Spotlight

36

***Mae's POV***

In my head I told myself to breathe, but I knew if I did my lungs would collapse. In a quick snap back to reality, there was physically nothing I could do.

I calculated how I could drag three bodies down a fire escape alone, and nearly collapsed at the thought. My body was weak and I could barely see, yet breathe. I felt as if I had won the lottery when another grown man ran into the room and continued to drag two men with him. I crawled quickly to the other corner of the room where the flames were the weakest, and lay beside a man.

"Can you hear me?" I asked, noticing his head was tilted to the other side. He seemed to be conscious yet he was awfully still. I climbed over his body weakly and pushed his head to the side, my heart dropping as I dropped his face from my hands.

I could not believe my eyes or my luck.

His eyes were swollen as he coughed and his whole-body fluttering in a furious motion along the floor boards. His entire face was dark with ash. He was on the brink of death.

"Leave me," he gasped out of breath. There was no way I could have done that. I wrapped my arm around him and pulled him with every ounce I had left - to his feet. I quickly travelled across the room to the doorframe and made my way with him around my arm to the fire escape. I turned to look at him and noticed his head was facing the floor and he was unconscious.

"Stay with me!" I urged. I no longer covered my face with my shirt because I didn't have enough hands. We made it down three flights of stairs until we reached a part that had been burned and the fire was quickly climbing up the stairs.

I grimaced at the sight of this near death experience and looked to the man on my arm. He didn't deserve to die, but neither did I. I continued to walk back up the stairs slowly, as I watched the fire gain at my feet with every step I took.

"Ma'am! Drop the man down to us!" a voice called. I looked over the barrier on the stairs and saw two firemen below with a sort of cushioning device.

"Jump Mae," the voice coughed. I took a step back. How did he know who I was? I had no idea who this man was. Perhaps in the middle of all the commotion he recognised me.

And... well. That was it.

In a flash of orange and a blur, that was the last thing I remembered of New York's monumental earthquake.