No-Clipped

Chapter 3: The Lobby

     The setting around me was very strange, the pale yellow wallpaper having a weird pattern which looked like arrows pointing upwards, and the ceiling lights flickering and making soft humming noises at a constant frequency.

     "HELLO?" I yelled, breathing heavily. My voice echoed. Sweat was streaming down my back.

     "HELLO, CAN ANYONE HEAR ME???"

     I held my left arm up to my right and pinched myself as hard as I could...

     It hurt.

     "If this isn't a dream..." I said quietly, rubbing the red spot on my arm.

     "...then where the heck am I?" I walked to a corner of the yellow walls and sat down to think, struggling to remember what I was doing before winding up in this strange maze. I caught attention to a small orange blob in the corner and ran over to it.

     "My back pack..? Oh-! I was on my way home from school...ugh..." I rubbed my head.

     "...And there was this cat...and then suddenly I felt myself drop..." I looked up at the ceiling to see if there was any sort of hatch or opening.

     "Could this be some sort of apocalypse bunker underneath Condorspoint?" I unzipped my backpack, rummaging through and searching for anything useful I might have packed.

   "Books...pencil...flashlight? This could be useful. Hmmm..." I reached down to the bottom of my bag and pulled out the bag of crackers which were now broken into very small pieces, and my stuffed panda.

     "Oh...I forgot about you." I said quietly, squeezing it tightly as a stress relief mechanism. I placed it on the ground beside me and ran my fingers through my bangs. I dropped everything back inside the backpack and threw it over my shoulders, walking around the strange place. Every wall I passed just lead to more walls and more paths. At this point how I ended up here was out of the question...

How do I get out?

"...What about father? Is he worried about me? Who will take care of him?" I thought to myself. I had so many questions which lingered in my brain and could not be answered, as the place was so empty despite how big it was. No matter how many times I called for help and no matter how far I walked, there were no signs of life...human or inhumane.

   At least, not yet.

It had been four hours, and my stomach began to rumble. Not only could I feel the vibration but I could hear it. I reached into the side pocket of my backpack and grabbed a saltine cracker from the bag, popping it into my mouth. I swallowed it within seconds and wanted badly to take another but didn't, knowing I may be trapped in this seemingly endless maze for a while. Hours...days...weeks...maybe even months.

Now it had been a day. I had eaten one cracker every hour, now having around 12 whole crackers left in the sleeve, hidden in a pile of crumbs and large chunks. After a while I began to feel lightheaded. Flakes of skin were peeling from my dry lips as I anxiously nibbled them off.

     I was very dehydrated and there were no signs of water anywhere...aside from the strange, damp carpeting.

     I walked for a few more hours and turned a corner, something quickly catching my eye, sitting in a corner of a wall. I gasped, running up to it for a closer look. Is this what I think it is..? I scooped up the hard plastic bottle and shook it, hearing the sloshing sound on the inside.

   "Water!!!" The bottle was only halfway full, which I did not bring attention to until after taking a large sip. It tasted cool and refreshing, with an interesting taste which pointed out it wasn't just normal water. I examined the label carefully, reading it out loud.

     "Victorias Kitchen, all natural almond water." I raised an eyebrow.

     "How could this have gotten here? It's definitely not new...meaning there was most likely another wanderer like me who had it first. Why would they have left it here? And if it wasn't a wanderer...how did it get here? I'm not sure I've seen these sold at stores before...especially not in Condorspoint." I held the bottle back up to my lips but hesitated, lowering it back down.

   "...I should save this. It definitely won't last very long, and I'm not sure if I'll ever find another bottle of these around here." If there was someone wandering about here who previously owned the bottle...I figured I should look for them. Could they possibly be someone like me, who wound up in this strange reality and had no idea how to get out? Or could it be someone who knew loads about this place and can help me? I was tempted to find this person.

     I kept walking with my hands in the side pockets of my jeans. The dim ceiling lights flickered more and more the further I went. The backpack was heavy on my shoulders and I was all worn out, wiping sweat beads off the skin above my upper lip. I took a small sip of the almond water and slid it back into my backpack, reaching in for my flashlight to help guide me through the much darker hallways. I clicked the button as the light shown in front of me, not making much of a different. I decided to click it back off and save the light for when I truly needed it.

     After several hours of walking and not looking behind me the flashlight slipped out of my hands and bounced off my shoe. I turned around and crouched to pick it up, looking back at the hallways I had been walking through.

     It was pitch black.

     Behind me there were zero signs of light. I took a step backwards and shone my flashlight into the direction I had come from, pressing the side of my hand to my forehead and squinting. I noticed a small light way off in the distance and walked towards it, the light doubling and growing in size. I shut my eyes and opened them...noticing another large, arched light underneath the two.

     I soon came to the realization that they weren't just lights They hadn't grown larger because I was moving towards them...but because they had been moving towards me.

     As it got closer the lights came together into a large face around twice the size of me...two large white eyes and an enormous smile with sharp, jagged teeth lining the top and bottom.

     I turned around and ran the opposite direction as fast as I could, holding onto the straps of my backpack. I did not look back, afraid of what might happen if I were to make more eye contact. Because whatever this creature was...

     ...it was most definitely not human.

     I stumbled as I ran, tears running down my cheeks as I was panting and wheezing heavily. I began to feel lightheaded and dizzy...this time not due to my dehydration but to my exhaustion.

     I closed my eyes and fell forward...however once again I did not stop at the ground.