Claremont Academy Session 9 – “A Head for Heights”

Based on the Hawthorne Heights scenario by Kevin Weiser

The school holidays had finally arrived, announced by the hordes of schoolchildren at Claremont departing. With less than twenty pupils and a skeleton staff left in residence, the place was uncannily quiet and peaceful. Too peaceful, if Chris was being honest, so it was hardly a surprise then that he’d dragged Gus’ out that Friday night to the Youth Club at St. Mary Mede so he could play Pool while Gus continued reading his latest book.

As they got off the bus, they could see that the dark, evening sky was lit up, ablaze literally. The nearby Council estate on the edge of the town was built round three tower blocks, one of which was well and truly on fire. Pool was momentarily forgotten as the two boys were drawn like moths to the flames. As they got closer, they could see that the Police had cordoned off the area round the tower block named Hawthorne Heights and were helping the Firefighters to get the remaining residents to the fleet of nearby ambulances for medical attention. Most seemed physically all right, though they were probably suffering from shock, thought Gus.

There were two fire engines currently in attendance, though they couldn’t help noticing that neither had a hydraulic platform.  They noticed that the other two high-rises were also being evacuated just in case. This estate had obviously been built in the early 1960s, and the three blocks of flats had been constructed extremely close together. So much so, that a fire in one potentially risked all three.

It appeared that the fire had initially started about two thirds of the way up the fifteen floors of the tower going by the smoke billowing out of broken windows, though the main fire had for some reason jumped to floors thirteen and fourteen, which were now well and truly on blaze.

They pushed through the gathering crowd to the cordon tape, As they did so, they accidentally overheard the Chief Fire Officer explaining to a local Police Inspector that there was not a lot more they could do. Additional support and appliances were already on their way from Wessex, but they had nothing that could reach the upper floors of the building and she could not risk any more of her officers trying to gain entry to the top floors, as she’d already had some of them injured while clearing the tenth floor. She went on to explain that she was focusing her attention on stopping the fire spreading to either of the neighbouring high-rises close by.

Behind them, several of the people being evacuated from the high-rise opposite were shouting to the officers that they thought they had seen movement in the upper floors of Hawthorne as they’d been leaving their own flats and that they were sure that there were still people trapped up there. “Why aren’t you doing something? There are people still up there. We saw them as we were leaving.”

One of the officers was trying to explain to them something about an explosion two thirds of the way up the stairwell preventing them from getting any higher, tears of frustration in his eyes as he did so.

Gus and Chris looked around, then wandered towards the fleet of parked ambulances. Three Fire Officers were sitting on stretchers beside several of the rescued residents, receiving treatment for smoke installation and burns. “If only there were some Metas who could help?” they overheard one of them say.

Chris smiled and turned to Gus, “What do you think Gus, do we know any Metas?” Gus nodded, “Should I make a few calls?” Chris slapped him on the shoulder, “I was talking about us. I think we have to handle this ourselves. It would take too long for the school to get others here, and most of the adults are gone for the holidays anyway.” Gus smiled and admitted, “I was actually talking about us.”

They considered trying to find somewhere to change into their costumes but realised that neither the Police nor Fire Service would give permission for youths to enter a building on fire even if they were in costume, so they would need to sneak in.

Still in their street clothes, they activated their anonymity collars, changing their facial appearance while they decided how best to proceed.

The nearest fire engine had its back storage area open and inside it, they could see a pile of fire-retardant jackets, helmets and a couple of the new Short Duration Breathing Apparatus with full facemasks as well as a number of fire blankets. On top of this pile of equipment sat a weird looking silver key with a diamond-shaped tip. The key looked important and necessary to activate something, they just didn’t know what. Only one Fire Officer was standing beside this treasure trove.

They considered just making a dash for the entrance, but as Chris pointed out to Gus, “You can be pretty persuasive; perhaps we can just walk in if we both looked the part?”

Gus, head down to disguise his now blazing eyes, ducked under the cordon tape and quietly walked over to the Firefighter, tapping him on the shoulder. As he turned to look, Ashen used his voice of allure on him. “I’ve never really seen a fire engine before or any of your equipment. Would it be okay to try some on?” The compulsion washed over the man and he stepped aside as Ashen grabbed a jacket, helmet and the key (just in case). “Yay I look like a fireman now” he joked as Chris, with Firewall’s appearance, saw his opportunity and stealthily ran over to grab a way-too-big jacket for himself as well as two of the breathing apparatus masks. Quickly checking, he saw that their integral tanks were fully charged with the maximum duration of 15 minutes of oxygen.

Putting the jackets and facemasks on and with Ashen using the helmet to hide his icy blue and white hair, they ran across towards the tower block entrance.

They passed several residents from the bottom couple of floors of the building being escorted over to the ambulances. From what they overheard as they passed them, it appeared as though there had been some sort of gas explosion on floor nine which had burnt both up and down a floor, but for the most part that fire had been extinguished, though it could always re-ignite at any time.

Why a second fire had subsequently ignited on floors thirteen and fourteen, no one appeared to know, but that fire was still burning uncontrollably and the Fire Officers apparently couldn’t reach the floors above the tenth.

Firewall deliberated zapping himself up the tower’s electrics once he reached the locked down lift doors and noticed that there was an electrical socket next to them for the cleaners to use. Ashen would just have to run up the stairwell, but then they realised that the key they’d taken must activate the lift override, though there had to be a reason the Fire Service always locked down the lifts in the event of a fire. Did they really want to chance it?

Firewall made the decision for them. He grabbed the key, activated the override, and the lift came to life. He handed the key back to Ashen when they stepped inside. As the doors closed, they heard someone outside shout, “Don’t use the lift, you might…” the rest was lost as the elevator activated, shuddered and the lift ‘muzak’ began to play then the lift rose slowly, ever so slowly up the lift shaft. The last floor listed on the panel was fourteen, not fifteen, but regardless they decided to start at the top of the building and work their way down.

After what seemed like a lifetime, the lift creaked to a stop. The doors opened and thick, black acidic smoke immediately began to fill the lift as they stepped out and allowed the lift doors to close behind them. They were thankful for their facemasks, as the toxic fumes would have overwhelmed them in minutes. However, their vision was reduced to a few inches in front of their face. They had to feel their way out and across to the wall. There was an unfamiliar taint to the smoke that somehow infiltrated their mask seals; an intense smell like burning tyres or someone’s old mouldy curtains.

There appeared to be four separate flats on this floor. To the rear of the elevator was the stairwell landing. Ashen considered trying to work his way round to this and head up to the top floor, but wondered if they should try to remove the smoke somehow, though there wasn’t any obvious ventilation or extraction in these old buildings. Time was not their friend. They each headed to opposite sides of the building and crawled their way until they found the flat’s doors.

Firewall pulled out his automatic lock-pick kit in readiness and stumbled around trying to find the lock, then realised that the handle was really hot. Realising the risk of opening such a door, he tried to listen for any cries emanating from inside. There were nothing, but the weird smell was definitely from this flat, and the smoke coming from around the door was heavy and acrid. He contacted Ashen over his new commlink to let him know what he’d found, as he realised that this door had multiple locks.

Over the comms, he heard Ashen mutter, “Do you want a bet? That your flat is a drug den that’s caught on fire?” Firewall replied, “Can’t be. I’d be feeling high.” “Well, you are on the fourteenth floor” was the sarcastic response.

Meanwhile, Ashen explained that he planned to kick in the door on his side and was warned by Firewall that he needed to check the door handle first to see if the other side was on fire. “It will be okay,” Ashen replied, I’ve got a flame retardant jacket on.”  Chris warned him that wouldn’t be that much protection against a full-on backdraught of flames if he exposed a burning room to a sudden blast of oxygen.

Across the smoke-filled corridor, Ashen kicked at his chosen door and although the door held, it did partially shatter the frame. He kicked a second time and this time the door came off its hinges and flew into the room. There was a lot of smoke inside, but thankfully only several small fires spread around the flat. He went in shouting, but couldn’t see or hear anyone inside. Meanwhile, Firewall drifted across and joined him in the flat as they both looked around the rooms together.

Ashen briefly wondered if Firewall could somehow mentally send a text message to everyone in the building warning them, but such a task was beyond even Firewall’s abilities and they were forced to continue the search by shouting and pushing forward as more and more of the thick, black smoke billowed into the apartment from the now shattered door.

After another few seconds of searching the bedroom and bathroom, they elected to move on. They tried to hear if there was any noise coming from the flat next door. Nothing, but despite the smoke, they thought they could hear a muffled cry from the landing outside. It seemed to come from some distance away and sounded like a baby crying, though of course it could also be a distressed cat. It was hard to be sure and the sound was extremely faint.

They stepped back into the billowing foul darkness that was the smoke-filled landing, tried to orientate themselves and confirm which direction the sound was coming from. Again, they heard the crying apparently coming from the other side of the building, but were aware that the smoke might be distorting its source. This was taking too long, Firewall thought as he took a deep breath and turned insubstantial. In his electrical form, the smoke sparkled as it interfaced with his immaterial energy form. He forced himself to phase through the walls into the flat he’d tried to enter earlier.

The first thing he noticed was that despite the black smoke that filled the room, there were plants everywhere, all of which were on fire. All the internal walls had been removed as far as he could tell. A number of thick electrical cables apparently coming through the potholed floor from the floor below were fixed to the outer walls powering the dozens of lighting units covering the ceiling, all of which were either sparking or on fire, as were the remnants of the walls and ceiling. Black plastic sheeting must have once covered the windows, but most had been burnt away and the windows blown out when the overloaded electrics had burst into flames.

He moved closer to the door he’d tried unlocking earlier, a dozen security bolts and bars lay unfastened but there were multiple locks fitted to a strengthened door and frame. He’d obviously discovered an illegal cannabis farm!

Thankfully, there was no one he could find still in the room, and the crying sound wasn’t coming from in there. Desperate for air whilst he was insubstantial (equipment didn’t work while he was insubstantial) he phased back out and returned to his normal state with a frantic gasp of oxygen from the now functioning mask.

Ashen was gone, having elected to stumble to the stairs and head down to the floor below, leaving Firewall to finish checking the rest of this landing. On the stairwell, he found that the smoke thinned, but his opening of the doors had dramatically added to what had been present before. He bounded down the stairs to the next floor.

Several floors below, a couple of Firefighters had obviously elected to defy orders and were shouting up for any survivors to try to make their way to them. Ashen estimated that they had to be on either the ninth or the tenth floor.

Ashen shouted down in his best imitation of a gruff, adult voice to the Firefighters lower down, “Hi, I’m trying to look for survivors up here. I haven’t found anyone yet, but are there any more details about the fire? What’s the current status?”

A voice shouted up, “How did you manage to get up there? This gap in the stairs is massive. That’s why we had to stop our search, our crew couldn’t get past it safely.  The explosion took out a large section of the steps.”

Ashen replied, “We took another way round. “ The officer again shouted up, “Look, you need to get yourself out; the gas explosion on this floor could re-ignite at any minute. Who knows how much damage it could do this time and you could be trapped up there. Look, get yourself down to this floor. You can jump across and we’ll catch you!”

“Do you know if there is anyone else trapped up here?” He replied, “I’ll be honest, we don’t. All we know is that there were reports that there were at least two or three adults seen at windows from the flats opposite but that was some time ago.  Get down here; there isn’t anything more you can do without endangering yourself. Look, get here and we’ll get you out safely. “

Ashen smiled to himself, “We’re just going to carry on checking, but we’ll be down very soon. If you need to get out, don’t worry about us, okay?”

They continued their concerned pleas, but he hadn’t any more time to waste so immediately ran into the smoke-filled hallway of floor thirteen, checking the handle first before entering. Thankfully, it didn’t feel hot but the smoke made it difficult to see and the ceiling was on flames, potentially risking the floor collapsing under Firewall’s feet.

Meanwhile, Firewall had again tried to feel his way along the wall towards the two unchecked flats, navigating by touch as he made his way across the stair entrance and discovering that there was a foam extinguisher fastened beside it. He rattled it and it appeared full.

He again turned insubstantial, flowed through the first door he came to, and listened intensely. He immediately realised that this flat was thankfully empty but he could hear the sound of voices, faint though they appeared to be coming from across the hallway and the crying was definitely coming from the same flat. Time was running out as he again phased back out, turned substantial and stumbled as best he could across to the opposite side of the hall, grabbing the fire extinguisher as he did so before using the canister as a hammer on the door lock.

He rushed in and immediately saw that the ceiling and floor was on fire. The centre of the room had collapsed in leaving a massive ten-foot hole in the floor surrounded by a wall of flames.  Below, he could hear the sound of several scared voices. He could also hear the crying of what he now was sure was a baby coming from the other side of the flat, beyond the collapsed floor and wall of fire.

The baby appeared to be in the far bedroom, next to the engulfed cannabis farm next door. Its crying was stifled and intermittent. He would need to try to jump over the collapsed floor and surrounding flames if he wanted to try to rescue the infant.

Firewall took a running jump, flew over the flames and the collapsed floor. As he did so, he saw beneath him three figures lying in a heap on the floor below, as though they had fallen through. He made out a woman in her early twenties next to an older, middle-aged man and an elderly man whose right leg was at an abnormal angle. He could help notice that he was wearing two pairs of specs, creating self-made bifocals on the bridge of his nose. Firewall was reasonably sure the old man’s leg had to be broken. The other two, while covered in plaster and blood from numerous cuts and bruises, otherwise appeared unhurt, though the wall of fire surrounding them trapped them.

Firewall quickly passed on the information to Ashen. Going by the shouts of “”Ayuda a salvar a nuestro bebé por favor!” from the woman and “Salvanos, por favor salvanos” from the injured man as he cried out in pain, they didn’t appear to speak English.

Firewall shouted down, “Estas hablando español?” and their Spanish origins were confirmed with shouts of “Si, Si” and again “bebé, bebé!” from the woman who he assumed was the mother.

Firewall immediately headed to the bedroom door. Black smoke was billowing out from under the door itself, but the handle wasn’t hot. He opened the door and rushed in. Thankfully, the smoke was still primarily at floor level being heavier than air, but the sheer amount pouring in through the gaps in the walls and the floor itself suggested it would be mere minutes before the whole room filled up with smoke. He rushed over to the small, now silent figure on the bed. The baby couldn’t be more than a month old. For a second or two he thought he must be too late but was rewarded with a twitch as the semi-comatose child tried to breathe and instead gagged. He pulled off his mask and placed it over the infant’s head, as he pulled out his own rebreather and placed it over his own mouth. He was immediately rewarded with the clawing, gagging stench of the burning cables and cannabis plants next door.

He fought the urge to vomit, taking the baby carefully in his arms and making sure that the mask remained firmly covering the baby’s head and upper torso, he headed back into the living area.

Through the collapsed fiery floor, he saw the door below smash in and fall to the ground. Ashen had responded to his earlier message, however, his action had resulted in a backdraught of flames that threatened to engulf him as he was forced to dive to one side just in time and then throw himself into the room as the flames spread to the door frame itself. Much of the floor was now on fire.

Ashen estimated he had at best a minute to clear this room before the whole flat went up. Above him in the fiery hole in the ceiling, he could see Chris holding the baby. He shouted up, “Firewall, you worry about the baby, I’ll deal with these down here.” For a second he tried to remember some Spanish, any Spanish other than ‘Si, Señores’ and gave up. He took in the three of them, especially the old man lying with his leg at an unnatural angle, and heard their cries of “Ayúdanos, salva al bebé!”

He knew he couldn’t carry all three, and he really needed to warn his friend that the ceiling beneath him was on fire. Firewall needed to get out fast before he joined them on the floor below. No time.

Up above, he heard Firewall shout, “I’m getting the baby out as fast as I can. If you need it, there’s a fire extinguisher up here. I’ll leave it beside the hole, okay?” He then zapped himself and his little burden into the electrical wiring and reappeared a microsecond later on the ground floor in front of an extremely startled Fire Officer. He immediately handed over the baby with a shout of “take this, it has respiratory problems due to the toxic smoke” as he pulled his rebreather off his face, snatched the gas mask back and instantly zapped himself back up to floor thirteen, instantly reappearing by the elevator shaft. As he travelled up the cable he felt something, a feeling that he couldn’t fully explain that there was something, someone on floor twelve still alive. He couldn’t explain how he knew, but he felt convinced that he was right.

As this was occurring, Ashen grabbed the broken down door and, turning it over to extinguish the blaze, threw it across the floor so that it landed on the wall of flames, temporarily smothering them. Knowing it wouldn’t take long for the door to become fuel, he used his makeshift bridge to run across the floor, throw the old man over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift as the middle-aged man practically threw the younger woman towards him, still screaming for her ‘bebé’.

He wasn’t sure he had the dexterity to carry the middle-aged man as well as the other two, and who knew how long they had before this fiery floor also collapsed? He grabbed and lifted the young woman into his arms and with the old man over his shoulder rushed over his self-made and unfortunately flammable ‘bridge’ and out of the apartment followed by the middle-aged man (the husband?) who limped across behind them.

Behind him, he heard through the smoke Firewall shouting something about having to come back and check that Ashen had put his breathing apparatus on and had his Fire Officer’s hat on the right way round? Hoping his friend would be okay, Ashen pushed his way through the blinding smoke and the flame-covered ceiling towards the landing doors, hoping that opening them with his coughing rescuees wouldn’t make matters worse.

As they emerged out on to the stairwell landing in an eruption of black, acrid smoke, he realised his best option was to get them to the Fire Officers on the stairs below. In a chaotic chorus of “gracias” and introductions (The pensioner over his shoulder was apparently Rolando, the young woman Lupe and the man limping behind was apparently Jesús) they headed down the stairs.

Focussing on where he put his feet, he shouted down, “You still there, I’ve got some people needing your help?” To his surprise, the voices replied, “You got the granny?” Granny?  The Fire Officer continued, “Apparently there’s an old lady trapped on one of the floors just above us. She was seen from one of the flats opposite.” He responded, “There’s always a granny, I’ll go back and check.” Behind him, he could hear Chris stumbling his way onto the landing.

He needed to get his rescuees to safety first. There was no way the man on his shoulder could make his way down the stairs on his own, never mind jump the apparent gap in the steps. He had to help them, even if that meant revealing that he wasn’t a Firefighter.

Gus carried his two passengers as fast as he could to the landing on floor ten. Midway down to the next floor, a number of stairs were missing, apparently blown out when the floor exploded. It had taken out part of the wall and about ten feet of stairs, leaving the twisted, warped remains of the handrail hanging from the remaining steps below and an open gash in the wall from which flames and smoke still billowed out. On the top step stood two Firefighters holding on to the remains of the distorted railing. Time to reveal what he was, if not who.

He elected to fly them across one at a time, slower but safer. To the Firefighter’s surprise, the undersized person opposite in the oversized jacket and helmet put the woman down on the steps above, then rose off the stairs and floated across the gap with the old man still on his shoulder. They helped to get him down off his shoulder then he drifted back across and, taking the young woman in his arms again, floated her across as well.

To Ashen’s surprise, a very nervous Jesús walked to the last step and jumped. He almost made it, but fell short, though he successfully managed to grab the twisted remnant of a handrail and thankfully didn’t crash onto the landing 20 feet below. Ashen flew down and, lifting him up, handed him over to the remaining Fire Officers, who nodded in respect and began to help the three of them to safety.

Irreverently he couldn’t help smiling at the thought that Jesus hadn’t saved him, for once he was the one saving Jesus… Then corrected himself, in Spanish it was pronounced ‘Hesús’ did that still count?

Above, having heard the talk emanating from the Fire Officers, Firewall had immediately elected to head into floor twelve in search of the ‘granny’ or whatever it was that he’d experienced, following his intuition. He checked the door for heat and finding nothing entered.  The smoke inside wasn’t as thick as the floor above and although there were several fires occurring they were sporadic, though the fire above was now spreading to this floors’ ceiling.

He found an extinguisher on the wall but to his disgust, it felt too light. Someone had discharged it and then left the empty cylinder hanging on the wall, its seal lay on the floor beneath it. He grabbed it anyway; it might come in useful to smash in a door.

The first two flats he checked, the apartment doors had been left open and no one seemed to be present. However, through the grey smoke, emanating from the South East end of this floor he could faintly hear a sound through the walls of an elderly voice shouting something like, “come out, come out”?

He elected to turn insubstantial and head through the flat wall towards the voice. Firewall emerged in an en-suite bathroom. Standing hissing and with an arched back on the edge of the bath was an angry, white and brown elderly tabby. It let out a loud angry meow. That was all he needed, a cat lady. He heard her shout out “Gismo, Mr Belvedere!” as he looked at the angry animal opposite. Turning substantial, he Tasered the beast with a low strength blast then gathered the floppy but still live carcass and opened the bathroom door, heading towards the voice.

Inside the lounge area, stood an elderly lady in a bright green woolly cardigan. He held up the cat and said, “I’ve found your cat, love. We need to leave.” She grabbed the cat and, realising it was merely ‘asleep’, screeched “wonderful, can you help me find the other three?”

Chris shook his head and for a second was tempted to just Taser the old lady, but instead accepted the inevitable and tried to find the missing cats, knowing that was the only way he’d persuade her to leave. A quick search of the apartment revealed two more cats, one under the dining table and one in the kitchen. He grabbed the panicky creatures, who immediately tried to climb onto his shoulders and under his jacket. He let them, then explained to the elderly lady, “I need to get you out now, but I’ll come back for the other one.” She folded her arms round her ‘sleeping’ cat and stubbornly said, “no, I’m not leaving without Twix…” Who names a cat after a chocolate bar? Chris thought. He again took off his gas mask and again took out and put on his rebreather. Thankfully, the smoke didn’t stink as badly as it had above. He quickly searched the apartment and found an unconscious tortoiseshell kitten under the bed. He handed it over to the woman, who to his annoyance took off the breathing mask and placed it over the kitten.

Priorities woman, he thought as each carrying a couple of cats, his both still squirming under his jacket, headed out on to the landing to see the ceiling on blaze from the floor above. The fire was spreading faster than he’d hoped.

He was glad to hear her confirm that she was sure that her neighbour’s apartments were empty as she’d been the only one to refuse to leave but she did wonder about the really nice, young couple on the floor below, though she whispered, she wasn’t sure they were a couple yet but they should be.

Chris dragged her and the cats down towards Gus a couple of floors below as he realised that a couple of Firefighters were heading back up towards the collapsed stairs, having been alerted by the officers escorting the three people down. Good, that saved them having to head all the way down with the cat lady.

“Help!” Firewall shouted as he tried to help his human rescue down the stairs. Ashen looked up and joked, “I didn’t know there was a cat impound in the building?” as Chris asked him to fly the old lady across the divide, “I think these cats have used up eight of their nine lives already.”

The smoke and flames coming from the gap in the wall was getting worse and the officers again was pleading with them all to leave as they couldn’t risk coming back after this as the next explosion was likely to endanger everyone. Ignoring their pleas, Ashen reached out, took the old woman in his arms and flew the very nervous and scared woman and her two unconscious cats across and into the Firefighters arms.

As he did so Firewall explained that he’d found her on floor twelve and he believed that floor was now clear. He continued, “she thinks there is still a young couple on floor eleven.” She immediately corrected him, “I think they’re a couple but I don’t really know, I’m not nosey and don’t pry into my neighbours lives” and ended it with a frosty “young man. Now please give me Mr Belvedere and Esmeralda.” He assumed she meant the two cats squirming out from his jacket. She refused the request from the Firefighters to move away from the edge and head to safety until she had all four of her cats. Chris smiled, when she realised what he intended to do next that frosty response would become sub-zero.

He pulled the cats out of his jacket and flung them across to the remaining stairs where they sailed through the air limbs outspread, landed safely on their feet and immediately skittered down the stairs at speed with loud, scared meows. As he did so, he muttered, “here’s your bloody cats, follow them.”

She was very indignant and her reply was definitely not old lady-like, but she did immediately turn and begin to head down after her fleeing moggies, supported by a smirking firefighter who was trying to prevent her from falling in her haste.

As the Firefighters left, they again requested, “You need to get out fast, it’s only a matter of time before the whole building goes up. You’ve both done a brilliant job, but you need to get out before you become casualties.” Ashen and Firewall looked at each other. “One more floor and we’ll do that. You’d do the same if you could.”

The Firefighter nodded in acknowledgement and rushed after his companion struggling to control the old woman who was determined to try to ‘run’ down the stairs with her unconscious cats after the other two who were sensibly and speedily fleeing, Firewall’s facemask still on one of the unconscious cats in her arms.

Firewall turned and immediately headed up to the next floor, two steps at a time. Ashen however wanted to explore the site of the initial explosion on floor nine in case the cause of the fire was meta-related. He flew down to the landing below and saw marked on the wall in a thick, black marker pen, the word ‘clear’.

Water dripped from under the door and the whole area beyond was filled with thick, grey, smothering smoke.  As far as he could tell, the flames were out but of course, that could be because it had been starved of oxygen.  The stairwell door was not sealed or locked, but the handle and door were red-hot.

Above, on floor eleven, the smoke was thinner than it had been on the levels above, though Firewall wished he’d retained his gas mask as the smoke irritated his eyes. He checked the handle and it wasn’t hot, so he risked opening the door and heading into the corridor. These flats were smaller and laid out differently from the floors above. As far as he could tell, the fire hadn’t reached this floor yet. Again, the extinguisher on this floor was empty, possibly set off by kids as it was still hanging on the wall.

He heard the sound of crying coming from the north-west apartment, so headed in after turning insubstantial, but the living area was empty, though the sound of sobbing made it clear that someone was in the bedroom. He flowed through the door and saw hiding behind the bed a young woman, 18 or 19 at most, crying and afraid.  She seemed to be considering smashing the sealed window possibly to get attention or at least some fresh air.  Seeing him by the door, she replied apologetically, “I saw the explosion below, so I came up her to hide until you could put the fire out. Is everybody else out? Is Alex out?” He couldn’t help feel that she needed someone to explain that hiding upstairs wasn’t the best way to survive a fire below, but if she’d witnessed the explosion, it was perhaps understandable that she had not acted rationally.

“Alex?” she repeated, “He lives in the flat opposite, I’m pretty sure he didn’t leave with the others.”

Chris nodded, “Shall we go and check?” he resubstantialised himself, helped her stand as he guided her out of the bedroom and across the corridor to the flat opposite.

Ashen meanwhile had gone back to the site of the stairwell explosion. Smoke was billowing out as he headed inside and discovered he was in the elevator shaft, which was filling up with smoke. He also saw the lift cables were starting to fray, that the mutilated metal floor doors for that level were red-hot and the smoke was billowing in round the warped edges. He felt sure that it would only require a window to blow out on that floor for the fire on the other side of the shaft to re-ignite.

He immediately headed up the shaft to the eleventh floor, but before he could open the doors, he heard Chris over the commlink, advising him to stay there until he’d found everyone. If he pulled open the door now, there would a massive outpouring of the smoke gathered in the chamber, increasing the fumes.  Suddenly surrounded by smoke emanating from the floors below, Ashen felt like a vaper being told he wasn’t allowed to exhale in a car. Once Firewall reached the elevator with any survivors, he could then open up and use the override key on the panel to summon the lift down to that floor.

Chris reminded them that no one else, including himself now had facemasks so the less time they had to deal with excessive smoke the better. Muttering, he continued, “I gave my mask to the old lady, who then used it on one of her bloody cats!” He was obviously quite angry about that outcome. “Let that be a lesson to me.” Gus’ couldn’t help giggling.

Firewall meanwhile was shuffling across the corridor with the girl. The apartment door opposite was locked, but thankfully the handle was cool to his touch. However, thick smoke was curling out from beneath the door. He would need more than his rebreather if he was to enter that much dense smoke, but how? Then he remembered the Training Wheels Protocol he’d uncovered after the theatre kidnapping attempt. Their training suits were designed to be remotely activated allowing teachers to find his location, check his health and he’d subsequently discovered had at least one more function. A life support system built into the suit and collar as an emergency backup, activated remotely and not intended for self-deployment, unless you’d previously hacked the program as he routinely did. He removed the rebreather, concentrated as he mentally bypassed the safety protocol and activated the hood, which emerged from the collar and self-sealed round his head as a blast of oxygen gave him a buzz and a migraine at the same time. He only had five minutes of oxygen use available. The girl beside him stepped back in surprise as the transparent hood appeared mysteriously and sealed with a hiss. He handed the rebreather to the girl, Joanna, and proceeded to kick the door in.

The door flew open and he immediately saw an unconscious male body on the floor of his kitchen. They rushed over and grabbing an arm each and pulled him out onto the landing. That’s when he realised Joanna wasn’t used to using a rebreather and was coughing violently as she breathed in some toxic smoke through her nose. Then he realised there was blood trickling down the side of her mouth.

Together they dragged Alex to the lift doors as Chris signalled to Gus’ to open up. Above them, he could hear crashing as floors collapsed in. The fire had obviously expanding and had engulfed the floor above.

Gus pulled the doors open, stepped out surrounded in a thick cloud of black smoke, and used the override key to summon the lift from the floors above. He wasn’t sure they hadn’t left this just a little too late.

Half a minute later, as they twiddled their thumbs, the doors opened signalling that the lift had arrived. They all entered the lift car and Chris pressed the button to go down to the ground floor. The car dropped slowly and extremely jerkily accompanied by the sound of grinding as the music died.

By floor five, it became obvious the cable was fraying and might sever before they reached the ground floor. Ashen flew up to the roof and braced himself against the roof as he tried to slow the drop using his strength and flight. The roof buckled but held. He struggled and forced himself to pour all of his energy into slowing the drop and taking the strain off the cable. He got the distinct impression he might not be able to keep this up all the way down, as he was already feeling exhausted.

Firewall realised the risk and hit the second floor button, the elevator car came to a grinding and shuddering halt as the doors opened. With Ashen bracing the roof, Chris grabbed the unconscious Alex and physically threw him out the door onto the landing, just as the car slipped down a further couple of feet below the floor level. He then helped Joanna climb out, succeeding by seconds as the cable snapped completely, causing the elevator car to drop suddenly with both of them still inside. Ashen again braced himself against the buckled roof, trying to slow down the full weight of the lift as it fell another 25 feet. He did wonder if it could fall further. Was there anything below the ground level, he wondered? Ashen strained against the tonne and a half weight of the elevator, more load than he’d ever attempted lifting before, as he poured all of his effort into slowing the lift down. He was convinced he was going to die, but he wasn’t going to abandon his friend, no matter what.

The car crashed into the maintenance chamber below the ground level, a good metre below ground level, with a violent crash. Ashen bounced from the roof into the floor as Firewall literally bounced off the walls, but they’d succeeded. They were alive – bruised, battered and extremely shaken but they’d both survived as the lift doors in a final act of defiance opened slightly showing the lift stuck halfway out of the ground. The remaining cable crashed on top of the car roof and snaked down the rear of the chamber.

The battered and now exhausted Ashen, with help from Firewall, forced the doors open and they both climbed out. Damn, the building was deserted; they would need to climb back up a couple of flights to get Alex and Joanna. Slowly, wearily, they almost crawled up the stairs just in time to see Joanna dragging Alex out onto the stairwell and down the stairs. Firewall smiled, “You really should drag him by the shoulders and not the ankles. That way his head doesn’t hit every step.” He reached over to support the sobbing, near hysterical girl, while Ashen summoned up the last of his strength and tried to carry the unconscious man safely down the steps.

As they exited the building, they could see that the fire on floor nine had re-erupted in flames and the upper three floors were fully and destructively ablaze. It was obvious the top floors would have to be left to burn itself out. If there was anybody still in there, there was no chance that they could survive this.

Then they heard clapping as first the Fire Officers, then some of the gathered Police and finally the gathered crowd joined in. They smiled, then saw an angry Chief Fire Officer approaching them amid the horde of medics, who took Alex and a hysterical but extremely grateful Joanna off to be checked out and receive treatment.

“That was damn foolish and idiotic.  Thank you. You’ve saved several lives today. You’re still bloody idiots though, I mean, using a lift in a building that was on fire? IDIOTS!!” She tapped them on the shoulder and demanded they be checked out by the medics, ignoring Ashen’s offer of taking a hosepipe back up.  Despite their attempts, they weren’t allowed to retain any of the Firefighter equipment that had appropriated.

When everyone’s back were turned, they slipped away, deactivated their anonymity collars and vanished back into the crowd hoping the school will never find out what they had been up to.  Chris joked as they vanished into the crowd, “Well, we can now re-quote that American politician, what was his name? Bill Clinton?  We have now experienced smoking marijuana, but didn’t inhale…”  Gus rewarded him with a half-hearted slap to the back of his head as they elected to forget the game of Pool and head back to school for an early night.