No-Clipped

Chapter 4: The Habitable Zone

I slowly opened my eyes again expecting either to wake up to the terrifying smiling face that I had been running from earlier, or just more weird yellow walls. However I could tell it was different from the scent. I sat up and looked around, the setting nowhere near close to where I had been before. The walls, floors, and ceilings were different shades of gray, the sides and middles of the long endless roads lined with thick rectangular poles which connected to the ceiling. It looked almost like a parking garage...but completely empty. Not one car in sight. Was I back in Condorspoint? No. if this were Condorspoint I would have seen this building somewhere, but Condorspoint does not have any buildings anywhere near as large as this one.

     I adjusted my backpack and walked over to the left where there were two elevators, one slowly moving upwards and one going down. I stepped onto the one going up and looked at the ceiling. There was another elevator right above me...followed by what had to be hundreds more. I wiped sweat off my forehead and anxiously tugged on my hair, as this building was much darker and quieter than where I was before. The dimmed lights did not flicker and hum. I took a step off of the elevator and moved the backpack to my front, taking my panda out and squeezing it tightly. My stomach rumbled.

  "Do I have any saltines left in the sleeve?" I said quietly, pulling the packet out and dumping a few crumbs onto my hand. I poured them into my mouth and sighed, unsatisfied. I pulled out the bottle of almond water, leaned my head back, and held it upside down. Nothing came out.

     "...there's gotta be food or water somewhere around here."

     After walking for about an hour I heard a small crunch underneath my shoe, lifting up my foot to see the crumbs of one of my saltine crackers from before...

     "Have I been going in circles?!" I groaned, looking behind me for the elevator. I saw the elevator, confirming I had been walking in the same direction...but something else caught my eye.

     Sitting in front of one of the poles there was a small wooden crate, which I slowly walked towards.

     "...I'm sure this wasn't here before. Right? Who could have put this here?" I stared at it for a few seconds and placed my hands on the lid, opening it very slowly. Inside the crate was a small container of potato chips and a packet of gum, which I quickly pulled out and dropped into my backpack after eating three chips. There were twenty chips in the container.

     I went up two elevators and walked for about a mile, finding several more random crates along the way...but not all of them were filled with food.

     One of the crates carried SEVEN more bottles of almond water, five of them in the original vanilla rose flavor, one of them a blue bottle which said it was coconut flavored, and the last bottle being a light green bottle labeled "mint & licorice". It at the sounded gross...but I kept it in my backpack anyways.

     The second crate carried 32 cents, a clump of gray hair, and a small switchblade. I left the money and hair for obvious reasons, and slipped the switchblade into my back jeans pocket.

     Another crate was full of live rats, which jumped out at me and scurried across the floor out of sight. That one made me jump.

     The last crate I managed to open was very heavy, unlike the others I had opened. I sliced part of my finger trying to open it.  Inside had a plate with this strange, cream colored loaf of what looked like gelatin wrapped in plastic wrap. It didn't smell bad at all, in fact it smelled very pleasant. Although I've never been fond of gelatin and the color was gag-worthy, I kept it in my backpack as well, laying on the top of everything else to keep from getting squished. I soon came to the conclusion that each crate I came across contained something completely random and unexpected, so I made sure I was cautious opening each one. But who could be putting these here, and why do they seem to just pop up out of nowhere?

     I walked for another half hour searching for more crates...even though I hardly had any room left in my backpack, not even considering the fact that the heft would weigh me down a bunch making it harder for me to walk. There in fact was another crate beside an elevator...however I blinked once and all of a sudden it just vanished into thin air.

     "Impossible..."

     I quickly walked towards the spot where it had been and felt around the air in front of me to look for the crate. It was gone.

     "...I must be going insane." I rubbed my forehead, yawned, and removed my backpack, setting it down on a nearby bench. I took a large sip of one of my bottles of almond water and put it back in, taking out my panda before zipping it back up.  I lay down on the floor beside the bench with my head on top of the panda...quickly falling fast asleep.

I was back at my house...my small, one story house in Condorspoint. I let out a long sigh of relief and started laughing, looking around happily.

  "I'm back! Was all I had to do sleep? Was it really that easy..? Simply just fall asleep and wake up back home?" I said, raising an eyebrow.

    "Dad! I'm back home..!"

     No answer.

     "Dad?" I opened the door to his bedroom. He was gone. I looked in the bathrooms, the kitchen, the hallways, everywhere. He was nowhere in sight. I opened the front door and looked in both directions at the long roads I had gotten lost in. Nothing.

     But the strange thing is although there was no one there...

     I still had the strange feeling I was being watched. Stared at. Was I dreaming?

     "I didn't know I could lucid dream..." I said, my expression quickly fading.

     "You're so far away. No one is looking for you. No one misses you." I flinched. That voice was not my dads...and it certainly wasn't mine.

     All I could think to do is run. Run from the voice. But no matter how fast I tried running, I could not move my body quick enough.

     All of a sudden I saw a flash of a humanoid looking monster with a skinny hairless head the shape of a bowling pin, big beady eyes rimmed with black, a thin nose, and a large black mouth. It's neck and face was covered in bloody splotches.

     My eyes shot open, waking up in a cold sweat. I was panting and wheezing uncontrollably. Looking around I still recognized the place, with the gray walls and roads and elevators...but a completely different area. My backpack and panda were laying on my stomach, so I quickly sat up and removed them. Suddenly, I heard voices. I assumed at first they were just strange voices in my head and I was going crazy, but no...these were real, human voices. I jumped, startled, as I heard the voice of a middle aged man from right behind me.

     "You awake now, kiddo?" He sighed.

     "Are you stupid or something?! NEVER fall asleep on an odd level in the backrooms."