Down 64 Flights Of Stairs

"Holy! Thank you for saving me!" Zack thanked Samantha.

The explosion caused everyone to panic even more and they began to violently push each other as they tried to get out of the floor. Nick and the other security guard were pushed out of the way as the two of them did not have the power to stop so many people. But surprisingly, the explosion had also caused them all to exit faster. Within seconds, the emergency emptied up as the last person made their way through and down the stairs.

"This job really sucks man!" the security guard complained as he pushed himself off the ground after having been thrown down.

Nick turned to Jean and the others who were the only ones left on the floor and told them," Come on, let's go!" He and the other guard waited for everyone to go through the exit before going through themselves.

"Wait!" a voice cried out from behind them. It seemed that there was still someone trapped on the floor. The two security guards turned back and went back onto the floor. Everyone else stopped and watched as the two looked frantically around for where the voice came from.

"Over here!" the voice cried out again. Buried underneath some debris was a man with a mask and a garbage bag lying on the floor in front of him. It was the person from earlier. The two guards ran over and walked to either side of the debris.

"On three! One! Two! Three!" On the count of three, both guards started lifting the concrete block up. They eld it for just long enough so that the man could crawl from underneath and get back on his feet. After he was free, they dropped the debris back down and the three of them all rushed to the stairs.

The man brought along his bag of tools. The security guards gave him a strange look and he replied to them, "These things aren't cheap alright. Losing them is basically the equivalent of losing my life."

"Well, I understand what you mean since I have a few of those myself, but are you sure you can carry that down 64 flights of stairs?" Nick asked him.

"What floor is this again!?" Zack loudly asked over the sound of the alarms for confirmation.

"The 64th," Jean answered him. She had also forgotten how high they were up in the building until Nick had reminded them.

"So we have to go down 64 flights of stairs!?"

"Stop complaining and just go!" Samantha yelled at him. Zack zipped his mouth and quickly made his way down the steps as per Samantha's orders. It was either that or they get crushed by falling debris. Everyone else hurried down the stairs right after Zack. For someone who didn't go outside often, he was surprisingly fast.

Jean was tired after descending twenty or so flights and had to slow down a little. The people behind her slowly passed her. Her dad noticed and he slowed down as well so that she could catch up to him. "Are you okay?" he asked her.

"Yeah, I can still go-" At the exact moment, she said that she slipped on one of the stairs, almost biting her tongue and falling down the stairs. Luckily, her father reacted in time and caught her before she did, but unluckily, he was caught off-guard by her suddenly slipping and also slipped himself. But fortunately for both of them, Nick and the other security guard were behind them and grabbed the two before they can fall.

"Woah! That was close!" Nick shouted over the sound of the alarms.

"Oh yeah, it was! Thank you for catching us!" Jean's father thanked them.

They all continued going down the stairs and after a while, Jean saw the sign indicating that they were on the 30th floor. They were a little more than halfway done. Surprisingly no one else had passed them during the entire time they were going down. Were they the last ones to go down the stairs? Well, taking into consideration that they had to wait for everyone else to go through the emergency exits, they were probably indeed the last ones. Though it was very unlikely that there wasn't someone else behind them considering how tall the building was.

"Ugh, it would've been nice if we were on the 70th floor instead of the 64th when this all happened," the security guard next to Nick said.

"Why?" Jean asked him.

"Well, starting on the 70th floor to every single floor above, there is an emergency slide that takes you down to the ground floor in just a matter of seconds," he explained. "Though, I really don't understand why they chose the 70th floor and not like the 20th floor. I guess it was too expensive or something."

"Oh." That explained why there was no one else had passed them yet.

"Yeah, I think we're the last ones. The reason why there were so many people crammed at the exit for so long was before they had to wait for the floors above to go down as well. That and combined with the fact that we had to rescue someone would've given the floors under us enough time to go through as well," the security guard added.

Everyone made it down the rest of the stairs without any problems. Other than a few stumbles here and there, nothing really happened. When they exited the building, everyone immediately turned around and looked at it after putting some distance between it and them. It was difficult to see with the lamps in the ceiling shining so brightly but from what Jean could see, it looked like that there was only one explosion rather than the multiple that they heard, and it had affected several floors above and under it.

"Please move away from there," a voice called out to them. A man in heavy fireproof equipment waddled over to them. "It's dangerous here. You might get hit by falling debris," he explained to them. The man pointed at an area some distance away from where they currently were. It was packed with people and paramedics. There were a couple of people injured who were being treated there while the rest were being checked by what looked like agents and other government officials for something. Jean could only guess that they were trying to find anything that would help them determine the person or people that were behind the attack.

THe group walked towards the area where the rescue personal had indicated and all the while, he was staring at the garbage bag the man was carrying as they walked away. Jean couldn't blame him for doing so. Anyone who saw that would be suspicious or confused of it. It was surprisingly how the guy managed to make it down all those steps while carrying all of that.

Once they arrived at the location, another person directed them to a line. "Over here. Join the back of that line. You will be checked for injuries and other things that may be of... concern."

It was as Jean had thought. They were indeed looking for the culprit or culprits behind this mess. Though she was pretty sure that they wouldn't find them since if they had managed to sneak in without raising an alarm, they probably had it all planned out, and if they thought of a way in, they would definitely had figured a way to get out without getting caught.

As everyone got into the line, one of the people in uniforms walked up to the man with the garbage bag and politely said, "Sir, can you come with me for a moment?"

"I'm not the one response for that," the man instantly replied while pointing at the fire that was raging on up in the building.

"Sir, I believe that you're not the one responsible, but I will still have to ask you to come with me."

The man unhappily complied with the official and followed him towards the front of the line.

"Hoo, that's unlucky," Zack commented as he watched the two walk away.

"Yeah, he can't seem to stay out of trouble today can he?" Nick also agreed.

"Wait, what are you doing on this line? Don't you work here?"

"Just because I work here, it doesn't mean I'm clear. They're checking everyone." To prove his point, Nick pointed at several people in front of them in the line. They were all people who work at the facility and there were several more security guards other than him standing at different places throughout the line.

"Oh, uh... They sure are being thorough."

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