The blond receptionist had found a candle and was in the process of lighting it. Omar went to her and turned on the charm.
“Did you forget to pay the electric bill?” he asked with a brilliant smile, winking at her.
The blond giggled and shook her head as he locked gazes with her. She couldn’t free her eyes from his and frankly didn’t want to. She didn’t even blink for a long time. She felt she could be lost inside the black gaze of this extraordinarily handsome man standing in front of her. It was exciting and she felt a shiver run down her back.
Finally there was a physical necessity to blink. She felt like she’d been lost in a dream for a while, missing time.
“Must be an area wide power outage,” she said, mentally shaking herself and emerging from Omar’s mesmerizing trance.
“The phones aren’t working either,” she added. “I had to use my cell to contact our maintenance crews to come over here and fix the generator and the elevator.”
“What’s your name?” Omar asked.
“Julie.”
“Well, Julie, I saw a few people in the lobby earlier. Where did they go?”
“Upstairs. Unfortunately, one of them is stuck in the elevator.”
They both became quiet for a minute, listening to muted pounding from the elevator shaft.
“In fact,” Julie said, “those people came all the way from Hawaii, just to see your wife.”
“I’d better go find them.”
“Stairs are the only way up now, I’m sorry to say. They all went upstairs to see if they could rescue their friend stuck in the elevator.” She pointed at a door that said ‘Stairs’ in the back wall of the clinic.”
“I’ll go search for them. Thanks for the help.”
“Be careful. It will be totally dark.”
Omar hurried to the door and opened it. Julie was right, there was total blackness except for three separate tiny light from high above him. He realized the three climbing up the stairs were using their cell phones to illuminate the climb. No way could he use his own. It might be used to track him here to Mexico, but he realized he couldn’t climb up the stairs blind.
He turned around and went out to the the lobby again. Julie wouldn’t want to give up her candle, but he knew he could persuade her.
***
Heather, Rod, and Vincent made their way up the stairs, listening for the intermittent noises coming from the elevator. There would be three slow knocks, then three fast short ones. About ten seconds later the sequence would be repeated. The stairs were adjacent to the elevator shaft wall, so they could tell they had to go up several floors.
All three were using the light from their cell phones, but it was so dark it was a little creepy. They’d go up half a flight and then there would be a landing and the stairs would zig in the other direction up to the next level.
“How many floors are in this building?” Vincent asked. He was portly and a little out of breath, puffing after climbing up a few floors.
“Probably about ten or twelve,” Rod said. “I can tell we’re getting close. I hope we can pry the elevator doors open and get Mike and Dr. Franz out.”
Heather was behind the two men, shining her cell phone on the steel steps so she wouldn’t trip. Luckily she was not claustrophobic, she thought. It seemed like there wasn’t much air in the stairwell. Lucifer was making things more difficult. He started meowing loudly and seemed agitated, squirming around in her purse, so she had trouble keeping the strap from falling down her arm from her shoulder.
“Lucifer sure is loud,” Vincent commented.
“Shhh, Lucifer,” Heather admonished, aiming her cell to shine on the little animal. It didn’t do any good. He just got louder, almost like he was screaming. “Maybe he doesn’t like the dark,” Heather was saying, when she felt the cat leap.
“Oh nooo,” Heather wailed. “Lucifer’s run away.”
All three stopped and pointed cell phones on the stairs above them. A white streak was bounding up the stairs. And now they could see a bright, thin, focused light high above them.
“We’ll find Lucifer,” Rod said reassuringly to Heather. “He can’t get out of the stairwell.”
They kept climbing until the pounding from the elevator shaft was evident from the fifth floor. They went through that doorway into the the building hallway and stood in front of the elevator door.
There was knocking from inside. Rod knocked back. He yelled, “Hey, Mike. I’m going to try to open the doors.” He put his fingers between the two doors and pulled them apart a few inches. It took a lot of strength. All they saw was the blank side of the elevator wall.
“I’m glad you found us.” It was Mike’s voice. “I think the elevator stopped between floors. We were going to the top, so Dr. Franz could show me the lab where the frozen eggs are stored.”
“I’m glad you’re okay,” Rod said. “Your pounding showed us exactly where to go.”
Mike said, “The emergency phone isn’t working. There’s this really cool trap door in the top of the elevator, though. Just like you see in the movies. I’m going to try and climb out.”
“Don’t do that!” Heather yelled. “If the power goes back on and the elevator goes up, you might get squashed.”
“I can always jump back inside the elevator.”
“We’ll go up one floor,” Rod said. “Maybe we can pry open the doors and pull you out from the top.”
“Don’t they have maintenance men or janitors here who can rescue people?” Vincent grumbled as they went back to the stairs and up a flight.
“It’s late. They probably all went home,” Rod said.
Heather was searching and calling for Lucifer as they climbed, but didn’t see him. She was really worried. The cat was so tiny and this hospital was a big place. If he got scared and hid they might never find him.
On the sixth floor Rod was able to pull
