The 11th Floor

by Charles Culver

  He took this as an indication that it was a good time to leave and decided to head over to the office to see what was going on and why no one was answering the phones. Someone would probably need to be fired, but he had no obvious use for the weapon anymore. He put the shotgun back in the closet, closed his damaged door as best he could, and headed into the elevator.

  Chapter 10

  As Eddie walked down the street, he noticed that he was alone. Aside from the man in jeans that he had seen acting strangely earlier, he was completely alone. Now having reached his destination, he found the door of the shelter locked and the window gates also pulled down and locked. Evidently they had never opened this morning. Now where would he get food? His stomach growled.

  “Time to start checking cans,” he said to himself.

  The city maintenance department was unusually on their game this morning, as nearly every can he checked was empty. He continued strolling down the street checking cans and dumpsters until he finally came across the jackpot. Someone had thrown out a small loaf of bread, still wrapped and uneaten.

  “Must have been past the sell-by date,” he thought to himself as he voraciously devoured slice upon slice of dry white bread.

  It wasn’t the best-tasting bread, but it was food and it sated his hunger for the time being.

  Eddie was finishing up the last slice of bread when he noticed the sound of a car idling nearby. Throwing the empty bread bag back into the garbage can, he hurried over to the next cross street. At the next intersection, he realized that he was only a few feet away from the rear end of an old grey Cadillac, which was sitting curbside with two people inside. Snooping around the side of the building, he tried to get a good look at the two people to see what they were doing. It appeared to be a man and woman each holding up cell phones and having a discussion. A minute passed before the car pulled away from the curb and turned the corner.

  Eddie watched as the car drove away. A moment later, just as he was about to head back to his cardboard home and start collecting his salvageables for the day, the car reappeared from around another corner further down the street. It stopped in the middle of the road and he could see the man looking around as if he was confused or lost. The woman in the passenger seat was pointing at different buildings and signs, and then they drove off back down the same street.

  As they approached the spot where they had been parked when he first saw them, the car peeled out and took off, heavily accelerating down the road. A few blocks away it suddenly skidded, spun out, and hit another parked car.

  “Oh, shit, that is some crazy shit. What the hell are they doing?” Eddie asked himself.

  Deciding to be a Good Samaritan, he started heading down the road toward where the car was crashed to see if they were all right. Before he could reach them, they both climbed out through the driver’s side door. Once in the street they appeared to stare up at a building across the way for a few seconds, then crossed the street and walked away from the accident.

  Eddie shouted, “Hey, are you guys okay? What happened? Do you need help? Where are you going? Yo! Do you two need help?”

  They either couldn’t hear him or just ignored him.

  Not wanting to be a thief, but also really needing money, Eddie decided it would be in his best interest to check the vehicle and salvage what he could from the wreck. As he was searching the glove box, he heard a door open in a nearby building. He looked up and saw a businessman walking out going across the street.

  “Oh hey, don’t worry man, I was just checking this car for an owner’s name so I could call the police,” said Eddie. “I wasn’t doing anything, I swear, it’s cool.”

  The businessman ignored him. He didn’t even turn his head toward him to acknowledge his presence. It was almost like he couldn’t hear or see him. This didn’t shock or surprise Eddie in the least. Since he had become homeless, he noticed people treated him differently and would go out of their way to avoid him. He believed this was because everyone assumed that talking to a homeless person would get you mugged or that you would have to deal with begging.

  “Yo man, can you hear me? I’m talking to you, Mr. Important,” Eddie said sarcastically.

  The man just kept walking. Upon reaching the other side, he walked to the end of the block and crossed over the next street. When he was about half way into the crosswalk, a large booming rumble of thunder rattled the surrounding buildings. Mr. Important, now with a hurried pace, finished crossing and took cover safely under an awning. After a brief pause, he went into the lobby of the adjacent building.

  “Man, this day is crazy. I need a drink,” said Eddie as he continued searching the vehicle for valuables.

  After his search of the glove box and under the seats was complete, he had a grand total of sixty-seven cents, a pack of gum, and a cassette tape of the Starland Vocal Band.

  “What a complete waste of time,” he muttered to himself.

  When he stood up, he saw the strange man in jeans from earlier wandering down the street holding his cell phone in front of his face. He stopped in front of the same building that Mr. Important had just gone into. The man in jeans looked up at the building, back down at his phone, then back at the building once again before walking inside.

  Chapter 11

  The elevator ride down the twenty floors was uneventful. The soft elevator music helped calm his nerves from the mysterious knocking and baby-sighting only moments earlier. He thought perhaps he had been working too hard lately and his mind was playing tricks on him. He decided right then that later in the day after all this mess was sorted out, he would finally make that call to the travel agent he had been considering for years now. A Caribbean cruise was just what he needed, provided he could find a suitable person to cover for him while he was gone.

  When the elevator doors opened, he stepped out and heard a crunch. He looked down, lifted his shoe, and found he had stepped on a small doll and crushed its little plastic head. He thought to himself that maybe this was the baby he had seen earlier, but dismissed it without a second thought. It couldn’t have been. To begin with, it was only a doll. It was much smaller than the baby he had seen in the hallway upstairs. It also wasn’t moving or crawling.

  He kicked the doll aside and into a pile of garbage that had spilled out of the knocked-over can next to the elevators.

  “Someone needs to clean this mess up. This is completely unacceptable,” said Jonathan out loud. “Where is the janitor?”

  He looked up in the direction of the front desk where the security guard would normally be sitting, which was when he noticed the lobby was in complete disarray. It was filthy and covered in thick dust. Cobwebs were stretched from the walls to the ceiling. It seemed like the place hadn’t been cleaned in at least ten years, when just last night it had been immaculate.

  He walked up to the desk, blew the dust off the silver bell on the countertop, and rang it several times. The chimes echoed through the empty lobby. Growing more irritated, he smashed down harder on the bell, ringing it louder.

  “Hello?” he shouted. “Is someone attending this desk? Am I talking to myself?”

  No one responded. He was obviously getting nowhere with this situation. He figured he would continue on to his office and place a call to the building manager from there once he had taken care of his office staffing problem.

  He turned and walked toward the lobby doors. The lobby doors had also not been spared from the destruction done to this building last night. They were bent inward at the bottom and partially off the hinges while still remaining locked shut at the center. Several coarse black hairs were stuck to the metal edges. It appeared as if something had been forced between the two doors at the bottom, bending them apart. He turned the lock and pulled one side open.

  Outside, the day was gloomy. No sun, overcast skies, and the look of an impending thunderstorm threatened to make his brief walk to work much worse. Over to his left, he could see a bum robbing a car. He decided to just ignore the man an
d avoid a confrontation. Besides, he didn’t want to get hit up for money. He despised beggars. He worked hard for his money, so why couldn’t they?

  He hurried across the street, walked down the block and across the next crosswalk. He barely made it under an awning as a loud rumble of thunder swept through the area. Still no rain, but he was now safely covered, so he no longer cared what the weather might soon bring.

  Now in front of his office building, he approached the doors of the building and pulled. They did not budge. He pulled and pushed briefly a few more times, shaking the doors, but they were securely locked.

  “Locked? During business hours?” he asked.

  He peered through the glass and could see the lights were on but no one was behind the reception desk. Taking his wallet out of his back pocket, he flipped through it and found the card key. He swiped the card once to open the door, then immediately swiped again to keep it unlocked. He placed the card back in his wallet, returned the wallet to his pocket, then pulled open the doors and stepped through.

  Just as it appeared from the outside, the lobby and all immediately visible areas were empty. He hurried over to the restroom, reserved for use by only the receptionist, and pounded on the door.

  “Maria? Are you in there?” he asked. “You are not supposed to leave your desk unless you have someone covering for you. You know the rules.”

  When no one answered, he pushed the door open slightly and again said, “Maria! Are you okay in there?”

  When his calls went unanswered, he pushed the door open all the way, hoping to not find her being sick or on the floor. Fortunately she was not in there, ill or injured, but she was also not at her desk.

  Jonathan stood motionless for a few seconds, staring at her desk, while he tried to think of where she might have gone. Then he noticed that she left the computer logged in to the desktop and a Word document opened. He walked up to the monitor and skimmed over the contents of the open document. It consisted of a memorandum to employees about some new security protocols that would soon be enforced.

  As he was reading the memo, the overhead lobby television turned on. He glanced up at it briefly as it was not unusual to play a welcome video announcement when a visitor entered the building; however, it was not playing anything and there was no visitor entering the building. Instead, the television began changing channels, each of which was a blank screen with no sound or video. The channels kept counting up, one after another, until it reached channel twenty-nine and stopped.

  An unrecognized male voice came over the television speaker, “Welcome, Mr. Koenig. We’re glad you made it safely this morning given the unfortunate circumstances you’ve encountered. We are all waiting for you on floor eleven. Please come up. It is urgent.”

  Simultaneously, the television turned off and the elevator doors opened next to the reception desk. He quickly surveyed his surroundings to see if he was being watched. There could be no other explanation for this odd set of occurrences other than that someone was pulling a prank on him.

  Anxious to find out the reason for all of this and how they managed to pull off such an elaborate setup, he stepped inside the elevator and pressed the button for eleven. Just as the doors were almost closed, leaving a gap about one inch wide, he saw the lobby go completely dark.

  Chapter 12

  A loud clap of thunder struck overhead as Luke walked down the sidewalk holding his phone in front of him. He pressed the scan button every few seconds. The app would perform a quick scan with every press of the button, showing all available Wi-Fi signals and their corresponding strengths. There was only ever one signal showing as available, and eventually it disappeared.

  “No, it’s definitely the other way,” Luke said to himself as he stopped, turned around, and began walking back the way from which he had just come. “And I’d better hurry up too before it starts raining. That’s the last thing I need… to walk around lost AND in wet clothes.”

  The next press of the scan button revealed that he was correct. The signal was definitely stronger this direction. He reached the next block and pressed the scan button once more. It showed the signal was still getting stronger, so he turned the block and walked down the next street.

  Three more presses of the scan button finally revealed excellent signal strength. This, he thought, must be the source of the signal he had been searching for. He stopped walking for a moment and glanced up at the building to see where his search had finally ended. Building 110, “Koenig Development Systems,” a sign advised him. The name sounded familiar to him, but he couldn’t recall where he’d heard the name or if it was of any significance to him.

  He looked back down at his phone and pressed scan again. The result was identical to the last scan. This had to be the location of the signal. If he went inside, he should be able to find the person who called him earlier. If he found the mystery man, hopefully he could find out what was going on and perhaps even how to get out of here and back home.

  Luke put his forehead up against the glass of the door and covered the sides of his face with his hands to eliminate glare and allow him to better observe the inside. The lights were off and he could see there was no one at the reception desk. There was a faint glow from what was probably a screen, or monitor, coming from behind the desk. He pulled his head back away from the door and tugged gently on the door handle. It inched open, proving it was unlocked.

  He tossed around the idea of entering in his head for a few seconds, weighing the pros and cons, before finally deciding to just go for it. He put his phone back into his jeans pocket, pulled open the door, and stepped into the lobby.

  Once inside, he felt around on the wall next to the door, the usual place for light switches, but found none. Even though the lights were off, sufficient daylight was coming through the doors and windows, which allowed him to survey the surroundings.

  The glow behind the desk was indeed a computer monitor that was left on by someone, evidently named Maria, who had been typing a memo to the employees about a new card swipe system that was to be installed. While nothing looked suspicious, he was eager to find the person behind his earlier phone call. He decided to move on and continue his search.

  On the other side of the lobby, he noticed an escalator leading up to the next floor, which was lit up. Perhaps, he thought, his mystery man was up there. He stepped onto the escalator and began walking up. Five steps up, the motor groaned into life and the escalator started taking him back down to the lobby. He continued to climb, but the quicker he tried to ascend the steps, the quicker the motor ran to match his pace. His slow climb turned into an all-out run and he was able to get to the top, despite the escalator’s best efforts to prevent him from doing so.

  Once at the top, he hunched over to catch his breath. Now breathing heavily, he turned to look at the escalator, which immediately stopped moving and started in reverse, heading up toward him. Someone or something was trying to make it difficult for him to progress in his quest.

  Finally catching his breath, he stood up and checked out the area. This floor was a complete wreck. It was laid out as one giant room. No offices, meeting rooms, or closets were visible. All the office furniture was knocked around. There were chairs lying on their backs. Desks were on their sides. Papers and folders were scattered all over the floor.

  The center of the room was free from clutter, as if it was intentionally cleared out to make room for the one tiny beige garbage can sitting in the middle of it. It was silent, except for the escalator behind him and a slow tapping sound, coming from the vicinity of the garbage can.

  He cautiously approached the garbage can, leaned over, and gazed down to see what was making the tapping noise. Inside was a collection of dark liquid, almost black. As he was leaning over the can, he felt something hit the back of his neck. He reached back and rubbed his neck; it felt wet. Holding his hand up in front of his face, he saw that it was covered in blood.

  He panicked and grabbed a nearby paper off the floor in an
attempt to wipe off the blood. The source of the tapping noise was obvious to him now; it was dripping from the ceiling. The garbage can was intentionally placed there to catch the drips. When he looked up at the ceiling, the sight horrified him. An entire drop ceiling tile was saturated in blood and was sagging from the weight of the liquid it contained. He didn’t even want to know how the blood got up there, but he knew that it was a vast quantity if it could fill a garbage can and make a tile sag like that.

  The sight of that much blood made him nauseous and he almost vomited. He backed away from the can, stood a chair back up, and sat down to collect himself. A few minutes had passed before he heard a noise coming from upstairs. It was a creaking noise, almost like something on casters, rolling across the floor above him. He stood up, went to the next escalator, and ran up before giving it a chance to fight him like the last one. It, instead, remained motionless.

  At the top and now on the third floor, the lights were completely off. Luke couldn’t see anything except the light from the floor below. He tried squinting but could barely make out anything but dark shadows. He knew he needed to find the light switch so he reached his arms out to his sides looking for a wall, but felt nothing. Then he remembered he could use his cell phone light.

  He pulled the phone out of his pocket and opened up the flashlight app once more. He pointed the phone’s light to the left and right, back and forth, but the room was too dark. The darkness appeared to just be swallowing the light, not allowing it to reveal anything except more darkness.

  As he was searching the darkness, something brushed against his shin. Startled, he screamed and kicked his feet frantically, hoping to connect with whatever it was. His sneakers encountered nothing but air.

  Chapter 13

  Eddie stood on the sidewalk next to the crashed Cadillac with a look of bewilderment. He wondered what was so special about that building. The only people he had seen so far that day were all going into the same place. Surely there must be an explanation or was he simply missing out on something great? He certainly didn’t want to be the only one excluded. Pocketing his sixty-seven cent plunder and popping a stick of gum into his mouth, he strolled across the street to the building where everyone had gone.