As the zombies ripped and clawed at the weak wood holding them out, I stumbled back as one lunged its decaying arm at me and pulled out my ray gun. Firing a few shots in the general direction of the zombies, splash after splash of green light poured out of the gun until it started to click. Wondering why such a brilliant gun would only hold twenty shots, I backed away until I hit another machine, apparently called a PhD Flopper. It was big and yellow, with a spiky purple circle on top of it. Throwing my empty ray gun down onto the floor, I decided to take a chance with this new mystery drink. I knocked it back, the sour sweet taste of prunes hitting the back of my throat making me cough.
The zombies broke into a sprint, and I backed away from them not knowing what to do. I ran down the stairs until they had me cornered near the bottom, so I broke away and ran back up, trying to herd them until the men returned. More zombies came from behind me, so I accepted my fate and decided that if I was going to die that jumping into a big group of zombies would be the most interesting way to go. Taking a running start, I dived off the top of the staircase and closed my eyes.
BOOM.
As I opened my eyes, all I could see was a luminescent blue light surrounding me as zombie corpses fell to the floor like a chain of dominoes. Shaking, I stood up, confused. No longer had I got to my feet that I saw one lone, limping zombie making its steady way towards me. I pulled out the sickle I'd found near the lander (I think it was Nikolai's) and watched in fascination as zombie blood and guts splashed everywhere. It fell to the ground with a scream, and I flopped down next to it as my legs gave way.
'Kate! What the hell did you do that for? That's not cool, and don't think just 'cause you're a girl you're gonna get away with this!' I saw Tank come sprinting towards me, a scowl etched over his face. The creases across his features faded into shock as he saw me sat on the floor, covered in zombie blood, surrounded by undead corpses.
'Holy shit, what happened to you?' he strolled over to where I was sitting, and crouched down next to me.
'Nothing of interest.' I muttered towards the zombie corpse.
'Them undead meatsacks must have heard you running your mouth when you kicked off like that. Typical woman. Couldn't let it go, could ya? Richtofen's a strange man, we've all had to make sacrifices having him around, but he's pretty much the only one who knows what he's doing.' Tank was making me mad, I picked up the sickle off the floor and started cleaning it, not wanting to look at him for fear of bursting into tears.
'Tank, you just don't get it. I need them needles. I need my fix, or I won't be able to live my life.' I kept my tone low, not once taking my eyes off the sickle.
'Well you just fought off a huge crowd of zombies on your own, you seem to be doing pretty well to me.' Tank smirked, I shot him a look like daggers. I wasn't in the mood to argue.
'Where is everyone else?' I changed the subject to stop the stupid American grinning at me any longer.
'At the mainframe, where you banished us to, of course.'
'I have a question.'
'And what might that be?' Tank looked on at me curiously.
'My ray gun. Why does it only fire twenty shots? It's such a good gun, surely with such a small amount of ammo that's a pretty big design flaw?' I passed him the gun, and I startled when I was met with a reaction of loud, hysterical laughter from the marine.
'Oh my god. Tough little London chick who fought off all the zombies single-handed doesn't know how to reload a gun!' I scowled at him, livid as he cracked up about my lack of knowledge with weaponry. He showed me how to reload the gun, before grabbing my arm and pulling me up.
'Let's take a trip to the mainframe. But stay away from Edward, he's pissed at you.'
I grabbed my purple bag next to the PhD Flopper machine and we made our way to the others. I was greeted with a cheeky smirk from Nikolai, a curt nod from Takeo, and Edward didn't seem to be anywhere nearby. I was glad about this.
'Katie! Come! You must drink vodka with us, we are speaking of our countries and of old times!' Nikolai motioned for me to sit next to him, I did so happily as he handed me a half-full bottle of vodka and I took a few swigs. As soon as the liquid slid down my throat, I felt myself become fuzzy and warm, and somewhat at home with these guys. We chatted for what seemed like forever – Takeo told me all about his culture in Japan, about how he'd dedicated his life to family and honour, and Nikolai shared some stories of life in Russia, his wives, and his political career. Looking at him, you'd never think he'd been married so many times. Or that he'd actually killed a fair few of those women, when they'd deserved it. Nikolai wasn't afraid to stand up for himself, and I admired this about him.
'Kate, you are from England yes? Very honourable country, tell me of your culture.' Takeo motioned for me to drink some more vodka, I knocked it back and took a breath.
'I live in a small flat in South London by myself, but my best mate Jenna stays a lot. We throw a lot of parties, we go clubbing every weekend. We get high all day, every day. And when none of us have drug money near the end of the month, we just get a few beers in and share them between about six of us. My parents want nothing to do with me, they feel like I've failed them 'cause I've been living my life the way I want to. They're quite posh and rich, but they don't support me financially. I make my money selling drugs, that's how I pay the rent. It's a good life, I'm not caged into some nine-to-five office job like everyone else. I feel free. The only thing that I'd want to change is the fact I don't know when to stop. When I moved onto heroin, everything seemed to blur into one long sorry comedown. That's what kind of drug it is. It screws you up. I just don't know when to stop sometimes, I guess. That's why I got mad about Edward taking my needles.'
Tank had joined us by now, and the three men stared at me intently.
'I live differently to most people. My friends and I are more liberated than your average Londoner who does their Monday to Friday hours and happily sits in front of their TV with Big Brother and the X Factor blaring out of it, surrounded by consumerism and corporate nonsense. They're happy living in their illusion of freedom and thinking that their life has meaning, when in fact they're just chess pieces for the corporations at the top who really run the game. I couldn't live that sort of life.' I swirled the vodka round in its bottle, the whole thing nearly diminished between me, Nikolai, Tank and Takeo.
After we'd drank the rest of the vodka, I pulled a small container out of my bag, only marked with the letter E. I felt a bit down after drinking and talking about the world back home, so I decided I needed a pick-me-up and offered it to the guys.
'What the hell are those things?' Asked Tank, looking at the multicoloured pills I'd taken out and was holding.
'Ecstasy. It makes you feel happy.' I said, nonplussed, as I knocked one back. I offered it to the others.
'Nikolai is up for anything!' exclaimed the Russian as he took a yellow smiley-faced pill from my hand and swallowed it.
'I do not need substances to bring me joy, only honour!' Takeo swayed as he spoke, before spontaneously flopping back where he was sitting and settled into a drunken slumber, snoring quietly.
'God damn, Taks, this happens every time! He really can't handle his drink. Hell, why not, I'll give it a spin.' Tank took a pink pill from my hand, closed his eyes and swallowed it, grimacing at the chalky taste.
The familiar feeling rushed over me, I felt my heart begin to pound in my ears and chest, happy feelings raced through my whole body, coursing with energy.
'Show me what that big thing does!' I pointed to the large horizontal piece of metal suspended on a platform above me, which made a sound every now and then and spun.
'The centrifuge? Oh, it's great. When me and the guys are goofing off with nothing to do we like to hang onto it and set it off, and see who lasts the longest.' Tank explained, a boyish excitement in his tone shining through. I took off the hoodie I was wearing, threw it over the top of the centrifuge, and grabbed the sleeves.
'Give me a spin!' I shouted, excited.
Tank danced over to the controls by the lander, the pills were obviously starting to hit him. Nikolai stared at both of us, sitting on the floor in fits of giggles.
'Little girl will not last five seconds on centrifuge!' He lay on the floor, cracking up to the point of hysteria.
'Ready?' yelled Tank, I grabbed the sleeves of my hoodie tightly and braced myself.
'Hit it, American!' I shouted, as soon as he pressed the button I felt myself get lifted off the floor as the centrifuge made me fly. I clung onto the sleeves of my hoodie for dear life as I laughed my head off, spinning round and round, getting dizzier and dizzier, until...
CRASH.
I landed by Tank's feet near the lander, my hair all over my face from where I'd been spinning, I rolled over, cracking up. I gave Tank a spin, he lasted all of about ten seconds, but when it came to Nikolai's turn and he threw up after lasting for about thirty seconds I decided to take a walk.
Oh, the fun you could have in an abandoned Soviet space station.
Wanting to go somewhere a bit different, I headed up the stairs we'd come from, and remembered that if I took a right I'd be somewhat near the PhD Flopper machine. As I took the left route, I headed up a short set of stairs and began to hear a voice. A voice with a strong German accent. I was so overcome with love for everything and everyone right in that moment, and decided that I would have to reach out to Edward to make him feel it too. He was, after all, stuck in here with the rest of us.
I crept as quietly as I could towards the source of his voice, and hiding behind some boxes, I saw the tall, skinny German man sitting next to another lander pad. He was holding what seemed to be the hand of a zombie, I felt slightly creeped out as I moved a bit closer.
A pair of sharp, practically glowing green eyes settled on me as soon as I'd dared to move forward and the zombie hand rolled away down the hill which had the lander pad stationed on it. A stoic look covered his features, he folded his arms and motioned for me to come closer.
'Vhat do you vant?' his tone was full of venom, I edged closer to him a step at a time, the thumping of my heart getting louder.
'Edward! Hello!' I threw him my best smile, the one that got me laid at nightclubs on numerous occasions.
'I zhought zhe American told you to shtay avay from me.' He didn't return the smile, his scowl deepened into a glare.
'He did, but I've never been one to do what other people tell me.' I sat down next to him, a few feet away to keep a safe distance.
'Vell now I'm telling you, GO AVAY! You have no purpose here, shtupid little girl!' he snapped, and I startled.
'I just wanted to say sorry for being a bitch to you. It was a shock, that's all.' I smiled weakly at him, his expression remained unchanged.
'Zhat is fine. You may go now.' He motioned towards the door on the other side of the room, but I wasn't going to give up on him straightaway.
'What are you hiding, Edward? You were so nice to me earlier.'
'I am hiding nozhing.'
I pursed my lips, and looked on at him intently.
'Fine. I am not used to female company. I forget zhey can be so bitchy and mean.' Edward muttered, looking away from me.
I edged a bit closer to him, and put my hand on his shoulder. He startled, his eyes widened in shock as he stared at my hand as though it were going to bite him.
'I'm sorry, Edward. Those needles mean more to me than anything. But don't worry, I'll sort something out. I'm pretty sure I can smoke that stuff anyway. I just wanted to come and apologise, and tell you how much I love you guys even though I've known you for like two days.'
'Vhy do you feel like zhat? Ve are in a terrible situation.'
'Maybe so, but you work so well as a team, and you've coped pretty well with a new intruder in your hideout.' I smiled at him, and felt my stomach leap as he smiled weakly back at me. In that moment, I stared into those green orbs and saw a hint of anguish, masked by total confusion. I pulled him closer to me, into a soft hug. I leant my head against his, we both looked up at the starry night sky and said nothing.
I didn't know if it was just the drink and drugs, or if I was just going a bit crazy being away from normality, but I knew something was wrong.
I liked Edward.
