A slow throbbing was felt all across my body, as if I was being compressed and decompressing almost instantly. Had I been put into one of those machines that pounded dough and come out the other end? No matter what brought me here, I could not recall any other time in my life where I had felt such exhaustion, not even my 48-hour study sessions back at education.

“Z”, a voice echoed.

A twitch shot up my left arm, that’s right, I was wounded. Had I passed out? Was I taken to the surface? Or… fuck… did I?

“Ze”, the voice echoed again.

A sudden realisation that my last act alive was telling my boss to fuck himself. The last page in my book was standing up to a brute, though no one would know it. I was young, I had so much more to do… But what did I want to do? Now, now it’s just cold.

“Zeke!” the voice shouted, saliva spattering across my face.

Darting my eyes open I am met by the face of Meghan, beside her I can see Jed looking on in worry. I guess this wasn’t the worst situation I was thinking of.

“Thank god your eyes opened. We were worried about you, you just collapsed”, Jed added.

Meghan placed a hand behind my head and grasped my hand with the other, aiding me to a sitting position.

“Slow now, he didn’t hit his head hard but he may still be disorientated”, Jed continued.

Looking around slowly, I felt the world vibrate as my heart was thumping in my ears, replicating the rhythmic drums of a song. Zooming in and out, my vision shifted sporadically. Neil wasn’t anywhere to be seen, and Ashely was sitting on a wooden shelf caressing her leg.

“Urgh, how long was I out?” I ask as I shuffled to lean my back against another shelving unit.

“A few minutes, we dragged you to a more comfortable spot but we didn’t want to move you too much”, Meghan responded.

“My best guess was it was a vasovagal syncope”, Jed spoke in medical terms.

“English?”

“You fainted, probably due to the stress of the situation or your blood loss.”

“The term makes it sound worse than it is, think it’s a good idea to keep going?”

“I can’t hear or see any rescue teams, I’d put my money on getting out of here over waiting for help”, Jed replied with a concerned look on his face.

“Fuck sake. Where is Neil anyway?”

“He went to look for a security room, staff room, somewhere that may have a key”, Ashely chimed in.

Drinking what little water we had left, I can easily tell that my body is slowly shutting down, it takes so much time to swallow. The low-strength meds I was on weren't going to last me long. The four levels to climb felt daunting, god I hope Neil finds a key for the escalator control hatch.

It’d be better if it were a normal four levels, but these stores had those obnoxiously tall ceilings, a good 20' tall or goddamn close to that. Thinking about maths made my head hurt even more than it already did, aside from feeling lightheaded. Fighting back the bile in my stomach was taking the last remnants of my resolve.

Scrapping footsteps started to echo from the distance, deeper in the store. Slowly turning my head I saw the phasing image of Neil returning, a ring of kings dangling in his titan grip, obviously not wanting to lose our lifeline.

“Hey! Got 'em”, Neil shouted over to us.

“Great! Meghan, help me help Zeke up”, Jed responded as he wheeled over to me.

With the aid of two people, I am able to get back to my feet, even if my left arm throbs as Jed pulls at my armpit. We take it slow, as it is plain to see that any sort of speed will lead me back to the floor. Taking a break by sitting on the shelf, I observe Neil kneeling down to the control latch.

We all hear the joyous high-pitch click of a lock, Neil got it on the first fucking try. Giving out a universal breath of relief, our team shares hopeful smiles once again. Neil presses a few buttons and flicks a small nub lever. With a roar of life, rusty cogs, and the weird gear transmission shift of a car, the escalator is brought back into action.

The whirring of the belts and pulley systems sets my heart ablaze, the drumming fading into the background of what would be a circus display of sound effects when compared to what I have been subject to down here.

We all agree on the procedure to go upwards, Neil would be the lead with Jed’s wheelchair collapsed under his arm. Next would be Meghan side-by-side with Ashely in case the impaled-leg lady would fall in either direction. Behind them would be Jed and then me, Jed would be sitting on the escalator as the wheelchair would make mounting and dismounting a pain due to the size of the steps.

Simple enough. As are the first steps onto the escalator. My body jerks forward awkwardly as it’s kind of imprinted to climb stairs, but escalators do like 99% of the work. The ascent is bliss, if not for the searing pain all over my body. I readjust my left arm in its strap to find it is almost entirely numb, or pins and needles, or feeling like I have a massive fist stuck in it.

After adjusting my arm I cling onto the handrail for dear life, using it to steady my rise to the top. This is for sure a cheaper way to get that weird buzz of alcohol, though the damage it has done to me may be more long-lasting than a simple hangover.

“You good, Zeke?” Jed asks me as his face is almost lined up with mine in his sitting position.

“Conscious, that’s the main thing.”

“I know it’s a shitty question to ask, but we gotta keep our brains active to not fall down in this situation.”

“Well if it helps, I feel like shit. My head is light, my arm is fucked, and I can’t throw up anything else but my body keeps telling me I need to.”

“Shit indeed. My legs are still numb, I don’t hold much hope for them.”

“Think we’ll see daylight anytime soon?” I ask hopefully.

“Well, we’re on 1 of 4. I thought we would have at least heard the rescue teams from where we were. But… shit, the shakes may be stalling them?”

“How long has it been since the last earthquake?” I ask hoping they had stopped.

“Hard to say, all our phones are trashed. Maybe a few minutes by now. I’m no specialist, so hard to say if they’ve stopped now. It may just be buildings collapsing after stress or something.”

“Same here, disaster movies are all I have to go off.”

As Jed and I talk, I notice that the ladies are dismounting, so I nod to my friend to get ready to dismount too. Just like we planned, Neil slows the escalator to a halt as Jed gets to the top. After it has stopped, Neil helps from behind, and me the front, getting Jed to sit on the floor in front of the escalator. I take the final steps to the next level.

“Hey!” Neil yells to the levels above, hoping they reach someone topside.

Nothing comes back, not even an echo. Though that may be more due to the fact that this floor is full of furniture, from long couches to thick drapes. There’s more than enough fabric in here to soak up the soundwaves, stopping them from rebounding back to us.

With the whirring of the escalator dying down, the drumming in my ears returns. As if someone is stopping just before they punch my head in, the rush of the wind creating a small pressure burst into my eardrums. I’d probably take a punch to the head over how my arm feels right now.

I hear the clicking and tinking sound of Neil thumbing through his ring of keys on the latch for the next set of escalators. No first-try entry for him this time, but as long as he gets there in the end I won’t complain.

Taking some time to browse the wares on offer, I notice that this floor has received a bit more in the way of damage. A portion of the ceiling had collapsed and a far wall showed signs of an adjoining or topside building having crashed through it. The sight didn’t bode well for what was awaiting us above, the lights were even flickering more as we got higher up. Maybe the power lines had been hit further up?

Regardless of the damage the store was in, Neil got the next escalator set up, our small group preparing to ascend the second flight. Almost halfway there, please, please, don’t fucking break on me.

“Would be nice to take a nap on these steps, right?” I jokingly announce, with a return of chuckles.