Thunder

Chapter 18

Fire.

I quickly run back inside to the kitchen. I refill my water glass, chug it down, repeat, and then hurry to my room. My suit is still hidden in my closet.

"Guess I'm not done using this yet today," I say as I slip the jacket back on and pull the hood over my head. Then I sneak out of the house and off to a rescue mission.

Speed-flying toward the tower of smoke, I discover a house on fire.

A man is on his phone, calling for firemen that have yet to arrive. A woman stands closer to the building screaming at people still inside. Two boys are next to the man. One of the boys, the taller of the two, points up and shouts, "Look! It's Thunder!" The others notice me as I land. I hurry over to the woman.

"Who is inside?" I ask.

"Three of my children. My oldest went in after the little ones."

"Three kids. Got it," I say, running into the building without a second thought. The back half of the room is covered in flames.

Okay, focus. Your powers need to work this time. It's life or death now.

"Help!" A small child's voice shouts from somewhere upstairs. I find a staircase surrounded in flames. Remembering the first time I rescued someone from a fire, I use wind to clear a temporary path through the flames. I take in a deep breath of air and speed-fly upstairs.

"Hello?" I call out. "Where are you?"

"Over here," I hear a reply. I run through the burning hall. A teenage girl with long light brown hair and a little girl holding the older one's hand come running out into the hallway. Both of them are coughing from the smoke in the air.

"Thunder?" The teenager asks between coughs.

I nod. "I'll get you guys out of here."

"Take her," she says, bringing the girl closer. "I need to find my brother."

"But..." Before I get another word out, she is running back down the hallway. The scared little girl she left with me who has tears in her eyes. I crouch down to her. "I can get you out of here safely. Do you trust me?" I open my arms. She nods and walks forward. "Hang on tight," I say, picking her up. She wraps her arms around my neck and I run back to the steps. I make another gust of wind clear a path in front of us and speed-fly down and out the front door. I set the girl by her mother, take in a breath of clean, fresh air, and zoom back inside.

The teen and her little brother are in the room at the end of the hall. When she sees me, she comes over, her brother in her arms. "Get him outside."

I take the boy and repeat what I did just seconds before with the girl. One final time, I speed inside for a rescue. I'm about to lead the girl out of the house when the ceiling starts to collapse. I shove her backwards suddenly to avoid a flaming chunk of wall that nearly falls on top of us. We hit the floor, coughing. The stairs are now blocked by a mass of wall and flame.

So much for that escape.

"Window?" I question. She instantly understands. We rush back into the room and pry open the window above the bed.

"I'm not jumping that far," she states, looking out the window at the approximately twenty-foot drop.

"I don't think you'll have to," I reply as sirens blare from fire trucks pulling up in front of the building. "Wait right here." I cram myself through the small window space and fly toward the trucks. I lose my balance while flying and fall a couple of feet before I catch myself.

Shoot, my powers are weakening again.

"We need a ladder up to that window!" I shout, getting a firefighter's attention. "There's one person still inside." The men are quick to respond and a couple minutes later, the girl is safely with the rest of her family.