HATHE

3: Disaster

Heat. That's all Hatley could feel. She saw nothing but orange tongues licking at her heels as she raced to save her best friend.

George raced frantically around searching for someone to tell him where Hatley was. He was so close when someone grabbed his arm and pulled him out the building.
"Are you insane?" Someone pushed him onto the ground. It was Dr. Octavia Drime, another scientist who worked in his section.
"You can't just run around in the middle of a burning building!"
"Where's Hatley?"
"What?"
"Where's Dr. Caine? Hatley Caine. Where is she?"
Octavia shook her head disapprovingly.
"I don't know, but I do know that she's fully capable of getting herself out of a burning labratory."

"George!" Hatley pushed her way through the rubble towards the exit, hoping he had found his way out. When she broke to the clear, she made her way through the crowd of scientists, and emerged to find George Felix waiting with Dr. Drime.
"George! Thank goodness!" She rushed and gave him a hug. George hugged her back. Then, they both turned to look at the mess of the lab. The fire department had arrived, and scientists were still being pulled out of the building.
George and Hatley stood beside each other, speechless. They let the fact sink in that all the hard work they had done was gone. All the inventions, except for...
"HATHE!" Hatley looked at George. "She's in my garage. She's safe."
George's hazel eyes widened.
"She is."

"We're letting everyone go. There's no where to put them. The lab's gone, and it will be a while before we can fix it, so we can't keep anyone." Hatley looked at Dr. Wren as he delivered these words. It wasn't a surprise, but it still hurt to hear them out loud.
"I understand." Hatley gave Marcus a fake smile. She picked up her bag from the floor of Marcus's apartment. "Have a good day."
"You too."
And with that, Hatley left, unemployed, but with a dream to change the future.