Pie

Annabel clutched a fireman's axe as she lay on the battered sofa in the staff canteen. 'Will they ever stop?' She said quietly. No one answered they just sat together in the gloom. Trapped.

Eventually Larry spoke 'Let's go through it one more time'. His words punctuated by the incessant knocking of a forehead against the other side of the wall.

Albert lay pressing his weight against the door. The knocking now becoming increasingly squelchy.
'I mean, I thought I was changing the world' he offered, only Larry was listening. Annabel was still in shock, processing the horror of the day.
Albert rambled on 'I had made a runaway protein it could sustain any organism, the results were remarkable'

'Runaway' Larry exclaimed 'this is a little more than runaway, how did this go from one of your great leaps of imagination to the three of us being stuck in here surrounded by hoardes of our colleagues all wanting to presumably eat us!?' Larry continued struggling to keep his emotions in check  'So are they even dead?'

'Neurologically and biologically mostly gone, but chemically they are still very much active. In humans the reaction is like nothing I have ever seen. It seems to stimulate the need to feed.....on flesh.........there's no coming back' Arthur lowered his head.

Annabel roused herself and rolled off the sofa. Being chased by the recently undead was thirsty business perhaps there was something in the staff fridge.

'So how did it contaminate them' Larry pressed.
'I had only one prepared sample and I thought it was inert and threw it into the plant pot in the reception area....against protocol' Albert started to feel his guilt settle on his shoulders.

Larry looked up 'You mean the pot with all those pumpkins?'
'I think it was empty............but had there been a seed in there........it's unlikely but my sample could conceivably have produced a crop in a matter of days' a feeling of dread wormed into the pit of his stomach.

'That's it! this morning......' Larry answered excitedly 'Don't you remember, we had pumpkin pie, it's Halloween. Gordon the receptionist made it, he said he couldn't bear to watch all those pumpkins go to waste'
'But.....' Albert struggled with the chain of events, this morning now felt like so long ago. 'I didn't have any pie...'
'Neither did I' answered Larry 'that's when this mayhem started, Gordon collapsed and then all hell broke loose. Annabel did you have any pie?'

There was no reply.

The ethereal glow of the fridge in the dark had drawn Annabel's eyes towards a slice of pumpkin pie that had been set carefully on the top shelf. She had taken a large bite her senses filled with the creamy cinnamon sweetness, covering the blandness of the pumpkin.

Annabel died before she got to the crust, her body just didn't know it yet. She turned her dead eyes to the two seated men.

It was time to feed.