Page 63 of Up In Flames
“Somewhere between three and four is all we know.”
“Any word from maintenance?” I asked.
The security guard radioed over for an update. “Nothing yet. They still have a couple things they can try.
“Dorsey, Jonas and I will head up to four and crack the door open and see where the elevator is. The rest of you stay here. Keep us updated about what maintenance says.”
“I’ll go with you.” The security guard, Joe Collins according to his name tag, said. He led Jonas and me up to the fourth floor. A few people were gathered around the elevator already. The news about the stuck elevator had obviously traveled.
“Can we get everyone to go back to your desks?” Joe started herding the onlookers away to give us room to work when one of them caught my eye.
“Hal?”
“Will.” Hal pushed his way past Joe Security. “Oh boy, is Oren going to be happy to see you.”
“Oren? He’s here? Of course he’s here. You work with him, so this is…”
“Oren’s in the elevator.”
My head whipped around to the elevator doors. Briggs had worked the pry bar between the doors. It took him and Jonas a few more seconds to manhandle the doors open while I stood there dumbstruck.
Oren was in the elevator, and it took every ounce of my training and my restraint not to flip the fuck out.
“Do we know if he’s okay?” I said to Hal while I watched Briggs and Jonas work the doors open. I’d hoped to see the elevator, but there was only an empty shaft.
“If they can’t lower it to the third floor, we can get them out through the top,” Jonas said, and I realized after a second that he was talking to me.
“Have they opened the door on the third floor yet?” Briggs asked Joe Security.
Logically, I knew there wasn’t anything to be afraid of. I’d been on stuck elevator calls before, but never before had someone I loved been stuck inside. This wasn’t some great epiphany for me. I knew I loved Oren. I’d loved him for a while. Had I told him that? Of course not. I was too afraid. Afraid of what it meant to love someone and hide them. Afraid of what my parents would think if I told them about me.
It all seemed like such trivial shit now. The night I met Oren flashed before my eyes. The body in the back seat next to him was a stark reminder of how fragile life was. The coppery scent of blood and then the sudden burst of fire. Any number of things could’ve gone wrong that night, and Oren might have been lost to me before I found him. Before I discovered what it was like to be loved the way I’d always craved.
I needed him.
“Maintenance has had zero luck getting the elevator to move. Apparently there was a concerning sound right before it came to a stop,” Joe security said. He then moved his attention to ushering the gathering crowd away from the elevators and back to their offices.
“So what’s the plan?” Ignoring Hal, who lingered just out of the way, I went to Briggs and Jonas. According to the boys downstairs, they couldn’t access the occupants from the third floor.
“Hank and Wells are bringing more gear up here. Ladders. Ropes. We’re going to get them out through the access panel at the top of the elevator.” Briggs gripped onto the wall with onehand and shone a flashlight into the shaft, first down at the top of the elevator, then up. “Shouldn’t take long.”
“Oren’s in there.” Through some miracle, my voice didn’t crack or waver. But they had to know how desperate I was to get down there and help him. My body screamed at me that I wasn’t doing enough, but I kept myself under control through sheer force of will. It wouldn’t do Oren any good for me to lose my shit.
Joe Security’s radio crackled. “It’s maintenance. One of the occupants isn’t doing so hot. Panic attack. Pretty bad one.”
“That’s normal for a situation like this. Can someone stay on the line with them and assure them that we’re on our way down to them?” Jonas said as Hank and Wells burst through the door from the stairwell. I’d never been happier to see a ladder and a bunch of rope in my life.
Joe nodded and stepped out of the way to let us work.
I had to shove the idea of Oren down there panicking, worried, trapped and scared, out of my head so I could get to work.
“Jonas is the lightest one. He should be the one to go down to the top of the elevator. We can tie him off and send him down on the ladder.” My thoughts were racing at a million miles an hour, calculating the distance between the top of the elevator and the opening.
“If we can hoist them up out of the elevator, they can climb up the ladder. And if they can’t climb, we can just keep pulling them up. Easy peasy.” Jonas secured a line to himself then looked over at Joe Security. “Please inform the occupants that help is coming and they’re going to hear noises, but not to worry.”
I helped Hank lower the ladder down to the top of the elevator then I took a hold of Jonas’s line. He stepped onto the ladder and carefully, but quickly, descended to the top of the elevator car.
“Fire department.” Jonas’s voice echoed up through the shaft.
