Disclaimer: I do not own the characters to The Office. They are owned by NBC.
It was just before noon at Dunder-Mifflin and the office park was under siege by the undead of Scranton, Pennsylvania. No one knew how they began to rise, but they knew that they were outside and the office workers were stuck inside the place they had worked in for years and many did not want to die here. This new arrival, Charles, was proving to be a vital link for survival. After rallying all of the office workers from the other departments together and calmly directing workers to prepare for a long stay he also confessed to them what he did know what was going on in the outside world. "I watched the news this morning, before I lost my connection that police were chasing after a homeless man in the streets that was biting and clawing random people in the streets. They cornered him in a cul-de-sac and they had to shoot him. His victims were taken to the hospital and began suffering from immediate flu like symptoms; high fever, body chills and aches, and vomiting."
"All those from bites?" Kelly said, stunned.
Standing near her. Dwight; still holding his short sword turned and inched a little closer, "Yeah, that's how zombies multiply. A bite or a simple scratch is enough to contaminate your blood and turn you into one of them and there is no cure." His words were harsh and dripping with acid and it scared the customer service worker that clung to the cuff of Ryan's jacket, much to his chagrin.
Unlike her; Stanley was sitting in his desk having given up trying to use the phone he went into the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee, sat down behind his desk, calmly drank it until it was all gone and took a moment to reflect at the picture of his daughter and his family on his desk. Smiling and realizing that he may not make it out of here. Michael had retreated back to his office and locked himself inside effectively turning over command of the office to Jim Halpert, though the salesman was reluctant to take up this responsibility and referred everything to Dwight, whom, in turn, was following Charles.
In one of the filing cabinets Dwight pulled out from a thick file his ideas for zombie survival, right next to another file; A. Knife. He also fished from one of his drawers a small battery radio that he placed on his desktop after brushing away all of his desktop clutter onto Pam's, and Jim's desks. Catching a picture of Pam's mother from falling onto the floor Charles listened as the German explained all the schemantics of the office park and added that there were twenty-nine people inside including Hank of security and Charles himself which surprised those listening that he could count those he did not even see like Vance Refrigeration. Dwight then extended the antenna of the radio to its fullest extent, turned it on, and slowly moved the dial along the frequencies until a robotic voice was heard through the speakers:
"This is the Emergency Alert System. The President has issued a state of emergency in the states of Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. He has ordered all off duty National Guard and reserve personnel as well as all off duty law enforcement to report to their duty stations immediately for assignment. Center of Disease Control has stated that this epidemic is highly contagious. People infected will experience flu like symptoms; chills, body aches, and high fever. If people you know are experiencing such symptoms they should be quarantined immediately and notify the CDC or your local law enforcement."
No one knew what to make of it. With all the water containers full and Angela now appointed to gather all the food they were looking to Charles for the next course of action. The next step was to have the interior and exterior of the building secured. There was only one gate in and out and that was locked, but there were many garage and fire exits. Bob Vance said that he took one of his delivery trucks and blocked the gate entrance with it as an added benefit. Kudos went to Bob Vance for seeking the initiative. There was little in the way of adequate weapons except for what Dwight had stowed away, yet none were willing to brandish a sword or a sai preferring to have instead raw firepower. Charles had a lot more in his disabled vehicle that was not too far away. Nodding lightly the soldier asked, "Do you have a tow truck or anything that can bring in a disabled truck?"
"I have one," Bob Vance said rather optimistic, "I have a Yukon that can tow anything. Where's it at?"
As they talked Erin was still listening to the radio, the announcement seemed to be a computer with a monotone voice showing no excitement or remorse given the situation and repeated it every thirty seconds. She was puzzled as to why the government was acting this way. There were zombies in the street and they were acting like this was some sort of mass flu. Nearby Pam tried one more time to call her mother on her cell and when that failed she threw her phone at the wall and broke down in tears. It was just the beginning of this siege and already people were breaking down, except Creed, whom was the only person smiling thanks in part to his Cannabis Indica stash. After listening to the radio for a little while longer and seeing no change Erin looked up and asked Charles, "Why is the government acting like this? Don't they see what's going on outside their windows?"
Rather calmly Charles looked at her and said, "The government is trying to avoid a mass panic. If they mention stuff such as "shoot on sight" or "if infected-kill immediately" the chaos that comes from it would cause more deaths than the zombies will. Also, if they mention "zombie" not many people will take it seriously."
"Why not?" Erin asked.
"Because a zombie has become a staple of 'Hollywood.' When they hear that there are shambling cannibals, something we have all seen on screen-and only on screen like vampires and werewolves.-we don't take it seriously. We have become so desensitized to the mythology of what a zombie is that people have lost all sense of what it is and pass it off as fiction. Which is easier to spread thanks to the internet."
Darryl came up with with one of his other workers, also named Michael, and they had some ideas. They had some delivery trucks that were fully gassed and ready to go to head out of town and everyone jumped at the chance but then there were also snags. Kelly did not want to leave her clothes behind and most of them had families in town and they could not leave them behind as well. Darryl said they had four trucks ready but Scranton had over 70,000 people and trying to go from house to house with a city of infected was suicide. Charles asked if there was any way they could modify them such as attaching a plow that would push the undead and any obstacles out of their way, but Darryl did not have the tools, but there was an industrial park next door that did. An idea immediately chimed in their heads, get in Bob Vance's Yukon and a delivery truck, go out and retrieve the truck and on the way back stop over at the neighbors and pick up the equipment and hopefully they will find other survivors. Darryl and Bob Vance were willing to go out with Charles and as they went over the plan Hank came into the office with a rather grim look on his grizzled face.
Downstairs, at the security desk, Hank showed them a monitor as the camera panned over the fence into the park next door, where they were intent on stopping and showed people there getting into a large fight. Because the camera was not digital, black and white, and rather old it did not give a good picture of what was going on. "Should we go check it out? Hank asked.
"Hang on, I'll check it out." Disappearing by going upstairs for half an ten minutes Charles came back with a rather grim look, "Scratch that idea."
"Why?" Hank looked up perplexed.
Pointing at the screen as the fight is still raging, "Those are all zombies and they're fighting over a piece of meat."
Upstairs Dwight was carefully skimming through his pad of papers for zombies survival, mumbling to himself and when a delightful idea came into his mind he let out a chuckle. The office workers were now beginning to go back to their desks wondering what to do. Ryan was still trying his cell phone, Pam flicked off the blue prints from her desk and she placed her mother's picture beside her computer and tried to fight back tears as Phyllis sat back down in front of Stanley whom had turned off his computer and was rather quiet and had a slight smirk on his lips.
"Stanley," Phyllis blurted out surprised, "You're smiling!"
His smirk disappeared, "No. I'm not." Growling loudly.
Angela walked by Creed and Meredith to get back to her desk when she inhaled some of the smoke hovering over the two. "What's that smell?" pausing and glaring at the old man.
"Heaven, baby" Creed said.
Oscar had tried to use the television in the conference room to no avail. He then tried his computer, gained a sliver of a connect but was blocked. He had a connection but he could not access sites and was dumbfounded as to why and nearly threw his keyboard in frustration.
"It's the Kill Switch" Charles said as he came back to the office.
Turning in his seat toward Charles and leaning back to see the soldier standing near Erin's desk he asked, "What do you mean?"
"The President can block internet sites in times of an emergency."
"He can't do that" Oscar jumped up from his seat, "It's illegal. That's censorship."
"Well, they're doing it. From what I understand it's not the entire internet but a lot of sites," Charles said as he placed his radio inside a leg cargo pocket and placed his rifle on Erin's curved desk.
"Why would they do that? People need the internet. We use it to get…news…and information…" Oscar began to say but the soldier cut him off.
"Let me ask you; do you trust everything you hear off the internet?" Charles asked and Oscar did not answer. "It was designed that in a time of crisis, such as this, to prevent people from posting false information that can lure people to harm or cause more chaos. Granted that this censorship will be a pain, but…"
"This is God's vengeance against homosexuals…" Angela's voice was heard right in front of Oscar and all heads in the office pivoted towards that direction and Oscar heaved a heavy sigh of frustration and gently rubbed his forehead. "Not this crap again…" mumbling under his breath.
"What was that?" Charles asked.
"Oh, Angela is one of those holier than thou Christians that think gays are what are troubling the world," Oscar replied grudgingly.
Realizing what he was getting into; a rather delicate group of people Charles slightly shook his head and decided not to pursue the matter. He checked up his equipment and departed leaving the two feuding accountants to stand near their desks and take quick glances at one another before turning and departing in opposite directions.
Creed and Meredith did not care, both were sitting in their chairs not too far away, Creed lightly puffing a joint, letting the smoke out slowly-savoring the flavor as the redhead was sprawled out on her desk a half filled whiskey bottle clutched tightly in her hand.
Dwight's radio continued, "The Center for Disease Control is asking for everyone to remain in their homes. Stay off the phone lines and do not attempt to reach loved ones or leave the city. The President is now enforcing Martial Law in the following states to allow Law Enforcement and military personnel to contain this outbreak…."
Sitting erect in her seat in a jerk Pam looked at the radio then at Jim, "Martial Law? What does that mean?"
Charles answered as he sat behind in on the couch rummaging through his rucksack, "It means all forms of civilian organizations; police, medical, and all that are going to run by the federal government."
"Does the President have the right to do that? I mean, he can't do things like this, like, shoot us?" Kelly Kapoor asked, "I saw it in all those movies like in 'The Siege' with Denzel Washington. Which, by the way, he was so cute in…"
Turning away from her Charles asked the others, "Do you want the technical terms or the compact version?"
"Compact" Jim said bluntly.
"Yes, he can. It means the shit has hit the fan and landed on us," his voice picked up so that everyone in the office could hear him. "I know what you are thinking that the government is taking over, but right now we can't focus on that because no amount of bickering about laws and politics is going to help us here. What only matters now is our own survival. There is no telling how long we are going to be here. Maybe a few hours, days, or even weeks. I don't know, but I'm going to get the equipment in my vehicle. I'll be back in a few minutes." Looking around at all the faces Charles was about to say something else when Michael opened his office door and slowly walked out.
Erin was the first to ask, "Michael, are you okay?"
"We gotta get out here," he said bluntly, "We gotta turn Darryl's van into a bulldozer and blaze a trail out of town."
"And then what?" Charles asked. Michael turned around to look at him and for a moment the manager did not remember the tiger stripped man. "Where can we go?"
"Anywhere is better than here," Michael replied
The radio squawked once more, "The President has advised people to remain inside for their own safety. Do not attempt to leave the city…." As they listened Hank came upstairs, "You have to see this."
People went downstairs and gathered around his security monitors to show the outside world and that "fight" had progressed to the streets and their numbers multiplied to perhaps a couple hundred all around the office park.
"Holy…." Angela said crossing herself. Zombies were fighting, tugging on pieces of meat, gnawing on bone, chasing a dog. Making a bulldozer sounded appealing when Michael turned to Charles and asked, "How many guns do you have?"
"I have one "gun," patting his 1911 in the black holster at his side, "But I also have my M-16 rifle here and a shotgun with my rucksack."
Michael became flustered, "Wait, wait, that's it? Why don't you have more? You soldier guys are supposed to have arsenals in your basements."
"I travel light. Still, if I had enough to go around I wouldn't give you one," Charles replied.
"Why not?"
"You're the kind of guy that would look down the barrel to see if the bullet was stuck. Still though, I have more firepower in my vehicle and trailer including equipment to make a good safe house."
Erin looked over and asked, "Really? Like what?"
"A recycling generator, seeds and tools for a small farm, ammunition, water purification and sanitation equipment," Charles said. "We have a good advantage to begin with. We blocked the exits on the first floor, lots of water, a perimeter fence and functioning vehicles what we need is my equipment. We get that we're golden, and then we can start working on the vehicles."
Nodding his head Oscar said, "I'm still saying that we blaze a path out of town," and others concurred.
Nodding lightly, "In order to do that we'll need the right tools and I was told the park next door has them," Charles pointed in the direction of the neighbors and they knew what that meant, they would have to go out there. Bob Vance and Darryl were waiting for him and when those three departed people began to whisper to each other.
"I don't trust him," Angela said to everyone.
"Why not?" Erin asked.
"He could be a militiaman for all we know. How do we know that he and his group are not responsible for this?"
Oscar, hands in his pockets, became angry, "Awhile ago you said that it was because of homosexuals…"
Angela cut him off, "No I didn't."