This view… knowing that there were other people here. It made him think that all of this wasn’t all that bad. Sure, he was obligated to stay for however much it will take him to finish all of his remaining LOOPs but seeing other people who were in the same situation that he was in gave him hope. It was a weird feeling: he didn’t want to be there, but he knew it was something he must go through. For a moment he thought like this, standing in place completely frozen. “Will this be the end of me?” – is what was going through his mind.
John was still looking at him. He turned his head around quickly, looked at Urien and asked him: “Why the sad face? Come on, follow me.”
Urien was still engulfed by the way this room was revealed to him… He followed John and they went past another Tester. What it seemed like was that you were allowed to physically train as well as mentally through the TESTs. Knowing he had food and drinks, he realized that this place was more like a prison of some sorts where you’re staying there and putting up with what is thrown at you so you can get some money…
The other Tester was wearing a mask as well. It was so familiar to him… It was one of the masks that were shown to Urien in The Interview video. His opinion still hadn’t changed though: he still saw his mask as the one that looked a million times better than all the other masks. John’s gas mask was also way below his one, in terms of Urien’s rating inside on his head that he had done. “At least mine isn’t as boring as theirs…”
They turned to the hallway which was on the right. After going through the hallway, which had four rooms, two on each of the sides of the hallway, they arrived. At the end of the hallway a different looking space was emitting lights that were giving out their best try at shining for at least a second more. “These damn lightbulbs… I need to get them changed. I’ll get someone to replace the ones in the hallway in front of your room, too. It’s about time I take care of this building a little bit more seriously…” – John commented on the matter.
“Anyways, I think you can guess on which side the men’s bathroom is.”
The two doors, with one on each side of the bathroom, were drastically different in looks. The women’s bathroom had a noticeable bigger lifespan ahead of itself than the men’s one. As there were almost no signs in this building about where what was, you had to guess your way through the place, except a couple of rooms like the E.R., which had a clear sign on it stating what room the door was leading to.
“I’m not going to wait on you to finish. Find the way to your next TEST when the time comes for it.” John started to walk away, probably back to the Main Room.
“I… I have a question, John. Wait.” – Urien uttered.
“How many TESTs are … you know… there for me to do?”
John turned around and gave him the answer he was looking for, as if this question didn’t bother him at all: “Four. Taking into consideration that you have already finished one, that leaves you three. Don’t worry; it won’t take too long.”
Stolen novel; please report.
Urien stared at him for a second and then decided it was best to go to the bathroom now. No point in standing like a statue in front of the bathroom. Urien walked into the bathroom entrance which was on the left side at the end of the hallway. It didn’t smell too bad, or so he thought until he went into one of the designated toilets. Inside of it was a smell so bad, and in no way was his reaction over the top or dramatized, that Urien had the urge to puke his guts out right then and there on the floor. It was a disgusting stench which could only be described as if a dead body was laying underneath the bathroom’s floor for years all while ten more dead animals were buried next to the body itself. As ridiculous as it was, it was the perfect toilet for hiding things: to Urien’s surprise, after feeling all of the tiles in the bathroom (which were unkept and had fecal matter all over them for some reason), there was a single loose tile on the wall which could fit multiple things on its inside as there was a little hole in the wall it was standing on as well. These were, as Urien would remember through his stay, the single most vile and disgusting 5 minutes of his life. Then, he realized why the toilet was like this: no toilet paper was given to anyone participating in the TESTs of this building. If it was, people would have an infinite source for paper, a source for writing down any single thought and mistake that they would have found along the walls of the hallways, rooms, along the floors and the windows… So, they wiped their hands where they could…
Urien hid the bloody map of the second floor inside of the hole behind the tile and then he put the tile back. Another thing that he had done was chip off half of the paper on which the map was drawn. The way he drew the map one half of the paper was empty (although, a little bloody) and the other half had the actual map on it. The other half of the paper he saved for a particular reason for which he needed to go back to his room to do. Not realizing what was about to happen to him, he went ahead and returned to it. The walk was long and boring, and he was already getting tired of the same white walls and stains. Talking to the other Testers didn’t seem risk-worthy, either; after the gun incident with John, he isn’t even sure if those people are actual other Testers or if they are all on John’s side. One thing that was impressive with this building was the fact that it had great sound isolation. The music that was playing inside of the gym room could not be heard for not even a second from the second floor. Urien returned to his room and saw that the sand was almost all the way down inside of the clock. He decided to fold the soda can back into its original form (or as much as he could) and after he was sure it looked as natural as it could, put it onto his table. Waiting for the next TEST after the one which was to start in a couple of minutes was exciting to him. He hoped that he would get another paper just like the one that he had gotten for the instructions for this TEST. The half of the paper that he had saved and put into his pockets, it was needed to fool John.
Not knowing if John was going to ask for the paper back, Urien decided to keep half of the paper which he would then tear into pieces, little ones. He was then to get all those pieces and put them into the soda can. If John was to ask for the paper back, he could simply act annoyed and reply: “I got so frustrated that I tore it apart and then I wanted to make a mess and leave it all around the door of the Main Room for you to see, but I decided against it and I put it all inside of that soda can, so you can thank me for not making a mess for you to clean up.”
This way, John couldn’t be suspicious of anything.