"Jacob Elliot doesn't want a temporary job in the mailroom at Delphi Enterprises, but after two post-college years of unpaid internships and living in his parents' basement, he needs the work. Then, on his first day, the unthinkable happens: toxic gas descends on a meeting in Delphi's outdoor amphitheater, killing all the regular employees and leaving Jacob stranded inside the vast office complex. Wandering through Delphi headquarters Jacob finds other survivors: Lauren, the disillusioned classics major who's now writing online personality quizzes; Swati, the yoga instructor with derailed college ambitions; and Dominic, the business school student who will do almost anything to get ahead. Stranded in the wreckage of the company that employed them, the temps band together to create a miniature world that's part spring break, part office culture--until a shocking discovery disrupts the survivors' self-made paradise and drives them to find the truth about the apocalypse that brought their world to an end. The Temps is a surprising literary take on the experience of being young and underemployed in a world plagued by apocalyptic fears."-- Provided by publisher.