Structure - Office Building 1

-Back to Structures-

# Office Building 1

## Summary

This office building is a satellite office of the ORCO, a watch manufacturer. The regional manager oversaw the construction personally. The construction was of modern architecture with a grand lobby. It remained in tact after the war and while slightly overgrown, it is mostly as it was left.

## Background/Notes

The building is 4 floors, with a central shaft behind the main lobby leading to a safe room in the basement. It is square in floor plan roughly 28x28. The top floor is half lobby half executive office. Construction consists of the color scheme of grey and lime. ORCO logo is emblazened on the front with a watch face.

### Floor 1 (European Floor 0):

The first floor layout includes a large fancy lobby with information desk in the center back with a bathroom and closet to the left and to the right is a stairs. Behind the informaiton desk is the door to the backrooms where they have a lounge for the employees and a security room.

### Floor 2 (European Floor 1):

The second floor consists of two halves flanking the stairs leading up to Floor 3 hovering over a large open area looking down on the lobby. On either side of the stairs is a walking area with doors leading to back offices. Bathrooms are located in the same area on each floor separate of the offices.

### Floor 3 (European Floor 2):

The third floor is an open concept with tables, filing cabinets and book shelves along the wall. The back wall consists of storage rooms for files and such and the elevator shaft. The concept is it is a study lounge for all employees. The staircase leads to the executive lobby on the top floor.

### Top Floor:

This floor consists of a lobby on the right with a waiting room and a man trap prior to entering the executive suite. The center is not open but instead made of thick tinted glass. Possibly 2 thick. The Left side is the District Manager's office. With a hidden door to a tunnel which leads to a saferoom.

### [WARNING, this is not a good story for kids, this is war after all, it contains fear, murder, suicide, cannibalism, and other bad things that happen when people have lost hope. Seriously, don't read this if you have an issue with these.]

The life of this office building was quite regular. With the first 7 years seeing great sales of watches throughout the district, the building was seen as a hub of important individuals as the watches ORCO sold were considered some of the best for regular people. Their motto "In time with nature." was alluding to their method of creating watches using only recycled and reused parts from old watches, which saved them enough in the manufacturing process allowing them to create watches that could last for someone's entire life. The week leading up to the war, there was a massive order for watches, which wasn't out of the ordinary as they regular received massive orders. However, this order was a rather short notice one and they were behind schedule. The District Manager pulled everyone in his office and stated that if they do not make this deadline, he would be filing for everyone to be replaced. Stress levels were high and within a day things seemed to be back on track. The day of the attack, the employees had stayed in late and were still in their offices when siren alarms sounded and the loud speakers announced that an invasion was occurring. They knew that there was a skirmish at the border of the Y'poch, but the last thing they expected was a homeworld invasion. After the initial panic, three groups remained in the building of those who had not just fled the building for their homes.

#### Group 1:

The first group was on the third floor at the convention center and food hall. They stayed in place with the assumption that whatever was happening would eventually resolve in a day or two and everything would be back to normal. They had food, water, and places to sleep separately. They were 20 strong and until day 7 they had no problems. On day 7, someone disappeared while everyone slept. This prompted fear, confusion and mistrust to spread between them. It was 3 days before another murder. At this point they banded together and sent one of the others who had been suspected of doing it over the side of the railing to the lobby where they died. Prior to dying, they let the group know there was someone in the lobby before he was dragged away. The group locked all entrances and waited. 9 days later, another murder. Watches had been stood up, and no one knew how the murder was making it through to the rooms. Hope dissolved. No matter how many guards were there, the murders continued every 3 days. While the food and water was ample, their sanity grew more and more bleak until the last 5 banded together and dove off of the balcony to the lobby and their death. Total time, 46.5 days.

#### Group 2:

The second group found themselves in the lobby, unwilling to leave the building, but also unwilling to separate. There was 3 of them. A mother and her 2 children who had accompanied her to work that day. She had only the vending machines and back offices of supplies to keep themselves alive. This wasn't going to last long. Her kids were hungry, and so was she. With the few dry stored food that she found in the back room, she was able to make it a week. They would get out of this and see their house again. How long could this last after all? She had heard them upstairs, and knew they had food. She had also heard that they agreed to not take anyone else into the group and had figured out their rations from the food. The good clean, tasty food. She made up her mind to get some. As the janitor, she figured she knew most of the vents and shafts in the building, and found one which she believed to take her to the food store room upstairs. That night, she put her kids to bed and shimmied up the shaft and came out in an office. Not the right place to begin with, but only made worse when the occupant was spotted on the floor sleeping. The person woke up, and stared at her coming from the vent. She quickly silenced the person with a heavy blow to the head. She couldn't be found out or someone would come after her and her kids! She took the body and dragged it to the vent and threw it down the shaft. That was when it occurred to her. She could help them while not taking their food at the same time! The remaining people had more food to go around, would live better, and she had an ample supply of food there! Her kids didn't need to know where the meat came from, as long as it was cooked. This was extreme after all and all that mattered was her kid's well being. So, she covered her tracks as best she could, leaving the blood on the floor unfortunately as she couldn't clean that up. At least it didn't lead to the vent. Her kids ate well for the next few days, but without proper facilities to keep the body chilled, after 3 days, the body wasn't able to be approached. She could hear them upstairs, the arguing, the fights, and eventually the agreement that nothing could be done but station a guard. After 3 nights, she snuck back up and took someone else. Her kids were all that mattered. She knew it was wrong, but her kids did not know. To them, they were eating and were happy. This time, a body fell from the third floor. She didn't expect it and her kids were scared. she told them to go to the back room, and she dragged the body away to the broom closet where she left it. The person wasn't dead yet, so at least it would last a bit longer anyways. She continued her routine from that point on knowing in her mind that the day would come when she wouldn't have any other option, but finally it happened. The last 5 people jumped to the lobby. This meant that the food and water was all free. She took her kids up to the galley and had, for the first time in over a month, regular food. This was their house now. She knew it wouldn't last forever, but at least her kids were safe. In the distance, she saw through the windows that most everything had been destroyed. For some reason, their building was spared. There was nothing out there for them anymore. All that mattered was that they had a place for her and her kids now. The rationed lasted 60 days before they had to leave the building in search for more food. Total time 106 days.

#### Group 3:

The third group was the CEO and his secretary. To the CEO, this was not a surprise. He knew the order was placed there, like most other places had received large orders, in an attempt to pacify the population with the impending homeworld invasion. There was no hope as he had heard reports from the soldiers returning from the front lines on how powerful the Y'poch were. He had a home, but no family and he and the secretary had been secretly dating for months. He was where he belonged, and he was doing his part to keep panic from spreading. The sirens went off, and he and his secretary went immediately to his library and went into the the secret passageway to his safe room. In there was supplies to last them years if need be. He knew it was selfish, but he was a District Manager and his skills were invaluable for whatever civilization would be when he got out. He went in and everything was fine. Of course it was the lap of luxury in his safe room, as he knew it had to be. He had lined all of the walls and the door with the only material he had found that was impenetrable to Y'poch weaponry. This meant that he would remain safe in there with his most precious belongings and his secretary. They would live happily ever after right? Well, the problem is that a completely enclosed space needs air flow, and many other things in order to be viable long term. After 2 weeks, the air stopped circulating. He went to investigate it, and found that the AC unit had frozen. He turned it off and waited, but never came back. It turns out there was a pinhole freon leak from the AC unit which he didn't know about which had caused the pipe to freeze. This leak, however, had meant that he was breathing freon and not oxygen and quickly died. His secretary, found his dead body approximately 10 seconds before laying down next to it and dying herself.

[END BAD STORY TIME, if you want to continue reading from here, that is fine, there shouldn't be anymore in this page.]