The Lift
I'm so glad lifts were invented, well, it's not the Empire State Building, but 19 floors of stairs is not enjoyable to walk up, or down, especially on a Monday. However, they do have their downsides, like today for example, when there's somebody already in the lift and that uncomfortable silence hangs over you. Well, not quite silence, there's always the shuffling, and looking in your bag for some non-existent object, just to break the never ending quiet. But if you're lucky, as I am today, you get the awful cheesy music, which not only breaks the silence, but also gives you something to talk about.
"Don't you hate it?" remarked my travelling companion as I stepped inside the lift.
"What," I replied "this awful music?"
"Well yes, but also that this crappy company tests all their new products on animals."
"Oh, um, well why do you work here if you hate it so much?"
"Don't worry" she said as if I was "as soon as I found out I gave in my resignation, besides I only clean here, but I just can't stand being in the same building as someone who'd do something like that" she continued as she passed me a leaflet entitled 'Cut the Cruelty' with a bewildered looking caged mouse on the cover.
"You're not, one of them, are you?" she asked as I handed her back the leaflet.
"Actually I am, and it's really not that cruel" my companion didn't look impressed.
"Whatever" she grunted as the doors slid open at floor 18 to reveal a tall businesswoman in a suit, who I vaguely recognised. The woman stalked in with such a sour look on her face she could have turned milk. She placed herself in the corner directly opposite me, by the controls, where she pushed the 'ground floor' button, which was lucky as I'd forgotten after my strange encounter with the cleaner.
Just as the doors were closing, a small middle-aged man with greying hair sprinted towards the lift and just managed to catch it in time by wedging his foot between the doors as they were closing. Seeing his floor already illuminated on the controls, he placed himself to my left and was still panting when the doors opened at floor 14. However no one was there so the lift continued on its downward journey.
During this time I had recognised the businesswoman as Sophia Reynolds, an executive from our newest rival cosmetics company – Angelica – who we were suing for copying some of our products. No wonder she didn't look happy, if we won they would lose over half of their entire profit this year, which would surely send them bankrupt. Serves them right for stealing our ideas.
I looked at my watch, the lift seemed to be taking an age, and I had an important meeting at 2pm. The man, who had finally got his breath back to a normal rate, was also looking anxious about the time the lift was taking, constantly fidgeting and looking at his watch, and becoming continually more agitated for every floor that we passed, it was probably the music.
The cleaner had kept herself to herself after our encounter, probably so she didn't have to face any more rejections, but now she was revitalised and she handed everyone, including me, a 'Cut the Cruelty' leaflet. I pocketed mine, not wanting to cause anymore hassle, and the man did the same, but Sophia began flicking through hers and I saw the cleaner's eyes light up.
"Did you know they do animal testing here?" she said
"Yes," replied Sophia "its disgraceful isn't it?" She delivered this last line to me, obviously recognising me from her recent frequent visits to my department.
"You know" Sophia continued "The company I work for, Angelica, makes extremely good cosmetics, without any animal testing"
"Really?" exclaimed the cleaner "That sounds excellent, I'll look out for it next time. How does your company feel about the environment?"
"Look" I butted in "All her company does is copy all of our finished products and then pass them off as their own" I wasn't feeling particularly patriotic towards my work at the moment, but someone had to put this idiot in her place.
"Well. By the time Angelica has finished with you, there won't be anything left of this company to copy, not that we copied you in the first place"
"Calm down, OK, just take it . . . . "the man began, but he was cut short by a huge boom from somewhere above us. The noise ricocheted down the lift shaft and became increasingly louder. At the same time the lights flickered and went out, and the music cut. The lift shuddered to a halt. Silence. I think we all thought we were going to die then, and for those few moments, nothing else mattered but staying alive, our pasts irrelevant and our futures undetermined. After what seemed like hours of silence, it felt safe to talk again.
"What the hell was that?" whispered the cleaner, her voice shaking.
"I don't . . . . "said the man, but he was again interrupted, this time by objects hitting the lift. The harsh metallic noise sounded like huge hailstones falling on a tin roof, the noise echoed around the lift shaft and the lift jolted and moved a couple more inches towards the ground. Many minutes passed before anyone dared speaking again, and then, looking for someone to blame –
"Trust this to happen in your bloody building!" Sophia shouted into the darkness.
"I hope you're not saying this is my fault" I replied, not quite so confidently, as I was still quite shaken and not too fond of the dark.
"And why not, what are you going to do?" she inquired menacingly.
"Ring Ring, Ring Ring" the noise shocked me at first, but then I remembered, my mobile. Saved by the bell. Maybe I can get out of here sooner than I had anticipated, and still alive.
As I took my phone out of my bag, it illuminated the space around me in an eerie yellow light.
"Ring Ring"
I saw the cleaner curled up in a corner, she looked like a ghost, and she was shaking all over.
"Ring Ring"
I saw Sophia who was standing with the assistance of a handrail, her black suit covered in a fine dust, which could have passed as severe dandruff, but I knew it wasn't there when she came in.
"Ring Ring"
Then I saw the man, he was crouched next to me and there were drips of perspiration on his face, and he was looking through his briefcase for something.
"Ring Ring"
Finally I looked at my phone 'Caller Unknown'
"Hello, who is it?"
"Oh Sam, thank God, I thought you were dead!" I recognised the voice, it was a friend and work colleague.
"Jesus Becky, calm down yeah. Are you still in the building, what the hell happened?"
"There's been an explosion, on the upper floors, somewhere between 17 and 20, I can't really tell"
"Shit!" I exclaimed, and everyone in the lift turned to look at me.
"I know. Listen, there are cops everywhere, its mad. They reckon someone did it on purpose, so they're not letting anyone out 'cos the think whoever did it is still in the building"
"Shit!" I exclaimed again
"Where are you any way?" Becky asked.
"Not quite sure, about the third floor, ring me if you find out anything else, OK?"
"Yeah, I'll see you later then, bye" I hung up. What the hell was I going to do now? The man had found what he was looking for, a lighter, and now we were all lit by the flickering flame.
"Well?" he said, "What's happened?"
I thought a while before I answered, I had to be careful, I didn't know how they'd react, and I couldn't get out very easily, if someone started getting violent.
"There's been an explosion," I began "they don't know what caused it yet, but the think it came from around floors 17 to 20" The cleaner had stopped shaking and now was staring straight at me.
"I was only talking to my friend, but she reckons we should try and get out because at the moment everyone's really busy with the injured people from the explosion" I lied.
"Right" said Sophia "Lets try and get out then "and she began to open the escape hatch on the lift roof.
"Careful" warned the man "We don't want all that rubble falling on us"
It was pitch black in the shaft, and as I knew the building best, I was sent up first. However I didn't mind, I was glad to get out. I pulled myself out with the help of the cleaner's back, and then the lighter was passed up to me. With all the movement, the lift began swaying, so I waited a few minutes before I felt it was stable enough for me to look around. Luckily the lift had stopped right below floor 3, and using the heel of one of Sophia's shoes, I slowly prised the door open, which let a ray of light into the shaft. Finally, an escape route.
"Hey" called someone from inside the lift "Can you help us out now?"
"I'm going to get help" I shouted back, causing another small rockfall, which narrowly missed my head, but sent the lift plunging down a few more inches.
"Well hurry up" the reply came after a few moments of silence.
I started running across the empty offices towards the stairs, then I thought the police will still get me, they'll still know I was in the building, there are still witnesses. I ran back towards the shaft, and after a few moments of consideration, I found the heaviest object I could move, a six foot tall filing cabinet which I then pushed towards the shaft, faster and faster until it fell right of the edge, which sent both objects hurtling towards the ground. I heard the cries of the people inside, but it was too late. CRASH. The silence that followed was broken only by my curses.
"SHIT!" I cried out "What have I done? FUCKING HELL!" But there was no going back now. This had all gone wrong.