It was quiet. That was the first thing I noticed as I stepped out of the office and onto the street. An uneasy stillness that felt oddly ominous hung in the air. A shiver went down my spine as though my body recognised the wrongness and was trying to warn me.

Despite the cold and low lying fog it wasn't an entirely horrible day and at least the rain had stopped, I mused as I gazed up and down the road. This was London. The capital. A city that didn't sleep where there was always something to do or see. So where the hell was everyone?

Pulling my coat a little tighter around myself I take a few steps to the edge of the pavement. It was supposed to be lunchtime, one of the busiest times of day here but I don't think I had ever seen it this dead out.

Frowning back over my shoulder I squinted at the clock over the empty reception desk and confirmed it was one o'clock. Keeley, the receptionist, usually found cover for her breaks so seeing her desk deserted was just yet another thing that felt off.

There was no thrum of traffic rolling up the wet roads or horns tooting their displeasure at some imagined slight with other vehicles. No gentle rumble of a passing train or wail of distant emergency vehicles.

Not even the sound of laughter and chatter from the nearby primary school playground.

My eyes slowly scanned the surrounding buildings only to be met with eerie silence. Something felt very wrong.

A sudden scream split through the air and I flinched, spinning to look at the direction it had come from.

Movement by a sleek grey BMW that looked like it had been abandoned half up on the pavment caught my eye.

The sweet old lady who worked at my favourite local sandwich shop was being pinned to the car by an enormous guy who looked like he lived off a diet of protein shakes, steroids and pumping iron. Her head tilted back on the bonnet, neatly permed hair squashed by the angle as she met my eyes. Her mouth was still open and screaming but the cries beginning to fade out. I had never seen pure terror before but I felt sure this was it.

Guilt rushed through me when I realised I couldn't even remember her name. Especially as she always remembered my order and gave me the biggest slices of cake when I asked for them.

"Hey!" I shouted, stepping towards them.

I wasn't sure what I was hoping to achieve or how I thought I could stop the attack. I was five foot three on a good day and with the diet of a four year old with a sweet tooth and the motivation for activity of a sloth, I was perhaps one of the least athletic people in existence. My mother affectionately used to say I wouldn't be able to fight my way out of a wet paper bag and God rest her soul she was right.

The woman's screams cut off with a gurgling noise and her head lolled away as he wrenched his gaze up to look at me.

"What the hell!" I breathed at the blood dripping from his mouth and staining his teeth. 

The woman's body - and I had to accept she was likely dead and it was just her body now - slipped down the side of the car, disappearing from my view and hitting the pavement with a sickening thud that made me flinch.

My hand clapped over my mouth in an attempt to hold in the bubbling scream I could feel in my chest. A thick, heavy horror came over me and muddled my thoughts. I could feel my whole body beginning to freeze up in fear.

Thankfully the more logical side of me stepped in and suggested we get the hell away from the crazy man and then deal with the murder witness meltdown later.

I took a step back towards the building without taking my eyes off the guy. He mirrored my movements with a slow, jerky step of his own around the car.

He was even bigger than I had first realised as I took in his red and brown stained clothes which looked like they may have been nice gym wear at some point in a past life. I didn't want to think what, or who, all those stains might be from and I pushed that from my mind.

His shoulders were hunched up, making his thick neck barely visible and one of his legs dragged when he walked. I felt a spark of concern that he appeared to be hurt somehow. Dec always said I was too caring for my own good. Then again he trusted no one and was naturally suspicious so we balanced each other out really.

When the mountain of a man took his next step closer he opened his mouth and let out an awful rattling clicking noise. What was he on? He had to have taken something. No one in the right mind would...well I was pretty sure he had just tried to eat a woman and killed her.

His next step towards me was a little faster. Still unsteady but gathering confidence and speed. It was almost like he was relearning how to walk.

Having seen what he had done to the poor lady who's name I was afraid to say I couldn't remember, I wasn't keen on sticking around to watch his learning curve.

As soon as my back hit the glass door I began feeling around with the pass hanging around my neck before hearing the familiar click and release of the door.

He was barely six paces from me when I span through it and slammed the door shut behind me. Close enough that I could smell the awful rotting stench coming from him but not close enough that he managed to reach the door before it made the soft hiss as it locked back into place.

His body slammed into the glass, almost as though he didn't see it and he stumbled back shaking his head. Without missing a beat he stepped forwards again, totally focused on getting to me and apparently unable to remember the purpose of doors as he smacked straight into the glass again so hard it rattled in the frame.

I would have thought he was blind but those pale grey-white eyes tracked me as I moved away towards the desk. With my phone still on the side in the meeting room upstairs I needed to borrow the reception phone to call for help.

He continued to periodically hit his face against the glass and cuts broke out across his skin. Each one looked odd and was oozing thick, almost lumpy blood. I continued to watch him as I raised the receiver to my ear. There was silence. No dialling tone, nothing.

It was typical, nothing ever worked when you needed it to.

With no other option and pretty convinced the glass was strong enough to keep him out I made quickly for the stairs up to the second floor to alert someone.

No one seemed to be about though and the phones on the first bank of desks were also not working. If it hadn't been for the lights being on and hum of computers I might have even assumed it was a power cut.

The office was too quiet. No radio blaring. No chatter or laughter. Not even the obnoxious ring of the phones or chimes of video calls.

This was beginning to feel like one of those nightmares where you end up going to work on the weekend or naked or something.

A glance down at my neat office wear confirmed that it was far more likely to be the former nightmare.

After quickly checking the staff room and peering through the frosted glass of the boardroom I was forced to admit I was totally alone.

Cautiously I slipped back into the meeting room I had been working from to retrieve my phone. As soon as I tapped the screen it lit up with multiple missed calls and unread messages.

At the top was an alert type message. The likes of which I had never seen before. I tapped it and revealed the notification:

Xerarenavirus-Z-23 outbreak. Infected are extremely dangerous and highly contagious. Lock all doors and windows then hide. God help us all.

I read and re-read the message twice. It seemed awfully dramatic for a government alert and I almost didn't believe it was anything more than a prank until I started scanning through my whatsapp messages.

Lover boy: Baby have you seen the news? 
Sent 10:13

Lover boy: Bri, message me back urgently
Sent 10:27

Lover boy: Answer your damn phone Bri. This is serious
Sent 10:51

Lover boy: Chloe said you didn't evacuate with her? I swear to god if you've over slept and you're still in bed I'm going to kill you
Sent 11:05

Lover boy: I'm at yours and you're not here?? Where the hell are you??
Sent 12:18

That was only eight minutes ago, I quickly summoned up the keyboard and typed a reply.

Bri: What's going on? I'm in the office?

The message immediately delivers and the screen lights up with Declan calling me. I swipe to answer, frowning as I try to understand how the messages, alerts and crazy man outside must be all connected somehow.

"Thank fuck Bri, I thought you were dead." Dec's face fills the screen, his face relieved and expression exasperated at seeing my bemused smile.

"Little dramatic." I laugh, "What's going on?"

"What do you mean what's going on? It's the end of the damn world." He was giving me his best 'have you been living under a rock' look.

"Very funny." I roll my eyes, "What's actually going on? People are sick? There's some crazy man outside my office. I think, I mean I'm pretty sure, he killed someone."

I fully expect him to gasp in shock or horror but he doesn't. He just nods, "Probably killed more than one person. It's this Xera virus-"

"Isn't that just like the flu or something?"

"Apparently not. I went to a call out on shift last night where someone with it went nuts and it took eight bullets to stop him. They're saying," He swallows like he can't quite believe his is about to say this, "They're calling it a zombie apocalypse."

"There no such thing as zombies." I respond automatically.

A notification pops up at the top of my screen with a message from Chloe.

Chloe: Dec wanted to know where you were. I didn't see you when we were all hightailing it out of the office. Hope you're OK  X

I send a quick reply.

Brianna: On a call to him now. He's making up some dramatic shit about zombies!

"There absolutely is. I swear, they're literally eating people Bri. It's so messed up." He shudders in horror and it finally sinks in that this isn't a nightmare.

Another message from Chloe pops up.

Chloe: I'm not shitting you, it actually is some walking dead zombie crap.  Sorry I didn't wait for you babe. I didn't know you were in and then they told us we needed to run. Was carnage

It isn't a prank, no one is jumping out saying "got you" and my big tough boyfriend is actually afraid.

I struggle to process this and my mind latches onto the nearest normal thing it can, "So no one is going to need this presentation?" I glance at the laptop that had been my only companion for just over three hours.

"No Bri, no one needs a presentation for the end of the world." Dec half-laugh brings a smile to my lips and I look back at him.

"Brilliant, so glad I bothered to finish it then." I sigh.

Of course I would nearly miss the end of the world because I was too busy working. He chuckles again and then we fall silent, both deep in thought.

"So now what?" I vocalise what I suspect we were both just thinking, "I'm guessing zombies aren't helping the Thameslink stick to it's schedule so how do I get home? How do I get to you?"

Dec looks concerned and I can see his mind considering options before he settles on one. With a wide grin, and lifting what looks like an axe up onto his shoulder, he gives me a confident look. "You just sit tight gorgeous, I'm coming to you."