The Virtues Of Literature

Part 11

Chapter 11

"Francis! Francis!'

Arthur feels the body in his hands go limp, and Francis is can't see where Matthias, Lukas or Gilbert are, all he can think is that Arthur needs to get Francis out of there.

He grits his teeth and pulls Francis up and over his shoulder into an ironic fireman's lift, and stumbles down a corridor, begging nothing in particular for this to be the right way out. Arthur feels a little lightheaded, the smoke inescapable and heat producing a sheen of sweat proving inefficient in cooling him down.

His eyes are streaming, so when he sees a white light shining towards him all of a sudden, he wonders for a moment if this is what death feels like. Is that the light at the end of the tunnel, or God, or-

A hand grabs his arm and Arthur jumps. People are shouting at him, pulling at him. He doesn't have the energy to resist and he stumbles after them, confused but relieved at the contact.

After being in the darkness of the smoke for so long, the bright burst of daylight attacking him once he steps out of the building is almost blinding. Arthur feels the soft, springy texture of grass under his feet and collapses to the ground in exhaustion. Francis falls safely onto the ground in front of him, and Arthur spends several minutes simply crouching on the floor, coughing.

A face appears in his field of view.

"Sir? Sir? Are you okay?"

A firefighter presents an oxygen mask and Arthur takes it gratefully, holding it over his face and sighing with relief between gulps of breath. He looks around, seeing where he deposited Francis with two medics tending to him. Near another entrance half way down the building, Arthur sees Matthias and Lukas in a pile on the floor. There are some paramedics trying to separate them from the Dane's protective hug; he still seems convinced Lukas is in some sort of danger. Lukas is unconscious and ragged-looking but looks mostly okay apart from his broken ankle which is skewed at an odd angle. Matthias' hair is a little blackened and half of his jacket is burnt off but he too seems in a safe condition. A gagging noise brings Arthur's attention to Gilbert being sick in some shrubs. He probably didn't do well in avoiding the smoke, and his eyes are wide, obviously still in shock at the experience.

Arthur lets himself feel some relief at seeing him friends made it out alive and relatively intact. But looking back to Francis, his stomach clenches in worry, thinking about the vast quantities of smoke his roommate had inhaled and the burns he saw form on his skin. He panics, realising that people do die from these sort of things.

And all of it would be his fault.

He never should have phoned Francis, it has only caused the Frenchman trouble he never should have got into. They should have just jumped out of the window and they probably would have been fine. Because of Arthur's random desire to keep Francis informed and be reassured by him, Francis has got himself hurt.

He calls out to to firefighter, "Will he be okay?" His voice comes out hoarse and sounds audibly distressed. One of the doctors tending to Francis turns to him.

"He'll live, kid. But he's had some severe smoke inhalation and a few pretty nasty burns, so he's going to have to be hospitalised for a while."

"And the same for you too, I'm sure." Another medic appears before Arthur and starts attending to him. "He may be a little worse but you've both just escaped a burning building."

He answers her questions and she makes sure he is stable enough, and he is then escorted to an ambulance along with Francis carried on a stretcher.

Arthur jumps as an extremely concerned looking Matthew rushes to him. He reaches to hold Arthur's shoulder but stops and whips his arm back, obviously remembering he doesn't want to hurt him.