Hostile

Chapter 5

"Tom, is that you?!"

"Claire!"

"Tom, I'm over here!" I followed her voice, and I found her lying on the ground and badly wounded. "What the hell happened to you?" I asked in a worried voice. "What the hell do you think happened? I got torchered, abused, spat at, all for what? To save your ass!" I felt guilty and stupid for letting her go. "I'm sorry I didn't ask for you to save me, that was your mistake." And I realized that saying that was mine.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that."

"But you did, God I feel like such an idiot!" said Claire as tears streamed down her face. "You're not the idiot, I am." There was a brief moment of silence, when the whole building began to shake. "The building is collapsing, we have to go now!" I yell. I helped Claire and we tried to run, but she cries out in pain and her leg is apparently broken or sprained. We're running out of time. Parts of the roof are coming down and blocking most of our exits. "We need to run faster!" I tell Claire. "Or we're going to get trapped and die!"

"I can't go any faster!" she whined

"Yes, you can, I believe in you, you got this." she nodded and releases a big sigh. I grab her waist tighter than it already was and begin running. Debris was falling all around us. The door was just 3 feet away. "We're going to make it!" cried Claire, just then a huge piece of the ceiling came crashing down and almost landed on us. I pushed Claire out of the way, and I jumped trying to avoid being crushed, but it crushed my leg. I yell in pain, "Help! Please somebody, help!"

Jerry saw us trapped and frightened. He ran in without thinking and tried lifting the huge burning piece of ceiling, but it was too heavy and was the stupidest idea ever, but at least he tried. "Go, take Claire!" I ordered Jerry. "No, I'm not leaving you!" Claire cried. "It's okay, Claire, we're all going to die, not all of us get to make a difference." She takes my hand and says, "If you die, I die I got nothing left to live for anyways." tears were streaming down her face. "I can't, I won't lose you too!" I say trying to get her to listen to me and leave me here to die.
"I won't lose you either, Tom! We're all getting out of here alive."

"How? Our legs are broken and we're wasting time, Jerry get her the hell out of here now!" Jerry picked her up and she wiggled and screamed, "No, I'm not leaving him, let me go!" Smoke filled my lungs, flames were surrounding me, I felt my heart slowing down. My vision went in and out of focus, but I knew I wasn't seeing things. I saw someone and before I blacked out he said, "I got you buddy, no one's dying today." His voice didn't sound familiar, I didn't know who he was, but I was thankful that he saved my life that day and somehow got my leg free.

I woke up in a hospital tent the very next morning, and I saw Claire, Jerry and who I believed was the guy who saved my life. Claire ran towards me the moment she saw my eyes flutter open and hugged me. A few minutes later Rose entered the tent and saw Jerry's hands badly burned, she thought he saved me and thought of him as a hero. She pulled him closer to her and kissed him. His face looked so confused, but his eyes lit up.

And the guy who actually saved my life walked me up to me and introduced himself. "Hey, I'm Matthew."

"Thank you for saving my life," I whispered. "No problem."

"Thank God it's all over, am I right?" Said Claire. "Oh, no, that was just the beginning." Matthew responded.