Fire!!

"Do you smell something burning?" I asked Jeanna. Jeanna turned her head with a raised eyebrow. "...No? What do you mean? Like a burnt toast smell?" Jeanna asked, as I slowed my pace. I sniffed harder, and turned my head down towards an alleyway. "No, like burning wood." I said, slowly walking down the musty alley.

Jeanna began to reluctantly follow, tapping my shoulder. "...Hey Brooke? What's up? You're acting weird. The train station's over uhh... That way." She said, pointing the other direction. I held a finger up to Jeanna's lips. "Shhh. What's that sound...?" I said, looking off in the distance around the corner of the alley. As my eyes met with an old, dilapidated house that looked to be from the 60's, I noticed smoke lightly pouring out of several boarded up crevices. The slight tickles of heat could be felt from at least 20 yards away, indicating the fire was well under way. "Fire..." I said breathily.

Then, I blinked rapidly before turning to Jeanna. "Holy shit. Fire! Fire! Oh god, go call the police!" I panickily ordered Jeanna, before cautiously walking towards the building. Jeanna fumbled for her phone, and stepped back a bit. "Brooke! Wait! Get away from there! The whole place is probably older than this city! It's a lost cause, and you could get hurt!" Jeanna said.

I ignored Jeanna's plea to retreat, and started circling the building from a safe enough distance that I felt I could leap out of the way if the building were to start collapsing. The smoke began to leak more and more out of the windows, and I watched as one of the boarded up windows exploded outwards, and a large plume of flame licked out at the open air. I huffed. For all I could tell, the building was abandoned. Not a single sign of life. I felt it safe to leave the building to burn, but something caught my eye. A clothes line with several hanging pairs of underwear, socks, shirts, and jeans. They looked fresh. Someone had been squatting inside.

"HELLOO!!??" I managed to yell, hoping that someone would answer. Luckily, she got her reply.

"Up here! I'm stuck in the bathroom! A voice called out from a small window on the second floor. I groaned, and clasped her hands together. Judging by the fact I could see orange lights dancing through the front door's window, the stairs and whole first floor were likely to be beyond helping. Whatever the case, I would have to get in the bathroom to help what sounded like some younger man. I started off by clawing for a drain gutter, and using the handhold to grab onto a slightly ajar piece of wood paneling. With that, I began climbing her way up the wall like a lizard, my body scraping against the aged, slightly warm wood. Finally, I was able to snake my way into the window, and saw a man my own age, his leg wrapped in a cast.

"I can't get my leg through the window..." The man ashamedly said, blushing a bit as he looked up at me. He was a bearded man with glasses, wearing jeans he'd cut off at the upper thigh on his left leg so as to allow the cast to sit uncovered, and a scruffy brown T-Shirt with a local sports team logo on it. I guessed he was a little embarrassed to be saved by a girl, so I rolled my eyes, and started forcing myself through the small open window. I started having small doubts about fitting when my butt refused to follow me through.

"Urgh... Don't sweat it man. I'll help you on through. First lemme uhh..." I said, awkwardly pushing with both my hands against the wall. My ass seemed firmly lodged at the waistline, with my belt specifically seeming to be hooked on something and holding me back. Worse yet, when I tried to push myself back through to try again, I couldn't reverse either.

I laid there for a couple seconds, and stared blankly. "Uh oh."