A decent number of Rabbit's earliest memories, the ones from just before everything had gone to s**t, had to do with elevators, strangely enough. His family had lived in a single story house with a distinct lack of them, but there had been a crop of apartment buildings full of kids a couple of blocks away, and many of those kids had been his friends, as much as anyone you meet under the age of ten truly can be. The buildings themselves had been modern for the ramshackle northeast coast, and modern meant elevators. He and his fleeting buddies had spent a whole summer perfecting ways to get them stuck.

First off, there was the jumping tactic, but that took numbers. With enough unnatural jostling, the chains pulling the box would buckle and the elevator would stall, leaving the instigators trapped inside. It was easy and fairly effortless with enough bodies, but definitely not ideal. When the fire department or the super finally got around to getting you out, it was fairly obvious to everyone who had done it.

Prying open the outside doors while the elevator wasn't on your floor, was a viable option for some models too, but it also took stronger kids than Rabbit had known at the time. He'd been a part of one elevator sabotage team that had involved eleven kids, most of them already in junior high. They had tried again a few times following that success, but had never again accomplished the job without causing enough of a ruckus to drive an angry tenant out into the hall to make threats.

Pulling the emergency alarm was the surest bet, but surprisingly only the bravest usually tried it. To get caught doing it meant police involvement, and even the hardest kids he'd known didn't want that.

He hadn't deliberately stalled an elevator in more than twenty years, not since Olivia'd been hurt. He'd even punched a girl who'd suggested they do so after that, anger rising in an uncontrolled wave before he could register why. The stuttering under his feet and the car's silent anticipation were familiar, even after all these years, and Rabbit futilely felt them, turning to his fellow captives as their cage came to a stop.

"Wasn't me."

"We stuck?" This from a burly man with a lollipop jutting between his gritted teeth.

"Yeah, I think so. Anyone got a phone?" Rabbit had left his in the car with his cigarettes. He was a little surprised to find he didn't miss either of them. He hadn't wanted to come here today, but his car was more important than his vices and electronic devices, and he needed a license to drive it. Funny that the notice to renew would come now, of all times.

"On it, man," a lanky teenager replied, his phone already to his ear.

On it, man. For a second, Rabbit felt a pulse of something harsh and prickly in his chest,something destructive, but he held it down. Getting the license would be enough for today. Something for him to think about in the future. He nodded in return, smiling a brittle smile.

"Sounds good. I'm sure we'll be out soon."