I shouldn't have let her lead. She seemed to know where she was going, yes, but it was also where she wanted to go - not me. Also, in my panic of the doom room, I missed the fact that she was not in running shape.

One, the circuits on her brain were not just exposed. She had bits missing and pulled out, from what I could tell. I hoped she was unplugged whenever that happened. Two, her body itself seemed beat up and ragged. She was limping and holding her side - not because of my frantic elbow.

"So you are a zombie," I had joked, when she first started her limping hustle away from the door. "Or does this trick them into ignoring us?" I started walking the same way but with a doofus smile on my face and my tongue hanging out.

She just had to glare at me for my brain to catch up with my tongue.

"Got it," I said. "Sorry."

Who knows what she'd been through. We were stumbling up the stairway, in the bright white lights, alone. The latter seemed off to me. Where were the zombies on this side of the door? A trap would ensure that we couldn't just walk out of here.

"I visited Mercury one time," I said, conversationally. She stumbled up the final stair and made her way around the corner, holding the wall with her left hand and my gun extended out in her right. She didn't really look like she knew what she was doing with that gun, but she did really look like she knew enough to shoot something, like me.

"It was bright like this on the sunny side, and the sun looks huge. It looks like three times bigger than it does from Earth - if you've ever been to Earth that is. I visited a few times, but that was hundreds of years ago before the war really kicked it. But anyway, big sun! That's my point. It's so cool! I want to go back there sometime just for the sunrise and sunset."

She glanced back at me. "Why are you telling me this?"

"I dunno."

"You're chatty," she groaned.

"You should give me my gun back," I said. "Easier for you, and I'm an excellent shot. Sometimes."

She thought about that for a moment and looked me over. I smiled and posed, sticking my arms out in a "bring it on, I'm ready to fight" kind of way, and spun slowly, nodding my head to a fake rhythm.

Surprisingly, she gestured for me to walk over, shaking her head in disappointment, and held the gun out to me. "Do you always sing?" she asked.

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I stopped suddenly and absently reached out to grab the glen10 pistol. I hadn't realized I was singing, but ... thinking about it ... was not surprised. I had been humming to the song Keep on the Sunny Side.

"I talk to myself a lot too," I reflected aloud.

She started limping down the hall toward where I remembered there being a number of rooms.

"I don't want to go that way," I said. "We need to go up." I pointed up with my gun.

She looked back at me again, those violet eyes unbearably vibrant. "Are you going to shoot me?"

I rolled my eyes at her.

"Then this is where I'm going," she said.

I followed instinctually, moving up closer to provide cover fire, then off a step ahead and to the side, my glen10 ready.

"You hypnotized me, didn't you?" I said. She laughed at that. Good. She could appreciate humor.

"Are you some kind of hypnotizing zombie?" I continued. "Like the other ones will take over my brain with a computer virus, and then the scientists were like, 'We also need one that works on humans too,' so you just volunteered."

I paused. What an asshole I was! "Sorry. I'm sure you didn't volunteer."

"Yeah, you should have stopped talking awhile ago," she muttered.

We walked in silence for a bit, her stumbling, me stalking. I offered to let her lean on me, but she refused, and I respected that.

"Why are we going this way, and who are you?" I finally said.

I really needed answers. I was in no mood to die here. I had precious memories that needed to get out there into the world, that I needed to save. And each step made me feel worse. I might have been unplugged, but my futurecasting is just a fundamental part of how my human brains sees the world. The connections and thoughts running through my mind were giving me uh oh vibes.

She ignored me and rounded another corner.

"I could just leave you here, you know," I said finally, trailing after her.

Another puzzling look from those violet eyes of hers. "You won't."

"Goddamnit!" I exclaimed. This woman was infuriating, but she wasn't wrong. I knew I'd stick with her until we were safe - not because of some sense of duty, although I'd like to believe that, but because two is better than one, especially when zombies are concerned. The evil part of me knew I could outrun her if needed so she'd be a distraction if nothing else.

Horrified by that thought, I resolved myself that I would not abandon her. Sure, it's just death. Memories stashed; memories lost. Move on. But I felt icky all of a sudden and that didn't sit well with me.

"It's just over here," she said, pointing to one of three rooms down a side corridor.

"And you're not worried that it's just us, that there are no zombies around?"

"They'll be here soon enough," she replied. She continued hugging the wall, approaching her room of choice. "I'll worry then. Whoever was around here - I assume you had company - must have ran off. All of them would have chased after them."

She opened the door, and thankfully, like the rest of this part of the starlab, it was empty.

"What are we looking for?" I asked. I closed the door most of the way, peering out, my gun ready. I heard her pound on a metal desk. Probably just catching her weight. Then I heard a drawer open.

"Got 'em," she said. "I needed these."

I turned back. She held up a set of quantum keys.