Rouge (24 page)

“What the hell?” Jack leapt
to his feet - as did Clare, her eyes wide in fear - but Hunter was already
running.

She flew past the befuddled
librarian, noting two sets of feet following close behind her. She burst
through the library doors into the long corridor that led to the science labs.

She wasn’t sure what she was
running into, but something had kicked an adrenaline lever and set her senses
into hyper-mode. Hunter thought of her daydreams about being a real hero in
physics class as she powered on through the computer corridor lined with
identical doors on either side, moving ahead of the others chasing after her.

Was this her chance to prove
herself?

Joshua’s voice blared inside
her mind like warning sirens, urging her not to be stupid and reckless, warning
her about the Agents –

“Help!” came a second
scream, and Hunter fumbled on the handle of the door leading to the science building.
She recognized the voice amid the sound of a great crash. There were other
sounds coming from Lab 3, sounds so familiar to her ears that her heart began
to claw itself out of her chest.

She burst into the hallway
and her breath caught in her throat.

There was smoke trailing out
of Lab 3 two doors up on her left. She could just hear the faint crackle of a
fire she knew all too well, and the sound of someone crying for help, coughing,
choking, spluttering through the thick air. Dying.

Hunter shot a glance behind
her and saw, through the window of the double doors, that Jack was not far
behind. She had a split second to decide whether she should stand back and wait
for help, or risk exposing herself to save Miss Smart’s life. And even then,
when the fire inside her roared and her heart was hammering inside her chest,
the answer was clear.

Do it.

Hunter gripped the door
handle and felt the metal heat in the palm of her hand. She thought no more of
the consequences of revealing her powers, nor about what people would say or
how furious Joshua would be once he found out she’d gone against everything
he’d taught her. She even forgot about the Agents who might possible discover
her identity and come to take her away. She thought only of Miss Smart, on the brink
of death, and how it was her responsibility to get her out.

She twisted the handle and
threw open the door. Smoke poured out like a tidal wave and consumed her, as if
trying to wrap itself around her, to swallow her whole. But Hunter breathed in
and didn’t batter an eyelid. She felt the familiarity of the impossible
temperatures inside and the flames licking at her clothes and looked back at
the corridor where Jack had burst through the doors and was spluttering against
the wave of smoke. Clare and Mrs. Carman couldn’t be far behind. An alarm
blared somewhere in the building, and Jack caught sight of her standing in the
doorway. His eyes widened despite the smoke around him.

“Get back!” she shouted.
“And call 911!”

“What the hell are you
doing?” Jack choked, his hand shielding his eyes and mouth from the haze. It
was a good thing he couldn’t see her covered in the flames that were seeping
from the lab. “Are you crazy, you’ll get yourself killed!”

“Just get help!” Hunter
shouted and turned back to the lab where she readied herself, gripped any
courage she had inside her and stepped into the engulfing fire.

Flames were everywhere. They
were crawling up the desks like orange snakes, stretching to the roof and
pooling across the ceiling, feeding on everything. Cupboards were exploding
from the highly combustible chemicals inside of them and Hunter had to shield
her eyes in case she was hit by flying glass.

Find her,
echoed a deep voice in her mind, and
Hunter knew it was the fire talking. But unlike the snarky, slippery voice she
was so used to, the fire sounded like a guardian angel, helping her,
encouraging her and guiding her.

Hunter crept between the
crumpling stations and through the fallen debris and chaotic flames to the
front of the classroom and the teacher’s desk.
How the hell did this happen?
She asked herself, wondering if Miss Smart was experimenting, wondering if
it had anything to do with her and that stupid drug.
If Miss Smart is dead
because of me, I will never forgive myself.

And there, against the
filing cabinet and looking as if she had run out of air to breathe, was Miss
Smart.

Hunter leaped over a chair
melting on the floor and bent over her teacher. The smell of charcoal and pig
fat made her stomach curl. Her teacher was already burning.

“Miss Smart? Miss Smart wake
up!” she urged. She had to get out of there before the entire room was filled
with flames. Another explosion behind her made her yelp and cover her head, and
it was then that she realized she was shaking. She slapped at the flames
licking up Miss Smart’s skirt and used all the strength she could to lift the
woman up in her arms and hoist her over her shoulder.
Lucky Miss Smart is a
twig,
she couldn’t help thinking as she stopped for a moment and pondered
her escape route.

Hunter felt dizzy. Not only
because she was lugging an injured victim in her arms - who
wasn’t
resistant
to fire - but also because the lab was literally about to crumple in on itself.
She wouldn’t be surprised if the corridor was now ablaze.

But as Hunter felt panic
rise rapidly inside her, wondering what the hell she’d gotten herself into and
if maybe she should risk running straight through the flames or even out the
window and land two stories down, something incredible happened.

A loud hissing sound tore
through the crumpling of wood and the melting of metal and Hunter saw with some
amount of astonishment that through the smoke and haze of the inferno, someone
in the doorway was throwing buckets of water.

God bless you Jack,
she thought with a wave of relief.

It was motivation enough to
give Hunter strength, and as the roof made a terrifying groaning sound that
told her it was only minutes before it caved in on top of her, Hunter grit her
teeth and ran straight through the isle of the desks. The flames hardly
affected her at all, but Miss Smart was burning. She could feel her flesh
sizzling like bacon in a pan. She hurried, practically leaping over a fallen
chair and ducking under a fraying electrical cord, all the while adjusting Miss
Smart who kept slipping off her shoulder. Her eyes found the exit – clouded by
smoke, but bright and promising – and she focused on the way out.
Keep going
Hunter,
the fire encouraged her,
you’ll make it out
.

Sure enough, in a matter of
seconds she had jumped over a heap of burning wood and, just as she passed
through the doorway, a bucket of water was thrown in her face.

“Oh my God,” came Clare’s
voice as she threw down the bucket and helped Hunter carry Miss Smart through
the double doors into the computer corridor. Together, they lowered her to the
cold, shiny floor and rested her gently against the wall. She was unconscious,
but breathing. The back of her body that was exposed to the flames as Hunter
carried her was smarting nasty burns and her hair was singed almost to her
scalp. Hunter slapped at the tiny flames burning through her T-shirt.

“
Urgh
,
that smells so gross,” said Clare

“It’s burning skin,” Hunter
said through clenched teeth.

Jack sprinted towards them,
carrying two big buckets of water. He passed through the doorway, threw the
water on the fire with a sizzling hiss and came running back to them. Almost
instantly, there was a monstrous crash and the roof inside Lab 3 came crumbling
down. Jack fell to the floor in the smoky hallway as rubble, smoke and dust
combined tumbled out of the doorway and left them all in a state of disarray
until it cleared and silence fell.

“Is it… still on fire?”
asked Clare and waved at the smoke around them.

“I don’t know,” said Jack,
rolling over and sitting up slowly, peering through the dusty clouds. “It
doesn’t sound like it.”

“These walls must be pretty
thick,” Hunter said, standing and gazing at the dusty hallway of the science
building. The doors swung in and caught on a large chunk of cement that kept it
from closing completely. “The fire should have spread.”

Jack coughed into the sleeve
of his varsity jacket, making Hunter realize she should be coughing too. She
turned away and pretended to choke while Clare fussed over the unconscious
woman beside her.

“She’s shaking… does that
mean anything?” Tears were already streaming down her cheeks as she stroked
Miss Smart’s hair.

“Did you call 911?” Hunter
asked, noting with a stab of rage that Clare was the same cheerleader who had
laughed at Eli on the first day back when Benny had knocked him over.
Oh how
different people become when life and death situations present themselves
.

“Mrs. Carman went for help,”
said Jack, bending down beside Hunter and resting his fingers under Miss
Smart’s jaw. Satisfied her pulse was still steady, he turned his gaze to hers.
“How the hell did you get her out of there Hunter?”

For the first time since
she’d stopped before the smoking door of Lab 3, Hunter’s heart pounded in fear.
Miss Smart was alive. She’d saved her. But now it was question time. Jack saw
her walk into the lab, and Clare saw her drag Miss Smart out. God only knows
how long she’d been in there.

“I just-”

The door at the end of the
corridor burst open and a heaving Mrs. Carman came jogging towards them. At the
sight of Miss Smart unconscious against the wall with her head in Clare’s lap,
the librarian shrieked and nearly stumbled on a chunk of the roof that had
rolled across the corridor.

“What – Jenny – someone
explain!” she stammered and turned to the three of them, her eyes wide in fear.

“She’s inhaled too much
smoke, and she has nasty burns on her back,” said Jack as sirens sounded
outside. “But otherwise she’s alive.”

“How did she get out?”

“She…” Hunter looked at Jack
pleadingly, knowing she’d have to explain herself to him later, but hoping he
wouldn’t tell anyone. Clare was so dazed and exhausted, Hunter wondered if she
even registered that Hunter had been inside the lab at all. But Jack knew; she
could see the astonishment in his eyes.
He’s going to tell her,
she
fretted.
He’s-

“Hunter found Miss Smart by
the door. She’d tried to get out but,
er
, hadn’t made
it. When Hunter got inside she was unconscious, so she dragged her out. Her
coat had caught on fire.”

Hunter stared at Jack in
amazement.

“Are you sure you’re
alright, dear?” asked Mrs. Carman, full of fear and looking much more hollow
than usual. “Your clothes are all scorched.”

Glancing down at herself,
she cursed silently. Her jeans were black and patches of skin were showing
through her T-shirt. There were no burn marks.

“I guess I just got lucky,”
she muttered, coughed again and smiled. Before they could assume anything else,
three firemen burst through the door at the end of the corridor, followed by a
team of paramedics and Hunter was saved through the mayhem of facing a long
conversation she didn’t want to endure. Miss Smart was wheeled away on a
stretcher. The three of them were questioned and Hunter explained while an EMT
checked her for burns in an ambulance outside that she had heard the scream and
by the time she and the others had arrived, the fire had begun to spread. She
had carried her teacher out and, not long after, the roof collapsed.

“You’re a hero, Miss
Harrison,” said the paramedic with a sigh, “and a lucky one at that.”

“You can say that again,”
she said with another cough, hoping she was convincing enough. He looked at her
with the same bewilderment Jack had earlier, but he believed her story, and
that was enough.

“You can go home if you want
Hunter,” he smiled. “We’ll take your teacher to the hospital. I expect she’ll
be in recovery for a while. Oh,” he added with a smile, “and you can keep the
parka.”

“Thanks,” she muttered,
staring down at the blue oversized coat with the ambulance symbol on the
shoulder.

“No problem. Rest up,” he
replied and walked over to the other van to assist Clare.

Hunter hopped out of the
ambulance and took a deep breath of fresh air, staring across the street where
the other ambulances and fire engines had parked at the entrance to the science
building. It looked as if a spaceship had crashed right into the building where
Lab 3 used to be, except there was nothing that remained.

Exhausted and practically
brimming with questions, Hunter went home, looking forward to a good long
shower.

But what awaited her at the
apartment when she returned home was a whole new dilemma. Joshua was waiting,
yet again, in the kitchen. She prayed silently that he didn’t see the scorches
on her clothes or have any idea what had happened at school that night, but
Joshua wasn’t stupid. In fact, it was more obvious that Hunter was involved in
the fire than if she’d voluntarily spoken to the news crews herself.