Falling For You

Shafted

Eli shone her phone light about, and we took in our surroundings. Just above us, on the same wall as the elevator door, was the outer door to the 71st floor. It looked reachable, much like the hatch was, and my heart leapt as the light showed a lever that I hoped would open it from our side. Did they add that in assuming people would be stuck? Or would it be for something else, like maintenance maybe? That probably made more sense.

When Eli lifted her phone and shone it upwards, we still couldn't see what was causing the sparking. It was just too high. But it did illuminate something else. The rear two rails that our elevator was riding up and down were disconnected.

"Holy shit!" I gasped when I saw that.

"Yeah, that was why it shook so much when you fell," Eli commented. "It was a little scary up here for that and watching them wiggle."

"And that is all the motivation I needed to get off this thing!" I stated. I stood slowly, afraid that any fast movement might wiggle a bit, and there wasn't a railing here to keep us from going right over the edge and down. I hadn't had Eli shine her light in that direction, there was no point in making my fear worse.

There was a huge cable attached to the middle of the car, and I stepped gingerly around it. It made me much too close to the edge, so I just put one foot in front of the other and kept using baby steps. It felt like it took ages, but was really less than a minute, but before long I was standing at the front edge of the elevator car. Reaching up, I pulled on the release lever, and the access doors immediately made a lovely thunk sound as they move slightly apart. This time there was room for fingers, so I picked the left door, and gave it a little tug. It quickly slid all the way open, revealing a hallway that was only illuminated by Eli's phone that she had shifted to give me light.

I heard her sigh behind me, and while I was dejected at the lack of power as well, I think we both expected it. We just hoped for better. "Come on, lets get you up there," I called to her over my shoulder.

"Are you sure you don't want to go first this time?" she asked as I heard her moving towards me.

I turned and reached my hand out to her so she could have a little more stability, and then pulled her closer once the was at the front of the car. "Women and children first, right? Like the Titanic?"

She looked at me after rolling her eyes so hard I was afraid the car might shake. "This is the wrong time to make a Titanic reference! Let's just say it was a Van Halen album and leave it at that."

"I don't know that album. Is it old?" I admitted.

"I'm getting you that CD once we get out of here!" she promised. "Now lift me up there!"

I linked my hands together and she used them as a little step ladder to get a boost up into the open door. She quickly clambered onto the floor, and then turned around with her hand extended again. This was a much easier climb, with the lever there to help, and I was able to scramble up next to her, then into the hallway. I didn't want anything to do with that elevator shaft again.

Not that the hallway was much better. It was short, with double doors on each end and the three elevator doors on each side. One now yawning wide open like the cave to some fearsome beast. The fluorescent light fixtures overhead were out, and one off to the right had all of the bulbs below it on the floor, smashed. I knew that on both sides of the doors should be the stairwells that could take us down to safety, so I was expecting us to head that way. Though maybe we could take a detour. Standing up, I reached my hand out to Eli to help her up, and she gladly accepted.