[NOTE: I'm thinking of re-doing this into non-'Verse because of where it's headed (after this entry). If so, I'll be editing the two earlier posts too, possibly even making all 3 readable ]

I took advantage of the quiet and rested for a moment. The room we were in looked like it had been a standard reception area with a counter and a door on the opposite wall. Most of the floor was gone, but there was enough around the edges that we could inch our way over to the door. I felt Charlie tug on my sleeve. I looked down and he was pointing not towards the door but towards the blank wall to the right of us. I frowned, trying to see better. Through the gloom I could barely make out the remains of a banister hanging precariously over empty space. I looked back down at him and shook my head. He nodded again and pushed me hard to the right.

"Hey!"

I clapped my hand over my mouth. How stupid can you get? I thought, my shoulders lifting upwards to my ears to try and hide the rest of me, just like a turtle. "Pretty gorram stupid, I guess," I muttered under my breath, then glared down at Charlie when he tugged at my arm to get me to shut up. I heard the scrape of a chair in the distance and grimaced. Since we were by then standing in the middle of the doorway, my only choice was either to go right or to climb over Charlie. I had no idea if the door opposite us was even usable, so right was my only logical choice.

I managed to slip into the corner without opening my big mouth or tripping over something. We leaned against the wall and listened to the guard's footsteps. They were slow, with a pause at each doorway, and were getting slower after each pause as if the guard was uncertain. Finally his shadow appeared on the inner wall, grew larger as he stuck his head into the room, and then disappeared when he moved on. I let myself breathe again but didn't dare move since the walls between the rooms were so thin. He checked three more rooms, stopped, and then began retracing his steps. I held my breath just in case but turned out it was unnecessary: his cough started up again within steps and continued all the way back to the loading dock.

Charlie and I looked at each other and heaved sighs of relief. I pointed to the door and pushed him lightly but he shook his head, went up on tiptoe, and whispered in my ear "No floor!" Man, I was batting 1.000 in this place!

Closer inspection with dark-adapted eyes revealed that our situation wasn't as hopeless as I'd thought. The banister hanging in space had been fastened to the now nonexistent floor to prevent falls into the stairwell; the stairs themselves were just a couple feet in front of us and looked as if they were still solidly attached to the wall. Sure, there was no banister on the lefthand side and a distinct sag towards the center of the room, but if we were careful and tested each step we might get low enough to jump to the floor safely.

Charlie moved to go first but I pulled him back; his weight might be enough to weaken a step that would fail when I stepped on it, but if I made it down he was more than likely safe. For once I was right. Only one of the steps tested iffy and I avoided it; the rest creaked slightly with my weight but held. Charlie simply skipped down them, an old pro at these steps.

But now we were even further below the street level. There was enough light coming from above to show debris scattered on the floor, but nothing else. Charlie put his finger to his lips until I nodded, then made his way over to a black doorway, presumable to the central hall. He turned the corner and vanished.

I didn't care for the way we kept going down. The farther down below ground you go in any building, the less likely you'll find a way out. I was hoping this level would have an old cargo elevator to the outside -- even if it didn't work, we could probably climb up the shaft.

Charlie was taking long enough that I was starting to get worried. I paced along the edge of the shadow, my eyes automatically trying to pierce the darkness along the side of the room. My efforts were rewarded with the faint gleam of metal -- or was it plastic? -- from underneath the stairs. I stepped closer, brushing aside the cobwebs, and crouched down to inspect my find. It was a little disc, no more than 2 cm wide and maybe a quarter of a centimeter thick. It had an almost oily appearance, the gleam shifting in the light -- I wasn't quite certain that it was my own movements causing this. There was no dust on it, astonishing in this extremely dusty room, though perhaps it was dropped recently. I couldn't see any track in the dust that would indicate if it had bounced or rolled at all.

Picking it up, I nearly immediately dropped it again. I frowned. It had felt oily, too, a very weird feeling as if it were actively repelling my skin. I tried again and this time cupped it in my other hand. It almost looked squirmy. I couldn't imagine what it might do but it could be worth a pretty penny in the right place. I tucked it into my breast pocket and made sure the flap was securely closed because it felt like it was about to jump right out.

Another few minutes of wandering aimlessly through the shadows passed before I noticed that the blackness of the doorway was slowly brightening.