Closing the door, I counted to ten and took a deep breath, then opened it once more. Only to be greeted by the same casual-yet-bewildering sight. Grated dark gray floors, light gray walls with occasional red and yellow signage just out of legible distance, and a dark gray ceiling almost identical to the floor below.
*click*
The door shut once more. The close assist letting out a quiet whine of protest.
Turning on the spot, I walked to the other stairwell on the opposite side of my office floor. Red light from the exit sign above it casting an unwelcome hue that seemed warm and fuzzy compared to the identical one behind that no longer helped passage to an uneventful evening that I so wished for.
Pushing open door number two, I was met with humid darkness and rough stone that reminded me of the caves I had visited with my family as a child. Feet coming to a sudden stop, then about face to walk back into the cubicle filled office, the door clicking shut behind me.
Options exhausted, I was left with only one thought. “What the hell?”
The words thrust from within me, causing a sharp wince as the noise cut through the totally-not-existent humming. The definitely not alien in natur-
Oh who am I kidding? Weird shit is already happening. Might as well accept it before my own delusions get me hurt
Looking between the two doors, I sighed and took a seat at my miniscule cubicle. It took some effort to begin resigning myself to what I needed to do next. Picking up a marker from the pencil tin, I turned to the whiteboard that was against the wall between the cubicles in my area. Rolling the chair over, I erased the numbers, old charts, and memos with an aged and peeling rag that should have been replaced probably when I was a child.
Marker in hand I drew an impressively steady and straight line down, bisecting the board, writing Pros on one side and Cons on the other. Below I added three rows with Hallway, Cave, and Office respectively.
An unknown amount of time later, I was left with a simple chart reading:
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Hallway Pros: Civilization, Lights, Habitable
Hallway Cons: Possible Language Barrier, Abandoned?, No Natural Supplies
Cave Pros: None, Fuck No
Cave Cons: Dark, Unknown Depth, Possibly Hazardous
Office Pros: Secure, Has Snack Machines, Everything Might Blow Over By Tomorrow
Office Cons: Clock Stopped Moving, No Power, What IF It Is Still The Same Tomorrow?
The results were a bit alarming. Having gotten up and paced around the office while creating the chart I had noticed all the clocks had stopped right at seven pm. Why that time, I don’t know, but even the old hand wound antique in Mark the manager’s office; the clocks, the security light on the wall had started to subtly dim, meaning their internal batteries were close to calling quits. In my pacing I had also checked both doors, finding unsettlingly that their respective views had gone unchanged since my last inspection.
So here I was, possibly stranded in time, in a soul sucking office, stuck between a door to some unknown cave and another leading to what looked like a ship of some kind straight out of a space opera or something.
Sighing, I resigned myself to the weirdness and no longer being able to survive on just burying my head in the sand. Standing, I walked to the snack machine in the break area which was open to the cubicle filled room to give no privacy and promote working through breaks. Reaching into the top shelf of the small cupboard next to the machines and above the similarly sized sink, I smacked around for the key that David, the maintenance guy, hid up there.
Pulling down the circular piece of metal, I slid it into one and then the other machine, unlocking both. On the walk over I had grabbed a duffle bag from one of the cubes, dumping the old untouched gym clothing, sadly too small for me, on the floor but keeping the unopened protein powder and water bottle. While not filled to the brim, both machines had a good variety of food and drinks, so I pilfered everything I could until all that was left were diet sodas and the “Flaming hot” variety of chips. As an afterthought, I also grabbed the coffee supplies and the small pot I had brought to the office with me years ago.
Who knows, maybe wherever I’m going has coffee lovers and I just love my small batch roast.
Zipping the duffle and getting it situated on my back took some effort, laying it over my laptop bag and re-adjusting all the straps to get them tight. Moving to the door that I knew led to the unknown hallway I had one last idea. Stepping into Mark’s office again, I opened the bottom desk drawer and moved a few files out of the way so that I could pull out two wooden boxes. Sliding the boxes and their contents into my bag’s side pocket.
Nodding, I took a deep breath, moved the final few steps to the door, opened it to the unchanged gray, and stepped through.
Well, that wasn’t so-
Flashing amber lights appeared on the walls as a siren blared loudly.
Bad… Me and my big mouth
Then the world lurched and threw me against the wall, making everything go black.