The Shepherd (The Game 6)

“That’s a good boy. You just come with me, yeah? Hold on to my belt and—here.” I yanked his tee over his head. “Press this to your mouth and nose. We’ll climb down the fire escape as soon as I’ve checked the other rooms.”

“Second floor clear!” Reese shouted. “Greer!”

“Halfway done!” I yelled back. Then I cursed as the sprinklers activated. It meant only one thing: the smoke was rising quickly. “Get River and Shay out—Corey and I will take the fire escape up here!”

“Roger! The smoke is too thick down here now!”

I could tell. It was rising alarmingly fast.

Corey and I made quick work of the remaining rooms, but everyone was out already. In the distance, I heard sirens coming closer—

“Fire’s spread to the tower, Greer!” I heard River yell hoarsely from somewhere. “Front exit is clear, the back of the downstairs area can’t be accessed anymore!”

Motherfucker!

I growled through a cough and slammed my hand against the nearest wall. Sweat and water ran down my neck, my eyes welled up from the smoke that irritated them, and we were out of time. If the fire had spread throughout the back of the downstairs area, I couldn’t count on either of the emergency exits. I wasn’t gonna climb down a ladder just to have flames burst through a window, all while I had a terrified boy with me.

Shit, this was gonna hurt.

Ignoring the terror in Corey’s teary eyes, I turned around and commanded him to jump onto my back. “Right now, Corey,” I said impatiently. “You’re going to hold your breath and close your eyes, do you understand?”

“Okay,” he cried. He climbed me like a tree and wrapped his arms and legs around me. “Do we have to go downstairs? I don’t want to go downstairs. I’m so scared.”

“We will be out in less than thirty seconds, I promise.” I shifted his arms to my sternum, preferring not to have him choking me out. “You’ve got this, sweetheart. You ready?”

“I’m ready,” he croaked. “I’ll take a big breath now.”

“Good.” I did the same, though not that big. I didn’t wanna inhale unnecessarily. Then I gripped one of the bars along the stairs and jogged down as quickly as I could without risking falling over—or slipping because we were fucking drenched already. I counted fifteen steps with my eyes closed before I squinted at the floor to know when I reached the last one. The faint neon-green lines along the edges helped a shitload.

A low, rushing sound invaded my ears as I darted for the last set of stairs, and I realized it was a combination of my pulse spiking and the sound of roaring flames. The heat rose so fast that the breath my body forced upon me got stuck and burned my throat.

I smashed my lips together to prevent a coughing attack, and I pushed myself past the limit. Corey started coughing as we reached the lobby, and then River was there to pull us out the front door.

“Last one?” he demanded.

“Last one,” I coughed. And coughed. And then I couldn’t really stop. I jogged down the porch steps, coughing my lungs out, until we were a solid forty or fifty feet away from the house, away from the beaten path where the fire engine came to a stop.

“Greer!” I heard Archie cry out.

Thank fuck, he was okay.

I could barely breathe. I collapsed on the grass with Corey, and the two of us coughed till tears were streaming down our faces.

“It hurts,” he choked out.

We needed water.

“Did you hold your breath all the way down?” I rasped.

He nodded and wiped his cheeks. I noticed they were streaked with soot from the smoke. “Just the last bit—I couldn’t.”

Same as with me, then. It was a relief. My lungs didn’t hurt; my throat was just irritated.

“Oh, Greer.” Archie was panting by the time he reached us, and it felt so good to see him. He looked okay, aside from distress and worry. Sloan wasn’t far behind, and they didn’t come empty-handed. “We have first aid and water and blankets. Did you get burned? Did you inhale smoke? There’s an ambulance on the way too.”

I waved a hand, not dismissive, but I couldn’t answer everything at once. “Water, please. Are you all right?”

Archie fell to his knees and dug through the first aid kit. “Yes, Ivy and I jumped out the kitchen window. We figured there’d be too many people trying to get out the door.”

Smart thinking.

As soon as we got our hands on water, Corey and I were chugging to soothe the soreness in our throats. We had both Sloan and Archie fretting, draping blankets around us, but all I could see were the flames pushing through the windows of the first floor. People were yelling, sirens were flashing, orders were shouted…

Everyone was huddled in small groups, at a safe distance, probably suffering the same shock.