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[[File:Hard Times Distillery.png|thumb|right|''DOOLITTLE: The Echo River is fed from Lake Lethe, but you wouldn't recognize a drop of it. Lethe is cold, dark, and so very deep. And still!'']]
While waiting for the ferry, Conway reveals what happened while he was talking with the strangers: he and Shannon had gone via a hidden elevator to an underground [[Hard Times Distillery|whiskey distillery]] staffed by indistinct glowing skeletons, identical in appearance to Conway's new leg. At the distillery, Conway and Shannon meet [[Lem Doolittle|Doolittle]] who mistakes Conway for a new hire as a shipping truck driver. Doolittle gives them a tour, "speaking " only via a tape recorder around his neck. He hells them about The Formula, a revolutionary equation introduced to them by a [[Weaver Márquez|brilliant mathematician]] that allows them to simply plug daily numbers in and run it through an adding machine instead of compounding interest by hand. Doolittle introduces Conway and Shannon to many of the distillery workers, all of whom who fell into debt and were forced to work to pay it off. He tells Conway he hopes he is a better drive driver than [[Miguel]] a truck driver , who got into an [[Act I|accident]] earlier that evening involving bourbon and glass strewn across the interstate. Inspecting the truck he is expected to drive, Conway recalls stories of his past with [[Lysette]] and his former boss [[Ira]] in small vignettes. In one story, he recounts the accident that killed Lysette's son [[Charlie]]: too hungover to perform a roofing job, Charlie took Conway's place and, in performing the work in the hot sun, slipped and fell to his death.
[[File:Adding machine.png|thumb|left|''He removed his hands from the steering wheel for a moment and felt the car drift into a decision. Years later, he'd think of this as the moment he himself started drifting.'']]
On the way back up to logistics, Doolittle tells Shannon and Conway that the black mold from the Hall of the Mountain King is drawn to ethanol fumes which seep through the air into the cavern; not wanting even a drop of whiskey to go to waste, the workers come to scrape it off the machinery. Arriving upstairs, he shows them the adding machine which calculates each day's interest, and tells Conway he is hired, offering him a "shift drink" to mark the occasion. Shannon protests, but Conway, in a daze, cannot resist, and takes a sip of the alcohol (with the game's cursor slowly, automatically moving toward the "Drink" option, outside the player's control). Shannon firmly states that they have a delivery to make and that Conway will not be working for them, but Doolittle notes that the alcohol he just drank was very expensive, not to mention the time he spent giving them the tour. Doolittle says that Conway will start the next day, as the scene blurs and fades to black.
[[File:Mammoth.png|thumb|right|''EZRA: I'm confused. <br />CONWAY: It's just the way these things go, kid.<!-- <br />JUNEBUG: Huh. Well, that still gives us a few hours to roam, right? Where's that ferry?-->'']]
