First Day At Work

Part 6

You sit down on the floor in the corner of the hallway and you hope you are dreaming. The man who was talking to you walks away after telling you it's almost lunch time. "Almost lunch? And I still haven't found HR. How could this be? He wasn't being serious. We are just in some desert." You stand up and head back to the elevator and you catch the next ride up. It dawns on you that you can't remember what floor HR is on. You are pretty sure it's like 6000 and something. So you just press 6000 on the number pad and start there.

"No way out." Replays in your mind and your boss's voice on the phone still echoes in your head, "Get to HR." You ride the elevator up in silence and picture the wasteland outside, "Why was the sky white? I didn't see the sun either." You plan on checking more windows if you see any, just to make sure.

"Ding" the elevator opens and a man walks in. He looks average and is wearing something formal. There is nothing noteworthy about his appearance. You aren't feeling very sociable and you really didn't feel like talking, but surprisingly, he spoke to you first.

He seems nervous, "Hello. This is sudden, but do you know the way out of here? Like to the street. I'm a bit lost." He asks.

You think about how familiar he sounds, just like you did a few hours earlier, "Oh!" You replied with enthusiasm, "Well, no sorry, I don't know the way out. It's my first day."

He looks at you with a look of relief, "Oh okay, cool. So I'm not the only one who's lost here. I missed orientation because I get uh, anxiety makes me need to use the bathroom. I'll just say that. I must have missed a lot."

"Well, I can't help. I missed orientation too." You say, "I didn't even know I had to do it. All I know is we are somewhere in the middle of the desert and this company is called HumanoCorp."

He relaxes his tense stance, "Yeah, I saw a sign for it." He looks at you directly, "Wait, a desert? There's a town right outside, it wasn't a desert to me."

You sigh, "I thought so too. The windows are fake. It's just a screen." and the elevator continues its way up.

He looks confused and is shifting his stance a lot, "That's weird. There's no desert where I'm from. Oh hey, do you remember how you got here? Cuz I,"

You interrupt him, "Nope." He looked disappointed, "One minute I was home I think, then the next minute I was in my office."

He turns around and puts his head on the wall of the elevator in frustration, "What is this place?" He stands in the corner with his head against it.

You aren't sure how to respond, so for a few more floors you don't. The elevator was void of noise and left behind an awkward ambiance of elevator mechanics and breathing. Not quite the soundtrack you had imagined at your new job.

The elevator sign reads, "3100" and you join him in putting your head against the wall.

He doesn't look at you and sounds depressed, "I was hired as a telematic bandwidth decoder. TBD for short."

"What is that?" You ask.

He replies without emotion, "I was a cashier back home. Fuck if I know. I'm supposed to go to floor 4687 for my training. I didn't sign up for this."

He sounds miserable so you change the subject, or at least you try, "I'm going to HR. I have to pick up some forms for something. At least your job sounds important, I'm an office specialist. I haven't figured that out yet either."

He picks his head up, "Hey, I'm going to HR too. I'm going to tell them I'm quitting. Then I'm going to see a doctor about this wicked amnesia. This place doesn't feel right. No one can ever tell me what time it is. I don't even know what day it is."