The Disease

Elias and Jozette had opted to go with the injured man to the med bay while the workers stayed behind just outside the space bridge entrance to the ship. They were waiting for Jesse to clear it, and Kaori, only being comfortable with Jesse, stayed behind as well, anxiously waiting for him to return. 

How did the zombie even get in there!? Are there more trapped in there? She wondered to herself. When they had opened the hatch, it was like unsealing a brand-new toy; they were the first ones to board it. 

She began to get antsy, shifting between legs; she had a really bad feeling about all of this. 

But what can I really do!?  

Kaori let out an exasperated sigh, before taking off into the ship after Jesse, though the others were more surprised she hadn't gone in already; after all she was their Princess, the fearless woman that had went head first into an infected ship to save as many as possible. 

Shit, shit, shit, shit! She screamed to herself as her heels clicked against the metal while she ran through the halls. I don't even know where I'm going!  

Kaori felt like she had years of experience in apocalypses through her various amounts of games and thousands of hours played, always saying what'd she do if zombies ever came to exist, but now that it was true, she was clueless. 

"Stop running," she whispered to herself aloud, slowing down to a careful, frantic walk, as if she needed to command her muscles verbally and mentally at the same time for them to actually slow. 

Tap, tap, tap, she listened as her heels quietly clicked. Why these? She moaned, switching to more of a tip toe. Probably why this version of me died. Like heroes wearing capes. Makes no sense. Do movies not exist here? She pinched herself, "don't be an asshole." 

She began to go down halls she hadn't gone through hours prior, and as she went deeper and deeper, she began to hear a muffled, rhythmical thud, like a machine working. She scrunched her brows in fearful confusion as she sneakily made her way over to where the sound was coming from. 

Kaori felt her heart pounding within her chest as she got closer, and it almost hurt. 

As she inched closer and closer towards the room, following only sounds instead of signs, she realized they were coming from a room called "Power Supply Room." 

If the zombie was in there, at least it hadn't gotten far. Hopefully it was the only one. 

The door was still open, a code having overridden it to stay put, and as she peeked inside, she saw nothing of interest. 

There were small smears of blood on multiple surfaces, but the room was so huge and full of mainframes, and office desks and junk, that she couldn't see Jesse at all. But she had a gut feeling the sounds weren't machinery; so, she went inside the room to find him. 

It was well lit, but it didn't change the fear that was welling up inside of her. 

Inside of the room, and immediately on the right-hand side of a small section to move around, was a wall made up of many screens, with a large desk that stretched across it with more monitors upon it. Each screen on the wall seemed to represent a room's power; how much one was using, if they were low, a disconnect, anything that happened power-wise, the room knew about it. 

The desk had screens that represented the room's own power, which had pictures and percentages. She was a bit confused on it, since the pictures were of glowing blue crystals. 3 of them were a glowing, light blue and labeled as 100%, while the 4th was just slightly darker, and was at a much lower percentage. 

Not having time to investigate further, she turned to her left where the rest of the room was filled with a maze of machines; a singular path leading into it, while a soft thud was being repeated somewhere inside. 

Kaori took a deep breath, and as she began to make her way into the maze, she pulled her dagger out, refusing to blink. She felt as if leaving her eyes wider would help her a bit better; If even 1% better, she wasn't risking it. 

She looked like a bug, though. 

"Jesse?" She whispered out, just shy of asking normally. "Are you in here?" But there wasn't an answer, and she was forced to continue going deeper into the maze. 

And the deeper she went, the louder and more defined the noises became. She whined silently. 

"Jesse!?" She whispered a bit louder as she entered into an area that split into many different paths. She took a deep, calming breath once more and picked a random one that she thought would lead her to Jesse. 

Still no answer, though. 

Thump... 

Thump... 

Thump... 

Louder and louder the noises became as Kaori went deeper into the maze of electronics, until finally they seemed to be coming from a walkway directly next to her. 

"Jesse?" she whispered out quietly, but still no answer. 

Thump... 

Thump... 

Thump... 

The thuds were getting much louder; whatever it was, was extremely close. 

When she reached another crossway of paths, instead of walking into the middle of it and into another, she decided to side step around the exit of her current one, carefully, while keeping her back as close to the tall console as possible. Her back began heating up from the faint amount of heat it was letting off as she moved about in front of it, though the heat was almost comforting. 

When she was finally just a swivel away from going down the walkway, she heard the sounds coming from, she peeked around the corner, secretly hoping nothing would be there other than Jesse doing something completely normal. 

Please! 

But to no avail. 

Jesse was hunched over a dead body on the ground, a zombie, and he was covered in blood. 

He was pounding on it with one of his fists, while the other remained on the collar of the heavily stained shirt the corpse still had on. The cowboy, without faltering, kept punching it over and over again, steadily, as he continued bashing the dead body's face in, deforming it severely while spraying infected blood everywhere, and all over him. But Jesse didn't seem to care. He was in a rage, and it was clear he thought he was still alone. 

He couldn't hear her, only the thoughts that raced through his head. 

"Fucking asshole!" Jesse screamed out, "I will find him and I will kill that motherfucker!" 

Realizing that he was still sane compared to a zombie, she finally emerged from her hiding spot while calling out his name normally and in a way he would actually listen. 

"Kaori?" His voice softened immediately as he turned to face her, standing up while dropping the corpse like a sack of gory potatoes. "How long have you been here?" His cheeks turned red with embarrassment. 

"Not long," she smiled weakly at him, "are you alright?" 

"No." He simply said. "We have a major safety issue right now," he held up a small, black origami star between his thumb and forefinger. "The Disease is on The Accular." 

"The Disease?" 

"A failed reincarnation."