Delta

Chapter Fifteen: The Wrong Level

Before we stepped foot in the elevator, Adrian had Crisp print out another layout map for Jason and Ella to take. Then he pressed the button on the side of the elevator and we waited for the curved doors to slide open. After a few seconds, I saw the elevator descend through the glass and watched as it slow to a stop behind the doors. 

"How do we know Elsa's not going to lock us in here?" Ella asked as the doors slid open. 

"We don't." I said. 

"You know, that's a good point." Adrian looked at us. "Two of us should go first while the other two stay behind. That way if something happens, we can still help." 

"Jason and I can go first." Ella volunteered, placing a foot in the elevator to block the doors from closing. "If that's cool with Jason." 

"Yeah, let's do that." Jason said.

"Great. Tell me through your headset when you arrive at your floor." Adrian instructed as they stepped in. 

The doors closed and the elevator traveled upwards, disappearing though the ceiling.

"I hope they'll be okay." I said after a few seconds. 

"I guess we're about to find out." Adrian replied, not looking at me. 

After about a minute of standing in silence next to Adrian, he suddenly brought the microphone up to his mouth.

"Okay, great. Yeah, I'll let you know."

He lowered the microphone and gave me a sideways glance.

"They made it up fine." He announced.

"Good." I said, feeling relieved. "Guess it's our turn."

Adrian stepped forward and pressed the button again. After about a minute, I saw the elevator glide back down behind the glass. The doors slid open and we walked in. 

The space inside was small, and I moved to the back to give Adrian some room. He came in behind me and turned around to examine the panel of buttons on the side of the elevator. He eventually selected one and after a few more seconds the door slid closed. I felt the elevator lurch gently as it began it's ascent, and I watched in interest as we rose above the ground floor.

Everything momentarily went dark as we slid into a dark tube. The only lights were the blue glow of the buttons and some lines on the floor. After a few seconds, we glided out of the dark tube and up into another glass one. 

"Wow." I breathed as I got an entire view of the facility. It stretched out all around us. Catwalks and tubes snaked around each other and buildings rose up out of the mist. Tiny blue and yellow lights glowed through the mist. 

"This is amazing." Adrian muttered as he took in the sight. We rose above the tops of buildings and back into another dark tube. I guessed that we were leaving the level. The elevator eventually rose up out of the dark tube and we emerged in another building.

"Your burns seem to be healing pretty fast." Adrian commented as everything went dark again.

"What burns?" I asked, looking down at my hands and arms. When we came up in another building, I could make out the fading red blisters on my hands and arms.

"Oh yeah, from the lasers." I realized. I had completely forgotten about them, since they hadn't been giving me any trouble.

"How's your arm?" Adrian asked.

I looked down at the bandage around my arm.

"I think it's fine. It doesn't hurt and the burn wasn't that deep to begin with."