Andrew Phan

Dos Santos, 5
5/28/14

Word List 14 Story
John was tired of climbing the ropes. He was climbing as quickly as possible in a cursory fashion.
But the movement of hand-over-hand, foot-past-foot was becoming incredibly redundant. Johns head
was growing addled and lethargic as he continued forging on. He was trying to reciprocate the energetic
persona he had earlier, but couldnt muster up the stamina for it.

Finally he saw another open elevator door, and leapt inside, taking care not to jump from too
high up. Immediately he saw a couple guards walking by the door jump back in surprise. One had quite
the corpulent body. His face was jaded as if he had just eaten a huge dinner. The other seemed a little
off, as his stance portrayed him as being asinine. John pulled out his sword and dispatched one of the
hostiles, his sword quivering vibrantly as it finished its purpose. He grabbed the collar of the pudgy man
and began extorting him.

How far am I from the surface? Answer now, and dont give me any lies, or this sword wont be
returning to its sheath just yet. To prove his point, John held the point of the sword against the mans
throat.

Ill tell you nothing! The man kept an adamant face on, but John could tell that he was quite
terrified. Im not going to lie and say Ive never maligned this job before. But I come from quite the
affluent family. I would be transgressing on my familys heritage, so on my honor, you wont be getting
any information from me!

John knew that he was being quite the poignant presence to the man, and that the guard was
on the brink of terror. So John dug his blade into the mans neck, drawing blood. John snarled, I can
stay here all day, and this blade will only go deeper and deeper until you speak up.

The mans eyes grew wide in fear. Were two hundred feet below! Theres no way to get up
besides using the elevator! Please, thats all I know! His voice was quivering as he whimpered. John felt
a little bad for the guy, so instead of killing him, he pushed the guy back. However the man was so
scared that he meandered past the boxes and slammed straight into a wall. John walked over and
checked on him, but the guard was dormant, knocked out cold.

John looked around and scanned his surroundings; the room was quite commodious, and boxes
were strewn around the sides and corners against the walls. One box had tipped over and spilled its
contents to the floor, some random odds and ends. John almost slipped on a broach that had fallen.
However John was still too far down from the surface, so John took a quick break. He felt revulsion
towards the elevator shaft, but knew that it was the only way up. After a couple minutes, he leapt onto
the ropes again, and reverted back to climbing.

About ten minutes later, John had been able to adapt to the constant motions of climbing. He
was able to climb at a steady pace without getting too tired. However that all stopped when he felt the
ropes vibrating very lightly. He looked up and saw an elevator car speeding down towards him!

TO BE CONTINUED