The elevator doors open, and I step into a pitch-black void. The elevator's light spills into the abandoned office floor, just enough to see my reflection in the wall-to-wall windows. The dense fog outside intensifies the isolation, making me feel like the only person in the world. I can't finish the route if I'm creeped out, so I stop staring and get to work.
"Goddamn management won't even let me turn the lights on," I grumble to myself, pulling out a flashlight and checking the floor's distant corners.
"A midnight security check should at least justify paying the electric bill, even though the whole building's empty now. All I have is one damn flashlight, and it's already taken me a few hours to finish the main floors. At least it's only the basements left."
I return to the elevator and hit the button for Sub-Basement 0. The elevator doors close, but nothing happens.
"Now a button is broken? Better note that one down for maintenance."
The floor jolts, and my stomach flutters. A moment later, the elevator starts working again, descending towards my intended destination. My light-headedness doesn't stop, and I grab onto a handrail to steady myself.
"Huh? I still feel disoriented. Did I not eat enough before work?"
Ding.
The doors open, revealing an all-yellow room. Old fluorescent lights buzz overhead, illuminating faded mono-yellow wallpaper and tan carpet. I walk in, and cringe as my boots squeeze grimy puddles out of it.
"Oh god, has anyone changed this carpet in the last decade? It's completely soaked. And why are these lights on? Did the higher-ups decide to take pity on me for once?"
As the elevator doors close, I check the map next to them. These sub-basements haven't been renovated since they were laid down, so they actually have rooms instead of open floor plans. I don't have a map, so it's good to check this one just in case.
"Wasn't this floor supposed to be for heating and water treatment? This layout doesn't match the map. Where are the boilers and pipes?"
After a quick check of the sub-basement, it's obvious that something is up. Nothing on the map is actually here, only randomly-placed open rooms. What the hell is going on here?
"Well, shit, I might as well check this floor anyway. Incorrect maps are a big problem, so the guy working here before me must have been pretty terrible at his job."
There's no obvious way to traverse these rooms, so I just stick to the right wall, treating this floor like a maze. The longer I walk, the more confused I get. Almost none of the rooms have doorways, they're connected by huge floor-to-ceiling gaps. There are twisting hallways, long narrow dead-end rooms, and nothing resembling a central corridor. Is this all supposed to be an actual maze?
Dazed by the constant buzzing of the lights, I keep walking, letting the yellow scenery seep into my brain. After a while, I snap out of it, and realize how long it has been. Even in a building this big, it shouldn't take an hour to check one floor, no matter how convoluted it was.
What if this just goes on forever?
"No, no, get a hold of yourself," I shake my head. "If I'm having trouble checking the whole floor in one sweep, I can come back after checking the others."
Deciding on this, I follow the wall back towards the elevator, arriving after another hour of walking. I turn the final corner, and find an empty room.
"Wait… what?"
The elevator is gone. So is the map that was next to it. There's nothing but a bare wall.
"I couldn't have taken a wrong turn. I kept my hand on this wall the entire time so I wouldn't get lost. This is definitely the room where I started… right?"
There's still another room ahead of me, so I keep going, barely keeping my hand on the wall. I turn left, right, left again. Still nothing.
I start feeling nervous, and walk a little faster. Right, left, left, left, straight, left, right…
I start running.
Left, right, straight, right, right… dead end.
I sit down and try to get my breathing and panic under control. The flickering lights above me don't make it any easier.
"Shit… I'm lost," I pant. "I thought that was the room where the elevator was, but I must have walked further than I thought. I must have covered almost all of this floor by now, so it must be nearby. Just a little further, and I'll see it."
I take out my phone, and check the connectivity. There's no signal below this much concrete. That figures. I'll just turn it off for now.
"Damn it, I wish I'd brought a water bottle. I'm thirsty."
After a minute, I get up and keep following the wall. I suppress the urge to run, but the feeling of being trapped keeps intensifying. After another ten minutes, I can't ignore it anymore.
"How is this sub-basement so big? I only followed one path, but I've already covered more ground than should be possible. On that hour-long walk away from the elevator, I must have gotten at least a mile away from the building. Wouldn't the city's sewers get in the way before that? How big could this level be?"
I keep walking. More rooms, more hallways, spreading out who knows how far in all directions. This is already freaking me out. What if I don't find the elevator again? Will I be able to find a stairway or some other exit?
What if I'm trapped here forever?
"Come on, I can't succumb to fear. I need to keep going. There has to be an exit. There has to be. After going so far, I'll probably find one right around the-"
The lights overhead cut out. After a brief startle, I chuckle to myself.
"Well, these fluorescent lights are all pretty old. I'm surprised none of them have stopped working until now. I can still see just fine with the rest of them."
With my left hand trailing the walls, I keep going. The yellow everywhere is already unremarkable, so I start focusing on sounds. The constant buzz of the lights, and the sound of my footsteps in the damp carpet.
Squish, squish, squish, squish. I'm wearing boots, but it's still nasty to have to walk on wet carpet for so long. As a security guard, I've sometimes had to work in dirty locations, but there's just something about wet carpet that gets to me.
"I'm totally lost right now, but if I keep going, I'll get to the end," I keep telling myself.
After another twenty minutes of going squish, squish, squish, I stop to rest, and lean against the wall.
Squish, squish.
I freeze.
"What…? Am I hearing things?"
I didn't hear anything loud enough to be sure, and I don't know where the source could be. I stare at the two passageways connected to this room for a long time, but I can't hear or see anything else.
"Am I too nervous?" I bite my lip and cross my arms, unwilling to relax.
After another hour or so, I get over it and continue walking. I don't notice anything other than more yellow rooms, so I must have been imagining it. I start getting hungry, but I don't have anything to eat. There's nothing to do but keep going.
It's been eight hours. I haven't found any exit, and I'm getting lightheaded. Not only did I not bring food or water, the loud fluorescent lights are giving me a headache. I'm tired. I need to rest.
How long has it been? About fifteen hours since I first entered this level? I was supposed to go home fourteen hours ago, and go to sleep twelve hours ago. Instead, I'm stuck here. I'm so tired. A full twenty eight hours awake, traveling for twenty of them. It's getting hard to think straight, and I keep passing out whenever I stop moving. Maybe the lights will go out for a while, and I can get some sleep.
"What?!" I jolt awake. "Did I hear that again?"
The rooms look the same as always. There is nothing different.
"I'm hallucinating. There's nobody around here but me. I'm just low on sleep."
I slowly get up, and sway unsteadily. I force myself to keep searching, for an exit, somewhere I can rest, anything.
Is the lack of food and water hitting me hard too? I've only gone twice since I got here, and I actually considered doing a Bear Grylls, but I'm not that desperate yet. It scares me to think that I might get to that point soon.
I found a hallway with dead lights, and I got an hour of sleep before they turned back on. I can't tell how much time is passing without my watch anymore. Good thing it lasts longer than a phone.
Two full days since I got here, and I think I've doubled back on myself. I found my boot prints going the other way. That must mean I'm making progress. I have to keep going.
I've gotten too thirsty. I had to drink my piss earlier. It was horrible, but it wasn't enough. I sucked some moisture out of the carpet. I hope it won't mess me up.
It's been four days now. I've gotten a few more hours of sleep, but I still can't stay awake for more than a few minutes. The buzz is too loud. The lights are too loud. I mean bright. I can't think straight.
More walking. More walk.
Are those footprints in the carpet? Bare feet? I haven't taken my boots off since I got here. Wait, it's just puddles, and they're gone now. Did I cross my path again? Was that another hallucination?
Squish. Squish. Squish. I hear it even when I'm not walking. Sometimes in the room to the left, or to the right, or behind me. Getting further away, or closer. I just ignore it now. I've seen and heard crazy stuff already, so why should I be worried? It's all in my head. I just need to sleep.
Fzzz. Complete darkness. Complete silence.
"Ahhh, finally, a lot of lights have gone out. Now I can sleep."
Squish. I lay down, fading fast.
…
Squish, squish, squish, squish, squish, SQUISH, SQUISH, SQUISH
This is based on the Backrooms creepypasta. I saw the psychological horror potential in Level 0, and tried to bring that out with minimal supernatural stuff (just the rooms themselves, actually). This was great writing practice, and I got so immersed in it that I terrified myself lol. I might write more about the Backrooms, or maybe I'll just move on to something else.