She backed up back into the stairwell and shut the door.
She couldn't believe it. Had everyone in the building been changed into geeks? That would have been nearly a thousand people!
She couldn't get out of the building. She could get away from one or two people. But dozens? They'd grab her and change her at the first chance they got.
She couldn't go up, either. So, the only place to go was down into the basement levels. The labs were in the lower basement and most of them were nearly empty at that time. So, she could probably walk down there without anyone noticing and hopefully hide until she got help.
When she got to the lower basement level, she opened the stairwell door. No one seemed to be around. She walked through the rooms, her 4-inch heels echoing when they hit the floor. After some aimless walking, she heard voices. Three of them. One was a guy's and the other two were women's.
She hesitantly peered around a corner. Three geeky people were talking about something. She had never been down in the R&D; department, so she hadn't known that two of the three people she was spying on were already geeks.
Samantha turned around. "Did you hear something?"
"No. Did that device increase your hearing too?" Larry asked.
Device, Stacey thought. They know about it. She had to get out of there before she was discovered.
"Very funny. You know I'm not totally keen on all of this."
Stacey stopped. What was that? She had regrets? None of the others were like that. She stayed and listened.
"Yeah, I know. But it happened and ... well ... you have to deal with it."
"I'm dealing with it. It's just that ..."
"What?" he asked.
"Did you see how Denise acted after you shot her?"
"Like she wanted to change more people?"
"Yeah. Exactly. I don't feel like that. Why does she?"
Stacey coughed.
Samantha, Larry, and Carrie all looked in that direction.
"Who's there?" Carrie asked.
A woman stepped out from around the corner. She said her name was Stacey Evans. And she told them why she was down in the labs.
