The Silence

After waiting for a little longer, K. decided that he would search the room for some kind of a door. If he failed in finding a way out, at least he would attract the attention of the voice and regain communication. K. ran his fingers across the walls and glass to find a niche or crack to indicate a passageway of some kind. He was careful to run his hands from as high as he could reach, to where the wall and floor converged. K. could not find a niche where a mouse may have access to the room. K. had no luck in his efforts. After trying to establish communication with the voice once again, K made another attempt at escape by pulling on the light structures and pushing on the glass walls. Neither budged.

K’s next attempt was to see if he could find any means of escape through the ceiling. He stood on the examination table. With this added height, K. could reach the ceiling. He knocked on the ceiling to try and find weak spots. He knew that it would be useless to try and break through a solid beam. K. could hear that to the left of him, the sound was hollow. K. immediately got off of the examination table, and moved the table to where the sound was a bit more shallow. He stood on the table, banging at the ceiling in vain. It would not crack.

K. decided that the best thing to do would be to move the examination table back to it’s original spacing. That way, whomever was “constantly” watching him, would think he remained where he was when they last spoke to him. K. got off the table and tried to push it back, when that didn’t work, he stood at it’s side to pull it out of its locked position. He was about to pull it into position when his foot got caught. Did he get caught in a wire? He didn’t recall seeing a wire hanging from the table, perhaps he failed to recognize it.

K. looked at his foot and realized that it wasn’t caught, but rather stuck in a hole that existed under the examination table. He laughed aloud as he pushed the table away from himself to release his foot. To his surprise, the hole was only slightly smaller than the examination table itself. K. used all of his energy to move the table further and further from the hole. While moving the table, he learned that the hole was not merely a hole, but a staircase.