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“Ouch!” He cried and stared at the knob with disoriented perplexity.
“What is it?” It felt like my heart was pounding in my throat.
“The knob…” he said with a gasp and gave it a disturbing glance again. “It’s… hot.”
“It’s hot?” I asked shrilly.
We both knew the first rules of fire safety. Never open a door when the knob is hot, because nine times out of ten, it meant that an inferno was probably blazing just outside.
Knowing this rule didn’t stop me from swiftly pulling the door open. A giant cloud of black smoke entered my lungs at once, burning my nostrils and throat. I began to cough and retch, doubling over as I attempted to breathe. I waved the smoke away with my hand, but my efforts were in vain. My eyes watered. Felix choked beside me.
“We need to get downstairs,” I coughed, waving more smoke away but it was filtering in quickly.
Felix slammed the door shut immediately. “Are you crazy?” His eyes were enormous. “We have to call 9-1-1. We cannot go out there, Garret.”
“We can call 9-1-1, after we get out of this building,” I said. “We can’t stay in here. We’re on the second floor, Felix. We’ll die. We need to get out while we still can.”
Felix nodded. His eyes were wide with fear. He was like a deer caught in headlights, paralyzed by fright and uncertain what to do. I guided him gently to his knees.
We heard the sound of sirens wailing in the distance. Apparently, someone else had beat us to the chase and called for emergency services. It was time to get out while we still had a chance. The odds were stacked against us.
“Come with me,” I said as we crouched down on the stairs and crawled down them one at a time, as cautiously as we could.
I waved away more smoke that plumed into my eyes. I didn’t see any flames from the fire yet, but I knew it was down there somewhere. I did my best to guide Felix, steering us down the stairs until we made it to the bottom.
When I turned around, he wasn’t there. My heart froze in my chest. I could hardly breathe. The smoke was so ferocious. I felt like it was wrapping invisible hands around my throat and suffocating me slowly.
I couldn’t even call out to Felix. I was being strangled by the smoke. I fumbled through the dense darkness with my arms stretched out in front of me, desperately trying to feel for Felix. How the hell could he have strayed so far away from me in such a short amount of time? He was directly behind me the whole way down the stairs.
“Felix?” I managed to croak out before spiraling into another intense coughing fit.
I covered my mouth and nose with my shirt. It helped somewhat. I crawled on the ground in the direction of the exit. Luckily, the green glow of the sign was prominent enough that I could maneuver myself on the ground, snaking across it in an attempt to reach the doors.
I could only hope that Felix would meet me on the other side. I passed a steady stream of flames that licked at the ceilings and walls, glowing with an intimidatingly vibrant orange color.
Something bumped into me from the side. Blinking through the thick clouds of smoke I saw the shadowy figure of Felix next to me. I grabbed his hand and clutched onto him for dear life. I had never been more relieved to see another human.
We maneuvered our way to the exit, crawling on our bellies. We reached the door and burst through it, coughing and hacking, covered in smoke, dust, and soot.
“I hear the firetrucks,” Felix said. His voice was panicked. “They’re coming… they’re almost here…” he trailed off, speaking as if he couldn’t believe what was happening.
It felt like a nightmare. We held onto each other. Felix was shaking and I tried my best to comfort him.
“We made it out alive,” I stammered. “We’re still breathing. The things inside the club, they are just things that can be replaced.” I kissed the top of his forehead. “I can’t replace you.”
We both stared in baffled awe at the flames that began curling out of the windows, dancing toward the sky. Felix and I clung to each other until the fire department arrived.
“At least they were faster this time,” Felix mentioned.
I was still in shock. A stream of red and blue lights began to filter into the area, casting flashing, electrifying colors against the surrounding buildings.
The police arrived with the fire department, along with an ambulance. We were checked out and cleared by paramedics. We were given blankets to keep us warm and an oxygen treatment to make sure we didn’t have any residue of black smoke in our lungs.
After we were thankfully given a clean bill of health, the police officers on scene took our statements. We went through a play by play of everything that had happened, starting with the time that I had initially smelled the smoke from upstairs in my apartment.
Felix and I were substantially shaken and clearly in for a long night. One thing we could agree on was the fact that we were lucky as hell to have made it out of there alive.
“This can’t be a fluke,” Harry, one of the lead firefighters with the department kept trying to explain to the police officers. “Two fires in the same business complex within a week of each other is far too suspicious to be a coincidence.”
