Probably the basement, but not voluntarily

Before Chris had a chance to go through with his floor choice, a voice interrupted him.

“Hold. You are not authorized to be in this area, the visiting hours are over”, an emotionless voice intoned behind the group. Or in front of them. Or above them? It seemed to encase the four.

“Yeah, our mistake. The door was open, the lights were on, we just wanted to check if everything was alright in here”, Thomas was the first to respond.

He put his arm past Chris and pressed the button to open the elevator doors again.

“So, now that we know security is still here and everything’s safe, we’ll just be on our way again”, he pressed the button again, looking around for a camera or a speaker system of any kind.

The doors did not open. Grace and Emma shared a worried look, Grace clutching her phone in both hands and Emma moving close to Thomas.

“The door seems to have a malfunction”, Thomas chuckled as the tension in the room rose higher.

“Unauthorized trespassers will be held until the Authority has passed judgement”, the voice from nowhere told them and Chris piped up at that.

“Hey, no need to get the authorities involved. There’s no harm done, right? No need to get the cops into this. We can talk this out, right?”, Chris tried to argue, while Emma silently corrected him.

“Authority. It didn’t say authorities. Just authority”, she viced her anxiety by whispering in Thomas ear.

“Yeah, as if it wasn’t all creepy enough”, her man whispered back.

Whatever spoke to them, didn’t seem to speak *with* them. It didn’t answer Chris pleading and with an audible snap, the lights in the elevator turned themselves off.

“Eeeeep”, Grace snapped upward, dropping her phone in the process. From the sound of it, at least the display didn’t survive the fall unscathed.

Emma hugged herself around Thomas, laying her head on his chest. He was about to calmy talk to their would-be captor when Chris beat him to it. With a less nuanced approach.

“Hey dickhead! Turn the lights back on! What the fuck do you think you’re doing? You get that door open right this moment or I’ll rip the damn thing open!”, the man undiplomatically yelled at their unseen observer.

He did not get a response.

“Ok, you got your chance. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya!”, Chris gave his best threatening voice before drawing back his leg and landing a kick onto the elevators door. Unsurprisingly the metal didn’t budge.

But this time he got a response.

“Violent behaviour detected. Following standard procedure, the subjects will be pacified” the voice droned at them.

In response the room released a hissing gas from, until now, hidden inlays in the elevator walls. And true to the voices threat, the powerful narcotic entered the unprepared groups nostrils. The already small world around them got blurry and while Emma and Thomas sunk to the floor hugging each other and Grace moved closer to their friends with her last remaining power, Chris jammed his fingers into the tiny gap between the elevator doors.