Have to go

Eileen navigated the complicated steel beams in the roof of the abandoned warehouse, three stories above ground level, with not a single floor remaining that could catch her if she slipped and fell. The rain had only stopped less than an hour prior, and the beams were still wet and slick. Eileen's old, worn tennis shoes were thin with little traction, and they certainly didn't keep her from feeling the bitter cold of the winter night time's effect on metal.

She had to hook her fingers into the chain links when she reached them to get any kind of grip on them, and as she let her feet slip off of the beam they were perched on to be supported entirely by the chain, the strain on the joints in her fingers was immediate. She felt as though her fingers would simply snap off at any moment, and trying to pull them back out so she could begin her slow and arduous decent down the chain was agonizing. All of that on top of the freezer burn she felt in her skin at just how cold the metal was.

It took a matter of minutes for her to descend far enough that she could plant her feet on her destination, but it felt like hours. The large box, suspended in mid air by the chain, swung from side to side as she set her feet down. She slowly squatted down and let her feet slide over the far edge of the box so that she could finally rest for a moment, to ease the burn in her muscles that her descent had drawn. She had been training for this event for months, but no amount of training could have prepared her for these conditions. The rain had forced her to slow, and the longer she was moving, the more strain she was putting on her body. It was meant to be a quick in and out. This was turning out to be anything but.

She gave herself no longer than five minutes of rest before swinging her legs back around to her side of the box. She gripped the top of it tightly in one hand as she lowered herself down its front. There was a small panel of glass near its top - a window to the inside - and she lowered herself until she was at eye level with it. Inside, she could see her goal: Michael. The boy whom she had loved.

With her free hand, she began to enter the case's passcode. The panel was soaked and slick, which made it hard to enter the numbers with any accuracy. It took her a few tries before it accepted her passcode, which meant she had to hang longer, and the burn in her arms was only drawn out longer. Two beeps signaled her success, and she popped the front door open as much as she could with the chain still wrapped around its corners.

Michael's eyes opened instantly, sensing the change. His cryogenic chamber had been unsealed, and he knew in an instant that it wasn't how it was meant to be opened. "Eileen?" he asked, surprised to see her. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to get you out, Michael," she replied. "We have to go."

"It's not safe for us out there. That's why we got in these, remember? To escape until peace comes."

"Things only got worse on the outside, Mike, and no one else is going to come for us. We have to go."

Michael glared at her for using his pet name. "And how do you know that?" he asked incredulously.

"Because I've already been out for a year. And I've seen what happened. I couldn't just leave you here. So please, we have to go."