Genetix

6-Maya

I stand looking at the Eve's orchid sitting on the table. Maybe if the walls weren't so depressingly gray... It only makes the dullness of the hallway more obvious.

I pick up the plant and take it into the dimly lit security office. I'll have to give it back to Sarah. Where hers is green, my thumb is nothing but black. Quite literally at the moment, because I've just butchered a dye job. Score one for vanity.

I take a look at the TV screens. Occasionally a group of zombies will show up and mill around like ants. I find it oddly entertaining. The heat sensors are picking up a big cluster now, moving fast from the south.

All of a sudden something darts across the screen. It's too bulky to be a zombie. I lean in. "Refine image," I command the computer. The picture gradually clears up, and I can see two humans- no, one is carrying another, but I can't tell who it is. "Give me audio."

While I still can't identify them visually, I recognize their voice immediately.

"LET US IN!" Jakob yells, pounding on the door.

I grab the intercom mic and set it to broadcast outside. "Gimme a minute!" I call. I type as fast as I can. Pete made us turn off the open gate voice control so we wouldn't accidentally let something in, and the key command is pretty long. With one hand clacking away at the keys, I turn the PA broadcast back inside. "Liam, Isaac, get up to the garage, now, and bring guns!" I say. "Jakob's back plus two, and we've got a hoard coming in hot!" I use the extra screen to locate them and watch them scramble to get the weapons and run for the elevators. I override the safeties and send them rocketing upward at double their normal speed.

Finally the door command is in, and the heavy sheets of metal grind slowly apart. Jakob shoves the conscious person inside before scooping up the other one and running inside. Isaac and Liam arrive just in time to open fire on the first zombies.

"CLOSE MAIN DOOR CODE AUTHORIZATION 4593!!" I shriek at the computer, and the doors pause before slowly, slowly creeping back together. Nearly three dozen of the infected make it through before they're fully closed and are dispatched by Isaac and Liam. I sigh in relief as the last one falls down dead.

I watch the others stream into the garage and surround the trio, but Jakob shoulders them aside, still carrying the limp human. I send a service drone for a med-kit and head for the garage myself, making sure to reset the elevator safeties first.

I run into Jakob at the same time the med-kit arrives. I yank it open and pull out the antigrav gurney. Jakob lays the filthy, blue-haired woman down gently, and follows us into the elevator.

"I pushed her too hard," he stated, brushing a strand of hair out of her face. The woman's eyes flicker beneath her lids, but she doesn't wake.

We reach the hospital level, and I move her to a bed. The place hasn't been used for nearly a year and a half, but the drones are programmed to keep it spotless. I stick a diagnosis patch onto her arm and wait for a result. After a minute it comes up with some data:

Patient: Female, approx. 23 years of age

Diagnosis: Severe dehydration, malnutrition, exhaustion

Estimated recovery time: 3-6 weeks

I throw a glance at Jakob. "I hope you take better care of yourself than you did with her," I comment.

I hear a dry cough behind me. I hadn't noticed the other young man in the elevator.

"Do you have any water?" he asks. I get a glass from the cupboard and fill it at the sink. He watches with wide eyes. "You have running water?" he asks in disbelief.

I smile and nod. "Why don't you climb into a bed and we'll see if we can't patch you up too," I say encouragingly. He does, and takes small sips of the water, leaving a muddy ring where his lips touch the glass. I pull Jakob aside.

"Why the hell did you bring them here?" I hiss angrily. The last time Jakob came back with humans, he injected them with the virus and experimented on them, trying to find a cure. The closest he came was a chemical that killed the host slowly and painfully, completely purging the body of microorganisms. "Pete said no more, you know that."

Jakob shakes his head. "It's not like that," he says. I notice he's swaying slightly on his feet.

"Hey," I put my hand on his shoulder, and he practically collapses against it. "Whoa, come on, let's get you in a bed, too, come on, take it easy." I put his arm around my shoulder and half guide, half carry him to the last empty bed. I slap a diagnosis patch on him and the other man, and their symptoms are the same as the blue-haired girl's.

"Get me three basic IVs," I tell a drone with a sigh. It whirrs away, passing Sarah, still wearing her gardening clothes, at the door.

"Is he going to be okay?" she asks, staring blankly at Jakob's limp form.

"Of course he is," I assure her, taking her arm and gently guiding her away. "Come on, you should go to bed. Have you been in the gardens all night?"

She nods. "I like it better in there. It's almost like being outside."

I take her to her room. Even in here there are plants everywhere. I pull back the covers on her bed and she lies down. "You get some sleep, okay?"

She nods, but I'm not sure she means it. I stick out my pinkie finger, felling childish, but needing her word. "Promise?"

She hooks her pinkie around mine. "Promise."

I release her hand and stand up. Pasting a smile on my face, I walk to the door and shut off the lights. "Sweet dreams," I say, and close the door behind me.