Pandemic

-Ugh, finally.

Melissa sighed, relieved. She was finally done. After a hard day of work, she was finally done with her shift. Since she had accepted this job at this laboratory, her paycheck had been impressive, but so had been her work hours. She barely had had any vacations since she had started working here. Not to mention all these security protocols she had to comply with. She knew this lab had a bad rep. Some people were accusing it of handling products way too dangerous. And the fact that its headquarters were in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world didn't help.

She shrugged her shoulders and started gathering her stuff. There usually was a long protocol every employee had to follow before leaving the lab, in order to get deinfected. Melissa had been following it since she had arrived here. But tonight, she was just tired and wanted to go home. She finally decided to skip the protocol this one time. After all, she hadn't touched any dangerous products this time. She had barely shaken hands with some of her colleagues, but that shouldn't be enough to put the outside world at risk, right?

A moment later, she was leaving her office, heading back to her appartment. She didn't know it, but she was about to become the patient zero of the next pandemic.