’s ear says Error. She slowly walks down the hallway. Call Maintenance! She continues through the darkness. Maintenance. K quickly answers. Yes! The lights are off down here at receiving! The maintenance operator begins checking the system. It looks like someone logged into the program and locked out the settings for that floor. I can bypass it. Just give me a moment. She reaches the door. It slides open. More blackness. She can hear the faint whisper from the corner of the room. The mantra continues relentlessly. The dead are alive, the dead are alive, the dead are alive… Oscar? Kyla’s fear is leaking out of her vocal cords.

Hands clutch her arms in the darkness. She lets out a shriek. STOP! She yells at the top of her lungs. The person is grabbing her hard, digging his fingers into her skin. You’re hurting me! Kyla is trying to break free from this freakish grasp. They fall to the floor. Kyla can feel the man on top of her now. She can also feel that she fell on something. Something lumpy, covered in wet fabric. Are you real? A voice asks. Tom?! Kyla is gaining back some of her nerve now that she recognizes the voice. Get off! You’re hurting me! She now demands angrily.

The lights turn on. Tom’s face is covered in dried blood. It’s crusted up all over his unkempt facial hair and bangs. His expression is macabre. Eyes as wide as garage doors and his lips curled in as he clenches his teeth. Kyla begins to look around the room. There is blood everywhere. She’s laying on Reno’s corpse. Whose neck has been slit from ear to ear. There’s also the naked and dismembered corpse of a woman laying all over the room. Oscar and two other crew members are tied up in the corner, with tape over their mouths. Kyla’s fight mechanisms kick in. She screams as loud as she can from the shock and frantically begins leveraging her weight side to side. Trying to roll Tom over or loosen his grip.

Oscar has been waiting for this opportunity to play his card. He had untied his binds hours ago. But couldn’t do anything about it in the darkness. Oscar grabs the bloody knife laying on the ground and stabs Tom in the side. The entire ten-inch blade disappeared into him. Oscar pulls out the blade. He’s been picturing this in his head since he got the ropes off. Sitting there in pitch black. Knowing that when the moment came, the action had to be quick. Each movement had to be deliberate. Kill zones. Too many bones in the back. And, despite what he’s seen in the movies, he figured it takes luck to swing hard enough to break through a man’s skull. Abdomen and throat. That’s what he’ll go for. And that’s what he did. He immediately brings the knife up and, with a guttural scream, slices deep into Tom’s throat. Blood spilling all over Kyla’s head.

She throws Tom’s body off of her and tries to wipe the blood off in a fit of panic and disgust. First, with her hands, then with her shirt. Oscar begins untying his crew. Kyla! Help me! Untie Jodie! She’s frozen, looking up at the blood smears on the wall. In small print, written in blood, the words “the dead are alive” sit in a clean space in between the smears.

The dismembered corpse’s limbs activate and begin to shake violently. The head unleashes a horrible scream.