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“One. Two. Three.” Siena yanked the window open. It slid to the side, not up, but that was good. Made a bigger space to get through.
Air blew wildly and the fire roared. Siena spared a look back and saw flames like demonic fringe all around the the cheap wooden door. The door bowed and buckled.
She turned to the window and shoved her sister out of the house.
Just as she heaved herself up to follow, Geneva screamed, “GIMLI!”
Fuck. Siena turned again. The dwarf hamster’s cage was in the corner of the room, against the same wall where the door was. Where the weird prefab-house walls were starting to bubble. That critter was probably already dead.
No. She could see him trying to climb his cage. So she stopped thinking and ran to grab that cage.
It was hot but not enough to blister her hand. Whether a dwarf hamster could survive smoke inhalation was a question for later. Now, she saved her sister’s hamster and ran back to the window to hand him out to Geneva.
The door exploded as Siena started to climb out herself. So she just jumped.
She landed hard on the gravel and for a second thought she’d broken both knees. But she couldn’t worry about that, either, so she got to her feet, grabbed Geneva’s hand, and ran toward the street.
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~oOo~
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Acrowd of neighborswas already forming. As Siena dragged Geneva to safety, a large man ran up and hooked his arm around them both, helping them across the street.
God, there was so much fire!
“Are you okay?” the man asked. “Geneva, are you?”
Siena couldn’t answer for her coughing. But it was somebody they knew? She hadn’t exactly been chummy with any neighbors besides Cooper. This wasn’t that kind of neighborhood, and she wasn’t that kind of neighbor.
“I’m okay, Mr. Gutierrez,” Geneva said. “I think my sister’s sick, though. She can’t stop coughing.”
Gutierrez. That was Luis’s last name. Was this his father? Jorge? Helping her? The man who’d attacked her a few weeks ago? Siena blinked and tried to focus, but the smoke had muddied her vision, too.
“Here, sit,” he said and coaxed Siena to sit on the sidewalk. “I think we all called 911, so help’s on its way.”
“I don’t know what happened,” she sputtered in a brief respite in which she thought she could spare the breath to speak.
“It started next door. Cooper’s house is ... I hope he wasn’t home. His bike’s not there.”
“He’s not home,” Geneva answered. “He went away for a few days. He’s coming home tomorrow.”
Siena tried to make sense but couldn’t. She heard another alarm going off and flinched, looking for more fire, but Luis’s dad still had his arm around her, and he squeezed.
“Easy. It’s the firefighters. An ambulance is coming, too.”
That wasn’t Luis’s father who’d spoken; it was a woman. Siena blinked and tried to see, but she couldn’t.
She wondered who needed an ambulance. And why was everything going dark, with fire all around?
“Siena? Siena, no! Don’t die! Please don’t die!”
Siena heard her sister screaming from a distance and wanted to tell her not to worry, but she couldn’t find enough breath to speak.
