Genesis - Keith R. A. DeCandido [28]
He couldn't.
But he did hear Ella scream.
And that was why Mark could not scream, because he realized that Ella's head and arm were still jutting out into the third floor even as the elevator was about to plunge past that floor.
Then it stopped.
Again, Mark was knocked to the floor, but the fall wasn't as bad, as he had already been kneeling down. He quickly looked over to see that Ella was still lying on the floor. The elevator was now fully on the third floor, the bottom of the elevator even with the third-floor elevator bay.
A wave of relief washed over Mark at the sound of Ella's voice. It was barely above a whisper, but at least she still had a head with which to form the words.
"Pull me back."
The words were barely audible, but it was enough to spur both Mark and the other man to action. They pulled on her legs, trying to get her back within the comparatively safe confines of the elevator.
"Comparatively" being the operative word. Was anyplace in the Hive truly safe? Dead bodies in the next elevator over. Dead bodies in the elevator bay. Who knew how many other dead bodies?
This was just a fire drill.
Wasn't it?
Suddenly, Mark found it hard to breathe. And there was an odd smell in the air.
"Push her out of the way," the other guy said. "We've gotta get out!"
But Mark was having trouble breathing—and it had nothing to do with his state of fear. This was more than that. He had a tightness in his chest.
"Pull me back inside!"
Ella was screaming now. Mark looked down to see that her head was still wedged between the doors. The other guy was making a half-hearted effort to pull the doors apart, but he was overcome by a coughing fit.
Mark tried to move over to the doors to help, but he couldn't make his limbs work properly.
Then his stomach lurched downward. The elevator was moving upward.
Again, Ella screamed.
Mark Torvaldsen would spend the rest of his life hearing the squelching sound of flesh and bone being crushed as the floor of the elevator and the upper portion of the third-floor elevator doorframe passed each other, severing Ella's head from the rest of her body in as grisly a manner as possible.
Luckily for Mark, the rest of his life was only a few more seconds. He could now taste the gas in the air, even as breathing became more and more impossible.
His last thoughts were regret that he wouldn't be able to invite Ella to Bad Movie Night.
EIGHT
"SORRY ABOUT LAST NIGHT," DR. MARIANO Rodriguez said, as if that made everything better.
Dr. Anna Bolt scowled at him as she entered the elevator that would take them down to the viral lab where they both worked. He was standing there waiting in the car, holding a cup of coffee in his hand, just as she was. They both took their coffee with cream and Sweet 'N Low—not Equal or sugar—which was something she once found endearing. Next to him stood their lab tech, Johnny-Wayne Carlson, who was holding a plate containing food for the rabbits they were experimenting on.
Mariano—or "Mo," as she called him whenever she wanted to annoy him, like, say, right now—had that mischievious smile on his face. It was the most adorable sight in all creation when they first started working together. Now, after three straight broken dates, it mostly made her want to punch him. Repeatedly.
Johnny-Wayne, on the other hand, was just smiling like a normal person. Once, Anna had asked Johnny-Wayne why he was smiling all the time in the lab, and he said," 'Cause I usually gotta pay good money for theater like what you two give me for free every day."
Anna was glad that somebody was getting entertainment out of it. Mariano was a brilliant biologist, a damn good-looking man, and fabulous in bed. He also had the emotional maturity of a particularly troubled nine-year-old, only with less couth.
Their first date wasn't really a date as such. He came to her apartment, they ripped each others' clothes off, and had several hours of the best sex Anna had had since that amazing fling during finals week at Johns Hopkins.
Their second date, which actually involved