Witness

23| Trapped

"We're stuck in the supply closet," I explained to Jax, "The door won't open!"

"Fuck," Jax grunted into the phone. I could barely hear him over the sound of the alarm but I knew he was trying to find us.

"It's by the bathrooms at the end of the hall," I coughed.

"What do we do?!" Hannah said, backing away from the door as smoke seeped into the small room.

I searched around the room, flinging a box of masks at Hannah. "Open this! Put one on; it might help with the smoke. And stay low!"

"I followed your GPS," Jax said into the phone, "I should be close, just hold on; the fire is pretty bad over here; I think this is where it started but it's spreading fast."

"Please be careful!" I called. I knew he was trained for these sort of scary situations, but it sure didn't stop me from worrying about him. I had no idea how bad the fire was, but the smoke was getting thick in this closet.

Hannah handed me a mask and I was quick to secure it to my face. My eyes were beginning to burn as more and more smoke filled our space.

"I think I found it," Jax panted, "back away from the door."

"Hannah," I coughed, "move back!"

I hung up when I heard a loud thud sound against the door, followed by another, and another. Finally, the door gave way as Jax kicked it open.

"Are you girls okay?" He coughed, searching around the closet for anything useful. He had his t-shirt pulled up over his nose, but it didn't seem to be doing much for him.

"Yeah," Hannah choked out.

Wordlessly, I stood, securing a mask to Jax's face that was already smudged with soot. "Yeah, we're okay; just need to get out of here."

"Let's go," he nodded, "stay close to me and stay low."

The second we exited the closet, the most intense heat I ever felt seemed to engulf my body. The fire really did spread quickly, because the bar top was completely covered in red and orange flames. Fire licked up the wooden support beams that were placed sporadically throughout the old bar, and it was eerily loud— I never realized how loud fire could be.

As we made our way to the front, I was relieved to find that most people were out of the bar already or at least almost to the door. But, we were making slow progress looking for a way out, and we still had a ways to go.

It took everything in me to focus on stepping one foot in front of the other. I'd never been in a fire, and it was enough to make me feel paralyzed with fear if not for Jax's palm on my lower back, urging me forward.

The ground was unbelievably hot, and I was afraid that if I crawled, my bare knees and palms would get burned, so we stayed crouched and in a line as we made our way towards the front.

Hannah was moving quickly ahead of us, as there was a narrow area where the fire hadn't spread yet, leading us towards the exit. I was sure the adrenaline was the only thing keeping her upright after a night of heavy drinking. I'd imagine this had been a very sobering experience so far.

I was following close behind, when all of a sudden, Jax wrapped a thick arm around my waist, hauling me back against his chest.

I was confused for a nano-second. But then I realized that he had pulled me out of the path of a burning support beam that was plummeting to the ground. If Jax had reacted even a second later, it would have landed directly on top of me.

"Sky!" I heard Hannah screech from somewhere in front of me.

"I got her!" Jax called. "Keep going, Hannah!"