Element Z

Chapter 2: Spreading like wildfire

Her eyes were full with rage, as if she wanted me dead. "I need you to calm down, I di-" Before I could finish my sentence she threw me against the wall. "You want me to calm down when there is an outbreak going on outside and you hid information from us?! Do you think I'm stupid?" I looked up in their eyes as all the interns were angry with me, all but one. That one with glasses, I looked at him as he looked away. He seemed more sympathetic for me than the others, I looked back into the female intern's eyes as I let anger take over. "You really think I would come to work on a Monday, to cover for someone, KNOWING THERE WOULD BE AN OUTBREAK? I'M NOT A MORON." She kneeled in front of me as she slapped me with so much force, I winced in pain as the Band-Aid fell off. "Come on, you're being too harsh on someone doing their job Liz." She switched her attention to the one with glasses, almost as if she was ready to kill him. "When we were entering the building he was in a rush, he knew something was up. He claims to know nothing about the labs but he is the one giving us a tour. He is lying to us."

In that moment I felt immense fear take over my body as I remembered seeing that person, while they were focused on the one with glasses I got up and ran for the door. "Don't let him escape!" She yelled as they chased me down the hallway. I stopped in front of the door as my eyes widened at the sight of people approaching. "Oh fuck, fuck, fuck. This isn't good...." Before they tackled me I pointed for them to see them. They stopped as they looked forward at the people who were screaming for us to let them in. "Look, Liz was it? I swear to you I know nothing about this place or what is going on. I am just another worker like you, except I am not an intern. But the reason I was in a rush is because we were being watched earlier, and I think this is their doing." She looked at me and back at the people approaching as they were getting near the door. "Damn it, we are in no place to fight with each other right now. Alright what do we do, Sir?"

My mind was overwhelmed with thoughts, there was an outbreak, the building was out of power, and my friend was in the hospital. "We have to get out of here." They all looked at me as Liz stared me in the eyes. "Are you fucking crazy, you want to go outside when it's going down?" I could feel my body shaking, I was scared of the thought of leaving this building. "Look, the person I am covering for is my friend. He's in the hospital because we got into a car accident last night when he was taking me home. I am sure you all have family or someone you want to make sure is safe, right?" The intern with glasses stepped forward putting his hand on my shoulder. "Look I get that you have someone out there you are worried about, but it's not safe to go outside. You are going to have to trust that he can manage to surviv-" Liz sounded like a completely different person, but it felt like everything slowed down when she said those words. "They're here."

We all looked at the door as the infected devoured the people who wanted us to let them in, they were fast. Those things devoured them in no more than five minutes, and they could smell us on the inside. They began pounding on the door as we all backed up in fear. "I know you guys think I am crazy for wanting to leave, but the person I saw before we entered the facility. I think they cut the power. Which means that this facility's lockdown features can't be accessed, we are not safe here. One of the interns just shook their head as they sat on the floor hugging their knees. "No, I don't want to go out there with those things! They will eat us alive, w-we have to stay her-" The windows shattered as the door began to give in. "Fuck, we have to run now! THEY'RE GETTING IN! THERE IS A SAFETY BUNKER DOWN THE HALL AND TO THE LEFT OF THE OFFICES." Everyone started running but the intern on the ground, my heartbeat felt so heavy as the doors were broken down.

Grabbing his arm and forcing him to stand, I pulled him as I ran behind the other interns. "DO YOU WANNA DIE? GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER." As we made it towards the end of the hall and around the corner, the infected managed to break in through an empty room with only windows. We barely made it into the safety bunker before it hit us, we were missing an intern. I looked back as Liz ran out to save him from the infected, I tried to run and grab her but was grabbed by the intern with glasses as the other closed the door. Everything finally got back up to normal speed as my heart beat raced and I could hear everything as I looked him in the eyes. "You could have gotten yourself killed, what is wrong with you?" I sat in disbelief that he valued my life over Liz who had ran to save their other friend. The other intern just sat in the corner crying as the banging on the door grew louder.

"We....we could have saved her, the other might have been a lost cause but I could have pulled her in, glasses." He slapped me as he paced the room. "I know we didn't get to exchange names, but you are not going to call me glasses. The name's Ethan, and second you could not have saved her. You would have just got yourself killed." Letting out a sigh I stood up as the other intern punched me in the stomach. As I went to charge at him, Ethan had pulled him to the corner. "What the hell are you doing? It's not his fault!" We made eye contact as tears were rolling down his face and the intern shouted out. "IF HE HAD TOLD US ABOUT THIS BUNKER EARLIER, WE COULD HAVE ALL MADE IT!" I looked away thinking of the look on Liz's face as she was being devoured, it was horrible. "You idiot, we were interrupted by the broadcast. I'm sure he meant to show us, but the tour got cut off...right, sir?"

Wiping a single tear off my face I looked down in disappointment before I answered his question. "No, this safety bunker isn't for interns. In the event of something happening that would warrant us going here, you all were not supposed to be brought here. Because........because the company considers you guys expendable." Ethan struggled to hold the intern back as he tried to charge at me with nothing but anger and frustration. "DAMN YOU, YOU EVIL BASTARD. THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" I clenched my fist as I stared the intern down. "Wanna remind me who fell to the ground and chose to let the infected eat them, who was the one that slowed everyone down by caving into fear in the face of the infected? Cause I think last time I checked, that was you. I saved your fucking life, you're welcome!" The intern fell silent for a second before falling to the ground and crying.

"Wait a minute, something isn't right. The infected, they got into the building through a room we weren't near.." Both interns looked at me confused as Ethan spoke up. "What are you trying to get at?" My body felt cold as I kept playing back the sights outside the bunker before we had gotten in. "The room....shouldn't have been targeted. If the infected are violent towards people, and exhibit the same behavior like in most zombie movies. They would be attracted to us only...and would roam mindlessly." Ethan seemed out of patience, possibly from the nonstop banging on the door. "Out with it, what the hell are you telling us?" I looked him in the eyes with nothing but fear at my discovery. "If the infected noticed you guys running by sight, it would have taken them time to break through the window...enough time for all of us to have gotten in here. B...but by the time we around the corner, they were already in."

Ethan gasped as he stared me in the eyes feeling the same fear I felt in that moment. "Wait, so then.....how did they get in?" Putting my head in my hands it hit me like a train as I struggled to speak. "The...person that I saw, it had to be them. They had to have done it." The other intern looked at me as he wiped his tears away. "But why would they do something like that? Do they have some vendetta against you? Do you know them?" My mind raced with their looks before it hit me as a curtain behind me slowly opened. "It was the person...who didn't get this job. I got it over them....Wait what's wrong?" The look on both of the interns troubled me, it was like they had seen a ghost. I turned around as I froze in fear, it was him. The person I saw in the parking lot. Before I could react, he knocked me out and everything faded into black.