I Never Planned on This (A newsies fanfiction)

Chapter eighteen

Albert yanked off his vest and covered his mouth and nose with it, making his way deeper into the fire. He heard some thumping sounds and coughing behind him, and turned around, horrified to see Les stumbling behind him.

"Les!!!" Albert exclaimed. "What are ya doing in here?! It's not safe!!!"

"I was trying to stop you." Les said in between coughs. "And if you're going in for Henri, I'm going in for Davey." Albert looked behind Les to see that there was no longer a way out through the door. He gave Les his vest.

"Put this over your mouth and nose." He said, taking his hat off and covering his nose and mouth. "And keep close, it's easy enough to get lost in here even without the fire." He said. Les nodded and Albert continued through the fire.

A few minutes passed. It felt like they were inside of an oven. At one point, Albert stepped on a rusty screw that went through to his foot, but despite the pain, he didn't care. He was set on finding Henri and Davey. He didn't care if he died in this fire, he wanted to get them both out of here after all the pain they've felt inside of this torture building.

He saw a figure on the ground, laying on its stomach and crawling towards the exit.

"Albert?" The voice asked. "Les? What are you two doing in here??!" Davey.

"We came to find you, and to break you out!!!" Les answered. "We weren't just about to let you die!!!"

"Why didn't you just wait for the fire department to get here?" Davey asked.

"They wouldn't have been able to help!!!" Albert explained. "This is an oil fire. It won't just go out with water." He said. He looked around. "We're glad we could find you, but do ya know where Henri is? Oscar said she could still be in her cell."

Davey nodded, and Albert began to help him to his feet. He had one of his sleeves torn off, and the fabric was over his mouth and nose. He had many scars from the beating room, and his foot was busted up and bloody. Davey leaned against Albert for balance and began to walk/stumble over towards the wall. He leaned against the wall and began to, very slowly and carefully, inch towards one of the doors along the wall. He pointed to the one closest to them. "You see that one?" Albert and Les nodded, and Davey said, "three more doors down is Henri's cell. Albert, you go and try to find Henri. Les and I are going to try and find a way out. Meet back up at Henri's cell, cell 274." Albert nodded, and as he went towards Henri's cell, Davey and Les started back towards Davey's cell.

Albert found cell 274, and looked inside. Everywhere he turned, he saw fire. Worried, he pulled the door handle. It opened a few inches before a padlock stopped it, along with a chain around the lock and handle. Albert looked around, trying to stay calm. He picked up a lead pipe, a red glow on the end. He immediately dropped it and massaged his hands. It was extremely hot. He put his hat over his hands and picked up the pipe again. It was still warm, but not as hot as it had been touching it with his bare hands. He held his breath, trying not to breathe in the smoke. His eyes watered from the smoke in the air. He raised the pipe above his head and brought it down, sort of like clubbing someone in the head mixed with swinging a baseball bat. The padlock began to come loose. He swung again. A few chips of the paint flew off of the padlock. He kept swinging, each time hitting the lock. One more hit, and the padlock snapped. Albert pulled the padlock off and yanked off the chain.

He then dropped the lead pipe and yanked open the door. Smoke flooded in his face as the door opened to reveal the mountain of fire inside. He coughed, blowing the smoke out of his face, and put his hat over his mouth and nose again. He got down onto his hands and knees, continuing to cough. He crawled along the ground, looking for any sign of life. Upon coming to the wooden frame and stone mattress that he supposed was supposed to pass off as a bed, he saw another figure on the other side of the room, from where he had come, on the wall beside the door. He quickly crawled towards the figure, finding it to be Henri. Her vest was over her face, trying to protect her lungs from the deathly smoke. She was lying limp against the wall, several burn marks along her arms, legs, and some along her face. A large blue and purple bruise was around her right eye, and multiple scars lined her arms, legs, and back. She wasn't moving, and her eyes were closed. Putting two fingers against her neck as Davey taught him to should there be a situation such as this, he was relieved to feel a pulse. He put his hand behind her back to support her, and the other under her knees, picking her up as though she were sleeping beauty. He then swiftly but carefully ran out the door, to where Davey and Les were already waiting.

"It's no use." Davey sighed. "The only way out is through a window, but we can't find any without bars." Albert looked back towards the window in Henri's cell.

"Les." He said. "Take my vest, wrap it around your hands, and find a lead pipe. Come back here after you pick it up."

Les nodded and ran back to find a lead pipe.

"What are you doing? Why did you send him off on his own?"

"He's the smallest." Albert said. "He can get into small places to help him find that pipe. As for what I'm doing," he looked Davey straight in the eye. "I'm breaking us out."