Past the threshold of the double doors is a brightly lit space. The blue carpet ends and transitions to a desaturated dark yellow colored carpet that might have been a lighter, more cheerful color if not wet. Yellow wallpaper, slightly lighter than the carpet, with gray detail that resembles vertical stalks of bamboo covers the wall to my right, while to my left the same color wallpaper has a fleur-de-lis design arranged in a diamond pattern about three inches from each other. To the far side of each of these is the opposite wallpaper, so they alternate between the two patterns around to the other side of the room. Overhead, the ceiling tiles here have changed to rectangles, but the two by four fluorescent lights remain pretty much the same except that now they work. The lights are harsh and bright and there is a low humming, buzzing sound coming from their ballasts. Some flicker intermittently. On the other side of the room is a large opening the size of a double doorway through which I can see beyond this room to another that looks identical and then another beyond that. The third room does not have a large opening, just a blank wall, so maybe that's the back of the warehouse. All the rooms are empty and have the same alternating wallpaper and fluorescent lights. There is a yellow power outlet on each wall I could use to charge my phone if only I had a charger on me, and yellow baseboard along the bottom of the wall.
How can the power still be on in this part of the building? Should I go forward or go back and try to force my way out the way I came in? I haven’t gone upstairs yet. There are still options. The flickering, but brightly lit yellow rooms, and the buzz of the lights are weirding me out. I listen carefully and cannot hear any wind, rain, or hail. I look at my phone: no signal and 37% battery. I lay the second chair between the doors, deciding to return to see if I can open the door without handles that leads to the front room from the main warehouse. I know I can get out there if I can get through those doors. If there is power here, it seems likely there is no doorway to the outside, or these rooms would be as decrepit as the rest. I can always return here to the back of the warehouse if I exhaust all other possibilities, so I turn around and retrace my steps towards the security doors.
The light from the yellow rooms behind me illuminates the hallway to the previous doors, where I step over the chair and come to the four-way intersection. I continue straight to the next doorway and open one of the double doors. There is not enough light from the back rooms at this point to alleviate much of the darkness engulfing the main warehouse, so I turn my phone light back on and recross the large empty space. Looking more closely at the doors, I notice there is an “NO ENTRY: AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY” sign. To the left side of the door is a telephone on the wall. There’s no way to open the doors from this side. You must have had to call to get someone to open the door to the office back in the days when this place was still in business. I wonder if I can lever it open somehow.
Just as I am about to turn my phone light to the surrounding area to find something to try opening the door with, I notice some movement. The door is shaking, and I can see the light outlining the doors getting bigger and smaller. Is the tree that fell collapsing more of the roof and pieces are banging against the door? Or maybe someone’s out there?
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“Hello?” I call out. “Anyone out there? I’m stuck in here!”
The right door pops open a few inches, and I see a dark shape move across the light coming in, momentarily blocking it. Then I hear a growl. I back up, then turn and sprint across the warehouse. A dim light momentarily lights up the open space and then it starts to dim again.
I make it back to the other side and yank open the left door to the hallway that leads to the yellow rooms. Once inside I pull on the vertical rod to close the door faster than its door closer wants to let it close. There is a heavy thud against the door and then growling and scratching. I examine the door with my light, but there is no obvious way to lock it. I hold on to both vertical rods and hold the door closed, but whatever is out there is batting at the door handles and is much stronger and faster than I am. It pulls on one of the doors and it slips right out of my hand but then slams closed again. Thankfully the doors open out into the warehouse.
I try to hold back the panic and think clearly. I go down the hallway and turn right into the glass window room. I hear some vibrations as the creature continues to attack the door where I was before. Theoretically I could go to the door from this room into the main warehouse space and take a look at what is out there. I’d need to use my phone light to see it and may not see more than a dark shape with sharp teeth and glowing red eyes charging at me. I discard this option. Based on the color and size, the only thing it can be in this area is a black bear. I don’t need to see it I just need to avoid it and find a way out.
This room has three exits. I could try to attract the bear’s attention here and then circle around back into the main space and try my hand at the door I entered through, but I would be gambling that I can always keep one door ahead of the creature and not make a mistake and that I can even get the door open at all.
Normally, I could just barricade myself in a room hiding until the bear moves on but we’re both trapped in here together. How would I know when it is safe to come out if I ever can? If I couldn’t find a way out, how likely is it that an animal could? The bear won’t be moving on and will be getting hungrier. How long would it be before someone would think to come find me here? I need to find a way out on my own.
I retrace the roundabout route I took to the four-way intersection and peer around the corner to see if the door is still holding the creature back. The coast is clear, and I turn right and head down the hallway, jumping over the chair holding the passcode door open. I think better of leaving that door open and pull out the chair. Once the door closes, I examine the inside for a way to lock it, even turning on my phone light to see better, but there doesn’t seem to be any way to do so. After turning my phone light off, I stand up the office chair and push it ahead of me down the hallway towards the light of the yellow room and bring it and the chair that had been propping that door open inside. Since these doors open inwards, I take two wheels from each chair and wedge the doors closed with the chair backs under the push bars and the wheelless legs against the moist carpeted floor. "That's not going to hold long," I say out loud. “I hope that bear doesn’t figure out the pull doors.” I have to find a way out before it does.
