Saved By The Firefighter
Chapter 60

Anders Point of View

I hit the floor of the elevator, desperately trying to grab hold of Josie to make sure she is okay, as the lift swings violently from side to side, the noise it is making almost deafening. The bozo who disrespected my feisty firefighter is screaming his lungs out in the opposite corner, and I let out a sigh of utter relief when the lift finally stops thrashing about.

"What the f**k just happened?" I hiss out.

"A cable wire has snapped." Josie sighs.

"It is okay, don't panic, there are three others attached." Josie smiles at the screaming bozo, trying to reassure him, even after he treated her with so much disrespect.

"Okay, everyone, keep on the floor; try not to move about." she instructs us as she carefully shuffles along the floor and reaches up to press the help button.

"This is firefighter Josie Edwards, I am currently stuck in this lift, and one of the cables has snapped. You no longer have time to wait for your mechanics, nor will getting the generator working help in this situation. Therefore, I demand that you call the fire brigade immediately," she commands the voice at the other end of the intercom. "We are working on it," the voice responds.

"Work faster and call the fire brigade," Josie tells them, her tone is one I have been on the receiving end of many times, and I know she is pissed off.

I cannot help but feel immense pride as I watch her shuffle back towards me, f**k I love this girl so much. What wait, love her? Yeah, I think I do.

"They are not wanting to call the brigade," Josie whispers to me, so as not to panic the bozo sobbing in the corner.

"Why not?" I whisper back.

"Not sure, but it normally means something was flagged to be sorted out and deemed dangerous and they haven't done it," Josie whispers shaking her head in disgust.

"If these idiots turn the power on and try and set the lift going again, it will potentially snap at least one more cable," She whispers again.

"So, what do we do?" I ask her, wondering if we can do anything at all.

"s**t, I wish I had signal on my phone, one I would call the brigade myself, and two I could ring Ben to help." She sighs.

"How expensive was this dress?" she suddenly asks.

I look at her, wondering why she suddenly is worried about the cost of the dress, when we are hanging here waiting for the thing to drop out of the sky again. "Why?" I ask her.

"Because I may need to rip the bottom of it to above my knees, then climb up through the escape hatch and see if I can find a way to get us out of here," she whispered.

"I don't want you to do that Josie, it is too dangerous," I whisper to her; I would rather go myself.

"Yet, my job," she states with that look on her face that tells me not to argue with her.

"Let me go instead," I plead with her.

"You don't know what to do and calculating the time we were in the lift before it broke down, I would say we are around 6 or 7 floors up, that is high. So, it is better that I do it, as heights don't bother me, obviously," she whispered. She is of course correct, but still, it feels wrong Josie putting herself in danger and not me.

"I cannot let you do that Josie; I should go," I protest.

"Look, I love your chivalry, but I am the firefighter here. So, I am the one who will go," she whispers. Then sitting on the floor, she rips up the length of the dress that cost upwards of £6,000, to her mid-thigh, then continues to rip it in a circle, exposing her long shapely legs.

Bozo instantly stops his wailing, and stares at her legs, a low growl forms in my chest, f*****g arsehole.

"Right, before I go climb up there and see what is going on, I need a wee. I am going to piss in that corner over there," she declares.

I watch as she shuffles over to the opposite corner of the lift, pulls down her lacey thong and squats low as she relieves herself, then grabs a piece of the discarded £6,000 fabric and uses it to wipe. She moves slowly back to me and takes her clutch opening it and puts a generous amount of hand sanitiser on her hands.

"Well, I suppose always cleaning your hands during Covid and getting into the habit of always carrying hand sanitiser actually comes in handy." She giggles slightly.

She moves over to the intercom.

"Do NOT move this lift, I am going up the escape hatch to take a look. Do you understand, DO NOT MOVE THIS LIFT," Josie shouts.

"I would not recommend that; our mechanic will be with you all soon," the voice at the other end tells her.

"Your mechanic cannot get us out of here, a cable wire has snapped, you need to call the fire brigade. NOW! I am going to take a look," Josie shouts, clearly losing her s**t with the person at the other end. Shaking her head in disgust, she carefully slides back over to me.

"Okay, so I need you to carefully stand up, and let me climb on your shoulders, so I can take a look out of the hatch. Oh, and try and keep pompous pervert over there calm," she whispers to me. Carefully I stand up, holding onto the rail.

"What are you doing? Stop that," the Bozo shouts, suddenly remembering he is terrified and not looking at my girlfriend's legs.

"Don't worry, she knows what she is doing, she is a firefighter," I tell him, only my voice is not soft and reassuring like Josies, because this guy has pissed me off.

As I very slowly and carefully stand up using the wall to steady myself, Josie climbs up onto my back, her knees on my shoulders. Now I know this is probably the wrong time to get a raging hard on, given the situation we are in, and the fact I just saw her pee in the corner, but my body doesn't agree with that, and my length hardens in my pants, as I glance upwards to make sure she is steady and get a glimpse of her lacy thong, beneath the now very short dress.

Josie carefully lifts up the escape hatch, and then stands on my shoulders, Pulling herself through the hatch onto the top of the elevator.

f**k I do not like this, not one little bit, she could fall, or anything could happen to her. My heart gallops in my chest, as she disappears from my direct line of sight, and all I can do is pray she is okay or can find a way out of this bloody death trap of a lift. Suddenly her head appears back through the hatch.

"Pass me your phone, unlocked please, lets see if I can get a signal up here," she tells me. I grab my phone out of my pocket and unlock it, then reach down to her purse and take hers as well.

Passing them both to her, I look up at her.

"Be careful," I say, unable to keep the fear from my voice.

"Always am." She smiles, then disappears again.

f**k this is not a nice feeling, all I want is for Josie to be back in my arms, so I know she is safe. But then I hear her voice, echoing from the top of the elevator.

"Yes, I am Josie Edwards, Firefighter in Sunderland." I breath a sigh of relief, she had got a signal, and is currently giving our location to the operator.

"Three people stuck in a lift, one cable down, one looks like it is about to snap as well, we are between floors 5 and 6, the lift is closer to floor six, and rescue can happen with a ladder down from those doors to the escape hatch. We have been stuck for three-hours or more now... I don't think we have time... Yes, my colleague Ben Bishop another firefighter is in the hotel, I am going to call him as well ... yes will do, but I think we need to move now, if possible," I hear her say.

I look up, hoping to see her drop back down into the lift, but then hear her voice again.

"Ben, sorry, but stuck in a lift for three-hours, cable one gone, cable four looks about ready to go, Two and three are not much better. The hotel has not called the brigade, I am on the top, just called it in, but I don't think we have time to wait, can you get a ladder and force open doors on floor six?" she asks.

"About seven-foot."

"Okay, you need to hurry please."

I look up at the hatch and Josie pokes her head through it. Then passes both the phones down to me.

"Put them in your pockets." She smiles, and I nod doing just that.

"Okay, so good news is I got a signal, bad news is the hotel still haven't rung the brigade, and all the teams are out at a fire so it will be a bit of a wait. Other good news, Ben is on his way to give me a hand, we will be out soon." She smiles at me.

f**k, that would make me happy if I hadn't just heard her say that the other cables are about to give way.

"Are you coming back in?" I ask her, hoping she is, but she shakes her head at me.

I then hear the echo of Ben's voice.

"Josie, I am here, just getting something now to open the doors, I have got the ladder," he shouts.

"Okay, I will get the others onto the top of the lift ready," she shouts back.

Her head appears back through the hatch.

"Okay, so I need you to get that... Gentleman ... up here with me, can you grab hold of the hatch and pull yourself up?" she asks.

"Yeah, will do," I shout back at her, when I hear another groan from the lift.

"That's not the lift, it is Ben opening the doors on the floor above us." Josie smiles attempting to reassure me. I have to say, it is not working, but I keep my face a stoic mask, because I know my feisty firefighter is doing everything possible to get us all out of this situation. "Right, climb on my shoulders," I tell the Bozo, but he stubbornly refuses, shaking his head at me.

"For f**k sake, man up, and get up on the top of this f*****g lift," I shout at him, my patience gone with the man.

"No, they will fix it soon," he shouts.

"Josie, he is refusing to come up," I shout up at her.

Her head appears again, as she looks down the hatch, and stares at him, in what can only be described as a spiderman pose.

"Oi, this lift is about to plummet to the ground, if you do not get up off that floor and on here so myself and my friend Ben who is also a firefighter can rescue you, you will probably die," she shouts.

Still the stubborn fool shakes his head, and refuses.

"JOSIE, GET ANDERS OUT, AND IF HE STILL WILL NOT DO AS INSTRUCTED, YOU COME UP, AND LEAVE HIM FOR THE GUYS WHEN THEY GET HERE," Ben shouts down.

"Last chance, move or be left behind," Josie shouts down.

I can see the wheels turning in the bozo's head as he reluctantly stands up, then scrambles up my body towards Josie who helps him up.

"Now you Anders," Josie shouts, putting her hand down to help me. Thankfully, I have a good degree of upper body strength, and grabbing the edge of the hatch I pull myself up enough to get me knee out of the hatch and onto the top of the lift, as I pull myself up, Josie helping as best she can. "Hey Anders, I will get you out second," Ben shouts down at me.

I look to see a metal ladder extended from the now open doorway to the top of the lift, it is a long climb but not impossible. Josie motions to the bozo, holding the bottom of the ladder.

"Okay, do not look down, look up at Ben, keep your eyes on Ben and make your way to him," she instructs the man.

"It is high," he complains.

The lift begins to groan again, and I see Josie's eyes widen slightly, before she corrects herself.

"You can do this, just step onto the ladder, look at me," Ben shouts down.

Finally, he gets on the ladder, and slowly makes his way up to Ben, and is hauled through the doors, to safety.

"Okay, your next Anders," Ben shouts.

"No Josie first," I protest.

"Anders, get on the f*****g ladder, I will go last." Josie shakes her head and gives me that look that states she is in full feisty firefighter mode, and to do as I am told.

The lift groans again, and I know we do not have time to argue, so I climb on the ladder, looking directly to Ben, then move at a steady pace, ignoring my thundering heart, and the fact that I made the mistake of looking down to check my footing... it is a long way down!

Finally, Ben grabs me off the ladder, as I get into the corridor, Lucy runs down, a large rope in her hands, as a staff member follows her, shouting she cannot have it. Guess Lucy has other ideas, as she turns and flips them the bird, then passes the rope to Ben. "Sir, I must tell you to stop that, and let the professionals do it," the staff member complains.

"He is the f*****g professional, and this could have been sorted so much quicker had you called the fire brigade when we told you to," I bellow at the man, who looks at me.

Ben wraps the rope around his waist, then throws it down to Josie.

"Loop it around you," he shouts. Then sits at the door, feet planted either side to keep him in place.

"Rope is secure. Coming up the ladder now Ben," Josie shouts.

"Anders get behind me and keep hold of my waist. If I tell you, grab the rope and feed it through your hands," Ben shouts.

Suddenly there is a huge noise, the Elevator sounds like it is crashing to the ground, and I hear my beautiful girl scream out, as every drop of blood leaves me.