Page 3 of Nothing to No One

Focusing her thoughts wasn’t easy. Especially with that… was that his cologne she could smell?

“Uh, no, I… I’m just freaked… Maybe I do.”

“You’re doing great.”

Adjusting to the new hue, she scanned the room. Maybe ten by fifteen feet. Open door to the right, near a bunch of stacked mattresses. A huge, folded table stood by the wall next to them with some boxes in front.

That was as far as her observation went before Lowe went to the closed door they’d been heading for, the one that should get them outside. He tried the handle, but the door didn’t open.

“It’s locked?” she asked, watching him stride back across the room to the door they’d entered by.

That one was unlocked; they’d just come through it. No reason it shouldn’t—the door didn’t budge when he rattled the handle.

No. No. No! Alarm shot through her.

“Both are locked,” he muttered, scanning the room.

The open door, the one in the corner.

“What’s in there?” she asked because his angle gave him a better view.

“Bathroom.”

Oh. A bathroom. Great. So they would get out of there… how exactly?

A storage room. Would this be her tomb? How often did anyone check it? Boxes. More boxes. Decorations. No sign of another way out. Small vents at the top of the far wall were only four inches tall.

Lowe, rescuer extraordinaire! Yes! She’d never been so elated to see someone holding a cellphone.

“Oh, thank God,” she said, rushing a few steps toward him.

“Don’t get too excited,” he said, raising the phone higher. “No signal down here.”

Fuzz! Being two floors beneath ground level came with limitations, apparently.

Her brow creased. “If we’re underground, how were you supposed to exit?”

“There’s a service ramp to the private parking area on the first basement level.” Still going around the room with his phone, he wasn’t giving up though did glance her way. “You didn’t know that?”

Being his escort, he could be forgiven his surprise. His signal searching kept him occupied, so she chose a little redirect.

“I’m sure, whatever this is…” she said. “It’s just a temporary glitch.”

He exhaled and dropped his arm, abandoning his search. “The power’s out in the whole building.”

Surprised, she blinked. “How do you know that?”

He pointed upward. “Listen.”

TWO

PIQUING HER EARS, her eyes rolled around as she tried to pick out whatever she was supposed to hear. “I don’t hear anything.”

“Exactly. Their power management systems are down here. We should hear them or feel the vibration.” She felt something, though hadn’t pinpointed what the weird gut quivering was yet. She’d put it down to their predicament, except she’d felt it in the elevator too. “If it’s the storms, the cellular network could be affected too.”

He put his phone back in his pocket.

“Oh,” she said.

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