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Speaker 1: Fast Food Horror is an abbey normal production.

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Speaker 2: Welcome listeners to Fast Food Horror. In this episode entitled

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The Shaft, a poor cold soul is in search shelter,

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but he has found something quite different.

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Speaker 1: Is there anything better than getting paid for doing absolutely nothing?

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I don't mean that you are actively avoiding work, Nor

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do I mean you're engaged in some mundane task that

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requires no thought, or being assigned to guard an empty

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parking lot or an abandoned building. I mean being tasked

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to do us something that requires positively absolutely nothing. That

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is what you are expected to do nothing. Currently, I

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am engaged in such work to do nothing. It is

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the benefit of my position. I am a trainer for

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great expectations tours a bus company here in Buffalo. I

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train new bus drivers to attain their commercial driver's licenses.

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That is not the non work position. The non work

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comes at the end of the driver's training. On the

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day of the road test. I am testd with escorting

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them to the road test in a company bus to

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the Niagara Falls test location. Then, because I cannot be

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on board the bus during the test to wait for

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them to complete it, it could be done in five minutes.

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It could take the entire hour and a half, and

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or it could be longer, depending on traffic or the

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tester's commitment to thoroughness for the driving portion. It all

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depends on how successful they are in completing each stage

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of the road test. Fall a stage and the test

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is over.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: Most days it's not that bad. When the sun is shining.

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You can sit back and doom, scroll on your phone,

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or bring a book and get some serious chapters in.

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But on winter days like this, with the mist from

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Niagara Falls being carried by the chili winds and covering

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everything in its cold, damp kiss, it can be miserable.

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The location is right along the river, in the old

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factory section of the falls. There is very little in

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the way of wind block and nowhere to walk to

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reasonably close to sit and wait in some warmth. You

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are simply left to sit and wait and pray you

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wore enough layers. I figured the best way to stay

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warm was to stay in motion, so I began to

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pace the perimeter of the large parking lot. But after

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fifteen minutes my face already started to feel the bitter

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bite of the wind. After twenty five minutes, I was

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already damp with mist, and after thirty minutes I was

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regretting even coming in. Today, I started my fourth lap

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of the lot and started to wonder if the abandoned

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rust bucket of a storage container in the back corner

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would offer any semblance of a wind block. On approach,

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I could hear the wind whistling through its many holes,

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and knew even before I made my way around its

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corner that I had not found salvation. My clothing being

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damp all the way through, was also not helping. I

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was cold, freezing, and was only thirty minutes in. I

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still had to make it perhaps another hour. My back

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against the container wall, I noticed there was a brush

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line to the right, and just beyond the brush line,

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hidden by their branches and leaves, a row of concrete

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jersey barriers, the kind they put in the middle of

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the highway. There was just four of them. If the

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ground was dry on the other side, I could sit

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behind those and at least keep warm out of the

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wind's chilly embrace. I walked over, my arms clutched around myself,

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and found that not only was there a line of them,

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but there was more of them forming a square, and

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in the middle of the square a four by four

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foot shaft leading down, with a ladder attached on the

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far side of the shaft stone wall. I didn't know

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how I'd never noticed this, perhaps because most times when

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I've been up here, the sun was shining and I

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remained in the middle of the parking lot, never traveling

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anywhere else, never exploring the perimeter. I wondered how this

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wasn't covered by a manhole cover or a metal plate

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of some sort. Clearly this was a safety issue, but

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my mind started spinning. The wheels started turning. Where did

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the ladder lead? I knew this parcel of land had

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been abandoned for some time, at least as far as

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I could remember of my forty nine years. The brush

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clearly hid the shaft. I stepped up on one of

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the jersey barriers, now only about five feet from the hole,

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and I tried to gain a better perspective. The ladder

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seemed to just keep going down. I took out my

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phone and extended it out over my body and took

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a picture, then brought the phone back up to my

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face to see what I had captured. I could see

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about twenty rungs before all that was left to see

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was darkness. If I'm being honest, I'm on the heavier side,

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about five ten and pushing the scale well over two

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hundred thirty pounds. The ladder looked well worn. I'm not

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sure I trusted its stability, but my curiosity went over.

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I stepped down off the jersey barrier and walked up

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to the hole. I lowered myself onto my stomach and

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extended my phone over the opening of the shaft with

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a flashlight on. The ladder was definitely old. It was

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well constructed, though, and did not look as fragile as

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I once thought. I then looked straight down to the hole,

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into the darkness, extending my arm into it as far

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as I could, trying to see how far it went down.

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I lost count of the metal rungs and could not

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see the bottom. I wasn't yet willing to travel down

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the ladder to test its structural integrity, but my curiosity

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was not yet satisfied. What was down there and how

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far did it extend? What was its purpose? I got

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to my feet. I needed some way to explore the

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shaft without going into the shaft. If only I had

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something to lwer my phone into the shaft, securely, I

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sprung to my feet and walked back to the storage container.

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Perhaps there was something within. I opened the door, and

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its ancient hinges creaked as it opened wide. Various hand

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tools were inside, shovels, spades, brooms, pickaxes and such. Multiple

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stacks of orange cones lying in one corner. A workbench

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was attached to the inside of the container. Hammers, nails,

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screwdrivers and screws, none of which would be useful. But

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then I found it exactly what I was hoping to

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find in a container of tools, a spool of twine.

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I snatched it up, and as I walked out of

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the container, began tying my phone to one end. I

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slipped over the jersey barrier and onto my stomach yet again,

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and extended my torso.

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Speaker 2: Over the hole.

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Speaker 1: I hit record on my phone with a flashlight on

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and began lwering it slowly down the shaft into the darkness.

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Further and further. I watched the light descend into the

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inky darkness, and then the darkness was all I could

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see and remember. And then as

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Speaker 2: Todd