Kristi did as Chelsa instructed. After pulling up the files from the contact-cam onto her electro-slate, she selected the correct time frame of the clips and sent them to Chelsa. She glanced up from her slate in time to see the middle-aged man leave the restaurant.
The waitress noticed him leaving without paying for his meal and called out, “Sir! You have to pay for your dinner before you leave.”
The man ignored her and strode outside without giving a glance back. The waitress let out a huff and started after the unpaid customer.
“Do you think we should help the waitress?” Kristi asked.
“I don’t know. My conscience is telling me to go help her, but we should avoid attracting attention at all cost.”
The chef from the kitchen came out to the dining area and said, “We’ll be closing up soon.” He looked around the room, searching for someone. “Where did Tallia go?”
Kristi presumed that Tallia was the waitress. “She went to chase down a customer who left without paying.”
The chef let out a snort of disgust. “What has society come to these—”
Ka-BOOM!
Something exploded in the restaurant.
Kristi instinctively covered her head and curled up into the fetal position. Debris rained down around her and the sound of the explosion rang in her ear. Once the ringing had stopped vibrating her eardrums, she peeked at her surrounding through her fingers. Dust swirled in the air, raised by the ceiling collapsing inwards.
She was trapped beneath the booth. Part of the wall separating the kitchen from the dining area had collapsed on top of the table where Troop and she had been sitting at.
“Troop! Can you hear me?” Kristi yelled.
She broke off, coughing violently. The dust coated her lungs like a swarm of fire ants.
As the dust grew thicker, Kristi realized she wasn’t breathing in dust; she was breathing in smoke. The building was on fire.
“Kristi!” She heard Troop call her name. “I can’t find you! Are you still at the table we were sitting at?”
“Yeah,” she replied. “I couldn’t get out of the booth fast enough before the wall crumpled over it.”
The air around her grew thicker and hotter. Desperately, she searched for some passage out of her confinements. There was a tiny gap near the ground; at most, it was only a foot wide.
Kristi pressed the back of her hands against the wall; it was hot, signaling the fire was very close by.
“Can you get out of the restaurant?” Kristi asked Troop, who was on the other side of the wall.
“I think so.” His voice sounded dry and croaky from the smoke. “There’s a path to the door, but the fire’s going to burn through the path soon.”
“Get out of the building now. And call the fire crew if they haven’t already been called.”
“Are you able to get out?” Troop asked.
Kristi’s eyes watered from the smoke; her nose burned from the acrid smell of things on fire. Sweat dripped down her back and glistened on her forehead; the temperature rose intensely. She went into panic mode. I’m going to die! I don’t want to be burned to death. Or maybe I’ll suffocate in this blanket of smoke. I don’t want to die—I’m only sixteen.
“Kristi, are you all right?” Troop’s voice brought her back to reality.
“Yeah.” The tone of her voice said otherwise.
Something thumped on the wall barricading her from the rest of the restaurant. The walls shook a bit and plaster pieces sprinkled down.
“Troop, get yourself out of here,” Kristi said in her most authoritative voice. “You’re not much good dead.”
She wiped a bead of sweat off her brows and sucked in some air through pursed lips, trying not to inhale too much smoke. Then she kicked at the gap near the floor, hoping to widen it somehow.
“Kristi, try to break down the wall from the inside and I’ll work on it from the outside,” Troop said.
“I thought I told you to get out!”
“Shut up and listen to me. If we don’t work together, neither of us will get out alive. Do you see any weak spots in the wall?”
“There’s a small opening near the ground and—” A coughing fit overcame her.
“Alright,” Troop said.
Both of them worked simultaneously at chipping away the plaster wall around Kristi’s only escape route. She kicked, pounded and clawed at the wall. No matter how fast or hard they tore at the wall, it seemed like the gap was only widening a few millimeters at a time.
Her oxygen deprived muscles screamed at her to stop working and just give up. Her eyes and nose felt like they were on fire; her vision started to blur, strength beginning to wane.
“Hang in there.” Troop sounded tired and spent.
A minute later, the gap had widened to about a foot and a half. Kristi could see Troop’s hands working, furiously hacking away at the wall.
“I think I can fit through,” Kristi croaked, her throat parched.
Flames licked at the backside of Troop and Kristi could see sweat pouring down his neck. She thrust her upper body through the space and squirmed her way through. The hardwood floor was covered with hot ashes and cinder, singeing her cheeks as she slid out from beneath the table.
“Thanks,” she said.
“Come on, let’s run for the back door.”
Kristi followed Troop through the flaming restaurant, dancing over smoldering pieces of furniture and dodging ceiling chunks that were falling from above. The front of the restaurant was completely engulfed in flames. The back of the restaurant was rapidly being eaten away by the never-satisfied inferno.
The glass door leading to the outside world never looked so significant. Kristi put all her focus on getting to the exit she didn’t notice when a ceiling beam dropped down with a THUD! She leapt backwards in surprise. Had she taken one more step forward, she would’ve been dead and burnt crispy.
With a five-foot high wall of flames cutting her off from freedom, Kristi was out of ideas on what to do. Behind her was an impenetrable blockade of fire. Yellow and black spots danced in the corner of Kristi’s vision. She felt her body start to shut itself down. The smoke, the heat, the stress and the lack of clean air were taking its toll.
chapter thirty-five
Kristi looked like a dead person.
But she’s not dead, Troop ferociously thought to himself.
“Sorry, Kristi,” he said, and then gave her a hard slap to the face.
Her eyelids flew open.
“Ow! What the hell?” she grated.
“Don’t lose consciousness on me.” His voice was equally gravelly. “Can you stand?”
He offered her a hand up, which she accepted. They stumbled out of the sandwich shop and traveled a few blocks before Kristi’s legs buckled in on her. She leaned against a wall to regain her strength.
Troop looked back at the sandwich shop, where the conflagration still burned. “Wait here. I’ll be back soon.”
“It’s not like I’m in shape to go anywhere.”
Troop left her, feeling apprehensive at leaving her alone; but they needed water. Where can I get some water? All of the shops are closed and it’s not like I can walk up to someone’s house and ask for a bottle of water.
He wandered around, keeping track of all the turns he made; getting lost in the city was the last thing he wanted to happen right now. The thought of Kristi parched and lying in the streets spurred him into a faster pace.
A wishing fountain appeared ahead. Excited at the prospect of getting a drink, he broke into a jog. The water shimmered in the granite basin, clear as crystal. He reached his hands into the fountain to splash some water onto his face…and felt nothing. What’s going on?