Something's Wrong With Greg

I was once an ordinary man, I guess. I lived in an apartment, I ate burgers, and I had a desk job. I was pretty much as ordinary as they could get... at least I thought so. One day I went to work. I walked into my cubicle with my coffee and got to work on some spread sheets. After an hour I stood up to go get some more coffee when I heard an odd noise. It sounded like slide-thump, slide-thump, slide-thump. I looked around the office. No one else seemed to notice. There also appeared to be no source of the sound. I exited my cubicle and looked around. Then I noticed Greg wasn’t in his cubicle.
Greg was like me, a totally ordinary guy, and he never ever took vacations, or sick days and was never late. His absence was a blinking red warning sign. I started to nervously walk to the break room. The sound was getting louder, and closer. Slide-thump, slide-thump, slide-thump. When it sounded closest, I nervously turned around and saw Greg, only, something was very wrong. He was hunched over, his clothes in disarray. He was dragging his limp right leg behind him and stepping hard with his left. Then I looked at his face. He was pale, so pale I was reminded of a corpse. His mouth hung open and he breathed loudly. Greg’s eyes stared blankly ahead.
I stared for a while. Greg slowly made his way into his cubicle and out of sight. I stood there for a long time. Anna walked by me and gave me a funny look. Soon, I walked cautiously back towards Greg’s cubicle. He was hunched over his keyboard slowly typing. I couldn’t just leave so I knocked on his cubicle entrance. There was no response. “Greg?” I said, slowly stepping in. Greg slowly turned. He looked even worse up close. His skin had a green tinge around his nose and mouth and he had black fluids running from his nose to his mouth.
“URrrrrr,” said Greg.
“Um, are you okay, Greg?”
There was a long pause, then he gave a short jerk with his head, which I guess was supposed to be a nod and turned back to his computer.
I backed away and walked over to his supervisor, Andy.
“Hey! What’s up, man?” Andy smiled, he noticed my lack of reaction. “What’s up? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost!”
“Have you seen Greg yet?” I asked quietly.
“Greg? Ya, he walked by here just a few minutes ago, why?”
“Well, didn’t you notice something different about him?”
Andy thought for a minute, “No, did he get another haircut?”
“Um, no.” I said. “He looks...sick, really, really sick.”
“Really?” Andy got up, “Well let’s go take a look!”
We walked to Greg’s cubicle. He was the same, except that now he was moaning. Andy looked in. “Hey Greg! How are you doing?”
Greg slowly turned. “UrrRr,” he moaned, spitting some of the black fluid on his desk.
“Oh really?” Andy laughed, “Why? What did you and Sharon do last night?”
I stared in disbelief at Andy. “You can understand him?”
Andy gave me a look, “Um, yes, I can understand Greg, he is speaking English.”
“No he’s not, he’s moaning!” I pointed at Greg.
Greg stared back.
Andy asked, “Are YOU feeling okay?”
I looked around. I could feel Greg’s eyes on me. I decided to back down. “Uh, ya. Nevermind. Sorry Greg.” Then I walked back to my cubicle and sat down. I put my head in my hands. I was shaking. Why couldn't Andy see anything wrong with Greg, why couldn’t Andy see that Greg had obviously been changed. I knew there was a word for what Greg looked like, but I couldn’t think of it. I never watched many fantasy movies. Then I thought, Kris will believe me. Kris was the closest thing I had to a friend. She and I sometimes hung out in the break room and discussed what was on tv.
I walked over to her cubicle. “Hey, you gotta see Greg.”
“No way,” she laughed. “Did he get another one of his haircuts?”
“No,” I said, pulling her from her seat, “Come see.”
We walked over to Greg’s cubicle. This time I made it sneaky. Kris looked in from overhead. Greg was drooling on his keyboard. I was behind him now and could see what he was writing. He had written Brainsssss........ I was unsettled. We crept back to my cubicle to talk.
“So,” I asked
“So what?” asked Kris, “He seemed fine to me. Why, what do you think is wrong with him?”
“Don’t you see it?” I was getting worried. “His skin is so weird colored, and he’s shuffling around, and moaning, and there’s this weird black stuff in his mouth!”
“God, he’s not a zombie!” Kris laughed. “Why don’t you take the rest of the day off, you’re obviously the one who’s not doing well.”
I watched her go. I was terrified. Greg had turned into a zombie, and I was the only one who could see it. From that day forward, nothing about me was ordinary anymore.