Static Screams

Wren always knew this was a possibility. She was a scientist. Well, a scientist in training. A reasonable scientist would know that zombies had always been a real possibility. Especially because scientists never knew when to stop. When to draw a line. “Shaun!” she screamed. “We have to go!” Dozens of the dead leaned against the glass, and she could see webs of cracks spreading. With a gasp, she turned and ran.

Wren’s work shoes did not have enough traction to be sprinting across the tiles of the university’s lab. She kept slipping, stumbling forward, and then running again. “Shaun!” She barreled through the double doors, looking around frantically. She slid a metal bar through the door handles just as the echo of shattering glass filled the halls. “Shit! Shaun!”

“Hang on!” He shouted from the lowered area in the center of the room. Shaun had his long black hair pulled into a top knot, and was hurriedly shoving lab equipment into a bag he’d found. His glasses had fingerprints all over them.

She’d been waiting for fifteen minutes, and she wasn’t going to wait another second. “Fuck that, I’m leaving!” She moved to pass him and grab her things, but he snatched her arm.

“We aren’t leaving without our work!”

Enraged that he was putting a study in front of their lives, she leaned close to his face. “Let me go, or lose the hand.” He released her, but went right back to grabbing things. “There is no reason to grab this!” Wren grabbed the gun she’d found in the security office and swung her backpack across her shoulder. An axe from behind emergency glass in her other hand, she turned to him one last time. “This is the beginning of the fucking apocalypse, Shaun. It’s illogical to keep on with this stupid study!”

She did have copies of most of their work on drives in her bag and on her laptop. But to waste so much time getting other items? He was putting their lives at risk. The dead were at the door now, and the metal bar was slipping through the handles as they shoved themselves against it.

“It’s my life's work!”

“You’re twenty years old!” Wren reasoned, but the frantic look on his face told her she was fighting a losing battle. She started backing towards the emergency exit. “Shaun, come on!” She was across the room now.

He picked up a small bag, and threw it her way. “Take that! I’ll be right there!” She started to argue, but the words were lost in her throat when the metal bar hit the ground.

The next few seconds happened slowly. It felt like moments existed between the bar falling and the doors exploding open. Wren screamed, Shaun froze, and the dead overtook him. Her scream echoed around the walls. She grabbed the mysterious bag from the ground, with a last look towards Shaun’s screams, and then she ran.