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Journal: Majestic Garage

Hole in the wall
Four storeys underground, I found a place that was a few bricks short of a wall.
Empty garage
On the other side, the huge parking garages were dimly lit, undecorated and abandoned.
Majestic condominium construction site (early March 2003): I was a little early to meet Liz and Persephone for dinner, so I decided to visit one of the many dozens of condos being vomitted into existence in the area. The nearest condo, the Majestic, was barricaded with only an amateurish collection of boards and fences, but unfortunately there was a guy sitting in a truck watching the whole scene. I strolled past the easiest looking access points and headed around the back.
       Here I was distracted from my goal when I noticed that the building beside the one I was interested in had a door with no handle that had accidentally been left slightly ajar. I am a sucker for a good handleless door that has been left slightly ajar. Prying this open and stepping inside, I found myself at the top of an emergency exit staircase connected to a condo garage. I headed down to the lowest level, P4, and wandered around, almost glad that I hadn't found anything too interesting, since I was due for dinner in about 10 minutes. In the back corner of the parking garage, however, there was a little unmarked corridor that led to a cinder block wall that was a few bricks short of being a full wall. I climbed through, and emerged into a huge area of empty concrete, destined to one day serve as parking garages.
 

Ventilation shaft Elevator shaft
Looking up the ventilation shaft, and looking up the under-construction elevator shaft, from five storeys down.
 
       For now, however, it was just endless concrete void, dimly lit, undecorated and abandoned, with lots of chaotic dead ends where the builders had apparently changed their minds in mid-construction, and I briskly strolled through it with a big smile on my face. To my surprise, when I came to a staircase, I found that it went down as well as up. The door at the bottom, marked P5, was locked, but fortunately it had not yet been properly attached to its hinges, so I gently removed it from the frame and set it aside. On P5, I found the bottom of an under-construction elevator shaft, a mechanical room and an open hole in the floor looking down on a medium-sized-trench filled with rapidly flowing water. I also climbed up to take a look at a huge ventilation area that served the entire five-storey garage. Then I realized I was probably quite late.
       Hoping to see a little more on my way out, I headed up and out via the car ramps, finding that there were more and more signs of human life the closer I got to the surface, though fortunately no actual humans. Coming to the minor barricades that I had first wandered past on my way around back, I peeled away some wire holding my fence into place, quickly did it back up, and hurried off to dinner, where I found I was only about 20 minutes late.
 
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