Rex and Big Boss had slowly but surely made their way down the hallway to the fire exit and were now stood in the open as Roger tried to hack the door and the fire alarms to make sure it wouldn't trigger anything when they pushed through and headed down the exit staircase to the bottom floor. The finish line seemed so close, but both soldiers knew it would never be that easy - they just had to wait for the issue to arise before they could solve it. Roger and Millie, however, were excited about the plan coming together so well and as novices they really didn't have any negative thoughts clouding their judgment.

"Fucking hurry up!" Big Boss hissed into the headset at Roger who was typing so frantically and loudly that Millie could hear it over her headset. She sighed quietly in disappointment. She wanted these soldiers to be grateful and nice but obviously that was too much to ask. They'd both stayed late to try and find them and now with two successfully reunited and heading for an exit, she'd thought they at least deserved some nice conversation or something, yet all they got were swear words and snappy responses. "We're right in the open here, like sitting fucking ducks."

"Sorry sir, I'll be done in a minute." Roger stammered as he continued to type with such speed. Big Boss scoffed and shook his head.

"That's too long. Can't the other one do it?" Millie listened into the conversation through the background noise of Rex's headset. Rex had an arm around Big Boss and had him pulled close so the conversation was easy for her to hear, not that the soldiers had realised.

"Boss, she's a literal newbie." Rex said quickly to diffuse the situation but it only made it worse. Big Boss leant against the wall beside the fire door and shot a glare to Rex.

"Meaning?" Big Boss continued. Rex checked the area before he carried on talking.

"Everyone went home and the only people willing to help find us were this girl who works in procurement and Roger, the manager guy." Rex told Big Boss what Millie had told him earlier and it quite surprised her that he'd actually listened to her. She looked up over her screen to Roger who was still typing desperately. Even from where she sat, she could notice the sweat on his brow from the pressure.

"Is this true New Girl?" Big Boss asked through his headset.

"Yes Big Boss. Everyone had assumed you were all - well - dead. The management had said the overtime was going to be unpaid and that lost everyone's interest." Millie said honestly, wanting them to trust her.

"Millie, stay quiet! Don't tell them our business." Roger quickly jumped into the conversation as he typed. Millie narrowed her eyes at him over the screen and sunk down in her chair as she muttered to herself.

"Aren't you done yet, Roger?" Big Boss snapped at Roger quickly before turning his attention back to Millie and what she had said before. "I appreciate at least one person in this fucking business has some honesty about them. These are our lives she's talking about." He scolded Roger once more before groaning out in pain. He leant his head back against the cold wall and slowly slid down to the floor.

"Boss!" Rex exclaimed as he dropped to his knees in front of Big Boss. "What's wrong?" Rex scanned the leg that had been shot and noted the wound was seeping. Big Boss shooed him away from the leg angrily.

"I'm fine." He snapped at Rex. "I've had worse." Rex let out an unimpressed laugh as he stood up.

"I know, Boss, but when we get out of here you promised me a game of football. Can't do that if you've got a dodgy leg." Somehow they were keeping light of the situation. Millie's mouth fell open in surprise before it turned into a smile. Despite everything that was going on, the two of them really kept each other's spirits high. They really did have a history no one could mimic. She could tell from this one interaction that they had seen so much together and bonded through it. It was touching.

"Shh!" Big Boss suddenly silenced him and all of us fell silent. Footsteps could be heard faintly in the background, growing slowly louder as they got closer. "Shit! someone's coming. Roger are you nearly fucking done?" Millie heard Roger's sigh from across the room and knew bad news was following.

"Sorry Boss, I'm no closer." Roger said strongly, hoping the honesty Millie had been praised for would be reiterated but instead, he was shot down by the two soldiers. Both of them began swearing and muttering between themselves as Rex hauled Big Boss back to his feet and practically pulled him back to the main set of stairs he'd come from when he was searching for his comrade. They got into the stairwell seconds before a few torch-baring soldiers made their sweep of the corridor, feeding back to the Boss through their headsets that this floor was clear.

"We need to keep moving." Rex said confidently as he half pulled half carried Big Boss down flights of stairs. Big Boss occasionally let out a groan or roar of pain as they flew down the staircases with weapons readied.

"Are you ever going to get the fire door sorted?" Big Boss snapped at Roger once more, causing him to straighten in his chair. "Or are we giving that up as a bad idea?"

"Sir, their system is protected very well. I'm struggling to infiltrate through the security mechanism of the-" Roger began but both soldiers scoffed and stopped him in his tracks. From Millie's desk she could see Roger lean back in his chair and run his hands over his face a few times, trying to suppress the frustration.

"Well if our systems had been a bit more like theirs then maybe we wouldn't even be in this damn situation. The headsets are a load of shit, couldn't even get ones that had a back up of some sort so we'd still be able to talk to each other. A simple blocker put a stop to everything. Fucking unbelievable." Big Boss ranted as they continued down the stairwells, slowly getting further down the building as the floor numbers decreased. They stopped when they got to floor four.

"Isn't that your fault Millie? You ordered this crap, right?" Rex said humorously as he put her in the firing line. She froze in her chair as everything fell silent and waited for her response.

"If I'm honest, I'd picked a different radio. The Horux SF50 which had wireless connection as well as a battery operation and one backup channel in case of any failings. It minimised feedback and noise reverberation but would pick up voices or footsteps in the background as clearly as I hear you now. My boss said the leads had said it was too expensive." Millie rattled off her frustrations to the soldiers.

"Wow. This girl has an answer to everything." Big Boss laughed. "Kind of like you, Rex." He patted Rex on the shoulder and offered him a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows. Rex simply shook his head, trying to hide the smile growing on his face.