Technology Terror - 1
The escalator trap
They were late. Their product presentation was scheduled to start in three minutes, but they still had to start up their prototype first. But they were inside! One more escalator to the third floor. Jennifer could already see the room reserved for them.
Fate struck like a thief in the night. They both almost fell over when the escalator stopped with a jolt. There they were, halfway between the second and the third floor, stuck on an escalator that had no movement at all, within sight of the room where, after two long years of blood, sweat and tears, they would finally be allowed to demonstrate their prototype. Stranded within sight of the harbor and no one else in sight.
"Call the concierge!" Jennifer screamed in a breaking voice at her colleague Patrick. "Or security! The police! Do something!!"
"No signal..." Patrick shook his phone, as if that would amplify the signal.
"Help!" Patrick's timid voice echoed through the building, but it seemed that everyone else had already gone home, except for their client who was undoubtedly waiting impatiently in the soundproof room, barely 20 meters away.
"Help! Is anyone here? We're stuck!" There was pure panic in Patrick's voice now.
"Please...anybody... help us!" Jennifer put in her two cents. "The escalator!"
Their anxiety was now replaced by pure panic. It was now or never! How would they get into the room in time?
"Help!... Hèèèèlp!" The empty building echoed the hollow echo of Patrick's voice, cracking with fear, like an episode of American Horror Story. The contrast of the deathly silence that followed made them fear the worst.
The minutes crawled by. After fifteen minutes, still hoping that someone would come soon to rescue them from their dire situation, they decided to save their energy and sit on the steps of the escalator, but when still no help had arrived after half an hour, they knew that they had blown their chance of a lifetime. Upstairs they saw that someone switched off the light in the room, and their client's delegation walk to the back of the building, likely towards the elevator. They decided to keep quiet. Under no circumstances should their client see the shame of their predicament.
Patrick burst into tears, his long wails echoing eerily in the twilight of the deserted building, where only the sparse emergency lighting was still burning. In a fit of blind rage Jennifer threw her suitcase with the prototype down the escalator, until it crashed to the marble floor of the second floor below them. There was no point in this anymore. Stranded within sight of the harbor, she was stuck here, together with Patrick, the loser. Two long years of research, everything had been for nothing.
Two hours later, despair gave way to fatigue. They decided to make themselves as comfortable as possible on the steps of the escalator. Patrick stood up to take off his jacket, but missed his step. Jennifer could still see the fear in his wide open, light-blue eyes, just before he finally lost his balance and fell backwards. His fall was broken by one of the steps of the escalator during his first back flip. The dull thud of Patrick's back of the head on the steel echoed heavily through the escalator's stairwell. Four back spins later, he laid among the wreckage of their prototype on the marble floor of the second floor, his right arm and leg in a strange fold. She had to listen to his moans for at least half an hour before he finally shut up.
Fatigue struck. She folded Patrick's jacket in half, to make her position on the metal steps somewhat bearable. Her handbag could serve as a pillow, as best she could. For a moment she thought about the product presentation that could have made her rich, but which had now been so sadly lost. Then she closed her eyes. It was going to be a long, uncomfortable night..
Never again an escalator for her, was her last thought before sleep overcame her. Never again!
Next time she would just take the lift.