Chapter 3 – #Rule 3

Ready for more elevator safety tips? Alright, here goes. This is Rule #3, previously Rule #2. Really, you’ll want to follow all of these, so the order doesn’t matter that much, as you’ll find out below. Breaking the third rule can easily be the most deadly mistake you ever make.

Rule #3 – Don’t step inside the elevator without looking.

You might ask, why not? Well, let’s just say that the elevator isn’t always going to be there when you think it’s going to be there.

Let’s say you’re looking at your phone, as I was, checking the location of your next service call. You hear the doors slide open and don’t even glance up as you step forward.

But as you take that next fateful step inside, you realize that something feels wrong. Why is everything black around the periphery of the phone? Why do you feel dread crawling up your spine?

That’s why you look before stepping into the elevator. Because if you don’t, you’ll find yourself like I did, falling down and screaming as you drop down an elevator shaft made of darkness.

And down below are not nice things. It’s not a comfortable landing zone. It’s quite the opposite.

I fell down towards that deadly pit of metal parts and the only thing that saved me was that I managed to grab onto a cable as I was descending. It bit into my hands and I felt it tear the flesh to pieces as I slowed, but I held firm, knowing that I would surely die without some way to slow my descent.

Blood began to pour down my arms and I felt the cable start to grind against the bones of my fingers as I gradually began to slow. The slippery gore didn’t help to slow my progress though, and pretty soon I found myself speeding up, going faster and faster once again down into the abyss.

I forced myself to grip the cable even more tightly and ground my teeth against the agony of the cable rubbing against my phalanges.

When I finally got to the bottom, I was not ready for it. My feet finally hit the ground and I felt both ankles break. I screamed and wailed in agony, writhing on the cold hard ground. I called out for someone, anyone to help me. No one came. I waited and waited, calling out over and over again, my desperate cries for help absorbed by the thick concrete and steel surrounding me.

Pretty soon I heard a sound from above, and realized it was the elevator coming down towards me.

My heart began to pound, faster and faster. I screamed at the top of my lungs.

“STOP THE ELEVATOR! THERE’S SOMEONE BELOW! THERE’S SOMEONE BELOW!”

I heard it coming closer in the darkness. The sound was soon right on top of me, a metallic shaking and rattling which took over the world and made my teeth tremble in their sockets.

It came down on my face and I braced myself for death and shrunk backwards, making myself as small as possible. I felt the flat surface of the bottom of the elevator mashing into my nose and heard the bones inside of it breaking but then it stopped. Just before it completely obliterated my skull.

As I howled in pain and terror I felt shards of bone going down my throat and I coughed and gagged on their sharp edges.

“MWHY?!” I screamed through a mouthful of broken teeth.

“Somebody down there?” I heard from just above me.

“MMYYYSSS! MGH HPHHHHH!!!!” Yes! GO UP! My nose was being crushed so badly I couldn’t even yell properly.

“Hang on, let me take my ear buds out. What’d you say, dude?”

“RRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“Oh shit, hang on man, I’m gonna get you some help.”

And away he went, casually walking away by the sounds of it, leaving me there with the elevator smashed into my face and barely enough oxygen for me to breathe and stay alive for more than a few minutes.

I waited in that claustrophobia-inducing darkness and tried to control my breathing. This too will pass, I told myself, over and over again. Only a few minutes, and he’ll be back.

But the metal was crushing my face in the most excruciating way and there was no possible way to get comfortable. I twisted and writhed, trying to make room, but found none. The air was thick, the darkness total and complete.

Pretty soon I began to panic and hyperventilate, as the time stretched out forever, each second suddenly feeling like an hour or a day. I had no idea how long I was there for, I only knew that I was going to die in that elevator shaft.

And then I heard someone running towards me from down the hallway. I heard them hit the button to open the door and they got on the elevator and it began to ascend.

It turned out it was another elevator technician from my company who the building manager had called. They hadn’t bothered to check on me, just called it in and left me there.

The guy’s name was Pete, and he had been working in the elevator business for over thirty years. He had heard the emergency call and raced over, leaving the job he had been working on behind. He pried open the door and pulled me out of there, clapping me on the back and telling me I was lucky to be alive. I was incapable of speech and sobbed a thank you as blood poured down my throat from my ruined nose. Sharp pieces of bone stuck out at odd angles from my broken ankles.

He helped me out of the building and told me to always remember the rules. I was new and had no idea what he meant. I was so curious that even through the pain I managed to ask him, “What rules?”

“You’ve got a lot to learn, kid,” he said. “I’ve got a whole list of ‘em. Come on, I’ll tell you about them on the way to the hospital. Trust me, you’ll get to know that place really well.”