Page 2 of Catching Fire

Holding the radio back to his own mouth, he said, “No, she’s not afraid of the elevator falling …”

“I am upset,” she added, “because my citizenship is contingent on this professorship. The first meeting of the term with the entire staff of the Chemistry department starts at the Uni in…” She looked at her phone again.Damn. “Ten minutes ago.”

He had the grace to not point out that she’d been running late well before the elevator ground to a halt.

He winced as though he understood her dilemma but tucked the radio back onto his waistband and said, “Well, I'm glad I'm not stuck in an elevator with someone who's irrationally afraid that they're falling to their death.”

She laughed finally, grateful that he'd managed to make her smile. This poor firefighter had managed to get stuck with her when she was at her worst. She decided she could do better.

So she stuck out her hand. “I'm Seline Marchand.”

“Kalan Smith. Redemption FD.” His hand was larger than hers, his grip warm and reassuring. If she hadn't been such a bitch to him already, she could have liked this guy.

Well, she thought,her job was the most important thing right now. Though she'd been at the university for several years. She'd been struggling and finally being offered a tenure track position was a coup, but it didn’t guarantee she would make tenure. Missing the first meeting only made her look bad.

She slumped back against the wall and didn’t speak, though this Kalan Smith firefighter seemed like he would understand.

They were silent for ten more minutes before she asked, “How long do you think we’ll be in here?”

“There's no telling. They could get it fixed and get us moving in the next few minutes or we could be stuck for several hours. We should maybe sit down.”

“Oh my Lord,” she replied, the words rolling in her mouth like distasteful marbles. She thought about her nice work clothes on the old elevator floor, but sat down anyway.

He offered his own wry grin, for the first time revealing that he, too, was not okay with being stuck here. “I was supposed to be off shift at eight this morning. With this extra assignment, I’ve been on for twenty-eight straight hours and it’s not going to end soon. Once you and I get out of here, the team still has to get the guys in to actually repair these now.”

“Are you exhausted?”

This time he shook his head. “I’m used to it.”

They talked for a little while and Seline appreciated that his easygoing conversation made thirty minutes pass like nothing. Though he got the occasional message on his radio, nothing had happened. Then, she found herself telling him about one of the students who'd managed to blow up a beaker and make a noxious red smoke in her lab on the very first day of class.

A message popped over his radio even as a knock came at the elevator doors.

“We're here! We're going to get you out.”

Seline scrambled to her feet, as did Kalan.

It took over twenty minutes for the firefighters outside to pry the silver doors almost two and a half feet wide. Unfortunately, what Seline and Kalan saw was the workings between floors. Above her, in about a three foot square of space, two heads peered through the opening.

“Hey, Kalan!” one of them said.

Kalan immediately replied, “This is Dr. Seline Marchand with the university. We need to get her back to work today.” There were instructions quickly exchanged about how to lift her up and out the small window they’d braced open.

On a normal day Seline would have balked. Instead, she took a deep breath and peeled her shoes one by one. It had been made clear that he would lace his fingers together for a classic boost up and out.

She told herself she could do this, even though she was petrified. Putting her hands on his shoulders, she settled her bare foot into his linked fingers, and she pushed upward.

But before she grabbed the edge of the floor above her head, Seline balked and suddenly jumped back down.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes.” Then she immediately shook her head no.

“You said you weren't afraid of the elevator falling.”

“No,” she said, “I'm not afraid of plummeting to my death. This is a legitimate fear.” She pointed at the opening, knowing she sounded crazy, but the words didn't stop. “That is a three-foot gap braced by two by fours. If this elevator falls a mere three feet—as it has donetwicealready—it will snap the braces like twigs. And, even though the edges of the floor and the opening are blunt—” she motioned to both as she spoke, while Kalan and the other firefighters looked on. “—the force of it will chop me in half.”

She noticed they hadn’t stuck their heads through the opening. They knew this, and no one contradicted her. “It's basic kinematics,” she said and watched as he nodded, clearly already aware. “That's what I'm afraid of. If this elevator moves while I am going out of that tiny hole, I will lose limbs and maybe my life.”

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