It's a bit late to back out now, though. Maybe you're overthinking it again. The elevator door slides open before you have too much time to think about what's going on.
https://youtu.be/yvMoXc6wnBg - LAYER 1
You can already sense there's something...different about this Layer. There's an almost tangible silence that hangs in the air. It's thick enough that even a knife couldn't cut through.
The walls and floor are made of a pristine, glistening white metal that has been polished to a mirror sheen. You can see your reflection, and, well, you still don't look all that great. Your skin is still the same grey mess it was a few days ago.
You briefly notice that you can and cannot see the Man's reflection. His reflection has been smudged out, leaving only a blurry grey mess in its place.
"yeah, don't worry about that weird smudge." Ashton gestures at the <span class="mu-b">Man's</span> reflection. "that appears from time to time. it's probably a trick of the light."
"Uh huh." Uh huh.
"So, conference room, right?" "oh, yeah, sorry. got distracted."
You follow Ashton and the <span class="mu-b">Man</span> since, well, they probably know more about this place than you do. You take note of the various rooms you pass by, just in case you come through here again. Most, if not all, of the doors are completely unlabeled. Every door you pass by looks the exact same; you couldn't tell any of them apart at a glance.
Even if Layers 2 and 3 were a maze, at least their stuff had labels. Who the fuck works in a place like this? In fact, where is everybody? There should be crowds of people roaming around here, but nope! It's just you, Ashton, and the <span class="mu-b">Man</span>.
You really shouldn't be here. You don't belong here; you can feel it in your bones, but fuck it. You gotta endure this for a few minutes, and then you can leave.
Alright, so there's good news and there's bad news. Good news, you managed to find Liz.
She's standing right in front of a door that, while not labeled, clearly leads to a conference room. There's a long, LONG window made out of tinted glass along the wall the door is resting at. No one's inside the conference room, from the looks of it.
You spot a few filing cabinets inside the conference room. They're labeled, you think, but it's hard to make out from this distance.
Bad news is, uh, Liz is clearly trying to break into the room. She's trying to pick the locked door with a bobbypin and some good ol' fashioned elbow grease. Her body trembles with impotent rage and her breathing is shallow and hectic.
You clear your throat to get her attention
"FUCK!" Liz nearly jumps right out of her skin. She snaps around to face you. Her mouth twists into a nervous, ear-to-ear grin. "Heeeeyyyyy, Vinny, Vinboy, Vinbot. What's going on???" She refuses to look Ashton in the eye, trying to pretend she's not even there.
"what exactly are you doing, 'liz'?" Ashton's voice immediately turns stern and cold.
"Ohhh, you know. That's a funny question."
