Why in the hell did I take this elevator?
Charlotte leaned in the corner of the crowded elevator in silence, contemplating on the terrible day that she was having. She had spend an hour fixing someone else's major problem with the buildings servers, something that originally was only a minor problem, something that would have only taken ten or so minutes if that shouldn't have for the ungrateful IT tech hadn't screwed around with something he wasn't qualified to be doing so. It was something that happened on a fairly common basis for her. often getting called into fix things which shouldn't even be her problem. Her job was supposed be exclusively about insuring that and making the systems, buildings security and staff protocols to an impeccable standard and provide extra security after an cyber attack caused a particular leak, causing a massive media shitstorm and costing the company a lot of money, which was entirely caused by naivety of the staff. But rather she found herself on many occasions acting like a glorified IT tech on an almost daily basis, unscrewing things that other unqualified guys or gals screwed up.
And now, she was trapped in an elevator in almost complete darkness, with a bunch of uneasy strangers. Out of all the days she decided to take the elevator rather than the stairs, this just had to happen. She wasn't exactly comfortable in elevators and she couldn't exactly put her finger on why, it wasn't the claustrophobic nature of them, nor was it the fact that was they were essentially walk in coffins. The closest reason she could think of was the fact that she was stuck in close proximity with a bunch of complete strangers, that didn't exactly sound right to her, Although, the current occupants of this elevator were making her quite nervous as they started messing around with things they shouldn't in an attempt to troubleshoot themselves, what they were doing seemed entirely pointless to her, as she couldn't think of a reason why the problem would be coming from inside the elevator and even if there was, they wouldn't probably even be able to tell if there was a problem with the wiring or the electronics. although, she clearly wasn't the only one thinking this, as a woman with fairly notable German accent and a far bit of common sense argued that what they were doing wasn't exactly the smart thing to do, although she was quickly shot down by a rather rude american.
The sound from the intercom broke her attention form the group.
Charlotte let out an tut, disappointed at the time it took to get a response from the buildings technical staff, we seemed incompetent as always.
As she turned back to the rest of the group, what she saw was unbelievable. Two of the men where particularly climbing out into elevator shaft through the maintenance hatch at the top of the elevator, Charlotte just stared in complete disbelieve, not only was it incredibly stupid and dangerous thing to do, but they completely disregarded what the techical staff had said. Before she could say anything as the German woman stepped in yet again and before either one of the men could respond to the woman's scolding, a loud, ear piercing sound came from the elevator shaft.
"Scheisse" Charlotte spat under her breath as she covered her instinctively covered her eyes, facing scrunching up as pain shot right through her ears. she could still hear the announcement and the wailing sound of sirens clearly audible over the message. Once the painful announcement stopped, Charlotte stopped shielding her ears and she returned to her original position, albeit a little shaken. It was obvious that some sort of emergency had cropped up, her first thought was a fire, which was the most logical, and her second was a terror threat, probably some unlucky guy just reserved a letter filled with a white powder. But it seemed that others didn't think that way, as the elevator quickly descended into chaos, one of the men who had previously attempting to inspect the outer part of the elevator was now on top of it and seemed to be convinced that nobody was coming to help and was now attempting to convince people to come with him, to go were, she wasn't exactly sure. The German woman quickly began to challenge him, who was correct in thinking that they should stay in the elevator. Others attempted to calm the situation but it quickly arose into a massive shouting match between to the two. All whilst a teenage kid, was quietly wailing into a phone, with her father or mother no-doubt on the other end. But while everyone else was panicking, Charlotte remained perfectly quiet and appeared completely calm. She was scared like everyone else, worries ran back and forth in her head, but in the end, she suspected that someone would arrive soon to help. However the next intercom message shattered that hope.
Jesus H Christ.
Things had gone from bad to worse in the blink of an eye. Now she knew that a rescue attempt was fairly unlikely, after all, getting explosive ordnance disposal on an elevator full of people was particularly impossible. Charlotte scoffed at her own situation, realising how fucked things were about to become inside this elevator.
"Fick mich!" Charlotte spat, frightened and still trying to take in what exactly had been said. She began to tremble as she quickly scanned around the elevator, looking for the stereotypical, shady looking person she would expect to be involved in this type of unworldly scenario, but none caught her eye. But then the statement about killing the terrorist hit her didn't sound right to her. Why would that happen? she quietly pondered over it. It didn't make any sort of sense, why would the elevator start again? why would that even be mentioned in the call? she had her doubts that the caller was a good Samaritan calling in to save life's. But after a few seconds it something hit her. This was some sort of sick mind game. Why else would that be included? The bomber ( even if there was one) wanted the paranoid people on board to start killing each other, with the bombs being some sort of a catalyst to speed things up. And it was already working. There was already talk among some about looking for the bomb and killing someone, no-doubt someone who would fit the bill of your average terrorist. her attention was quickly caught by the teen again, who was cowering in the corner, silently weeping. She started thinking of her own kid and how devastating it would be for him if she was to die, how he would cope growing up without her, she couldn't even contemplate it. She was scared, partly for her own life, but for mostly her son.
But with the elevator quickly descending into total anarchy, somebody had to take control of the situation before it turned into a blood bath, and with nobody stepping up to the plate, it seemed that it was going to have her. expelling the thoughts of her son and her life for now, she took a deep breath, proceeded to attempt to calm the situation.
"Nobody is killing anyone." Charlotte said in a commanding voice, her German accent lighter but more predominant that the other woman. "Nobodies going looking for the bomb either." she said, shooting down the possibility of sending someone into the vents to look. It was as stupid idea if the terrorist truly was on board, because he or she would probably just detonate the bomb if they tried to mess around with it, a risk that she wasn't willing to take. Her eyes darted back and forth, gauging the reactions from everyone as she attempted to create a possible list of suspects. "We are going to stay inside the elevator, remain calm and wait for the more information."
Charlotte leaned in the corner of the crowded elevator in silence, contemplating on the terrible day that she was having. She had spend an hour fixing someone else's major problem with the buildings servers, something that originally was only a minor problem, something that would have only taken ten or so minutes if that shouldn't have for the ungrateful IT tech hadn't screwed around with something he wasn't qualified to be doing so. It was something that happened on a fairly common basis for her. often getting called into fix things which shouldn't even be her problem. Her job was supposed be exclusively about insuring that and making the systems, buildings security and staff protocols to an impeccable standard and provide extra security after an cyber attack caused a particular leak, causing a massive media shitstorm and costing the company a lot of money, which was entirely caused by naivety of the staff. But rather she found herself on many occasions acting like a glorified IT tech on an almost daily basis, unscrewing things that other unqualified guys or gals screwed up.
And now, she was trapped in an elevator in almost complete darkness, with a bunch of uneasy strangers. Out of all the days she decided to take the elevator rather than the stairs, this just had to happen. She wasn't exactly comfortable in elevators and she couldn't exactly put her finger on why, it wasn't the claustrophobic nature of them, nor was it the fact that was they were essentially walk in coffins. The closest reason she could think of was the fact that she was stuck in close proximity with a bunch of complete strangers, that didn't exactly sound right to her, Although, the current occupants of this elevator were making her quite nervous as they started messing around with things they shouldn't in an attempt to troubleshoot themselves, what they were doing seemed entirely pointless to her, as she couldn't think of a reason why the problem would be coming from inside the elevator and even if there was, they wouldn't probably even be able to tell if there was a problem with the wiring or the electronics. although, she clearly wasn't the only one thinking this, as a woman with fairly notable German accent and a far bit of common sense argued that what they were doing wasn't exactly the smart thing to do, although she was quickly shot down by a rather rude american.
The sound from the intercom broke her attention form the group.
"Good morning, occupants of elevatorrr.... seventeen! Now, you might know by now your lift has paused, by that's just all in passing."
Charlotte let out an tut, disappointed at the time it took to get a response from the buildings technical staff, we seemed incompetent as always.
"but we'll have all that sorted out by the hour's end and that's a promise we can keep here at 30 Rock, now y'all have a good morning and we will be up there in a jiffy, bye bye, now!"
As she turned back to the rest of the group, what she saw was unbelievable. Two of the men where particularly climbing out into elevator shaft through the maintenance hatch at the top of the elevator, Charlotte just stared in complete disbelieve, not only was it incredibly stupid and dangerous thing to do, but they completely disregarded what the techical staff had said. Before she could say anything as the German woman stepped in yet again and before either one of the men could respond to the woman's scolding, a loud, ear piercing sound came from the elevator shaft.
"All technical personnel, return to ground floor. All occupants on floors 30 to 50, move to the lobby immediately. Stairs only. This is a command from police and fire departments. Technicians to ground floor. Occupants floors 30 to 50 to lobby. You must take the stairs. Occupants of Elevator 17, remain calm."
"Scheisse" Charlotte spat under her breath as she covered her instinctively covered her eyes, facing scrunching up as pain shot right through her ears. she could still hear the announcement and the wailing sound of sirens clearly audible over the message. Once the painful announcement stopped, Charlotte stopped shielding her ears and she returned to her original position, albeit a little shaken. It was obvious that some sort of emergency had cropped up, her first thought was a fire, which was the most logical, and her second was a terror threat, probably some unlucky guy just reserved a letter filled with a white powder. But it seemed that others didn't think that way, as the elevator quickly descended into chaos, one of the men who had previously attempting to inspect the outer part of the elevator was now on top of it and seemed to be convinced that nobody was coming to help and was now attempting to convince people to come with him, to go were, she wasn't exactly sure. The German woman quickly began to challenge him, who was correct in thinking that they should stay in the elevator. Others attempted to calm the situation but it quickly arose into a massive shouting match between to the two. All whilst a teenage kid, was quietly wailing into a phone, with her father or mother no-doubt on the other end. But while everyone else was panicking, Charlotte remained perfectly quiet and appeared completely calm. She was scared like everyone else, worries ran back and forth in her head, but in the end, she suspected that someone would arrive soon to help. However the next intercom message shattered that hope.
"Occupants of Elevator 17... good morning. This is Raymond W. Kelly speaking, Commissioner of the New York Police Department."
"We are aware that you are currently in a less-than-ideal situation, but we're working to improve this at many... erm, costs. For the moment being, we've had to cut off power to your shaft just to keep from any errors taking place, or, ah -- we don't need any more trouble from the elevator. We know you're in the dark, both literally and figuratively. I'm hoping I can alleviate at least one of those issues.
"To be straightforward, we -- that is, the New York Police Department -- have been informed that there is a bomb on or nearby the elevator."
Jesus H Christ.
Things had gone from bad to worse in the blink of an eye. Now she knew that a rescue attempt was fairly unlikely, after all, getting explosive ordnance disposal on an elevator full of people was particularly impossible. Charlotte scoffed at her own situation, realising how fucked things were about to become inside this elevator.
"We have not, not been quite able to verify these facts. Additionally, erm, the caller informed us, we were informed, that the individual responsible for setting the explosive devices is present within the elevator. That is all we know. We have not been able to verify these facts.
"And he did say, he told us that, upon the death of the individual, the one who is in the elevator with you, the elevator will move again. That is all we know."
"Fick mich!" Charlotte spat, frightened and still trying to take in what exactly had been said. She began to tremble as she quickly scanned around the elevator, looking for the stereotypical, shady looking person she would expect to be involved in this type of unworldly scenario, but none caught her eye. But then the statement about killing the terrorist hit her didn't sound right to her. Why would that happen? she quietly pondered over it. It didn't make any sort of sense, why would the elevator start again? why would that even be mentioned in the call? she had her doubts that the caller was a good Samaritan calling in to save life's. But after a few seconds it something hit her. This was some sort of sick mind game. Why else would that be included? The bomber ( even if there was one) wanted the paranoid people on board to start killing each other, with the bombs being some sort of a catalyst to speed things up. And it was already working. There was already talk among some about looking for the bomb and killing someone, no-doubt someone who would fit the bill of your average terrorist. her attention was quickly caught by the teen again, who was cowering in the corner, silently weeping. She started thinking of her own kid and how devastating it would be for him if she was to die, how he would cope growing up without her, she couldn't even contemplate it. She was scared, partly for her own life, but for mostly her son.
But with the elevator quickly descending into total anarchy, somebody had to take control of the situation before it turned into a blood bath, and with nobody stepping up to the plate, it seemed that it was going to have her. expelling the thoughts of her son and her life for now, she took a deep breath, proceeded to attempt to calm the situation.
"Nobody is killing anyone." Charlotte said in a commanding voice, her German accent lighter but more predominant that the other woman. "Nobodies going looking for the bomb either." she said, shooting down the possibility of sending someone into the vents to look. It was as stupid idea if the terrorist truly was on board, because he or she would probably just detonate the bomb if they tried to mess around with it, a risk that she wasn't willing to take. Her eyes darted back and forth, gauging the reactions from everyone as she attempted to create a possible list of suspects. "We are going to stay inside the elevator, remain calm and wait for the more information."
