My Stupid Girl

by Smith, Aurora

  “I don’t know, Luce, we just need to get out.” I scanned around for our friends and saw Johnny alone with Isaiah, both looking terrified. I didn’t see Jennika anywhere, which made my stomach do a summersault of fear.

  The flames were getting big. They were climbing up the little part of the wall that was next to the PA system. It was hot, even though the flames were all the way across the room. I started making my way to the farthest corner from the flames, dragging Lucy with me. Everyone in the place was getting even more scared; you could feel the tension and fear in the air. We found ourselves being stepped on and half drug if we got caught under anyone’s feet. I pulled Lucy along beside me, kicking out at people who were coming near us.

  Fortunately, we found ourselves next to a long table of food that was still standing. It wasn’t a sturdy table and would probably collapse if the roof fell, but it was better than getting hit point-blank with something sharp. There were only a few people underneath it, which made it easy to climb under.

  “Where is everyone?” Lucy said, under her breath, looking around like I was, hoping to spot someone.

  “There's Isaiah and Johnny.” She pointed to the two boys about twenty feet from us, who were looking around, lost. She called out for them but her voice was swallowed by the uncontrollable crowd around her. My heart leapt when I saw Michelle and Jennika crawling together towards us; they had obviously seen us. They were getting stepped on and I could see Jennika getting more and more frustrated each time she got knocked to the ground by someone stupid. Her chin stuck out determinedly as she forced her way through the crowed. Her arm was thrown protectively around Michelle’s shoulders. They finally reached us, both looking madder than wet hens.

  “What idiots! They are going to get everyone killed!” Jennika exploded as she folded herself under the table. She kept sputtering as Lucy ensured all her limbs were protected by the flimsy table.

  “What are we going to do? Everyone is blocking the exit and that fire is getting bigger. I can’t find Johnny!” She was talking so fast it was hard to calm her down.

  “Johnny is over there, Jennika.” I spoke clearly and pointed to Johnny and Isaiah, who looked like they were getting farther away from us. Jennika’s shoulders slumped in relief when she saw them. Then her lip curled in frustration again.

  “What is he doing?”

  He was crawling with the rest of the panicked crowd, stepping on people.

  “He’s probably looking for you. He isn’t all that far away, I’ll get him.” I crawled out from under the table cautiously, but stopped when I saw that Lucy was crawling right next to me.

  “No way, Luce. You stay here with the girls.” I pushed her back under the table as I spoke, harder than I normally would have.

  “I’m going to help.” She spat, trying to crawl ahead of me. I pulled her arm back again, hard, so that she was facing me, and looked her straight in the eyes.

  “Lucy, no. You’re going to make it worse. Just stay here.” My hands clenched in annoyance.

  “I’m not useless, David. I can help people, too.” She looked just as mad as I felt.

  “Lucy, you can’t go out there with me! I’m going to be distracted from getting Johnny by making sure you stay safe. Please stay here!” I was getting really angry. It was difficult to keep my temper while I was afraid for her like this. Especially with giant wooden beams crashing and fire licking up walls.

  “I’m not allowed to do anything because you want to protect me? Oh, ok Edward!”

  “What?” I asked, totally lost.

  “Edward, Edward Cullen. Like, I’m Bella, and you’re Edward.” She looked like she was making perfect sense and I was a moron for not knowing what she was referring to.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Like Twilight.” Michelle spoke with her arms tight around her legs, rocking slightly.

  I shook my head and yelled at them both, so infuriated I couldn’t breathe.

  “Are you guys talking about that vampire book right now?” I spoke so harshly that Lucy flinched. I spun around without another look at her and went as quickly as I could over to the middle of the room, where my friends were. That stupid girl stayed by my side the whole time.

  Isaiah saw me first and started migrating towards me, trying to pull Johnny, who was still looking around desperately.

  “Jennika is over here you moron!” I roared at his general direction. Johnny looked like all he caught was the name of his girlfriend, but that was enough to get this head to snap around in the direction my thumb was pointing. Johnny started struggling toward the tables where he had finally spotted her.

  As he made his way toward us, another beam cracked and fell. This one already had a burst of flames burning from the end of it. It pounded its way through flames licking up from the floor, bringing even more destruction than the beams before it. The right side of the roof was starting to sag under the weight of the conflagration. Awesome.

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Evelyn and Rachel hunched together in a corner of decorations, trying to hide from the turmoil that was going on around us. The one exit was almost completely covered in flames. The people still trying to get out were hurdling over each other, making their way to the front then backing away when they felt the intense heat of the blaze in front of them. From inside this barn, we had no idea how big the flames were. It could be a simple jump out the door, but I doubted it. This was a big barn and that fire was getting closer and closer to us. Trying to make it through the blanket of flames was a bad idea that no one wanted to try.

  We had to do something, we couldn’t wait to either burn to death or get crushed. Lucy looked at me with the fierce determination I had seen in her eyes when she was in the frozen lake and I had told her I was going to let her go so I could get a better hold of her.

  “I’m sure the teachers who are not in the building have called the fire department; they will be here soon.” She sounded hopeful.

  She was probably right, but it wouldn’t be fast enough. The fire had started only a few minutes ago and already a third of it was burning. I scanned the whole side of the barn that wasn’t on fire yet. The windows were too high to get to and the walls were double boarded, so there was no chance of kicking them down.

  “Lucy, follow me.” I had to scream for her to hear me over the rising hysteria. We slithered, staying close to the ground, to the doors on the other side of the barn. They were blocked. This had to be some fire code violation that nobody thought would matter. I yelled at the people who were stuck to move the decorative boxes and hay nearby to look for an opening. Everyone started franticly looking around, pulling on the bottom boxes.

  “What are you doing?” I yelled at a chubby yellow haired girl. “If you pull on that box and it moves, the whole thing comes down.” She retracted her hands quickly and looked paralyzed with fear.

  “Girl, go wait under that table. We’ll help you get out if we can find a way.” I pointed to where Jennika, Johnny, Isaiah, and Michelle were crouched, staring at us through the growing smoke. The blond nodded obediently and, with great difficulty, made it to the table.

  “David!” I heard Lucy yell at me. She was around the corner of one of the big bales of hay. The second I scurried over I felt a cool rush of outside air. I put my hands up against the door and saw that it wasn’t sealed. It would be really easy to get open if we could move all these dang decorations. I waved my arms for Isaiah and Johnny to come to me. Isaiah instantly started crawling but I saw Johnny’s eyes get big as he turned toward Jennika, who was shaking his arm to make sure he saw me. He was saying something that looked like “I won’t leave you.”

  “Lucy, I want you to go back under the table,” I blurted out. There wasn’t much time left before the flames were on top of us.

  “I’m not leaving.” She jutted her bottom lip out, stubbornly.

  “You’re more help over there, keeping those morons calm, then you are helping us move these boxes. Just, please Lucy.�
� I pleaded with her. Lucy looked back over at the girls that were still crammed under the table, and the boys making their way over to us. She turned around to face me again, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and kissed my lips. She headed back to the table on her hands and knees.

  It wasn’t until then that I realized both of her legs were bleeding from being stepped on and dragged across the rough natural floor of the barn. She hadn’t mentioned her legs once, nor her totally ruined prom dress.

  I looked over where Evelyn and Rachel were still sitting in the corner, looking petrified. Too bad looks couldn’t get them out of this one. That fire wasn’t going to care about beautiful hair or stunning faces.

  Johnny and Isaiah had almost made it to me and Lucy was practically back to the table when we heard another clap. I looked up and saw that an entire beam was coming down in one piece, this time bringing with it a giant chunk of ceiling and the front wall of the barn. They ground to a halt before reaching the floor, making the space even smaller. It was collapsing in on itself without opening to the outside.

  The noise was colossal. Black smoke from the fire on the ground billowed into the air, making a mushroom cloud. The whole room went instantly black, smothered in smoke. Isaiah, Johnny and I all clung to the ground. I instantly regretted sending Lucy away from me.

  “Take off your jackets and put them over your mouths!” I bellowed into the darkness. I desperately turned around to the spot where I had felt the fresh air before the room filled with smoke.

  “We need to move these boxes now,” I said to whoever would listen, showing Isaiah and Johnny, who were right next to me, what my plan was.

  “The doors can open. If we can just get one corner out then we might be able to squeeze thru and open the door the whole way.”

  Isaiah instantly started to climb the boxes. We knew it was stupid to go higher, but we had no choice, we had to start from the top. Otherwise the whole pile was going to collapse on us. Isaiah was able to move the bales of hay easily, but had to come down after what seemed like only a few seconds, coughing violently because the thick smoke.

  I had no idea where people were anymore. My mind kept fixing on Lucy, stuck under a table with a bunch of frantic people somewhere off in the smoke. I had to force myself to stay here unblocking the door, our only exit. Everything in me wanted to run over and drag Lucy from under the table before a beam fell on it and crushed it.

  Johnny took a turn at the top of the hay stack, jacket tight on his face. He climbed up to the top, about six feet. His feet were almost level with my eyes and I could barely see him. I kept my hands up to guard my face in case anything fell on me. As a few more minutes-that-felt-like-seconds went by, things calmed down slightly. Nothing new fell from the ceiling.

  The air around me was thick but I could almost see through it. I looked over at the table and saw that it wasn’t crushed. However, it had moved from where it originally was. I couldn’t tell if they had moved it or the blast had, either way they were safer for the moment. Then I realized that every person under the table was lying on the ground, hands over their mouths. A rush of relief at this piece of good sense washed over me and acted as a stimulant to help me finish finding a way out of this.

  Johnny came down, coughing and red eyed. I started to climb to see if I could move any boxes when I felt something clinging to my side. Rachel and Evelyn, both white faced and gasping for air, were scrambling to climb the hay bales. They were almost delirious, maybe thinking escape was at the top of the pile. I put my arms protectively over both of them and sat them down against the wall, away from where boxes might fall. I gave them my jacket and held it up to their faces.

  “Keep this over your face.”

  “No! We’re helping!” Evelyn fiercely threw the jacket aside. Rachel scrambled for it and hunched herself back up, burying her face into it. Evelyn ignored her, standing up then climbing to the top of the boxes. With surprising strength, she slid the box a little. She shifted around to get a better stance and continued to disassemble the pile at top speed. I didn’t have time to argue; I was desperate to get Lucy out of the burning inferno. I climbed up next to Evelyn and helped her slide the next box into Johnny and Isaiah’s waiting arms.

  “This is going to work!” Evelyn and I both grabbed the next box and moved it together. We had three boxes moved when we heard fire trucks blaring in the distance.

  “Oh thank God,” Evelyn said, quietly. If I had time to think I would have been impressed. She wasn’t trying to sound haughty or religious, she was just saying something she meant. Right around the same time the smoke became too much for the two of us (I was gagging because I was coughing so much), so we switched with Johnny and Isaiah. A few other people noticed what we were doing. They came over to help grab the boxes when they were pushed over to us.

  Finally, we were able to climb over the last few boxes and push on the door. It opened easily.

  A rush of cold, fresh air hit my face. I realized how strong the smoke was and could feel an ache deep in my chest.

  “David! David!” I heard Evelyn’s voice ring with panic. She was shaking my arm. I turned around and saw a wall of people stampeding towards the fire-free exit. I jumped to the side and pushed her through the hole so she wouldn’t be crushed. Like an armadillo, I curled up into a ball to protect myself.

  People were actually stepping on me. They were literally climbing over me to make sure they were okay. That was the reason we hadn’t gotten out sooner. Everyone was so worried about themselves that they had all run around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to save their own skin.

  I felt fingernails dig into my upper arms then a large male foot stepped directly onto the side of my face. I felt skin peel away from my cheekbone.

  “Oh my gosh.” I heard Lucy whimper, I snapped my head up and saw her nearby me, through a sea of legs. My body flooded with a crazy mix of relief that she was close and incredible fear that she was anywhere near the madhouse that the back door of the barn had become in a few short seconds. She was most definitely not in armadillo pose, and she was going to get wrecked.

  “Lucy what are you doing here?” I tried to crawl fully into the barn to get her, but that made it worse. Fighting against the oncoming crowd made the blows feel stronger and more devastating.

  Finally I made it to her. I tucked Lucy underneath me. It was a good thing that she was so little. The overhead attacks subsided after a few minutes. I chanced a peek and saw that the only people left in the building were those who were helping others up, and guiding the injured around fallen beams.

  “Come on.” I pulled Lucy up and I felt instantly that my body was hurt. The muscles in my calves had been torn into by women’s shoes and my back felt like it had been punched numerous times. My face felt hard where it had been stepped on; I knew there had to be dried blood on it.

  Lucy and I made it through the door and looked around automatically to see where everyone was. There were a few fire trucks and dozens of ambulances. It looked like a battle scene from a movie. There were people lying down on cots, having to share oxygen masks because there weren’t enough to go around. Jennika and Johnny were both sitting on the ground, gasping for air. Johnny was completely wrapped around Jennika, her head in his chest. I saw tears running down his face.

  I felt the same way. I couldn’t believe that we were out of there. I had been fully prepared to die. My only reason for even trying was to make a way for Lucy to get out.

  Lucy looked torn up. Her legs were swollen. The lace that had so elegantly circled around her neck a few hours ago was torn almost completely off. It made me angry to know that some person who wasn’t thinking clearly had done that to her. They could have seriously hurt her.

  I took a deep breath to calm down from the rage that rushed me. The sudden movement of my lungs made me wince in pain. I grabbed my chest and dropped to my knees.

  “Help!” Lucy cried. I felt the ground rumble around me. Paramedics got hold of me and made me stra
ighten my upper body, even though they didn’t make me stand. I was kneeling on the ground, coughing so hard I felt like my lungs were going to explode out of my chest.

  “You need to keep your lungs open.” I heard a woman’s voice say. “Put your arms over your head.” She spoke calmly, which helped me listen. It was such a welcome change from the panic of the last hour. I tried to straighten my body and then buckled in pain. I couldn’t help it; it was a reaction my body was doing involuntarily. My chest felt tight, like it weighed a hundred pounds. My throat burned like someone was pouring black smoke down it and trapping it there.

  A paramedic put a hard plastic thing over my nose and mouth, felt a rush of clean air, and I felt instant relief. I could breathe better, but the pain was just as intense. Lucy looked like she wasn’t having any problems breathing. I guess I hadn’t realized just how much time I’d spent up on the boxes where the air was thicker.

  After a few minutes with the mask on I realized that I couldn’t see Isaiah or Evelyn. I had noticed Rachel instantly; she was sitting in the back of an ambulance, her arm in a sling. Someone must have knocked her over while trying to escape. Michelle was with Johnny and Jennika, I even saw the chubby girl I had reprimanded for trying to pull the bottom box out.

  “Do you see Isaiah, or Evelyn? They were right next to us,” I asked Lucy, feeling dread rising.

  “I can’t find them, I’ve been looking too.” Lucy’s eyes reflected my worried tone. There was nothing I could do. I couldn’t go back into the barn to look for him. Besides, Isaiah was a smart guy. He would know to come out; he wouldn’t go back for anyone, I didn’t think. The night air was cold, even with the blazing fire in front of us. I wished I still had my jacket. Lucy was shivering even though she didn’t seem to realize it. I looked over at her, I mean really looked, I looked at her face, her body, her everything and let it sink in that she was really safe, that we were safe and by some miracle had gotten out of there alive.

  Firemen were still spilling out of the doors, people in their arms, some gasping for air, others looking like they were passed out. My heart sank when I saw a long figure I recognized in the arms of a large paramedic. Isaiah was limp, the whole right side of his body bleeding and black. Behind him was a fireman holding Evelyn who was jabbering franticly and pointing to Isaiah. Her leg was bleeding, and looked like it was pointing in an odd angle. She was too worried about whatever was going on with Isaiah to notice, though. Must have been jacked up on adrenaline.