403 - 2nd FLOOR (OFFICE SPACE)

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

The 2nd floor was mostly empty, save for one large office space divided into cubicles. It seemed to be some kind of inscrutable insurance business, and was much like the bank, completely deserted by the time survivors arrived. One can find just cubicles, computers and desks here.

From here you can go to:
Either stairwell

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

Zoe and Frank led Nat down to the 2nd floor, which was a vast, dreary, and mostly empty office space.


Zoe-
"I call this place 'the Poopy Room.' I take the dogs down here and try to get them to poop in the kitchen at least. I put some newspapers over there. Then, you... you know, pick it up. Sometimes I throw it off the roof for fun, but I guess we should probably just put it in the trash.

"You could try to walk more than one dog at a time, but sometimes they go too crazy and then one is pooping somewhere on the carpet and it's too late for you to stop him... It's just a mess. Plus, I think the dogs like to feel special.

"So you could walk your dogs first if you want, Tony and Pepper? I'll walk Frank here, and then someone needs to take the Doctor's little puppy for a walk, Davin has a dog named Rex and then there's this dog named Benji, I think I'll walk him too. You can walk them wherever but they should poop in here, OK?"

[kilnarak]

"The Poopy Room, huh? That seems appropriate," Nat laughed, smiling at Zoe. With Tony and Pepper bouncing around his feet, Nat seemed to be in a very good mood (particularly in contrast with some of the other survivors this morning!) "Let's, uh, just put it in the trash for now. There are people on the ground doing things, wouldn't want to drop poop on their heads, right?"

Zoe-
"Hahaha! Yeah, that's funny. Sometimes I hope it will get on a zombie... I guess they probably don't even care though."

"I'll, um, go get the puppy - was it Snoopi? - after dealing with these two. I could get Rex, too... um, which room is Davin's again?"

Zoe-
"Yeah it's Snoopi unless the doctor renamed her or something. She's really small so you might have to carry her down the stairs. Davin's room is on the 4th floor --DON'T GO IN THE BAD ROOM! There's red tape on it, everyone said don't go in there because it's really gross and there was a monster but it's dead now."

The two tawny bulldogs crowded around Frank, doing doggy butt-sniff greetings to their fellow canine. Nat tugged them away after a moment. "Tony! Pepper! C'mon, time for walkies!" He lead the two away, keeping near to the paper-covered tile floors for easy clean-up.

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

Nat went upstairs to get the puppy Snoopi, and carried her down the stairs to the poopy room. When he stepped out of the stairwell, he heard the sounds of someone opening doors and walking around.
He turned the corner and peered into the office, and saw a young dark-haired man looking through a desk drawer. He looked up at Nat.

Bryce-
"Oh man. Poop duty huh?"

He seem to consider something.

Bryce-
"Hey, you look kind of nervous... Are you on 'Carimsidol' by any chance? One of the new anti-anxiety/depression m...? Nope... Shit. I'll keep lookin.' "

[kilnarak]

"Oh, yeah. It, um, it isn't so bad." Nat smiled at Bryce, holding the squirmy puppy to his chest.

"Huh? Oh, n-no, sorry. Um. Was on Trazodone for a while, but n-not anymore. You, um, think someone stashed something... in the desks?" Nat calmed the puppy, frowning a little. "I-I guess the bathrooms are all cleaned out already, huh? That's, um, that's where I'd keep... medication..."

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

Bryce-
"Yeah, thanks man. I'm lookin' everywhere. I uh, I ran out... you know how the withdrawal is probably. Fucking... Derek. He's my roommate and he won't let me even look at the medicine stash upstairs. I'm sure someone's got it, it's the new thing they're handing out to everyone, but since I'm the 'drug kid' I don't even get that, since it doesn't have my name on it. Some shit.. like anyone's gonna try to get high off anti-Ds? Ugh. Well, thanks anyway, sorry to bug you."

He continued idly poking through drawers and wandering around.

[kilnarak]

Nat hesitated a moment. "Um... I could help you look? After I'm done helping Zoe with-with the animals, anyway. You um..." Nat made a face, unsure of how to ask. "You have, um, depression? I-I mean, you... can't really get high off of those, can you?"

Bryce-
"Naw, I mean ADD meds are way better for that. Or anti-psychotics if you like to live dangerously... It's not exactly depression, like a bit bipolar with high anxiety. Whatever, it's everybody these days, isn't it?"

The puppy yipped and squirmed up to lick Nat's jaw. The blonde laughed quietly and pushed the puppy down, murmuring. "Allright, allright..."

"Um. I'm Nat, by the way. I... I don't know if I caught your name? But, um, I'll-I'll see you around, I suppose." He smiled awkwardly, giving Bryce a moment to reply before taking the puppy to the 'Poopy Room'.

Bryce-
"Yeah, neither of us looks like the type to be going anywhere soon, no offense. Peace out."

[Thy Dungyeon Maestyr]

Nat left Bryce to his own devices and attended Them Poopy-styled Duties.

[Gillsing]

tab As soon as he got down, Ben started to search for desktop copiers, the smaller the better. And once he found one, he checked the wattage to see if it was something they could manage with one of their pedalled generators.
tab Sadly, even the smallest copier seemed to require the electricity from three or four bicycle generators at the same time. And that would require quite some wiring to set up, and then a lot of pedalling to keep it going. Just to print pamphlets? Might be better to stick to manual copying.
tab Ben returned to 'touring the facility', looking for fun and adventure.

[Thy Dungyeon Maestyr]

There was an animal smell on the second floor - Some dogs had been walked here, maybe went in the wrong place, and had not been thoroughly cleaned up after. But it wasn't too hard to ignore, not too hellishly bad... Office supplies! Some had been raided, but there's still a bounty. Who knows what that stuff will be good for ultimately?

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

Nat was doing his daily duty of walking the pets. It seemed a strange task to do indoors, he felt like he was taking the pets to work in an office, and imagined Tony and Pepper wearing little suits and ties.
There had been a lot of strange commotion in the building lately, he'd been luckily avoiding the stress of it, though his roommates were more affected by it than he'd prefer.
This floor was very cold without human occupants, curtains drawn and no electricity. The dogs ran around in the darkness, their toenails occasionally clicking on the tile floors as they ran over them.
Nat nearly gasped when one of the dogs began barking maniacally at something, and then the other joined in. He nearly panicked, but followed the sound with the candle. He felt like he was in a cheesy-ass horror movie when he saw what the dogs were barking at.

Tony & Pepper -
BARK BARK BARK BARK!

A huge fluffy white cat was hiding under a desk, and hissed silently at the dogs, before running away into the darkness.

Oh those silly dogs...

[kilnarak]

Nat was quickly growing accustomed to the his daily duties on the 'doody' floor. It tended to smell like dogs, and sometimes the less-than-desirable leavings of dogs, however after spending a few minutes in the room, his nose was usually deadened to the smell. It was a safe floor - the empty offices had been a bit eerie at first, however now he associated the place more with the dogs he walked. Nothing bad had happened here, not like on other floors of the building - no ghosts, no monsters, nor any arguments or in-fighting. It was a good, if slightly stinky place.

And Tony and Pepper were good dogs, if tending toward hyperactivity on occasion. Still, Nat was startled when the two little dogs began to bark as if it were going out of style. Pepper had seen the thing first, although Nat hadn't noticed: her pointed ears had pricked straight up and she had lifted one paw off the ground, staring at the white thing, and then she had bolted at it, yapping. Shortly afterward Tony joined the fray, yapping excitedly at the strange animal.

Nat crept forward much more cautiously than the little dogs, and saw the cat they had cornered: white as a ghost, and giant to boot. Was it a Maine Coon? He had certainly never seen the cat before - it wasn't one to originate in the complex. But perhaps it had managed to slip in, somehow? It certainly was an eerie looking cat - he had never seen a white Maine Coon before.

While he was cautious, Nat was not as wary of the cat as he likely should have been - but really, it was just a cat. And it looked like a pretty cat, too. He knelt, pulling the two dogs back as best he could.

"Here, kitty. It's okay, see? They're just little loudmouths- OH!"

And then the cat bolted past him further into the offices. Nat considered going after it - Pepper and Tony certainly wanted to. After a moment's thought, he pulled the dogs' leashes out of his pocket, clipped them to their collars, then let them lead him after the ghostly white cat.

[Thy Dungyeon Maestyr]

Tony and Pepper dragged Nat through the office space. It was wide open, mostly, with shallow cubicle dividers and open windows admitting the sun. The middle was a comfortable shady medium.

The dogs led him to an office. The door was just slightly ajar. As he looked inside, boom! Face full of cat!

The great leviathan flew past in a white streak, its dark eyes like appleseeds in the gloom, and the dogs promptly tangled the young man's legs in leash madness.

Suddenly he heard a door open. On further investigation, he found a stairwell door was just sliding shut on its closer. The untangled dogs seemed convinced the cat had gone in. Proceed to South Stairwell!