𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐒 • Robin Buckley

VIII: RUSSIAN ELEVATOR

They waited until night time to get Erica into the air duct. "Erica, do you copy?" Robin asked.

"Mhm, I copy," Erica replied, "You nerds in position of what?"

"Yeah, we're in position. It's all quiet here, so you've got the green light."

"Green light, roger that. Commence Opertation Child Endangerment."

"Can we maybe not call it that?"

"See you on the other side, nerds."

Claudia looked over at Robin and Steve. They were awfully close. She felt a pant of something in her heart again, something she'd recently identified as jealousy. She'd managed convince herself that it was Robin who she was jealous of, that it was Steve who she liked.

Erica finally made it through the air duct, and opened the door for the other four. Steve opened up the box from Imperial Panda, revealing a metal box inside. He turned the handle and opened it as the air from inside hissed. It was hard to tell what the object was, but the group were all thinking the same thing.

"That's definitely not Chinese food. Uh, maybe you guys should, you know, stand back," Steve said.

"No," Dustin said.

"Just step back, okay?"

"No."

"Step back, seriously."

"No! No! If you die, I die."

"Idiot," Claudia muttered.

"Okay," Steve said. He had more important, country-saving things to do than argue with a thirteen year old. Steve again twisted one of the handles, pulling out a jar filled with some sort of green substance. "What the hell?"

"What is that?" Claudia and Robin asked.

Suddenly, they all felt a shake. "Was that just me, or did the room move?" Dustin asked.

"Booby traps," Erica whispered.

"You know what?" Robin said, "Let's just grab that and go." She took the jar out of Steve's hands as Dustin headed to open the door.

"Which one do I press, Erica?" Dustin asked.

"Just press the damn button, nerd," Erica replied.

"Which one? I'm pressing the button, okay?"

"Press 'open door'!"

"I'm pressing 'open door'!"

"Press the other button!" Steve said, pushing Dustin out of the way.

"Would you stop?"

"I'm trying! Let me do it!"

"Just open the door!" Claudia yelled, as a huge clang suddenly sounded.

The 'room' suddenly began to drop rapidly. Robin fell, and Claudia quickly fell down in front of her. Robin wrapped her arms around Claudia's shoulders as everyone screamed.

"Oh, shit," Steve said, "We're going down! We're going down!"

"Yeah, no shit, Harrington!" Robin replied.

"Why don't these buttons work?" Dustin screamed.

"Press the button!" Erica said.

"What do you think I'm doing?!"

"Come on, press something!" Steve yelled, "Just press the button!"

"Push it!" Erica yelled as her and Dustin slammed their hands down on the buttons.

The elevator came to a sudden stop, and Erica, Dustin and Steve fell to the ground. Robin and Claudia, who were already on the ground, were slammed into the metal shelves, Robin holding onto Claudia's shoulders as tight as she could.

Dustin walked over to Steve, lifting the box off of him. "Are you okay?" Robin whispered to Claudia.

"Mildly concussed, but fine. I think your arms broke my fall."

Robin didn't let go of Claudia until she'd scanned her, making sure there were no cuts or bruises. The moment was silent, and Claudia looked into Robin's eyes, which were darting to all areas of her face. 

The two final stood up awkwardly. "Is everyone okay?" Claudia asked.

"Yeah, I'm great now I know that Russian's can't design elevators!" Steve yelled.

"I think we've clearly established that those buttons don't work," Robin said.

"They're buttons, they have to do something!"

"Yeah, if we had a keycard."

"A what?"

"It's an electronic lock. Same as the loading dock door. If we don't have a keycard, it won't operate, meaning-"

"We're stuck in here."

"Yeah."

"Just so you nerds are aware," Erica said, "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 four are responsible, she's gonna hunt you down, one by one, and slit your throat."

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

"Hey," Dustin said, pointing up to the ceiling. An air duct. "What if we climbed out?"

Steve and Dustin tested his theory, but it was no use. They were way too far down, no one would be able to climb that far.

Dustin and Erica eventually fell asleep, and Claudia soon got uncomfortable sitting up. She lay down on Robin's lap and shut her eyes. "What are you doing?" Robin asked, trying to hide the shakiness in her voice.

"Sleeping, I'm tired," Claudia replied.

"On my legs?"

"We used to do this all the time."

"Fair."

Robin accepted it, and continued to spend the rest of the night discussing ways of getting out with Steve. When the morning came, Dustin unsuccessfully spent his time trying to get into contact with someone.

Robin was attempting to do something with the buttons, and Erica was attempting to break open the jar. Claudia sat in the corner, covering her ears trying to block out the noise. She want much help in this situation, but she didn't care, she'd rather sit in the corner and do nothing than try and do something only to fail.

"Hey, hey!" Robin said, running over to Erica and taking the jar out of her hand, "Be careful, be careful. We don't even know what that is."

"Exactly. It could be useful."

"Useful how?"

"We can survive down here a long time without food, but if the human body doesn't get water, it will die."

"I hate to break it to you, but this is not water."

"No, but its a liquid, and if it comes down to me drinking that shit or dying of thirst, I drink."

Robin ignored Erica, hearing an electronic whirring in the distance. She pressed her ear against the all, then headed up to speak to Dustin and Steve. Claudia finally stood up and followed, wanted to hear what Robin had to say.

"We've got company."