Lily was tired, but this was nothing new. It was the perpetual curse of grad students, or students in general, it seemed. She rubbed her eyes blearily and only stopped because her email pinged yet again. God, will the undergrads stop asking me questions? her annoyed and sleep deprived mind thought. It was 2am and she still kept getting emails from the students in her study sessions. Sometimes, in her tired moments, she wondered if the money off her tuition was even worth being a TA. Although, when she was thinking clearly she knew that, of course, the answer was yes.
She switched to her email tab and was mildly shocked to see that the email wasn't from one of her students. It was a message from the school saying that there had been an outbreak of measles on campus and that some of those infected had been studying in the post grad room. Great, she thought, just what I need. She deleted the email and got back to work.
After just a few hours of sleep, it was time for Lily to go to campus. She dredged herself out of bed and dressed quickly and sloppily because who really cared? She knew she hadn't washed her hair in too long and hadn't showered yesterday, but who had time for such luxuries? She hauled her ass to campus and saw many students in the same state as her. They all shambled into line at the campus's coffee source. Normally, Lily listened to something as she waited for her first caffeine injection of the day, but she'd forgotten to download the latest podcasts so she resorted to zoning out.
A bit of conversation between two female grad students snagged her away from falling asleep where she stood.
"Yeah and you know that dude in my class who has been creepily after me since we did a group project together?"
"The one who sent you like 40 unanswered messages in one night? Yeah, of course."
"Ugh so I was out late last night and he staggers out of some alley--"
"Gross, you know he was probably peeing it."
"Yeah, for sure. But anyways he comes staggering out of the alley and lumbers up to me, clearly super drunk."
"Classy, my dude."
"He then just like groans at me and I try to ignore him and walk away--"
"Solid plan."
"Yeah but then as I got just ahead of him he like wrapped his arms around me and bit my neck!"
"That's vile!"
"Right?"
Creeps sure are getting bold these days, thought Lily idly as the warm cup of steaming coffee was placed in her hand. She was glad the creeps she'd run into had never bitten her. There, she thought, there's my positive thought for the day.
She then plodded down to her reserved study space in the library and locked herself in. She really found that this was the best place to study. It had all the books she needed, it was silent, but it wasn't too far from additional caffeine injections.
A few times as she studied, the lights seemed to go on and off, as though there was a problem with the power, but they always came back on so she didn't pay too much mind. She emerged, much worse for wear, 18 hours later. It was pitch black, but there were still a few lumbering souls about.
Suddenly, a bright light shone in her face.
"Identify yourself!"
"What?" she managed to say, but she knew it sounded more like 'whaa,' she was so tired.
"Are you a student or a zombie?"
Lily's mind focused a bit more to realize that the light was actually on top of a gun and that helped her mind kick into gear. "A zombie? What the hell are you talking about? If you're all playing HvZ you really need to organize better."
"This is serious, ma'am, I'm with the National Guard. I'll take you somewhere safe."
"Somewhere safe, what's going on?"
"The zombie plague has broken out on campus. I'm not sure how you survived this long."
"Shouldn't we get the others?" Lily asked to the few students she'd seen about.
"Those aren't students anymore."
Lily tried to look at the figures around campus, but wasn't sure how the National Guard could tell that they were zombies. Sure they were moving slowly and sure some of them had a bit of an odor to them and well there was that story she'd heard about the biting and the measles might not have been measles...but...Isn't this how students normally were?
(Prompt by me and Ruairi Kennedy and me)
Photo by marsupium photography.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2.8_hours_later_-_Zombie_Apocalypse_(14128854037).jpg
She switched to her email tab and was mildly shocked to see that the email wasn't from one of her students. It was a message from the school saying that there had been an outbreak of measles on campus and that some of those infected had been studying in the post grad room. Great, she thought, just what I need. She deleted the email and got back to work.
After just a few hours of sleep, it was time for Lily to go to campus. She dredged herself out of bed and dressed quickly and sloppily because who really cared? She knew she hadn't washed her hair in too long and hadn't showered yesterday, but who had time for such luxuries? She hauled her ass to campus and saw many students in the same state as her. They all shambled into line at the campus's coffee source. Normally, Lily listened to something as she waited for her first caffeine injection of the day, but she'd forgotten to download the latest podcasts so she resorted to zoning out.
A bit of conversation between two female grad students snagged her away from falling asleep where she stood.
"Yeah and you know that dude in my class who has been creepily after me since we did a group project together?"
"The one who sent you like 40 unanswered messages in one night? Yeah, of course."
"Ugh so I was out late last night and he staggers out of some alley--"
"Gross, you know he was probably peeing it."
"Yeah, for sure. But anyways he comes staggering out of the alley and lumbers up to me, clearly super drunk."
"Classy, my dude."
"He then just like groans at me and I try to ignore him and walk away--"
"Solid plan."
"Yeah but then as I got just ahead of him he like wrapped his arms around me and bit my neck!"
"That's vile!"
"Right?"
Creeps sure are getting bold these days, thought Lily idly as the warm cup of steaming coffee was placed in her hand. She was glad the creeps she'd run into had never bitten her. There, she thought, there's my positive thought for the day.
She then plodded down to her reserved study space in the library and locked herself in. She really found that this was the best place to study. It had all the books she needed, it was silent, but it wasn't too far from additional caffeine injections.
A few times as she studied, the lights seemed to go on and off, as though there was a problem with the power, but they always came back on so she didn't pay too much mind. She emerged, much worse for wear, 18 hours later. It was pitch black, but there were still a few lumbering souls about.
Suddenly, a bright light shone in her face.
"Identify yourself!"
"What?" she managed to say, but she knew it sounded more like 'whaa,' she was so tired.
"Are you a student or a zombie?"
Lily's mind focused a bit more to realize that the light was actually on top of a gun and that helped her mind kick into gear. "A zombie? What the hell are you talking about? If you're all playing HvZ you really need to organize better."
"This is serious, ma'am, I'm with the National Guard. I'll take you somewhere safe."
"Somewhere safe, what's going on?"
"The zombie plague has broken out on campus. I'm not sure how you survived this long."
"Shouldn't we get the others?" Lily asked to the few students she'd seen about.
"Those aren't students anymore."
Lily tried to look at the figures around campus, but wasn't sure how the National Guard could tell that they were zombies. Sure they were moving slowly and sure some of them had a bit of an odor to them and well there was that story she'd heard about the biting and the measles might not have been measles...but...Isn't this how students normally were?
(Prompt by me and Ruairi Kennedy and me)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2.8_hours_later_-_Zombie_Apocalypse_(14128854037).jpg
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