AZU-1: Lifehack (24 page)

“
Hey, Alisia, you
asleep?”

“
No, I always snore while I
inspect my eyelids. Get out!” Alisia’s voice came cranky, but
soft.

“
We need to talk.” Regan
sounded upset and serious.

“
Ugh. Do I have a
choice?”

“
No.”

“
In that case, what’s on
your mind?”

“
Get rid of Kris, please?”
Regan’s voice teetered like that of a little girl who’d been
crying.

“
Is it really that bad?”
Alisia slowly had to face the idea that she was now wide
awake.

“
....please” Regan pleaded,
barely audible.

“
You can defend yourself
from her just fine.”

“
It’s not me I’m worried
about- it’s you. She’ll steal you from me.” Regan’s eyes focused
down where she was tracing little circles on Alisia’s night shirt
her finger.

“
You don’t have me, I’m not
a lesbian!”

“
Yeah....” Regan said
concerned, “We need to discuss that, too.”

Alisia rolled her eyes. “By the way,
I’m much relieved to have woken up with your hand on my face this
time.” She looked down at Regan’s finger wiggling on her abdomen,
and moved it aside. “Hey, do you wear those nylons to bed or
something?”

“
Just when I plan to come
visit you in the middle of the night.”

“
So.. always
then.”

“
Yeah. So.. can you get rid
of Kris?”

“
.... She’s doing a good job
so far. I have no concrete reason to get rid of her.”

Regan considered telling Alisia about
Kris and Parker’s little encounter. No, it might damage Parker’s
standing with Alisia, and that wasn’t fair. “Fine. I’ll.... just
promise me.. if you have a change of heart about girls in
general... you’ll come to me, not her...?”

Alisia rolled her eyes again. “Yeah,
whatever. Fine.”

“
No. Not whatever. I’m
serious. If...” Regan’s eyes were wide, and welling. She grabbed
Alisia’s hand.

“
Fine.” Alisia said,
grabbing Regan’s hand with both hands, patronizing her in an
exaggerated manner. “I will. IF.”

Regan seemed very relieved.

“
Now can I get to sleep?”
Alisia asked bluntly.

“
Okay!” Regan flumped down
on top of Alisia and began to get cozy.

“
Get out!”

~~~~~

Chapter 34: Steeve

~~~~~

Meet Steeve.

Steeve was having a pretty good day,
but in the mid morning he began to feel odd. Maybe there was a bug
in the air, maybe it was something he ate, or maybe it was the
fleet of new and improved nanites in the thing he ate. Who can tell
with these things?

The uneasy feeling passed soon enough.
In fact, Steeve barely noticed that he had died. Neither did anyone
else for that matter, since he kept on walking.

Of course, Steeve was no longer home in
his body. Something else controlled his body as he returned to the
mall where he bought his breakfast. He went back to the food court
and found a free seat among dozens of others who had enjoyed a
similar breakfast. They were all resting with their heads down on
their tables.

A few of the shoppers passing by
noticed these fifty-odd folks who were seemingly taking a nap in
the middle of the food court. By contrast, all the people noticed
when all of the napping zombies suddenly sat bolt upright. It was
not then long before people began to die.

~~~

Alisia’s comm barked for attention. She
reached out from under the blanket and grabbed it. Silencing its
alarm, she placed the little device in her ear.

“
Ung... Major Terone
here.”

“
Major?” It was the General.
“Another outbreak. A lot more than one this time. We’ve got a mall
going to hell. Local police and SWAT have arrived on scene and are
working to contain to the mall, and direct escaped wounded. I’ll
dump co-ordinates to the airlimb. Any questions?”

“
No, Sir. We’re
gone.”

“
Good hunting
Major.”

Alisia disconnected then buzzed the
others’ comms. “Good morning people. We have a job. Let’s hustle.
Kris, we should have the co-ords by now, get us in the
air.”

“
Meh?” came Kris’ sleepy
voice.

Alisia simplified it. “Wake up! Fly big
thing now!”

“
Meh.”

While Kris ‘rushed’ to the control
room, the rest put themselves together. The airlimb jolted to life
and rose to the sky.

“
Kris?” Alisia asked for a
report, walking into the darkly lit control room minutes later.
“How are we doing?”

Kris swiveled in her chair to face
Alisia, still dressed in what she was sleeping in; panties and a
baby T. “We’re fifteen minutes out. We’re good to auto until we
approach the target.” Kris leaned back into what Alisia had come to
call ‘the Regan maneuver’, stretching upwards, trying like hell to
‘accidentally’ expose herself under her top.

“
Then go get dressed,
Captain.” Alisia muttered.

“
Captain, huh? You were
calling me ‘Kris’ a moment ago.” Kris tried to make eye contact as
she stood, but Alisia stared at the forward monitor intently,
trying not to look at Kris.

“
Go put yourself together.
We’re on duty as of five minutes ago.”

Kris got up and walked past Alisia
close and slow. “Roger.” Kris purred. She stopped for a moment and
looked close at Alisia, who still denied her stare. Kris puffed a
hot little sigh her way before slinking off.

The airlimb was soon encircling the
target zone, a small shopping mall. A press helicopter was already
on the scene. Below, SWAT had contained a tight perimeter around
all of the entrances, much like at the warehouse. Several
ambulances were on the scene, and paramedics were scrambling over a
handful of wounded.

Alisia stood with Regan, looking out
the side bay door. “Kris. Make sure those paramedics have the
protocols for handling zombie-wounded and drop us off by the
nearest entrance. Parker, get talking to the SWAT and co-ordinate
with them. When Regan and I are down, you two get into the air and
stay sharp.”

The airlimb touched down momentarily.
Alisia and Regan hopped off, walking through the SWAT lines to the
entrance. By now the airlimb was already up again. After a quick
check in with the SWAT commander, Alisia caught up to Regan who was
standing in the doorway and looking in.

A grouping of zombies had already
turned their attention towards them. They looked nearly human
except for the seemingly random wounds, the staggered movements,
and deathly stare.

These were even fresher than the one
they encountered in the warehouse mission. Fresh baked today.
Alisia’s stomach turned a bit. She knew they’d be fighting a lot of
these, but the idea of shooting things that looked so human, all
suddenly hit her. She had to force herself through the logic.
“They’re already dead. Shooting them is just disarming a threat to
the living.” Still... they looked so human. And their families
didn’t even know yet.

Regan looked into the mob and saw
Autar. Memories of screaming pounded into the back of her head.
Blood, blood, blood. On the walls, in the streets, on her. And her
brother. She lingered in that memory for a while, lost.

The sound of Alisia’s P90 snapped Regan
back to the real world. In front of her the fresh zombies were
beginning to collapse, blood erupting from their newest wounds.
Regan collapsed to her knees, eyes transfixed on the newest
horror.

“
Regan!” Parker’s voice came
over the comm. He’d seen her collapse from the airlimb. Alisia
looked to Regan in a minor panic. Seeing no wound, Alisia quickly
tried to immobilize the few zombies still approaching.

“
Regan?!” Alisia, keeping
one eye to the mall’s interior, got down beside Regan and grabbed
her by the shoulders. “Regan, are you hurt?!”

Regan silently leaned into Alisia and
held her.

“
She’s OK.” Alisia called
back to Parker. “Gimmie a sec.”

Alisia felt Regan’s breathing. It was
slow and deep, but it trembled. “Regan. Do you want to go back? I
can finish this.”

“
Don’t be stupid.” Regan
said, “There’s gotta be a couple hundred running around in
here.”

“
Then we can delay. The
situation’s contained, no one new’s gonna be hurt. Maybe I can get
Parker to take a mission, maybe we could...”

“
No.” Regan’s voice became
firm and confident. She would not allow herself to be weak like
this… not when it was important. She could not fail Alisia. “We’re
proceeding. Kris, do we have a reading on a nanite server
transmission yet?”

After examining the captured server,
Kris was now equipped and able to identify the distinct but
illegibly encrypted signals used to control the zombies. “Yeah,”
Kris responded, “About two blocks inside the mall, to your general
left.”

“
Alright.” Regan shook off
the remaining bits of her weak moment and started ahead.

They found themselves using a lot of
ammo, and the tile floor in some areas of the mall came to look
like a red sea peppered with shell casings. Between bursts of
conflict, the girls walked quietly through a dim path of deathly
evidence. The place had become a profound obscenity to life,
complete with a choir of pained moans which came from the nearest
group of ex-humans which they would have to butcher to
proceed.

Alisia kept having to remind herself
that they were already dead, but it didn’t make the sound of blood
under her boot any easier to hear.

A yell was heard from ahead. “Over
here! Hey!” The girls popped up from their gloom to see a live,
healthy human waving at them from a store with its metal security
grating down. Several other terrified faces could be seen poking
out from the clothing racks inside. Unfortunately, the survivor’s
yell also attracted eight or so zombies, and they were closer. When
he saw them, the yelling man was smart enough to get back from the
grate.

The girls took aim and mowed down the
zombies one by one. The last one to fall had already started
bending the bars, and one of his arms still gripped it.

Alisia stepped over the fresh kills,
kicking aside one that was still putting up a fight with one leg
operational.

“
Sir?” She said, calling for
the civilian. He stepped forward and the other faces reappeared,
some of them standing now, a bit less afraid. Several of them were
children.

“
You’re that Captain Terone
chick, right?” he said, eyes still looking about the main mall for
zombies, but pausing on Regan a few times. “And Regan Grier. You’re
here to save us!”

“
Major Terone, yes. We
hadn’t expected to encounter survivors, actually. We’re here to
clean out the zombies.” Alisia pondered the options while Regan
made friends with a curious little girl, touching fingers through
the grate. There was a decent possibility that the path to the exit
behind them was still clear, but it was a risk. And these kids
didn’t need to see any more corpses than they already had today.
Alisia called up to Kris.

“
Captain, we have survivors
here.” Alisia put a VTags on the floor of the shop so Kris could
view their location. “Does this store have a back
entrance?”

The man replied before Kris.
“no..”

“
No,” started Kris, “But the
one next door does. I’m routing some SWAT there now.”

Alisia looked to the store next door.
It had been attacked and there was blood around, but there were no
zombies in it. Alisia got the survivors to open the grate and sent
them into the other store. Just as they were half way through, a
loud crash was heard from the back and a few SWAT members hustled
in.

“
Ok folks, follow these guys
out, get checked out by the paramedics, and hopefully we can get
you home quick.” Alisia tried to suppress a smile from this small
victory, and watched Regan say goodbye to her little friend. Soon
they were alone in the mall again.

“
Well,” Alisia said, “That
felt good.” But then she turned around and saw the mess of blood
again. The joy of saving a handful of people felt suddenly very
small. But they continued.

They closed in on the server signal and
found it to be surrounded by a great crowd of zombies clogging up
the entire width of the mall. With some help from Kris they managed
to put a VTag on the approximate location of the server. Sure
enough, it was right in the middle of the crowd.

Alisia looked at the crowd and
considered the amount of P90 ammo they had. “This is ridiculous.
I’m going to soften them up.”

Alisia slung back the P90 and drew
forward the Bad Mojo. Regan hopped in anticipation as it hummed to
life. Alisia aimed the bulky rifle at the right side of the crowd,
but clear of the estimated location of the server.

“
Here’s to property damage!”
Alisia pulled the trigger. The dull but sharp sound echoed against
the hard walls as a mass of walking dead were thrown back, and
apart. Windows broke and bits of wall flew. Regan loved the
destructive aspect, but her enthusiasm was cut short by the red
spray that these fresh zombies created in their wake. Alisia was
sickened by the sight as well, but took aim again, this time at the
left segment of the crowd. This time, Regan turned away.