Archiver Manhunt

Zero Hour

Amidst the urban sprawl of a densely saturated city, lies a stretched rectangular building surrounded by a vast parking lot. Entering the parking lot from the adjacent four lane road, a semi rusted city bus pulls into the temp parking lane just past the sidewalk connecting to the main structure. Once the bus slows to a stop, its front side door opens, revealing the driver within.

This middle aged man rests his right arm over the top of his seat while turning his back partially towards the rear to watch a half dozen passengers vacate onto the clinical landscape.

Embarking upon the sidewalk, the six men venture past its bus stop terminal and onwards to the wide staircase, flanked by long smooth hand rails on each side, that lead to the clinical facility's front entrance.

Entering through the double glass doors, the first of these men, holds the door for the one behind him. This gesture repeats with each passing individual, ending at the sixth.

Proceeding across the spacious lobby room, the men swivel their attention around the room. The front most of them observes a security guard ushering a seated pair to vacate the building, and then watches the few clerical PsyCorp employees leave via a stairwell door next to the hall on the opposing end of the room.

Though this observation left a concerned frown upon him, he swiftly turns his mood with a smirk and an aleing comment "Maybe it'll be a quiet night tonight"

As the men reach the beginning of the hall, the man behind him releases a fleeting chuckle at his optimistic remark.

While passing the first hall's intersection, the half dozen men pass a pair of hazmat guards accompanied by a man in a lab coat. Between these men, lies a frantic scrawny man dressed in a gurney, struggling against the wrist and ankle restraints of his stretcher.

Among the trio, the doctor vents aloud "Why do we always get the patients the other facilities can't handle?"

The arriving men pay little to no attention to them as they push their patient's stretcher into an elevator.

Reaching the second intersection of the hall, they turn left and continue for a few additional meters, until encountering a wall mounted terminal next to a metal door that contrasts with the building's stainless white walls.

Lining up behind one another, they wait behind one another for their turn to dial their login credentials upon its mechanical keypad.

First to enter his login information, a blonde and short haired yet muscular defined man raises his head when he hears a protesting voice from among the line to his side. "Anyone find out when we're going back to regular work hours?"

Swiveling his head towards the gathered men, revealing a thin linear scar marked across his right eye, he spots a short red haired man poking his head out from the crowd.

Faintly grinning under his rigid demeanor, he teasingly challenges "What's the matter Krillin? Don't like the overtime pay?"

Hitting the enter button, he steps away from the terminal allowing his equally muscular, yet contrastingly long dark haired coworker to access it.

The second coworker approaches the terminal and silently enters his credentials while the red haired coworker protests "The pay's always nice, but we've been working our 12 hour shifts without a day off for the past month"

Finishing his login routine, the long dark haired man peeks towards the inquiring coworker briefly and fleetingly scorning "You should appreciate the hours while we have them"

He parts from the terminal, allowing Krillin to to interact with it.

Reaching the keypad, Krillin simmers his complaining down to a silence.