"With everything that has been shown on the news for the last week, class will be ending early today. Please make sure to clean up your lab space and return all of your unused chemicals to the storage room." The chemistry professor gives the students in her class a stiff smile before focusing once more on her laptop, dismissing us all.

"Well, that was fun," my lab partner, Haydee, grumbles before gathering all of her notebooks and shoving them into her backpack. "Can you take care of returning everything this time? I have a doctor's appointment across town, and with all the traffic, I don't know if I will be able to make it in time."

"Yeah, sure, it's fine," I tell her, giving her a smile while she slips her arms through the straps of her backpack.

"Thanks, Alden. See you next week?" She doesn't give me time to respond before she is walking out of the room, a wave thrown over her shoulder in my general direction as she pushes the heavy metal door open and leaves the room.

"Yeah, like we'll even be here next week," the guy who sits across from us mumbles under his breath.

Scrunching my eyebrows, I try not to dwell too long on his words, but it is hard not to with everything that has been on the news lately. Six months of government officials talking about how everything is under control hasn't been too reassuring. Especially since the attacks have been happening more frequently, gradually moving from the East Coast over to the West Coast.

Whole cities have gone dark, no more information coming out of them from the government officials, but it is not too hard to find some of the terrifying videos online. Most people think the videos are fake, something that was created by people trying to scare the general public even more.

Someone clearing their throat draws me out of my musings, and looking up, I see that the professor is looking at me over her glasses, a brow raised and a small smile on her face.

"Sorry," I mumble, so low that I don't even know if she was able to hear me. But, she nods her head anyway before returning her gaze back to her computer.

With all of the chemicals stacked on my tray, I slip my backpack onto my shoulders before walking out of the room. The hallway is mostly empty, only the occasional student sitting on the ground as they type away at their laptops or cell phones.

My converse slapping on the tiled flooring is the only sound I can hear, making it sound like I am the only person in this entire building. That theory is put to rest though when I trip over someone's legs just as I reach the counter where the lab storage technician is standing. Consequently, my arms start to flail as I try to catch myself, and the chemicals in my hands go flying everywhere.

"Holy shit!" a deep voice says, but I am too busy seeing my life flash before my eyes as I fall to the ground to face the guy. "Great, it had to be the acid that got spilled all over."

After spilling most of their contents, the glass beakers shatter onto the ground, and I am not coordinated enough to dodge the broken glass and the multiple acids we had used in class today. My shirt gets sopping wet as it soaks in the liquids I had managed to fall in.

"Come on, we both have to rinse off now."

A hand reaches down before my face and looking up, I see the lab technician standing over me. My face makes a smock sound when I pull it away from the ground as if it was suctioned to the cold floor. Grimacing, I push myself onto my knees before grabbing the guy's hand. Reading his badge, I see that his name is Finn.

The embarrassment really sets in when my eyes land on his face. Brown eyes framed by dark lashes, his nose a little small, but it is balanced out by his plump lips. A tingling starts in my chest, and before I can think too long on the sensation, it turns into a burning. Every place where my shirt is wet feels like fire pressed up against my skin.

"Aw shit," I say, reaching up my hands to pull the fabric away from my chest.

"Come on," Finn says, putting his hand on the center of my back and hurriedly pushing me around the counter and into the back room where the chemicals are stored. "That pain you're feeling would be the acid that got spilled everywhere. Including my chest."

Finn pushes me over to the corner of the room, where a shower is placed. The burning in my chest gets even more painful, and it starts to travel down to my pants. As soon as Finn turns the water on, I shuck all my clothes besides my briefs, tossing them in the general direction of the hazardous material bin.

The cool water feels amazing on my burning skin causing a sigh to slip from between my lips before I can help it. Just when my chest is starting to feel a little less on fire, a bottle is being thrust into my hand. Blinking open my eyes, I see Finn pulling off his own shirt, revealing his toned chest.

"Here take this and wash everywhere that the acid touched. It will get any remnants of it off."

"Yeah, okay," I say a bit breathlessly, my eyes widening when Finn joins me in the shower. He moves me a little bit out of the way, that way he can get under the spray of water, too.

With shaky hands, I snap open the bottle, pouring a little into my hand before rubbing it all over my chest and down my legs. My cheeks and chest warm up in embarrassment when I see that I am in my bright pink briefs. The ones my older sister got me as a gag gift on my birthday, and I only ever pull them out when I am in desperate need of doing laundry.

My thoughts are cut short, though, when the lights above us flicker before completely going out. Luckily, we both finish washing before the water shuts off, too.

"What the hell?" Finn says from somewhere in front of me. It is nearly impossible to see him in the darkness. The light shining in from one of the windows in the hallway makes it so that I can see his outline but nothing else.

"What's going on?" I ask, reaching out my hand until I make contact with his back. It's a little comforting to know that I am not the only one here.

"I don't know, but the backup generators should kick on soon."

Sure enough, an orange glow is cast around the room as the emergency lights come on, making it possible to see again. Finn's dark brows are scrunched together as he looks around the room as if trying to see if anything is out of place. After a solid minute of us just standing there, he turns around to grab my hand from where I have it on his back. "Come on, I think I have a towel in my locker."

The building is silent as we dodge the tables laid throughout the room and make it to the back wall. Neither of us talks as we towel off, instead trying to catch the sound of what is going on.

"Jesus it's cold in here," I say, wrapping my arms around myself as a cold shiver works its way down my body. The room is pretty cool, and standing in just wet underwear isn't helping.

"Hold on..." Finn steps away, throwing his towel back into his locker before going over to a door only a few feet in front of us and opening it. It's too dark for me to see what's inside, but Finn lets out a satisfied, "Aha!" before reaching inside and grabbing what he was looking for.

"What are those?" I ask, finding it difficult to see what he is so excited about in the dark.

"Some extra scrubs that some of the doctors who work here use. Every once in a while, they go through them a little too quickly, so they started keeping them in the most unlikely storage areas." He closes the distance between us, handing me one of the pajama-like outfits. We're quick to put them on, desperate to escape some of the cold air in the room.

A loud scream from down the hall draws the both of us to a halt. It sounded like it was coming from the hallway that this storage room is connected to. Heavy footsteps, sounding like a group of ten or more people, run down the hall, coming closer to the door that separates us from them.

Finn holds his arm out when I move to walk towards the noise. He doesn't look away from the door, not even to look over at me when he says a quiet. "Stay here." Quickly, he walks over to the door, his footsteps so gentle that I can't hear him over the stampede making their way up the hallway.

A loud growl cuts through the air, making the people outside fasten their footsteps and scream louder. Something crazy is going on out there. The people in the hallway need help. Swallowing back my fear, I run across the room and reach for the door knob, but before I can open the door, Finn is knocking my hand away.

"If you open this door, whatever is out there chasing them will come after us." Reaching down, he locks the door before sliding down it so that his back is pressed up against it.

"We can't just leave them out there to die." The screams from outside become louder and in just a matter of seconds, they are right outside the door. Hands pound against the metal and the doorknob jiggles as multiple people try to get into our safe space. I reach for the doorknob again, but just as he did before, Finn knocks my hand away.

Finn just shakes his head, his eyes wide and a finger over his mouth as he tells me to be silent. Angry, I try to open the door anyway. My hand is just making contact with the metal knob when strong arms wrap around me, keeping my arms pinned against my sides.

"They're terrified. We have to try and help them," I whisper, struggling against Finn's strong grip.

"We can't-" He is cut off by a weird screeching sound that makes the both of us wince. It sounds as if someone is trying to cut glass, only much louder.

Finn's arms drop away from me so that he can cover his ears, and I do the same. My ears feel as is they are about to burst, and just when I think that I am going to lose my hearing for good, the noise dies down. Instead of the screeching, whatever is out there makes an odd clicking sound.

"Oh god, please no!"

"Somebody help us!"

"Let us in!"

"Please-"

The voices are slowly replaced with screams, and then silence, a couple of thumps against the door indicating that they fell against it when they died.

Finn and I look at each other, both with wide eyes. The clicking starts up again, but this time there are two different sets, one stopping when the other one starts. There have to be two of the creatures out there, and it sounds like they are communicating with one another.

The coldness of the room causes me to shiver, and my teeth start to chatter. Within a second, Finn is standing next to me, one hand on the back of my head while the other holds my jaw still. I hold my breath, trying to tell if the beasts outside heard me or not, but we are only met with silence on the other side of the door

*****

A/N: Picture at the top is of Alden