The Unknown

THREE | visitors.

The next day, a group of armed soldiers stormed up the skyscraper's steps, sweeping through every room to search for people who didn't belong. People like Tess and Kyle. But the couple had been forewarned, and they had a plan.

First, they checked the building's security cameras. They had already smashed all of the memory cards that stored the footage, erasing evidence that they'd been there, but the live feeds were still running on a set of monitors. Tess could see soldiers sweeping the eighth floor, carrying the same wanted posters from when they'd first been hunted four years ago. The soldiers presented the posters to employees and residents, questioning if anyone had spotted the fugitives. Then they entered each apartment and thoroughly searched every individual room of the building.

This was going to take hours, Tess thought, biting at her bottom lip.

Kyle grabbed her hand, and they tore down the hall. Tess hit the button to call an elevator, then sent it to the floor below them. Then they used a maintenance key to open the elevator doors, slipped on top of the unmoving elevator, and sat together. This would be their hiding spot until they were certain the building had been cleared.

Jade was elsewhere. They'd been ordered to hide separately and not tell each other where, but Tess figured they could bend the rules.

When the maintenance door closed, the elevator shaft was entirely devoid of light. Tess felt insidious anxiety crawling up her spine. But she was in contact with Kyle the entire time, their knees touching as they sat cross-legged on the elevator's cold metal. This soothed her nerves.

They tried to make as little noise as possible in the echoey space, only whispering occasionally. Time passed uncertainly in absolute blackness. Tess could only measure it by the timing of her rapid heartbeats. The machinery around them was cold and indifferent, sitting idle.

After a long time, there was noise. Voices. The kind of booming voices that stirred past memories of being chased by soldiers, stoking the blaze of fear in Tess's veins. She tried to look at Kyle for reassurance, but could only gaze into the void where she thought his face might be.

The voices were directly beneath them. Without warning, the elevator began to move. Tess's stomach plummeted as it dropped underneath them, rushing through the blackness. She planted her hands against the cold metal to steady herself, gritting her teeth to keep from screaming. It felt like absolute freefall, as if they would certainly splat against the invisible ground at any moment.

Suddenly, the machine came to a gentle but dizzying halt. Tess could feel the stomp of footsteps calmly exiting the elevator, totally unaware of the terror they had caused.

For the next hour or so, things were totally silent, except for her increasingly panicked breathing. She didn't realize she was hyperventilating until Kyle reached out and traced his fingertips gently down her back. It was embarrassing that she still couldn't control her body's parasympathetic responses. She clenched her fists, determined to restrain herself.

Minutes later, a jangling of keys above them nearly halted her heart. She heard Kyle stifle his breath, and held her own, listening. Someone was trying various keys to open a door into the elevator shaft. The soldiers were being far more thorough than they'd expected.

Kyle found her hand and gripped it tightly. "I think we should move." His voice was a barely audible whisper in her ear. She bit her lip again, unsure of the best action.

Kyle carefully pried the hatch into the elevator open. Light flooded into the blackness.

He lowered his legs into the compartment, then dropped, dangling by his arms, and landed with a small thud. Tess followed suit, but when Kyle tried to replace the hatch door after her, there was a loud metal clang, and the soldiers' noise above went silent. Tess met Kyle's eyes, both of their faces flooded with fear.