Level Seven Corridor

There’s just a little bit of sports-favoritism going on in this hallway, isn’t there? Quidditch posters of all teams and players are hung haphazardly, and one or two have fallen to the floor because of a worn-off sticking charm. Still, nobody seems to notice (or care). Welcome to the Department of Magical Games and Sports!

Rex was in a rare good mood when he returned to the Ministry but that all ended when a memo zoomed annoyingly around his head. He grabbed it out of the air and crumpled it into a ball. Only when he reached his level and was alone in the corridor did he bother to uncrumple the memo.

Sigh.

So much for focusing on REAL work. Now he had to deal with decor, courtesy of the head moron current Minister.

Konrad had never been happier to be far away from food.

Wordlessly, he made his way back to the atrium and up to level seven, which would surely be Lourdes' and Mariel's favourite, given the fact that they'd be working there. Since he wasn't quite familiar with the place, he came to a stop on a corridor, filled with different posters, and waited for a while for the ladies to take in the new surroundings.

And about what had just happened at the food court... "Does any of you know anything about... that?" He felt like the least he owed them was an explanation. And he should probably take them out to eat something that wasn't from the same place from which the sick man appeared. Speaking of which, he turned to Mariel, when he noticed that she had brought her snack with her. "I... I wouldn't eat that. Just... just in case," he spoke hesitantly, blushing from head to toe. "I am sorry about that." Buying them food that might be infected truly made him feel awful, even if he wasn't sure if the food was the real problem. He just didn't want to risk it. "I could take you two to have a proper meal to make up for that," he finished with a weak smile.

Heh, the least he could do.

Lulu followed Konrad and went all the way to the Lifts as fast as her heels could bring her. She didn't care if she broke a heel or whatever as long as she stayed away from that awful-looking man who broke a table to eat wood? Seriously? How can anybody survive eating something with splinters? Merlin the Ministry was weirder than what Lulu expected. But she can't deny that it wasn't fun. Otherwise without some drama or action, her stay at the Ministry would be boring. REALLY boring. And that's not good at all.

The blonde was relieved when Konrad had brought her and Mariel to Level Seven, which was her level. She didn't really need a tour in here but I guess Konrad could familiarize himself there too. "I knew that man was infected but..." Lulu paused. How come she didn't know how it even happened? "Why are there so many of them at the Ministry right now?" The Ministry was supposed to be safe, for your information. And it was a magical place, which added more to the 'supposed to be safe' thing.

"I ought to tell the Minister soon," she said. Maybe Minister Greingoth would help out in exterminating all these bloody sick people. But... oh dear, maybe one of her employees was infected too. She thought at least since that Aron dude from MLE took samples of the infected and one of her employees' DNA sample was there. That was worrying.

Take them both out for a proper meal? Uhmm... in Lulu's opinion, Konrad was offering a bit too much already. Him touring them was a good thing, yes, but that was supposed to be his main purpose anyway. Buying them food wasn't part of the plan. "Oh, you don't have to..." Lulu said. He already paid for their food but... oh well.

After letting out a shriek when that lunatic made mincemeat of the table she had one been sitting at, Mariel hurried onto the lifts as fast as she possibly could go in her little heels. She had been far too frightened to say anything to either of her two companions, just staring straight ahead with widened eyes and trying to regulate her breathing.

Once on Level Seven, Mariel calmed down just enough to be able to speak again and her eyes snapped to Konrad as he spoke. That? No she didn't know what that was other than there was a lunatic running around who just tried to attack them. And then to Ms. Black.. "Infected..?" And back to Konrad.. "In case of what..?" She looked down at the danish and coffee in her hands. Did he mean she might turn into that deranged person.. like the food was infected? "But I already.." she began, in horror, realizing she had taken a sip of the coffee. She quickly took a few steps down the corridor and threw it all into the nearest trash receptacle

Taking a few deep breaths, Mariel began to regain her composure and calmly walked back over to the two from her group. They seemed to know something that she didn't and it would be nice if they shared their information.. although it would have been nice for someone to have told her what was going on before she came to work here! It didn't seem exactly safe.. "Someone mind telling me just what is going on around here.. just so we're all on the same page," she said, looking between the two of them.

Apparently, Lourdes already knew something about the problem around the Ministry. But why were there so many of them? "I honestly don't know. I thought the MLE was handling this." And they were doing something about it, right? "I doubt the Minister is not aware of this."

With that, he turned to Mariel, who seemed to know nothing about it, which made Konrad feel truly awful about not mentioning anything about it. But what was he supposed to say? Start the tour with 'Welcome to the Ministry! By the way, pay attention to the drooling employees who want to eat your brain!' That would've gone well. "There are a few employees... in that state." And the coffee? "Don't... don't worry about that. For all I know, it could be in the air." They would've closed the food court, otherwise. "I just thought... it would be better to be safe, rather than sorry."

Lulu needed to explain a lot of things to Mariel. But maybe she should keep in mind that she shouldn't scare her either. "Believe me, Mariel, but I didn't expect this to happen at all," she said and sounded like she was apologizing for the whole Ministry. It was a bit embarrassing to be accepting new employees but ending up trying to risk their lives. "There's this 'illness' we don't know of that is spreading within the Ministry and some of the employees in here are already infected. Each department is already working in finding the cause of such. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement are working on the samples of these 'infected' employees and will soon release the results for our safety." Hopefully it didn't scare Mariel.

Then to Konrad. "What if, while we progress on our tour and we reach the Minister's Office, we inform the Secretaries in there?" Lulu suggested. It was a way to make things easier and faster rather than make things more complicated and separating things. The blonde agreed with Konrad about the 'safe and sorry' part. "Well, we didn't expect to be visited by that man, right? We didn't know so, I guess we should be on the lookout starting now." So... shall we resume the tour now, Konrad?

Taking a deep breath to best calm herself, Mariel listened to the others as the tried to explain. Hopefully regaining her composure was visible.. she was not a fan of overly emotional displays and was rather annoyed at herself for not showing more restraint. Although who could blame her really? The scene that had unfolded itself was rather terrifying.

She looked between Konrad and Lourdes as they both related what they knew about the deranged man.. and the situation surrounding him. In that state.. illness.. infected.. she tried to wrap her mind around their words.. and something clicked in her head. This is what Tyler was talking about, wasn't it? "It's what the Ministry is calling zombies, isn't it?" She looked down for a moment, in thought, before looking back up at the two again. "I met someone from MLE the other day and he just mentioned in passing something about investigating zombies.. but he became very vague and shrugged it away when I questioned him about it." And now that part annoyed her.. Obviously this was a problem and he should have warned her, not dismissed her.

Pushing that thought out of her head for now, she gave Konrad a small but gracious smile at his last words. "Yes, you're right.. better to be safe than sorry.. I'm sure it will be.. fine." Her smile faltered at the last word, because she wasn't so certain.. but she thought it very kind of him to be concerned enough to warn her about the possibility of food being tainted. Hopefully that wasn't the case.

Green eyes drifted towards Lourdes as she suggested working their way towards the Minister's office. Well, she supposed that was as good an idea as any. Lookout.. right. That probably meant she should have her wand ready. "Ready when you are," she said as pleasantly as she could muster. They didn't have to look around on this level if the rest didn't want to.. She'd be working here so she'd see plenty enough of it anyway.

Konrad listened while Lourdes explained more about the problem to Mariel, but couldn't help but smile when she suggested informing the secretaries on level one. "You're looking at a secretary." He hadn't properly introduced himself, had he? As for being on the lookout... he nodded, his smile quickly fading away, because he knew she was right about that. And just when he was having a lovely day, his worries about being an awful guide all gone... that man had to show up and eat their table. Pffft.

When he turned to look at Mariel, he nodded at her question about zombies. "Yes, that is right." With all that drool and crazy look on their faces (not to mention the hunger for brains... and tables, apparently), they could surely be compared to zombies, but he knew it was silly. Real zombies were dead. Ministry employees were not. He smiled when Mariel tried to convince herself that she would be fine. "You will, I promise." Even if something was to happen... which it wasn't... people were working on that, and nothing would happen to Mariel.

... but he remembered they still had a tour to finish. "Are you two still up for visiting the rest of the Ministry?" He hoped they were. It would surely help taking their thoughts away from what just happened... even if only for a while.

... Weird. Lulu never knew that Konrad was a secretary. "Oh dear, I'm sorry," the woman blushed in embarrassment. "Would it be okay if you inform the Minister after our tour? Not that I'm giving you a hard time, but at least for everyone in the Ministry's safety." Even if Lulu had her own problems to deal with, she shouldn't forget that this was also one of them.

As for the zombies. "They're only so-called zombies because they act strange like the real zombies," Lulu added. "Honestly speaking, that was that my first zombie 'attack' but I'm guessing there are more of them wandering around..." You could never get away of these people. Since there are about twenty of them probably going around looking for tables to eat. If so, there is a huge stock of them at the Hangout.

"I'm still up for the tour, Konrad," Lulu replied. "If we're to stay away from those zombies, we're going to have to know where to go right?" She had a point there. What if they were cornered by these 'zombies' at, let's say, the lobby and nobody was there? Screaming for help won't help... unless you're lucky.

Mariel's eyes snapped to Konrad as he informed them of his job title. Oh, he worked in the Minister's office..? Well, duh, Mariel.. it's not like the Ministry just hired tour guides to keep on staff.. She nodded to herself as it made sense to her that someone in his position would best know the Ministry to show newbies like herself around.

So they were the Zombies Tyler had mentioned.. she only wished she had been more prepared. She tried to think back to that horrible Muggle movie she had once been talked into seeing.. she supposed that crazy man behaved like one of those monsters in the movie.. "More.. of them?" Mariel gave Lourdes a questioning look as she spoke. Um.. no, she did not want to see another of those.. things anytime soon, thank you very much. But she would not keep that from her working.. or touring the Ministry.. or whatever. And she gave Konrad a gracious smile as he tried to assure her that she'd be fine.. drinking coffee or not. She wasn't completely convinced.. but he was far too kind to try to make her feel at ease about it.

Nodding at Konrad's words, she said, trying to keep the emotion from her voice, "I'd like to continue as well." And Lourdes had a point. It would be best to familiarize themselves with where they'd be spending much of their time.. especially if there really were more of them. "Guess we'll just have to be on guard," she added with the hint of a wry smile. Would be good for her reflexes at any rate.

He couldn't help but chuckle a little when Lourdes actually blushed. It's not like he had any reasons to be mad or upset because she had no idea where he worked in the Ministry, eh? As for informing the minister... "It wouldn't bother me, but I doubt he is not already aware of this problem." He was the minister, after all. Surely there were people around the Ministry working on it.

At Lourdes' statement, Konrad smiled, nodding in agreement. "Fair point." Might as well get the two of them familiarized with the place, in case there were going to be more attacks. Turning to face Mariel, he nodded, too, at her suggestion. Be on guard. Another good point. "Alright then," he spoke, facing both ladies. "As you may already know, we are on the seventh level, Department of Magical Games and Sports. I believe you are already familiar with this level?" There hasn't been a very long time since they got hired, but they still had enough time to explore a little, right?

Well... the Minister should've known about the little zombie outbreak in the Ministry. "Maybe we could just inform him about it. It wouldn't hurt to tell him that we almost got attacked by an infected one." After all, the Minister should know what's happening in the Ministry as well. Reporting would be a good start.

"Honestly speaking, Mariel," Lulu hoped she wouldn't scare the heck out of her employee. But stating the truth was just all she needed and wanted. "I haven't seen any other infected person besides that man in the Hangout, but I don't think he's the only one." By only one, she meant the only one infected. With someone that dangerous, it would be almost impossible to say that he hasn't infected someone else.

As for the continuing the tour, Lulu was pleased when the two agreed with her. "Great," and... her department. Well, was there anything else to know? "I've got no questions, thank you." The blonde smiled at the tour guide. Then she looked at Mariel. Maybe she had questions, because Lulu would like to try to answer them too. The blonde did have some knowledge.

Mariel nodded at Lourdes. They had to tell someone about the incident, even if it was only Konrad speaking on their behalf as he had stronger ties to the Minister. But it would make more sense if there were eye-witness accounts, right? As now the three of them were.. And she gave the woman a grim smile to her next words. Yes, she figured there were more.. at least from what she was hearing and trying to piece together, it didn't seem to be an isolated incident. "We'll just have to be on the lookout, I suppose." But at least she knew what to look for and wasn't just walking around blissfully unaware now.

The brunette chuckled a bit as her eyes wandered about the corridor. "Games and Sports.. of course.." Yes, this was one of the few levels she actually knew anything about.. and she was only to become more familiar with it as she continued her work, so.. "No questions from me, either," she agreed with Lourdes. Might as well head up to the next level.. hopefully no more surprises.

When Lourdes mentioned that the man they had seen earlier was the only contaminated one she had seen, Konrad remembered the ones he and Roxanne saw a while ago, but decided against saying anything aloud. Lourdes seemed fine, but he didn't want to scare Mariel more than she was already.

Anyway. Since the two of them had no questions about this department (and Lourdes probably knew so much more about it than Konrad), it was time to visit the next level. "Let's move on to the next level, then. Shall we?" Ladies first. Hehe.

Emily had her nose deep in a file when she'd stepped out of the lift prematurely.. and hadn't bothered to look up as she set off down the corridor. That was possibly one of the most annoying things about the ministry. Every level was so different, and yet, if you weren't looking, it was so much the same. Either way, Emily turned a page in the folder to examine the next when she saw a flash of colour out of the corner of her eyes.

Huh? Whaa?

...

"Eerr," Emily mumbled finally coming to a halt. This wasn't level two. Clearly. She made note of the quidditch posters, concluding that she was on... what level? 7? 8? Far from home at any rate.

Since she was here though... she'd have a nosy around.

Victoria had just come from her little on the whim lunch date with Gavin.. Hmmm he was so sweet and she couldn't believe she had never seen that before now.. Why was that, she just couldn't put her finger on it. Oh well it didn't matter he was super cute and she liked holding his hand. As she turned she saw the door for the Gobstone area.. Charely came to mind and she froze... What was she doing.. She had just started seeing him and now Gavin.. What was this madness, she had never been like this before.

Turning to quickly find her door before running into him she about ran into someone and stopped. "Oh.. excuse me.. I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention." She had never see this lady before. Was she a games worker as well. Vic was really trying to remember all her coworkers in this department but there were so many. "Do you work on this level as well? I'm Victoria.. I work in the PR for Quidditch." She gave a small smile.

If the girl was not a games worker maybe she was lost? Not many people wondered onto this level without working here. Well the coffee cart was here so maybe that was the reason for the visit.

She really ought to have been heading back... squeezing into a stupid lift again, but she didn't. Emily was, distracted. Yes, that was the correct term. Distracted. So much so, that though she knew there was another person on the level, she hadn't bothered to pay them any attention until... OOMPH.

Emily's brows narrowed into a frown. Not paying attention, clearly. "I can't talk... I knew you were there, but didn't move." She shrugged. She didn't really care, she wasn't even supposed to be here, so she was in the way.

PR. Quidditch. Heh.

"Oh err... no... I stepped off the lift far too early," Emily waved her folder in the woman's face. See, she was distracted. Mmhhmm. Evidence of it and all. "Name's Emily," she added as an after thought, considering Victoria had introduced herself.

She knew she was there, but didn't move.. Vic for a second took that as meaning she stayed on purpose for her to run into the lady, but no that wouldn't be the case. Victoria was obviously over thinking things. Her mind had been so unfocused lately she couldn't put her finger on why. Maybe this potion was having a negative side effect on her. She would have to tell Gavin as soon as she saw him.

"Well I'm glad I didn't run into you hard.. I wouldn't want to hurt any of our guest. We don't seem to get many here." She smiled at.. oh Emily.. Alright, that was a very pretty name. "Nice to meet you Emily. What department are you from if you don't mind me asking." Since she had gotten a folder in the face, Vic figured she would be allowed to ask what floor the woman should have been on.


"If you are needing a break the coffee cart has the best snacks and well of course coffee." Victoria chuckled her eyes glancing at the door towards the Gobstones nervously.

Tucking her folder back under her arm, securely, Emily offered the woman a polite smile. Heh, yeah it was a good thing their run in hadn't been harder, cause Emily wouldn't have been the worst off. Nope. "It's ok, really, I'm a touch cookie," she said with a wink, didn't break easy or anything like that.
"Law Enforcement," Emily replied abruptly, adding a conversational nod.

Wait. Wait...

Hold up.

Did she say they had the best snacks and coffee?

"Really?!" she exclaimed, a look of hunger in her eyes. She could kill for a coffee. "May I?... Can you?... Really?"

Victoria gave a polite smile to Emily. A tough cookie, well that was good she guessed. Vic on the other hand was so use to being run into she probably wouldn't have even batted in eye at it. "Funny I feel so bad when I run into people, but with my son around I've gotten so use to being knocked into I hardly notice when others do it to me." That was kind of a random fact to tell, but oh well it was out now.

Law enforcement huh?

She had met only one other person in the Law Enforcement area and he was new. She wondered if Emily would know him. He was very sweet, but Vic always got the impression he was up to no good. "Law Enforcement, that sounds exciting. You don't happen to know an Azezel do you?" She had gotten the name right, didn't she? Should she tell Emily about his questions he was asking? Nah.. he was just making small talk most likely, he was definitely smooth that was for sure.

Seeing the look she was giving, Victoria gave a small smile, "They do... I make a point to stop a few times for the coffee. It hasn't been good on my love of Caffeine having it up here. " Vic gave a nod and pointed, "It's this way, come on I need to get some as well."

Emily offered a light chuckle of recognition. No, she didn't have kids of her own, but she'd been around kids... and so she knew what Victoria meant. "I can just imagine," she mused. Again, not very strong with conversationing. Meh. "I'm used to getting knocked around, but I'm more of a knocker myself." A stray elbow here and there. It wasn't her fault, people just didn't give her arms enough space. Clearly.

Exciting. Yeah, she got that a lot, unfortunately for her it wasn't all action, there was that boring paperwork stuff in between. Case files, reports, evidence logs and the like... it was never ending. "It has its moments," she agreed. The name Victoria mentioned sounded familiar, and she could put a face to the name...
"I know of him, but I can't say I've had the pleasure of making his acquaintance." Or displeasure... hadn't he been the one using sickly worlds like love, dear and darling? Emily shuddered. Ugh.

"I could do with a decent coffee, we've only got the rough stuff on level two... I only drink it if I'm desperate." Hence why she had YATI's... for good coffee runs. Though, if this stuff lived up to Victoria's praise, perhaps she'd be visiting the level more frequently. "Lead the way," she nodded, definitely in a good mood now.

"Been here for long then?" Emily asked, wondering if she'd perhaps past this woman in the corridors before.

Well Victoria wondered if Emily had children by her comment. Either she had children or she was around them. Or maybe her job forced her to be knocked around a bit. She couldn't imagine being a woman in that kind of job. Not that women couldn't be good, but it just seemed like a place you would always have to prove yourself. "Well in your position it's probably good that you are the one knocking people around at times."


Victoria couldn't help the eye roll with Azazel, "He seems sweet, but a bit of a smooth talker, seems to like to get the women with compliments before asking any questions." She shrugged it off as just the way he was or maybe he needed to be that way for his position she wasn't sure. "Just be ready for a ton of compliments when you finally do officially meet him." She gave another shrug knowing how odd it felt to get those compliments.



Victoria smiled and started walking. "It just down here." Not far at all really. Way to close to the quiddtich offices, might be why she was always going over to get more during the day. Maybe she should try to drink less coffee through the day. Heh she knew that wasn't happening. "They have some varieties of flavors for the coffee so being as close as it is.. I hate to admit I have tried them all." She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad as she headed towards the Coffee cart.

Simon let out a sigh of relief when he stepped off the lift and looked around at the waiting area of Games and Sports and didn't immediately see or sense any fellow MLE co-workers. It wasn't like he didn't mind the help on rounds, but most times he preferred to be on his own and blending in a bit better. To not be what usually had set the likes of Gavin off when he or others were up on Level One. Not that he had to worry about the man anymore complaining about his presence.

Just as he was allowed back on Level Seven.

It did help that he had been a supporter of the department head in the minister race. But alas, that was an unfortunate failure. And he was just here to look around and check on things. So the security man simply headed in the direction of the main corridor and began to casually walk down it as he debated the next random move while keeping an eye out for any trouble.

Victoria had just come out of the office, she was needing to walk around a little bit. Being seven months pregnant she was feeling it. Her belly bigger, her exhaustion more frequent, and her trips to the little girls room constant. Her legs even were starting to swell some by the end of the day, but she tried to keep the blood flowing by going on small walks. This was what she was head out to do.

As she went into the corridor she noticed someone. Giving him a smile she slowed near the lift trying to decide if she wanted to go to another level or just stay on level seven. "Hello Simon, how are you today?" She looked to the Mle employee. "What brings you to our quiet level?" She hoped there wasn't anything going on that could be dangerous.