OK here it is, the next chapter, and things start to get interesting for the gang. I am loosing a little heart on writing now, so reviews would be timely. I have no next chapter written, but plenty of ideas.
1810hrs Music Store - The Mall
Inside the music store, Lister picked up the triple fender guitar with optional play it like a god mode and strummed.
The guitar burst into life and a perfect cord emitted from it.
"The Axe man is back!" proclaimed Lister.
He tried another cord.
The guitar purred once more.
"Yeessss BRUTAL!"
Lister swung it across his back and continued to look around. That was when he heard the noise, only very faint but definitely something or somebody was here.
"Tap Tap Tap"
Yes there it was again. Lister fumbled in his pocket and took out the walkie talkie Kryten had issued them all with. He held it close to his mouth and hit the transmit button, then in a hushed whisper he radioed Kryten.
"Kryten man, can you hear me? Are you there man?"
A slight pause and then the small unit burst into life as Krytens voice loudly emitted from its tiny speakers.
"Yes Mr David sir I can, are you OK?" asked Kryten unaware of the need to talk quietly.
Lister found the volume knob and turned it down, glancing around to see if who or what had heard. He scanned the store, nope nothing moved.
"Listen man, there is something here, something alive." Said Lister into his unit.
He waited and then Krytens voice came though only quieter this time but with a more urgent tone. "Sir, you must leave at once, something has happened here, something most terrible."
Lister gulped and asked Kryten the question he did not really want to know. "Like what?"
"Well, it seems all the Holograms have got….." The radio went silent, the last bit did not come through. Lister looked down at the walkie talkie and tried a couple of experimental tabs on his palm. Krytens voice came back through.
"It's most awful sir, you have to come back now." Finished Kryten.
Lister hurriedly hit the transmit button. "What's so terrible? You are breaking up Kryten."
At the other end of the link Kryten heard only part of Listers message. He examined his device and tutted as he noted the label on the base. 'Made on Mars'.
Back in the store Lister hit the device again, and noticed with alarm that the red light on top had faded. 'SMEG BATTERIES!' he thought.
"Tap Tap Tap"
Listers eyes flicked up from the device towards where he thought the sound was coming from.
He followed the sound to the rear of the store.
Tap Tap Tap
It seemed to becoming from behind the counter.
"Hello anyone there?" he ventured.
No reply but he noticed that the tapping had stopped.
He gingerly looked over the counter. Pressed deep into the recess of the space under it was a girl, probably late teens or so he guessed.
"Err Hello." He tried.
Suddenly she flinched as almost seeing him for the first time and huddled further back into the counter.
"Hey it's OK, I won't hurt you. What's you name?" asked Lister.
No answer, she just twitched again.
"It's alright, I won't hurt you. You got a name?"
"Sam." Replied the girl in quite voice.
"Hi Sam, I'm Lister, Dave Lister. Are you here alone?" asked Lister.
She looked up him, fear in her eyes. "That depends on what you mean alone." She said.
He noticed the H on her forehead.
"You're a Hologram." Stated Lister.
She simply nodded.
"Err my mate, well he's not actually my mate but he's my bunk mate, oh smeg that sounds bad. We have a Hologram on Red Dwarf. That's where I am from, and you?"
"The Mall" was all she said.
"You're from the mall?" asked Lister.
She nodded again.
"OK, well nice to meet you Sam It's a pretty cool place you got here." Said Lister looking round the store.
She seemed to like that and a small smile crept across her lips.
"You like music huh? Me too." Ventured Lister.
"I play the guitar, but between you and me I'm a bit crap." Said Lister.
"Music is about self expression not what others think." Blurted the girl.
"Right, yeah I can dig that." Said Lister.
Lister looked down at his watch and realised he needed to head back to find the others. "Err I got to meet some friends, do you want to come?" he asked.
She seemed to think it over, then asked.
"What time is it?"
"Err it's six thirty pm." Said Lister looking at his watch again.
"OK, but we have to be back by eight." She said sternly.
"Why, is that when your mum wants you home?" Joked Lister.
She looked sternly at him. "No it's when they come." She said seriously.
"Who?" asked Lister not really wanting the answer, he already was starting to get a bad feeling about all of this.
"The others, the other Holograms." She said.
"What's wrong with that?" asked Lister.
"They are not very well." Was all she said, she got up and headed for the door.
'There is was again, Holograms, and not well. What the smeg is going on here.' Thought Lister as he followed the girl. He was about to ask her what not very well meant but as he stepped through the door back outside an alarm began to sound.
"Smeg, it's this guitar round me neck, must have some sort of security tag." Stated Lister.
Sam disappeared for a moment, and only returned once the sound stopped. "Mall security system. We better go, the security droid will be on his way."
Lister did not like the sound of that one bit and so headed back to the cart with Sam.
The two of them climbed into the cart and sped off towards the lift.
1845 hrs Outside Holo Store
Rimmer swaggered about outside the Holo store. His new adjustmentwas taking some getting used too. It actually affected the way he walked. He looked down at his watch. 18:45 hours. No sign of Listy and the others, 'oh well plenty to see and do without them.' he thought.
He wanted to check out the military model section, according to the mall map there was over 4 stores in this mall alone.
He found his cart and headed off.
1900hrs Central Mall
Listers cart exited the lift and he and Sam parked up next to the waiting Kryten.
"Alright Kryten, this is Sam." Said Lister.
"Hello Miss, err sir might I have a word in private." Said Kryten trying not too look suspicious but totally failing in the process.
"Sure Kryten, won't be a minute Sam." He said hopping out of the cart and going over to join Kryten.
The two of them walked away from Sam, and when Kryten felt sure they were at a safe enough distance not to be overheard he leaned in towards Lister and spoke in a sincere tone.
"Sir, something terrible has happened to this mall."
"You are telling me, the smegging McKebab is closed!" retorted Lister.
"No sir, far more serious, our lives are in danger. We have to leave." Said Kryten urgently.
Lister looked at his friend, he was clearly worried. "Yeah, you said that already, but why? I mean I still want to check out the ladies Underwear section in Galactic M&S." said Lister. "
"Sir, I am afraid moob bra shopping will have to wait."
Lister looked offended. "Hey, steady on there. Are you saying I've put on a few pounds?" asked Lister.
"I am sorry sir, frankly yes. I have been secretly sewing in extra lining into your t-shirts, that is how they still manage to fit you." Said Kryten.
Lister looked himself up and down. OK so he had put on a few features here and there, but there was no way he had man boobs.
Kryten looked back at Sam and then back to Lister. "Sir, if I may continue, there has been a terrible outbreak."
"What kind of outbreak?" asked Lister who was idly testing his belly bounce.
"It seems a virus got into the mall and has infected the resident Holograms." Said Kryten peering back at Sam who was sitting still in the cart tapping the console.
"Well that's alright then, we aren't Holograms are we Kryters." Said Lister looking pleased.
"No sir we are not, but she is and more importantly Mr Rimmer is." Said Kryten.
"Oh yeah, that's true. What's this virus all about?" asked Lister.
"Well from what I could get from the security system it is a hologram version of a humanoid virus called Solanum." Replied Kryten.
"Hey I have heard of that, the virus they found to cause the teenager stroppy syndrome?" asked Lister.
"Not quite, but you are close. It's more common name is the Zombie Virus." Replied Kryten.
Recollection showed on Listers face. "Zombie virus. Yeah I remember seeing that news report about an early Venus colony. Apparently they had a major outbreak there and it took them 50 years to clean up." Said Lister.
"Indeed sir, but this one seems to infect Holograms, hard light ones in particular." Finished Kryten looking once more at Sam.
"Oh I see, you think she might have it. Well she does not look much like a zombie to me Kryten."
Lister held out his hand in front of him and checked of each digit as he spoke. "Let's see, no crazy slow arms out walking, check. No moaning for no reason, check, and no bits of body parts hanging off, check. I'd say she was clean."
Krytens voice dropped to a more spooky tone. "It might not be showing in her yet, you never know."
"OK, look I'll ask her." Said Lister walking back over to Sam.
As he approached him she looked at him square in the face. "You know don't you? You know about the virus, well I am not one of them!"
Lister looked surprised, it was not like he and Kryten had been shouting about the news. How had she heard them?
"Errr yeah, we know, it's OK will get you out of here." Said Lister holding up his hands to reassure her.
She looked up at him, fear in her eyes. 'They knew' she thought. Was this good or bad. Would they slow her down or help her, she decided to risk it.
"See Kryten she is clean." Said Lister looking back over at the slowly approaching Kryten.
"Miss, would you mind if I scanned you with the Pci-scan?" asked Kryten.
She looked at him and then back to Lister who smiled at her. "Sure go ahead." She said holding her arms out to her sides like she was about to be frisked.
Kryten turned on the scanner and passed it in front of her and waited for the resulting beep.
Beep went the device.
He looked down at the results and then looked up with a relieved smile on his face.
"Oh thank goodness for that, you are clean miss." He said.
Kryten read the rest of the results and saw a couple of interesting facts. "Sir, it seems Miss Sam here has hearing far beyond that of a normal hologram and her hologram mussel is off the chart."
They both looked at her.
"Its standard mall software, the hearing is so we can monitor all transactions and any possible criminal gangs that might work the mall and the strength and speed is so we can act as security if needed." Stated Sam without being asked.
She had been looking about in a nervous manner for sometime now and finaly she had to ask.
"Can we can go back now please, it's getting dangerously close to their time!" she said more urgently.
2000 hours Military section
Rimmer walked into the military figure store and beamed as he saw a replica set of Napoleon and his army on a shelf. He looked at the price tag. '50000 Dollar Pounds.' He winced as he remembered how Lister and he had sent his own set off to a fiery grave when they had been marooned on a frozen moon.
He moved on and spotted a model, that made his spine tingle. He didn't need to read the label he knew who this was, Alexandra the Great. He reached down and carefully picked up the small figure in his hand. As he lifted it away from the shelf the lights flickered but then remained stable. 'Odd' thought Rimmer.
As he set the tiny figure back on the shelf he noticed the shuffling noise coming from the back of the store. Rimmer left Alexandra and gingerly went to investigate. The sound seemed to be coming from behind a door marked 'No Public Access'. Well that was good enough for Rimmer he made to go, but then he heard it. Rimmer heard the low moan from behind the door.
"Errr Hello, is anyone there?" he quietly asked.
No reply from behind the doors.
"I said Hello, is anyone there?" repeated Rimmer.
"ErrrooooAAAAaa" replied the voice.
'Very odd, must be a local dialect or something' Thought Rimmer.
Rimmer then made a very foolish choice; he pushed the door open just a little, just enough to peer though. He jumped back as a blank looking face moaned inches from his own on the other side of the cap. The doors thankfully swung closed towards Rimmer and the weight of what ever he had seen pressed the doors firmly shut.
Rimmer backed away rapidly. 'Time for a swift exit, enough shopping.' He thought.
Outside on the gangway he found the lighting to have changed. It seemed darker now, he glanced down at his watch. '20:10'. 'Maybe they have late night shopping lighting.' He thought.
He heard the moaning again, only this time it was not coming from inside the shop, it seemed to becoming from below him.
He went to the edge of the balcony and looked over. Rimmer gripped the cold metal tightly in between his hologramatic hands, his mouth wide open and his hologramitic knuckles white, he was not sure what he was seeing but every inch of him knew it was not good.