"Alright," the engineer said to his partner. "There is some type of staff member on this floor. Fan out and find him then report back to me."

"Yes, Sir." Came the reply. The doors of the elevator opened and light flooded into a dark office building. There were four rows of cubicles on either side of the two agents and it was getting darker. There were windows on either side as well but the light was fading from the sky and it would be dark soon.

"You take the left and go down the line. I'll take the right." With a nod and the raising of their mp5's, the two broke off paths.

The first ATP agent (the one heading to the right) was called Rocky. Not because he was a tough guy or anything but because that's how his life was, rocky. From the day he came out of the tube that he grew in for Auditor knows how long, to the day he was filed as an active combatant, life was always rocky for him. Rocky secretly didn't want to do this job, despite it being the thing the world needed right now. All he wanted to do was draw. He was an acceptable cartoonist, and that was enough for him. He wanted to do political cartoons for newspapers and websites making fun of bad politicians and other world leaders. Of course, the agency would never let him do such a thing because he was made with a synthetic soul. Maybe if he completed this mission he could plead to his bosses to go into the agency's propaganda branch and work in their papers, posters, and web pages. He counted in his head the number of zed kills he got and came to the total of ten. He also came to the conclusion that he had four magazines left. One hundred twenty rounds wouldn't be enough to survive this. He looked at his gun and forgot to add up the mag in his gun. So he really had five mags and would argue the one in his gun was only half filled.

Rocky's partner was commonly called Thorn. Why? He was a burden on many of his team mates. Always waiting to be the last one to start firing, the last to follow in on orders. His other members usually got killed on the missions he went on, leaving him to survive and prosper. Before he was an engineer, he was one of the many agents in the Agency before being selected for the ATP and survived the brutal training from hell that they went through to become the best. He joined the agency instead of a gang so he could gain access to a wider selection of guns and so he could rock a cool ass uniform. He would usually make up stories for his friends to impress them, but they knew better than to believe him. He had more than seven mags (210 rounds) on his person and hadn't made one kill on the entire mission. Thorn decided before coming on this mission that he wouldn't be shooting anything unless absolutely necessary. So far, there were no necessary shots to be made. In truth, he was some what of a pacifist. Hesitating to shoot live enemies, even the zeds. He wanted to quit the agency but felt it would be wrong to just leave. There was also the fact that the agency might just come back for him and force him to stay in their ranks again. So all he could do is survive.

As soon as he made a turn around the last cubicle, he saw a bad sign. A human corpse was laying face down on the floor. It was one of the 1337 agents with an execution style bullet wound in his head. "I got a man down!" Thorn said to his partner who was just going around two doors on his side of the room.

Thorn gave a visual pat down before rolling the body over. His black, Smith Shades were missing but aside from that and his dirty crumpled suit, the body was in near perfect condition. "Execution style wound to the head, no bite marks."

"Any gun on him?" Rocky asked, interested.

Thorn looked around the body quickly seeing no sign of a firearm. Not like it mattered, why would you even try to shoot yourself in the back of your cranium was beyond him. He proceeded to kneel down and pat down the body physically. There was almost nothing on the man besides his black suit and tie.

"Nope, no gun. Not even any bullets." Just as he was going to finish the search he heard a paper crumple as he ran his hand over the bodies chest. Something was in the breast pocket. "Wait, I think I got something." Thorn stated while he opened up the coat and reached into the pocket to feel a folded piece of paper. He pinched it and pulled out what appeared to be a small note that was scribbled quite quickly. He opened it and read some interesting information referring to the incident.

-Field Report 07-

The agency is still sending out it's radio message from three days ago and now has started sending televised versions of it across the city. Whenever we turn on the T.V., theres the colored bars rolling across the screen:

"Remain indoors. Teams will be dispatched to rescue you."

But we know that's a lie. The teams that are sent in are too cocky and try to go rambo and take on the zeds head on. Most of the Agency's "Rescue Teams" have either gone and organized with the remaining agents in the city, or have been completely wiped out by zeds. The remaining members of my team plan to meet up at the Floral street checkpoint on the other side of the city to make a stand and possibly cover an evacuation move with the remnants of the Agency. We heard word that there were some uninfected parts of the city there held up in some local stores and we plan to get them out while trying to take care of the zeds. Wish us good luck. We hope to meet you at the checkpoint and cover the evacuation.

-Elliot Edwards

Rocky came over and snatched the note out of his partners hand. He looked over it briefly and stuffed it into his pocket.

"We might need this for later." He explained to Thorn. "It'll give us a better understanding of what happened here. And besides, Sanderson might want it. You know he collects documents like this." That's when the two heard a voice in the next cubicle.

"He-hellooooo?" The voice said. It was a weak, exhausted voice that you would expect a dying man to uter. Rocky raised his gun and slowly walked over to the side of the next cubicle. He pointed to the other Engineer and pointed to the cubicle. Thorn shook his head and just stood by the body. Rocky growled in frustration at the mans actions.

Looking back at an angle inside the cubicle, he quickly jumped out of the side of it, pointing his gun at the contents. There was another 1337 Agent laying up under the cubicle shelf with a bullet hole protruding out the side of his head. Crimson blood was dripping down along the frame of his glasses and seemed to stick out in the shadows. The fact that he was still breathing was a miracle. "Oh," He said and coughed a little. "the kill team… You're double checking like I thought you would."

Rocky kept his gun on the agent as he stepped to his side to crouch down and examine the wound. It was a some what shallow shot, the bullet submerged in the bone of his skull. The engineer could see the bullet, but an attempt to remove it without the proper tools would kill the man. That's when he noticed that another hole was located at the man's waist.

'He's screwed' Rocky thought to himself. "What happened to you?" Rocky asked the man, wanting to know the whole story before his untimely death. The Agent coughed louder this time and grabbed the Engineer's gun.

"Go ahead, finish me off good this time." Rocky pulled the barrel of his gun away from the dying man and let the Agent's hand drop to his side. Thorn walked around, holding his gun with his right hand alone, and stood in the doorway of the cubicle. This area was very nicely organized aside from the dying coworker. A tower of neatly stacked papers laid straight and organized by priority just above the Agent. Next to the papers was an UZI with a loaded mag in it.

"Easy there." Thorn requested. "You're losing a lot of blood. Just tell us what's going on." The leet agent sighed and looked down at his feet.

"Just a little while ago… A man… from our... department... came to our level..." He inhaled deeply as he went on, Rocky and Thorn listened, interested in the story the man had to tell. "He had other intentions than rescuing us. He… pulled a gun… and shot my team members… like dogs..." The man looked up at the two engineers. "He said he had others searching the building for survivors… then he shot me..." With his left hand, he pointed at Thorn and said in a slightly stronger voice:

"I thought you were the others he mentioned… to come finish the job. Oh god!..." Rocky stood up with ease and backed up into Thorn, who also took a step back, in fear that the man was lying and might have really been attacked by a zed. The Agent grabbed at his disfiguring head wound and groaned.

"Please," he begged. "get out of here while you still can. He came here just... an hour ago. He could still be here… Forget about the others…" The agent flinched as pain shot back down through his body. "We're doomed." With that final statement, the Agent's head rolled over onto his shoulder and he fell onto his side. Rocky stood there, trying to connect the information into something that made sense to him.

Was there a spy on their team trying to kill off the witnesses? If there was, who was it? Rocky turned and pushed Thorn to the side and started for the elevator. "Come on." He said in a determined tone of voice "Lets get to those other survivors, quickly." Thorn pursued his comrade as he marched his way to the doors.

"Well, even if he was telling the truth," Thorn began as Rocky had now reached the elevator and pressed the down button. "there's no guarantee that the killers are still in the building." The doors opened up with a swift sliding motion and a slight creaking noise. Rocky and his partner both stepped in, turned to face the doors, and let them shut with a clunk before pressing the floor twenty-five button.

"Even if they left, we still need to rescue whoever we can. No exceptions. It's our job." The Engineer looked down at his feet and noticed that his hands were getting sweaty. He wasn't nervous or anything although the situation would turn stressful. Maybe his body was subliminally scared of the undead, or even another mysterious threat that might appear on the horizon.

The elevator shook as it went down in seconds and stopped as soon as it started. The doors creaked open again and opened up to a small room filled with lockers lining the wall. Rocky trudged out and Thorn shuffled behind him. Almost all of the lockers were hanging wide open and emptied, ransacked by the remaining staff.

"I'm gonna check these for any weapons or ammo." Thorn stated as he approached the row of lockers. There were only four down the line that were still closed and probably had something in them.

"Fine," His partner replied. "I'll go find the survivor in the other rooms." Rocky pointed at the floor. "So stay here… Wait for me… and don't blow anything up." Thorn turned to face his partner, saluted with his left hand then turned back to the unopened lockers as Rocky left to the other room.

Thorn ran his hand over the locker door, bringing it down to the handle. What ever was in here better be good he thought to himself as he pulled up on the lever and opened the container. Before examining the contents, he turned his attention to the door. There was a note on the door that read:

"Thursday transfer. Clean out locker and desk."

Thorn shook his head. Who ever he was, he doesn't need to clear it out now.

He looked inside and saw a black, light coat held up by a coat hanger. Underneath it was a ar-15 assault rifle. It was unloaded but there was a single mag at the bottom of the locker. The Engineer leaned over and set his mp5 on the ground then reached in and grabbed the rifle tightly. Pulling out, he noticed that it was a little dusty from not being used recently and might actually need to be cleaned before usage, not like he would need it. After a quick examination, he set the rifle back in the locker before closing it. He started to wonder who had the locker and what happened to them. They were probably killed, whoever they were. Thorn moved on.

He walked to the locker next to it, grabbed the lever, and opened the locker. On the door of this one was a picture or a group of twelve agents posing in front of a transport truck with the caption: The best mother humping team there is.

Thorn reached up and plucked the picture from the wall and took a closer look at it. He flipped it around to see if anything was written on the back. Sure enough, there were a number of names written on the back of the photograph; Adam. P, Eric. W, Patty. F, Dillon. H, Evans. G, Matthew. H, Matthew. S, David. C, Brian. C, Shawn. R, Connor. B, Elliot. E, Photographer: Christopher

Thorn looked down in the locker, not to see a gun, but a present. It was wrapped in green and red striped paper, topped with a white ribbon for a bow. The Engineer leaned forward and picked it up, giving it a harsh shaking. He decided not to open it since he couldn't hear anything inside and carefully placed the small package back in the locker.

While leaving it open, Thorn went down to a locker that had a harsh dent pressed in to the metal. There must have been some jack ass who wanted to act like a show off, so he punched his locker so hard that it made an indentation in it. The engineer sighed. He didn't like people like that in the first place so he could care less if the man who did it was dead or not. Thorn spared no time in opening this locker like the others. But it was a surprise to Thorn to see upon opening the container that it was empty. All that was in it was a sticky note on the door. He looked closer and read it out loud:

"Gone to help cops, be back soon. What the hell?" In a feeling of irritation, he slammed the locker shut so loud that Rocky probably heard it from the other room. He moved on to the last locker, near the doorway. It opened easily when the engineer pulled on it. In fact, it nearly fell off it's hinges it was so loose. The contents however were far from poor condition. Standing up it's barrel was a Mossberg 500 shotgun with a case of shells sheltered under it.

Rocky walked through the doorway, holding his sub-machine gun out in front of him. He was just asking to be disarmed. As he walked into the next room over, he immediately noticed the stacked boxes around the other side of the room. There were about six boxes stacked around the doorway, which was wide open, with a table flipped on it's side in the middle.

The Engineer slowly approached the position with his weapon pointed right at the doorway, ready to shoot who ever was camping there. There was, thankfully, no blood around the area so maybe there was some one left. Against all his better judgment, Rocky called out:

"Hello? Is anyone in there?" No answer. It was dead silent. A few seconds went by before Rocky could hear something stirring. He stepped back and put both his hands on his gun, aiming it into the doorway. The shuffling of feet became apparent as they drew closer. Rocky's heart started to increase in beating. Was it a zed? The darkness of the next room blinded him from identifying the noise.

"Did you bring any smokes?" Asked the mysterious stranger as the shuffled into the doorway, allowing the light of the room to wash over them. It was an 1337 agent who was missing his shames but, as an exchange, had a thick black handlebar mustache. His coat was ruffled and the collar was slightly torn. A zed might have tried to grab him but to no avail. Rocky's first thought was to ask the agent where his shaving kit was but held off on pushing that kind of image of himself just yet.

"No I don't." Rocky said truthfully. "But I do have a team of well organized operatives ready to rescue you and any other survivors." The agent grabbed the side of the table, as if to hop over it, but instead, pushed it to the side, giving him a clear path to walk though.

"That's it? Damn, I was expecting a raze here instead of getting out of this place." The agent said. Rocky turned around and walked out of the room, expecting the survivor to follow after him which he did.

When Rocky entered back into the elevator room, Thorn was still staring at the picture he had taken from the locker. Why would he do that? Thorn was examining the picture closely, trying to think if he saw any of the members in the photo on the other floors of the building, but he couldn't remember. The cloned Engineer stepped past him and pressed the elevator button for the fourth time. The doors immediately opened and the 1337 agent walked right inside ignoring Thorn.

"Where we heading?" He asked as the two Engineers walked inside after him.

"Can we get a name?" Thorn asked, he was still staring at the photo. The agent shrugged and Rocky pressed the floor twenty-eight button on the wall. The elevator shook as it started heading up the shaft.

"Christopher." Answered the 1337 agent. "Why?" Thorn looked down and slid the photograph into his satchel. He suddenly got the idea that maybe he should continue collecting this sort of stuff and present it to headquarters when he returned.

"Oh, no reason." Thorn assured him. They stood there quietly as the elevator reached the next floor in just a few seconds. When the doors opened up, they revealed a cafeteria with long rectangle tables and chairs horizontal to the group. The lunch line must have started on the other side, as none of the men could see a pick up line. Just a number of large windows on either side of them. The sun was nearly set in the horizon and the darkness was now more intense than ever. They needed to meet up with the others and quick.