Convergence - The Last Science #2.1 - In Plain Sight

B2: Chapter 8 - Making a Difference - III

  "Come on, Jess," Hailey called. Jessica had been watching the staircase uneasily. They could both feel the growing heat from below as the inferno started to consume the whole building.

  They repeated a similar conversation with both occupants, though it was a great deal easier to convince them with the shrieking alarm and the building shuddering beneath them. Hailey was shocked at how much it took to wake some of these people, until she noticed the second person had earplugs in the whole time. Lousy neighbors.

  "None of these people screamed though," she said to Jessica, who was helping the woman from the third apartment out to the fire escape. "Who was that?"

  Jessica just stared back at her, not understanding. Hailey motioned to the staircase. She looked uneasy, but she nodded. Hailey took her by the hand and started down the steps, two at a time.

  The heat increased exponentially as they descended. The fire had started low, but was climbing up the building fast. Hailey finally heard a siren far in the distance, but she still couldn't be sure if it was even meant for them. She had to keep going. What if someone else is in here? Someone screamed downstairs. We have to help them.

  Another explosion rippled through the building, accompanied by a shower of glass outside. Hailey and Jessica tumbled out of the staircase onto the next floor down. They faced another line up of closed doors.

  "Why aren't these people leaving?" Hailey cried. Jessica closed her eyes and flung her hands out, muttering a quick spell.

  Every door burst open with a bang. Behind the nearest one, Hailey spotted a man lugging a large desktop computer under his arm.

  "Goddammit, get out of here!" Hailey shouted. She didn't have any more time to waste. The smoke was filling up their floor. She ripped the desktop from his arms with magic and slammed it against the wall. He gawked at the suddenly levitating computer for a split-second, before Hailey grabbed him bodily and shoved him toward the fire escape.

  Seeing Hailey throw caution to the winds and use magic openly, Jessica started to blow the smoke away from them. A burning in Hailey's throat she hadn't even noticed began to fade, but the fire was stubborn. It kept advancing. Jessica shot a look at Hailey, tilting her head to indicate a question. She made a quick tiny flame in her hand and snuffed it out just as fast.

  Hailey shook her head vigorously. "We can't!" Even if a couple people see us in here, no one's gonna believe them. But if a whole fire goes out for no apparent reason? That's too big to ignore.

  Jessica nodded. She ran to the staircase where the flames were erupting forth, snagging on any fuel they could find as they rampaged up through the building. Instead of choking them out, she made a wall of force in front of them, blocking their advance. It wobbled for a few seconds as she figured out exactly how to set it up so the flames couldn't catch on anything else, but it held firm.

  Hailey quickly cleared the rest of the rooms, as fast as she could. It was slow going with how obstinate some of the occupants were.

  This was their home, they couldn't just abandon everything!

  It's just stuff. Their lives are more important!

  She dealt with a few stubborn pets too, but those were much easier since she could just lift them into mid-air with magic and send them out along with their dumbstruck owners.

  "I think that's everyone, Jess!" she shouted as the last man finally climbed out onto the fire escape. As she turned, Hailey's heart stopped.

  Jessica was on the floor, crawling away from a churning inferno.

  The smoke was so thick that Hailey was struggling to breathe. She dug deep for the air, any air she could find, but the smoke resisted her. Trying to shove oxygen and normal air into the thick plume of smoke was practically impossible.

  Hailey sprinted to Jessica, forcing away every lick of flame near them as she did. The angry demon refused to back down from such paltry resistance, gathering up behind them as it threatened to devour the whole building around them. Hailey picked her up off the ground and bolted for the window at the end of the hall.

  Oh god, please let her be okay.

  Hailey didn't have the time or the presence of mind for subtlety anymore. She shattered the window with a blunt spear of force, just before diving through it.

  They were falling fast. She couldn't stop coughing. Hailey tried to feel for her wings, but they were so far away. They'd burned up with the rest of the crumbling building.

  They aren't real wings, you idiot!

  With a painful thump, Hailey managed to flare them out as they plummeted to the ground. Even with the sudden brake and as much air as she could muster, they still made a painful landing on the grass outside the complex.

  It took a few seconds for Hailey to come to. She vaguely heard her own voice in her mind, telling Natalie about how to handle unconscious people only a week earlier. Who could've seen this coming? she mused.

  Jessica started coughing in her grip, to her immense relief. Coughing's better than silent. Hailey released her, letting her work through the smoke left in her system while she struggled to her feet.

  The residents of the apartment were surrounding her in a loose semi-circle, dressed in a colorful variety of nightshirts and pajamas. Hailey winced as the building continued to burn away behind them. A fire truck was only just pulling up on the other side, deploying men and women to fight the growing conflagration.

  Hailey was about to say something when she spotted a horrifying sight out of the corner of her eye. A tiny flash of light, almost imperceptible, but the telltale sign of a camera lens.

  They were being filmed.

  Hailey didn't have a choice. Jessica wasn't in any shape to make them invisible, but they absolutely could not be seen.

  She picked up her best friend, still struggling to force clean air through her lungs, and flapped her great wings as hard as she could. Annihilating a few gemstones on her necklace to fuel their furious ascent, Hailey and Jessica rocketed back into the sky, through the pillar of smoke illuminated against the black night. They vanished into the clouds, while the tiny crowd of onlookers watched their would-be heroes perform yet another impossible feat.