Violet’s comm slipped out of her hand as she ran. Her panic said leave it, but her reason argued she might need it. She cursed and hurried back to retrieve it.

Scanning the empty corridor there was no sign of it at first, and then after retracing her steps for another thirty paces, there it was. She grabbed it and turned to leave but then froze. Something was down at the end of the hall. Something big and scary.

It couldn’t be…

It was the stress. Her mind was playing tricks on her.

But no, it moved. The man moved, shifting to the opposite foot as he stared at her.

There was something else, something familiar. She almost felt as if she knew him.

The dark reverie shattered like a pane of glass as the man let out a guttural shriek and dropped down on all fours like an animal. He ran toward Violet with devastating speed.

“Shit!” Violet turned her back and sprinted. Her apartment was a hundred feet away and she had a lead. It was going to be close.

She reached her unit and fumbled with her comm, finally swiping it over the lock.

“Come on, work!” She swiped it again. “Work! Work, goddammit!”

She glanced up and saw the man—or was it a monster wearing a man’s skin—closing on her.

Whining like the sad sack of shit that it was, her door opened halfway and then froze. But she’d been expecting nothing less, and was ready for it. She slipped through, almost throwing herself sideways through the narrow opening. Then came the monster’s arm, stabbing through the gap in her doorway, up to the shoulder. The impact shook the walls of her apartment.

A clawed hand raked at her upper back, trying to grab her.

In the rush of adrenaline, Violet barely felt the pain as she ripped out of the man’s grasp. She ducked out of reach of his second attempt to grab her and slapped the door’s controls, closing it. The door slammed shut, disregarding the safety override that wasn’t functioning properly.

A horrific wail came from outside as the door trapped the monster’s forearm with a sickening crack and pop. The sound reminded Violet of breaking the joint on a chicken wing.

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The creature tore his arm free from the malfunctioning door and it closed the rest of the way, sealing Violet safely inside.

At least for now.

Violet engaged the lock and then backed away. Several trickles of blood ran down the door where it met the frame.

Not a split second later the entire front wall of her apartment shook like thunder as the man, or the thing that used to be a man, pounded into the door.

Violet felt the floor beneath her feet move with the impact. Dust filtered down from the ceiling, but the door was holding.

A few more thunderous collisions and then everything was silent.

Violet took a tentative breath, scared the noise of it would invite another attack. With each breath she grew a little bolder until she was breathing as normally as was possible again, given the circumstances.

And then her heart stopped in her chest as her memory stitched together what she’d seen out in the hallway.

She replayed the moment in her mind: a shredded and bloodied shirt hung around the man’s shoulders as if he’d burst through the clothing from the inside out. His face and hair were dark red, caked in dried blood. She recognized the look from the mirror this morning. And his muscles were unnaturally large, with bulging veins like the bodybuilders who were juiced to the tits.

Then as if sensing her thoughts about him, the thing outside howled with rage and beat against the door again and again. The door held just as before, and she said a silent thanks to her malfunctioning door for protecting her.

Her comm rang and she shrieked, startled by the sound. The pounding outside stopped.

She backed into the corner of her apartment and answered the comm. “Please!” she whispered as loudly as she dared. “You have to help me. It’s right outside!”

“Violet, it’s Hector, from Security Services.”

“I know who the fuck you are,” Violet hissed. “Are you sending someone to come get me or what?”

“I’m sorry, Violet. That’s what I was trying to explain earlier when we spoke. There’s no one coming. Your section of the station is under quarantine. We don’t know what caused that man outside your apartment to mutate, but whatever it is we can’t take the chance of it infecting the rest of the station.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Violet raised her voice, monster outside be damned. “You can’t just leave me here! I have fucking rights or something, don’t I?”

Hector ignored the curse-laden outburst. “Our projections indicate you should be fine as long as you remain indoors. He hasn’t seemed to be able to break into any units that weren’t opened to him.”

“Oh, sure. I’ll just live the rest of my life indoors, that’s just perfect!”

“I’m sure this will all be resolved before the rest of your life occurs, Miss Weaver.”

“It’d better be!” Violet hung up and considered flinging her hand terminal against the wall but then thought better of it. The comm was the only portable link to the outside world she had.

Instead, she threw the half-empty glass of water that sat beside her bed and basked in the sound of it shattering into oblivion. And then she got busy waiting for it to all be over. So much fun.