The glass of Scotch ran down his throat quickly, leaving a slightly searing pain in it, but the feeling soon passed as the feelings got dulled by the alcohol being absorbed into his bloodstream. John noticed the bottle was almost empty and made a mental note to get some more when he could … it was his only vice, and at the minute, one of the only things keeping him sane.

How had he got in, how had he breached their perimeter? According to Andrew, that was supposed to be damn near impossible, but John supposed that nothing couldn't be bypassed … things always had a flaw cause nothing was perfect in its life-cycle. He'd had Andy taking a look at it since Milley's death, but so far, had come to report nothing was amiss, though he was sorting though gigabytes of data at a snails pace (Wading through an ocean of shit as he so eloquently put it).

But that wasn't of any consequence to John at the moment, for more pressing matters were budging their way into his brain. Haliman hadn't replied to his latest e-mail, asking him if he could get the word out to people that pH was back, and they were going to cause mayhem. The only person who did answer was one of John's rapidly likable allies, Delta. Their first meeting hadn't gone down well, thanks to Andy, but John had grown to like him.

Andy stood there, eyes the two Latin Americans from head to toe, "Who's the Hispanics?" he announced loudly, in front of not only Alvaromesa and Delta, but in front of Milley and John himself. John was about to rebuke him, when Delta asked Alvaromesa "¿Quién cresta es este bastardo?" John hadn't understood a word, until the last one, which he knew had to be bastard. "Excuse me; what the fuck did you just call me?" Andy said, squaring up to Delta. Alvaromesa grabbed Delta's arm, but the guy shook him off, "In your language, I'd of said who the hell is this bastard?"

Andy was about to swing when John yelled "Enough!" And everyone looked at him. Milley was still sat at her desk, obviously looking at the situation with the same disdain John was. Here were some potential allies, and Andrew was going to ruin it. "Andy, can you go do that thing I talked to you about earlier?" John asked as politely as possible. "What thing?" Andrew said through gritted teeth, though not taking his off Delta.

"That fucking thing from earlier, just get the fuck out!" John yelled, taking a step towards Andy. Though not wanting to back down, Andy understood he was now toeing John's very fine line between doing what he's told and getting close to being on the receiving end of a fist. "Fine" He said, before twirling around and storming out the office, a look of contempt on his face.

"I'm so sorry about that" John said, but Alvaromesa shook his head, "Sorry, but if that's the way a senior officer reacts to us, then we can't accept the alliance … for now. Good luck with your problem"

The whole experience was still fresh in his mind, but since then, John had been in contact with Delta, who had made an impression on him with his ballsy attitude. He liked the guy, he brought an air of freshness into the room when he walked in and reminded John how far he'd come in the quarantine. Hell, he was only 25 now, but that was nearly 5 years in this god forsaken hell hole.

A soft knock awoke John from his thought and through his alcohol-addled brain, he realised someone wanted to see him. Composing himself, he said "Come in" and with that, a relatively new recruit came in, called Rob. "Erm sir? Dan has asked me to come see if you were alright considering today's events"

John looked at the guy, trying to focus as his eyes wanted not to. "Erm, can you send him in?" Rob nodded and walked out as John stumbled up to try and find his pot of coffee he used for sobering himself up. After 5 minutes, Dan walked in, "Speedy little bugger" John murmured as he still hadn't got his coffee yet. "Yeah well, wanted to make sure you were ok, didn't expect him to come running back saying you wanted to see me"

"I want his head on a stick Dan" John said bluntly. He was no longer in a mood for contemplation or diplomatic solutions. John's bare angry side had emerged and it wanted blood. "Look, I know Andy's a handful, but should we …" Dan started, but John cut him off, "Andy is the least of our worries … Steyr came in here and killed her!"

Dan looked confused, and then recollection occurred within his brain –

"Stay the fuck back!" Steyr screamed, pointing the gun at John, "I swear to god she will not be the only one I kill tonight if you even think of crossing that line there" and as emphasis, he shot the leg of a nearby member. Every jumped, except John, he looked Steyr dead in the eye, "Put the gun down"

"How's about you make me, I mean, lets face it, you can't order me around anymore, I've had enough of taking orders from you lot, you're all pussy-whipped so what's the point eh?" Steyr smirked, before moving a step closer to John, still pointing the gun at John while holding Milley's head tightly. "I won't ask you again Steyr, put that gun down, now" John said, stepping forwards once more.

"Ok" Steyr said, before putting the trigger to Milley's head and pulling the trigger. John jumped forwards, but Steyr let go and ducked, dropping the gun before running towards a nearby window and jumping out of it. "Don't just stand there, get him!" John yelled before sliding over to Milley to check if she was ok. But he knew as soon as he checked for the pulse … she was dead.