I stopped outside the front door of our suite to unpacked my rifle and load my sidearm. I strapped on my boot knife and crossed myself before ringing the doorbell twice to let our guys know I was coming in and they should cover me. I dived through the door as they opened fire across the cube walls. I was crouched over, running down the hallway between the lines and going over my action items list.
1. Fix VPN routing issue.
2. Get a round or two in Johnson from Accounting.
3. Patch and reboot build server.

I rounded the corner to my cube and did a heroic leap over the pile of boxes that blocked the side-hallway. They were boxes of laptops; Praise Allah I didn't get them imaged and out to the end users before the fighting broke out.

"Reimer, what's the situation?" I asked.
"We're almost out of ammo, our water supply is dangerously low, and if we don't get those requirements straightened out I don't know how we're going to make our delivery date".
"Mother of God." I muttered.

I kept my head down and ran to Silver's cube. The boxes and the high cube walls protected me from the gunfire, but we all had our eyes out for grenades.

"Silver, God Damn it, we need some water. I want you to leap that wall, hook left to the kitchen, and bring back as many of those little paper cups of water as you can carry. And Jesus man, be careful."

Silver looked at me with shock in his eyes. We both knew I was probably handing him a death sentance. I reached up and snipped the razor wire above the cube wall, wheeled around a chair, and Silver climbed over the wall. He ran toward the kitchen but he was quickly swallowed by the clouds of smoke. I heard shots ring out.

"Poor bastard. He doesn't stand a chance".

"Listen here, Wilson, I wouldn't have sent Silver out there if I didn't think he could do it. I'll be noting your attitude on your quarterly review". I said.

Wilson slumped down against our barricade of boxes. We sat and waited. Before long I heard shouting. It sounded like Silver! I rushed to the boxes and started pulling them aside just before I saw Silver streaking through the smoke with four white paper cups of water. He slid in, not spilling a drop, and I slammed the boxes back just as a barrage of AK fire THUNK THUNK THUNKED into the boxes.

I took the water and set it down. Silver didn't look so good. He was laying down and a pool of blood was forming under him. I put his head on my lap and looked at his face. He was pale and his lips were turning blue. God Damn.

"I.....I...I got .... you .... some coffee.... boss".

I looked over at the cups. One of them was full of hot, black coffee.

"God Damn it, Silver, you didn't have to do that!" I shouted at him.

"It was so hot.... so hot. Didn't ... want. to . spill... any"

And he died right there, staring at me. Silver, you poor soul, I hope you elected the supplimental life insurance.