Ruth was still looking at him, fear written all over her face, but also something else ... Determination.

Then louder: "Jordan. Stop! She said-"

Sinjira could barely raise her head.

"I can feel another way out. A hidden passage. Over there."

Another slight nod.

"Our only chance, gunner," Ivan said.

Jordan was clearly torn. For him, forward was the only option. Always.

Not back, and certainly not deeper into the darkness.

"I-"

Sinjira was barely able to speak.

"I can feel it."

Then a nod, as the gunner turned.

Annie looked to Rodriguez, who had run ahead, toward the stairs, no doubt thinking if he was out front, he'd be safe.

Maybe he'd be the only one they wouldn't get.

"Rodriguez, no. This way!" Ivan shouted, but Rodriguez froze.

The army of undead was only meters away.

Their animated body parts and old bones made a clunky carousel of sound, and the stench in the air was nauseating.

Rodriguez didn't move.

His choice, Ivan thought.

But then, finally Rodriguez took a step back toward them.

Jordan was already clambering up to the side toward the dark opening Sinjira had indicated.

Except as Ivan followed, with Annie a few paces behind, he had to wonder at her words. "They're already inside me."

The nano-machines?

Could they also lead her in the wrong direction?

Could what they were about to do actually seal their fate by luring them into a dead end where there was only one way this battle could end?

We're about to find out, Ivan thought, resigned.

Jordan and Sinjira disappeared into the narrow opening.

Ivan looked at Ruth, Annie, and Rodriguez.

His expression said it all: It's anybody's guess.

And they followed them into the darkness.

44.

A HUMAN SACRIFICE.

Ivan looked back at the others following him into the tunnel, scrambling in the dark. The way ahead sloped steeply upward, the path littered with massive boulders with sharp jagged edges. Only weak flecks of the blue light here.

Just enough light so they could see the handholds ... and where to step.

This could be a way out, he thought, but it feels like a trap.

Jordan, laboring with Sinjira in his arms, still turned and tried to get off a few blasts, but her dead weight was having an impact on him. Wearing him down.

And the way everyone clustered together as they moved as fast as they could through the tunnel made getting clear shots at the advancing horde almost impossible.

They needed time to regroup.

Ivan could see only one thing to do as the army of undead followed them.

"Jordan-"

The gunner looked at him.

"Give me two grenades."

Jordan smiled thinly.

"Hero time?"

Ivan said the next words as if it was so clear, so obvious.

"If we don't stop them here, we're all dead."

Jordan let Sinjira slip down to the ground. She looked totally exhausted, her face marked with the intense pain.

"My grenades," Jordan said, "my job."

"We don't have time to discuss this."

Annie joined them but remained silent, other than breathing hard, letting the two of them argue over who was about to die.

Then a small voice from the ground spoke.

"Jordan..."

Stopping them cold.

Sinjira held up the stump of her arm.

Even in the dim light, they all could see the shiny flakes of the nano-machines spreading past the tourniquet and up to her shoulder.

No one said a word.

The next voice was hers.

"Doc," she said. "Hit me with a stim."

Rodriguez fumbled in his backpack, but Jordan got between them.

"There's no way in hell you're going to-"

"Hit me ... with ... a god ... damn ... stim!"

By this time, Rodriguez had fished a small packet from his backpack.

He looked from Annie to Ivan to Jordan and then to Sinjira. Her face was set in a rictus of pain.

"Do it!" she said between clenched teeth.

Ivan watched Rodriguez rip the package open and take out a needle.

Annie looked down the slope and said, "They're almost here. We have to-"

Staring at Rodriguez, Ivan nodded, and Jordan, seething with fury, stepped aside.

Rodriguez leaned down and prepared to inject Sinjira in her good arm, but with a heavy effort, she shook her head and then tilted it to one side, exposing her neck.

A bulging vein caught the scant light.

"Here," she said. "It'll hit quicker."

A moment's hesitation.

"Just fucking do it!"

Then Rodriguez touched the vein with the tip of the needle. As everyone watched, the auto-plunger shot the stimulant into her bloodstream.

All the while, Jordan was shaking his head.

His eyes glazed.

Just then, the first of the shambling army of zombies turned the corner and witnessed a scene that would have appeared-if they had any thoughts at all-to be the group of humans waiting to die.

Ivan watched Annie move closer to the undead, mowing down the first row, sending their revived body parts flying.

Thankfully at this range and when totally shattered by the pulse blasts those body parts stopped moving.

Maybe they have to be close to those vines, he thought.

A faint trace of hope as he turned to Sinjira who-amazingly-was standing up.

She looked at Ivan and Jordan, then at her arm and the discoloration creeping up past her shoulder now.

"Give me the grenades," she said to Jordan.

He shook his head.

"Hell no. You'll die."

Ivan had figured out something that must not have dawned on Jordan yet.

Sinjira knew it was already too late.

She pulled the chip from the node in her head, the stim giving her the strength to stand, to move.

To Ivan: "Take this. I got it all."

Annie, down below, shouted, "There's more coming!"

"All of it?" Ivan said, astounded. Did she mean-?

Sinjira struggled to talk. She probably had only seconds left of coherent conversation, but it was clear what she was thinking.

"When it was floating overhead," she said. "I recorded the Star Road Map. It's all there."

She pressed the chip into Ivan's hand, his fingers touching hers in the exchange. They were ice-cold.

To Jordan, she said, "I'm already dead. The ultimate trip, they say, right? That's why they save it for last."

"You don't have to do this," Jordan said, his voice cracking. "We can get you to the medical facility-"