Something From Below

Down the Hall to the Left

The day seemed long, and while it was only it was only 9:30, John MacDonald felt good. Only moments ago he was promoted, he could still feel the conversation replaying in his mind.

"Come into my office John" his boss said, a cool steely man in his 50s. John looked at him and he entered and nodded, feeling confident.

"I've been seeing the work you're doing John, I really like what I'm seeing. Keep up the good work, and head yourself over to Office B1."

The thing was, John couldn't find Office B1. The entire building was composed of floors, numbered A1-A40, and there wasn't a 41st floor. John felt very strange, and wandered the corridors, the whole buildings in fact, looking for the fabled B1. He couldn't go back, as his old office had been given out already and he had no where to go, he had to make the trek to B1.

Starting on the first floor, he wandered through the first 20 floors in about an hour, making good time. Deciding that he was doing well, John took a break. He sat in Office A20, in a room near the centre. A labyrinth of cubicles encased the room, and John felt a little lost.

Looking into the cubicle maze, John couldn't remember which way was back to the stairs, and he couldn't see a sign anywhere. The cubicle maze was too high.

He wandered through a corridor, into the foreboding beyond and started taking turns, and soon he was thoroughly lost. John wandered in the maze for another hour or two before he finally made his way out of the office and into the stairwell. However this stairwell seemed different, the paint was older and things were off.

John took the stairwell up a floor, and entered a floor without markings, in contrast to the usual stairwell floor number.

He felt a little strange and the air smelt strange. He wasn't quite sure what smell was in the air, but it was stale and vicious, quite offensive to the nostrils.

Walking into the strange floor, everything else seemed the same. Sprawling cubicle maze, check, front reception area, check, and central crew room, check. As far as he could see from the entrance, everything was the same. Wandering into the cubicle maze on the strange floor, John found himself in the central room. In the room was a man wearing a yellow rain poncho, a striking image against the drab interior of the room.

John approached him. The rain ponch'd man was looking at a stack of papers, covered in sheet protectors. John looked around the room, seeing nothing that could indicate rain.

"Expecting a storm are we?" John said, laughing a little.

The man looked at him and eyed him suspiciously before continuing to read his stack of papers.

John kept looking at the man and frowned. This man was clearly an odd duck, and a tough nut to crack. John felt a little strange, should he have brought his coat? He hadn't anything to protect him In case of rain. John was at a loss when the man said

"If you need a coat, I can get you one."

"Sure" John said

"I'll be right back, should be enough time to avoid the downpour"

John nodded, pretending to understand.

The man left and 10 minutes later he was back with a second poncho. He gave this poncho to John. John put on the poncho, feeling quite silly but only agreeing out of friendliness.

Moments later a light downpour began, and the floor was soon soaked. The fire alarm, while not blaring, had activated the sprinkler system, and a hail of water pelted John and the strange man.

Feeling a bit embarrassed, John decided to introduce himself.

"By the way, my name is John, John Macdonald"