Elevator

Chapter Four (Part Two)

"Actually, there was this other guy stuck in an elevator for a month." Gill said. Everyone looked at him with shock.

"Really?" Maya asked timidly.

"Yeah. He died of dehydration three days later, so the only thing left of him was a shriveled-up corpse!" He looked around the room, mentally counting the number of people and virtually ignoring their horrified looks. "If we die and someone finds us, that'll be seven corpses and a dried-up pig!" He said as if that was the dandiest thing in the world to notice.

Olivia put a hand to her suddenly dry throat. "Did anybody bring water?" She asked, starting to freak out. "Is anyone else starting to feel thirsty?"

"Calm down, Olivia. I'm pretty sure someone's going to find us before the day's over, let alone three." Lukas said, his voice calm and steady. He shot a glare at Gill. "But really, though."

"Sorry, guys."

"But you didn't answer my first question. Did anyone bring water?" She asked again. Silence fell around the room, accompanied by the soft sound of them checking their pockets. When they faced her with sorry looks, she knew the answer. "No one has water?"

"Well, no. But instead of worrying about dehydrating, why don't we all... think... hydrating thoughts?" Jesse asked. Aiden's eyes widened with fear, but he kept his gaze fixed on the floor. The last thing he needed was to think hydrating thoughts. Just thinking about thinking about hydrating thoughts was already making things worse!

"Good idea, Jesse." Axel said. "Think about... huge waterfalls, just tumbling down a mountainside into a pool of fresh, blue water!" He said, waving his hands around to imitate waves.

"He said think hydrating thoughts, you douche! Not say them out loud!" Aiden yelled at Axel.

"Oh, shut up you, big grouch!" Axel snapped back, surprising everyone in the room with his suddenly harsh attitude, especially Aiden. Seeing he was too stunned to respond, Axel continued. "Now, as I was saying, imagine huge waterfalls, just—"

"Yeah, yeah, you already said that!" Aiden said after snapping out of his trance.

"Calm down, Aiden. We're just talking about water to stay hydrated." Lukas said, a bit of annoyance in his tone. "Besides, it's better if we talk about it out loud, you know, to keep our thoughts flowing smoothly."

"See what 'cha did there!" Jesse said, flashing gun-signs at Lukas.

"My turn!" Gill said. "Imagine a huge, grey cloud approaching you, and when it starts raining these humongous raindrops just fall and hit you right in the face. It's so wet and rainy that puddles start showing up everywhere, and the water just won't stop running!"

"Seriously, you too?" Aiden groaned, squeezing his legs together.

"What? You wanna be a dead, shriveled-up guy?"

"Well, no, but—"

"Then think hydrating thoughts!"

"Yeah, Aiden." Maya said. "Think about bathtub faucets, sink faucets—"

"Faucets everywhere!" Lukas shouted, throwing in some dramatic jazz-hands.

"Stop talking about faucets!" Aiden barked. But, thinking he was just being plain sour, they all continued in their game.

"Hydration!" Jesse said, with Reuben squealing in agreeance. "It's a big swimming pool in the middle of the desert!"

As they continued to talk about all things watery, Aiden scooted further into his corner, trying to shut them out. But anyone who's been told, 'Don't think about cats!', would know how hard it was for Aiden to not think about water, even though he didn't want to.

They continued talking about water, and waterslides, and faucets. He plugged his ears and shut his eyes, loudly humming a weird tune that was sure to embarrass him. But now he didn't care about getting embarrassed by simply humming a song. Something far worse lay ahead, something he intended to avoid at all costs.

"Think about the ocean!" Maya sang, making him scowl.

'Think about the desert', Aiden thought, trying to fill his mind with pictures of sand and desert temples or even dry leaves. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't shut them out. As the minutes wore on, he started to feel the situation getting more and more... desperate. The pressure was really starting to build, if you know what I mean. But he wasn't going to have things any worse than they already were, and they were going to stop talking about water whether they liked it or not.

"Stop talking about water, you guys!" He demanded, hoping to shut them up. But instead, they got louder. More descriptive. In other words, things got much worse.

"We're not going to stop talking about water! Water is amazing!" Axel shouted.

"Even if we're running out of things to say, we're not going to stop talking about water!" Maya added.

"Water. What is it? Water is a transparent and nearly colorless chemical substance that is the main constituent of Earth's streams, lakes, and oceans, and the fluids of most living organisms. Its chemical formula is H2O, meaning that its molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms, that are connected by covalent bonds. Water strictly refers to the liquid state of that substance, that prevails at standard ambient temperature and pressure; but it often refers also to its solid state (ice) or its gaseous state (steam or water vapor). It also occurs in nature as snow, glaciers, ice packs and icebergs, clouds, fog, dew, aquifers, and atmospheric humidity." Gill declared, getting the entire room to go silent. "You know, you drink it your cup." He concluded.

"Imagine, a glass of ice, filled to the brim with ice-cold water. The glass clinks around in the cup as you pour it. And then you eat a mint and die." Jesse said.

"You guys, stop talking about water or I'll... I'll...."

"Or you'll 'what'?" Axel challenged. Then the room stopped moving once again to stare at Aiden, but not with anger like he'd expected. Instead, they were staring at him with shock and embarrassment. "Are you okay?"

Aiden then realized that he had somehow shifted into the fetal position and was... yeah, I'm not going to finish this sentence. His face went bright red and he straightened, putting on a nonchalant face and looking away. Everyone stared a little longer when it finally donned on them.

"So, that's why you didn't want us all to talk about water...." Gill said as-a-matter-of-factly. Aiden sent him a glare instead of a nod.

"Okay, maybe we should all just be quiet." Lukas suggested. Everyone seemed to agree, either nodding or muttering a quick 'yeah'. Lukas scooted over a bit to Aiden, leaning to subtly whisper in his ear, "You should've just said something. I would've told them to stop."

"Yeah, but that's embarrassing." He hissed back, turning away with a glare. Lukas sat up on the wall, letting out a bored sigh. He knew he wasn't the first person to think this, but they really needed to get out of the elevator, and now everyone had a great reason to hope their release came soon.

Hope you guys liked that chapter. I'll upload chapter 5 soon, since Wattpad's starting to lag now. Well, bye! Close it, Crisper!

Crisper: (closes it)