Elevators Through Time - Book 1

Part 26: Stuck in the Lift

Part 26: Stuck in the Lift

Year: 1990

Time: 12:48pm

Location: Centrepoint Tower, Sydney CBD, NSW, Australia.

Level: Two floors below Level 1 of the Centrepoint Sky Tower

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Warning: The following may contain traces of awesomeness.

Do not, under any circumstances try to duplicate these circumstances.

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It had been 15 minutes since we had gotten stuck in this lift. The fear and paranoia had subsided and people with us had relaxed after hearing a helicopter or something hovering nearby. We also heard some loud speaker encouragements from somewhere below.

Kate had huddled to my side and we had stayed in our corner of the lift.

She was scared. I knew her as a strong, determined young woman but she was genuinely scared here because there was nothing she could do.

Earlier I had found out that a lady with a baby had been knocked unconscious in our lift and someone near her had nursed her head wound and was caring for her baby. She was well, and was just sleeping soundly now.

Two brothers to our left were checking out the now non-functioning emergency call system as well as the lift buttons.

A rich guy and his girlfriend had decided to take a nap in their corner of the lift. I felt sad for them, but partly didn't want to hear anymore of their worldly banter about certain surgery that the man wanted on the woman's private parts.

Ugh, these people... no decency.

The old lady with dementia opposite us was staring at the couple. I think she had overheard their chatter earlier and also preferred them asleep.

Kate had closed her eyes and was nuzzling into my chest. Apart from the obvious happy feeling she had of being kept warm in my arms, she felt safer in my embrace. It helped her not cry. She had earlier cried because she didn't know how to cope with being in a falling lift. No one ever is really prepared for these times.

One thing that ran through my mind here, while things were quiet was would Kepler and Deune stay away while we were in such a vulnerable place?

Amusingly, part of me wished they could help.

I stroked Kate's hair gently as she seemed to have fallen asleep. I took off my jacket and wrapped it around her back to keep her warm.

My hat had been knocked off at some point, so I don't know where it was.

I closed my eyes too and waited. There wasn't much I could do here, not without making a big show about saving people using my high-tech device. I couldn't connect to the network for some reason. Hmm.

I heard a few faint sobs from the elevator car below us. There were worried people there too. They eventually went quiet.

A few minutes later I too drifted off.

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I awoke to the muffled thud of something on the roof of the elevator. Then came a voice.

"Alex! Kate! Are you in there?!"

It sounded like Jed's voice.

"We are here!" called out Kate.

I was still in a daze but I was aware that I had my arms around Kate and I felt a little cold because I had given my jacket to her. She was warming me up anyway so it was fine.