Chapter 49 part 2

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William stopped and turned.  Harold was walking toward him and further back, closer to the stairs, Jared had the rifle aimed at him. 

The voices were close by, but they were dimmed.  With his attention focused down on the smallest parts of himself, preventing the fires, he didn't know if he'd hear any warnings or see the path of a bullet coming at him. 

But, this would give Bryan the chance to get Jessica. 

All he had to do was keep the fires at bay until he could get close enough to Harold.  If he could do that without getting shot, then Bryan and Jess could get out.  He moved to his left, made sure that Harold was blocking Jared's line of fire at least partly.

The heat didn't start inside him this time.  It was everywhere around him, pressing inward.  His clothes began to smolder, and William tried to extend outward, to feel the energy in the cloth around him, but it was no use.  Keeping just his body from burning felt like more work than he could handle.  Flames crawled up the arms of his jacket, spread inward to his sweatshirt.  His pants smoked for a moment before the polyester disintegrated.  As he stepped forward, the soles of his boots melted onto the burning concrete.  He kicked them off as the laces turned to ash.

*

Even near the stairs, the heat was intense.  Bryan shielded his face with his left arm, gun steady in his right.  The whole area around William was burning.  Flames started at the floor and reached up to the floor of the loft overhead.  The whole factory would be consumed in a minute, maybe two.

He turned away from his friend and looked at the stairs.  He should have gone for Jess right away, but had stopped behind the closest crate after shooting the two sentries.  He had hesitated there, and become transfixed with how William was dealing with the fire.

But somehow, Bryan suspected that whatever William was doing, it left him vulnerable.  It was the intuition again, or what his brain interpreted as intuition.  His friend might need help, but if Bryan didn't take the opportunity to save Jessica, it would be for nothing.  He stepped out from behind the crate.  Jared still had the gun up and was focused on William.  With the flames drowning out all other sound, Bryan could get up the stairs and down again without being heard at all.  He'd just have to do it quickly.  Then he could help William.

He looked at the loft over-head and saw the fire spreading through the wooden floor.  He was out of time.  He stepped backwards, unwilling to turn away from William and the fire.  Finally, he reached the stairway and put his hand on the railing.  She was close by, just as Claire and Danny had been.  But this time he could save her.  There wouldn't be anything to haunt him.  He started up, as quickly as he could through the smoke.

*

The air around William grew hotter.  He pulled in one last breath and took another step toward Harold.

As he did, the fire grew even more intense and spread around him.  The heat swelled inside him and he pushed harder to keep it down, to keep the atoms of his own body from igniting.  With each step, it grew harder.

The pain in his leg, arm, elbow and whole body grated at his concentration, impossible to ignore or put aside with his focus so near to them.

He kept his eyes on Harold.  The fog had disappeared around him.  There was only fire.  As he stepped forward, Harold didn't move.  The fires around William came closer to the man.  William saw sweat break out on his forehead.

William's lungs began to ache.  Surrounded by fire, the concrete below him a steady blaze, he had nothing to breathe.  He felt the need for oxygen within each of his cells as he focused on keeping the fire out of his body.  Gradually, the air around him began to ignite.  It was only tiny sparks at first as the motes of airborne dust combusted, but then the molecules in the air itself began to burn.

There was movement behind Harold.  William couldn't see it clearly, but prayed that it was Bryan carrying Jess out.

Then, a bullet tore through his right collarbone and out his back.  The impact pulled his shoulder around, but the bullet moved through him so easily and quickly that it didn't knock him over.  It slowed him for a moment, and he took a small step forward. 

Fire, gunshot or asphyxiation, he knew he'd be dead soon.

*

As Bryan reached the top of the stairs, he heard the rifle.

He looked down, saw William stagger in the middle of the pool of flame, then continue forward.  Bryan forced himself to turn away.  He couldn't help William from here.

Jessica was unconscious just inside the doorway.  He quickly checked her, found her pulse steady and picked her up.  She was either heavier than he thought, or Bryan had run out of energy.  He didn't know how much adrenaline he could possibly have in his system to begin with, but it had obviously run dry.  He held her as close to his body as he could, to decrease the load on his arms, and leaned on the concrete wall as he slid down a step at a time.  All around him, the factory floor and loft were covered in flame.  He did what he could to hurry without tripping on the last few steps.

That was when Jared turned.

Bryan's legs trembled as Smith saw him, rifle still raised.  He could barely see the man's face, backlit by the ever growing conflagration at the center of the old factory.  But he could see the rifle tighten against his shoulder, the muscles begin to contract.

The door was still yards away, but Bryan turned, tried to hold Jess steady as he tumbled down the last two steps on his side.  The wall above him exploded in a shower of concrete dust and he heard the report of Jared’s M1 even over the fire.  His shoulder hit the concrete floor, hard, but he kept hold of his Glock.  He raised it and saw Jared pushing a new clip into the top of the rifle and beat the racist to the trigger.  He fired five rounds without more than rough aim and saw Smith duck and scurry behind a stack of crates.  It was all Bryan needed.

He got his knees beneath him, kept Jess tight against his shoulder.  As he stood, he saw Smith peer out from behind his cover, rifle still ready.  Bryan snorted in disgust.  Couldn't the man just give up?

Bryan raised the Glock and fired the clip dry as he staggered with Jess over the dead sentry's body to the door.

*

(Author’s note:  It looks like Bryan and Jess are going to get out, right?  But what about William…trapped with Jared and Harold, do you think he can make it out?  Thank you for the votes and comments, they help a lot!)

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