“I want you to tell me your deepest, darkest secret. You’re not a Furry, are you?” 

[ Sofia Carsont ] Have you met PHOENIX FABIAN? She’s a TWENTY-SIX year old ESTHETICIAN who can be AMUSING yet NOSY.

“Those people dropped dead instantly, and we didn’t. I watched my brother and my parents and my fiance’s entire family drop dead at the same. exact. time.” He paused. “So in what universe do you think whatever the fuck happened will kill us if we open a damn door?”

“This one. This universe. If people can all drop dead at the same, exact time, they can do it again. There can be stuff in the air, in the water, in the food. Apparently, anything is fucking possible now, so for you to think we can go flounce around outside like it’s spring break in Cabo is fucking naive.” 

“Um, that’s disgusting.” Reyna wrinkled her nose. “I think we’re safe. One of my brothers dropped dead in front of my other brother and I, and so did their roommate. But I think we need food first and foremost.”

“It might be disgusting but it’s our new reality,” Christian sighed, “We have enough food in here to last us for a couple weeks if we really ration.” 

“You’re so cynical. There could be rescue squads out right now looking for survivors. And you think the best idea is to hide?”

“Yeah, I do. Look, I like my face, okay? I don’t like it with radioactivity all up on it, burning holes through it and shit. I like my lungs breathing. I like my heart beating. We go out there and there’s no guarantee of what we’ll find. I say we stay put.” 

“And what if it doesn’t? What if we’re just trapping ourselves in from people who could potentially save us from whatever is going on out there? You don’t know we won’t die opening that door any more than we would.”

“You think anyone alive wants to save us, sweetheart? Ah, that’s real nice. You think the world is made out of rainbows and unicorns too?” 

“And I’m a lawyer, which means I’m pretty good at logical thinking. And logically speaking, if millions of people dropped dead at the same time from whatever the fuck that was, then I think we’re safe.” The man countered. “You’ve probably got about an hour before the rest of the people here riot and tie you to a chair or something. So you may wanna move quickly.”

“Just ‘cause you got a big, fancy degree and spent a lot of money doesn’t mean nothing to me, man. If you all want to open the doors, so be it. Go, but I can guarantee you you’ll end up dead, really fucking dead.” 

“Okay, well they were kind of expensive. If I’m able to get home and if my mom’s alive, she’ll kill me for losing it. She already thinks I’m irresponsible.”

“We’re not going home, okay? None of us are. Never. And if we don’t use our heads and work together, we’re just gonna end up dead too, rotting and melting and foaming from the inside like everyone else did.” 

“Listen, buddy, I think if we didn’t drop dead the same time the rest of our families did, we’ll be okay if we open the damn door.”

“No. I’m an app developer, okay? I’m good with computers, technology. If everyone would shut the fuck up I could focus and tap into something around this place and at least see if this is happening everywhere. Maybe it was just Chicago. Maybe CNN is already reporting on it. Maybe they’re advising everyone to stay inside. We won’t know until I get us something, so until then, no one opens a door or a window or even their God damn mouths, alright?” 

“Are you serious, dude? My shoe is outside. I can’t just not have both sneakers.”

“Well, golly gee. I could break both of your fucking legs and you wouldn’t have to worry about your God damn sneakers then. How about that?” 

“My girlfriend is still out there! If you think I’m just going to leave her out there, you’re crazy. Now let me open the fucking door!”

“Hey, hey! You open the door and you let whatever is outside that killed all of them in here, okay? Until we figure out what’s going on - until we at least have an idea - no one should open the door. Don’t be stupid. Anyone who you thought was alive isn’t anymore. Everyone is gone. I don’t want to be gone too.”