A knock on my door woke me up.

  The idiot in me hoped it was @auroraloon, that she wanted to talk. Then the bigger idiot in me got aroused, thinking maybe it was @hissyfit, that she had wandered off to disappointment that night and had decided to take a more direct approach by presenting me with that spunky little body of hers.

  Another knock interrupted my daydreaming.

  But it wasn't a gentle knock. It wasn't one of those secret knocks in the night, the cheesy kind that led to a passionate encounter.

  It was a vigorous beating on the door that would wake everyone in the hotel, and it was accompanied by shouting. Not just shouting. Screaming.

  I wasn't fully awake, but I could sense the urgency. My futurecasting told me what everyone else was just figuring out.

  The virus was here.

  My first thought was Sango. I didn't have a proper way to carry him, but there was no way I was leaving him behind. I had only brought Sango and a few of my weapons with me, since my Infiltrator armor was self-cleaning and I could now replicate several outfits.

  Pillowcase it was. We had done it before when we were trying not to get sucked up by Graviton, so why not? We could do it again.

  "Hey, Buddy," I cooed. He was curled up in a ball by where my feet had been, but his ears were perked up, and his eyes were open. "I know you're going to hate this, but it's back into a pillowcase for you."

  I pulled a pillow out from the one I had been using. Sango would like having some of my scent on it, I figured. Maybe it would help soothe him. I scooped him up and lowered him inside. He was still waking up and luckily didn't fight me on it. Then I twisted the end of the pillowcase and looped it around my left wrist, opening and closing the grappling hook to secure it in place.

  Not bad. It was the best I could do, and at least I could still fire a gun.

  The pounding and shouting continued outside. I was scared to open the door because opening the door would make it real and pull me straight into the nightmare. The night with @auroraloon had taught me that being here on the Pit with nothing to do didn't have to be boring, and now all I wanted was to be stranded here for 100 years, but I knew Sango and I were doomed if I didn't jump into the fray.

  "Coming!" I yelled at the door.

  I quickly slung a pack of shotgun slugs across my shoulders and grabbed my funk20. The shh500 would be easier on our ears, especially for Sango, but if this was as bad as Dactyl, I needed the shotgun.

  It was @awesomedog at the door, and he was relieved when I finally opened it.

  "It's here! The virus. Come on!" he shouted. He had seemed so calm on Dactyl, but something was different about him this time, and I wasn't sure what. Something had clearly shaken him.

  "Yeah, I know. Fill me in." I slammed the door behind me and reached out to an open channel.

  kittyboy: "Virus is live at Peaches. Everybody check in."

  "It was @foxcutter," @awesomedog explained. His words came spilling out with urgency. "I had just gone to the restroom. Some of the pirates were still down at the bar, along with some of the regulars."

  "@foxcutter?" I interrupted. "But we checked him."

  "I know, but when I got back, he was convulsing on the floor."

  We continued down the hall. Pounding on doors as we went, yelling, "Evacuate! Get to a ship!"

  No one was responding to my hail.

  kittyboy: "Virus is loose. Everybody check in. Get to a ship ASAP!"

  "Before I knew it," @awesomedog continued, "@foxcutter had grabbed @bitchfrog."

  Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. "Is she okay?" She had to be okay.

  "Yes, @crazysnake pulled her away, but then he grabbed @motorbutt, and it was chaos after that. It happened so fast."

  "Why isn't @bitchfrog with you?" I asked. She was human. Surely, @awesomedog knew she would be a priority.

  "She ran off with the pirates."

  Okay, good. At least she was with someone. The Starhawks were a scrappy group, and from the stories they told, they'd been through a lot together. Heck, they survived a run-in with The Pharaoh, after all.

  "I can't get anyone on the comm," I said to @awesomedog. I was trying not to panic, but if I couldn't reach anyone … I didn't want to think about it. The screaming in the distance was a mix of terrified and feral. I knew it was spreading, and spreading fast. "Can you?"

  "No," @awesomedog said. "That's why I showed up at your door."

  No comms, I thought. Just like Dactyl. Had this been planned? Was someone here working with the enemy? Had they taken down communications across the station?

  But then I would still have been able to use a short-range transmission. What if the virus also triggered the overtaken into sending out jamming signals?

  I thought about it. A single person would be able to block the transmissions from those nearby, in close proximity, but as more got infected, what if the overtaken could daisy-chain the jamming across other infected? If so, they could block a much wider area. No wonder we couldn't reach anyone, and it would only get worse as more people turned.

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  Like any good captain, I knew the room numbers of our group. I mapped them out in my head and transmitted the locations to @awesomedog.

  "You go down. I go up."

  @awesomedog gave a quick nod and vanished, disappearing using his armor. I wondered where he had sent Kibble. The little robot dog was hopefully doing the same thing as us and not lying in a scrap pile somewhere.

  I turned my armor invisible. It wouldn't be able to encase the pillowcase, but it would still make me harder to detect, masking the signatures coming off my body and the suit itself. I'd look like a floating pillowcase.

  @foxcutter? I still couldn't believe it. What kind of virus was this that we couldn't detect with our scans and medical exams? Had they wanted us to free him? I had to ask Oblivion if it knew anything. So far, the ship didn't know much. @moonqueen and @bronzelion had been careful about spreading information.

  We were on the fourth floor. The lower floors were @auroraloon, @dustcaller, @zerogstar, @lovebuzz, and @crazysnake. @awesomedog was on my floor, as was @bitchfrog. The fifth floor was @hissyfit. The sixth floor was @stardvark and @dragonlotus.

  @hissyfit was first, then, in room 515. I made for the stairs, trying not to jostle Sango too much as I sped up and over to her room. The sounds running through the building told me that I didn't have time to knock on every door anymore. I needed to prioritize.

  I rapped loudly on her door, waiting impatiently.

  An extremely tired @hissyfit opened the door. Her narrow eyes surveyed the area outside her room curiously. She was wearing silk pajamas, cream colored with some kind of blue cartoon princess pattern running up and down. I was not expecting expensive pajamas. I guess pirating had its rewards. Like this, in her natural state away from the others, she was unexpectedly authentic and lovely.

  I realized I was invisible. That seemed foolish now. I popped in a set of my Vanquisher armor. It was an aggressive-looking set of armor, black with a thick red line running down the left side. If I were really wearing it, not the Infiltrator mimic, it would be stronger than what I was actually wearing, but the flexibility and comfort of the Infiltrator armor was great.

  She jumped when I popped into her vision, and she reached back to throw a punch. Then her blue eyes focused slowly on me in recognition.

  "Took you long enough," @hissyfit said, with a tired smile. She reached out and pulled my arm, letting me go when I didn't move. She walked into the darkness of her room. "Come on. You can come in."

  I walked in after her, trying to stay focused on survival rather than the fact that @hissyfit had invited me into her room. I closed and locked the door. We needed to get out of here, but at least we were locked in for now.

  Zombies are here to kill us all. Just tell her.

  I flipped the light switch by the door, and a dim light flickered to life where I stood by the entrance. When I turned, @hissyfit was standing right in front of me. The smell of jasmine and rose filled my nose. She must have showered after the long night of drinking. She ran a hand over her buzzed head.

  "You're dressed for battle," she observed. Even tired, she was keen. "What's happening?"

  "Zombies are here to kill us all," I said, rushing the words.

  Her eyes widened. "You were serious about that?"

  "Yes! Get dressed. No time. We have to get out of here."

  @hissyfit raised an eyebrow and stepped closer. "But instead of fighting, you came here." She placed a small hand on my chin, forcing me to look at her. I vaguely noticed her other hand move, grasping my right hand in hers, warm and firm. "Hmm," she whispered.

  The vibration of her hmm made me gulp. Why now? I cursed.

  She was surprisingly calmer than I was. She hadn't seen what I had seen, though. She released my hand and walked toward her bed, looking around the room at her scattered clothes. She sat on the edge of the bed, hands on her chin, princess pajamas scrunched up around her waist. You'd never have known people were dying outside.

  "You came here," she repeated. "Are we trapped?"

  "I don't know," I admitted. "But we will be if we don't get out now."

  "Why not stay here?" she asked. She gestured at the minibar. "There isn't much food, but we have some, and we have water. Won't there be a rescue party?"

  I walked farther into the room, pondering her suggestion, doing the math in my head. My futurecasting told me that if we stayed, we would die. Maybe not right away, but eventually.

  "Communications are down," I explained. "I think we're on our own. And I think if we stay here, we'll die. Don't you hear the screaming? We've got to get out of here."

  The screaming. It was faint at the moment, the kind of noise you hear in a hotel where you wonder where it's coming from, but you know it's on another floor or emanating from the hotel bar or lobby. If you didn't know what was going on, you'd think there was a party happening somewhere. But if you listened closely, you could make out the cries.

  @hissyfit sat for two beats, then made her decision and sprang into action, slipping out of her pajama pants as she gathered her things. She crouched next to her bag of clothes, wearing the princess pajama top. She rummaged through her bag, then lifted her head and stared back at me.

  "If it's hopeless," she said, with an edge in her voice, "I'd rather enjoy myself before the end and blow myself up." She turned her attention back to her bag. "Live for the moment. Go out with a bang. Save the memories."

  If it were just me and I had no responsibilities, I'd probably feel the same. As aiways, that's what we do. Death is just death. She said it well. Live for the moment. Save the memories. It's the memories that matter.

  "I want to," I started, struggling for words. "But I have my crew, the humans, my cat." I lifted the bag with Sango in it. "I don't have a choice."

  "You have a cat?" she asked.

  I didn't respond. Instead, I wiggled the bag, and Sango obliged with a tiny meow.

  "Okay then," she uttered, nodding to herself. She seemed resigned now to a plan of escaping while we still had a chance.

  "I was going to show you this trick with your tongue," she said casually as she tugged on her leather pants. She yanked them up with her mouth open and did a swirl and a flickering of the tip of her tongue at me. "I call it the suckle thruster."

  I tried not to think about it, turning away as she started to remove her top.

  She laughed. "It's rude to turn away from someone when you're in the middle of a conversation."

  I chuckled. I wasn't expecting that. She was funny.

  I waited for the rustling of clothes to stop before turning back. She had put on a pink t-shirt and was slipping into her white leather jacket. When she was done, she snatched a snark15 pistol from her side table.

  "I will remember you, you know," I said. "This is a good memory."

  "Good is fine," @hissyfit said, giving another glance around the room. She reached down, picked up what looked like a grenade, and walked over to me. "It could have been amazing."

  She came in close and twirled her tongue around my neck. I felt the swirl, the flickering, and the swirl again. She paused, and when I didn't respond, she repeated the motion. Her tongue was warm and wet, but surprisingly tender as she trilled against me.

  I reached for her tiny hips, wrapping my hands around them. My brain was screaming. Just stay here. Save the world another day.

  "You okay?" she asked, snapping her fingers at me.

  When I didn't respond, she bit her lip and crinkled her forehead, studying me with her eyes.

  "You're going to dream about us, aren't you?" she said with an edge of mockery in her voice.

  "Yup," I said back.

  "See? Suckle thruster. That's a better memory." She slapped me firmly on the chest, winked, and brushed past me, running for the door with her gun raised. "You coming or what?"