Week Forty- Six(September 28 – October 3) Topic: Rune 


Winner: Clare 


Fire 
By Clare 


“Move!” 
“Watch it!” 
“Get out of my way!” 

People all around me jostled me in their hurry to get out of the building. The fire alarms were blaring, but I could only smell the smoke faintly. I could hear screaming from a few floors below. I stayed calm. We’d done this all throughout school, with fire drills. It was very bad to panic and rush, people got hurt and hallways got jammed. Better to just follow the escape plan in an orderly manner. Problem was, I didn’t know this building at all, much less the escape plan. Fresh out of highschool, this had been my first interview. Fortunately, I seemed to be the only one who didn’t know the layout, because everyone else seemed to know exactly where they were going. Many panicked people were pushing and shoving to get out first, but I didn’t yell at them. It was only natural for them to want to get out immediately. I kept from panicking, telling myself that it was probably just a small fire, and as long as I wasn’t close to the fire, I’d be okay. 

So that was why I ended up being one of the last people making their way down the stairs. The building was an old one, and not very well designed for emergencies. Some of the stairs would go down a few flights, but a few times you would have to go across the hall to get to a new stair. I walked steadily from the tenth floor down to the third floor before the smell of smoke actually got strong, and I began to feel an increase in temperature. My breathing quickened, but I made myself keep calm as I passed another hall to get to the next flight of stairs. 

And then the floor fell in. 

One moment I was walking quickly in my high heeled shoes, and next...black. My vision cleared and I groaned. I was sprawled out on the floor of an office below. There was fire all around, but luckily, my clothes hadn’t set on fire, so I was safe for the moment. I coughed and tried to see through the smoke. 

“Is anyone there?” I yelled, choking on the smoke. “Please! Help, someone!” 

I looked around the room. There was a desk, already half aflame. I estimated the height of the ceiling, and dragged the large desk under the hole I’d fallen through. I stood on it and reached but I couldn’t get a hold of the edge. I grabbed a random thick book off the shelf. “Runes and Other Such Mysterious Things ” it read on the cover. What the hell was this doing in an accountant corporation building? Whatever. I placed it on the desk and tried again to reach. Still wasn’t tall enough. I finally started to feel the panic coming on. Everything was unbearably hot, and my legs stung with the occasional flame flickering on them. My eyes were watering up and my throat seemed to close against the smoke. I choked and yelled, “HELP!” again. I knocked off my heels and made a jump for it. I missed and went tumbling off the desk altogether. I hit the ground with a thump and everything blacked out again for a second. 

When I was able to see again, it didn’t matter. So much smoke was everywhere, it was impossible to see anyways. My ankle was burning with pain, but it wasn’t on fire. I was pretty sure I’d twisted it. I groaned and tried to get up, but my ankle wouldn’t support me, so I went falling again. The fire was closing in, and I started screaming for help. Where was everyone?! Surely I wasn’t the last one on these higher floors! 

Just as I thought this, a dark shape landed with a thump on the desk, which threatened to collapse under the weight. 

“Where are you?” asked a man’s voice. 

“Here!” I called hoarsely. 

The shape spun around to where I lay, and got of the desk carefully, avoiding the nearing licks of flame. 

“Can you stand?” he asked. 

Tears were running down my face now, my eyes stinging. “No,” I answered. 

“What hurts?” 

“My ankle, I think its sprained,” I replied, wincing at the pain as I move it a bit. 

He didn’t say anything, but grabbed me and lifted me up. He sat me on the desk and got on carefully. The thing was starting to crack. He lifted me without hesitation and I scrabbled for the edge. I got a good hold and yanked myself up, right as the desk collapsed. 

“Are you okay?” I yelled down, still trying to get my whole body through. There was no answer. I finally got all the way out and turn back around to look through the hole, being careful because other parts of the floor could be weak as well. 

“I’m here!” the man yelled up. “The desk broke. I can’t get back up.” 

“Grab my hand!” I yelled back, dangling my hand down. 

“No, you need to get out before the whole floor collapses. The emergency fire escape is to your right at the end of the hall.” 

“I can’t leave you here!” I insisted, though we both knew that I wouldn’t be able to pull him up even if he could reach my hand without something to stand on. I blinked back tears. 

“Go find some firefighters and send them up!” he yelled. 

I didn’t move. How could I just leave the person who had saved me?! 

“Please, go find someone!” he yelled again. 

“Alright,” I said, “They’ll save you, just hold on!” 

“I’ll be waiting,” he said, but he sounded as if he had accepted his fate already. I half limped have crawled to the exit. There was a fire fighter right outside on a ladder next to the escape. He picked me up without a word, and brought me down, laying me on a stretcher. 

“There’s another man in there!” I called as loudly as I could with my failing voice. 

The firefighter nodded and went back up. I blacked out. 


When I woke up, I was in the hospital. A nurse was next to the bed, checking things off on the paper attached to the clip board she carried. 

“Did he live?” I said, my voice rough. “The man that saved me, did he live?” 

The nurse looked at me with sympathy. “I’m afraid not, sweety.” 

I closed my eyes tightly, and sobs racked my body. Tears squeezed through my closed eyelids and I let myself cry. My family found me that way fifteen minutes later, but they would never understand what had really happened. 

More from Clare: http://www.goodreads.com/story/list/9779...


More from this contest: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2173...

Make a Free Website with Yola.