Finding Humanity

Chapter 3

It took twenty-seven minutes for the screams to finally stop. By the time it was silent, my brain could barely register that it was over. The sounds were still ringing in my ears. We had all just sat by and waited it out. Not one of us had heard a word from our loved ones on the outside.

"Is it over?" Diana asked in a faint whisper.

I stood up first, my legs stiff from being in the same position for so long. Walking to the doors, I placed my ear against them and listened.

Nothing.

"I don't hear anything," I answered, backing away from the doors. "We should try to get out now."

"What? Are you crazy? What if it isn't over?" Paul hadn't handled the last half hour very well. Not that I could blame him. I think it changed us all, but he was shaking and looked like he wanted to be sick.

"We have to try. We can't just stay here forever and I seriously think that if we were going to be rescued, it would have happened by now." I doubted rescue workers would have let people scream in agony for this long. We couldn't keep waiting for help that wasn't coming.

Nick nodded and got up from his place on the floor. Taking a stance at the other half of the elevator door, he didn't even glance in my direction. I guessed he was also still trying to process everything.

"You're right, and I can't take being in here a second longer," Diana sighed. She untangled her hands from Paul's grasp and fumbled her way into a standing position, pulling at her skirt.

"Paul. Get up," Nick ordered.

"Fine." Paul stood and begrudgingly joined me at the door.

"Ready? Diana, you and me take this side and you two take the other," Nick said, pointing at Paul and me.

"One. Two. Three-"

We managed to slip our fingers between the doors, getting firm holds of each side. The first heave only opened the doors about four inches. It took a good five minutes and most of our strength to work the first set of doors most of the way open.

"Shit!" I cursed in frustration.

The good news was that the fourth-floor entrance's bottom was actually closer to level with our elevator than we had originally thought. The bottom of the entrance doors was at the height of my hips and being five-seven in my one-inch kitten heels meant that it could have been worse. However, the bad news was that there was a gap. The space between the bottom half of our elevator and the wall was large enough for a foot to get caught.

Or worse.

"Don't look down. Let's just do this, and watch your feet." Nick almost growled at us.

We all leaned out of the elevator to reach the entrance. Keeping our feet as far from the edge as possible, we struggled to grasp our respective doors. Diana was too short and had to stand on her tiptoes to get any leverage.

"One. Two. Three-" We pulled at the doors, but nothing happened.

Nick swore. We couldn't even get our fingers between the doors this time.

"What's sticky?" Diana asked, pulling her hands away from the part she was able to grasp. Bringing her hands back into the elevator lights we could see her fingers were red.

"Oh my God. Oh my God!" Diana tried to wipe her hands off on in the sides of the elevator, leaving streaks of blood on the steel. When that wasn't getting it off fast enough she resorted to wiping it on her skirt.

"Oh my God," she kept repeating, over and over again with each wipe.

"Diana, stop." Paul reached for her. She took a step back from him, retreating to the back of the elevator. Still wiping her hands on her skirt, she looked up at us with a horrified expression.

"Was that blood?" she asked, her voice cracking as she attempted to pull herself together.

"Don't think about it," I replied. "Just don't go there right now. Let's get out of here first, okay?"

Diana gave me a stiff nod and took a deep breath as she steeled herself to try the doors again. She continued wiping her hands on her skirt even as she moved back into position.

"Wait." I bent down and took off one of my heels and passed it to Nick.

"What are you doing?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at my shoe.

"Try using the heel to wedge a gap open for our fingers to fit. You're the tallest."

He took it with an approving look and began to work the thin heel between the doors until there was just enough space for us to work with.

"Thanks," Nick said, passing me back my shoe.

"No problem." I slipped it back on and got back into position.

Don't think.

"One. Two. Three-"

This time we were able to get the door open a few inches.

"One. Two. Three-"

Another two inches and my right hand shifted lower on the elevator door. I felt something wet.

Don't think. Just pull.

We pulled again and again until the doors were open enough for us to squeeze through.

I stepped back, a bit out of breath, and wiped my hands on my pants without even looking at them. Instead, my eyes were fixed on the hallway in front of us. From where we stood, we could only see the off-white wall of the hallway a few feet in front of us. The only evidence that something horrible had happened was the pool of blood on the floor by the elevator entrance.

The blood streaked across the floor to the left and out of sight.

"Who wants to go first?"