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"We're fucked, aren't we?" Morgan says.
"We are."
"This sucks. There was so much I wanted to do. Like, advance my career, start a family, buy a house..."
I nod, wipe away a tear, and hug Morgan tighter. "And I wanted to sell you that house. Oh, Morgan, I know it would've been the best house, too."
"The best. With a fucking amazing kitchen and a bathtub the size of a swimming pool."
Her words end in a cough that doesn't stop. The air is thick now, like inhaling the leftover coals at the bottom of a grill.
I drop low, low enough to huff in some semi-clean air, and then come back up to be next to my friend.
"I wanted to fuck Owen a few more times, too. Not like I'm trying to be greedy, but just two or three... thousand... more times."
"That's not that much, actually," Morgan says.
"Five thousand, then."
"That's my girl, you go get that Marine cock," she laughs, though the act makes her cough so hard she vomits a little, making a mess on the floor.
I look down to where Riley sits, passed out, coughing in her unconsciousness.
Meanwhile, the room blackens. Or maybe it's my vision giving out as all the oxygen in the room is replaced by heated, billowing death. It's the air, trying to burn and strangle me from the inside.
Riley stirs a little in her state, her eyes fluttering for a moment. I kneel at her side.
"Am I dying?" She whispers.
I nod. "But Luca's safe. They got him out."
“Luca,” she whispers. Her eyes close again, but there's a smile on her face.
My head is swimming now, an ocean of wheezy colors floating amongst the black of the smoke. I grab Morgan's hand again and slip down the wall to sit on the floor, the two of us side by side, ready to die, together.
It won't be long now.
A few more breaths, and then I'll pass out, and I'll either become something like a human rotisserie chicken or just straight up charcoal. Either way, I'll be dead.
That thought startles me in how passively it zips through my skull, and in how uncaring I am when I realize that. It must be the lack of oxygen.
Then the walls begin to shake. Heavy, thunking shakes that have Morgan and I exchanging semi-conscious glances.
You fucking feel that?
Yeah, what the fuck? Is the house collapsing?
Another heavy thunk. Then another, right next to where the first one was. It's two heavy, hammering blows, coming one after the other. The walls continue to shake, then crumble, mortar and stone breaking beneath the furious onslaught of the fire and its relentless heat.
Almost time.
Another crack.
Then a hole opens. And light shines through, along with a breeze that stirs the billowing smoke with fresh air.
I stare.
Owen and Moose stand on the other side of the hole, sledge hammers in their hands, smiles on their faces, and my brother right behind them.
