Vessa ran, her heart beating in her ears as the thud of boots chased after her. They didn’t breathe, and no matter how many times she reached for their numbers, she still got nothing. And they were gaining. Vessa had never had to run for long periods of time. She was the one who pursued, and she didn’t need to chase to do that. She just grabbed the number, and it didn’t matter how far they got, unless they teleported too far away.

  Teleport. She could teleport. Except she didn’t know how. Vessa expanded her reach in her mind, but got nothing but normal numbers that weren’t doing great. All of them were in the high forties or low thirties.

  Why was this happening?

  Was this the Umbaan rep deciding after the dream that she needed to be killed? Vessa kept intending to let herself die, but her feet didn’t stop as her chest once again hurt and she was gasping in air. And still the steady thud of boots was behind her.

  Vessa screamed as a hand grabbed her shoulder, and she fell backwards. Her head hitting the ground as her number dropped. She could let it and see if she teleported again. A bite on her leg that made her nauseous had her kicking as she tried to get free. All plans of willingly letting them kill her gone.

  More bites to her shoulders, hips and thighs. And Vessa was instinctively pulling her number up to 100, her mind spinning. She couldn’t get free and she couldn’t escape.

  Vessa screamed again, only for one undead to bite her face. She was going to throw up.

  She was going to die. Except she didn’t, and the biting stopped. The hoard looking down at her waiting for something to happen though what she didn’t know.

  She breathed in and out, highly nauseous, as they walked away. What just happened? Why were they leaving?

  If she got up, would they attack her again? Vessa didn’t know and the smart thing would be to lie and wait until they left, but she couldn’t, so she slowly stood up. Afraid that at any moment, they would turn around and charge after her.

  She stood still for several moments just watching them walk away, her body pulsing with pain, but now that it wasn’t actively happening, it wasn’t that bad, especially compared to being tortured. The worst part was she was still nauseous and when they fully disappeared, she threw up and then dry heaved for what seemed an eternity.

  When her body finally stopped puking. Vessa assessed her injuries. There were teeth marks all over her clothing, blood staining the magenta.

  The bite marks themselves were still there, but she could feel them tingle and she watched them shrink through the bigger holes in her clothing. When they went, would another hoard of undead attack her? Was there something about the bites that made them think she was one of them?

  Vessa looked around herself, no longer surrounded by a painted forest. Instead, most of the walls were white with two lines in the middle, one green and the other black.

  So she was still in the IIA’s part of the ship.

  What now?

  With no better idea, Vessa started walking again, halting at every noise and checking her bites to make sure they were still there. They were, but they were getting smaller every time she checked.

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  At corners Vessa slowly crept around, ready to run at any sight of undead. Until she came around one corner and saw people. Instead of running, she froze. They didn’t turn to look at her.

  Vessa reached out and got nothing. According to her mind, they weren’t there. So they were undead. Vessa looked past them to a wall. A dead end except numbers approached it and the crowd got excited. Meaning it was another hidden door.

  The numbers weren’t getting farther away, which meant they couldn’t hear the crowd of undead waiting to kill them, eat them. She could try to warn them, but if they opened the door, Vessa could get through, as she still had bite marks.

  Except if the rest of the ship had undead wandering around, then whenever the bite marks healed, she would probably get attacked again. Not something she wanted to experience. Which left her where?

  There were only four people on the other side of the door and Vessa looked over the crowd. Trying to get the total amount of people from her mind and getting nothing. She quickly counted ten, but Vessa wasn’t sure she hadn’t double counted one or missed a few. Either way, too many for four to face.

  She took a step forward and the crowd turn to look at her. Vessa realized she was just guessing that they wouldn’t attack her. After a long moment where Vessa held her breath, the crowd looked back to the door. It was opening.

  She had taken too long to think.

  “Run. They’re undead.” Vessa yelled before she knew she was speaking.

  “Shit!” A man said as green light began hitting the undead, causing them to fall back and filling the hall with a sickly sweet smell.

  “Cancel the opening, cancel the opening.” Another man said.

  “I am, I am.” Another said the green light kept coming as the doors slowly shut until they were fully closed, with Vessa still trapped on the same side.

  The undead banged on the doors, trying to get through to no avail, and the numbers got further and further away.

  What now?

  Her bite marks were almost gone, so she couldn’t stay where she was, but she was bound to hit another hoard of undead with fully healed skin, and that would happen over and over again. And as the four people had acted immediately on her words that had to mean that the undead were all over the ship. A quick intake of the entire ship confirmed that.

  So what did she do?

  Find a bigger group of alive people and see if she could help them defeat the threat. Was that even possible? None of the undead waiting at the doors looked injured anymore. Never the less, it still seemed her best option. As Vessa walked away, she reached out around her immediate area, looking for numbers. There, she found a group.

  Male 35: 44%, Male 32: 67%, Male 22: 53%, Male 27: 36%, Female 27: 64%, Female 24: 34%, Male 21: 43%, Male 46: 12%, Male 19% 56%

  A quick look at her healed skin and Vessa began running as she latched onto the numbers. Hopefully, she would find them before another group of undead found her.