Hallway 5

“WHOA! STOP!”

Albert slammed the Emergency Stop button on the trash compactor. Did he really just see what he thought he saw? Some guy climbing into the compactor?

“Cut the power,” he yelled over to Dale, who was helping him. Dale ran to the circuit breaker panel and did just that. “Did you see a guy get in here?”

“I thought so, just out of the corner of my eye,” Dale said as he returned. The two of them stood in front of the open mouth of the machine in the back room of Fresh Deals, the downtown grocery store. Garbage got thrown into the compactor, slid down to be flattened and smashed into bales at the bottom. A truck came twice weekly and took it away.

“Hey! You in there?” Albert yelled. His voice echoed metallic in the chute. No answer. “Get a flashlight,” he told Dale. The chute was dark at the bottom, and was half full of store trash. He scanned the darkness but couldn’t see anything.

Did I imagine that? Albert wondered. No, Dale saw it too. There’s someone in the trash compactor.

Dale returned with a flashlight and shone it down the throat of the machine. It had once been painted a deep green but most of the paint was long gone, replaced by a smeared patina of rust. In the beam, they could see bags of trash and loose garbage at the bottom.

“See anything?” Dale asked.

“Nothing. Where would he go? Are you sure you saw someone?”

“Yeah. Just real quick, I wasn’t really paying attention, but I swear I saw someone. He came out of nowhere and climbed in.”

“That’s what I saw.” Albert shut off the flashlight and walked to the intercom. “Ralph to receiving, please. Ralph to receiving.” His voice boomed through the store, and then the muzak resumed. “We’ll get Ralph back here. I’ll have to go down and check for this guy. We have to get him out of there.” He peered into the yawning mouth of the machine. I hate this job, he thought.

Moments later, Ralph arrived. The store manager, the only employee in a suit, joined Albert and Dale by the compactor. They told him what they had seen, his eyes growing wide.

“Run and grab the rope down by the receiving doors,” he said urgently. “Albert, you’re going down there. As long as the power is cut, we have to find this guy. If he’s in there and we run this thing, he’ll be killed!”

They tied the rope into a slipknot around Albert’s waist, also handing him gloves borrowed from the meat department around the corner, and a second light. Ralph and Dale piled milk crates up against the wall below the mouth of the compactor and Albert climbed in.

The throat of the compactor was slick and smooth, and there were no hand- or footholds. Skidding this way and that, the gloves already soaked through with the dampness of the interior, Albert felt the pile of garbage at the bottom with the sole of his boot.

“Okay, I’m down,” he said. He looked back up and saw Ralph and Dale, backlit and watching. The rope extended upward, out of the compactor, and Ralph’s flashlight swung back and forth. The trash under his feet shifted as he moved.

“See anything?” Ralph called down to him.

“I don’t think so,” he yelled back, swinging his own light around. “There’s no one here, but there’s more room over there. I’ll go and look.” There was space off to the side, where the trash must be compacted and slid out as bales. “You’re sure there’s no power, right?”

“I pulled the fuse,” Dale shouted.

There was no sign of any person down in the compactor. It was a small space, not really designed for people to be inside. Albert leaned over with his flashlight, into the baling space to the side of the chute. There was nowhere to hide in there.

Am I going crazy? How did Dale and I both see someone get in here? Where did he go?

“Hello?” Albert called into the other space. No response except a tinny echo.

“Anything?” he heard Ralph call. The voice seemed distant.

“No, I don’t see anyone in here.” One last swing of the flashlight, and he noticed something he hadn’t seen before. “Wait- there’s something here.”

It looked like a small door or hatch. It was in the wall at the far end of the baling part of the machine. He couldn’t reach it, so he climbed unsteadily forward over the uneven trash. Must be some sort of access from outside, he thought. It was a small little door, around the corner from the chute. He hadn’t even known it was here.

He’d seen the outside of the compactor a million times, behind the store, while out gathering the abandoned carts in the parking lot. It was just a part of the scenery out there. He couldn’t remember seeing a little door.

“Hey,” he called back over his shoulder. “Can someone go to the outside? There’s a little door here, can I get out that way?”

“A door?” Ralph called back. “Where?”

“Off to the side here. Maybe it’s some sort of access hatch.” Seconds passed.

“Dale’s going around. He’ll be there in a minute. Can you open the door? Is it locked?”

“Let me see.” Albert shone his light on it- there didn’t appear to be any lock or handle, just a featureless, concave hatch. He thought it might look like a submarine hatch. What is this place? It shouldn’t be nearly this big down here.

“Albert?”

“Sorry, no, I don’t see a lock.” He pushed on the cold metal of the hatch door, and it swung open. Before him was only blackness. “How big is the bottom of the compactor? It looks like it goes back underneath the store.”

“What? It’s the trash compactor, Albert. It shouldn’t go more than ten feet.”

“Hang on,” he called back. He shone the light inside and saw there was indeed a floor, at least. “I’m going to check it out.”

Albert climbed through the open hatch. The floor was clear, with no trash or even the sticky water that coated the floor of the compactor itself. His work boots were sopping with the stuff. He shone the light ahead- it looked like an entirely new room.

“There’s another whole room,” he yelled back to Ralph. “Maybe he went down here!” He listened. Silence. No reply. “Hello? Ralph?” No answer. Must be gone to help Dale, Albert mused. “I’m going to check this room!” Still no reply. He untied the rope around his waist, the homemade harness, and left it dangling out of the hatch as a landmark. He dropped the soaked gloves next to it.

Albert turned and walked into the darkness. He shone his light on the floor, still that clear, dry floor, although instead of the same metal, it looked to be cement. The walls were bare, widening quickly to about ten feet apart. It wasn’t a room, he realized, but a hallway. He couldn’t see the ceiling and there were no lights, no fixtures of any kind. Just a hallway that was more like a tunnel. Is this the store basement? I didn’t even know this was here!

With one last glance back at the hatch he’d climbed out of, Albert turned and followed the hall. There was a gentle downward slope, but it was relentlessly straight and featureless.

“Where the hell am I?” Albert wondered aloud. Hearing a faint, grinding creak, he looked back the way he came and could see nothing but the folds of darkness crowding in behind. Even blind, he knew the hatch had swung closed. A seizing feeling of claustrophobia, the exit now shut, came over him. Deep breaths, Albert. He’d been walking for about five minutes, he realized, and that distance would have taken him well clear of the entire store overhead.

“Hello?” he called back, loud as he could. Stillness the only reply. With nothing else to do, he continued walking. The beam of the flashlight showed nothing but the same bare cement walls and floors for what seemed like an eternity. The sound of his footsteps still damp from the compactor seemed unnaturally loud as he made his way. Wherever that guy had gone to, Albert hadn’t found him yet.

Finally, something different. Albert stopped, shining his light on the wall. There, crisply painted in dull, almost military green, was a number. 5. He looked around and didn’t see anything else except the eternal tunnel. Still no sign of a ceiling or anything other than the skeleton of the hallway, and now the painted 5.

“Hello?” he called again. Still nothing. Not even an echo, he noted.

After another eternity in the stygian darkness, Albert stopped. His legs were getting tired, his feet hurt, and he still hadn’t found anything. No sign of the man who climbed into the machine, no sign of anything other than the hallway. He looked back the way he came, idly wondering what time it was. I must be done my shift by now, he thought. Should I just go back? He wondered how far he’d come, and what was directly overhead. He figured he must have been walking for two hours. This would have taken him a long way across town- what could possibly be the point of a hallway like this? There were no exits, nothing other than the interminable hall that stretched to infinity, so far as he could tell.

No point in stopping now. Might as well keep going, but I don’t think I’m going to find that guy. He stared off into the darkness ahead. Wish I had a bike.

Later- how long, he couldn’t tell, the hallway seemed removed from time itself- there was finally the tiniest pinprick of light ahead in the tunnel. Albert squinted, trying to see if it was real. It could have been a trick of his eyes. But as he kept walking, now with more of a weary, shuffling gait than normal, the light grew, slowly.

Thank God, he thought gratefully. I’ve been in here forever.

The light ahead was decidedly orange, Albert noted. It grew larger, closer. He felt a thrill of energy at the sight, beginning to run, and the light stretched out along the hallway toward him like welcoming arms. The walls and floor were still perfectly smooth and featureless, except for the random number now miles behind. The hallway ended in a T junction, and the light itself came from a furnace-like grill on the wall with a fire blazing behind. He could feel the heat from it on his face and arms.

He looked to his left, another hallway that looked the same as the one he’d spent so long in. The same to his right, and there was the man! From the trash compactor! It had been such a long walk that he barely remembered he was looking for him!

“Hey!” Albert called. The man didn’t move. He was standing facing the wall, still and erect as a mannequin- was that an elevator? “Hey buddy, my name’s Albert, I work at Fresh Deals- are you okay?”

ding

The elevator door slid apart and the man from the compactor stepped inside. The doors immediately began closing behind him.

“Wait!” Albert wasn’t far, but got there just in time to have the doors close before him. For just a split second, he could see the man in the elevator (or whatever it was, he thought) and it looked like he had no face. Just a blank slate where a face should be. A trick of the weird light, he rationalized.

The doors closed and the man was gone. Albert shone the light around, seeing an unmarked button on the wall next to the door. Not knowing what else to do, he pushed it, and there was a grinding sound, like huge gears gnashing at each other. The elevator rumbled heavily, a bass pulse in Albert’s feet.

What am I doing? he wondered. Where am I? This can’t be part of the grocery clerks’ job!

He looked around. There was still nothing to see other than the bare hallway. There wasn’t even any dirt, Albert noticed. Just floor and walls.

ding

The elevator doors parted. It looked like a normal elevator, just a small space with a dim light shining through a mesh ceiling. The man was gone, and Albert stepped in cautiously, the doors closing behind him. He saw that there was no control panel, no floor buttons, no emergency stop. Nothing. Just a faceless metal wall where they should be.

I really shouldn’t have gotten in here, he thought, a sick feeling in his stomach. Then it started going down. It started normally enough, but very shortly it sped up crazily, rocketing down so fast that he felt light, as if he would float towards the ceiling with the speed of the elevator. I’m for sure not in the store anymore, he thought, panicked.

Then- it stopped.

ding

The doors opened. Terrified, Albert cautiously came out into another darkness. Swinging the flashlight, he could see nothing in any direction. Just a weakening beam reaching into the velvet darkness.

“Hello?” he called. No reply, no echo, nothing. He heard the elevator doors behind him as they closed. Silence. Albert shone his light back at the elevator- it was gone. There was nothing where it had been. He found himself wishing he was back in the closed environment of the hallway- at least there was a direction, even if it was just forward. Here, it was the void. Just a floor under his feet and nothingness stretching off in all directions. His heart was racing and pounding. He took a gasping breath.

What was that? Something moving, just past the reach of the flashlight! The beam was slow and dimming, and whatever had moved, avoided the light. There was a slithering sound, a hideous dragging in the darkness. He squinted, trying to pick up anything, any sight of what was making the sound. Nothing. He swung the light around behind him- was that movement? The dying beam of the light seemed to pick up the barest hint of something- were those scales he saw?

“Hello? Is anyone there?” Albert screamed into the darkness. Sheer terror washed over him. “Help!”

All I want is to go back to the store, he thought, like a child wishing for his mother.

The sounds and the feeling of movement- he could feel the darkness physically closing around him- clawed at Albert’s mind, and he wrapped his arms around his torso, praying for protection.

Something in the darkness slid past his ankle, a hard, flexible thing. Tentacle, he thought wildly. It came again, this time higher, close to his knee. He jerked his leg away, but the thing in the dark insisted. Quick as lightning, he felt the tentacle wrap tightly around his leg, jerking him to the floor. The flashlight clattered to the ground, rolling away uselessly.

The tentacles were all over him. Another slid effortlessly around his torso with strength like a steel cable. Another, tightening on his arm.

“Someone help me!” he screamed futilely into the darkness. He knew he was lost.

But then, emerging from the smothering black, a shape. The man. The man who had jumped into the compactor, then the elevator, so impossibly long ago.

“Help,” Albert whimpered. He was almost totally wrapped in the tentacles, writhing around him, tossing him like a ship at sea.

The man skittered, like a spider, and he almost seemed to be flickering, he was moving so fast! Impossibly fast! He stood over the terrified grocery clerk and Albert could feel and smell his horrible, hot breath, as if he were exhaling like the furnace at the top of the elevator, a burning trash smell that seemed to fill Albert’s whole head. He bent down- again, impossibly fast- and loomed only inches away.

Horribly, Albert saw that he was right at his first glimpse of the man- not a man– it had no face! Just a featureless, concave space at the front of his head… and as Albert watched, a shadow began to spread, and the face peeled open… into a void darker than the blackness of whatever hell Albert was in now.

Albert’s eyes widened until they hurt, and he screamed in pain and sheer terror. He could barely hear himself- it was like the sound was being pulled into the void of the creature’s face. And then he felt the rest of him being pulled in too. Everything stretched until it tore, and distantly, disconnectedly, Albert felt his blood and then his organs begin to spill out. It was as if it were happening to someone else, but he felt all of it.

He was pulled into the terrifying thing that he’d thought was a man. And, most horribly of all, Albert realized: I’m not dying. I’m still alive.