Cal turned the canister over in his hands.

"Maybe you shouldn't be holding it. What if it's a bomb?" Kate's voice was shaky.

He placed the bottle gently on the floor, then pulled out his phone and snapped a picture. A small circle whirled in place as his camera sorted out what they were looking at.

"What is that?"

They all turned as Ellie, Ohio, and Peter returned, carrying a large white box with a red cross on the side.

"We don't know, Cal's image searching it now. How did you guys make out?"

Ellie shrugged and set the case down.

"We found a bunch of first aid stuff, some things that should help. Here, put these on Cal," she held out a box of butterfly sutures, "how is she doing?"

Confused, Kate turned to Wren. Her body was stretched on the floor where they had put her, her eyes shut. Panic caught in Kate's throat- she had been okay a second ago, she must have went back into another episode, they desperately needed to get her to a doctor.

"I'm okay," Wren answered, not opening her eyes, "I'm kind of dizzy though. Can someone get me some water?"

Visible relief washed over the group.

"I'll get you some," Ellie called over her shoulder as she trotted toward the nearest break room.

Cal's phone vibrated and displayed the search results.

"It's identifying it as a gas canister? Hold on," he tapped his screen a few times. "Oh, shit! Guys, get back. Don't touch it!"

Cal grabbed Kate's arm and jogged down the hall, ducking into a nearby conference room. Peter helped Wren to her feet and Ohio trailed.

"What is it?" he gasped, flopping in a chair and kicking the door closed behind him.

Cal turned his phone to show them, half a dozen men in full hazmat suits held identical canisters, behind them, stacked in huge crates were hundreds more. He flicked through a few similar photos.

"These are from a few years ago, when they found that southern cess cell down in Virginia that was going to gas DC. It's a sarin canister bomb, that shit would kill us in seconds if it went off."

"What's it doing in an air vent next to your office!?" Kate squealed.

"This is bigger than Lily, remember the guys in the van that delivered those coolers? She probably has people all over. Janitorial could have put these in every floor, we'd never know the difference."

Ohio shook his head, "But it doesn't make sense, why wouldn't she just gas everyone then?"

As if on cue, the PA system let out a drab tone.

"Hey ya'll, it's me again. Listen, I'm sure you can all see, your numbers have certainly dropped."

Their eyes all focused involuntarily on the number hovering in the bottom of their vision. It was well under 300.

"But there's been a recent lull in the action. Those of you still surviving seem to have forgotten something - only one of you is making it out alive! I'm not letting little groups of you out, and there isn't anyone coming on in here to save you. Sorry to burst your bubbles!"

She laughed, her condescending tone masking the true horror of what she was asking them to do. "So it looks like all of ya'll better buck up, put on your big girl pants, and figure out which one of ya is going to get out of this mess alive."

The counter dropped a number.

"There you go! That's the spirit, good on you Janet, you're not going to let anyone find your hiding spot up there in marketing's storage area, are you? Whoops, maybe I've said to much," she snickered, a fake pout in her voice, "Oh well! Lookout guys, Janet's armed!"

The speakers above them crackled with feedback, Lily's squeaky, snorting giggles too much for the PA system to handle.

"Alright, woo, alright. I've calmed down now. Let's get down to the heart of the matter, I think this building is just too big. Everyone's all calm and cozy, safe in their little hidey holes. So I've got the next surprise, just waiting for you guys.

"You see, my fellow confederate compatriots and I have been busy. This big thing didn't just happen overnight, oh no ladies and gentlemen. We've been planning and working day and night for the last few months getting everything in perfect alignment to spoil your little party here. Lucky for us, we're all pretty accustomed to physical labors, so much of the legwork involved was a walk in the park for us. One of the more difficult tasks though, was getting 114 canisters of toxic nerve gas into a modern and secure office building after hours! But we did it, and now as our little gift to you I'm going to start shootin' them off every five minutes or so starting with the top floors.

Everyone shifted uneasily, they were in one of the upper floors.

"Maybe ya'll will get the hint and move to the lower fucking floors now, huh? Because it'd be a little bit of an understatement to say I'm not frustrated with everyone. I left you guns and grenades and all sorts of different things to use, and there's what, two of you in the whole building that are even brave enough to touch a gun in real life? Come on now, we're all adults here," Lily sighed and feedback crackled menacingly. She was genuinely upset with them.

"So, hopefully this can be a nudge in the right direction, getting all of you together like this, oh and not to mention all the primals stalking around the first two floors! Good on you Alan for leaving the staircase door open and giving them a path right to your little group. I'm sure it wasn't intentional, but it made for some quality live feed for all the folks out there watching on our hijacked feeds! Oh, wait, sorry Alan, looks like you've been dead for a while. My mistake! Anyway, this is going to be fun, I'm setting the first gas canister off now, I'll see everyone in the lobby in like two hours, alright? Good luck!"

The speaker hissed gently then clicked off.

An explosion of noise gripped the room as everyone tried to shout at once.

"We have to get out of here!"

"She's going to fucking gas us all!"

It was Cal that finally fought his way to the top.

"Everyone calm down. If she's gassing floors every five, we can buy ourselves some time going lower. We'll run into people, but as long as no one panics, we're going to be okay. We haven't lost our humanity!"

"Some have," Wren whispered. She was answered with panicked looks, everyone needed to think they were all still on the same team, that they were going to make it.

Kate cleared her throat, "Okay, so what's the plan? We know our floor is empty, do we go back down in the elevator? She said the staircase was opened, so we know there's going to be 'primals' in there."

She pulled back on the word - primals. It didn't feel right, these were co-workers, friends. But they needed to do as much as they could to separate themselves from the psychos wandering the halls, their humanity was gone, it was only fitting the title should be taken with it.

Cal shook his head and put his hands out, "I don't know. Can we go down a few floors in the elevator? Take a chance and buy us some time?"

"I think we should just stay in the elevator, go to the bottom floor and leave the door closed. Then we'll be safe from the primals, and the gas. We can just wait until the police get into the building," Ellie sounded so matter of fact, everyone was dumbstruck they hadn't thought of it.

Ohio slashed their hopes. "No, I mean maybe? I don't know, but elevators aren't air tight and most of the ventilation systems feed into the elevator shaft. It would depend on if the gas sinks or rises, if it rises we're fine, if it sinks, we're not going to be able to even use the elevator once the gas starts pouring down from the top floors into the shaft."

Ellie frowned and hung her head.

"Time is ticking, we have to move. Where are we going?" Peter rolled his hands, they couldn't stay where they were for long, and if the elevator was going to be a viable option, decisions had to be made.

"Fine," Cal rubbed his eyes. With his eyes closed he was hyper aware of the glowing number floating in his vision. It had jumped to just over 100. They needed to get out.

"Let's go down a few floors, as close as we can safely get to the first floor. That way we have the most time before we have to go down and face the madness in the lobby."

The group started quickly down the hall, Peter reached out and gently tugged Cal's arm.

"Cal, hold up a second."

Kate pursed her lips and stopped, but Cal shook his head and nodded for her to go.

When she had walked a distance away Peter leaned close and whispered to Cal.

"I think we should go to the lobby and get something to protect ourselves."

Hi everyone! So I'm going to try a few of these "half chapters", maybe they'll be a little easier to read, and it'll get you updates faster! Let me know what you think, I'd love comments/feedback!!