Dawn of the Dead

Chapter 3

Daphne's Pov:

The screams from the breakroom were horrifying. I felt my heart pounding and the feeling of wanting to flee. The other employees that were out here with me were starting to cry and yell. I turned to them and started to hush them, "Be quiet! All of you." They all shut up and looked at me with wide eyes. " We baracaded the door but we don't know if that will hold so be quiet we don't need whatever is in there to realize that we are out here. Got it?" They all nodded their head at me. " Good, now please go sit down. There is nothing that we can do until the doors are unlocked and we can get out of here. "  I turn to Ms. Fox whos just staring at the breakroom door with fear, I put my hand on her shoulder trying to get her attention. She jumped with the contact and turned to look at me. " Ms. Fox can I talk to you in your office?" She nods and takes a minute to calm her self down and walks to her office with her head held high like nothing was bothering her. I rolled my eyes and shook my head, even during a crises people can be stuck ups. I followed behind her and when we reached her office and I shot her door so the others wouldn't hear our conversation. This was a more personal conversation that they didn't really need to listen into. I turned my attention back to McKenna, she was sitting at her desk with her fingers crossed over each other and head chin resting on them. She was staring at her desk lost in thought. 

" McKenna, have you been noticing any symptoms of being sick? I know you and Kyle were intimate so the possiblity of you being sick as well is high." Her head shot up and she glared at me, " I thought we had this conversation this morning Ms. Cross. You will adress me as Ms.Fox, if you contiue with this disrespect I will have no choice but to fire you, are we clear?" I rolled my eyes, " McKenna, we in what is obviouslt a crisis, right now we have more to worry about that work edict. But if it matters to you all that much, I quit. Once this whole mess is resolved I will pack my things and we won't have to worry about seeing each other ever again, But until then we have to work togeather to keep these people calm and figure out what is going on. Ok?'' I glare right back her. I was done with her crap, we were in trouble here and she was worried about what name I should call her in a work setting. I put up with her for months and I will not put up with it any longer especially in an emergency situation. She seemed taken back at my words and didn't know what to say, I decided to try again to get her on track, " Now have you or have you not been experiancing any symptoms of being sick?" She shakes her head. I nod and continue, " Ok, Now what is the companies protocal on this situation? I didn't even know they could look the doors like that." She takes a shaky breath, before saying. " It's a new protocal they put in incase of a shooter situation. They put it in after the shooting in one of our buildings in Michigan. We were supposed to do a practice drill on Monday." 

I look at her in disbelief. " Why wasn't I or anyone else notified about the doors?" She shrugged her shoulders, " I was going to make an announcement on tomorrow about it. I didn't expect something like this to happen before then... or at all. " I groaned and ran my right hand down my face, " Goddammit McKenna, you should have at least notified management about this." She glared at the use of her name, " What did I-" I inturupted her, " I don't give a s**t about your goddam name McKenna! Now is not the f*****g time! Now we need to figure out how long this lockdown is supposed to last." She stood up and put her hands on the desk and leaning towards me, " Yell at me again and I will make sure that you will never get a job anywhere else again unless it's in a drive through." I put my hands on my hips, " You can try, but I will be making sure to submit a compaint to upper management about you sleeping with a coworker and of your treatment of management. I'm sure the boss would love to hear about your arrangment with Kyle." She paled and sat back down. 

I nodded, satisfied that I finally got to her, " Now how long does the system keep those doors locked?" She was quiet for a few seconds before she opened up a drawer in her desk and pulled out what looked like manual. She flipped through a couple of pages before stopping at one. " For 12 hours. They figure police would be here within that timeframe to repremand the shooter. There is supposed to be food supplies for emoplyees in the breakroom.. but well we can't exactly get to those. " I nod, goddamit. I pace and try to think no one would keep their lunchs in their pods, most people might have snacks but not everyone. "Ok is there anyway to override this from our end?" She went back to reading the manual glancing over a few pages, while I waited I continued to pace.  After 10 minutes she finally spoke, " Ok there really isn't a way to override it on this end. They created it that way so if someone panicked and tried to get out they couldn't unlock all the doors making it so the shooter could travel between floors. Which in a normal situation where people aren't sick and eating each other it would be great. " I shrug. Well if we had our food it would be perfectly fine. 

I pulled out my cell phone to see if I had service. I had zero bars. I sighed, something must have happened with the cell towers. " McKenna, do you think the phones will work? I have no bars on my cell phone but maybe the landlines might still work." She shook her head and shrugged, " I say it's a 50/50 shot, give it a try. Who are you calling?"  I moved closer to the desk and typed in the number for the reception desk in the lobby. " I'm going to see how may of us are stuck here and see if anyone can get security to overirde this. Or contact the IT department and have them try to hack the system."  I waited for an anwser and recived none, assuming that everyone on that floor got out or... not. I called the IT department and was waiting for someone to anwser. After a couple of rings thankfully someone anwsered. " Hello?" 

" Hey this is Daphne Cross up a couple floors with Mckenna Fox. We need your help."  He was silent and then suddenly he was talking with someone else. " Hold on i'm going to put you on the phone with my manager. " I waited for the manager to get on the phone while I was watching McKenna flipping through more of the Manual looking for another option or possiblity of getting out of here. " Spencer Koa, how can I help you?" 

"Hey Spencer, Do you know how to override the lockdown?" It was quiet on the other end for awhile before he finally gave me an anwser. " I do, but why? Do you know what's going on? All my guys got that notification and then suddenly the building was on lockdown. " I nod even though he can't see me, I explain to him about what we saw on the streets and how we had to blockcade the breakroom. " I can't get ahold of the lobby so i'm assuming that the sick got in but the lockdown only lasts 12 hrs so either way they will get in. But we have some sick up here and i'm not sure how long that blockade will hold and we don't have food either. We need to at least get everyone down one level so we can plan on how to get everyone out of here. "  He sighed, " If I override it I can only do the whole building I can't do an individual floor...well maybe I can.. hold on.. Victor get over here!" I heard him ask the other man if he would be able to hack into the system and try to override the locks on one floor. He said yes. " Great, if your sure you guys can that would be a awsome. But we don't know how many sick were able to get into the building before it lockdown. Can you guys get into the camera's too?" 

They mumbled over the phone before getting a definite yes, " Ok, you guys get the cameras up and running and tell us if there are any up here and I'll call the floor below us to see if they have any sick down there on their floor." I hang up and dialed the number for the floor below, it rang for a while without an anwser. McKenna spoke up, "Wait a minute isn't that floor under construction?" Before I could give an anwser back a male voice anwsered, " Hello?"