It's Complicated: A Zombie Romance Novel

Control Me

When the doors opened on a completely black room I wasn't that surprised. Too bad I didn't have a cell phone to light my way. I positioned the chair in the door with the use of the elevator light. Then I hauled Brian out of the chair. He still hadn't moved.

"I'm not giving up on you ever," I promised him. I looked out into the room. There seemed to be walls of black dotted in green lights a few feet ahead of me. The green lights were only visible when I left the light of the elevator.

More shapes were becoming visible as my eyes adjusted to the dim. I couldn't drag Brian forever.

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to leave you here." I set him down with his back against the wall as gently as I could. This was as safe as I could make him.

Nearly blind I made my way deeper into the room. Red lights added to the green ones, but they still only dotted the walls that broke up the room every two or three feet.

"What kind of walls have small Christmas lights?" I wanted to know.

"The kind that transmit signals," said a voice in my ear. I nearly jumped out of my skin. I felt around for the person behind the voice. From what I could feel I was still alone. Then I remembered I still had the ear piece on. I hadn't taken it off in the elevator.

"Headset Guy. You're back." Did I just say that out loud? I was really at the end of my rope. It's not like any of this mattered now. I knew what I would find in here. This had been my choice. Now I just had to live with it.

"Is that what you decided to call me? Tommy always said you had names for everything. Headset Guy is it? Catchy."

"What do you want?" I hadn't grown warm to his games. That he'd overcome Michael's hack was disturbing. Why couldn't he leave me alone?

"It wouldn't be any fun to just let you win." Right, he thought I was still playing his game. So which way now? Straight was another wall. I was in a maze.

"What is this place?" I followed the next set of walls, staying to the right until it ended in another opening. If I kept this up I was bound to find the center at some point, hopefully before the zombies found me.

"My heart," said Headset Guy.

"Of course it is. What else could it be? So how do I get to the heart of your 'heart'?" I asked. There was no harm in asking.

"That would make things too easy."

"Because all this hasn't been hard enough." I turned another corner. Then I heard it. The sound of someone else making noise. Why had I been so stupid to think I was alone here? Jamming the elevator hadn't been enough. I heard foot steps behind me.

"You better hurry up. He's coming for you." I started to all out run, making sure to stay right and keep a hand on the wall. It was smooth in places and ruff in others, like the front of my brother's gaming system. These walls were computer terminals. He'd called this his heart. He hadn't been lying for once.

The footsteps were coming from all sides now. The walls were getting shorter. I had to be nearing the center. I felt a hand grasp my arm. I swung out of its reach. I could see light leaking through the walls now. It made running easier.

"One more corner," I stumbled into the light, the zombie hard on my heels. I just needed to stay one step ahead.

"Good work, little mouse. You made it through my maze. So what do you want for your reward?" Headset Guy asked.

The light was coming from a pedestal in front of me. I looked closer and saw it was a computer terminal.

"Free my brother and my friend," I said.