Escape the Night Oneshots!

Quiet

Everything is quiet.

Matthew can feel a trickle of blood running down his temple.

His cheek is against the ground, and he can smell smoke.

He remembers... what does he remember?

An explosion.

Shouts.

Trying to find Ro before everything was dark.

He's only clueless for a second, and then everything comes crashing back in around him. His eyes fly open, and he coughs, but he can't hear it.

He can't hear anything. Only a faint ringing pervades the silence.

Matthew stumbles to his feet, and tries to take in the scene in front of him. The town is dark, zombies slumped over along the road.

But he still smells smoke, and he's starting to sweat from the heat. So he turns around, and his body tenses with horror.

The church is burning.

Fire tears at the walls, like claws through paper. Ash floats down, and smoke as thick as water is pouring out into the sky, settling on the ground around him and stealing the breath from his lungs.

Where are Joey and Ro?

He knows what the answer has to be. He's not stupid. But he wants so badly to be wrong.

A bloody conflict wages in his brain.

Run or stay, hide or face head-on, live with guilt or die with regret.

Matthew's left ear is slowly starting to regain some sound. He can hear the roar of the fire now, faintly, and the groaning of the church's foundation.

He can hear screaming, too.

It's them.

So he doesn't think. He doesn't plan. He doesn't wait.

He sprints forward, into the flames.

***

Matthew presses his jacket over his nose and mouth, waving his arm in front of him in a futile attempt to clear the smoke.

He tilts his head, trying to hear with his good ear.

"RO!" he yells, into the inferno, even though he can barely hear himself. "JOEY!"

"M-Matt? Is that you?"

Joey. Hoarse, weak, but there.

Matthew runs toward the voice, throwing aside burning debris, adrenaline numbing the pain.

Joey is crouched under a table, eyes watering from the smoke.

Matthew grabs his arm and pulls him up to his feet, and together they run for the door.

He gets Joey outside, then faces the church again, the flames reflected in his eyes.