The alarms were almost deafening. They not only rang from ever corner of the hospital but echoed through every hallway. Further amplifying their sound. The lights began to flash and both the main power line and emergency power flickered on and off. Christin and I raced down the hallway to get to the stairs. Just as we turned the corner we were met with a inferno of hell fire that was eating its way through the rooms one by one. The smoke and concentration of chemicals in the air were also starting to make my eyes sweat. Thankfully the oxygen masks were helping our breathing.
Christin and I began frantically looking for a way down. The smoke and fire began to rise more and more. Second by second our space to move was beginning to shrink. Whats worse is that we were slowly being pushed to the closet with all the oxygen tanks. Christin was looking through the rooms while I searched crawl spaces. I noticed that the vents would've allowed us to escape but the oxygen tanks wouldn't have fit. Figures. To think the hospital is the one place that you visit to save your life or the life of someone else. My thoughts raced to a halt as Christin yelled to me.
"Will!!" yelled Christin from one of the patient rooms.
A piece of cloth was thrown to me. Possibly from one of the beds. "What the hell do you want me to do with this?!" I yelled back. Christin emerged from the room with the cloth wrapped up like a sling. She has tied the cloth around her body in way that supports the oxygen tank on her back. I suddenly realized that whatever she had in mind required us to be mobile as possible. She helped wrapped the cloth around me and string up the oxygen tank on my back. It was pretty heavy for my slender body but the adrenaline that was pulsing through me was enough to block out the extra weight. The fire roared and purged closer and closer to us. Christin took me by the cloth and pulled me over to the last room which hadn't been set on fire. The Closet full of oxygen tanks.
"You're fucking kidding me, right?!" I screamed to her.
"There's a window in there, we'll have to follow the ledge to another section of the floor until we find a staircase!"
"You're demanding me to get on the ledge of the third floor of this hospital!! What is that a 50 foot drop!!"
"Do you see any other way out?!!" yelled Christin.
As I looked back I saw that we had only the help desk and a couple of tiles before we were engulfed by the flames. Christin opened the closet door and pulled me in. The door slammed closed. Inside the closet we struggled to move the tanks out of the way. The warm glow of the flames could be seen shining on the reflective tile floor under the door. The glow creeped closer and closer. Christin unlatched the window and proceeded to push it open.
"Christin!! You got it?"
"Fucking window won't budge!!" answered Christin. The window had a jagged edge and was stuck to the overall frame. I rushed over to her and tried helping. The smoke began seeping through the bottom of the door. My chest was began ringing with pain. I was execrating to much force on my lungs. I backed off from the window and looked around. A thought occurred to me. Why don't we just break the window? Christin whimpered trying to get the glass pane up. It would be only moments before the room would ignite.
"Christin!! Move!!"
My sister looked back to me. A small, slender kid holding a very heavy oxygen tank. She moved. I gave it a running start before I threw the tank. The tank shattered through the glass leaving a big enough gap for us to climb through. My sister helped me through first. My skin developed goosebumps as I entered the cold air of the night. The weather wasn't too bad considering the fact that I was a mere foot away from falling to my death. Christin backed out of the window and onto the ledge. Both of us breathed heavily as we shimmed away from the window and to a different section of the hospital.
BOOM!!!!
The entire closet room, corner of the third floor, exploded into a fiery of shrapnel and mortar. The force of the blast blew out the windows near us and made hearing almost impossible. Christin was pushed so hard that she lost her footing. Leaving her draggling from the stone ledge on the side of the building. My eyes and senses focused in on her as I recovered from the noise of the explosion. "WILL!!!" she screamed. I looked down to my feet. Slowly I put one foot in front of the other and approached slowly. My heart was racing and the pain of my chest had returned. The more I breathed the harder it was on my lung. I was only a couple of feet away but for some reason it felt like 100 feet away. Christin was losing her grip as the weight of the oxygen tank weighed her down. Just as she lost her grip and began to fall I caught her arm. I leaned back against the wall but had little footing to work with. The fact I didn't go down with her is nothing short of a miracle. After pulling her up and safety into my grasp we began moving towards another window. From the way it looked the entire fourth floor was engulfed in fire with the third beginning to dwindle. Leaving our odds of getting down pretty low. After moving past five windows we finally saw a entrance that we could work with. Christin broke the glass and both of us jumped back into the building. We found ourselves inside a patient room. A couple of lifeless bodies laid dormant on the ground. One nurse and one doctor. We moved through the room and back into the hallway.
The hallway was starting to rise with some smoke meaning that it wouldn't be too long before we found ourselves in another bad position. We started to look around for a staircase. Luckily there was one just around the corner from the operating rooms that we were near. Upon opening the doors and going down a flight of stairs we felt a rumble shake the building. At first we assumed that it was another explosion. It was far worse than we thought…
The building was starting to lose its foundation. The amount of flooring being destroyed on the fourth and third level had been putting excess weight on the floors below. The crackling of the walls and the screeching of metal beams were heard throughout the rooms of the hospital. Christin and I ran for the door as quickly as possible. We slammed open the entrance doors and found ourselves in that cool Burlington weather. Christin and I made it to the parking lot before we stopped. I sat down and caught my breath while Christin looked back to the hospital. A towering inferno lit up the night. It was almost unbelievable to think we made it out of there alive.
We didn't share any words for a couple of minutes. Our view on the hospital was brief before the structure came crumbing down in a storm of dust and smoke. The parking lot was full of car alarms going off and on. Thankfully we were clear of the demolish zone. Christin finally eased down and sat right next to me.
"Do you think anyone might've been in there? When it came down?" I inquired to Christin.
"I hope not," replied Christin. I reached for the note I found in Crenshaw's office and put it in Christin's lap.
"What's this?"
"Not entirely sure, but it has coordinates. Maybe Crenshaw does know what's going on." I responded. Christin looked at the note.
Perhaps destiny is Devine and truthful
47.7511° N, 120.7401° W
"Do you think he meant for us to find this?" Asked Christin. I nodded. "I don't even know where that is. But why the hell would he have a secret compartment in his desk hiding this letter?" I asked.
Christin looked over the note again. "The only way anything is going to make sense is if we find Crenshaw," replied Christin.
