Chapter -3

Elliot sat in her office, the sound of her agents controlling the ever-present zombie threat barely audible through the door to her office. It was about 10:00, and she had forgotten to grab a muffin on the way out the door this morning. The growling of her stomach didn't help as Elliot went over Aimee Fritz's visit from the day before.

She had seemed a bit out of touch during the whole tour, but Elliot knew staying out of touch was simply something one did when it came to dealing with impossible things like zombies. Elliot hadn't seen her leave, but assumed Timelyson had finished her explanations while Elliot had been out to lunch. Her stomach growled once again at the thought of food.

Elliot grabbed her purse and pulled out a couple of dollars, stuffed them into her pocket, and left her office. The doors on either side of her own were closed, and the cubicles were occupied with focused faces diligently checking weapon supply and possible sightings of the reanimated, working out how to build zombie-proof houses, and waiting tirelessly for a message signaling the inevitable next outbreak.

Elliot walked past all this, receiving a few "Good morning, Ms. Greenwall"s as she did so. She reached the front of the large space, where the vending machines hummed quietly next to the elevator doors. She examined the contents, choosing a bag of potato chips she knew would be only half full and would just leave her hungrier than before.

As she put in her dollar, she noticed the elevator number light up. She punched in the number of her selection. As the coil twisted to release her chips, the elevator door opened, revealing a number of men and women holding dark plastic gun-shaped devices. Of course, Elliot knew exactly what they were, and before she could shout out a warning to the rest of the agents, a woman aimed and hit Elliot squarely in the forehead. She slumped to the floor, just as the bag of chips fell to the bottom of the machine.

...

Sarah heard the first shouts of alarm from her seat at her desk. She immediately grabbed her pepper spray, and ran to look out the door. Fritz's squad was in the room, attacking her agents. They were streaming out of the elevator, and Sarah saw a glimpse of an unconscious red haired figure on the floor.

Sarah cursed, ducked, and sprinted to her left. She ran bent over, at the level of the desks, and stayed out of the sight of the squad. She rounded the corner to the back elevator, flattening herself against the wall. She slammed the button with her fist, praying she hadn't been noticed yet. She held her pepper spray tightly, ready for any oncoming squad member. From her perspective around the corner, she could see the darts being fired into the heads of her coworkers, and immediately recognized the weaponry being used.

God damn memory wipes! That technology was developed solely for their department; it was standard issue on the field. All outbreak survivors were issued a dart. There was no use having them scarred by cannibalistic monsters for the rest of their lives, or telling the world about them. It would cause panic, and misinformation. The key to taking down the reanimated was keeping them a secret.

But to have their own weapon of mercy used against them like this made Sarah sick. It was all she could do not to run out there and take every one of those bastards out herself. She could hear the elevator doors opening and closing, and knew more and more were arriving.

Suddenly, the doors behind her slid apart, and she stepped back, pressing the close-door button. As she descended infuriatingly slowly, questions swarmed her head. What the hell had happened? Why the hell was the department being terminated? She pushed her thoughts aside as the elevator stopped and the doors opened. The lab was still untouched, but she knew it wouldn't be for long. There was an emergency exit down here that led into the subway line.

For a moment Sarah was torn between escaping quickly or finding Timelyson and warning her, but Sarah knew there would never be enough time for both of them to make it. Sarah also knew there was no way she was leaving this place alone. Zombie defense was her life, and she couldn't get fulfill her sole purpose by herself, she wouldn't even be able to convince anyone that these creatures even existed on her own. And at the back of her mind, she already knew that revenge was going to be necessary, and she couldn't pull that off alone either.

Sarah turned right and ran down the hallway, opening all the doors as she did so. All the examination and storage rooms were empty of people, and Sarah screamed in frustration. She couldn't be the only one who got out of here with their memory intact. The red exit sign at the end of the hallway glowed faintly red, and as Sarah reached it, she opened the door to the last room, to find a man with dark hair and a grey lab coat, who looked up with surprise as she entered.

She reached into the room, grabbed him by the arm and slammed into the exit door, just as she heard the elevator doors down the hallway begin to open. She pulled the man through the door and out into the chill air of the tunnel. She continued to drag him along, ignoring his protests.

They turned a corner and Sarah paused to listen. She heard no footsteps, and assumed they had gotten away. She turned to the man, who was staring at her agape.

"What the hell?" He asked. He was stooped over, trying to catch his breath. That's when Sarah realized he wasn't wearing a lab coat. He has wearing a grey jumpsuit. She knew something was wrong.

"What division are you with?" Sarah asked angrily, grabbing the man by the front of his suit, pulling him upright.

"Wh- what?" The man was terrified.

"Are you with research or what? I know you're not with annihilation. Who the hell are you?" He answered as Sarah noticed his name tag.

"Nathon, I, uh, I'm a-"

"What?" Sarah was impatient to hear the answer she suspected would top off the past events, and completely ruin her future.

"I'm a, a janitor." The man squeaked. Sarah dropped him to the ground, glaring at him with a fury that consumed her. It hit her that she would not be able to return home. She had surely been at the top of the list to be taken down, and home would be the most dangerous place to escape to.

She could imagine the sole picture on her desk of her small family- her fiance and herself grinning, with her cat in her arms. She blinked away tears, and looked up to the nearby ladder that she knew led to the street. She looked at the cowering young man again.

"The past ten minutes just ruined my life." She told him. He just looked up at her, horrified. "Do you even know what we were doing in there?" He shook his head. "We were keeping the human race alive. And now," she laughed grimly. "Now we'll just see what happens." She was quiet for a moment.

"I need a place to stay." She looked down at him once more. "Get up. You're coming with me."