(28) Trapped

I made my way down the dark hallway. The lights flickered eerily as I traveled over puddles of liquid I prayed wasn't blood. To stay as quiet as possible, I hoovered about an inch above th ground. I needed to create enough trouble for them to send the elevator down...what could I do? I wound my way through the hallways until I came to a door that was cracked open. A faint golden glow emminated from the room. I held my breath as my eye peered through the crack in the door.

The room was empty of movement. So I felt safe enough to enter. The glow emitted from a computer console. It was flickering and there was some snow on the screen, but I could still clearly read what was flashing there: Capital Controls and Maintenance—touch screen to begin. A soft brush with my fingertips set the screen in motion. Schematics of the entire building popped up, sorted by levels. I was fortunate to have found this. Now I could control the elevators myself, without having to create a diversion. A few taps and the elevator was shown, as a red dot, moving down the levels. I was turning to leave when the screen flashed and made a beeping noise. Whipping my head back around, I saw that the elevator had begun to climb again. Pressing and holding the downward command, I watched as the elevator slowly began to descend.

As I watched the screen I saw the service elevators start moving, and one of them stopped at my floor…I was in trouble now. The Beasts must have known that I was messing with this console because they had sent someone to get me, but if I let my finger up for a second, the elevator would rise. I was trapped. I could almost feel the Beasts sneaking down the hallway. Without removing my finger, I tried pressing other controls. I locked off a portion of the hallway, the gridlock only bought me a few moments though; their fierce claws forced through the steel doors. I locked down every door including the one in my room. Soon, all of my fingers were holding down controls to keep my commands from being overridden. The last door before mine was ripped through with a loud screech, and as I glanced at the elevator’s progress, I saw that it only had three floors to go. Reaching into my holster I drew out my ray gun and turned to face the door as a long claw sliced through the metal as easily as butter.