Newmark Lab

I went to an open house at the Civil Engineering Building (Newmark Lab) and was touring the facilities on the main floor along with a crowd of people.  I noticed a one man elevator along a hallway off to the side and went to check it out.  I pushed the down button, not because I wanted to go down, but because I was curious about what it looked like inside and I had to push a button to get the door open.  It was about the size of a dumbwaiter, maybe two feet square, and about eight feet tall. 

Of course it closed almost as soon as I got in and it started to drop.  At this point I realized there was no light in it and as the light from above faded away it got very dark.  It wasn’t dropping fast, but it seemed like it must have gone down at least fifty feet before it came to a stop.  I got out and was in a very mechanical area with bare concrete all around, lots of pipes and pumps and motors and electrical gear.

I was looking around for a bathroom when I heard two women coming down some metal stairs.  I knew I wasn’t supposed to be there, so I started looking for a likely place to hide.  Not that I was particularly worried about getting caught, but I didn’t want to scare them – you know, the creepy guy hanging out in the dark.  I had hardly moved from when I first heard them, though, when one of them looked directly at me and started asking me questions, like, “How much amperage is available here?” and “What is the lifting capacity of these hoists?”  I realized they thought I worked here, so I started guessing and making things up.  They seemed fine with my answers and when on about their search.  I hadn’t seen the stairs until their noise drew me to it, but now I figured I would use them to leave.