They burst into the outer portion of Vance's office, Tony slamming the doors behind him. He beckoned for Tim and Jimmy to help him with the receptionist's desk, all three struggling to push the heavy, mahogany desk across the floor. They had just managed to get it against the door when pounding could be heard on the other side.

"What makes you think this'll hold?" Tim asked DiNozzo curiously. Desks didn't keep them out downstairs and that had been two. One was a joke compared to their strength.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Tony responded moving into the director's actual office, waiting for everyone to cross the threshold before shutting the door. He locked it behind him, turning to scan the room. Tim copied him, both trying to find something to block the door.

"We could use…" Jimmy started gesturing toward, yep, another desk. It was becoming increasingly tedious, using the same object to block the door. But it wasn't anyone's fault that the whole damn building was full of desks. Metal desks, wood desks, desks, desks, desks…

Tony, Tim, and Palmer managed to manhandle the even heavier desk across the room, the legs scraping across the floor leaving gouge marks in the carpet. Once it was against the door, they moved toward the couch.

"Gibbs and David? They're…?"

"Yeah," Tony replied before Vance could get the question out. He, Palmer, and McGee manhandled the couch across the room pushing it as close to the desk as they could get. McGee wondered just how long the door would hold.

"And how did they…?"

The room was quiet, neither Tim, Tony, Abby, nor Palmer looking at each other. Then, his lips barely moving, Jimmy said, "Dr. Mallard."

"Mallard? Mallard did that? How?"

Tony took a breath and explained what had happened outside of Gibbs' house, prompting McGee to tell him what had happened the night before. Jimmy butted in, informing Vance of the elevator ride o' hell. It was all finished by three different voices, all three guys talking over each other. The whole explanation took nearly an hour, and when it was finished Vance didn't look convinced. In fact, he looked a little pissed.

"Zombies?"

"Yes," DiNozzo responded not sounding as skeptical as he did when Ziva mentioned them earlier. Just the thought of Ziva sent a jolt of pain through Tim's heart, his stomach clenching. She had sacrificed herself for them. She turned into one of those things for them. Her last words still rang in McGee's ears 'Tell Tony I love him…'

"Zombies?"

"Yeah," Jimmy replied sounding irritated. So, maybe Vance had said the word a couple of times. Who really was counting anyway?

"Zombies?"

"Yes already," Abby snapped, speaking for the first time since Gibbs died. "It's kinda hard to wrap your head around, we know, but that's what we believe is going on. Believe it; don't believe it I could really care less." Abby rarely snapped at people. Usually she had to be overly upset, under a lot of stress, or in serious need of some caffeine. She had just watched Gibbs and Ziva die. She had loved Gibbs like a father, Ziva like a sister. Vance was lucky Abby didn't threaten him with her whole 'I can kill you and not leave behind any forensic evidence' threat.

She crossed her arms, lowering herself into the big, squishy chair Leon usually occupied. She drew her legs up, resting her chin on her knees. Silence followed Abby's outburst, Vance the first one to break it.

"And what do you think caused this?" his eyes were locked on McGee's. He had been the one to say something, so naturally the director would want an answer.

Tim took a breath and said, "Well, the anchor on ZNN said the first sighting of these 'things' was after the meteor shower, right?" Tony and Jimmy nodded, Vance flashed him a 'please continue' look. "So, maybe the meteor shower has something to do with it."

"What, like, alien zombies?" Tony questioned, totally serious. Tim had a feeling there would be no jokes coming from Tony DiNozzo for a while.

"Can we stop calling them zombies?" Leon demanded still not convinced that was what they were dealing with. If Tim were being honest, he wasn't one-hundred percent convinced either, but for the life of him he could not think of a better explanation.

"What would you like them to be called, Leon?" Tony snapped his voice low, 'Gibbs-ish.' "The walking dead, mindless vampires, alien-disease sufferers? Your choice."

"Be careful what you say, DiNozzo…" Leon started his voice equally as low, his dark eyes narrowed slightly.

"Or what? You'll fire me? In case you haven't noticed, Director, there is an apocalyptic-like situation going on outside. People we love and care about are attacking us, trying to kill us. I could give a shit less about my job right now."

Vance took a breath, letting it out slowly. He pulled his phone from his pocket.

"Who are you calling?" Tony asked watching the director cautiously.

"My wife. I want to make sure she and my kids are okay. Did any of you call your families?" Tim knew he called home, but he wasn't sure if anyone else had. Tony, he could see, probably didn't bother. His family was NCIS, they had been together for a few hours, and he knew they were okay (until the shit hit the fan). Abby, besides her brother and parents, was the same way. And Tim was pretty certain she had called, at least, her brother. And who knew what Jimmy did, or did not, do.

While Vance was on the phone, listening to it ring, Tim took his own cell out and scrolled through his contacts. He hit send on Sarah's number, waiting for her to pick up. It rang once, twice, and then went to voicemail. 'This is Sarah leave a message.'

"Hey, it's Tim, again, call me when you get this," he hung up debating whether or not to call his parents. But, before he could come to a decision, Vance hung up with a silent curse. McGee could see the worry and fear in the director's eyes and knew he wanted to get out there, look for his family. So, unfortunately, did Tony.

"You can't go back out there," DiNozzo said hurriedly.

"DiNozzo, don't tell me…"

"I'm sure they're fine, Director," Abby said quietly. "Maybe they were evacuated." Vance still looked uncertain, but he still nodded. He took another breath, let it out, and said, "If it is… zombies we're going to need weapons."

The room fell silent. Vance and McGee were the only two with guns. Tim wasn't sure about Leon, but he only had a clip and a half left. And, if the place was filled with zombies like he thought, then they would definitely need to be better prepared, armed.

"I know where to get some weapons," Abby said quietly breaking the heavy silence.

"Where…?

NCIS

"This is a bad idea," Jimmy's voice sounded from behind Tim.

"Do you have a better idea, Palmer?" Tony snapped in front of McGee.

"No, but…"

"Then shut up."

They were crawling through the air ducts, attempting to get to the elevators whilst avoiding zombie-like Gibbs and Ziva (and any of their friends who may or may not have joined them). It had been a quick, half-assed plan cooked up by the combination of Abby, McGee, and DiNozzo. They were going to split up once they hit Abby's lab. Half would collect the guns she had in the back room of her office and the other half would head down to the evidence garage. If it was zombies, tampering with evidence was the least of their worries.

"Can we crawl faster? These ducts weren't designed to hold five, grown adults," Tim said listening to the groaning and creaking of the air ducts.

"We're almost there, Probie." It wasn't a long crawl, ten feet at the most, but it had taken almost fifteen minutes to get everyone in the ducts. It was a nearly eighteen foot climb, none of them were that tall, and it took the remaining furniture to make a makeshift ladder. Vance stood on his office chair, giving the remaining agents and Abby boosts up. It then took the combined effort of DiNozzo and McGee to get him into the duct. With all the time they wasted, McGee was surprised zombie-like Gibbs and Ziva hadn't broken down the door.

"I'm just saying…"

"Hey, how are we going to get down once we hit the elevators?" Abby questioned from behind Jimmy, cutting Tim off.

"Really? Nobody thought of this when we were coming up with the plan?" Tony retorted stopping short to look out a vent. He didn't given anyone time to answer as he said, "We're here." He maneuvered around, the duct creaking worse, and kicked the vent. It took two kicks but the thing final came lose, falling to the floor. He peaked out, judging the distance, and said, "If one of us can get down there we can help the other four."

"What, by catching them 'damsel in distress' style?" Jimmy cracked under his breath, his smile humorless.

"Seriously Palmer, if you can come…" Tony's words were cut off by one final, horrendous creak followed closely by metal grinding together. Tim knew what was going to happen seconds before it did, but before he could shout out to everyone the air duct fell…

NCIS

Thanks for reading. More Zombies in the next chapter :D

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