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.
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