Chapter 22: The Elevator

At 5:30 the lights turned on slowly and get bright. Chris opened his eyes to find that his bed was empty. He began to panic, but quickly calmed down. 

"She's probably out getting breakfast or something," he thought to himself.

Chris left his room and walked down to the cafeteria. In the cafeteria, Francis was introducing Alexis to Jackson. Jackson didn't come downstairs until late at night. Chris saw him once just before dinner carrying a lot of rope towards the stairs.

"Hey," Chris said as he walked over to Jackson. "Where were you last night?"

"I was sorta busy. I heard you were picking fights again," Jackson said.

"I had my reasons. Now, what were you so busy with?" Chris asked.

"You get a kick out of this. Come with me," he said, grabbing Chris by the arm.

They left the cafeteria and walked towards the elevator. Jackson could see the excitement grow on Chris's face as they got closer to the elevator.

"Are you telling me you fixed the elevator?" asked Chris.

"Not quite. I rigged it to be able to lift the bodies to the surface," Jackson replied.

"How did you manage that?" 

"I managed to replace the cables in the elevator shaft with the heavy duty rope I found in the storage room. I reconfigured the counterweights to the weight needed. If everything works right, we should be able to lift a four-hundred pound man," replied Jackson.

"Since when could you do that?" Chris asked in shock.

"Always, I'm an engineer."

Chris and Jackson walked back to the cafeteria. When they got back Heather was standing next to Francis talking to Alexis. Heather was wearing a black dress and had her hair curled at the end. Jackson noticed Chris's mouth was hanging open in awe. He nudged him saying "It's not polite to stare."

Chris quickly closed his mouth and walked over to Heather.

"I didn't know we were supposed to dress nice," he stated.

"We weren't originally but because Heather decided to get all dressed up, we should all look nice for the funeral, even if we're wearing the hazmat suits," said Francis.

"Well Heather, anyway, you look beautiful today," Chris said.

"Thank you," Heather replied. "And you look very, you, today," she replied.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Chris asked.

"Nothing in particular," Heather answered.

Alexis ran over to heather and they began talking. Chris walked over to Francis and asked him whether or not they should wear suits as well.

"I mean, I guess she has a point. We have the suits from the one dance that we went to that we can wear," Francis replied.

Jackson walked over to the two boys to discuss bringing the bodies to the surface.

"Francis, I got the elevator working and built five boxes that will make it easier." He turned to face both boys now, "Now, what will happen is you two and one of the girls will be at the bottom of the shaft. Since I didn't have time to cut a bigger hole, you will have to fit the box through the service hatch on the top of the elevator. I will be at the top manually controlling the elevator through the control panel in the maintenance room. We will also have the handheld radios that Jerome's goonies left behind. Any questions?"

"Yeah, I have a few," Francis said. "One, which girl is staying with us. And two, how much sleep did you get last night?"

"That's for them to decide and none whatsoever," Jackson replied.

"We should probably get our suits on," Francis said to Chris. He turned to Jackson and asked him to inform the girls on what they discussed. 

Chris walked back to his room to put on his suit. He had black pants, a white button-down shirt, a black and white tie (which he never untied because he couldn't tie it again), and a black jacket. He pushed his hair over to one side and used a little hair gel to keep it in place. 

Chris left his room around the same time as Francis did. Francis was wearing a suit similar to Chris's, Except Francis had a red tie. They walked into the cafeteria to find Jackson in a blue suit, and Alexis in one of Heather's red dresses. The five got together and discussed a final gameplan. Chris, Francis, and Heather chose to stay on the bottom to load the bodies on to the elevator. Jackson and Alexis were to go upstairs and unload the elevator up top. 

The groups split up. Jackson took Alexis and began their trek up the long flight of stairs. Five minutes in a voice came from the radio.

"Hey just wanted to see if you can still hear us and to double check to make sure they work," Jackson said.

"Yeah, we can hear you, see you in an hour or two," Chris replied.

Francis looked at Chris and Heather and said, "In about ten minutes I'll take Heather to start bringing the bodies out. In the meantime, Chris, try to get on top of the elevator and see what we can do to make it easier to get the boxes up top."

Chris went to the storage room and grabbed a power saw and left for the elevator. Once he got to the elevator he threw the saw through the maintenance hatch on the top. He pulled himself up and got to work. He marked out a rectangle just smaller than the box and began cutting it out.  Sparks flew everywhere as he cut the ceiling. One of the sparks landed on his pants and lit it on fire. He quickly noticed the burning and patted it out.

Chris finished cutting the door as Heather and Francis got to the elevator. The two lifted the box and put two ropes underneath in the groves Jackson cut into them. Francis helped Heather up to the top with Chris. Chris and Heather each grabbed two ends of the rope and began pulling upward. Francis stayed at the bottom to keep the box balanced.