ShowerKrogan

  Hoping Becca wasn’t the type to kill a man with his back turned, I left her behind to go inside. I assumed Dr. Ava would obsess over the puppy for a while, so I would have time for a quick shower. Then maybe another. I might just curl up in there for a few hours. I hoped she would at least get some food and water for the pup. I would say she should know to do that since she was an adult, but adult is a loose term with her. Ridiculously brilliant woman, some rather odd mannerisms. She was entertaining to be around, but damn, she was a hot mess.

  As soon as I opened the door, a man rushed across the room to me.

  “GRAYSON! Our very own action hero!” he yelled and brought me into a bear hug. He smelled like sweat and meat. Holy cow, I just realized I am starving. A group of thirty-something people erupted in cheers behind him.

  “Hey, Quinn. Good to see you again,” I said and pushed my way free of his embrace. I tried to keep a straight face, but the chaotic celebration was dragging a sheepish grin out of me.

  “Becca was giving us the py-by-py while you were out there. Poor thing was worried sick. Didn’t know an AI could be so scared,” Quinn rambled on with his arm around me, pulling me further into the facility where a group of people were cracking open beers and other alcohol. I looked over my shoulder at Becca, who was now very interested in the doorframe.

  Quinn was about my size, a hair taller, and kept himself in solid shape. He had the build of a cross-country runner, weirdly thin for someone who could destroy entire extra-rge pizzas on his own. He was one of the people who lived here full-time and was everyone’s favorite. Mostly because he was constantly cooking huge meals and sharing with anyone who was hungry.

  He led me toward the kitchen. The first floor was mainly for the kitchen area. The kitchen was the size of a small house; any indoor cooking appliance you could think of was in there. There was a dining hall with several rge, white top tables with enough seats for rge groups to eat together and enough space for people to spread out and eat alone.

  A living room took up the rest of the space with a few fluffy sofas and a powerful electric firepce. There was no chimney, so the firepce wasn’t real, but it sure felt like a real fire when it was in use. I was never brave enough to touch the projected fmes and see how they felt.

  Quinn continued telling me about what I had just gone through, but from Becca’s perspective, “... and then when you jumped through the open doors of a helicopter as it came crashing down?! Holy shit, dude, that was wild! Who the hell pulls off a stunt like that?!”

  “I uh- well, Tom Cruise would probably try- but Becca said what?” I asked him.

  “You’re a total badass, dude! She said you literally jumped through the open side doors of a helicopter as it came crashing to the ground. Insane!” Quinn expined again.

  “Uh, Becca?” I asked.

  Becca: I may have taken some… creative liberties.

  “Quiet everyone! Update from D.C.!” someone yelled from the dining hall.

  I started to follow the crowd into the dining hall when I saw a heap of bck metal folded up in the room's corner. Bck hair could be seen mixed in with the metal, and a soft red glow emitted from the center.

  “What’s uh, what’s Becca’s body doing over there? I didn’t think Dr. Ava had it ready to go yet?” I asked Quinn.

  “My dude, she was in a pure panic when she realized you were in danger. She was losing it when you were at that dealership. I couldn’t believe my eyes; she tried to force her body out of the facility to go protect you. It colpsed before she even got out the door. I think someone has a cruussshhhh,” he sang the st sentence and then chuckled to himself.

  Poor Becca. She didn’t act like she was in a panic; maybe that was for my benefit. If I had known she was panicking, it would have made me panic a little more. Okay, a lot more. To put it mildly, this was a stressful day. Becca had been forced to figure out everything that was happening based on what I was saying out loud. I felt a touch of happiness that she cared that much. Even if she was just a robot.

  We all piled into the dining area to look at the news report on the TV. Dr. Ava came inside in time to follow us. The puppy trotted along beside her until he saw me and rushed over, keeping his body low to the ground. I scooped him up and held him against me while we watched the news report.

  "It has now been confirmed: the President of the United States is dead. The Vice President is also believed to have been killed, though we are still awaiting confirmation. Most of the Cabinet has been killed or reported missing, along with the majority of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The st emergency orders issued granted executive authority to states where the state governments remain intact. New Mexico, California, Colorado, Washington, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Maine, Rhode Isnd, and West Virginia are the only known states with mostly functioning governments and will have jurisdiction over their surrounding states. We will provide details on which states fall under whose jurisdiction shortly. However, with the rapidly increasing number of the dead reanimating and attacking the living, we are unsure how much longer these state governments will retain any sembnce of power. We will continue reporting for as long as we are able, but one thing has become clear: the United States of America has fallen. The estimated U.S. death toll is one hundred fifty million and climbing. Military responses have failed. Most, if not all, major cities have fallen. Bombing campaigns targeting areas with the highest concentrations of the living dead were underway but have failed to slow the spread of the reanimated dead. The outlook is no better outside the United States. The worldwide death toll has reached over two billion, with projections expecting that number to climb to over five billion within the next seventy-two hours. Do whatever you can to remain safe, avoid highly poputed areas, and—"

  The TV went bck, and Dr. Ava tossed the remote onto a nearby table.

  “Talk about being a buzzkill,” she said and walked off to grab herself a gss bottle from the fridge. “What a year for the news. First those giant spider things showing up on the beach and now zombies? Like we’re living in some immature moron’s imagination.”

  The dining area was now filled with people staring at the bnk screen. Some had their hands over the mouths, others were praying, Quinn was smacking on a huge sandwich, and many were crying. This was not the way they had expected to spend their Halloween.

  “So, the zombie shit is everywhere? I figured with all our guns and military we would put up a much bigger fight. Feels like it was more than a virus or weird infection, my vote is some kind of bioweapon that went wrong. Really wrong,” I said, and scratched the puppy behind the ears. I needed to come up with a name soon. Even as the world ends, the puppy deserves a name. “This is literally the apocalypse, then. I can’t believe it happened this fast,”

  Becca popped into the room beside me and chimed in, ”Everyone was so worried about sentient AI violently taking over the world. I never even had the chance. Your human society has come to an end.”

  Ignoring that, I felt weirdly calm about this whole thing. I guess being out in the thick of it and fighting my way back home left me a little emotionally exhausted for the time being. I mean, who cares about the end of the world when you overdid your cardio for the day. The weight of it all would hit me ter once I had time to process.

  “Not necessarily,” Dr. Ava said after a rge swig from her bottle. “Didn’t you hear? The United States federal government has fallen! That means we might actually have a chance!”

  She barked out a ugh and literally spped her knee. I chuckled, but the faces of everyone else were unamused. A lot of hushed whispers between people, and some gathered their things and headed back to the rooms. I heard some mutterings that some were leaving the facility to brave the zombies and find their families.

  All I could care about at the moment was a shower. I was covered in blood, guts, brains, and God knows what else. I was probably carrying dozens of diseases on me. The pup needed a bath as well. Then I needed to charge up the drones and find Mal. I should look for Sam too, but she was probably long gone in that Humvee. Assuming that one dude doesn’t turn into a zombie while they’re sleeping or something and surprise attack them. I hope she heard my warning and could protect herself. I promised Mal and Sam I would keep them safe, kinda butchered that. But who the hell would predict a helicopter crash and a Humvee smashing through perfectly good doors to abduct someone? The zombies were one thing; that shit was just pin ridiculous.

  “Dr. Gale is going to be pissed!” Dr. Ava was shouting from the kitchen while rummaging around in the pantry. ‘First those spiders, and now this?! Bahaha. I feel bad about that thing with his wife, though. Not a great year for him. At least he gets to hang out with Dave. He’s probably as safe as it gets.”

  “Dr. Gale…” Becca started to say. Her hologram looked thoughtful, if not concerned. “I had discovered recently that he was back in a new facility with Dr. Kale again. I wonder if I am able to reach him there.”

  “Ooh, I would like to speak with him too, Becca. I need to ask him about…” Dr. Ava went on and on about some science stuff that went way over my head.

  “Do whatever you need to do, Becca,” I said. Ignoring Dr. Ava’s rambling, I left the dining hall, grabbed someone’s freshly cooked meal out of the kitchen for the pup, and headed towards the stairs to go down into my room. I hesitated briefly to look upstairs.

  The second floor had a full bar, some pool tables, a foosball table, and a few skeetball games. It was quite popur outside of working hours. Especially since most of the people who worked in the facility either lived here or stayed over most nights. The games produced tickets based on performance, but no one has a clue what they’re used for.

  I considered going up there and raiding the bar for something to ease the memories of today, but the call of the shower was too irresistible. I could heavily damage my liver ter. I turned back toward the stairs, but Dr. Ava ran after me before I got too far.

  “Wait, Grayson,” she said and caught me as I reached the door to the stairs. “We need to take the elevator.”

  “No, no,” I said, and shook my head in violent disagreement. “I need to go down to my private room on the floor below, with my private bathroom, and do private bathroom things.”

  Dr. Ava pulled her hand back a little, and it hovered over my shoulder. “Uh,” was all she could muster.

  “Yeah, that came out wrong. I meant I’m just going to shower. Becca can’t haunt me there, so it’s as private as it gets. That’s all I meant. I wanted some time alone mentally. I’m not going in there to do… what I kinda implied I was going to do,” I said and felt my face growing warm. This was an awkward conversation to have in the middle of a rge room full of people. At least they were panicking and not listening, or caring, about a thing we had said.

  “Right, you can private bathroom yourself or whatever soon. We have an urgent update for you and Becca. That’s why I was trying to reach you originally this morning. Before the world went to hell,” she said and tried to pull me away from the door to the stairs.

  “Nope! Shower only. Update ter,” I was not giving in, and there was nothing she could do to make me. She would have to kill me to prevent me from going to that shower.

  “Ugh, fine,” she said and started digging in her pockets, huffing to herself. “Will you answer one thing for me first?”

  “Sure,” I said through gritted teeth and a strained, polite smile.

  She held out a white rag and asked, “Does this smell like chloroform to you?”

  “What? No- that smells gross. Where the hell were you storing that? That doesn’t work anyway; that’s some Hollywood crap that-” the doctor poked me with a needle in my neck mid-sentence.

  “Damnityoucheated,” I muttered as I started wobbling. “Grabthedog.”

  Everything went groggy and my vision faded to bck. Again.