Smell a Rat Update #11

The doors led them through to a densely packed lobby, where stairs leading into the building’s ventilation network served the majority of the individuals there, who all crowded and shuffled up the stairs to get to the lower levels of the building, where most of their offices were located, and a bank of lifts that came and went with frequency to whisk others up to the higher floors where hotels and fancy restaurants were hidden away.

The noise in here was quite stifling and Milo saw Floyd begin to retract into himself like he had done in the train station, surrounded by the constant humming and ringing and clatter.

A perky bell sound signalled the arrival of one of the four lifts that formed the bank of doors on the left side of the room, from which a large group of rodents poured out, each of them falling just short of elbowing and shoving each other out of the way.

But of the two ways to ascend the building, a third, single door stood between them, unmarked save for a warning scrawled on it in paint and unused by any of the crowd that passed them by.

It was this door that Floyd opened with the master key.

The door opened on to the shaft for the lift that ran up the centre of the building and once Floyd closed the door behind them, only a dim fluorescent light provided anything to see by.

No mouse, rat or human was ever supposed to be down here unless maintenance was required to the lift, and therefore, in contrast to the rest of the building, the bottom of the shaft was just about the only part of the building entirely devoid of any sort of flair or decoration.

It was also singularly the gloomiest place he'd ever been in that wasn't the London underground network.

Two sets of four metal pillars stood next to each other, reaching up from a grubby, concrete floor into the abyss-like heights of the building and which shook subtly once every few seconds along with the mechanical whine that accompanied the lifts descending and ascending.

“Race you” he mused.

He reached into his waistcoat and pulled out the little set of discs that had been hidden away before he left, then fitted the first of them round his left paw and used his right to unspool the cable attached to the battery on his back.

Floyd looked impressed as he fitted the cable into the first disc, then repeated the process until each of his feet and paws bore a little disc that linked to the battery on his back.

He casually leaned backwards and put an arm out behind him to test the device, and found that once he came close enough to the lift’s guide rail, it pulled him towards it with ferocious force.

“One Pitman express going up. See you on thirty six.”

Floyd smiled and walked over to him, then gave him a long, almost pleading look, which he’d come to identify over the years as a look of worry.

He wanted to go with him, but he knew he couldn’t.

“Be careful, Milo” Floyd urged as he turned round and set his other paw onto the rail, tugging hard at it to see exactly how much force he would have to exert to get the little electromagnets to release.

He looked back again to see Floyd still there, watching him as he got ready to climb his way up, still looking at him and silently wishing for his safety.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be up in no time” he said as he pushed the first two magnets up and hopped up, then swung on them to plant his feet squarely on the metal pillar.

The foot-mounted magnets pulled aggressively towards the pillar and stuck firmly, and once he was sure they would hold him, he moved his right arm up to begin the climb.

“Wait” Floyd called to him, then slipped the key he’d taken into his back pocket, “good luck.”

“You too” he said, glancing back again to see Floyd moving back to the foyer, then he hunkered down and pushed with both of his legs to climb up.

By the time he reached the ground floor, Floyd had closed the door and the only thing keeping him company was the indistinct murmur of the humans that milled around in the building.