He stares at the shoe in disbelief. It appears to be placed in the perfect centre of the room, a gleaming red high heel shoe, standing completely still in spite of the increasing tremors wracking the cavern around them. It's like some sort of a museum piece... and the fact that it won't tip over in the midst of all this turbulence frightens him even more than the earthquake itself. He wonders if he were to try and pick up the shoe, would it even be possible, or would the shoe simply remain stuck to the floor.
He actually shrinks back against the wall, trying to get away from this freaky shoe. And this causes him to discover the panel door in the wall. After pawing around a bit he discovers a way to open the panel, and drags himself to his feet, stepping through the doorway, trying very hard not to look back at that shoe as he leaves the room.
He exits onto another smaller platform with a short stairway that leads down to yet another concrete floor. Here there are red emergency lights fixed to the walls. As he makes his way to the bottom of the stairs he spots four doors in the wall before him. Which one to use, he wonders, then decides to just try all four of them, starting from left to right. The fourth door is the one that opens.
Ninth chapter in an ongoing serial based on @mariannewest's daily #freewrite writing prompts. Here are the previous chapters listed below:
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
And here is the link to Chapter Ten
Written in five minutes from the writing prompt, "Fourth" as part of the #freewrite exercise. Image is also by me. You can view the prompt here and check out the other participant's stories; you could read four, or you could read more, or you could read them all, really. Thanks to @mariannewest for creating and running this daily quadrivium of reading, writing, sharing and support.