Undiscovered Countries

Afterwards, they both decided to sleep for the night. Back in their clothes but with their shoes off, they tried to get comfortable. Eventually, they found the best position was for Matt to use one arm as a head pillow, and Kathy curled by Matt’s side, using his other arm for her pillow. Matt was comfortable with the temperature, Kathy felt cold, so Matt covered Kathy with his sports jacket.

“You were brilliant, Kathy. My throat feels fine now, and I’m not thirsty. It was a little salty to suckle you, but it worked. You were brilliant.”

“The trick won’t work a second time. Our kidneys are working overtime to handle what we’ve done. Our next urine will be super briny, worse than seawater… This ultra-dry air will kill us. It’s pulling the moisture right out of our respiratory systems. We absolutely must find water tomorrow. Oh, Matt! I feel so adrift…. You are my anchor. I think I would have gone insane, drooling on the floor 800 flights above us, if I were trapped here alone... Thank you Matt, for saving me.”

“My Irish and Scottish grandparents taught me a saying: We live in the shelter of each other. Dearest Katherine, you saved me as much as I saved you.”

“Matthew, you still don’t know what I look like, do you? What my pubic looks like?”

“No. I admit stealing glances at you earlier in the day. You’re so beautiful! But for this, I was overcome with a feeling of tenderness for you, of wanting to honor you. I do have a sharp sexy memory, though, of your soft hip pressing against mine, while we were squatting over the escalators…”

“Matt, I feel so grateful that you were so gentle with me. It was the exact opposite of my uncle. I was never actually raped or anything. Just lots of shame and humiliation. None of the bathrooms or my bedroom had a door I could lock. My uncle had some nonsense excuse about safety issues… He would just come in and brush his teeth while I was on the toilet, use the toilet while I was in the shower, that kind of thing…. Kept saying it was okay because we were family… An occasional inappropriate hug… That’s what it was like… I felt no shame at all when you suckled me, none at all. Just a whirlwind of emotions. A wonderful sexy whirlwind of emotions! I just need time to figure the whirlwind out. Thank you so much for giving me the time!”

Matt kissed Kathy in reply, and they were just quiet for a while. “How do we frame this, Kathy? Is it God, the Devil, aliens, parallel universes, that we’re delusional, what…”

“I really don’t know. The only choice that fits into my old worldview is that we’re delusional. I do believe people can hallucinate. I just don’t think that’s the right answer, though. I somehow think all this is real. Supernatural, God or the Devil? This place has the feel of advanced technology. Who can know the mind of God, but it just doesn’t strike me as God’s style. The Devil? I remember a horror story, called the Dark Tower I think, of people in a haunted house, a house with a really nasty attitude. They went down into the bowels of the house, the house trying to kill them. They escaped in the bottom of the bowels by emerging into Middle Earth. I hope our bottom exit floor exit doesn’t emerge into Middle Earth. It was a horrible place, filled with monsters with nasty attitudes…”

“I read the story. That’s Stephen King’s fiction. This is real. How is it possible?”

“I really don’t know. It is very Kafkaesque.”

“What?”

“Oh, Franz Kafka. A German writer from 1913 to the early 1930’s. Wrote stories filled with nightmares of dehumanization, of bureaucratic labyrinths and totalitarian societies. You’re a lawyer, try reading The Trial. Or maybe The Metamorphosis. A man turns into a human sized cockroach. His family tries to feed him fresh food and they almost poison him. They finally figure out he needs rotting food. He finally dies of neglect and loneliness. That’s Kafka. I take it back. Our situation is not like Kafka. His main characters always faced their horrors in loneliness. I have you! I feel so secure with you holding me now…”

Matt kissed Kathy and gently stroked her hair as she fell peacefully asleep. Matt drifted off a short time later….

Interlude: 1:30 am, MCT Central Security…

“Earl, run the entire sequence again.”

“On the screens, captain. Video 150-A3 feed, our two missing persons leaving the restaurant, time stamp 12:58:27 in the lower left, verified accurate. They briskly pass by the elevators and stairwells. Smiling and alert, they clearly have another destination on this floor…”

“You’ve rechecked the interviews, Earl?”

“Yes, sir. The weather group and the telecom group have never heard of these people. There are no other occupants on the top floor now. Just a few vacant offices. The restaurant takes up almost the whole floor. Switching to Video 150-B3,…. now 150- B2,… now back to B3,…. quick turn on A3 and down A2 now,….. now returning back up A2….. now turning onto A1…”

“What the hell are they looking for, Earl?”

“The million dollar question, sir. They’ve passed by the restrooms twice. They are now in what’s obviously the building’s core maintenance area, and they’re searching more closely than ever... It’s coming up, here they are returning on A1…”

“And here’s the payoff pitch!.... Damn! I hate mysteries, and I have a bellyful of them right now! Pity both video cameras are mounted along the same wall they walked into. There’s no angle to catch how this is possible.”

“Yeah. The police still think they might have walked into the janitor’s closet. But this second view clearly says no. Watch while I zoom in. You can clearly see the outside half of the doorknob of the closet as he disappears into the wall, again as she disappears. They’re walking adjacent to the door, maybe three feet away, not at the door location itself. The door opens out anyway. That door is closed, captain.”

“Oh, don’t blame the police, Earl. Thinking two people disappeared into a closet is much easier to believe than our lovely couple walking straight into a solid wall! You and I and the rest of our security team, the police, the fire department, the building architects, even that pompous Morningstar exec, damn, everybody and their kid sisters have been looking at that wall this evening. Except for the locked janitor closet, it’s a blank solid wall, with elevator banks on the other side. What the hell are we missing? Nah, the real question is, what the hell are we seeing?” the captain swore, as he replayed the video of a smiling Matt and a slightly worried Kathy seeming to walk straight into a solid wall…

Chapter 4.

Matt tapped Kathy on her shoulder. Kathy began her ride down, Matt two seconds behind. Both their throats were now so dry that it was too painful to talk. Matt and Kathy were still counting the flights mentally and marking off the 100’s, but they hadn’t spoken to each other in hours.

It was nearing the end of a very long second day, the time about 11:30 pm. Life had seemed a lot more cheerful in the morning, Kathy awaking in happiness from sleeping for the very first time in her life with a man. They both voided full bladders into the escalator, Matt somewhat shocked by the extremely dark orange color of his urine, almost brown. They decided not to eat any food until they had a water source to help digest it. They started descending just a few minutes after getting up, there was really no reason to wait.

By noontime, they had descended another 1200 flights, averaging over 200 flights per hour. It was at that time they shared their last swallow of water. They paused for a brief conversation, and agreed they would not stop again until they either found water or were too weak to continue. They could not afford another sleep period, their bodies were drying out too quickly.

It was now just after midnight; Matt had just taken the lead from Kathy, their count at 3,600 flights on the day. Kathy tapped his shoulder, and Matt began his third flight down as leader, Kathy behind him. But instead of swinging to the next switchback, Matt just froze in the landing zone, causing Kathy to bump into him two seconds later.

“Sorry” croaked Kathy, “Problem?”

“Look…” whispered Matt.

There was a 2 ft by 2 ft by 2 ft cubic cutout in the back wall of the landing zone. The interior walls of the cutout seemed made of the same metal as the rest of the escalator shaft. The floor of the cutout descended another foot, where it ended in a grid similar to the ones covering the air vents. Its roof had a small oval hole in it, way off-center near its left end.

“A sink?” croaked Kathy, with a smile.

“Look” croaked Matt. He pointed to an indentation at the right end, an equilateral triangle imbedded in the wall with one vertex pointing straight down. At the bottom point, a small spherical ball sat, Matt and Kathy simultaneously thinking it looked like a joystick.

In hand sign gestures, Matt and Kathy agreed that Kathy could play with the sink first. Kathy got out the empty water bottle and positioned it under the oval hole, then reconsidered, and moved her hand away. She moved the joystick straight up just a bit, and a few drops of what looked like water began to fall from the oval. She quickly positioned the bottle to catch the liquid, and bumped the joystick up a bit more and got a steady flow. After filling the bottle, she returned the joystick to the bottom, and the flow ceased. She smelled and then took a small taste of the liquid, and then a slow swallow, rinsing her mouth.

“Just water, I think, a bit hot, not hard to drink,” she said, handing the bottle to Matt.

Matt slowly drank half the bottle; then handed it back to Kathy. “You were very careful not to waste more than a few drops…”

Kathy drank the other half. “Well, we have no idea how much water this sink has to give. I don’t want to do something really stupid.”

“Ah… Very good point.”

“Want some more?”

“Ha, Ha!” laughed Matt. “Oh, I love you!”

“I moved the joystick straight up before; let me try moving up the left side of the triangle.” Kathy moved the joystick just a bit, and again drops began to flow. She positioned the bottle and bumped up the flow. “It’s really cold now, ice cold”, she said, as the bottle filled, feeling the chill on her fingers. After filling the bottle, Kathy removed her hand and bottle from the sink, and then tried the joystick on the right side of the triangle. The water stream looked boiling hot. Kathy quickly pushed the joystick down and shut off the flow.

“Neat!” she said, offering Matt the bottle. “Hey, Matt, care for an ice cold one?”

Kathy and Matt spent the next hour thoroughly flushing their bodies with water and just chatting, finally breaking into their food supplies in a playful mood, their first meal in 36 hours…

“Care for another cracker, Matt? They are exquisite! Especially after vitamin pills!”

“Oh, I couldn’t, Kathy! I’m stuffed as it is! I think I’ve had three crackers already! But! I wouldn’t mind taking a look at the dessert menu!”

“Ah, yes! We have a delightful assortment of peppermint, cherry, lemon, lime, and orange lifesavers. What does your heart desire?”

“The house specialty, actually!”

“You fiend! You are going after my tootsie-roll! And what have you done to deserve the tootsie-roll?”

“Actually” said Matt, “I think I have a really neat idea. Seriously. I want to try to turn your handbag into a water bag.”

Kathy eyes lit up. “Of course! The plastic bag that’s carrying my shoes! Matt, that’s brilliant! I’ll rinse it and clean it out.”

Kathy started rinsing the plastic bag while Matt emptied her handbag. “It’s a good size, Kathy, I think it’ll hold over a gallon. We can measure its capacity with the 1-liter bottle. I thought I’d build it now, and test its integrity overnight with a full load of water. Also, as you pointed out earlier, what if the sink shuts down while we sleep tonight…”

Kathy handed Matt the plastic bag, which he used to line the handbag. Kathy and Matt smiled at each other as they filled the handbag with five liters of water without trouble. Matt then emptied one of the pens, using the hollow tube as a straw that could be capped. He then wrapped the top the plastic bag around the pen, his dress tie around the bag, and then wound the cord of the cell charger around the tie. With the handbag closed, the result was a sturdy water bag, with the pen-straw sticking out from one of the top sides of the handbag.

“I felt around the inside of the handbag, there are no rough edges to tear the plastic, just smooth leather. This should really extend our range. We can restart our trip as bloated with water as we can be, and carrying 6 liters of water. It’s very fortunate your plastic bag is so heavy duty. I don’t see any leaks at all. I think this could really last.”

“It looks wonderful, Matt. I’ll be very comfortable carrying that bag, 5 liters of water is only about 11 lb. You have the pockets to carry everything else. I have some soap, perhaps we can bathe and I can wash our underwear tomorrow, before we start down again... Lie with me, Matt? I’d really love a little time to pet you, and be petted, before I fall asleep…”

Chapter 5.

“Sixty six” Kathy called out.

Matt did not call back or start his ride down, remaining frozen a step before the escalator entrance. Kathy moved to see what Matt was staring at, and what she saw took her breath away…

Kathy and Matt were now in their twelfth day in the escalator well. Their log was showing they were now down over 31,700 flights, just crossing the 180 mile mark. After their initial water-sink, they had found another after 5963 more flights, and then again after an additional 11927 flights. They spent some time discussing if there was any meaning in the fact that 11927 was so close to double 5963, but the next sink occurred after 5687 flights, and the issue was dropped.

Kathy and Matt were keeping two calendars, one tied to their watches, and a new one they created that ran off the time from their last sink. When they would find a sink, they would spend about 10 hours super-hydrating, washing, and sleeping, and then restart their travel target to:

Day A – 3,000 flights, 0.5 liter water each, plus cross bladder suckle

Day B – 3,000 flights, one-liter water each

Day C – 3,000 flights, one-liter water each

Day X – find next sink or die trying, finish remaining 0.5 liter water each

To extend their range, they decided to have one cross bladder suckle for each sink found, keeping it at the end of Day A when their urine was still a very light color from their recent super hydration. They were both grateful that their kidneys didn’t seem to mind the strain.

A routine travel day was an eight hour sleep period, and five 3-hour treks of 600 flights each, separated by four 15-minute “cuddle breaks”, where Kathy and Matt would relax with each other and pet each other’s feet. Fortunately, they had only gotten into Day-X mode once, finding a sink near the end of a tough day’s travel.

The time they had spent together in their great journey was both extraordinary and very sweet. Kathy and Matt spent most of the travel time sharing their hopes and dreams for their futures, revealing the core of their characters to each other. Each felt that they were forging life bonds of fidelity and commitment. The previous night, after Matt had suckled her bladder in a single easy flow, Kathy had begged Matt for sexual release, and she had her first orgasm under his loving kisses and caresses. Afterwards, she suckled his orgasm, as well as his bladder.

They were now near the end of their first morning trek of day B, having just finished trek mark 565, and both looking forward to foot pets in another 35 flights, when they were stopped cold by the sight of the next landing…

“Could it be the exit?” asked Matt.

“I was expecting more of a door, or an open area… This just looks spooky… And look, you can just see the escalator rails on the next switchback for the next flight down… I don’t like this at all…”

Kathy and Matt were being stunned by the floor color of the next landing. After 12 days of uniform light grey walls and floors, the floor at the next landing was pitch black, a black so deep their eyes couldn’t even focus on it.

“We need some way to test it, before stepping on it,” said Matt.

“Agreed. My gut is telling me not to step on it at all. I suppose we can try to throw something down on it….” Kathy got her change purse from Matt, took a nickel from it and threw it down the well. “I didn’t hear it hit. Can’t see it now. Not much of a test…”

“No... I’ve got to get close up and personal with it.”

“Matt! I can’t risk losing you!”

“There’s no choice. We’ve finished the food two days ago… Don’t worry, Katherine, I think I have a plan. I’m going to practice running up the previous escalator just a bit, and practice a jump and stop on the metal landing grid that sits before the main landing-pad floor. See? That grid still exists below too…”

Matt and Kathy spent the next hour practicing the maneuver. It wasn’t as easy as it first sounded. They practiced until each had 10 consecutive successes without the failure of slipping and falling on the landing-pad floor. They also practiced transferring from one switchback to the next by hugging the interior switchback wall and swinging their legs and bodies over the landing-pad floor without touching it. Again, it was a maneuver slightly more difficult than they first thought, but doable.

There was no reason to wait. Matt kissed and hugged Kathy fiercely for a brief moment, and then rode the escalator down backwards, smiling up at a worried Kathy. Near the end of his ride, he started walking briskly, holding his position against the 3 mph flow of the stairs. Then, with a practiced jump, he hopped onto the stationary grill.

“Nice job, Matt! Please be careful!

“Send down the water bag by itself! You didn’t practice this jump carrying it.”

“Okay!”

After catching the water bag from the moving stairs, Matt turned and pulled the ink core of the water bag’s pen from his pocket. He dipped it to the floor and felt it push in without resistance. After pushing half of it in, he pulled up, and was dismayed to see that half of the pen core was completely missing.

“Oh, yuck! This is bad, Kathy! Think of this floor as one great garbage disposal. You don’t want to touch it…”

“Oh, Matt! If all the floors are like this now, our progress will be almost zero. Plus, we’re bound to slip and fall eventually….”

“I know…”

“Is the door on that level any different? Is it locked?”

Matt easily reached over and checked that the door was locked. Then something caught his eye that made him gasp.

“Kathy! What does the door frame sign say on your level?”

“My God, Matt! It’s changed! It says the word SORRY”

“Same here! What does it mean?”

“I think the implications are staggering! We’ll talk later. Want me to come down now?”

“No, no! Let me transfer across the switchback first!................. Okay, I’m over. Good news! The next floor looks normal! Katherine, please be careful.”

Kathy came down the escalator backwards, and caught her balance perfectly with her hop onto the small landing grid. She had a bit more trouble than Matt crossing the switchback, because of her shorter legs, but Matt helped her with her balance and she made it without incident. They both quickly descended to the next level, happy to leave the black ink of oblivion behind them. They both felt very relieved that the sign by the locked door on the next floor was back to normal, BOTTOM FLOOR EXIT ONLY.

“Matt, we have only 33 more flights to go on this trek before our cuddle break. I wouldn’t mind having some distance between us and the black ink. Let’s keep to our schedule and do the 33 flights now…”

For the first time since they designed the trek schedule, Matt and Kathy took a break from their routine. Usually Kathy loved to have Matt caress her feet on the short breaks, but on this break, Kathy had simply disrobed and pleaded with her eyes for Matt to lie with her. Their clothes were blankets on top of them, providing some shelter from the cool breeze. The metal colored floor felt hard, but neither warm nor cool. Kathy and Matt had discovered on their first night in the escalator well that the floor material appeared to conduct no heat at all, unlike all other metals.