Second floor.
Maya's classroom was the fourth door on the right. I knew it by heart.
Empty.
But not untouched.
Papers were scattered on her desk. A red pen lying across a half-graded essay. Her bag was on the floor by her chair.
She'd been here.
Recently.
My chest tightened. I forced myself to keep moving.
The smoke was lighter up here, but still thick enough to sting my eyes through the mask. I pushed forward, checking rooms, calling her name.
And then I heard something.
Voices. Faint. Down the hall.
I ran.
I rounded the corner and stopped.
Maya was on the floor in the middle of the hallway. Next to her sat a young man. He was thin, shaking, and crying. Nineteen, at most. His face was streaked with tears and grime.
Tommy Vickers.
A gasoline can lay on its side a few feet away. A lighter beside it, abandoned. The floor glistened with fuel that hadn’t been lit.
Maya was holding Tommy's hand, helping him to his feet. She looked up when she heard my footsteps, and relief flooded her face.
"Shane."
"We need to go. Now." I moved toward them, already mapping the fastest way out. "The first floor's almost gone. We have minutes."
Maya nodded. She squeezed Tommy's hand. "Tommy. This is Shane. He's going to help us get out of here. Okay?"
Tommy looked up at me. His eyes were red and swollen, his face a mess of tears and snot and ash. He looked at me like he expected to be tackled. Arrested. Hurt.
Like this was how it ended.
I dropped to one knee. Made myself small.
Non-threatening.
"I'm not here to hurt you," I said. "I'm here to get you both out. Can you walk?"
Tommy stared at me for a long moment. Then nodded. Barely.
"Good." I stood and offered him my hand. "Then let's go."
We moved together. I'm on one side of Tommy, Maya on the other. His legs were shaky, barely holding him up, but he was moving.
The smoke was getting thicker. The fire was climbing faster now, eating through the first floor, reaching for us.
I led them toward the secondary stairwell. It was still clear when I'd come up, but that had been minutes ago. Minutes were a lifetime in a fire.
