Ray brought a hand up across his mouth and winced as it came back bloody. His lip was split. The hot, dry air had pulled the moisture out of him, forced his eyes to water and his scalp to peel away. He itched at his head absentmindedly, and glanced across the room at Philip. Poor Philip. “We’re in it together, you and me,” he’d said before they went in. “No man left behind.” His companion’s eyes were glazed now, soulless, staring, unresponsive. Ray felt his own consciousness ebbing, fading away, away…
SHA-TCHAK!
Ray snapped back to attention. The presenter, in an attempt to be cute, had inserted the sound of an old-style projector advancing slides every time he moved between frames of his presentation. Ray couldn’t remember what the meeting was about, but he sensed from the body language of his captor that it was somehow vitally important, and beginning to near its peak. He had to get out of here. He rolled his chair back a couple inches, using one of his portlier co-workers for cover, and began sliding down slowly in his chair. Lower, and lower. Wait for it, for the right moment. The jailkeeper at the front of the room gestured frantically, trying to drive home some obtuse point. Everyone nodded simultaneously, heads bobbing asynchronously like a Big Apple cabby’s collection of Rastafarian kewpie dolls. Then it happened. One of the suits at the front of the room scrunched up her brow in confusion. The presenter sighed, then turned around and began tapping out the slide’s content a third time. Ray took a deep breath and submerged himself. By the time the exec turned back around, the only indication that Ray was even there would be a neatly tucked in chair; just another absentee at another meeting. He could read the minutes later.
Ray found himself in a nearly invisible forest of black and blue. At the end of it, a sliver of fluorescent light peeked through the cracked boardroom doors, offering him a glimpse of freedom that waited. But reaching it still meant “running the gauntlet,” the tangles of shoes, laces, and slacks that lined the edge of the table. Brushing up against any of them, even lightly, would almost certainly result in dire consequences. Ray began cautiously picking his way towards the rear of the table. Inch by inch, he crept, moving slowly. These meetings were often hours long, if it took him a few more minutes to escape, that was acceptable. After all, soon he’d be home with Lindsay, and that held much more promise than just another day at the office. Maybe a nice matinee movie, to surprise her. And early dinner out. Who knows where that might lead? That sounds like a…
Ray froze as he absently planted his palm firmly into the toes of a shoe. He lifted his hand slowly, cursing under his breath. It was over. He would have to stay the whole meeting, and by the end of it he’d be another mindless zombie, just like the rest of them. He glanced down at the sneaker. Sneaker? Of course, the factory floor manager, whose feet were covered in a lifetime’s worth of calluses. He probably hadn’t even felt it. What luck! A brief pause to listen for disturbances confirmed it – nobody had noticed anything wrong. Ray shimmied a little further, then slowly covered the open distance between the end of the table and the door, slipping out.
Bright light enveloped him. He took a deep breath, and looked around. He was on his hands and knees in front of the boardroom doors. Behind him, the presentation continued unabated. All he had to do now was get out the front doors. An intern carrying a large stack of papers rounded the corner, and stopped in the hall, staring down at him. “Wha…” Ray jumped up quickly and clapped a hand over her mouth, to silence the complaint. He fiercely stared her down into silence, then slowly removed his hand.
“Help me,” he whispered to her.
“How?”
“Cover me.” He nodded down the hall. The intern shifted, uncomfortably. “Please?”
The intern pursed her lips, then continued down the hall, stopping in front of the receptionist at the front desk. Shouldering the stack of papers up onto the desk, the intern slipped a hand behind her back and signaled.
Ray moved quickly to the doors, staying below the level of the counter as the two of them chatted, and slipped out. No time to wait for the elevator, I’ll take the stairs. Lindsay, baby, here I come. As he burst out the door at the bottom of the stairs, and jogged through the crisp October air to his car, his mind dwelled on how much he resented working where he did.