miscalculating the
jump aren’t you? You’re afraid that you might misjudge the exact
time and location of arrival and that somehow we might land in this
very hallway at this very moment and that you and I will somehow
meld together in some twisted, deformed mass of handsomely nerdy
jello.”
“Finally he understands,” Jason thought to
himself.
“As I understand it though, the arrival
point isn’t dictated by where we’ve been so really we could arrive
anywhere within the margin of error. Ultimately we could end up
trapped inside one of these stone walls or even buried alive in the
ground adjacent to the building…if your calculations are off that
is.”
Jason thought for a moment...now he was
questioning his own logic. Derek was right, but he knew his
calculations were solid. He’d checked them eleven times before
Derek had convinced him to finally leave the lab and get on with
it. It was highly unlikely that they’d end up in the hall. If
everything went according to plan they should arrive in the same
location from which they’d left, at exactly 12:38pm. Checking his
watch, it was 12:58pm. They had a twenty minute window. That should
be plenty of time without any cause for concern.
“What are we doing?” Derek questioned,
wondering why Jason had stopped.
“Just stay behind me anyway,” Jason only
half acknowledged Derek’s solid logic. “By sticking together we
minimize the risk,” he added, continuing down the hall and through
the same opening that the pipes had used to disappear.
Running his hand up and down the wall beside
the doorway, Jason searched for the switch. This wasn’t the first
time he’d been down there. He’d spent many a night planning this
test. He knew exactly the spot he intended to use. The back corner
of the room in which they’d just entered was in actuality the front
left corner of the building and the spot at which all of the
building’s power entered from the street. There was a switch on the
wall just to the left of the doorway where his hand methodically
searched.
“When that light comes on I’m not going to
come face to face with some type of torture device, am I? You’re
not going to strap me to some table and have your way with me are
you?” Derek continued to joke as he stared into the darkness before
him.
Still focused on finding the switch, Jason
continued to show no response to Derek’s jokes. Suddenly, his
finger detected a small patch of smooth plastic and a moment later,
a soft click prompted a series of florescent lights to flicker to
life.
While still not the most efficient lighting,
the now visible room was much better lit than the hallway. In the
back right corner stood a small tower of cardboard boxes. The
various company logos and handwritten labels suggested that the
boxes contained supplies pertinent to the upkeep of a residential
building, though their faded appearance suggested that their
contents had been forgotten long ago and that the janitorial staff
didn’t frequent this portion of the building very often. Just
inside the doorway was a series of empty wooden shelves which
appeared to have been converted into a high rise condominium for
spiders and other insects, but it was the back left corner that
Jason had apparently been interested in as he quickly made his way
to the caged off portion of the room.
Behind the chain-linked wall stood even more
shelves, though these shelves, unlike their spider claimed
counterparts, were lined with miscellaneous electrical
supplies.
Arriving at the padlocked gate, Jason placed
the briefcase on the floor beside him.
“I take it that’s our power source,” Derek
guessed, motioning to the electrical box behind the indoor fence.
“Too bad it’s locked.”
Without a word Jason began spinning the
numbers on the padlock.
“I take it you’ve been down here before,”
Derek guessed again, now aware that maybe he hadn’t been the
catalyst in persuading Jason to finally test his long talked
jump aren’t you? You’re afraid that you might misjudge the exact
time and location of arrival and that somehow we might land in this
very hallway at this very moment and that you and I will somehow
meld together in some twisted, deformed mass of handsomely nerdy
jello.”
“Finally he understands,” Jason thought to
himself.
“As I understand it though, the arrival
point isn’t dictated by where we’ve been so really we could arrive
anywhere within the margin of error. Ultimately we could end up
trapped inside one of these stone walls or even buried alive in the
ground adjacent to the building…if your calculations are off that
is.”
Jason thought for a moment...now he was
questioning his own logic. Derek was right, but he knew his
calculations were solid. He’d checked them eleven times before
Derek had convinced him to finally leave the lab and get on with
it. It was highly unlikely that they’d end up in the hall. If
everything went according to plan they should arrive in the same
location from which they’d left, at exactly 12:38pm. Checking his
watch, it was 12:58pm. They had a twenty minute window. That should
be plenty of time without any cause for concern.
“What are we doing?” Derek questioned,
wondering why Jason had stopped.
“Just stay behind me anyway,” Jason only
half acknowledged Derek’s solid logic. “By sticking together we
minimize the risk,” he added, continuing down the hall and through
the same opening that the pipes had used to disappear.
Running his hand up and down the wall beside
the doorway, Jason searched for the switch. This wasn’t the first
time he’d been down there. He’d spent many a night planning this
test. He knew exactly the spot he intended to use. The back corner
of the room in which they’d just entered was in actuality the front
left corner of the building and the spot at which all of the
building’s power entered from the street. There was a switch on the
wall just to the left of the doorway where his hand methodically
searched.
“When that light comes on I’m not going to
come face to face with some type of torture device, am I? You’re
not going to strap me to some table and have your way with me are
you?” Derek continued to joke as he stared into the darkness before
him.
Still focused on finding the switch, Jason
continued to show no response to Derek’s jokes. Suddenly, his
finger detected a small patch of smooth plastic and a moment later,
a soft click prompted a series of florescent lights to flicker to
life.
While still not the most efficient lighting,
the now visible room was much better lit than the hallway. In the
back right corner stood a small tower of cardboard boxes. The
various company logos and handwritten labels suggested that the
boxes contained supplies pertinent to the upkeep of a residential
building, though their faded appearance suggested that their
contents had been forgotten long ago and that the janitorial staff
didn’t frequent this portion of the building very often. Just
inside the doorway was a series of empty wooden shelves which
appeared to have been converted into a high rise condominium for
spiders and other insects, but it was the back left corner that
Jason had apparently been interested in as he quickly made his way
to the caged off portion of the room.
Behind the chain-linked wall stood even more
shelves, though these shelves, unlike their spider claimed
counterparts, were lined with miscellaneous electrical
supplies.
Arriving at the padlocked gate, Jason placed
the briefcase on the floor beside him.
“I take it that’s our power source,” Derek
guessed, motioning to the electrical box behind the indoor fence.
“Too bad it’s locked.”
Without a word Jason began spinning the
numbers on the padlock.
“I take it you’ve been down here before,”
Derek guessed again, now aware that maybe he hadn’t been the
catalyst in persuading Jason to finally test his long talked
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