By: Jessie Sha
“Hurry up! I don’t need to be stuck in this elevator any longer.” I resist the urge to kick the wall. There are three other people in this elevator, and I don’t want them thinking I’m crazy. in. Great, just when I thought my day could end off with a nice bath.” I look around -- the other people all seem to on their phones or staring into space, waiting patiently for the elevator to slowly move up to floor 2. “Ugh, this is literally slower than the slowest thing that ever exists. Wait, what even is the slowest thing to exi-” Before I could finish my thought, there was a loud bang followed by a power outage.
“AHH!” We all screamed as the jolt made us fall to the floor. “Ow.”
“Looks like we’re stuck here! We should find a way out!” A deep voice to my right said, pulling out his phone and turning the flashlight on.
“With no service, or wi-fi, or light. Well, a phone light for now. We could push the call for help button?” A girl with short blond hair said, pushing the call for help button without our agreement. Silence filled the room as we waited for a response, but none came.
“What are we going to do?” I asked, shaking and stumbling around to find a wall.
“How about we just sit down for now.” A charming voice said toward where I was walking. Suddenly, I felt someone take my hand pulling me to a wall to sit.
“Sit.” It was the same charming voice, setting me down.
“Thanks.” I replied, sitting next to him, or what I assumed to be him. Soon after, I started to feel drowsy, and ended up dozing off. When I woke up, I found that the lights were back on, but the elevator was still stuck. My stomach grumbled, a reminder that I some crackers and cookies in my purse. The person sitting next to me was a him and he seemed to be sleeping as was the 2 others in there. His light brown hair falling just above his eyes.
“Hey everyone, they fixed the light,” I checked my phone, “and the wi-fi.”
“What?” The girl with the mellow voice asked, stretching her arms and pulling down her yellow shirt.
“They fixed the wi-fi and the power, but the elevator is still stuck.”
“Yeah, I can see that, but let's not wake the sleeping beasts right now.”
“You’re right let’s just call someone for help. Are you hungry?”
“Like, who? And yes, I am hungry, do you have food?” The girl asked, looking around for her phone.
“Well, we could call 911.”
“And risk waiting in a line of other emergencies? Yeah, no. I’ve already tried before when you fell asleep earlier. Service is spotty and cut out right away anyway. Oh, and before I forget, my name’s Mia.”
“Nice to meet you Mia, I’m Iris. And to answer your question, I do have food.” I answered, handing her a bag of crackers.
“Well, Iris, we should look around to see if there is a call for help button.” She said, breaking apart the bag and munching on the crackers like it was the last thing she was going to eat.
“Right, but how are they going to get to us?”
“They can track location right?” Mia, asked, scanning the room.
“I don’t know, they might not since the weather shows there is a storm outside right now.”
“Right, that's a problem.”
“Anyway, I’ll just call right now and see if they respond later.”
“That’s a good idea Iris.” I pushed the call for help button, but nothing came up. “Great, we are still stuck with no way out.” A little later the guys woke up and looked around as if this was all a big dream.
“Hey.” The one with the charming voice said, rubbing his eyes as if he was still dreaming.
“Hi.” I replied, staring at the button wondering if I should call again.
“Hello boys, I’m Mia, and this is Iris. We are trying to find a way out. It would be great if you guys could help.”
“Hello, Iris, and Mia, I’m Lucas.” The guy with the charming voice said.
“Hey, I’m Dimitri.” The one with the deeper voice said, looking around for the call button.
“We already tried the call button.” I said, reaching for my phone.
“You know, I think we should just call 911.” Lucas said, pointing to my phone.
“We might be on hold for a very long time.” Mia answered.
“Well it's worth a try.” I said, dialing 911 on my phone.
“911, what’s your emergency?” The answerer asked.
“H-hello, my name is Iris and I’m in an elevator stuck in Jasmine Hotel with 3 other people. We can’t get out and we barely have any food or water.”
“Hello Iris, can you please tell us which loca-ca-” Just then the call disconnected, leaving us in silence.
“Well, it looks like the connection is down.” I said, looking at the floor, wondering how much longer I could survive here.
“What about the people working here?” Lucas suggested, trying to bang on the door.
“There’s no way anyone can hear us here, besides that would just waste our energy.” Mia said, crossing her arms.
“Well, what do you suggest then?” Lucas shot back, glaring at Mia.
“How about not fighting and wasting our energy?” I shouted, glaring at both of them. The room was silent again. “Great, this is just a big mess that keeps getting better and better. What are we supposed to do now?” I looked around, my eyes landing on the call for help button. “I guess it’s worth a try.” I pushed the button again, but this time, there was an answer.
“Hello, this is the company Elevator, how may I help today?”
“Hello, I’m Iris, and I’m stuck in the hotel elevator with 3 other people. We have limited food, and water.”
“Thank you for the information, how long have you been stuck there?”
“We’re not sure, but if I have to guess, overnight.”
“We will have a team with you right away, thank you for calling.” The call ended, while everyone stared at me.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing, we’re just really hungry and we finished all of the crackers already.” Lucas answered, looking around for more food.
“Ok, but before I give you my cookies, I will eat first because I haven’t eaten anything yet.”
“Fair.” Suddenly, there was a loud creak and the elevator started moving again.
“Finally! It’s about time!” Mia shouted, with a big smile on her face. Once we finally made it to the 2nd floor, the doors opened. Everyone ran out, looking for food.
“Thank you for helping us out.” I said to the person at the door.
“No problem, it's my job. Sorry about this whole incident” The guy replied, scratching his head. I walked off to my room to finally have that much deserved spa day.