Thomas was running. Running as fast as he possible could, towards what he assumed was the light. After Danielle had left the trash bag in the back, it tipped over on its side, causing the garbage and Thomas to roll over and flatten out. Once he oriented himself, Thomas looked out and saw a familiar sight: the red tile floor. As it turns out, when Danielle was quickly tying the trash bag, she left a gap where the innards could escape. Of course, no one would care enough to do anything about this. It's not like the trash itself was going to escape, it wasn't even animate. However, it this one specific trash bag, there was one animate thing: Thomas. And that's what he was doing right now: running towards the exit. 

Ruth, the dishwasher, was gathering all of the trash bags that had accumulated over the course of the day so far, and was dropping them outside, to take to the dumpster. She started with the bags furthest away from the door, and one by one got more and more bags tossed outside. Meanwhile, inside the closest bag to the door, Thomas continued to run. On multiple occasions he slipped on various scraps of food. Giant slices of half-eaten deli turkey acted as a slide, causing Thomas to trip and fall. A normal-sized puddle of liquid, that to Thomas was a lake, had pooled with the bag tipped over. One on such trip, Thomas was unfortunate enough to slip and fall right into the pool. Not only did this waste valuable seconds Thomas needed to escape, it was disgusting. A mixture of soda, broth, and iced tea, and who knows what else all coating his already soiled body. Thomas was amazed he hadn't puked yet. 

Splashing around, Thomas managed to get out of the pool of liquid and continued on running towards the exit of the bag. Up above, Ruth had only a few more bags to gather up. As Thomas was running, he looked back for the briefest of moments, and in that time he managed to run straight into a large noodle from mac and cheese. Not only did it completely halt his momentum and cause him to fall down, it covered the front of him with old, cold, and gross cheese that was coming off the noodle. At this point, Thomas didn't even care about what was covering him, he just didn't want to become it. The cheese, however, did cause him to slip a few times while getting up, wasting more seconds. He finally managed, and once again broke into a run. By now, his shins were killing him. He had never run this much in his entire life. He knew nothing bad would come of it, but damn did it hurt. All he wanted to do was stop running and take a break, but he knew that would be the end of him.

Up above, Ruth dropped another bag of trash outside, and turned back. There was only one more bag left. She walked over to it, and bent down to pick it up. Down below, Thomas could see the end of the bag. He was right there. Freedom from this trashy hell was right there. But something else was entering that hole as well. It looked like...Fingers!! Someone was picking up the bag! Thomas sprinted all he had, and once he was close enough, he leapt towards the exit. Ruth grabbed the bag from the side, and titled it back right side up. She lifted it up, brought it to the door, and dropped in outside in a nice smack against the hard pavement. She then went to carry them all to the dumpster. What she didn't know, was that one of those bags had one less crumb that it did just a few seconds ago.

Thomas laid on his break, breathing heavily. His legs protesting in pain, he couldn't even more them anymore. But he didn't care. He had escaped that trash bag. He was escaped becoming garbage. Thomas was still Thomas, although he certainly did smell bad at the moment. Catching his break, Thomas thought about what time it was. His phone was the only source of time he had, and that was gone. He wasn't sure how long it had been, but he assumed soon, if it hadn't already past, would be the time his girlfriend Rose would be expecting him. Except he wouldn't be there, and she would be unable to even contact him. Thomas wondered what she would assume, but soon dropped the subject, there was no way he would know at the way things were going. He would explain everything to her once everything was back to normal. If...things ever went back to normal.

Legs still unwilling to move, Thomas laid on the ground even longer. Since he was already soaked, he was unable to tell that the ground itself was covered in a thin layer of water. At his size, the entire floor looked the same, and as such, he wouldn't know what was about to occur. Ruth had just finished taking the rest of the trash to the dumpster, and returned inside. Looking at the floor and seeing it covered with water, she decided it was time to mop it up some so it would dry.  Thomas saw Ruth enter and walk past him. It had been awhile since he'd seen another person from his view on the ground. He had forgotten how huge they looked. She absolutely dwarfed him, making him feel like the crumb he really was. As he had learned from before with Kat, even that close to her face she couldn't hear him, so there would be no way he would be getting anyone to notice him while on the floor. Not to mention what happened the last few times he was here. And also what was about to happen. Being lost in though, Thomas didn't notice the dirty, wet, mop head aiming straight towards him until it was too late. 

Thomas was helpless as the pole sized mop thread slammed and smushed right into him. Due to his size and general stickiness from everything coating him, he was quickly and easily adhered to the thread of the mop. As Ruth began to mop the floor, Thomas was carried along with it. The mop glided smoothly across the floor, evening out the water and allowing it to set and dry. Thomas meanwhile scraped and bounced again the wet floor, feeling each individual bump he came across. If he wasn't already soaked with other liquids, he would have felt that as well, but at this point, it was mostly just cleaning him off.  Back and forth across the floor the mop and Thomas went. It wasn't fun at first, and by the end, Thomas still wasn't enjoying it. Thomas felt himself being lifted high into the air, before settling down as the thread he was stung to dangled in the air.

Once Ruth was finished, she turned the mop over, and set it into the floor drain with the other few mops, and proceeded to go back to her work. A minute or so later she greeted Ellen as she came to the back to get a mop so she could clean the bakery floor. Thomas was still suspended from the mop thread, dangling upside down for what seemed like hundred of feet in the air. Look down, he saw he was placed above the large drain. Possibly worse than the garbage, that was the one place he really didn't want to end up. But, as it so happens, the mop had done it's job well, and removed quite a lot of the sticky solutions that had coated Thomas. As such, he felt himself slowly peeling away from the thread. He knew if he were to fall now, there would be no way he could hold on himself, he would simply plummet. But that thought soon left his mind as he was now staring face to face with his coworker Ellen upside down. She was staring right at him, but she really wasn't, rather simply looking for a mop. And she found one. 

Thomas' world started to move and he was quickly lowered and flipped rightside up again. While Thomas was glad he was freed from the danger of falling into the drain, he knew what was coming. Ellen usually mopped the bakery once it died down, just to clean any dirty spots. It seemed like once more Thomas was about to play the part of the mop. Thomas felt the familiar plop as he and mop squished into the ground, and started being dragged back and forth against the dirty floor. Unlike last time, the floor here wasn't wet, so the constant brushes against the floor were much more unforgiving, and easily knocked the threads of the mop around. It was then no shock when the thread Thomas was still attached to was flicked over and he found himself now staring up at the huge Ellen was she was mopping. That was, until she stopped. Even at his low angle, Thomas could tell she wasn't finished, but after a second of though, he knew why she did, and he was hoping he was nowhere near it.

Thomas had seen it many times before. While Ellen is mopping, if she encounters some patch with a lot of dirt and other stuff stuck to the ground, she always ground the mop into it with her shoe to lift it off the ground. Thomas knew that's what was happening once he saw Ellen take a step towards the mop. But the mop was pretty big, there were lots of places the spot could be, Thomas would be safe. What were the odds the dirt spot was in the exact place Thomas was anyway? Really good.

Although fairly loosened from the repeated mopping, Thomas was still adhered to the mop thread, and could do nothing as the giant sole of Ellen's running shoe descended upon him, all the while he stared into her face, knowing she had no idea what she was about to do to her coworker. Not lucky enough to end up with the gaps in the tread this time, Thomas took the full force of the dirty sole covering his entire body and smashing him into the mop thread. The overpowering scent of rubber was combining with the smell of dirty mop water, but smell was the last thing on Thomas' mind. Ellen started to grind her shoe back and forth right on top of Thomas, smashing him into the mop head, but not pushing him deeper, forcing him to endure more and more as the dirty sole assaulted his body, and ground him repeatedly. It seemed like forever as Ellen's shoe never let up. Back and forth Thomas was forced. He wanted to scream out as the pain was getting a little too hard to bear, but all that he achieved was getting a mouth full of dirty mop water and the taste of rubber coating his tongue. In reality, it was only about ten seconds, but it was one of the longest ten seconds of Thomas'  life. Once Ellen was finished, she lifted her shoe off the mop, taking Thomas with him. This was short lived, however, as he was soon tossed off and landed on the already mopped area in front of her. Thomas was finally free of the mop.

The disgusting taste of rubber and dirty mop water still filling his mouth, Thomas finally puked all over the recently cleaned floor. Thomas' troubles were just beginning, however, as once he got to his bearings and recovered from throwing up. Another pair of shoes appeared around the corner in front of Thomas. A pair of sperry shoes sat in front of him on the floor. Only one person he knew that worked at this time wore those. Looking upward, his suspicions were confirmed. Standing in front of him was his fellow coworker Christine. She had been on break when Thomas first arrived here, but clearly she was back on now and working, as she was quickly approaching Thomas' place on the floor. Remembering the ordeal he went through under Marie's shoe, Thomas instantly broke out in a run as fast as he could. It was futile though, and he knew it, as Christine's massive sperry had already caught up with Thomas and was already making its decent towards his minuscule body.