"Thanks for the ride, man."
You step out of your taxi and look up at the imposing glass-and-cement building towering sixty stories above you. It almost seems to blend into the gray, murky clouds that surround the building. They seem to be threatening a heavy shower. You second think this job offer. Before you can turn around and change your mind, the cabbie has drove off. You gulp and enter the front doors.
It started out innocently enough. You needed a job to pay your student loans. But things weren't going to be that simple. You tried to work as a office copier, but on your first day you wasted five reams of paper and were promptly fired. On your second job, as a room cleaner at a hotel, you forgot an entire floor and were promptly fired at 2:00 pm that day.
So when your girlfriend's dad offered you a job at his DNA research labs, you were hesitant at first. Biology Incorporated, it was called. And you didn't trust it one bit. Started in 1995 by your girlfriend's dad, Mr. Winter, Biology Inc. had a checkered past. Employees were know to quit and promptly disappear. People were seen screaming hysterically as they ran through the front doors you have just now walked in. In 2003, it was reported all over the New York Times that the Senior President had fallen off the roof of the sixty story building. It was never determined if he committed or he was pushed.
But since your girlfriend's dad was rich, and the salary was five times the highest paying job you could find in the classifieds, you pounced on the opportunity like a starving cat on a mouse.
So here you were, headed for your interview. This morning, you kissed your girlfriend goodbye as you hailed a taxi outside the apartment you share together. You watched her jog off in her running gear and was all of a sudden very at peace with the world.
But that had been two hours, a traffic jam, and a bout of nervousness ago.
The first thing you notice about the lobby was how simple it was. The tile floor was a subdued, almost calming shade of tan. There were benches and seats in the not-very-big lobby, soft and soothing. Against the wall, there was a black woman in a purple coat sitting at the front desk. Two hallways went to left and right of the desk. The left one was labeled "Elevators/Supply closets", and the right was labeled "Testing rooms 001-025"
You take a seat in a chair near the door. You look around the room, looking for other applicants. Suddenly, the door opens and a guy you go to school with walks in What was his name? Was it Norman? No, that wasn't it. Roland? No, not that either. Alex! Yeah, that was it. Alex Roebuck. He's in your American Literature and US History classes.
"Hey Alex." You say from your seat as he passes it.
"Anthony! I didn't expect to see you here." He comes back and sits in the chair opposite to you.
"Did Harold Winter offer you a job too?" You ask.
"Yeah, he did. I'm here for my interview."
"That's what I'm here for!" You both laugh at the thought.
"Well, may the best man win." Alex says, and leans back with a magazine.
You just about feel relaxed about this whole place when you hear a sound. It's so small and insignificant you wouldn't hear it unless it was dead calm in here. Which it was. You can't tell where it's coming from.
It's definitely a human sound. But what exactly it is, you can't tell. Screaming, laughing, or sobbing, no difference can be made here. You can't even tell if it's coming from above you or just down the hall.
The sound is really starting to creep you out now. You're just about the leave when the front door opens again and a beautiful young woman steps inside, knocking your page of references out of your hands without a second glance.
"Get out of the way!" she scoffs at you without looking. The girl steps up to the front desk. "Can I help you?" the black woman asks in a bored tone, not looking up from her copy of The National Inquirer.
"Yes, my name is Lauren Page, and I'm here for that job interview." She says matter-of-factly. "Ok. I'll go notify Mr. Winter that you three are here." The black woman (you notice her nametag reads "Megan") disappears down the hall for several minutes. She comes back with two men. "All right, Mr. Roebuck, you can go with Mr. Smith here." Alex grins at you as he goes toward the elevators. "And you, Miss Page," Megan says, "Can go with Mr. Jones." Lauren rolls her eyes and disappears down the hall with Mr. Jones.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Delonge, but you're going to have to wait another twenty minutes. In the meantime, I'm going to go to the break room to get lunch." Megan turns around and heads toward the elevators, disappearing from your view.
You sit there in the stillness, waiting for god-knows-who. After ten minutes, you decide that rules were meant to be broken. You get up from your seat and...