Tourist

I awkwardly lowered the hammer I had held high as my body relaxed somewhat. It was good to know or at least think that it was a living human woman in the locker instead of seeing a puppeteered cadaver.

Did I KNOW for sure she wasn't one? No. But I also didn't want to become someone struck with intense paranoia to the point where I couldn't even trust my eyes, at least not yet.

I looked at her intently trying to discern any unusual points about her just in case, but she seemed fine. That one that turned with Todd still had normal proportions before being turned, but came out in such a way afterward. It's possible that they could evolve, but not so soon right?

The earliest message I received was at 9:36 AM, it's only 12 PM so the whole event shouldn't have been occurring for more than 2.5 hours.

If they can become so human in that time frame then what's the point of that first form? Perhaps, it was just my mind rationalizing having a companion, but I took the chance. 

I'd rather have a companion of some kind than not, it would just be too lonely without another.

Maybe, in the long term of this apocalypse having an emotional attachment might not be too good, but in all honesty, it's not like this woman is gonna follow me home after we escape.

"Um Sir?... Young man? You work here, right?"

Her slightly trembling mature voice caused me to cease thinking about whether the human was really human.

"Oh, I'm sorry, yeah." I pointed to the name sewn onto the right side of my chest. "I'm Nova, one of the plant's technicians. You're not wearing a uniform, are you one of today's tourists?"

Her clothing stood out as casual, a black sleeveless turtleneck sweater, beige skirt, black stockings, and white high heels. Her metal necklace and earrings were also a good giveaway since no one on the floor was allowed to wear loose jewelry. They weren't pristine though as she had splatters of blood on every article of clothing she wore.

Since our plant was so large, we started having tours as another way for additional income as well as having a museum for a number of the vehicles we produced as well as its history.

"Ah, y-yes that's right, my name is Abby. Uh, is everything okay now? It sounds pretty quiet."

"I guess in a way, yeah, but it's probably not what you're thinking."

"Are you the only one left? W-what happened to the others?!" Her voice was becoming frantic at what I assumed was the lack of other voices.

"Ma'am please don't be too loud, I wasn't part of your original group if that's what you were thinking. Why don't you get up out of that cramped locker and stretch for a moment? In the meantime, why don't you tell me what happened? I… um happened to sleep through everything and only woke up a little while ago."

"Y-you slept through all that? How could you manage that with all the chaos around?!" 

I put away the hammer and pulled her up to her feet with my right hand and as I did she came somewhat close to my face.

She was a brunette with hair cut down to her shoulders, warm brown eyes, and a distinct mole under the left corner of her left eye.

By the time I finished pulling her up, I let go of her hand, but she still held on. I looked up to see her absentmindedly staring at me. I felt a bit of her warm breath brush past my cheek.

'What's with this look? Fuck, was I wrong on my first encounter?! Is she one of those creatures with perfect mimicry!?!? Oh shit, oh shit!!'

"M-ma'am?" My grip on the locker door tightened as I readied to shove it back in and slam the door on it.

"A-ah, I'm sorry!"

She turned away with her hand on her chest.

'Shit, now I'm doubting her already! Can't you act normally instead of freezing up like that? I thought I was gonna be some mimic's prey… hmmm, but that look. Maybe I've already become her prey in another way, nah, best not to think with the other head at the first sign of a woman.

Maybe she was just shocked that I could sleep through the apocalypse.'

"So, do you mind telling me what happened here?"

"Ah yes, of course…." She walked to the counter and peered over at all the bodies sprawled about.

"*Sigh* So, I guess I'll start when I arrived here and I'll skip over the boring parts.

Our tour group started at 9 AM and we walked for about half an hour before something strange started happening around us. A member of our tour group noticed the start of something horrific happening in the distance. We couldn't hear anything going on as we each had those Bluetooth-connected earbuds to listen to the guide speaker.

There was a strange-looking man with a massive nose who wore the same blue outfit as many of the others coming out of a nearby bathroom. If that was all then I would've thought he was just overreacting, but there was a large blood stain around his collar.

He was soon noticed by others in blue and I think they offered him some help, but all of a sudden he grabbed the closest one and started beating him. After a moment of shock, a couple of others started holding him back, but it wasn't enough as he soon broke free from their restraints.

As if that wasn't bad enough, half a dozen more came out of the bathrooms with differences in their bodies. The most common would be the increased length of their arms or legs. One of them came out missing one of their forearms, but in its place was a blade seemingly formed from bone. The missing muscles must have gone to increasing the size of their biceps as it was larger than the other arm.

When they came out of that bathroom from seemingly thin air many of the ones near that first monster froze allowing it to break free and start strangling one of its previous restrainers. 

It was at that moment that all hell started to break loose. The guide we had still tried to lead us, but now instead of further in we were trying to find some security.

It didn't seem to be an isolated incident though as while we started moving away those deformed people appeared from one dark corner to another. 

Do you know how difficult it is to move quickly in high heels? I was being left behind very quickly, luckily someone realized and slowed the group down for me. With all the bodies around here I think someone should fit my size.

*Ahem* Anyway, at some point we were split up as a few of them divided our group, but luckily my half found another large group of people with security guards intermingled among them. And seeking safety we all stayed together. Eventually, we decided to go to the cafeteria to defend.

It worked out quite well for a good while. I felt safe for a while and so did everyone else as we had some time to process what happened and call or text our loved ones. Occasionally, one or two would pass by though, but the people at the front took care of them.

I think all together there were around 100 of us. I know a group of 40 or so people had split off to find others and bring them back, but I don't know what happened to them. 

Probably, 10 minutes after they left a huge horde of those things appeared and I guess this is what happened to them all.

A lot of us were starting to die, since there were so many this time, most of us were holding them back and we were starting to push them back, but then the same one with the bone-bladed arm from before appeared.

That one stabbed through a number of the people at the front and shattered several people's weapons. Once mine broke I ran back to try and find a decent one, but when I looked back our frontline had collapsed. 

What was strange though was the fact that anybody that was killed by that one was slowly taken away. Once I saw them taking bodies and people running away I hid in this locker for, I think half an hour. Now here I am with you."

She finally turned back towards me with a determined look in her eyes.

"Hey, let's get out of here together, what do you say?"

She extended her right hand to me and spoke with bravado.

I was slightly surprised at her sudden change, but I simply smiled and shook her hand not wanting to ruin her mood. 

"Alright then, why don't we find you a pair of running shoes first?"

We exited the kitchen together and after giving me one of her heels as a way to compare sizes went to gather shoes. At this point, she was walking barefoot around the cafeteria, if I had a foot fetish I'm sure I would've been enthused.

After a short time, I gathered 3 pairs I thought fit and brought them to her. After trying them on she seemed to have found a match.

In the meantime, I scanned the area. At the main entrance, I saw a few smeared trails of blood that I didn't pay much attention to before, those must be the bodies that were taken. At the side of the cafeteria was a side entrance that led into a small office area and through there was the logistics section. I looked down that corridor and saw that there were a few bodies that seemed to be moving away from the cafeteria, those might have been the rest of this group's survivors and it seemed like some of them probably escaped.

'Those things need bodies to create more of themselves, right? If that's so, why didn't they take these other bodies? Why only bodies that died from that bone blade guy?'

When I turned back to Abby I brought out my phone as I thought back to why I came here in the first place, then showed her a picture of Robert.

"Hey, do you remember if this guy was a part of your group?"

"Oh? Let me see! …Hmm, I might've seen him. He looks somewhat familiar. I think he was part of that volunteer group that ventured out to find others, if I'm not mistaken then they should've all left through that side entrance."

'Hmm, well I can't quite confirm his state so I guess I'll keep looking for him. At least he didn't die here, I guess he must've texted me from here then.'

I watched her grab one of the many wrenches scattered around before she made her way towards me.

"Um, Nova, was it? What do you plan to do now?"

"Well, I'm gonna see if I can find that man I showed you, his name's Robert. After that, I think I'll just go home. I have a friend who said they're waiting for me there. What about you?"

"I suppose I'll just follow you for now. When we get out… I'll probably have to check on some people too. Do you have any idea where they might have gone? We aren't just going to search randomly, right?"

"Yeah, I feel like if they were going to look for others they would probably try breakrooms, other cafeterias, and offices."

Through the hallway, only a couple of bodies could be seen, both of which looked as though they were trying to escape. There was a wall on our right side that was glass from the waist up. It was the office area, and there were signs of struggle, but no blood. It seemed they had escaped those confines and I could trace him back from his desk to a couple of points where he picked up an object to throw as there was a small pile of items on one side of the room while it was clearly missing from the other. An office chair on the far side from the door was lying on its side and near the middle desk one was conveniently missing.

As I simulated the little scenario in my head I noticed some movement from the back of the logistical section. A man in a red technician shirt like me was cautiously moving around walls of towering logistical parts.

I had a feeling he was human from the way he was moving, but I didn't want to yell out so I decided to get closer to him before calling out, and along the way, I could probably solidify my feeling or suddenly be overcome with another sense of the uncanny valley.