During the time I had been working at the facility on the time machine with Jenny and the other members of our team, I had heard a lot of stories about biochem hall, some about breakthroughs in their researcher which lead to awesome nights out on the town, others about mishaps when experimenting that lead to quarantines between a day and a month long. Long story short, it was not the kind of place I liked to hang around, as parties weren’t really my thing and I wasn’t exactly a big fan of being stuck inside for long periods of time, no matter how much of an introvert I was. 

There were some days though, when I heard about their latest hypothesis about reverse engineering neurotoxins to find a cure for human neurodegenerative diseases, that I wish I could be a part of their group, if only to get a look at what goes on inside their head. However looking back now, their work on neurotoxins is a bit less appealing, for if there ever was going to be a disease created that would turn people into zombies, neurotoxins would be one of the key ingredients. 

I mean it already created most of the symptoms one would most likely see in an apocalyptic situation, and could destroy brain tissue. Some of the side effects included loss of intelligence, memory impairments and dementia. If that doesn’t sound like a zombie then I don’t know what does.

There was a brief moment of silence after I had spoken, as if Callum expected me to continue. When it was clear that I was finished he frowned and shifted on the spot.

“So?” He questioned, clearly confused. “Is there something bad there?”

“Well… no.” I admitted, after a moment. “But still, during the time I’ve worked in the facility I’ve learned that biochem hall is known for it’s crazy experiments. If there’s going to be any place that has zombies it would be there.”

“Well I guess that makes sense.” Callum’s frown deepened as he leaned against the wall. “And you’re sure the bio-stem hall is the only other way to get to security.”

“Firstly it’s Bio-chem,” I corrected him, “And yes, that’s the only other way into security. I wish it wasn’t, but unfortunately the person who designed the building did not seem to have a clue what they were doing.”

“So which way is biochem?” He asked after a moment of thought. I glanced at him, as I blinked in surprise.

“You still want to go even when there might be zombies?”

“Well we’re not exactly going to get into security this way.” Callum pointed out. “And I thought we might as well try going through biochem hall, since finding out what happened to everyone seems rather important to you. Besides, we haven’t seen any signs of zombies so far, so if we do run into any at least we’ll know they exist.”

“True.” I paused and bit my lip as I thought over our situation before I sighed and straightened my stance. “Well if we’re going to go through biochem hall we might want to gear up first. Who knows what chemicals might have leaked without anyone to check on them.”

“What kinds of chemicals?” Callum inquired as he followed me back towards the cafeteria. 

“No clue.” I shrugged as I walked down the hall. “Just always better to be safe than exposed to hallucinagentics or toxic gases.”

“Right.” Callum gulped and stopped, glancing back at security before he hurried to catch up with me.

“So what exactly are we going to use to gear up?” He asked as I pushed open the big metal door that led to the cafeteria.

“Well there should be hazmat suits stored in one of the closets in the back of the kitchen.” I said as I closed the door behind us, careful not to let it slam.

“Should be?” Callum glanced at me. 

“Well that’s where the safety instructor said they would be.” I explained before I glanced at the floor in embarrassment. “I didn’t actually get to see which one, as I got my helmet stuck on backwards.”

“How’d that happen?” Callum asked as I led him towards the area the safety training had been happening.

“I can’t really remember.” I lied, my face flushed.

Truthfully, I remembered it all too clearly, as often happens with embarrassing moments. The suit had been a new version and helmet had been one of the ones that you’d turn slightly to lock into position. It was pretty easy to use and didn’t require much force. I however had gotten my hair stuck in the seal and hadn’t been able to turn it. So when I finally fixed the problem with Jenny’s help, I had gone to turn the helmet using way too much force and somehow rotated it two whole notches so that the screen was at the back of my head and I was staring at the inside of the helmet. It took the instructor’s assistant and Jenny a full half an hour to get the helmet off of my head, as I had somehow also broken the release mechanism as well. By the time I was able to see, the tour had ended and the safety instructor had gone to lunch, leaving Jenny to give me a quick and more personalized tour of the compound. I felt a rush of sadness overtake me as I thought back to the fun I’d had that day with her. 

“I think I found them!” Callum announced, pulling me back to the present. I glanced over at the closet he had been looking through and grinned at the familiar yellow rubber.

“Great!” I said as I closed the cupboard I had absently opened. “Now we just have to find ones our size!”

“Found one for me already, but I haven’t seen any that look like they’d fit you.” He remarked, as he started looking through the pile of yellow suits. 

I began looking too, but to my disappointment, none of them were small enough to fit me perfectly. I groaned inwardly, as I remembered what Jenny had said after we managed to get the suit off me. Apparently it had been the only one in the small size, as the others were being repaired after sustaining damage.

“Maybe the smaller sizes are in another closet,” Callum frowned and walked over to another of the metal storage units and pulled open the doors.

“It’s okay.” I told him as I picked up what seemed like the smallest of the suits and held it out in front of me. “I’ll just wear one of these. It can’t be that much bigger, can it?”