Corporate Zombies

Sarah peeled the orange slowly, letting the citrus scent cut through the stale office air. Three a.m. again. She'd been the zombie in this glass cage for six years, investigating employees whose only crime was wanting more than what this company offered them.

Her hair had started graying at thirty — streaks of silver she refused to dye, let them mark time like rings in a tree. Mark checked her reflection in the dark monitor. The woman staring back was tired in ways sleep couldn't fix.

"You're still here?"

Mark from IT stood in the doorway, holding two paper cups. He'd been running every morning before dawn, something about training for a marathon. His eyes were too kind for this place.

"Always." Sarah took the coffee he offered. "What brings you to the undead kingdom?"

"Corporate email flagged your search history." His voice dropped low. "You're looking into the offshore accounts."

The orange suddenly tasted bitter. Sarah had spent three months building a case against the CEO — embezzlement, fraud, the whole corrupt playbook. She thought she'd been careful.

"I'm doing my job, Mark."

"Your job or your suicide mission?" He stepped closer. "I know what you are, Sarah. You're not HR. You're the company's private spy." His hand brushed her wrist. "But you're looking in the wrong direction."

"What?"

"The CEO's a puppet." Mark's gaze darted to the security camera in the corner. "The real spy sits on the board. Someone's been funneling data to competitors for years. Your investigation's going to get you killed before it touches them."

Sarah felt something crack open in her chest — fear, or maybe possibility. After all this time hunting employees who stole office supplies or faked overtime, she'd finally found something worth dying for.

"Why tell me?"

"Because." Mark's thumb traced the pulse in her wrist. "Someone needs to remember the living when this is all over."

She finished her orange, wiped sticky fingers on her blouse, and opened the encrypted file that would destroy everything she'd built. The zombie was finally waking up.