What he was going to say was "…it'll be all right," but he didn't get to finish the sentence because she wasn't watching him now, she was frowning and looking to her left, toward the elevators. Some guy had just stepped out and was walking up to her. He looked kind of weird, Jack thought, and he smelled bad. The man was sopping wet, too, almost like he'd been swimming, but he couldn't have been, so it had to be sweat. Jack had never seen anybody sweat so much. And the guy's clothes were filthy. He'd spilled something all over himself. On his shirt and arms, all over his neck, too. A Coke, maybe. No, maybe not. It wasn't quite the color of Coke.

The man got closer, was just a few feet away from his mother now. Jack saw that whatever the sticky-looking stuff was that he'd spilled, it was definitely not the color of Coke. But it was all over the guy. Even on his face and on his shoes.

And whatever it was, it was awfully red…

– "-"-"ARE YOU ALL right?" Joanie asked. "You're bleeding."

As soon as the man stepped off the elevator, Joan understood that something terrible was happening. This man should not have been allowed up to their floor. There was an emptiness in his eyes, a disturbing lack of humanity. And he was covered in blood, it was soaking through his clothes. At first she thought he was hurt, but he wasn't walking like he was hurt, he seemed fine, and that's when Joanie understood: it's someone else's blood.

That's when she knew that whatever was happening was beyond terrible.

"Can I help you?" She kept her voice as calm as she could. But the man didn't answer. Instead, he swiveled his head, taking in the entire office. She saw confusion on his face, then anger. She didn't know why the anger had appeared but it was definitely there and it was scary. He still didn't say anything, or even look directly at her, just kept turning his head, as if searching the empty office and bare cubicles. Joanie felt a surge of relief because maybe the anger wasn't directed at her, maybe it was for someone who'd already left. Maybe this wasn't as bad as she'd thought…