Atlas Studios

  Atlas Studios

  Gu Xingze had a slight headache.

  How did this happen to them?

  Being over a decade in the entertainment industry, he often flew across the world and encountered his fair share of elevator malfunctions, but this was truly the first time it had happened to himself.

  Experiencing it for himself now, he felt uneasy and panicky from being trapped inside an elevator.

  He reached out to press the alarm bell for emergency, but even after pressing it for so long, there was no response at all.

  “What’s wrong?” He was puzzled. “Is it out of order?”


  She stood up and tried pressing the floor buttons, too, but the lights did not light up at all.

  She then pressed the alarm bell; it rang for a bit, but no one responded.

  “What’s going on? Why is there no response after pressing it?”


  “Do you think it’s out of order?”


  “It doesn’t seem like it! That’s weird. There should be people manning the elevator maintenance for twenty-four hours.” She brooded. “Why is this hotel like this? The safety measures are simply terrible.”


  “This is a small hotel. Many are like this, too,” explained the man.

  She asked, “Have you ever met this kind of mishap?”


  “Yes, I have, and I’ve even seen it on the news.”


  “Oh, I’ve seen it on the news, too. There’s an elevator malfunction in a university then, and a student passed away from being stuck in the cabin for long.”


  He answered, “I’ve seen that one, too.”


  “I didn’t think that it would ever happen to me. It’s too precarious earlier.”


  She caught sight of her fallen phone and hurriedly picked it up. The phone died from the impact. She hurriedly turned it on, wanting to call for help using the phone.

  Seeing her actions, he said, “It’s futile. Phone signals are blocked in elevators, and there’s no mobile network coverage inside. Besides, we’re in the basement now.”


  Sure enough, after she turned on the phone, there was no signal on its display, and she was unable to make a call.

  “What to do? The phone really has no signal at all.”


  With no Internet and signal, it was impossible to communicate their plight to the outside world.

  She started panicking, feeling very helpless.

  No one responded to the alarm bell, and the phone had no signal; it was as if they were lost in the wild, isolated from help and caught in a predicament like this.

  He frowned as he patiently pressed the alarm bell repeatedly. It was unknown if the elevator lacked maintenance over the years or other reasons, but no one responded at all.

  Were the people in the security room dozing off, or did they secretly leave their post to go play?

  Half an hour later, no one still responded. Frustrated, he punched the metallic doors of the elevator and finally gave up.

  She sighed.

  “Are we now on basement three?”


  “Mhm.”


  She pressed on. “Then, will the elevator resume its braking?”


  “It won’t.”


  Turning around, he explained, “The elevator has an emergency device. In case of a malfunction, it will stop the lift’s braking.”


  “So, now, we can only wait for the maintenance personnel to come, right?”


  He pondered on this for a moment before he slowly answered, “Yes, that’s the only way.”


  Suddenly, as if having lost her strength, she despaired, “When will they find out that there are people trapped in the elevator?”


  He peered at her, suddenly walked up to her, and picked up a fallen blanket to cover her. “Don’t be scared. Someone will find out tomorrow morning at the latest, and that is just the worst-case scenario.”


  The consolation on his face gave her a great deal of faith.

  She calmed down as a corollary. “Mhm.”