The crypt possessed an arching roof, like an ancient Greek tholos, under which we sheltered from some intermittent drizzling rain. Beyond a bank of low trees, I could make out lighted skyscrapers, less than a kilometer away. I might have been tempted to call them beacons of refuge, but right now I was in no hurry to test the nighttime reactions of trigger-happy guards, protecting the “Standard” populace… Standards who were sure to be utterly paranoid, if they had any sense at all.

In the opposite direction, away from the city lights, a gap in the clouds let moonlight spill across a hilly glade, where milled throngs of limping, staggering forms. A distant lowing floated from that place – a creepy, moaning din that sent chills coursing down what remained of my aptly-named nervous system.

I tried ignoring the zombie sounds, as my rescuers, Sully and Moulder, asked questions and I did my best to answer. Still, my thoughts were elsewhere. What I really wanted, desperately, to restore contact with Clever Gamble! Whatever my plight, the well being of my ship and crewmates came first.

Fortunately, the cool weather was reason enough to press my collar against my throat the entire time that I told Moulder and Sully about my predicament – the kidnapping of my comrades from the heart of the Lik’em urb, and my subsequent encounter with Lorg and the gang of Besh. Perhaps my shirt was transmitting but not receiving. Anyway, it seemed worth a try.

“You were lucky to get away from Besh in one piece,” Sully commented. “Either his bunch currently has a full larder, or you did something to put him off his feed.”

“Mmm,” I commented, remembering those last moments under the urb. My singing has affected people that way, on occasion. But I never before owed my survival to that fact.

“Anyway,” Moulder added as he groomed Sully, much as I’d seen apes do in a zoo, picking through her glossy hair, seeking what I dared not dwell upon. “Anyway, I wouldn’t worry about your friends anymore, if I was you.”

“You wouldn’t?”

“Naw. You’ll probably be reunited soon.”

“Really?”

“Sure, providing the Lik’ems left enough of them to animate, and didn’t put the remains out in the sun. It’s not nice, but Besh has been known to do that. Otherwise, they’ll be along this way soon.”

I winced at the image. Demmie zombies. It made me shiver.

“I’m pretty sure Besh never got his hands on my colleagues.” And I explained the reaction of Lorg to my questions.

“He said what?” Sully sneered. “That Zooms ambushed your group? Right in the middle of the urb? Oh, that’s rich!”

“Why’s that? Maybe it was some other, er, tribe of corpambulists. I think he used the term… Renks?”

The two of them looked at each other and I knew I’d said something important. But they didn’t comment.