Episode 3.2 "The Benefits of Sleeping In"

A few minutes after I decided to head up to my floor, I heard the chime of Omni-Com’s paging system, and heard the following message: “Ira Holtz, please report to the fifteenth floor.” This made me more uncomfortable. How did anyone know that I had arrived if no one is at reception? Ignoring the small part of me that kept repeating “something is definitely wrong here,” I walked past the empty reception desk, and headed towards the elevators. As soon as I rounded the corner, I heard a scream reverberating off of the walls within the stairwell, along with frantic, pounding footsteps. The stairwell door slammed open, and a woman that I partially recognized as someone from the robotics division bolted out.

“Run! Go! Go!” There was a feral panic in her voice. Yeah. Something was definitely wrong here.

As the woman got closer, I could see that she was nursing a slight limp. Her white lab coat was stained with patches of blood, which also matted her short blond hair making it cling to the right side of her face.

“Are…are you okay?” I asked, realizing that I sounded like an idiot. Of course she wasn’t okay.

“Just move! We need to get out of here, and fast.” We ran back towards reception just to see metal grilles slide down from the ceiling, blocking our access to the doors that led outside.

“Dammit!” The woman hissed, “Please tell me you’re a security guard who miraculously has the keys to this side of the building.” I shrugged, wishing that I could say, “Yes ma’am!” and save the day. But reality seldom works that way.

“Nope. Sorry. I’m just one of the programmers from the fifteenth floor.” I replied sheepishly.

“The fifteenth…how did you get down here?” She sounded impressed, which made me hesitant to provide the real answer.

“Well, I…slept in. I got here about ten minutes ago.” To my surprise, she started to laugh.

“You’re alive because you’re too damn lazy to get up on time?” More laughter. Her face lit up beneath the layer of sweat and blood that it had accumulated.

“Sorry, I don’t mean to make fun. You’re actually extremely lucky. If you got here on time, you’d probably be dead by now.” A jolt of panic shot through me as I considered these words. Had my alarm gone off as scheduled today, I wouldn’t be having this conversation right now because apparently, I’d be dead.

Episode 3.1

EPISODE 3: "OMNOS COMETH"
STARRING: IRA THE GEEK
SAN JOSE, CA



My knuckles had long since turned white as my shaky hands gripped the steering wheel of my Ford Focus. It had been roughly two hours since we escaped Omni-Com, and even though most of its employees were now corpses within its walls, I hadn’t heard a peep about it on any of the news channels I tried on the radio. Every five minutes I would change stations, gradually turning up the volume to drown out the snoring that was coming from the back seat where my grandmother was dozing. Veronica was sitting in the passenger seat with her unblinking eyes fixed steadily on the road in front of us. Her blond hair was pulled back in a short ponytail and was still wet from the process of washing out the blood of her coworkers. Small, dried bits of it were still trapped in the contours of her ear, signifying the speed at which we got out of town.

As the interstate unfolded before me, my mind struggled to comprehend the events that took place at Omni-Com this morning. Everything—the malfunctioning maintenance systems, the screams, and the blood—started with a simple automated phone call that was received by all Omni-Com employees last night, and eventually led roughly 99% of them do their deaths. I’m alive right now because a power outage shut off my alarm clock. I woke up somewhere around ten and frantically threw my clothes on, leaving without showering or eating breakfast.

When I pulled in to the Omni-Com parking lot, it was packed. I thought that this meeting was just for my software development department, but it looked like the whole damn company was there. The sliding glass doors slid open as I hurriedly approached them, but there was no one at reception to tell me where the meetings were taking place. I thought it was a bit odd to leave the entrance unmanned. Usually the atrium of Omni-Com is bustling with movement, but today it was eerily silent and devoid of people. I wandered around the atrium for a few minutes, hoping to bump into someone that could tell me where I was supposed to be, but the place was like a ghost town.