Adam threw a red square on Savage’s chest, and the room exploded as Adam grabbed my wrist and raised my hand in the air.
I looked to Abby, who was bobbing up and down, heads above the rest of the crowd, held up by my brother.
Trenton was yelling something, a huge smile on his face.
Just as the crowd began to disperse, I caught a horrified look on Abby’s face, and seconds later, a collective cry from the crowd sparked panic. A hanging lantern in the corner of the main room had fallen, catching a white sheet on fire. The blaze spread quickly to the sheet beside it, starting a chain reaction.
The screaming crowd rushed to the mouth of the stairs as smoke quickly filled the room. Frightened faces, both male and female, were highlighted by flames.
“Abby!” I screamed, realizing just how far away she was, and just how many people were between us. If I couldn’t get to her, she and Trenton would have to find their way back to the window through the maze of dark hallways. Terror dug into my core, spurring me to wildly push through whoever got in my way.
The room darkened, and a loud popping noise sounded from the other side of the room. The other lanterns were igniting and adding to the blaze in small explosions. I caught a glimpse of Trenton, who was grabbing at Abby’s arm, pulling her behind him as he tried to force his way through the crowd.
Abby shook her head, pulling back.
Trenton looked around, forming a plan of escape while they stood in the center of the confusion. If they tried to go out the fire escape, they would be the last ones out. The fire was growing fast. They wouldn’t make it through the crowd to get to the exit in time.
Any attempt I made to get to Abby was thwarted as the crowd surged and pushed me farther away. The excited cheering that filled the room before was replaced by horrified shrieks of fear and desperation as everyone fought to reach the exits.
Trenton pulled Abby to the doorway, but she struggled against him to look back. “Travis!” she yelled, reaching out for me.
I took a breath to yell back, but smoke filled my lungs. I coughed, waving the smoke away.
“This way, Trav!” Trenton yelled.
“Just get her out of here, Trent! Get Pigeon out!”
Abby’s eyes widened, and she shook her head. “Travis!”
“Just go!” I said. “I’ll catch up to you outside!”
Abby paused for a moment before her lips formed a hard line. Relief came over me. Abby Abernathy had a strong survival instinct, and it had just kicked in. She grabbed Trenton’s sleeve and pulled him back into the darkness, away from the fire.
I turned, looking for my own way out. Dozens of spectators were clawing their way to the narrow access to the stairs, screaming and fighting one another to get to the exit.
The room was nearly black with smoke, and I felt my lungs struggling for air. I kneeled to the ground, trying to remember the different doors that lined the main room. I turned back to the stairway. That was the way I wanted to go, away from the fire, but I refused to panic. There was a second exit that led to the fire escape, one only a few people would think to go through. I crouched and ran toward where I remembered it being, but I stopped.
Thoughts of Abby and Trenton getting lost flashed in my mind, pulling me away from the exit.
I heard my name, and squinted toward the sound.
“Travis! Travis! This way!” Adam stood in the doorway, waving me toward him.
I shook my head. “I’m going to get Pigeon!”
The path to the smaller room where Trenton and Abby escaped through was almost clear, so I sprinted across the room, hitting someone head-on. It was a girl, a freshman by the looks of her, her face covered with black streaks. She was terrified and scrambled to her feet.
“H-help me! I can’t . . . I don’t know the way out!” she said, coughing.
“Adam!” I yelled. I pushed her toward the direction of the exit. “Help her out of here!”
The girl raced for Adam, and he grabbed her hand before they disappeared through the exit before the smoke totally obscured it from view.
I pushed off the floor and ran toward Abby. Others were running around in the dark mazes too, crying and panting as they tried to find a way out.
“Abby!” I yelled into the darkness. I was terrified they had taken a wrong turn.
A small group of girls stood in the end of a hallway, crying. “Have you seen a guy and a girl go through here? Trenton’s about this tall, looks like me?” I said, holding a hand to my forehead.
They shook their heads.
My stomach sank. Abby and Trenton had gone the wrong way.
I pointed past the frightened group. “Follow that hall until you get to the end. There is a stairwell with a door at the top. Take it, and then turn left. There’s a window you can get out of.”
One of the girls nodded, wiped her eyes, and then barked at her friends to follow.