"N-NO!" Mark pushed Cassie out of the way, the blast hitting him straight in the chest. He fell back into the wall and slumped to the ground.

"Oh my gosh!" The scientist gaped in shock.

"Mark!" Cassidy cried out and quickly ran to his side, dropping to her knees and sliding on the floor in front of him. She stopped seeing the charred black hold in his chest, his tie and shirt burned away. Tears filled her eyes as she covered her mouth in disbelief.

"Oh, I am so sorry..." The scientist told him, moving to his side and placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Oh, I am sooo sorry..." Mark coughed, his hand reaching up to cover his wound.

"Okay, I'm marginally less sorry now." She replied, pulling back some.

Cassie was in complete shock, unable to say anything.

"Cassie..." He looked up at her, his eyes dreary. "You have to get out of here... Run as fast as you can, take the box and-"

Cassie looked a bit confused when he told her she had the box on her person but didn't dare interrupt him.

"No, she can't. She's still been bitten by a zombie." The scientist gestured at Cassidy who glanced away. "She's still got maybe a few hours before she turns?" She shrugged uncertainty.

"Well..." He looked defeated.

She then turned to Mark. "What's this box you're talking about?"

"Oh yeah... Well before we got here, before this whole apocalypse thing, we broke into this big museum downtown." He began to tell her about the heist.

She looked more and more confused as she listened before turning to him, waving her arms.

"Wait, wait, shut up."

He stopped talking and glared at her.

She started to gesture as she talked. "So you're saying that you stole an ancient priceless artifact immediately before the world went to shit." She looked at Cassie who seemed to realize where she was going as well and slowly lowered her head into her hand.

"Yeah... That's what I was saying... So anyways." He continued talking about the heist.

"And you're friend here, has it in her possession?" She cut him off, pointing at Cassidy who looked back up at them, mostly at Mark with a 'Are you freaking kidding me?' look.

"That's what I was saying. I put it in her bag last night."

"While I was sleeping?!" Cassidy asked. "You didn't tell me!"

"I forgot to okay?!"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up." she waved her arms at him. "Can I see this box of yours?" She held her hand out towards Cassidy who dug it out of her bag, staring at it for a moment before handing it over.

"Yeah, sure. Here."

She took the box and looked at it.

"Yeah... That's it... Pretty cool, right?" His words were beginning to slur as he lost more and more blood.

She picked up the scanner and scanned the box making it beep rapidly before scanning Mark which made it quiet down, the box again, then Cassidy where it beeped quietly at her. It only rapidly beeped at the box. "Oh, you idiot..."

Cassie realized what this meant and face palmed.

"What?"

She pointed at the box. "This is the anomaly!"

"Well how was I supposed to know that?"

The scientist ignored him and grabbed hold of her gun. "I'm destroying this thing right here, right now." She told them. "Any objections this time?"

Cassie started to shake her head when she saw the gem on the box start to glow. "Uh..."

"B-but... That box was so hard to ge-"

Before the scientist could fire, a bright light filled the room, making Cassidy flinch and crossed her arms defensively over her face and squeezed her eyes shut.