It was coming from the corridor to the left. The passage with the elevator at the end. Christine dashed toward the elevator, and to her disturbance the doors were open. The shaft was barren. Christine wondered if the thunderous noise she heard previously was the elevator dropping, but ruled it out, for an elevator would cause more noise than that.

Christine sped to the end of the hall, and peered down the shaft into the forbidding cellar. She couldn't recall the Gorplex building containing a basement. Maybe it was a storage facility, or an underground maintenance domain. But to Christine, it felt corrupt, almost as if clandestine crimes were transpiring beneath her. There wasn't a crashed elevator at the bottom, so she looked up. All she saw was the hanging cables. It was as if the elevator just disappeared.

Christine thought about crawling down the shaft to explore the basement. She searched the walls for a ladder, or footholds of some sorts, and found nothing that would help her down there. The only way down was to jump. If it was necessary, she would do it, but for now, she wanted to search the rest of the building. Christine climbed up from her knees, and turned away from the elevator. As she did, she heard a voice. She couldn't make out what it was saying, so she spun around, and knelt but the hole once again.

"Who's there?" she asked to the darkness. No answer.

"Who's down there?" she wondered out loud.

She heard a faint voice, that seemed like it was straining just to say that much. She still couldn't tell what it was saying.

"What did you say?" she asked. "Christine." The weak voice chilled her.

"Who are you?"

"It's me, Christine."

"Gary?" she questioned the source. "Get help." He sounded hurt.

"Help? What happened? Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm not hurt. Get help."

"What kind of help? An ambulance?"

"The Sheriffs."

"The sheriffs? Why? What happened? Did you fall?"

"Christine, don't ask questions now. Just go to the sheriffs office, and get help. I'll be right here when you get back."

"I'll call them on the phone. Then I'll come right back."

"Christine?"

"What?"

"I love you."

"Oh, Gary, I love you too." Christine knelt near the elevator shaft for a moment, and when Gary sensed that she was still here, he told her to go. She climbed to her feet and hesitated. She didn't want to leave him down there alone. What if he was hurt, and wouldn't make it long enough for the sheriffs to come? He wouldn't have told her to go if he didn't think he would make it. She had to trust him.

She ran back to the lobby, and tried to open the door to the main desk. It was locked. She would have to use an office. She ran down the hall opposite of the elevator, and tried the first door. The door was locked. She ran down the hall, turning doorknobs, but found no open doors. Gary was right, she would have to go straight to the office.

The sheriff's office was on the opposite side of the town, and Christine knew she couldn't run all the way there in less than a half hour. She would have to find a ride. Christine threw open the outside doors o the Gorplex building, an jumped down the stairs. None of the houses nearby looked as if they were occupied. The porch lights were dark, and the drapes were drawn. The residents would most likely be sleeping, but the thought of desertion still entered he mind. At this moment, Christine felt as if she was alone in the world. She kept running down the street, in search of lights. At the first intersection, she stopped and looked both ways in search of life. The night was still in both directions. The next street would most likely be the same. But Main Street was two blocks further, and Christine suspected that an all night casino would have help. She took off with speed, and didn't even slow down at the next crossroad.

Main Street looked eerie, and Christine wondered if it was the time of night, her imagination, or an unseen force like the one that propelled her to the office building.

To her right there was an all night casino that was usually used as a drinking spot for tourists and men with marital problems. The other businesses were closed. To her left, a service station was open, but there were no customers. What Christine was looking for is people. People with cars. If she went to the casino, and found a drunken man to drive her to the Sheriff's station, she might not make it, but if she waited at the gas station for anyone to come, she might be there all night, so she might as well have walked. She opted for the drunk driver, and turned right. Near the entrance of the casino was a homeless man sleeping in the bushes. If she was homeless, she would have found a more suitable place for rest considering people would be coming in and out of here all night, and none of them would be in their right mind enough to even throw him a penny. She felt like kicking him over and over agian, and telling him to get a job. She walked up to the man, and picked him up. His rancid breath almost knocked her on her butt, and that enraged her. She threw him against the wall. When she heard the thud of his head against the brick, she shuddered. She walked over to him and kicked him in the chest. She was hoping to kill him, not quickly, mind you, but slow and painful. She kicked him in the stomach repeatedly, and when she thought he was hurting enough, she dragged him by his feet over the concrete sidewalk, down the gutter, across the paved road, and into the backyard across the street. She threw him to the ground while she opened the shed. She ran inside, and yanked the axe off of the peg board wall. She ran outside to the homeless man, and took out all her frustrations of the night on him. She held the axe high above her head, howled at the moon as if she was a wolf, and brought it down on his head. Half his skull flew one way, and blood and brain tissue flew everywhere. She swung the axe up in the air again and brought it down on his neck. His arteries spurted blood out of his decapitated body. She brought the weapon up again, and hit him across the chest. She exposed his stationary heart, but that wasn't good enough. She continued to raise the axe in the air, and chop his body to pieces. When he was so mutilated that she couldn't tell which part of his body went where, she walked off leaving a bloody mass of flesh behind. She felt so refreshed. Christine forgot about her husband in the basement, and went in search of another homeless person. Tonight, Christine would dramatically lower the homeless population. If it was up to her, she would get rid of the problem altogether.