Gary ran out of the elevator. He knew that he would only have a few short minutes to get to the next one. He listened as his employer guided him through the frankly labyrinthine hallways. As he ran his mind took a detour. It had decided to take this time to reflect on his journey. In his humble opinion, the whole ordeal had been a mess. A mess he played a very minor part in, but a mess nonetheless. This was another example of what he didn't appreciate about life. Distress, anxiety, and chaos. Life was far too chaotic for Gary's taste. He needed to find a way out of the whole ordeal one day.

He turned the last corner to where the first floor elevators were located.

"Problem." Gary yelled.

"What's the problem?" asked the employer.

"All of the elevators are in use." replied Gary.

"Ah, probably your peers." replied his employer.

"What do I do?" Gary asked

"Hmm? Oh I don't know, go up the stairs and find an elevator somewhere in the mall. Good luck with that." replied the employer.

"Shit" Gary thought. His lifeline had just abandoned him, and he could hear the custodian quickly approaching. The staircase was right next to the elevators. He ran up as quickly as he could. He felt certain that he would die soon. He exited the staircase onto the second floor and found himself in a large mall. Unlike the other stores there were still products in the windows. Gary hoped he could find something in the moments that could help him. He ran into a store, grabbed three items at random, and ran into the back room, closing the door behind him. He managed to grab a coffee pot, a rug, and a stuffed three eyed rat. He placed the rug in front of the door, put the rat to the side, and armed himself with his plasma rifle and the coffee pot. He hid himself behind a sofa. The custodian could be heard charging towards the door.

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It broke through, and slipped on the carpet. Gary began spraying it with plasma. It stood itself up and started crawling its way towards him. It struck towards him with a hand-spike. Gary managed to block it with the coffee pot, spraying broken glass everywhere. Some of the glass scratching Gary's arms up. He kept firing. The gun was beginning to overheat burning his hands. The custodian pounced over the sofa and pinned him to the ground. A hand spike went through Gary's left shoulder.

"Gah! Fuck!" Gary screamed. He kept firing into the custodian, as it attempted to send a spike through his head. He managed to tilt his head away at the right angle, as the spike grazed his right cheek. The custodian began to try to engulf Gary alive. As he kept firing into its body ,and now open maw, the custodian suddenly slumped over pressing down on him. It was so heavy that Gary almost couldn't move. He assumed that he was about to die, but the custodian had finally perished. Gary realised this a few moments later. He slowly, but surely pushed the heavy mass off of his body. He stood himself up. He was bleeding profusely from his left shoulder and was exhausted. He needed immediate medical treatment.

"Elevator" He gasped. His employer then guided him to the nearest elevator. Gary had torn some clothes from the store, and used the fabric to bandage the gaping whole in his shoulder, and burnt hand. He left the rifle behind, and took the rat with him, hoping it would give him luck. On the elevator he went in and out of consciousness. He didn't trust his employer, but they at least gave him a chance of survival compared with going out into the city, and trying to escape into the wilderness. If he did such a thing he would not only have to survive the forces of nature, but his disgruntled employers. He was disappointed at how the situation had unfolded. If he had more time, or knew what was happening from the beginning, he could have easily placed himself in a better position. He felt that often the situations he found himself in were out of his hands, even if he was directly involved in them.

After a long while passing many apartments, park floors, and faux downtown floors the elevator finally arrived at the roof. Gary stumbled his way onto the roof, and saw a ship hovering just above the black metal of the spire's roof. A chubby four-eyed red-skinned humanoid wearing a hawaiian shirt jumped down from the bottom of the ship.

"The cube, hand it over." He demanded.

"Medical... attention... first..." Gary wheezed through.

"Sure, I have your medical attention right here." He said pulling out a plasma pistol and shooting Gary with it. The plasma had hit Gary square in the chest, and had also activated the cube, thus teleporting both it and Gary elsewhere in the universe.