First prize 10 and under
Ahmed Salman, age 9Seven Hills, OH
Escape the Elevator Challenge
Bob and Bobby’s jobs were to search buildings for anything valuable before the construction crew knocked them down.
One day Bob and Bobby were doing their job when Bob decided to take the elevator down to the ground floor. The building was due to collapse in forty minutes. On their way down, the elevator stopped. The lights went out. Bobby tried to press the emergency button, but the power had gone out, and the telephone was not working.
They thought it was a temporary power outage, but after waiting for thirty minutes they decided to get out. Bob knew there was a hatch at the top of the elevator. The problem was that the elevator hatch was too high to reach, but with Bobby’s help, Bob managed to open the hatch.
The elevator shaft was very dark. Bob started climbing the ladder that was mainly used for maintenance. Bobby followed. They could already feel the vibrations of the building every time the wrecking ball hit it. They could barely stay on the ladder when they reached the first floor. Now they somehow had to get to the other side of the door and make it out of the building before it collapsed.
They pushed and kicked at the door, but it wouldn’t budge. Bob and Bobby felt along the wall for anything that they could use to break open the door. Then suddenly Bobby remembered there was a crowbar in a compartment back in the elevator specifically for breaking elevator doors.
Because Bobby was in such a hurry, he slid down the ladder instead of climbing down. Once at the bottom of the ladder,
