History Must Repeat Itself

Chapter 18

          The five of us stood inside the storage room, the outer door now shut. We were surrounded by boxes. Steve ripped the tape off one, all of us leaning forwards in curiosity. Dustin bounced with excitement, leaning over Steve's shoulder. Opening the cardboard flaps, a metal box was inside. It looked sturdy and not easy to break in to. It was military-like.

"That's definitely not Chinese food," Steve muttered, reaching into the cardboard box and wrapped his hand around the metal handle, "Uh maybe you guys should, you know, stand back."

Erica stepped off the box she was perched on, stepping backwards with Robin and me. Dustin didn't move, a bickering match started between the boys.

"If you die, I die," Dustin stated.

Steve stared at Dustin like he had three heads, "okay."

Steve glanced around, before twisting the lid off. With a hiss, four metal cylinders with similar, structured tops were revealed. Steve pulled out one of the cylindrical chambers, and we were mystified by what it held. The liquid was an emerald green, but shimmered inside like particles of dust and glitter.

"What the hell," Steve muttered.

"What is that?" Robin asked, stepping forward. As I put my own foot out, the room shuttered, groaning. I looked at Steve with wide eyes.

"Was that just me or did the room move?" Dustin asked, fear in his voice.

"Booby traps," Erica whispered. A mechanical whirling began around us and my heart raced in panic. Robin reached across the box, snatching the cylinder from Steve.

"You know what? Let's just grab that and go."

I followed Robin over to Erica as she put the cylinder in the girl's backpack. Behind us, Dustin and Steve began arguing over the door's buttons. A loud clang boomed, causing met to spin around. The room's inner room had shut.

"Guys!" I yelled, my heart pounding. As if they didn't notice...

"Oh, shit," Steve said.

We all hit the ground as the room's gravity shoved us down. My head smacked against a metal shelf, a string of swear words flying from my mouth. Someone called my name, but I had no clue who said it. Erica and Dustin screamed from across the storage room. Aimlessly,  I crawled for one of the shelves welded into the floor. I turned to Robin beside me. Her jaw was clenched, gripping onto the metal.

The apparent elevator stopped abruptly, tossing us all and some boxes. Groaning, I rolled onto my stomach and rested my forehead against the floor.

"My groin," Steve gasped out, "it fell on my groin, Dustin!"

"Is everyone okay?" Robin asked, helping me stand before moving to Erica.

"Yeah I'm great," Steve exclaimed, voice a few octaves higher, "now that I know that Russians can't design elevators!"

Steve walked to the buttons on the wall, angrily pressing them. Robin said something, but my head began to pound. I rested my head on the wall and shut my eyes. I tried to force slow breaths through my body, hoping it would stop the pounding inside my head. The yelling wasn't helping.

"I don't care about Tina or Uncle Jack's party! Your mum's not gonna be able to find us if we're dead in a Russian elevator!" Steve yelled.

"Shut up," I groaned, but no one heard.

"Hey what if we climbed out?"

Metal groaned, and I turned my head to see Dustin pushing open the escape hatch. I faced the wall again, shutting my eyes. This wasn't happening right now. I wasn't trying to climb how many feet up to the surface. A hand began rubbing up and down my back.