St Jimmy

Chapter 2- Christian's Inferno

I awoke the next morning to find Alasdair and Jimmy standing outside my cubicle, arms folded.

“How much did you drink last night?” Alasdair asked me.

“I don’t know Ali, a vodka and coke…why d’you guys look so grumpy this morning?” I moaned.

“Oh, so I’m Ali now am I?”

“D’you mind?” I asked.

“No,” he sighed.

“Anyway, c’mon Jett, Colt’s guys have set fire to one of my guy’s place, hurry,” Jimmy alerted me. He took my hand and pulled me up. We ran as fast as we could to the scene, the apartment building was in flames and a gang were standing outside throwing flaming beer bottles at it.

“Is anyone in there?” I yelled. Another girl, around 25, turned to face me, her black eye makeup ran down her face and her long blonde hair was messed up. She saw that I looked like a reasonable girl, and ran up to me.

“Danny, Danny’s in there! In apartment 12!” she cried. I turned to face Jimmy.

“One of my people,” he told me.

“Anyone else?” I asked.

She shook her head “They managed to evacuate.

“He’ll not make it out,” I thought to myself. Then instinct took over safety and I ran through the front door of the burning building. Jimmy hadn’t noticed as he was fighting off one of Colt’s guys. As I ran up the stone stairs, searching for apartment twelve, I heard Ali yelling my name across the street. When I found apartment twelve, I kicked the door several times and my lungs were filling up with smoke. When the hinges gave way I ran around the apartment trying to find some form of life. I coughed and spluttered. I remembered the time when I was younger when there was a fire in my house, I was 5 years old; I came up with a plan, I hid in my closet until help came. So I wondered if Danny had done the same. I looked around desperately for a closet. I got to the bedroom and found one. I looked out the window and saw that Ali was standing alone with the blonde girl. I couldn’t see Jimmy anywhere. On the other side of the street I saw a number of The Hounds fighting a number of The Rippers; it looked pretty viscous. I swung open the closet doors to find the supposed Danny lying unconscious inside beside a whining bulldog. I closed the doors again and lifted the mattress off of his bed. I opened up the stiff window and chucked the mattress, his pillows and his duvet out of it.

I called out to Ali “He’s in here! Get ready to catch him!”

I knew that it was a stupid idea to throw him out the window, but by now we were locked in the apartment by a mass of flames, this was the only way out. I re-opened the closet and grabbed the crying dog. I carefully lowered him out of the window as much as I could before letting the poor thing go. I watched as he fell into Ali’s arms and then onto the bedding. He looked ok, thank God. I saw him scrabble to his feet and then he barked and growled at he rivals (The Rippers.) I then hauled out the unconscious Danny. He had sweeping brown hair that covered his right eye. His blue shirt and black jeans were covered in dirt and ashes. I dragged him over to the window by his hands. By now, by the looks of things, The Hounds had won the fight as they had formed a kind of basket with their arms. It didn’t look as stable as what fire fighters would use but it would do. I don’t think anyone had called the fire brigade or the cops, because of the continuing feud between the two halves of JingleTown I propped Danny up against the wall and lowered him down out the window. I lined him up with the ‘landing pad’ and closed my eyes. I let him go…