Chapter 2

Matt had one of the most joyous and tender times in his life riding the escalators down with Kathy. At first they laughed and smiled about how much fun they were to ride. They were both deeply struck by their totally silent operation. There was a soft breezy sound present, but it was from the air vents. Kathy commented that she had never heard of such heavy machinery not rumbling at least some... As they continued their descent, the conversation turned serious, but very sweet. Kathy and Matt started revealing to each other their hopes and dreams for their futures. Kathy decided to trust Matt completely, and revealed her soul to him. She told him that her dear parents were killed when she was 14, that her uncle had abused her in her high school years, and described how she had retreated into her studies at her women's college. As she approached graduation, she had taken a hard look at herself, and decided she wanted to be much more open and gregarious with the world. She still felt a bit shy about having no experience in dating at the age of 22, but was determined to get past her shyness and live a complete adult life, one that included romantic attachments.

Matt felt overcome with tenderness that Kathy would be so open with him, and returned the trust. He told her of his long list of girlfriends, and astonished himself by mentioning the true reason of why there were so many. He finished by describing how determined he was to pick a new direction for his character. Kathy paused on a landing for a moment, put her hand on his shoulder and gave him a quick nod with teary eyes before starting down the next leg. Following her, Matt realized that Kathy, for a brief moment, had totally stepped outside her role as his future secretary, in order to affirm him, one human being to another.

Their conversation ended as they both thought they were just about at ground level. After riding a number of minutes more in silence, Kathy asked, "Any guesses, Matt, of how many more flights to go?"

"Oh, I don't know. I would guess less than ten. How about you, Kathy?"

"Oh, don't ask me! My guess would have had us in the lobby several flights ago."

Matt looked at his watch. It was approaching 2 o'clock. "Odd", he thought, thinking of his original estimate. "We did spend a bit more time talking while we walked the landings, but Kathy's right, my guess would have been finishing this ride a few minutes ago too..."

After about another three minutes of traveling, Kathy turned to Matt and said, "Well, that was another ten flights, and still no end in sight. It's a pity there's no central well in this core, so we could look down and see the bottom, see how far we've left to go. But doesn't it seem odd, that we're not there yet?"

"Well, the two switchbacks do abut each other. There no direct way to look down more than one landing-pad at a time. We must be very close. Tell you what, let's just go as fast as we can, and I guarantee we'll be out within 10 minutes."

Kathy and Matt spent the next ten minutes riding down as fast as they could. Kathy then turned to him with a worried look on her face and said, "Let's stop at this landing for a moment and talk. I started counting when we finished our last conversation. We've come down another 41 flights. I don't understand this. We really should be in the lobby now. No, let me be more precise. We should have been in the lobby 40 to 50 flights ago."

"Well, we're obviously not there yet. We must have been moving more slowly than we realized, earlier when we first started, while we were talking..."

"I don't think so."

"But what other possible explanation could there be?"

"None, I admit. I still don't like it. I don't understand my environment. Can we exit, just to see what floor we're on?"

"Sure, there's a door at every landing." Matt walked over to the door, but found the knob would not turn. "Locked! Oh, look. There's a small notice here, saying BOTTOM FLOOR EXIT ONLY. That's right, it said the same thing on the top floor. There's a lot of security in this building. I know that a whole bunch of floors are off limits to the general public..."

"Something's still not right. I've just realized that there's no floor information on the landing-pads. Nothing to tell you where you are. Doesn't that strike you as wrong?"

"Well, maybe it's a security issue..."

Oh, Matt! Safety issues should overcome any security concerns. What if you were a fireman in this escalator well? It would be vital to know where you were..."

"Wow... That's a very good point. Maybe we should mention it to building management on our way out. For now, though, we'll have to just keep going down. I'm sure it'll be just a few more flights... And we can try each door on the way down..."

"No, wait, Matt! Please. Don't go down anymore yet. Let me think..."

"We really should keep going down. I need to be back at the office soon, my call is at 3 pm"

"Call? Yes! Is your cell phone working?" Kathy asked, as she reached into her shoulder bag for her cell phone.

Matt pulled out his cell and pushed a few buttons. "No, but I'm not surprised. All these walls look like metal. This escalator shaft is extremely well built."

"Matt, when was the last time you charged your cell?"

"Just before we left for lunch."

"Excellent! I'm fully charged too. And like you, I have no cell signal either. Matt, I'm turning off my cell. Please turn off your cell too."

"What in the world for?"

"I'm very worried. I don't understand my environment, and I want to drop into survivor mode. The battery power in our cells is a resource. I don't want to waste it. The cells can be used as small flashlights, they have calculators... I don't know. It's a resource. I just don't understand my environment... Please, Matt?"