Finally, right at the opposite end of the storage room, Maren found the water. There was a large silo set into the wall with a tap at its base, and the shelves surrounding it were filled with plastic jugs and bottles filled with the precious liquid. Maren grabbed two jugs, which were all she was capable of carrying, and began slinking back the way she’d come. The scraping sound had fallen silent, but somehow that frightened her more than the noise had.

The jugs of water were heavy, and Maren’s injured knee and back began to ache before she’d taken a dozen paces. She paused to adjust her grip, and when she looked up, Mark blocked her path.

CHAPTER THIRTY

A smooth smile spread over Mark’s face. It was a very familiar look; one he’d given her hundreds of times before, whenever he was trying to charm her into helping with his chores. “Hello, Maren.” His voice was happy, friendly, and just a little bit mischievous. “How’ve you been?”

Maren swore as she froze. She could feel sweat beading over her body and a metallic taste enter her mouth as the adrenaline kicked in, lending her energy as she assessed her predicament. Mark was blocking the most direct passage back to the rec room, and Maren was both weaponless and weighted down with the water.

“I’m not angry at you for getting Holly sent out of our station earlier, you know,” Mark said, hands in his pockets, rolling on the balls of his feet. His every expression, every motion, was so characteristically Mark that if Maren hadn’t seen the slack-faced zombie facing the airlock doors as he waited for the security to be dropped, trusting him would have been all too easy.

“It worked out for the best, anyway.” He tilted his head and winked. “We can be together now. Forever. And not just Holly and me, but you, and Gin, and Suriya, and Saul. We’ll all join together, like a big family. You’ll be my sister. Doesn’t that sound nice?”

I could drop the water and make a run for it, but he’d catch me easily. Holly must be somewhere nearby, too.

Mark took a step forward, and Maren echoed him by stepping backwards. Her arms were aching from holding the jugs, but she didn’t dare drop them.

The monster wearing her friend’s skin chuckled, and his smile widened until it looked painful. “Don’t worry. This will only take a minute.” His smile widened again, splitting open his face, and writhing black tendrils filled the gap where his teeth should have been. Maren felt rooted to the spot, and she opened her mouth to scream, but the noise died in her throat.

A loud crack made her flinch, and the spot that had been Mark’s deformed head seemed to explode. A shower of black flesh flew across the room, one lump hitting Maren’s face. It squirmed, still very much alive, and Maren gagged as it wriggled into her open mouth. It tasted vile, like a mixture of rotting meat and metal.