Holding Pattern, Sublevel 3 (Version 2)

Verse

Floor light stuck on sublevel three

Cage door rattles, waits on me

Cable groans behind the wall

Counterweight won't rise or fall

Keycard blinks its red refuse

Intercom hums useless news

Numbers climb but never land

Four, then three, then three again

Pre-Chorus

Tell the shaft to let me through

Tell the cable where to pull

Tell the light to pick a floor

I've counted every one before

Chorus

Sublevel three, hold the line

Sublevel three, one more time

Doors won't open, doors won't close

Sublevel three, nobody knows

Verse

Vent fan ticking overhead

Dust falls soft where the bulb's gone dead

Steel walls sweat in the standing air

Nothing moves, but I'm still here

Buzzer cuts and buzzer starts

Same dead current, same stalled cart

Watch the numbers blink and lie

Three still holding, no goodbye

Pre-Chorus

Tell the shaft to let me through

Tell the cable where to pull

Tell the light to pick a floor

I've counted every one before

Chorus

Sublevel three, hold the line

Sublevel three, one more time

Doors won't open, doors won't close

Sublevel three, nobody knows

Bridge

Somewhere up there, shift bells ring

Somewhere up there, nothing

Down here the current just repeats

A steady pulse with no release

The cage don't fall, the cage don't rise

It just keeps counting sublevel three

Chorus

Sublevel three, hold the line

Sublevel three, one more time

Doors won't open, doors won't close

Sublevel three, nobody knows