Stuck
“Man I’m so tired…” moaned Sean as he and Callie got in the elevator at their apartment building. They had had a long day of board meetings at the university.
“Yeah me too,” added Callie.
“Hey hold the elevator!” called Malek as he and Jordan raced down towards them. Sean stuck his foot in front of the elevator door, giving Malek and Jordan enough time to get in with them.
“Thanks,” panted Jordan.
“Don’t you two usually get home before us?” noted Callie.
“One of my experiments ran later than I expected,” admitted Malek.
“I was stuck in the lobby waiting for him,” muttered Jordan bitterly.
Malek smiled coyly at him. “I said I’d make up for it.”
“You’d better.” Jordan returned the smile.
“Okay! We’re all in this elevator together! Could you two behave!” insisted Sean.
“Fine, fine.” Malek leaned back against the wall. Suddenly the elevator jerked. They all stumbled forward into each other.
“The Hell was that?” demanded Jordan.
“Good question,” muttered Callie. She pressed the open door button emphatically but nothing happened. The elevator was no longer moving though.
“Try the emergency phone,” suggested Sean.
Callie picked it up and held it against her ear. “There’s no dial tone or anything. I don’t think it’s connected…”
“You can say that again.” Malek pointed to the wire connecting the phone to the elevator panel. It was cut.
“You don’t think we have rats or something?” Sean shuddered.
“This is cut clean, probably some delinquent cut it thinking it would be a funny prank,” noted Malek. “Does anyone have signal?” They all checked their phones and shook their heads. The elevator was dead zone for cell service.
“Now what?” asked Sean, panic mounting in his voice.
“Stay calm, we’re four of the most brilliant people in the city, we can figure this out,” assured Malek.
“If we’re lucky, we’re close to a floor. If we can pry open the doors we might be able to get out,” suggested Callie.
“Aren’t their safety measures to prevent us opening the doors?” asked Jordan.
“Not in models this old,” assured Callie. “I did a whole project on elevators during my undergrad.” She smirked at them.
“Not sure that’s something to really be proud of,” warned Malek. “Jordan, give me a hand.” He and Jordan forced open the elevator doors.
“Great…” muttered Sean when they were looking at only a wall.
“You can see the doors of the next floor up,” indicated Callie. There was about a foot of door that could be seen over their heads.
“Not only can we not reach it from here, but we can’t open it either,” noted Sean. He started pacing back and forth in the small space. Malek clapped his hands on Sean’s shoulders to stop him walking.
“Breathe Sean, we’re going to figure this out,” he assured.
“I might be able to get it started again if I get this casing off,” suggested Callie, gesturing to the wall console.
“Or you could drop the elevator completely,” reminded Jordan.
“Don’t drop us!” shouted Sean.
“Dammit Jordan!” scolded Malek.
“Hey guys, we could climb out the top,” suggested Callie. She was pointing to an access panel on the ceiling of the elevator.
“We could get on top and open the outer doors,” concluded Malek.
“Do we have tools to open it?” Callie looked expectantly at Jordan. Jordan smirked and crouched down to rummage through his heavy-duty tool box. He was a private contractor and so always had his tools with him. He pulled out the appropriate screw driver and handed it to Callie. Jordan and Malek then lifted Callie onto their shoulders so that she could reach the panel. She removed the panel, passing it down to Sean. Then with a little boost from Malek and Jordan, Callie climbed out onto the top of the elevator.
“Alright, my turn. Once we’ve got the door open you two should be able to climb through the gap,” explained Malek.
“I can’t climb like that!” insisted Sean.
“I’ll boost you out,” retorted Jordan. With that, Jordan helped Malek up and out of the elevator. Sean and Jordan could hear Callie and Malek walking on top of the elevator. Sean started pacing again. A few moment later, Malek’s head appeared above the access panel.
“It’s more stuck than the regular doors. You have a crowbar or something?” he asked.
“Yeah of course.” Jordan got a crowbar out of his toolbox and handed it up to Malek.
A few moments later the outer door was open. Callie and Malek hopped down off the elevator and went down on all fours to look into it. Sean was white as sheet and Jordan was somewhere between bored and amused. “Okay, you’re going to have to climb out,” instructed Malek.
“I can’t climb!” insisted Sean.
“Again, I’ll give you a boost,” reminded Jordan.
Sean hesitantly approached the door. He handed up his satchel to Callie who took it and put it aside. Then Jordan gave him basically a leg up. He grabbed hold of Malek and Callie’s hands and they pulled him out of the elevator.
Sean stayed sitting on the ground shaking as Callie and Malek turned their attention to Jordan. He handed them his toolbox first then back up to give himself a bit of momentum. He half ran up the wall, a parkour technique he had learned, and grabbed Malek and Callie’s outstretched hands. They pulled Jordan out of the elevator.
“What floor are we on?” asked Jordan once he righted himself.
“Tenth,” replied Callie, pointing at the apartment numbers.
“Only five more floors to go.” They pulled Sean to his feet and headed to the stairwell. Once they got to their floor the all went to Malek and Jordan’s apartment. Callie, Malek, and Jordan made themselves drinks while Sean got himself some tea.
“We should call the landlord,” noted Sean once he had calmed down a bit thanks to his tea.
“Yeah probably,” agreed Callie.
