Tiger, Tiger

Tiger, Tiger: Chapter 18

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The heat that surrounded me as Alexander dragged me out into the corridor was instantaneous. It singed the bare skin of my arms and made the tiles under my feet burn. The thick black clouds of smoke hanging around us coiled around my thoughts, making my head fuzzy and my skin prickle. I flung my hand across my nose and mouth in an attempt to stop myself inhaling anymore of the noxious fumes.

In a desperate blur we stumbled forward through the smoke. Even with my heightened senses I couldn’t see a metre in front of me. The smoke curled around me, hugging me tightly and creeping into my lungs. Everything burned. Alexander’s tight grip on my arm was the only thing that kept me rooted in the blackness, telling me that I wasn’t in some terrible nightmare. This was real life.

My jelly like legs stumbled on something and almost pulled us both down. Alexander managed to wrestle me back onto my feet and wrapped an arm around my waist supportively. ‘Come on, keep going,’ he called into my mind through the haze, ‘Don’t give up on me, Alexis, not now. We can make it out. The doors are just up ahead.’

Just as he spoke, something rumbled around us like the great banging of drums. Light flared suddenly in the darkness and a powerful wave of heat and air slammed into us, knocking us sideways. The wind was knocked out of my chest by the tremendous force and I gasped desperately for a breath. Pain spread across my whole body as we hit and slid across the ground, pieces of debris ripping into my skin.

I hissed at the pain but reached out for Alexander anyway. Other explosions were going to follow. We had to get out now. I pushed myself up and dragged him with me by the fabric of his shirt. The heat around us had intensified; a warm orange glow now illuminating the dense smoke. The fire itself was getting closer.

I searched around the darkness and found a patch of white light, too natural to have been the flames. With one hand out in front of me I stumbled towards it through the choking, stinging smog. My hand contacted something cold after a few steps and a slice of pain ran across my palm, the warm feeling of blood following quickly after. I pushed again and the door opened with a gust of fresh air.

As I stepped out through the door, practically dragging Alexander behind me, I took a deep, ragged breath. The bright light of day stung my eyes as we did so, even worse than the chemicals that crawled down my throat. I had hoped that my first steps into freedom would be ones to remember, to cherish, but the burning feeling in my lungs was one memory that I would not want to hold onto.

Stumbling further forwards across the dry soil, I coughed and spluttered, bits of broken glass and debris cutting into the soles of my bare feet. Alexander groaned in a way that made my stomach twist and I span to face him. He swayed worryingly, reaching out a pale hand for me, and then began to fall. I leapt and tried to catch him in my arms but struggled under his dead weight, falling to the ground. What was wrong?

Then I saw it. A massive, jagged piece of glass stuck out from his side. I gasped and felt my stomach rise into my throat. He groaned in my lap, head rolling weakly from side to side, eyelids fluttering. His skin felt slick with sweat under my hands and dark red blood was spreading quickly across the white fabric that surrounded the wound. Tongues of flame licked out of windows in the labs and the whole place billowed with smoke like a chimney. But I needed to stop Alexander’s bleeding before I could get us away from danger, or he definitely wouldn’t make it.

Grappling around in the dry grass, I quickly found a long shard of glass. The razor sharp edge cut deeply into my own palm as I leant down and sliced open Alexander’s shirt. I pulled at the tattered pieces and removed them from around his wound, my own injuries so minor in comparison that they were already knitting closed.