Muses of Roma (Codex Antonius Book 1) by Rob Steiner

on the floor. There wasn’t a morsel of food left, as if everything had been licked clean. Kaeso searched the small room, but could not find any other boxes or cans with food.
    “Anything, sir?” Lucia asked.
    “It's a pantry. Or used to be. Been cleaned out. We’re not alone down here. Flamma, how’re you coming with that pad?”
    “Almost there, Centuriae.”
    “Hurry up. Lucia, let's check the other door.”
    Kaeso left the pantry, passed Lucia, and stood to the left of the closed door. Lucia went to the other side. Kaeso did a countdown with his fingers from three. When he reached zero, he pushed open the door.
    A kitchen. On the right was a flat top stove in one corner. To the right of the stove was a sink and more counter space. There was a door to a walk-in freezer on the left side of the room, next to an external refrigerator. A square table with no chairs stood in the center of the room.
    “Why is there a pantry and kitchen in a vault meant to store bank marques?” Lucia asked.
    “Probably a bomb shelter as well,” Kaeso said. “When they founded this colony, the Menota system was on the edge of Zhonguo space.”
    Lucia nodded. Sixty years ago Roma and Zhonguo fought repeated border skirmishes, which blew up into the Nox War. That little conflict went badly for the Zhonguo and moved the border six way line jumps into Zhonguo territory. Menota was now well within Roman space, and the threat of indiscriminate bombing from the Zhonguo had ceased. Ironically, it would not be the Zhonguo that bombed Menota.
    Kaeso walked over to the stove, where two pots sat on the cold burners. Both pots had a black residue at the bottom, as if left on the burner after most of the contents were scooped out. Black stains covered the entire stove, along with the counter space beside it.
    Lucia opened the freezer door and sucked in a breath. Kaeso looked past her to see dozens of bones piled inside the dark freezer. Skulls stared back at him with yawning jaws. Dried flesh still clung to many of the bones. A flash of insight told him how it went down here for the survivors. First they cleaned out the pantry. After they ate all the food, they ate their dead. When the dead were gone…they created more.
    He thought back to the footprints outside the doors. Could they have survived this long, though?
    “Go back to the door and keep watch,” Kaeso told Lucia.
    Lucia nodded, went back to the door and stood in the hallway. Kaeso shut the freezer door and then opened the refrigerator. Four desiccated heads stared back at him. They were hairless, with brown leathery skin pulled tight around their skulls. Kaeso shut the door and left the room.
    “Flamma.”
    “Another minute.”
    Nestor approached Kaeso, glancing at the doors. “What did you find, Centuriae?”
    “Heads, bones, dirty pots.”
    “How old?”
    “A few months, no more.”
    Blaesus cleared his throat. “The planet was bombed two years ago...”
    Kaeso scanned the dark hallway beyond. He saw no other doors, but his visor told him there were two more rooms ahead, and then the hallway ended at a T-shaped intersection. If people had survived down here since the bombing, they were that way. And they would be infected with the Cariosus. Kaeso fought his implant’s warnings to flee this tomb as fast as possible. Not yet, not yet, not yet , he repeated to himself. He had to keep the demons at bay just long enough to get—
    “I'm in, Centuriae,” Flamma said. The door clicked, and Flamma pushed it open.
    “Finally,” Dariya said. “Let's get the marques and leave this dungeon.”
    Daryush grunted his agreement.
    “Articulate as always, my Persian friend,” Blaesus said and followed them inside.
    Kaeso turned to Lucia. “Watch down that hall. Let me know if--”
    “You'll know, sir.”
    Kaeso entered the vault room to find his crew staring at the shelves. Stacks of paper sealed in clear plastic sat on each shelf. Blaesus walked over to one shelf and