Mark Clodi - Outbreak

“My weekend? Not much new on my side. I did get up to the foothills and get a small hike in. Then I took the family out for…” Max was sitting at his desk writing an email to his buddy in Iowa when heard a terrible scream that brought his typing to an immediate stop. He waited a second, listening intently trying to determine if he truly had heard something or just imagined it. A second scream came echoing down the hallway and into his open cubical. Max was out of his chair and jogging down the hall immediately. As Max rounded a corner he nearly collided head on with Fred from accounting. He glanced off of Fred's right side and continued down the hall calling over his shoulder, "Call the police Fred, I think someone is hurt!"

After sprinting about a hundred feet, Max skidded to a stop in front of the Marketing offices. Inside he saw someone laying on the ground with another person kneeling over them. The woman on the ground appeared to be Nancy, head of the marketing department.

"I think she had a heart attack." said Bob, who worked in the neighboring department, ‘Permits’.

"A heart attack? With all this blood?" Max questioned, still standing in the hallway.

"Hey, are you okay? There's blood on your shirt." Bob said pointing to Max.

As Max looked down at his shirt he noticed Fred lumbering around the corner,

"What blood? Hey Fred turn around and call for some paramedics! Dumb ass." Max uttered the last part quietly to himself.

"I think it is too late for an emergency crew, she's dead Max."

"No, look, her hand is starting to move, I had better start CPR." Max quickly got down beside the woman and gently put his right hand under the back of her neck, he then placed his other hand on her forehead and gently tipped her whole head back causing Nancy's mouth to open. Max pressed his lips to hers and suddenly her eyes sprang wide open.

In order to give Max the necessary room to work around Nancy, Bob had retreated towards the doorway. Looking down on Nancy and Max he said "Nancy you are going to be all right, we have someone calling for an ambulance, just stay still and….Aaah! Fred! What the fuck are you doing! Stop it man! Stop iiiiitttttt!" Bob's gurgling noises slowly rose in pitch until they took on the rhythm and cadence of a whistling train.

Max, trying to comfort Nancy looked up to see Fred nuzzling on Bob's neck like a newborn on his mothers breast, the man slowly pressed his lips and mouth against Bob’s neck and slurped the blood that was coming out of his severed artery. Nancy started to rise, Max automatically held her down.

"Nancy you need to stay still until the ambulance gets here. Nancy! Stop it Nancy!" Max looked at the woman and saw a dull glint in her eyes, just like Fred's.

Mercifully, Bob’s his high pitched gurgling had stopped and when Max looked back he saw that Fred was now holding Bob up and was more actively eating through Bob's neck. Slowly Max sat back into a crouching position, his hands no longer holding her down, Nancy rose up simultaneously focusing her intense gaze on Max. Quicker than he would have thought possible Nancy reached for Max with her colorless arms.

'I always liked that shirt on Nancy.' Max thought, followed immediately by, 'I gotta get out of here!' Nancy's flailing arms caught on Max's shirt and started pulling him towards her now gaping mouth. Max pulled back and ended up on his butt, frantically backpedaling, stomach up, on his feet and hands to stay ahead of Nancy.

Backing into the wall in the hallway Max knew it was time to get up and run, he just could not bring himself to do it. The scene that was unfolding around him was just too much to be real. Nancy was slowly crawling towards him.

Sitting with his back against the wall, Max could feel the coldness of the tile floor on his hands. His brain was frantically sending messages to his legs to get up, get moving, but they did not respond. Slowly, Nancy crawled towards his out stretched legs.

…four feet away.

'This had to be some kind of nightmare.', Max thought, 'This cannot not be happening.'

…three feet away.

Move legs, MOVE. The message was sent but all Max could manage was to spread his feet apart. There, picture framed between his feet, Max could see Nancy's slack face moving ever closer and yet he just sat still letting her get closer.

…two feet away.

He could feel the blood underneath him, who was it from? Nancy? Bob? Fred? Himself? It had spread across the floor and now was soaking into his pant legs. This was it, he was going to die.

Slowly he bent his right knee, pulling his foot backwards. Max's brain fired a signal and his foot snapped out towards Nancy's face. He had intended a direct hit on her nose, but the heel of his shoe glanced off of her left cheek exposing muscle and bone. Nancy still advanced, her cloudy eyes never leaving her prey. He kicked again, this time skipping a blow off of her forehead which caused her whole head to jerk back unnaturally. Nancy managed to wrap her lifeless hand around his left ankle. Her touch caused an uncontrollable panic to course through him. Frantically Max kicked again but the fear of desperation caused him to completely miss the intended target. Max could feel himself sliding towards Nancy, she was pulling him. Max spread his fingers and tried to dig his nails into the floor, something, anything to stop her. But the crimson liquid provided no friction against the tile. This was it.

Nancy lowered her head towards Max's calf and that spurred Max to act again, he swung his left foot around, briefly thinking of the old movie "My Left Foot", it swung around and thudded into Nancy's head. Her head snapped back and she let go of Max's ankle. Unable to regain his position leaning up against the wall, Max rolled his body like a log as far away from Nancy as he could get, then he went face down and climbed to his hands and knees. Nancy scrambled around uselessly on the floor, Bob's blood was working against her as she struggled to get some traction and make headway towards Max. At this point Fred chewed through the last of Bob's neck and the man's body fell on top of Nancy, distracting her from Max. As Max watched Nancy growled in a feral manner and started chewing Bob's legs, as if this horror was not bad enough, her positioning looked like something out of a pornography movie Max remembered seeing when he was in college. Fortunately Max was able to tear his eyes away from the gruesome scene before he could see the parody truly begin. Max climbed to his feet, then edged his way along the wall until he could muster his strength enough to run back to the dubious safety of his cubical.

"Holy shit! Dude, what happened to you?!" this voice was from Max's arch office rival, Steve 'the bastard'. Death has a way of changing all alliances and Max was really glad to see Steve, to see anyone who did not have the 'dead' eyes of Fred and Nancy. Slowly Max turned his head and looked at Steve and raised an eyebrow while bringing his finger to his lips in the universal gesture of 'Shut the F up' or 'shhhh' depending on the age of the target audience. Steve stopped in his tracks and, for once, shut up. Becoming more aware of himself Max realized he was coated in Bob's blood, his shirt, previously a nice button up of one hundred percent cotton, was now a wet bloody covered mess. His khakis had fared no better and both hands were crimson splattered as well. Had some of it come off on his lips?

Thinking quickly Max ran down possible things to say, 'I didn`t do it' sprang to mind, then he thought of explaining that apparently Fred and Nancy were zombies and eating Bob in Nancy's office right now, 'Nope', he decided, that would take too long. Instead he whispered, "Fred went crazy and killed Nancy and Bob, he is in Nancy's office. Go call the police!"