But they were almost there. Despite the man’s levity, Hanna was less relieved. Something was terribly off about the place, and the looming presence of other beings seemed to hang over them. We have to keep moving, she concluded. She read their surroundings quickly and shoved Dimitri’s shoulder. He took a heavy breath and muscled back to his tired legs. The duo pressed slowly on toward the hallway.
Dimitri stuck his head out from a doorway and looked left and then right. He shuffled out to the large elevator and sat down on the floor near the call panel. Hanna stepped behind him and raised her wrench in the defensive position. She kept a lookout with a watchful scowl. Dimitri placed the screwdriver tip under the lip of the panel and paused. He needed a hammer. He looked back at Hanna’s wrench. He snapped his fingers for the tool.
Is he crazy? she thought. That will make a ton of noise. Hanna didn’t want him to have the wrench, but she gave it to him with reluctant urgency.
Dimitri placed the wrench to the butt of the screwdriver and mimicked a few taps before swinging back and hitting it with force. The sound shotgunned across the area, ripping through the endless domicile like a submarine alarm. The echoing effects were damning, and Hanna cringed. She cowered as the last bit of sound faded away.
Dimitri raised the wrench for a second attempt. He looked back at her with a shrug. What else could he do?
Hanna shook her head, but it was too late. Dimitri took another swing, sending the tip of the screwdriver deep underneath the panel lip. His trick had worked, and now he had the leverage to peel the control cover from the wall. He quickly tossed the wrench back to the floor, creating another clamor. Hanna scurried to retrieve it to keep it from clanking around and tumbling across the cold concrete. She leaped back and returned to her defensive mode.
The first series of wires started to reveal themselves as Dimitri torqued his tool deeper underneath the panel cover. From what he could see, a green-and-red wire was clamped to a small plastic box directly underneath the back side of the top button. His grimy fingers were too fat to reach it. He needed to peel the cover off even more.
His struggle continued as Hanna was distracted by a sound that seemed to breathe out from an open doorway a few yards away. The sound resembled footsteps cautiously stopping a few flights up. She angled back to Dimitri. He was unaware and was still working on the cover. Hanna slowly pivoted back toward the door. Her eyes were radiating with anxiety. Could that be Gail? Russell? Despite the little voice in her head telling her to stay put, logic was no match for curiosity.
The door led to another set of steps. A narrow emergency exit. It most likely descended from the top office levels. However, it didn’t look familiar. Hanna crossed into the threshold of the doorway and looked inside, shining her flashlight up toward the second flight. This place was a maze. Where the hell do these lead? The aluminum railings were blanketed in a thick layer of cobwebs. This place hadn’t been accessed for some time. Hanna could only see up to the second landing. She slowly stepped into the stairwell and looked up. Her flashlight found nothing. It was just another dark shaft leading up about three stories.
“Russell? Gail?” she whispered.
The place was silent. She looked back toward the doorway and backed up in order to exit. Another sound reverberated down toward her from above, causing her to stop. She looked up. It sounded like a door slamming a few flights up. She lifted her wrench and readied for the attack. She leaned in toward the railing to get a better look upward. Stillness. Nothing was there. She glanced back to the doorway. It was not that hard of an escape. She would just go to the next landing.
As Hanna’s foot hit the first step, she glanced down. Her courage — or perhaps stupidity — surprised her. She grimaced. However, something kept her focused on the landing above her. If she could just get to that landing, she should be able to see all the way up. She was only looking at three stories’ worth of steps. Each movement ascending the staircase rattled the old metal railings like tin cans. It was almost impossible to be stealthy. Hanna had ventured to the first landing of the staircase before the next series of steps came into view. She stopped and scanned the darkness with her flashlight. She sighed with relief. She seemed to be alone. Just old creaks, she rationalized. Or maybe I’m just losing it.
Hanna slowly spun around to make her descent back toward the exit when a figure emerged from over her shoulders. She froze. It was on the landing above her and loomed out of the darkness like a ghost, staring through the black air with its elongated eyes. Then there was the distinct sound of a wheeze. It was as if someone was breathing through stuffy nostrils. Then there was the smell. It had the aroma of a fish tank. It was difficult to ignore, but Hanna knew she had to move slowly. She glanced up despite her better judgment. It was the same creature from earlier in the hallway. It didn’t seem to be in a hurry. It stood stoically, waiting for her to move, calculating, and sizing her up like a lion did to its prey. Hanna tripped backward, nearly taking a tumble down the steps. Her hand caught the railing with the wrench. She kicked out of the stagger and regained her balance. In a blur, she leaped across the second banister and landed on the set of stairs below. The creature jumped forward, scaling the railing within a second. It seemed to float down toward her as she crossed through the exit into the hallway.
Dimitri’s attention was shattered by Hanna’s call for help. He looked back toward the doorway as she slid out from the stairwell and slammed the door behind her. As the door sealed, an enormous force pelted into it from the other side. The creature put up a persistent effort to push through. The door creaked open and slammed shut over and over as Hanna fought the pressure. She shouted, “Dimitri!”
Dimitri gave a quick look in Hanna’s direction before returning to his work. Getting the panel off the wall was more important. With a flick of the screwdriver, he quickly ripped the panel from the wall, exposing a jungle of wires. Blue, green, and copper wires led to the back side of the panel. They snaked up into three different button housings. Despite the dated outside appearance, the back side of the call panel was a mixture of new and old. Several modern electrical components seemed to try desperately to tie the old system into the new guts. The wires were corroded with time, but the circuit boards were a recent addition. The old wires snaked through a small plastic box before they returned back into the wall. That’s the override, Dimitri thought, and he yanked the wires out, stripping them down to the copper. He paused for a moment as a bead of sweat rolled across his nose and dropped to the floor below. He knew what he needed to do, but his attention was being pulled.
“I can’t hold this door!” Hanna shouted.
The creature’s horrid face peered through the crack in the door as it opened and closed with the struggle. It was trying to get its hands inside the crack. Hanna groaned with the determination of an athlete as she pushed the door back to a close, nearly smashing the creature’s gangly fingers.
Dimitri began jamming wires underneath the ground plate of the lower button. The sound of servos kicking into action followed. Something was happening inside the shaft. Dimitri’s exhausted face mustered one last painful smirk. I got you, you bastard. Despite all his suffering, his determination had paid off.