Keep walking

The first thing you need to remember is to never turn around. If you turn around, you're dead. It had been a long day at the office taking calls from China, sorting through endless stacks of paper, dozing off with my elbows on my clear glass desk. . . definitely time for coffee. I sat up from my new wooden chair feeling stiff. The office lounge was a floor up, and as I walked through the hallways I became increasingly aware that I was the only one left, other than the janitor, whose vacuum I could hear far off down another long hallway. The elevator was shut down for the night to save power, which was when I realized it was past midnight, so I headed for the staircase on the opposite side of the building. The first indication is silence, palpable and thick. Sipping on my coffee I became increasingly aware of the silence. The city never sleeps, and I know that on my drive home I will still get caught up in the bright lights and taxi cabs, but in that small, pale blue room with fake granite countertops and a fridge, which even then, was devoid of a buzz, was supremely silent. It was crushing and deafening and only split open by the small sound of my careful slurps of coffee. Feeling uncomfortable immersed in it , I finally decided to take the cup to go and head back to my office where I would switch on some internet radio and finish signing contracts for some hundred thousand dollar company transaction. The janitor was gone about twenty minutes into my work, but I knew that through the web of security cameras there was a room where two fat men with bags of chips were watching my nightly progress and conversing about their wives or the latest playboy centerfold or maybe even both. Then you begin to feel anxious. The city was as bright as ever that night, and even at 1 A.M people lined the city streets between bars and clubs. My phone rings. It's my wife. 'Hello?' Theres no response, just a burst of static and feedback. At the next stop light I decide to send her a text: Hey babe. twenty minutes out. love you lots! I look up. Where am I. The streets which were once familiar had become a maze of cement and steel. A forest in which I was hopelessly lost. My pulse quickens and my hair stands on end. I keep driving. It gets warmer in my car and the space on the back of my neck begins to itch. I think I'm breaking out on my cheeks. I pull up to another stop light and decide to check my sanity. I pull down the mirror and see my red face beading up with sweat. I wiped it on my sleeve and gaze into my eyes which are dilated and darting in place. Soon things just change. I flip the mirror back up, and now I'm in an industrial and very unfamiliar part of town. It's like blacking out except when I think about it, the memories are vivid. Every right and left turn, every light, every face on the side of the road. God it must be a trend today with the younger generation. All their faces seemed so similar in memory and the black clothing blends together until a single black suit covers them all in the pictures in my head. God I'm so fucking lost in this city. I decided to pull over and ask for directions next to a small cafe up ahead. I pull up to the curb and get out but I notice that the cafe isn't as crowded as I thought it was, in fact it's quite empty. But no matter, I thought I would just walk down the road til I found some young suited to ask for directions. But as crowded as it was up to this point, I can't find anyone. My phone buzzes... I look down.. my phone never buzzed... I'm now somewhere on the edge of town. Now I am panicking because I remember so vividly the faces.... so many faces... and the turns and the walking and the soreness in my bones because I had come so far. The streetlights here are dimmer, and trees are beginning to creep up behind the buildings. Don't look back. I turn in my confusion and I see all those faces... but they aren't many, they are one. One face, one lanky man in a suit, with arms reaching down to its knees which already seam four feet off the ground. His fingers twinge and the shadows of them str