The next few minutes passed in a blur and Ayiera hardly remembered what had happened. Smoke stung her eyes and throat, and she could barely see. There were a group of children crying in a corner. She took them to the fire escape and saw them safely to the bottom. Before anyone could stop her she slipped back into the burning building through the emergency exit on the ground floor.
Almost everyone must have escaped from the building by now because she saw no one until she came to the main hall. Here the smoke was twice as bad and the heat almost unbearable. She could see flames eating at the ceiling as the far end of the hall and hear their roar above her head.
She was about to leave the building for the last time when she saw a figure coming down the hall from the direction of the flames. Suddenly she was at his side, and one glance told her all she needed to know; he was a young man and he was dragging the body of another boy, dead. Ayiera knew there was not enough time.
“Leave him!!” She screamed. She grabbed his arm and dragged him toward the front door. She felt him resist, then drop the body and run with her.
Almost to the door now. His arm yanked from her hands. A scream. She flew around. His legs were trapped under a burning beam. She had it off. Someway, somehow (she never knew how she did it), he was on her back now.
Her world was going blurry. Outside now, running, a roar behind her. The boardwalk beneath her feet.
Just a little further. Suddenly the ground rushed up to meet her. She heard a groan, worried voices, and then all went black.