The obstacles in our path is the elevator. It makes the lower floors inaccessible by blocking the entire shaft with its bulk.

When containment was breach everything went into lock down, including the elevator.

I take a look at Claire, she seems to have stabilized and her condition has improved a little by being taken out of the toxic fumes, but she still will need medical attention soon.

I set Claire down on the roof of the elevator and collapse, she may not be heavy, but she isn’t light either, and climbing down forty feet of ladder with her on my back has exhausted the last bit of my stamina.

While I recover from my fatigue I turn my attention back to the elevator I am resting on.

The top is roughly ten feet by ten feet, and is flush to the sides of the elevator shaft. The elevator itself is made from a lightly colored almost white metal, and the top is covered by a complex array of pulleys, winches, and cables.

Then I think of a few solutions to get past this obstacle.

The first solution that comes to my mind is to cut the cables suspending the elevator and drop it out of the way.

But I immediately dismiss that idea, even if I manage to cut the cables, the system has several redundant mechanism to stop the elevator from plummeting should the cables be cut.

Additionally if I could drop the elevator, it would be difficult not to fall with it.

A second idea would be to go through the elevator, but that plan is also dismissed.

Unlike commercial elevators, this one doesn’t have an entrance into it from the top. Meaning the only way through the elevator would be to cut a hole through the top of it. Which would be difficult with tools, and impossible without them, and the only person capable of using tools is lying on the floor dying.

The third solution, which is ultimately the only possible solution is to go up.

She needs medical attention first and foremost, and if I can’t get it from below, then I will need to search on the higher floors, finding the medicine in time will be the hard part, curing her won’t be difficult.

I may not be a doctor but this base contains some of the best medical technology on the entire planet, if there isn’t some sort of cure here, then well…

...

There is a problem with this plan, bringing her with me. I don’t know if I will be able to carry Claire back up that ladder, I already feel extreme fatigue from carrying her down here, not to mention, the fighting and this heavy suit. Also she would slow me down, and right now she needs medicine quickly.

I will have to leave her behind and scout for the medicine, then I will return either with the medicine or to take her to it.

I recover for another fifteen minutes, while attending to Claire who is still unconscious.