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I f someone had told me the hot British actor playing James Bond would be attending the corporate party, I wouldn’t have hesitated that much before going.

On the other hand, if someone had warned me that same Adonis would turn into a flesh-eating monster by the end of the party…

I would have caught a flight to another continent instead of attending.

Not that the distance would have helped. Nowhere was far enough when an apocalypse hit. Trust me; I had a penchant for apocalyptic shows and a science degree. Plus a lab job at the same company whose party turned into a zombie outbreak six months ago, marking the start of the first apocalypse.

And yet, here I was now, inside the cutting-edge building that had once been my workplace.

Back of my own free will at ground zero of human civilization’s fall.

I was either an idiot who would get herself eaten, or the person who would bring much-needed medication to her small community of apocalypse survivors.

The verdict was still out, but my prospects of surviving were slim.

I kept sprinting down the long corridor, my hungry pursuers hot on my heels.

Past the decomposing bodies of people I once knew, away from the exit and further into the infested office building.

Talk about my life coming full circle. Why, oh why had I agreed to go on a supply run here, of all places?

I had barely made it out last time, so my return was basically tempting fate to finish the job.

Sure, I wasn’t the helpless woman from half a year ago.

The 32-year-old lab scientist who had arrived at an office party worried her hasty updo sucked and her borrowed dress might be broadcasting her hips in widescreen.

Only to run down this same corridor an hour later, bloodied and worried about the unsuspecting residents of the city mere three miles away from the newly established zombie central.

The me of today was dressed in combat trousers, armed, and capable of handling a few zombies all on her own.

Unfortunately, what was currently chasing me was more dangerous than the walking dead.

I had killed–permanently–five of the monsters, but the remaining three had blocked my way to the exit.

I had also run out of bullets, leaving me with nothing but an army knife against their yellowish claws and two rows of shark-like teeth.

I would have stood a chance had my supply run buddy–that weasel Carson–not ditched me with a half-shouted, half-screamed, “Fuck this!”

He was now outside, in the safety of the sunlight where our attackers couldn’t follow, unless they wanted to start a bonfire party. While I had been forced to flee in the only monster-free direction available, leaving the exit far behind.

As I ran for my life, a high-pitched call sounded from the upper floor. Oh, great. There were more of these creatures in the building, and they were calling a reunion.

My pursuers ignored the call and kept hunting me. Of course they would. Living, breathing humans were a rarity these days. What vampire in their right mind could resist such a delectable treat?

If only I were dealing with intelligent, seductive, and sparkling hunks ready to offer one special woman immortality by their broody side…

Alas, the vamps who showed up as part of the second apocalypse were Slender-man-look-alikes; they hunted in packs, bit down on an artery, and enjoyed a meal and a bath all in one.

They didn’t turn you; they drank you dry.

Unless I wanted to become their lunch, I had to get to sunlight.

But how? The building’s security features made sure I couldn’t leave while on the first floor, at least not before the super fast vamps caught up to me.

There was a fire escape ladder I could access from another level, but would I make it up there?

A talon scraped the back of my tank top. I was out of time.

Heart thundering in my chest, I took a sharp turn into the next corridor and–There! The stairwell! Before me were the concrete steps that once took me down to my lab, now bathed in natural light. Kudos to whoever had designed the glass roof and hi-tech system with reflective panels on the landings.

I dove into the sunlight.

The sound of running feet behind me stopped. To be replaced by hissing in what I imagined was disappointment at an afternoon snack missed.

I was tempted to look back and flip the bird in the vamps’ elongated chalk-white faces.

Instead, I kept running up the stairs, feeling their cold red eyes on my back as I climbed.

Just because I had escaped these predators didn’t mean I was safe.

Who knew what else was lurking in this God-forsaken place.

Vampires were bad news, but they were not the only monsters behind apocalypse number two.

As a co-worker had said before joining the walking dead and trying to eat my face, “Evolution can’t be stopped, Sue.

Neither can it be controlled. One day, something stronger than us will appear, and we’ll either adapt to the brave new world, or go extinct.

” Brad had failed to predict only one thing: that those superior beings would be more than one species and would show up all at once as part of what was dubbed the ‘supernatural apocalypse.’

Humanity did not stand a chance, and neither would I if I encountered any other human-hungry creature with only a knife on me.

I had to find a deserted floor where I could access the fire escape ladder.

I had to get the meds, still safe inside a bag tucked in my belt, back to the military bunker my community lived in. So, up the stairwell it was for me.

Damn Carson . He was so dead if I ever got my hands on him. I wouldn’t be in this situation if he had stayed to fire at the vamps in the lobby by my side. He was probably already halfway home, no meds but alive and smug about it.

To think that he had been shamelessly hitting on me mere minutes ago, taking advantage of us being alone on this supply run.

He might be pretty on the outside, but his personality was anything but; his arrogance had cost a life once.

And now that he had left me to become monster fodder, I’d rather date Zombie 007.

Even as a monster, the actor famous for his role of Bond had been drop-dead gorgeous, pun intended.

Those ruby-red eyes and pulsing blue veins on his face couldn’t reduce his allure that much.

Well, he’d had a creepy voice during a conversation with me as I was escaping this building back then, but I was sure I had hallucinated our tête - à - tête .

After all, zombies were incapable of speech.

I stopped my mad climb on a landing to catch my breath.

I hadn’t run this much since a swarm of pixies had chased me weeks ago.

I looked at the number on the wall: Floor 6 .

That should be high enough, given that the vampiric call from earlier had come from the second or third floor.

It was time to leave the sun-lit stairwell and brave the route to the fire escape ladder on this level.

I opened the fire-proof door and took a peek. A short dark corridor lay ahead, empty. I went in and made my way to the door on the other end, this one made of tinted glass. So far, so good.

I pulled the door open just a fraction… and was hit by a cacophony of sounds. Growls. Hisses. Snarls of fighting animals… Blades cutting through flesh?

My eyes went as wide as a loris’ as I processed what I was seeing through the crack. There were vampires and zombies fighting side by side. Working together . And their common enemy? Winged humanoid creatures wielding swords.

I should shut the door and run back to the stairwell, but I was glued in place, dumbstruck by the sight of the unknown monsters.

They were as big as bodybuilders in the making.

Their skin was a dark shade of blue, and the wings protruding from their powerful backs were like a bat’s.

Dressed in loincloths and sporting long hair, they reminded me of Tarzan but one holding a two-hand sword.

What the hell.

Actually, the first prize for bizarreness went to the battle scene as a whole.

I’d never seen–or heard of–the apocalyptic monsters hunting together and sharing food.

Not to mention it made no sense for two predatory species competing for a limited number of prey, to live in symbiosis.

I had a Master’s in applied animal behavior, I should know.

And yet, the two vamps and one zombie to my left were jointly cornering a bat-man. Then there was that fallen bat-man in the right corner of the room serving as a shared platter for three zombies and one vamp.

Insanity.

Suddenly, three zombies munching on a dead bat-man lifted their heads all at the same time, as if they were puppets on the strings of a single puppet master. And they turned back to look straight at me with their milky-white eyes.

Oookay. Enough of this freak show.

I bolted. Back to the stairwell and up. If the zombies abandoned their feast to give chase, with them being World-War-Z fast, I would be screwed.

No one followed me. Phew. I kept climbing, desperate to put a few floors between me and the monster buffet. Just as I bypassed the door to the ninth floor, it flew open.

I froze several steps away.

A bat-man emerged, his blue skin covered in blood and guts. Sword in hand, he was breathing heavily. A set of black eyes devoid of pupils zeroed in on me.

I didn’t move. I didn’t dare breathe.

All the creatures responsible for the second apocalypse–at least, those encountered by people who had lived to tell the tale before the radios had gone silent–killed humans.

With his massive wings, the bat-man could get to me in seconds, regardless of how fast I could run. Better to face death head-on.

He sniffed the air in my direction and spread his wings.

I crouched, tiny knife ready.

The bat-man flew away. Down the stairwell, quickly disappearing from sight.

I let out the breath I was holding. My hand around the knife relaxed. I might survive, after all–

The door swung open again. A whole bunch of zombies came pouring out into the stairwell. Seriously?

I ran up, and they gave chase. I was so tired already, what was I going to do? I couldn’t just pick a random floor to try for the fire escape ladder, not with so many of the floors being unsafe and those things right behind me!

As I reached the top floor, I was left with a single option. Legs and lungs burning, I made a dash for the entrance to the single room up here. A conference hall, which at my last visit had its furniture replaced with cocktail tables.

What was it with history repeating itself today? Really now.

I shut the heavy door behind me right as several sets of decomposing hands reached for me. One turn of the lock, and I blocked out their blood-chilling snarls.

Only to hear the wet, unmistakable sound of something munching behind me.