𝙆𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 // 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒗𝒆 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒕𝒐𝒏 𝒙 𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓

3-5: The Flayed

The collective screams of everyone filled the elevator as we dropped for what felt like hours. Everyone was holding on as tightly as they possibly could to whatever object, or person, in my case, was near them. Steve held onto my waist tightly, almost to the point where I couldn't breathe, but it made me feel safer regardless. 

"Shit! Shit!" Dustin screeched before running over to the control panel and frantically pushing the buttons.

"We're going down! We're going down!" Steve shouted in a panic. 

"Yeah, no shit, Harrington!" Robin yelled back at him. 

"Why don't these buttons work?!" Dustin continued screeching. Erica ran over to him in annoyance. 

"Press the button!" She demanded.

"What do you think I'm doing?!" Dustin shouted in her face. 

"Come on, press something! Just press the button!" I yelled at the kids in panic. 

"Push it!" Erica shouted at Dustin before trying to push the buttons herself. Before we could continue yelling at one another, the elevator came to a very sudden stop, causing everyone to fall on their asses. 

I shut my eyes tightly and when I opened them back up, I was toppled over Steve. I looked down at him to see his face in a lot of pain. 

"My groin. You fell on my groin." He groaned, and I quickly got up off of him and apologized frantically before trying to help him up on his feet. I could hear Robin wincing as she fell into the shelves behind her.

"Is everyone okay?" Robin asked in a pant. 

"Yeah, I'm great, now that I know that Russians can't design elevators!" Steve shouted in frustration before pushing Dustin out of the way to push the buttons on the control panel. 

"I think we've clearly established that those buttons don't work." I mentioned to Steve, trying to get him to stop his antics. 

"They're buttons. They have to do something." Steve argued. 

"Yeah, if we had a keycard." I continued, arguing back with him. 

"What?" He asked as he turned to face the rest of the group.

"It's an electronic lock. Same as the loading dock door. If we don't have a keycard, it won't operate, meaning--" I explained to the group before being cut off by Dustin.

"We're stuck in here." He groaned. 

"Yeah." I nodded in agreeance. 

"Just so you nerds are aware, I'm supposed to be spending the night at Tina's, and Tina always covers for me. But if I'm not home for Uncle Jack's party tomorrow and my mom finds out you three are responsible, she's gonna hunt you down, one by one, and slit your throat." Erica said dramatically.

"I don't care about Tina! Or Uncle Jack's party!" Steve yelled. "Your mom's not gonna be able to find us if we're dead in a Russian elevator!" 

"Hey." Dustin spoke up quietly, pointing up at the ceiling. "What if we climbed out?" The four of us looked up to see a latch on the ceiling. It was a shot in the dark, but it was worth it if it gave us even a glimpse of hope. Steve and I helped hoist Dustin up to the roof to climb through the small trapdoor. Dustin grunted as he got up on top of the elevator. Steve followed him after Dustin got up and joined him up on top of the elevator. 

A second passed before I could hear Steve talking from above. "What'd you say about climbing?" He asked Dustin, his voice echoing. 

~

It was hard to tell how much time had passed since we landed. We were all getting pretty tired and tried just about every means there were to escaping without trying to harm ourselves.