A group of teenagers is trapped at the cabin with a serial killer, one of the characters tries to call for help, looks at their phone, but only "no service" message glows on the screen. Many aspiring authors take these shortcuts to limit their characters option to solve the situation at hand.

But limiting your characters options is no fun for the reader. It is in fact pretty frustrating and can turn on you very quickly. How can you make your dangerous situations mount tension and make the believable at the same time?