Troy is staring at the Air Conditioning control box, willing himself closer so that he can save his friends. The last time there was this much pressure, he cracked and broke, but this is serious now; everyone's lives depend on him making it out alive.

Hopefully, being a nerd will be enough, because he just wants to go home and sleep for years. The room is rank with illness, and the darkness is casting shadows on his face; it's probably incredibly cinematic, but he's not Abed and can't quite think of which zombie movie it would be. He prays that it's one without a real apocalypse, because his mom is gonna be so mad if he lets the whole world get infected by zombies.

He's hitting his friends in the face and it hurts, but he tells himself it's ok because their eyes are dead and they won't remember a thing when they wake up. His breath thrums in his ears; he's not quite sure what he's saying anymore, but for Abed's sake he hopes that it's clever. As he leans back to push Shirley out of the way (and if she were herself she'd give him a talking to, but he doesn't have time to think about that right now), a figure comes out of the swarm and grabs his arm; it's Abed. Troy feels his face soften, feels how much he loves Abed, and gazes into his eyes, pleading.

"Abed, we're friends-"

Abed rears back his head, mouth wide, and bites down hard on Troy's shoulder. He rubs his mouth on it, gnawing and sucking, and Troy thinks faintly Oh, this is what it's like- before the reality sinks in and he's running again, choking on himself and on time.