Broken Hill Hurt (Broken Hill High 3)

Nate grabs a plank of wood and hurries down to me before telling me to step back. He slams it against the window but all it does it rebound back. “Fuck,” he yells as I start to smell the smoke rising in the shed.

I turn around to the glowing window, only it’s not glowing now, it’s completely lit up. Flames lick the bottom of the shed and are quickly spreading up the walls and across the floor. “No, no, no, no,” I begin chanting as fear completely rocks through me.

I scramble around, trying to find either mine or Nate’s phone as he continues trying to break the window. The adrenaline is pumping through me and I can hardly hear a thing over the sound of my blood pulsing through my ears.

I find Nate’s phone on the floor beside the bench and quickly bring up Jesse’s number. It rings twice and I beg him to hurry and answer. “What the fuck was that, man?” Jesse demands as he answers the phone.

I don’t have time for this bullshit.

“We’re in the boat shed,” I rush out. “It’s on fire. We need help.”

“Fuck,” he curses. “I’m coming.”

I practically throw the phone down as I run to the door and desperately continue trying to get out. The heat begins rising in the shed and the smoke grows thicker. My eyes panickily look back at the big cans of gas. We’re fucked if the flames reach that.

“Tora. Here,” Nate yells. I spin around to find him slamming the plank of wood into the corner of the window, desperately trying to loosen the frame from the building. “It’s loosening,” he tells me.

I hurry over to him as the flames continue climbing up the wall and eat through all the available oxygen in the air. “Jesse’s coming,” I tell him as the smoke starts to make me feel lightheaded.

He doesn’t answer, just keeps trying to save our lives. My body begins to sweat with the increasing heat as smoke fills my lungs.

I hear what must be Jesse and the boys on the other side of the door as they try to pry it open from the other side. “Nate? Tora?” Jesse yells through the thick wood.

I hurry over to the door and call back. “Go to the window. Nate’s nearly got it.”

He doesn’t respond but a second later, I see him and the boys on the other side. A few other people come and try to put out the flames with water from the lake but the fire is already too big. They’re going to need a lot more than just a few buckets of water.

Nate continues slamming the wood into the edge of the window as the smoke gets thicker and thicker. I start coughing and Nate yells at me to mask my face with my shirt.

I grow weaker and so does he, but he’s not giving up.

The fire billows around me and the noise of the flames is incredible.

Tears streak down my face as my throat begins closing up. We’re running out of time. If we stay in here any longer, we’ll either be burned alive or die of smoke inhalation. Either way, we die in here tonight.

Unable to take deep breaths, I fall into the wall before crumbling to the ground. Nate’s movements grow slow and weak and not a moment later, he’s falling down beside me, clutching my hand in his. “They’ll get us out,” he promises through a course throat. “We’ll be ok.”

I clutch his hand with both of mine. “I don’t want to die,” I cough as tears stream from my eyes.

“They’ll get us,” he repeats, trying to soothe me but the fear in his eyes does the exact opposite.

I know they’ll get us out, but the question is… will it be too late?

My throat hurts and I focus on the feel of Nate’s hand in mine and the sound of the boys on the outside, not the heat or the way the flames take over the whole wall, not the way they quickly creep towards the cans of gas, and not the way the thick billowing smoke stings my eyes and has my chest rising and falling with quick shallow breaths.

My eyes close as it becomes too much for my body to bare. “No, babe. Open your eyes,” Nate says, but not a moment later, I pass out, wondering if I’ll ever see him again.

Chapter 10

I’ve been stuck in this stupid hospital room for two days. It’s awful but necessary, considering I nearly died in that fire right alongside Nate.

Apparently, they got us out not long after we passed out. They dragged me through the broken window while Jesse went back for Nate. Puck performed CPR on me and Jesse did the same for Nate while they waited for the emergency services to show up and take over.