The Elevators

Chapter 9

I made it.

Barely.

Just barely made it.

This is bad. I have to step up my game. If not, I won’t make it to the 3rd floor. As we go up higher, the floors get harder and harder. The thought gave me a headache. My shoulder is throbbing like crazy from earlier. I decide to sit, my back against a wall. I close my eyes. ‘It’s going to be alright.’ I console myself. I take deep breath.

 ‘Psst,’  

I opened my eyes and found the blond girl from earlier crouching next to me. “Here,” She handed me a bottle of water and a pill. “What’s this?” I asked her.

“It’s a painkiller.” She said in a matter-of-fact tone. I looked at her, confused. Is she trying to help me?

“It really works. That shoulder of yours isn’t going to heal itself. If you don’t eat the pill, it’s not going to help you with the 2nd floor.” She said, persuading me to consume the pill.

Somehow I trust her and swallowed the pill and took a swig of the water bottle.

“My name’s Carrie.” She said as she sat down next to me.

“Bree.” I introduced myself.

The throbbing ceased. I squeezed my shoulder. The pain was gone! It took less than a minute to heal.

“Wow,” I muttered.

“Pretty useful huh?” Carrie said with a ‘told-you-so’ kind of face.

“It could heal pretty much anything, except a really major wound and death of course.”

“Thanks, Carrie.” I said with gratitude and I meant it. She waved it off.  She looked around making sure no one’s looking. Then she leaned into me and whispered “I saw what you did with the knives. It was amazing!”

Earlier, knives were thrown past or at us. I took a knife and used it to block myself from other knives coming at me.

“It was-“

“No! It wasn’t ‘nothing’!” She whispered furiously.

“Those knives were so fast! No one could ever catch them like what you did earlier.”

“You’re forced to reckon with, Bree Hartman.” She said aloud with pride. People turned to us, giving death stares. I caught the younger Vaughn brother, Harry, he stared at me. As soon as I looked at him, he looked away.

“5 minutes left.” A voice announced. I body began to tremble again. I did so badly earlier, I’m not sure if I can’t make it next to the 3rd floor.

“Don’t worry! You’ll be great!” Carrie said cheerfully, patting me at the back. I don’t know what Carrie’s motives are, but I’ll play along.

….

We all stood in a line, in front of the doors, waiting for commands. Simon Richardson’s face came up again.

“The second floor will also be a race. Like earlier, the last three people to not get into an elevator will not move on to the next floor. There are two NEW elevators at the end of this race. The current elevator you are using is excluded. Since only 24 will continue, each elevator can only hold 12 people. The first person to enter an elevator will get an advantage. The next floor starts in 1 minute.”

Blood roared in my ears. My legs were shaking. I tried to calm myself. As we came to a stop, the doors were different. The doors weren’t transparent like last time. We couldn’t see what’s coming up ahead, which made me more anxious.

“5,4…” Damn this countdown!

“3,2…” The doors flew open, but I couldn’t see any elevators.

….

The 2nd floor is small. The ceiling is low. We all stood there, not knowing what to do.

“Where the hell is it?!” Someone yelled.

Suddenly, something came out of the walls. They didn’t come out completely, half of it stuck onto the wall. They were rocks. The ceiling moved upwards and more rocks came out of the walls. The ceiling kept moving and moving until it stopped, the elevators was high above us, probably eighty feet. One elevator was situated at the left wall and the other at the right wall. We had to climb up.

I decided to choose the left elevator. I ran and climbed up fast. I climbed plenty of trees back at home. So it was easy. I concentrated at the rocks, climbing up as fast as I can. At least I’m not the last one to climb up.

I landed my hand on a rock but it suddenly fell down. I looked at the falling rock. I’m glad I did, if it weren’t for the rock I wouldn’t see the lava below us and catching up to us. I cursed silently, and continued to climb even faster, careful of the falling rocks. I heard someone screamed beside me, I looked and saw the rock turned into a snake! I got too caught up with the snake the rocks beneath my toes began to fall. I have only my left hand gripping a rock. I start to panic but I remembered Caleb’s advice. I calmed down, and found my foot landing on a rock. I found my rhythm back. I continued even more careful of the rocks I landed on.

Another scream broke, female, followed by a sound indicating that she fell into the lava. Though I didn’t look, I could feel it.

Smoke came out of the rocks, which seemed to make the other participants dizzy. I held my breath. When the smoke hit me, my eyes become watery. Regardless I continued. How far up is the elevator?

Finally, I could see the elevator.  I climbed inside. I found four other people inside the elevator, some of them are the Vaughn brothers. These guys are no joke. I’m the fifth one to enter the elevator! I’m safe!

“Not bad civvy.” Henry, the older brother said. He was at the corner with his arms crossed, looking away at me, like my face was too ugly to look at.

I stood up and walked to the back. One by one people came in with smiles on their faces. Carrie isn’t here yet. Don’t tell me she was the one who fell or maybe she’s at the right elevator. Just then, I saw Carrie’s blond hair just below the elevator.

“Carrie!” I yelled gleefully, relieved that she was still alive. I pulled her inside.

“Thanks.” She muttered. She didn’t look too well, probably because of the gas. I helped her get to the back at carefully drop her to the floor.  The doors closed. Was Carrie the last one?

She moaned. “You okay?” I asked.

“I’m fine, just dizzy.” She waved it off.

“Congratulations! As promised, the first person to enter has an advantage! Congratulations to Henry!”

We all looked at him, he was still in the corner grinning as Simon announced him.

“The 3rd floor will require you to make groups of three people. Lucky for Henry, he will pick not only his own teammates but for other teams as well.”

“So I get to create the teams?” Henry asks with his grin still on his face.

“That’s right! The next floor will start in 2 hours. After Henry picks the teams, you’ll have lunch. Choose wisely Henry.” And Simon disappeared.

It was a no brainer that Henry would pick his own brother and Rose Clarke. After he picked his own team, he walked towards me and Carrie.

“You, you and you.” He pointed at me, Carrie and a boy. He’s tall, has curly brown hair and light-brown eyes which complemented his dark skin colour. He walked towards us and Henry continued to create other teams.

“Hey, my name’s Leo.” I shook his hand and introduced myself and Carrie.

“Is she okay?” Carrie waved it off like usual and Leo walked to a corner and grabbed two pills. He gave one to Carrie and one for himself. After Carrie consumed it she felt instantly better.

“Looks like we’re stuck together huh?” Leo said with a smile on his face.