Read Online Open Your Eyes by H.J. Rethuan - Free Book Online Page B

driving the car earlier that day he might have been the one who died. It
was just a random occurrence. The wrong place at the wrong time.”
    She
turns to him.
    “Would
you, if it was possible, travel back in time to save someone you loved? Even if
it might change the future for everyone else?”
    “Honestly,
I don’t know.” Seth says to her. “Put it that way, and there’s too many things
to think about.”
    “I
would. But I’ve always been selfish.”
    A
muffled bang, carried upon the wind interrupts the calm silence on top of the
building. A warm orange glow emanates from an apartment block in the distance.
A fire.
    “Do
you see that?”
    “Yeah.”
    Blink.
     
    Half
the building had collapsed already; whatever was left standing was engulfed in
flame. As Seth and Lily looked down upon the crowded streets below, it seemed
that most of the residents had already fled. Still, there must have been a few
casualties; they can’t think about them now.
    Screams
from an upper floor, the roof. Others, still trapped. The stairs were either
gone or on fire. There was no clear way down.
    Sirens
blast in the distance. The fire trucks were coming. Still, it was too late for
some.
    “No!”
Lily shouts as she watches a desperate man leap from his balcony as flame
swallowed his apartment. He does not survive the fall.
    The
fires on the floors below intensifies. There was no time to spare.
    Seth
pulls the hood down over his head. He covers his mouth with the top of his
shirt. He blinks. She follows.
    They
take care of the survivors on the roof first. They just grab them, taking them
from the increasingly dangerous rooftop to the safety of the streets below in
the blink of an eye. Once clear, they focus on those trapped on the balconies,
those that they could see. Now they’re safe too.
    They
return to the roof. Another survivor bursts out from the stairwell door, onto
the rooftop. He’s in bad shape.
    “Help
me!” he shouts in between violent coughs. “There’s still a family trapped two
floors below... the smoke’s real bad....”
    Seth
brings him down, returning to the roof a split second later. Both he and Lily
stare at the door that leads down into the building, a thick cloud of acrid
smoke now billowing out of it. They will need to get inside.
    “Can
we blink in there?” Lily asks him frantically.
    “No.”
Seth tells her. “We need to know where we’re going. We don’t even know where
they are.”
    “We
can’t leave them there to die.”
    “I
know.”
    Seth
rushes into the stairwell, into the smoke. Lily follows him into the darkness,
a realm of blinding haze and intense heat. They rush to the floor, keeping
their heads down. They can hear the fire coming up the structure of the
building, slowly turning it into a smelter.
    “Help!
Help!” comes the shouts from down the hallway. They follow the cries as they
get louder, more desperate. They find the family, a mother and her two kids, a
boy and a girl, cowering in a small alcove. They had escaped their apartment,
but faced with the smoky hell before them, cannot leave the hallway on their
own.
    The
fire had already burst through the stairwell door. It was igniting the paint on
the walls, melting the linoleum on the floor. Their only way out is gone. With
no other option, Seth and Lily hold the mother and her children tight and...
    They
reappear amongst the crowd of survivors at the base of the building, still
shielding the mother and her two kids. Above them the fire has taken
everything. They were the last to leave the building.
    The
mother opens her eyes, staring into the face of her saviour.
    “Thank
you.” she mutters to Seth as she hugs her children tightly. “Thank you.”
    “Thank
you.” repeats another survivor. “Thank you.” says another.
    Thank
you, thank you murmured the crowd around them. Seth and Lily say nothing in
return. They can’t. They are overwhelmed.
    “Thank
you.”
    Shouts.
The cops arrive along with the emergency services.