By: AB G

Ding ding, that is the sound of the big metal doors opening.

“We don’t have all day,” says an old man, in the least friendly way possible.

“I cannot do this today, but it is completely fine,” I think to myself as I squeeze into the elevator, “We’ll be out in just a few minutes.” I look around, although I could barely even move my head. We have way too many people in here. It starts getting hot quick due to the amount of people in here which feels like one hundred. I quickly press floor one and struggle to hit the button because there is a person who will not move out of the way, and the elevator begins to descend.

I sit on the gold, patterned, railing until we come to a sudden holt. I thought nothing of it, until the doors did not open. “One of my friends once got stuck in an elevator, she said it felt just like a sudden stop, and your stomach feels like its dropping,” said a girl, who looked about 15 or 16. “Oh be quiet, that is clearly not what is happening at the moment,” said the grumpy old man. I spot a sign that says “capacity: 14 people”, there is no way we have 15 people in this elevator. Just to be sure of myself I count all the heads, three, six, nine, twelve. That’s what I thought, we couldn’t have stopped because of the capacity. Wait, I forgot to count the two kids who were jumping earlier, and myself. No this is impossible; we do not have nearly enough people to reach the limit. Well in order to prove myself wrong, I counted extremely cautiously again, five, ten, fifteen! No way, we are stuck because of me coming into the elevator, I could not let anyone know I caused this.

Screams of the frightened people filled the tiny space and eventually peered out into the lobby when somebody heard us. Yes, finally we are getting saved, nope we were not. I could here the screams of high-pitched yelling I assumed they were kids, so everyone in the elevator came up with a plan. “Ok, let’s all yell on the count of three, so we can make as much noise as possible,” I suggested, “One, two, three.” My ears were bursting out of my head, the noise was as loud as a police siren, someone had to hear us. Thankfully a staff worker approached us and opened the doors, a blast of cold air brushed right onto my face, it felt so relieving, just like in a movie. We all rushed out of that tragic sight as quick as we could. My head was spinning trying to process everything that just happened emotions flew through my head, “that was so crazy, I am so thankful we got out, what would have happened if no one had heard us?” I thought. “You guys do realize there was a call button in the elevator, right?” the worker said. Everyone looked at each other and started to laugh.