The Elevator - Chapter 4
Good with Her Hands
Hello! The Elevator is a weekly serial featuring some adventure, sci-fi, and romance. New chapters come out every Wednesday and Saturday.
Previously: Quinn and Haley continue getting to know one another as they ponder their predicament. Quinn performs some ninja warrior moves to explore what lies above the elevator while Haley spots her. After finding no way out from above the elevator, Haley wonders why they just haven’t tried to open the doors.
Trigger warning: Images of violence
Chapter 4
Haley stood in front of the elevator doors and pried her fingers into the seam where they met. She tried to pull them apart.
“Would you like help?” Quinn offered.
“Nah, I got this,” Haley said.
She rolled up her sweater sleeves and repositioned her stance, feet wider to brace herself. Quinn could see her forearm muscles contract as she tried to wrench the doors open.
Haley put her hands on her hips and paused to breathe. “They’re tight and heavy.”
“Maybe if we both just tried,” Quinn said. She frowned at her phone before pocketing it. The time read 8:15am.
Haley positioned her fingers on the left door while Quinn grabbed the right one.
“On the count of three,” Haley said.
The doors budged and Haley and Quinn pushed their respective door open. Quinn wondered if they would slide back to a closed position, but they seemed firmly in place.
“One set down, one to go,” Quinn said.
They stood in front of the opening, cement blocks in front of their faces. The elevator car was in between floors and the doors to the eighth floor were below them. If they could pry them open, they would have to jump down from the elevator into the eighth floor landing.
Haley assumed her prying position and groaned with the effort.
Quinn stood back and suppressed a smile. She had a penchant for tenacious women.
“Maybe it needs both of us again,” Haley said. Quinn nodded.
But the doors didn’t move.
At the top of the door frame was a track lined with levers and bolts. Haley pressed and pulled any piece of steel that looked malleable. She found a lever that moved directly above the center line of the doors.
“Try pulling the doors when I lift this,” Haley said.
Quinn knelt in front of the doors and wedged her fingers in the seam. The doors slid open. They could see the tile of the eighth floor landing a few feet below them.
“Nice job,” Quinn said.
“What can I say? I’m good with my hands,” Haley smirked. “From playing guitar, of course.”
Quinn sat on the floor, dangling her legs into the eighth floor opening. She threw her work bag and Haley’s backpack purse through the doors and then jumped.
As Haley prepared to drop from the elevator, Quinn gave her a hand. Haley landed close to Quinn throwing them off balance. She threw her arms around Quinn.
The hug steadied Quinn physically but destabilized her nervous system. Fireflies lit her stomach and fluttered up her spine. She would be surprised if there weren’t handprint burn marks on her back later.
She pulled back, “I can’t believe we did it.”
Haley held her gaze, “We’re pretty amazing.”
Quinn looked around to see what the eighth floor offered. It was lit only by amber emergency lights that dotted the hallway every fifty feet.
Cushioned chairs and round coffee tables were in the lobby behind them. An open door on one side led to a kitchen. On the opposite side were two doors with signs marking them as restrooms. The hallways on both sides of the elevator were lined with offices. There was no sound and no evidence of people.
As if reading Quinn’s mind, Haley said, “Everyone probably evacuated.”
“Well, we should join them,” Quinn responded. She pulled her phone from her pocket. “My phone is pretty messed up. It still says it’s 8:15am but we were in there over an hour, right?”
Haley looked at her phone. “Same. Cell towers could have come down in the earthquake. We could always power them off and see if they reset.”
Quinn shrugged, “Let’s find a non-elevator exit.”
“Agree, but first… that coffee ya’ know,” Haley headed toward the women’s restroom.
“Maybe you should write a song about all this,” Quinn mused.
Haley tilted her head and grinned as she disappeared through the door. “Maybe.”
Quinn wandered down the hall to the right of the elevator. Her mind fought the temporal distortion caused by the darkness. At the far end of the hallway, a red exit sign flickered from the ceiling. She passed a glass-walled meeting room, the door open and the table babysitting water bottles and laptops.
Across from the meeting room was another office, the door not fully shut. She pushed it open and felt for the light switch out of habit. The air smelled metallic. The beam from her phone flashlight swept the floor in front of her, illuminating a desk. She arced it upward above the desk.
Hands perched on a keyboard. Attached to arms in a long white sleeve dress shirt. Dark tie knotted at the throat. Head thrown back over the top of the desk chair. Short black hair, mouth gaping, pale skin. Round indentation in the forehead. A dark liquid pooling on the floor under the chair.
Quinn gasped and backed out of the office. She ran to the elevator lobby. Something pulled her to the kitchen. She stood in the doorframe and scanned the room. An emergency light glowed in the far corner. She could see two towering boxes, likely vending machines, and a long table flanked by cafeteria chairs.
Her phone’s flashlight beam was timid. She tiptoed a few steps into the kitchen, keeping her back to the wall and her flashlight held in front of her. A refrigerator, a coffee station, a microwave. A rug in front of the sink.
She angled the light below the sink. It wasn’t a rug. It was a body in the fetal position facing the cabinets. She squatted down and touched the shoulder. Cool, firm, nonresponsive. That same dark liquid circling the head.
Quinn pressed her fist to her lips. What the fuck.
In the distance, a metal door opened and closed.
Clomp. Clomp.
Footsteps slowly marched the hallway. The hair on her arms stood up. She had to get to Haley.
Quinn sprinted across the lobby to the women’s restroom. She held the door as it closed behind her. No lock. Shit.
Haley stared at her while drying her hands at the sink. “What are you doing?”
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