"Hurry, this way," the guy said, motioning at her. They must have been hiding out in the room.

"Oh, thank god." She dove for the open door and it slid slowly closed as the zombies barrelled around the corner searching for their prey. Joining the doctor against the wall beneath the window, she kept her head low and her knees pulled to her chest so they couldn't see her. Or, at least, she hoped they couldn't see her. Could they hear her heart though? It was echoing in her ears, her breath coming in short frantic gasps as she tried to calm herself.

"Deep breath," the guy said.

"Right," she answered, taking a deep breath, expanding her diaphragm before letting the air whistle between her teeth. She was safe. Someone else was alive. "Where's your friend?"

"He went out and never came back. Did you see him?"

Hannah shook her head. There was no way she could have identified him in the crowd since she hadn't waited around to say, 'hey, I know that guy.'

Suddenly, a zombie hit the glass above them and it made Hannah gasp.

"The glass is strong right?" she asked him.

"It's safety glass so I think we're good. It's supposed to withstand the decontamination protocol, which sets fire to everything in the room, then sucks all the air out."

"When do they do that?"

"If something is at risk of getting out."

"Oh, like these guys?" she asked, pointing above.

"Mostly deadly diseas—ya, these guys," he finished solemnly.

"Who decides that?"

"The big boss."

'The Director?" she asked, taking another shaky breath.

"No, the one above him. They are back in Vancouver," the man said, leaning forward a little and poking his head up slightly. "Shit, they're still there. What were you doing out there?"

"I was trying to get to my lab to try and solve whatever this is, but I forgot that I lost my pass."

He shoved his hand into the pocket of his dress pants, pulling out a card. "I wondered if this was yours, but I have such bad facial memory."

"Oh my god, you're a lifesaver," she said, squealing quietly as she hugged him.

"I'm sorry that we didn't believe you earlier. They are always running scenarios. I hadn't realized it was as bad as you said."

"It's okay," she replied. "How well do you know your way around a lab?"

"I'm only his assistant. I'm here on work experience with my university as a medical sciences student, studying ."

"What program?"

"Immunology and microbial pathogenesis."

"Did you discover anything from the sample we sent over?"

"Just that it's unlike anything we've ever seen."

Hannah groaned. "Sounds like you made as much progress as we did." Suddenly she felt like their knowledge of science was like that of a baby's. They really knew nothing in the great scheme of things. "We need to come up with something, anything that helps us crack this wide open. Can you come with me to my lab?"

"What about that thing, the boy?" he asked, his eyes wide.

"He's in containment. You'll be fine...as long as we can get across the hallway safely," she added. "What exactly did you find out, anything that could help us at all, uh, sorry, I didn't catch your name?"

He held out his hand. "I'm Kyle Duprie."

They shook hands, his grip firm and solid, showing strength beneath his covered arms and for that she was grateful. If push came to shove, this guy could help her. He gave her a smile, a dimple appearing in his cheek almost hidden by his shaggy brown hair.

"Hannah Fraser."

"Nice to officially meet you. But to answer your question. No. It appears to be a living organism, but nothing we've tried in terms of antibiotics had any affect on it," he said.

"Ya, we noticed that too. I think we need to start thinking outside the box. This organism is likely alien in nature, so I don't think the antibiotics we created to fight things on earth are going to work."

"What are you thinking?"

Hannah snapped her fingers before pointing at him. "Meteors."

"What about them?" he asked clueless.

"Do you know if the station has any meteors that fell in the area?"

"It's possible. I can use the doc's computer to check the station's database. I don't have access to it on my system."

"Where's his computer?"

"It's in the office?" Kyle said.

Turning, Hannah poked her head up to the glass to see if the creatures were still gone, but then she dropped rapidly to the floor when she saw the side of a face.

Crap.

How were they going to get to the office? Crawling would only get them so far before they could be seen. It annoyed her to be stuck in the spot she was. Clicking her vocera, she contacted Cheryl.

"What the hell do you think you're doing," her friend screeched, her voice echoing off the window above Cheryl, drawing attention of the zombie.

"Shh," she reminded her friend. "We have to keep our voices down, they are just outside."

Cheryl lowered her tone, but asked the exact same thing again.

"I'm sorry. I wanted to go to the lab to work on the cure, but I didn't want to risk your life."

"News flash, my life is already at risk. Jewel was bit, remember?"

Hannah hung her head. "Darius can handle it, and it's safer in there than out here. Trust me," she whispered as quietly as she could.

"How could you leave me?"

The pain was evident in her friend's voice. "I didn't leave you, not really. I'm at the lab trying to save everyone's life, including yours."

"What about yours? Do you realize what could have happened going off on your own?"

"I'll contact you when I have any new information, just stay quiet for now. Stop screaming," Hannah ordered before disconnecting the call. The doors were strong, but so were the creatures that didn't know when to stop. She'd already seen first hand what they could do. "Can you see if he's still there, Kyle?"

He poked his head up, then dropped back down. "There's two now, but they are facing away from us. If we're going to go, we should go now."

Crawling, Hannah quickly made her way to the first desk and hid behind it before poking her head around to see if she garnered their attention. They were still not moving, standing around very much like the zombies that they were. She waved Kyle over, and he quickly joined her, diving behind the desk.

They had to make it all the way to the back of the room. The office was the last door on her right. It was one of three doors in the lab and looked much the same as her own. Poking her head out, she noted that they were still turned the other way.

"Go, go." She gave him an encouraging push and he took off to the next table. The tables were more like kitchen islands with drawers and cupboards underneath so it was easy to hide behind them, as opposed to normal table style with four legs. There was a normal table along the back window leading into the isolation lab.

Kyle waved her over. She got to her feet and rushed over. Crawling was just too slow, but in the process of getting up, they must have seen her shadow out of the corner of their eye and spun around just as she dove in next to Kyle.

The two zombies began to pound on the glass relentlessly, calling attention to their comrades. That was just what they needed because now they were stuck until the creatures got tired of their own noise. Hannah groaned and buried her face in her hands, wishing like anything that she was back home in her nice warm bed underneath her Supernatural tv show comforter, featuring the brothers from the show.

In fact, she missed everything about home. Her little french bulldog puppy, Dean, who was staying with her friend, Vanessa, while she was up here. Her nice hammock spread across the balcony of her apartment where she loved curling up with books. There was no danger of being bit except when playing with little Dean.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Just losing it a little," she admitted. "This was not at all what I expected when I came out here." Nor did she expect to have sex with someone either in the middle of nowhere before they even really had much chance to get to know each other. There was no way she was going to tell a soul that she made out with Xavier in a janitorial closet. Just thinking about it made her cheeks heat up.

"I hear ya. This is a first for me too. I grew up on zombie shows, but everything science taught us said this could never happen. People could become rabid and paranoid, but the dead coming back to life in this way? It's like a Stephen King nightmare."

"You read Stephen King?"

"Nah, I normally just watch his movies." Kyle shrugged. "I read so much at work that I don't find much pleasure in reading a book at home."

"I prefer the books personally, but I've always been a reader since I was little. It was my thing."

Now, she vowed to never pick up another horror book for as long as she lived. Her heart had thumped enough to last a lifetime. She didn't need to make it work overtime for fun. Hannah looked around the side of the desk once the banging stopped and noticed that they had stopped moving and their heads were down again. It seemed as long as they couldn't see, hear or smell them, they got distracted pretty easily. That bode well for her and Kyle.

"I think this time we can just run into the room," she said.

Kyle leaned over her to look. "It's almost like they go dormant until something interests them."

Their behavior didn't make sense to Hannah. The others seemed so different than the boy. He never seemed to notice anything except for vibrations, but these ones noticed everything.

"If they aren't looking, let's run on the count of three," he suggested.

"Are you gonna watch and count or am I?" Hannah asked.

"Since you're the closest you can," he said.

They got up off the floor into a low crouch, ready to dash for the room on her count. She rested her hand against the corner of the desk and peeked her head around, letting out a breath. Things didn't feel real. It felt like any moment, she'd wake up and by lying in her bed, and it would just be her imagination running away with her again.

"One, two, three." she counted. "Now!"

They rushed to the office and collapsed onto the couch, cheering quietly that the zombies didn't seem to notice them moving. Hannah chuckled and threw her forearm over her eyes, resting her head back on the couch. This was the first thing that went her way all day.

"Oh man, that was awesome!" he exclaimed, tapping his feet on the ground alternately as he grinned.

Hannah pulled a hair tie out of her pocket and pulled her hair up into a loose bun. "Not sure that's what I'd call it, but let's do this thing," she said, standing up.

The doctor's computer was likely to have a password on it, and she was certain Kyle would know what it is. And sure enough, he did. The man, approximately her own age, gracefully connected to the station's database of artifacts.

"This is going to take a while. There are literally thousands of artifacts and discoveries here."

"There has to be a filter. Click on those dots." Hannah pointed to the top right corner above the fifth mentioned artifact. He did so and a filter option came up. He typed in meteor and a few options popped up.

"Where would these be located?" she asked.

"There is a museum library in the warehouse downstairs. It's in a secured room in the back."

Hannah placed her hands on her hips and paced the small room. They needed to get down there somehow, but with the station in lockdown she had no idea how. "You've been here longer than me. You have to know a few tricks to get around the station."

Kyle shook his head. "I was pretty much trapped on this floor and in in my living quarters."

"I need you to send an email to the security office. They need to get me or someone downstairs to secure a sample."

"I can try the interoffice communicator."

He clicked on the icon, but the minute he did, the lights flickered and the power went out.