Silent - Caught In The Fire - Part 2

Now, Gavin

Switching on the flame again, the bloke set the cloth alight.

'No, don't,' Jace shouts.  

Taking a few steps back, the Angel of Mercy hurls the burning cloth on the floor and ball of fire leaps from one side of the room to another, narrowing missing him.

'Run,' Jace shouts.

We leg it from the main storage area, into a draughty corridor at the rear, searching for a window or for something to escape through.  I don't exactly leg it, as I can barely walk, let alone run, but somehow I manage to keep going, past cement walls with nails sticking out, along another chilly corridor with a dusty floor and abandoned rooms on either side. Jace tries one of the doors, but it doesn't open. Handing me the torch, he takes a few steps back and throws himself at the door, ramming himself against the frame, red-faced and panting, as he pounds away at the frame.

On Jace's fourth attempt, the door opens, clattering against a cluster of chairs and a heavy filing cabinet – stuff that prevents our entry.  'There's no way we'll get through these.'

The same happens in the next room. Behind us, the first clouds of smoke are forming, the flames crackling in the distance and dancing up walls, the pungent smell of burning beginning to starve the air of oxygen.  I wonder if it was like this for Dawn and Paul and Philippa and Aidan two years earlier. Somewhere in the building, a miniature explosion sounds, followed by another.  All around, the temperature is rising, the smoke making us cough. If we don't get out soon, the fumes will overwhelm them, like it overwhelmed the others two years ago.  

We run, struggling, to the end of a corridor, towards what appears to be a fire escape.  There, the unmistakable stench of fire filters through from the other side. Jace touches the fire door and swears.  'He's gone round the entire outside of the building and set the exits alight. Take the torch.'

We turn into a different corridor with more locked rooms and dusty floors.  Another explosion sounds somewhere in the building, even louder than the last one.  I consider ducking, but Jace shakes his head. 'We've got to get out of here,' he says, panting. 'Before the roof caves in.'

Smoke creeps towards us from the second fire outside the building, grimy like muck. Jace hands me the torch and charges at one of the doors, letting out a lion-like roar as his body makes contact with the wood.

'Come on,' he shouts when the lock breaks.

The room's empty, apart from an old desk and a filing cabinet in the corner. There's a boarded up window.  Closing the door to keep out the fire, we rush over to the window area. Jace hammers away at the wood, perspiring as he punches his way through rusty nails and decaying wood, cursing under his breath. The first surge of air bursts into the room, along with a glimpse of an industrial-looking steel afternoon sky obscured by a mist of smoke.

'Let's get out of here,' he says, pulling the remaining slice of timber from the window space.

It takes for ages and I can't climb because I've spent the last twenty-four hours or so lying down on a hard surface, immobile, feet and arms tied securely together. Coughing, Jace helps me climb out, onto paving gravel flanked by a high concrete wall with protective wiring and broken glass strewn along the trail. It looks ugly, but at least we're out of the warehouse or whatever it is. He joins me on the gravel, blood spilling from a cut in his hand.  We're standing on a narrow path behind the building, coughing our guts out, the rustle of wind and flames getting closer, the acrid fumes and heat from the fire permeating the air. The fire's spread along the back wall, causing a cloud to mushroom upwards.  

Moving away from the building and the possibility of sudden explosion or collapse, we stumble along the narrow pathway, tramping in broken glass as we make our way to a deserted stretch of road at the side of the building.

'It's okay,' a voice calls out of nowhere, and at first I think the voice belongs to Philippa.  Instead of seeing Philippa, I spot a woman in a business suit gliding towards us like a ghost, all misty and foggy. 'I came back when I saw the smoke,' the woman says, her voice childlike and sing-song. 'The man's got away. Your friend's very badly injured, Jace, but he's breathing. He'll be fine. I've managed to get a message to Scott who's called the emergency services.'

'Who's she?' I say to Jace.

But before Jace answer, everything starts to go black and I hit the ground.