We Should've Taken The Stairs
Hour 1.
The power goes out and the elevator jerks to a halt. Someone shrieks. Someone else laughs nervously. Then there is an awkward silence.
Of course Rachel is the first to break it. "Everybody relax. I'm sure the power will be back soon."
Lauren shifts and knocks into the side of Artie's wheel-chair. "Sorry, Hot-Rod." She says, mumbling.
Puck pulls out his cell phone and presses a button on the side. The plasma screen lights up, filling the cramped room with meagre bluish light, but it is enough to break the pitch-black darkness and give them a sense of space.
There isn't a lot of space.
"Are we all cool?" He says to the other three in the elevator.
"I saw a horror movie like this once. The elevator wires snapped and it crashed down to the bottom floor and killed everyone inside." Artie says, and Lauren pushes her glasses up her nose. Puck frowns. Artie frowns too.
"We can survive a drop like that if everyone jumps up in the air just before impact." Lauren says cavalierly.
"Actually, they debunked that on Mythbusters. We'd all die... Even if I could jump." Artie does not seem comfortable.
"Oh. Right. Sorry." Lauren doesn't look sorry. But perhaps it's just the bad light.
"Noah, can you shine your light on the panel over here, please?" Rachel says, not wishing to partake in the morbid talk that the others are participating in. She does not like to think of the worst case scenarios, as she does not wish to face the possibility of anything less than fame, success and stardom. Dying in a freak elevator accident would completely ruin all of her plans.
Puck does as she asks, and directs the light from his phone in the direction she gestures. With the panel illuminated, Rachel punches the emergency assistance button, which does nothing. She wedges her fingernails into the metal grill that hides the elevator's phone and pries it open. But when she puts the receiver to her ear: "There's no dial tone."
"Must be the whole building." Puck says, then looks directly at the screen of his phone. "I've got no reception."
As if it were choreographed, the other three glee-club members reach for their phones in unison.
"Me neither." Lauren says, first to get her phone.
"Nada." Artie says a moment later.
"I have one bar." Rachel says cheerfully. She presses a few buttons quickly, then holds the phone to her ear. "It's ringing!"
"Hello, Daddy? It's Bunny..."
"You called your dad?" Lauren is not pleased and addresses Puck directly. "Who calls their parents before they call 911 in this situation?"
"... Have you met Rachel?"
Rachel sends a whithering glance at the two of them from her corner of the elevator. "We're stuck in the hotel elevator and the emergency button isn't working... What?... Everywhere?... Why?..."
The phone call drops out. There are no longer any bars on Rachel's phone.
"So we're stuck here for a while then, are we?" Puck asks. They've all heard enough in the silence of the elevator to know it is going to be a while before anyone gets to them.
Rachel nods grimly. Lauren swallows. Artie sighs. "Woah, boy."
Hour 2.
"Love in an elevator! Living it up while we're going down. Love in an elevator! Loving it up 'til we hit the ground."
"Is that really appropriate right now, Noah?"
"Diva, I don't think there is a more appropriate time than now." Artie says with his requisite attitude.
"It's better than 'The Girl From Ipanema'," Lauren shrugs.
"Aw hell, why'd you have to bring that song up?" Puck grumbles. "Now I'm gonna have it in my head all day!"
Rachel smiles her brilliant happy smile in the darkness. "I love that song!"
She begins to sing it lightly, in deference to their confined space Rachel doesn't project to her full capacity and can't see the other three glaring at her. The other three realise soon enough that she's going to finish the song whether they like it or not, and Puck figures 'why not?' and joins her song with a harmony.
It's something to do.
Hour 3
Artie checks his phone and groans. Again. "Three hours?" He whines. "What is happening out there?"
"It is an excessive wait." Rachel agrees.
"I thought that was one of the first things they did in black-outs." Lauren says dryly. "They check the elevators, ever since that dude in New York got stuck in one by himself for forty hours."
"So why hasn't anyone checked up on us?"
"iExactly/i, Puckerman."
"And what is that supposed to mean, Zizes?"
"I'm just saying... Maybe they have other, more important things to worry about. Like Zombies. Or nuclear war. Or maybe Justin Bieber died." She sounds eerily hopeful when she suggests the last one.
"My dads know we're here. " Rachel says with confidence. "They'll be doing their best to get us out, you can count on that."
"But maybe they can't get here, Berry." Lauren says conspiratorially. "Maybe they'll be attacked by hoards of grieving tweens on their way to rescue their precious daughter and her friends from a hotel elevator in Cleveland."
"Last year you were all up on this when we were in The Bieber Experience, why the sudden hate?" Puck asks.
"He dumped Selena. He deserves to die." There is true hatred in Lauren's tone. It is chilling to hear.
Everyone can practically hear Puck blink in confusion. "Who?"
Rachel gasps. "You don't know who Selena Gomez is?"
Hour 4
"Does anyone have any food?" Artie says, after everyone hears his stomach very loudly protest its emptiness.
The other three look up at him from the ground where they'd arranged themselves around his chair. Rachel reaches for her messenger bag and digs around through it, eventually producing a granola bar, an apple, a half-full bottle of water and some breath mints.
Puck digs into his pocket and finds his wallet from which he produces a stick of cinnamon flavoured gum, and a lighter.
Lauren adds a strawberry pop-tart to the pile then directs the light from her phone over the meagre pickings. "We should divvy it up evenly." She says finally.
"But it's mostly my food!" Rachel protests. "And my water!"
"And we three outnumber midget you, so we split it even, or you don't get any, how's that sound, Man Hands?"
Rachel frowns, and Puck shifts uncomfortably from his spot by one of Artie's wheels.
"When we get out of here I'll buy you another granola bar." He offers, then he pulls out a set of keys that has a miniature Swiss Army knife key-ring attached, and he pinches out the blade.
"Wait." Artie says, and Lauren directs her phone up at him so they can see him better as he speaks. "We should save some for later."
"But I'm hungry now," Puck says with a whine. His pocket knife glints dangerously in the cell phone's light.
"I know. Me too. But if we've been here four hours already, clearly something is keeping them from getting us out. Who knows how long the wait is gonna be. And we don't want to waste it all now and then feel even worse later."
There is silence once again, until Puck lets out a breathy, sullen: "Fine." and pushes the granola bar and the mints back at Rachel who dutifully returns them to her messenger bag.
Hour 5
"Okay, who just did that?"
"Whoever smelt it dealt it, yo."
"You are vile, Artie."
Hour 6
"I spy with my little eye, something beginning with-"
"Wheelchair."
"How did you guess?"
"Because it's the only thing in the room."
"Oh."
"Yeah, this game isn't working."
"No. I guess I didn't think this through before I suggested it."
Hour 7
"Why aren't they coming for us?" Rachel says nervously, and Lauren is already annoyed at how her frantically tapping foot is constantly knocking against her thigh.
"Chill, Berry." Puck says, sounding tired.
She pulls her phone from her pocket and her face is lit up as she checks the time. Everyone else blinks at the sudden blinding light that fills the room.
"No, we've been in here seven hours now. Maybe they've forgotten we're here, and I still haven't got any reception in here so we can't know what's happening. My dads have never not come through for me. What is happening out there? Maybe the world is coming to an end, or maybe there is a sale at Sears, or maybe..." She stops only because she is now taking odd gasping breaths.
"The air..." She chokes out, and everyone sees the whites of her eyes.
Puck and Artie share a glance, and Puck pushes himself up from his corner of the floor space. Lauren quickly scoots out of their way.
"Rachel." Puck says, taking Rachel by the shoulder, forcing her to look up at him. "The air is fine."
Rachel makes another choking noise, and tears start leaking out her eyes. Puck pushes at her shoulder more forcefully. "Look at me." He commands, and she does. "You're having a panic attack." He says calmly, "There is nothing wrong with the air, we're all fine here. So I need you to do what I say otherwise you'll pass out. Do you understand?"
She nods. Puck nods back and gives her a small encouraging smile. The light on Rachel's cell phone (which she has dropped to the floor in her distress) goes out, but both Artie and Lauren fish their own out and quickly restore the meagre bluish glow to the room.
"Okay, now breathe with me," He pulls a strong, clear breath in through his nostrils and blows it out through his lips. "In through the nose-"
She pulls in a wavering lungful of air in, "- and then out." She blows air out as directed.
"All right, again."
She sucks in another frantic lungful of air through her nose and her nostrils flare, but she is calmer now, as she releases the air again.
"Good, Rachel. Really good." Puck says encouragingly, he carefully sits down at her side, and takes up her hand. "You're right, we have been stuck in here a while, and it's fucking stressful, but we have to look at the positives. You're the optimist in here, how about we look at the good things."
"I can't..." She wheezes out, and squeezes his hand.
"Well it's good we're not alone!" Artie says and points to Lauren at his side. "But it's also good it's not the whole Glee Club in here, because it's not too crowded this way."
Puck looks pointedly at Lauren, who blinks behind her large glasses. "Um. Well we were able to contact your dads, right? Even if they're held up, someone knows we're in here."
"And hey, I've met your dads before. They're not going to let anything get in their way for long. They'll get us out."
"But why are they taking so long?"
"I don't know." Puck says in the soothing tone he seems to only ever use when Rachel is around. He rubs his thumb against the back of her palm. "But I'm sure they're doing everything they can to get us out as soon as possible."
"And maybe we can get ourselves out of here ourselves." Lauren says. "We can try and wedge the doors open, or maybe get onto the roof..."
Hour 8
"Just a little more."
"I've got it." Lauren says, and for the first time since the elevator first jolted to a halt they experience a flush of fresh air as the heavy metal doors are levered open by the wrestler and the footballer. Each of them is standing with their back pressing against one side of the door, keeping it open.
But there is nothing but a concrete wall on the other side. And perhaps it is rather ominous, but painted on the concrete is a large number '13'.
The good news is that with doors open, the light situation changes. It's not not exactly sunlight. It's not even as good as candle-light, but a very low pulsating grey light peeks into the corners of the box, breaking the pitch-dark but it is enough to release some of the pressure Rachel feels heavy on her chest. She feels like she can breathe again.
"Well that's a disappointment." Artie says flatly. Puck sends him a dirty look, but continues pushing back against the door. Lauren seems to be having an easier time keeping her side open.
"Can you see anything up the shaft? Or down?" Rachel asks meekly, and Lauren immediately tilts her head to the side and up, then down.
"There is some sort of flashing light at the bottom of the shaft." She says, which explains the pulsating light that has filled the elevator shaft.
"It feels better with the door open at least." Artie says, still trying to look on the bright side. "And at least we can see a little now, we can save our phone batteries."
"Well we need to find something to wedge the door open." Puck says, then grunts a little bit and the door jerks a few inches closed before he pushes at it once again.
Besides Rachel's messenger bag, none of them had brought anything into the elevator with them... except-
Rachel, Puck and Lauren all turn at once to stare at Artie.
"Oh hell no." He says and pushes a flat hand up at them all, in the universal 'stop' signal. "Not an option."
Rachel swallows, and sighs. "You're right." She mutters, but Puck and Lauren do not share her qualms, and are not about to submit as easily.
"You can just as easily sit on the floor like the rest of us." Lauren says bluntly. "And if it means some light, and fresh air..."
"And your chair is pretty sturdy, it's not gonna break." Puck adds.
"No! I need this chair for when we get out!"
"Look, it's what, 2 am now right?" Lauren glances at her wrist-watch, finally readable in the dim light afforded by the shaft. "If we are gonna get any sleep we need to get your chair out of the way somehow, so that we can all lie down. Might as well put it to good use while we do."
Artie glares at her. Lauren stares back.
"How about we just try, if it sounds like it's not going to hold, we'll pull it out and find some other way to keep it open." Rachel offers, glancing between Puck and Lauren and Artie, though she doesn't see how her messenger bag or anything inside it is going to be substantial enough to keep the door open like Artie's chair would. "And I'm the only one who can lie down in here comfortably with your chair set up." She adds reasonably.
"Fine." Artie says finally, and Rachel stands up to help him out of the chair.
Hour 9
"Oh my god, this carpet is disgusting."
"Hold on, I'll just grab the dust-buster out of the closet." Lauren says sarcastically. "Just shut up and go to sleep, Berry."
"Actually, she's right. I can see people's fingernails."
Puck makes a gagging noise when Artie points out the offending human detritus that litters the grey-blue carpet. "Gross! Who cuts their fingernails in the elevator?"
"When we get out of here, I suggest we bring a class-action suit against the building's management."
"Sign me up now."
"Word."
Hour 10
Puck snores, Rachel kicks in her sleep, and Artie's back can't stand lying for long on the hard floor, so he and Lauren sit side by side and doze against each other's shoulders.
For a second, at about 4:50 in the morning, the power returns to the building for a split second and the elevator is lit once again with bright light, but it flickers and dies before any of the Glee students really wake enough to realise what happened.
Hour 11
Rachel is an early riser, with her body clock as reliable as a metronome, so even though she probably only gets about two hours sleep, when she wakes up with Puck's arm slung casually over her hip to the same thin grey light, she knows that she won't be able to get back to sleep. It doesn't take her long to realise she's not the only one awake.
"Lauren." She acknowledges.
"Berry." Her companion replies.
Lauren Zizes is not a girl that Rachel often finds reason to converse with, so she doesn't have any familiar conversation topics to fall back on to fill the awkward silence. So instead she decides that since they are locked in a box, she might as well use her time productively to foster a new friendship. "I never got the chance to thank you for putting Jacob Ben Israel in hospital for two weeks the year before last."
"Wait, what?"
"You know. You attacked a Jacob to get Robert Pattinson's attention."
"I don't remember that." Lauren says flatly, then continues. "I don't remember much from those few months, actually."
"Why?"
"I took a blow to the head in a wrestling match with some dude from Carmel during the state finals. They didn't diagnose it til later, but I was in a walking coma for a while."
"That's really a thing?"
"Sure."
Puck moans and squeezes Rachel more tightly around the waist. Rachel doesn't mind. He's warm at least. "Can you guys shut up, I'm trying to sleep." He grumbles into her shoulder blades.
"Preach." Artie agrees groggily.
The two girls fall silent.
Hour 12
Rachel is the only one still awake. Lauren drifted back off to sleep about fifteen minutes ago. She's tried to rest more, and there is admittedly something calming listening to the sleeping noises her three companions are making, even if Noah's snoring is rather loud in her ear, but it's not enough to calm her nerves. She wants to be out of here, she's so worried about her fathers. They've never not come through for her before, and she knows that something is very wrong, and even though she knows she can't do anything from inside here, she can't just forget about it all and sleep.
She sighs and rolls over onto her back, head still pillowed by Noah's forearm (though she's careful not to knock him and wake him from his own apparently deep sleep) and stares up at the panelled ceiling, looking for something she can do to kill time til the others wake up again.
She counts the panels. There are nine squares, all equal in size, three by three across the roof. The lights are embedded into the edges of the square so if they were working, they would project fluro white light onto the mirror panels on the walls. Each square is patterned in some sort of wood, herringbone design which matches the wood panels they're surrounded by.
She stares for a few more moments as her brain lethargically processes each small bit of information she collects about the room, until finally something clicks and she remembers all those ridiculous action films that Finn made her watch when they were dating, where the hero of the movie would climb onto the roof of the elevator through a panel in the roof that was easily pushed away. As far as she can see, this elevator hasn't got anything of the sort, unless the panels she can see are there for decoration only to hide the ugly maintenance side of the roof from the hotel's guests.
Which sets her wondering, and she twitches a curious eye to Noah sleeping beside her. She's too short to reach the roof, but he isn't. He's so tall he has to curl his legs into her to fit along the floor, and even if he can't reach it by himself, he's certainly strong enough to be able to boost her up there...
Hour 13
"I thought it would take a lot more for me to get my hand up your skirt." Noah says lecherously, and Rachel resists the very strong urge to kick him in the kidney. The only reason she doesn't is that he'd probably drop her if she did, and while Lauren would be strong enough to boost her up in his place, she doesn't have his height.
"The view is good from down here too." Artie says with an equally sleazy leer, and Rachel tears her attention away from pushing at the now loosened middle panel to glare at Artie.
"Lauren."
"Berry."
"Hit him for me."
"Just take your anger out on that panel." Lauren says with a roll of her eyes. "It's what I do when I'm in a bout."
Rachel sends one last death stare at the two boy occupants and then returns her attention to the roof, where she is using Puck's Swiss Army knife to remove the last screws that hold the panel in place. She presses one hand to the middle of the panel as she finally gets the last screw and it drops onto her hand. A cloud of dust and stale air puffs away and it gets up her nose and into her throat She only barely manages to pass the panel off to Lauren's waiting hands before she jerks in a violent sneeze, and Puck barely keeps his hold on her so she doesn't fall to the ground.
She sneezes again, and this time Puck has her more firmly, but she grabs at his shoulder and gestures for him to put her down. He obliges and sets her back on the floor. Rachel brushes the dust frantically off her face, and blinks her eyes widely while she coughs violently again, turning away from the three of them and into the corner so she isn't coughing on them.
"Here." Artie says to her, and holds up the water bottle with the last of the water. There isn't much left, a mouthful or two, and she shakes her head at him 'No'.
"For fuck's sake." Puck says, snatching the bottle from the boy sitting on the floor. He twists off the cap and thrusts it into her hand. "Drink it, Rachel."
Lauren rounds on her other side. "If you don't, we'll hold you down and make you drink it." She says, and Rachel takes the bottle and takes a minuscule sip from the bottle and concentrates on breathing through her mouth.
"Feel better?" Artie asks.
"I probably just breathed in Anthrax or SARS." She says with a dramatic shudder. "Who knows when they last cleaned up there."
Now they know Rachel is fine and can breathe, Lauren turns her attention to the roof again. There is a door with a latch there now the decorative panel is gone.
"Finish off the water then when you're ready we'll get you back up there and onto the roof, and hopefully you can escape, or one of our phones'll get reception, and you can get us some help." Puck says, repeating their plan in a voice that's weirdly... peppy for him.
Rachel does appreciate the optimism, at least, so she nods and takes another small sip.
Hour 14
"No signal." Rachel says, and sighs staring at the four phones she has set up on the extremely dirty maintenance box that takes up most of the space on the top of the elevator. "Sorry." She calls down the hall.
"How close is the nearest floor?" Noah calls up, and Rachel looks up. She sees a large 14 painted in the same colour as the 13 that is visible through the wedged elevator doors. Beyond that the elevator shaft gets too dark for her to see.
"Too far away." She says, then turns to look around the rest of the shaft. The cables of the elevator are pulled taught, and she clings tightly to them as she dares to peek over the edge of the box. She can see another elevator suspended a few floors below. She wonders if there is anyone trapped in that one.
"HELLO!" She projects as loudly as she can, and it echoes around the shaft, fading as the sound bounces away from her then back again. She tilts an ear to the side and hushes the others in the box with a wave, listening carefully for any response.
There is nothing but air whistling gently, thrumming against the cables.
She huffs, annoyed. This was a disappointment, considering the effort and time it took to get up here, and it isn't anywhere near as exciting as all the movies make it seem. There is no service-ladder affixed to the wall to climb to freedom, the hotel's elevators are clearly split into two levels, that which service the highest floors, and don't stop at floors below 16, and those on the other side of the building that service the lowest 15 floors.
She considers the thick metal cables and wraps her around the closest one. Her fingers aren't long enough to wrap completely around, and she knows she doesn't have the upper-arm strength to hoist herself more than a few feet. Lauren might, and Noah probably does, but neither of them are small enough to fit through the panel to get up here. Artie would be small enough, and he'd have the upper-arm strength, but it's still not an option.
Resigned, she turns to the others and says down to them: "I think this was a bust, guys."
She hears their various noises of disappointment and feels bad that she could not give them any good news. Instead she begins to pass the various cell phones back down to Lauren then carefully lowers her legs back down through the hole, being careful to make sure her skirt is positioned to protect her modesty, but she knows it's fruitless when Noah's hands squeeze her once, before he takes her firmly by the hips and pulls her back into the elevator.
Hour 15
"Should we split the apple now?" Artie asks, and Lauren notices for the first time just how tired he is, with enormous bags beneath his eyes. She knows she's probably not looking as fabulous as she normally is.
The apple in question sits in the middle of the floor on top of Rachel's messenger bag so that it isn't actually touching the floor (Rachel insisted and no one cared enough to fight her).
"Let's make it fun." Lauren says, "Truth or dare for a slice of apple."
"How would that work?"
"Well, if you tell us a secret, or do a dare, then you get a slice. But we can be extra brutal and you can choose to pass."
Rachel frowns. "I don't know, Lauren. It's awful enough in here, why would we make it worse by playing that contrived party game?"
"Because I'm bored." Lauren says bluntly. "Look, I'll go first, Puckerman. Do your worst."
Puck stares at Lauren for a moment and adjusts his legs into a more comfortable position. "Alright I'll bite." He says, "Truth or Dare?"
"Truth."
He rolls his eyes at her, then thinks for a moment before looking her straight in the eye. "How'd you get that scar behind your left knee?"
Lauren glances at the knee in question. "Had a fight with another contestant at the Little Miss Lima competition when I was 4."
"You did Little Miss Lima too?" Rachel says, surprised. "What years?"
"1999 through 2002." Lauren says. "Some girl's tap solo went overtime into my scheduled time so I laid down the law."
The look on Rachel's face is nothing short of astonished.
"You're kidding me." Lauren says flatly. "You were the tap bitch?"
"You pushed me off the stage!" Rachel cries. "I could've DIED!"
"40 minutes is way too long for a tap solo when you're six."
"You had no right-"
"Shut up. God." Puck interrupts, and pushes Rachel back down onto the floor, as she'd risen up in her anger to defend her childhood honour, and while Rachel and Lauren may have been a match when they were 6, it probably wouldn't be so even these days. "Here." He says to Lauren and thrusts a slice of apple at the girl, who takes it with a glare at Rachel and returns to her corner of the elevator.
"Artie." She says, and turns to the other boy in the room while biting the slice of apple in half. "Truth or Dare?"
"Dare." He says with a grin, thinking to himself that there is nothing truly embarrassing or ridiculous they can make him do when he's stuck in a six by six box.
"Kiss Puckerman. If you do, you can both get some apple."
Artie's grin fades. Puck turns red.
"What? No!" Puck says. "That's not fair."
Rachel rolls her eyes. "Oh please, as if you wouldn't make Santana and I kiss if she were here."
"That's different." Puck protests.
"Yeah. Santana is hot. And a lesbian." Artie adds.
"And you two are homophobic."
"And sexist." Lauren adds.
"And neither of you is getting any apple until you do it." Rachel says stubbornly.
Artie looks at Puck.
Puck looks at Artie.
"What happens in the elevator, stays in the elevator?" Puck says.
"As if anyone would believe me if I told them anyway." Artie says, sounding a little bit depressed
"Let the record show, that I'm doing this for food. It's basically prostitution." Puck shifts a little closer.
"Pucker up, Puckerman." Lauren says, nudging them closer still with her foot.
At least the apple is good.
Hour 16
"Tall and tan and young and lovely," Puck sings quietly. "The girl from Ipanema goes walking, and when she passes each one she passes goes-"
"Ahh..." Artie croons in reply, and Rachel smiles from her corner then picks up the harmony herself this time:
"When she walks she's like a samba, that sways so smooth and sways so gently..."
With a whirr and a thrum, bright white light fills the elevator for the first time in sixteen hours, and the four occupants immediately hide their eyes and they're all stunned into submission for a moment, before they jump to action. Puck and Lauren dislodge Artie's wheelchair from the doors which close and then the elevator descends, more quickly than any of them anticipate, and they all cling to the box and each other until it finally jolts to a stop on the ground floor.
And the doors open.
Author's note: this was a very simple idea that wouldn't leave me alone, and it got way longer than I ever thought it would be. Still not sure if I accomplished anything, but it was a fun way to mix together some prompts! Speaking of, I'm open to any suggestions or scenarios that people might be interested in seeing. I'm working on the next part of Dance in the Dark, I just have to do a bit more research and hammer out this one scene that's giving me grief, but hopefully it won't be too long away.
Please review!