A Subway Named Mobius (1952)
fadedpage.comThis immediately made me think of the Heinlein story, "And He Built a Crooked House."
Read it here:
http://homepages.math.uic.edu/~kauffman/CrookedHouse.pdf
I couldn't help but visualize Teal and Bailey as 2 black and white actors from some long forgotten 1940's buddy cop movie or something.
The Argentinian film Moebius (1996) [1] is based on that story.
I remember this from childhood and tried to find it several times. Nice story. I think of it often when certain software systems I work on become overly complex.
Available in .mobi format.
If you happen to be familiar with the MBTA, the opening is a treat.
I read it just now because of this comment and it was a joy! I recently read the history of the mbta book, which helped me understand the old names of lines and stations. The fictional network has a few connecting lines that never existed, but every line they actually ride and every station they visit is (or was) real.
The story is very short, highly recommend.
Exactly my experience, thanks for sharing.
I remember being scared by this as a kid.