Waiting for Theodore for any sign of life outside them, Lila poked around the cubicles, the offices, trying to get a sense what might've happened to the workers inside the complex.
Everything looked normal, well, normal in the sense that everything remained in place, with no chaos.
Papers neatly stacked in the trays, pens tucked away in cups, expired coffee in mugs sitting on the desks, nothing suggesting a sort of calamity took place here, but something's clearly amiss, and whatever happened isn't evident, if they never gotten that partial call or found Wilbur, well, it'd look like everyone just upped and left.
Which, made Lila wonder and she searched through the desks, looking for anything, and to her surprise, there's keepsakes tucked away.
A woman's purse left in her desk, complete with a wallet that had the woman's driver license in it, accompanied by some money and plastic.
There's a family photo in the plastic slit inside the wallet, she had two children, about six and nine.
Lord only knows what became of the woman and if her family clung to the hope, she's alive.
Seeing everything ranging from wallets to purses left at their desks, made it all more apparent that nobody left the complex.
Another set of questions without answers for them to solve.
That many people couldn't just disappear like that without someone outside finding about it, it'd be national news, there'd be people by the dozen outside the complex protesting with police keeping them away. Helicopters, dogs, everything out looking for these people, you name it, but here they are with no one outside protesting for answers.
With the hidden hallways behind the medicine cabinets and an abandoned pushcart with medicine on it, well, that'd explain why no one said anything sooner, but still, someone outside the complex should've realized something wrong when four thousand people suddenly go silent.
Theodore's apprehensive about it, too, that many people and nobody leaked information, impossible, but more impossible that whoever attempted to call didn't try walking out the doors.
Though, he came to the idea that perhaps they couldn't get out of the complex as easily as he and Lila presumed, else they wouldn't be here, at all.
Scouring for any information, the office looked nothing more than a regular office from the surface, beneath, there's hidden false walls in all the supervisors' offices and behind the cabinets in the break room.
Sitting in one of the rolling chairs, Theodore tells Lila they'll wait for a few more minutes, and if no one shows up then, they'll have to operate under the assumption that they missed the caller or the caller's dead and they've made themselves to whomever kill the caller.
Sitting with him, Lila glimpsed outside the window closest to them, trying to see outside, but the heavy fog kept her from seeing anything but the red spruce trees closest to the complex.
It's quiet outside, couldn't tell if it's raining, there's no animals, haven't seen a bird haphazardly flying through the fog.
Don't know where they are, but with all these spruce trees, Lila assumed they're somewhere out in the country, a little way away from the city, remote.
Her chestnut eyes slowly moved until she found nothing outside the window, moving towards the clocks hanging up in the office above the cubicles, there she sees that all the batteries in the clocks died.
Their hands stopped at different intervals, with them set to different time zones, it's hard knowing how long they've remained like this, though with the expired foods, it's evident they haven't had their batteries swapped in a while.
Theodore kept track of time in his own way, waiting for a sign of something or someone, his icy blue eyes looking towards the staircases and the lift adjacent of them.
If nobody came, Theodore planned on trying to find a way into the hidden hallway, forcibly if needed, and see exactly what's been going on in Durham Industries.
How he planned on doing that, Theodore's got ideas, it's a matter of finding a way.
If this office only had supervisors and workers, there's others, maybe the root of it all went further up, and if they find the boss's office, they'll get a way inside the hidden hallway.
Time's counting down in his head and he's prepared getting up from his spot in the chair, when he and Lila heard noises as there's footsteps echoing.
Someone's telling the other to hurry and instinctively Theodore and Lila gotten up as someone hurried up the staircase with another trailing behind.
They stopped when they spotted Theodore and Lila as they're standing, looking in their direction.
A man and a woman.
Going by their appearance, these were John and Mary.
"Who're you?" John looked at them accusingly as he hastily pulled Mary behind him.
Theodore calmed them down, telling them that he and Lila were there to help them, they heard the attempted phone call.
Exhaling sharply, John rubbed his weary eyes as he said that they couldn't reach out. The phones went dead and they can't even use the internet.
As theorized, they couldn't even escape outside the building through the front door, it's locked, and they can't even break the windows, it's reinforced.
"What happened here?" Theodore asked them and John told him flatly that they don't know more than he did, they've been trying to find answers, and finding nothing but a farce.
Lila asked about Wilbur and John recoiled before telling her that they found him first, sadness in his eyes.
Seeing him tense, Lila asked him what happened, and John swatted the air angrily as he tells her that everything, they knew about the complex's a farce.
He was the first to notice something wrong when he saw duplicated bookmarks at different intervals and it snowballed into them realizing that they've been drugged.
"We saw signs of that too, did you find anyone else?" Theodore inquired if the two found others, dead or alive, and John responded that they've been looking everywhere.
Except Sykes, they haven't found anyone, and he doesn't think they would've upped and left him and Mary behind.
"Who runs this place?" Lila asks them and they told her that it's Harold Fitzgerald, he runs the complex.
Theodore asks about his office and John says that it's on the other side of the complex, they haven't gotten that far looking there.
"Our badges restrict us to this part of the complex, we don't go outside our area unless it's important," Mary tells them that the badges they carry kept them in this section of the complex with the lines.
Their boss worked in a different area and like here, people who worked in that area never came down here for any reason unless it's important.
"Right, did you notice anything else strange?" Theodore asked if they noticed anything else that looked out of place and John said that he couldn't be sure.
Feeling comfortable enough that he let Mary stand beside him, John tells Theodore, "We've been repeating the same day. How could've I not have realized that Sykes died, I talked to him every day, practically."
With the revelation of them being drugged, it made John second guess himself, worse, he wondered how much of it was him unknowingly repeating the same day and how much of it was a drug daze.
He talked to Sykes, er, Wilbur, constantly, and seeing his body, he couldn't be dead no longer than weeks.
Tops.
Yet, John remembered conversing regularly while they worked on the line.
Vividly, he might add.
"How about you?" Lila asked Mary how she felt and the petrified woman said that she remembered everyone in the cafeteria, all eating and sitting around the table talking to each other, and when they started coming off the drug, they realized that there's nobody in the cafeteria like they've experienced.
Curious, Theodore asked what type of sort of business Durham Industries was and John answered that it's a factory, they manufacture equipment for other companies, and people like John and Mary sort where the packages went.
"What sort of equipment?" Lila's curious and Mary explained to her that it's equipment made to order.
A company gives the specifics to Durham Industries, they manufacture it, and ship it out, it changes daily.
One company gave specifics for a handheld CO2 detector for mining, Durham Industries produced it, people like John and Mary make sure it goes to the right line so it goes on the trucks for delivery.
It's like a made-to-order factory.
"Right, nothing of questionable sort?" Theodore pressed for answers as he rubbed his eyes, as he did, John responded that the complex couldn't produce anything extreme like a nuclear vessel.
Any government contracts, that goes to the sister complex, Alex Industries, that's geared more for government contracts than Durham Industries, and it's set up differently.
Over there, there's checkpoints at every interval, security guards at every section, it's heavily restrictive, and nobody gets a job there without heavy scrutinizing from everyone.
"They go through your entire life before they think about hiring you. I got rejected from there," Mary admitted that she went to work for Alex Industries, but they turned her away because she failed their checks.
Curious, Lila asks why they rejected her application, and uneasily, Mary admitted, "I… might've gotten caught with something I shouldn't."
In little words, Mary admitted when she was younger, she gotten caught with the devil's lettuce, but because it was her first offense, they were lenient with her, and she managed to scrap by with a warning.
Even if it didn't end up on her record, never formally charged, and she never did it again, Alex Industries turned her away, never gave specifics, as was their nature, and she ended up working for Durham Industries, since it's not as restrictive as the former.
"I couldn't work there if I wanted," John admitted that even he couldn't work for Alex Industries, either.
Not because of a similar incident, more of personal beliefs that conflicted with Alex Industries' goals, that Durham Industries was the lesser of two evils.
"I see. Would they have connections with each other, by chance?" Theodore inquired if the two complexes worked together on anything and John informed him that they preferred keeping things segregated.
He explained it as, "Mostly, it's for PR sake, since not a lot of people like Alex Industries, but they don't work together. If they get equipment, they don't get it from us."
Rather risk the chance of a PR nightmare and sparks of protests, the complexes didn't do business with each other, even if they're under the same banner.
Besides that, it's easier than having to go through staggering checkpoints because the Alex Industries didn't want anything getting out.
Even if it's just a standard handheld for check temperatures on canisters, they didn't want anyone slipping information out.
"One thing's bothering me, though. Durham Industries doesn't manufacture medication or anything like that, right?" Lila wanted to know the extent of what it manufactured and baffled when Mary informed her that they weren't a pharmaceutical company, they don't even have the proper paperwork to make anything as simple as ibuprofen.
If they even tried, the whole complex would've been under scrutiny.
"And, what about Alex Industries, would they manufacture medication?" Theodore inquired that if not Durham, would Alex Industries.
Thinking to themselves, John and Mary shared a look, before John told Theodore that he doesn't know.
They're highly restrictive of their information, that if they did have clearance manufacturing medications, he or Mary wouldn't know.
In fact, if they did, they likely wouldn't even tell their own employees what they're manufacturing. They're not fond of anyone getting the full picture without a reason.
"Hold on, can you leave the complex, at all, and go wherever, maybe pick up groceries or does the complex let you order in?" Lila slightly detracted from the conversation about Alex Industries as she wanted more information regarding how the people working in Durham Industries stays fed when the cafeteria's closed.
John tells her that before, they're able to leave the complex, and go into the nearest town for supplies. That's what made Durham Industries different from Alex Industries, the latter's restrictions made it hard for people working there even going far as getting petrol on their breaks without a pat down.
"And Durham doesn't deliver?" Lila continued asking about how the employees sustained themselves while working and it seemed like Durham Industries' liberal in letting them leave on errands.
Since they're not allowed to handle or manufacture medication, it meant they couldn't even hand deliver medication manufactured outside the complex to someone working.
Employees have to let the main office know that they're on prescription, yes, but they can't accept deliveries with even so much as ibuprofen or the laws get in a twist.
Disabled employees have special assigned carriers that bring them their medications, but as far as what Lila's asking, that's legally impossible.
"Well, enough chatter, let's say we scatter, and see what else we're able to find," Theodore deemed they learnt sufficiently enough that it's time for them to move onward from the office and search for answers for their other questions, this perturbed him greatly.
With John and Mary acting as their guides, the two searched for hidden entrances, seeing how perfect the fake doors looked, no doubt the hidden entrances didn't look out of place.
While they're walking, Theodore reached out to Al, asking him to find anything on Alex and Durham Industries, regarding any sort of agreements, what Alex Industries produces, and where it goes.
The usual.
"Aye aye, captain!" Al teased Theodore and he audibly groaned hearing Al copying Lila's teasing.
He's not his brother, damn it!