While Clare and I had only just begun to talk in the seclusion of my old man's pickup truck, we had completely tuned out the blasting music that was slightly concealing the screaming and yelling in the background.
We both jump out and start running to where the bonfire is, only to be greeted by chaos. I see Derek and his other friends trying to throw dirt and other stuff onto the fire, confused why they are doing that, and yell out to them.
“Derek! Why don't you use the fire extinguishers?!”
“THEY DON'T FUCKING WORK!” ‘...fuck he means they don't work?’
“Why not!?”
“BECAUSE THEY EXPIRED!”
‘The hell? They can expire?’
He then quickly explains that as Clare and I were walking back to the truck someone dumped a small pile of old textbooks from school they collected into the fire as some dumb “right of passage” for graduating or something.
It was the SAME dumbass who brought the fire extinguishers that they had found in some barn of one of the local farms but didn't know why they were there, so he just took them for later. Apparently, they were all…expired.
“Shit bro, we need to call 911.”
“I know! But if we get caught here, we’ll go to jail! Plus, we don't get signal like that out here. We only get it a mile or so closer to town!”
“Don’t tell me you didn’t get permission to be here from the Pattersons….ah fuck man, you’re an idiot!” I yell at him.
At this point, everyone is trying to grab anything and everything to throw onto the fire; beer, water bottles, dirt. Nothing is working.
‘They must’ve thrown some gas or diesel in it also. This just ain’t possible.’
“I don't care about jail, I'll take the blame Derek, We can't let this get out of control. We gotta jump in the truck and go make the call!” I say fearfully. “We also need to get out of here because these fields could catch fire from all these embers.”
“Damnit, alright.”
We turn around to head back to the truck where Derek’s backpack and phone are, leaving the others to slow down the fire.
But before we even make it halfway back, we soon realize a hundred feet or so away from us, outside of the small clearing where the current fire is, we catch a glimpse of a glow out in the dense brush of the windbreak.
Time seems to freeze. As fear grips me, I turn to look at Derek,. He’s turned sheet white. Everyone here in this town knows what it means to have a fire out in these fields.
Panic begins to fill my heart as I think to myself. ‘This is all happening too fast! It's only been a few minutes!’
My limbs begin to shake, sweat instantly slicks my back. “SHIT! We gotta go NOW!” I yell at the top of my lungs.
A typical size bonfire is not much to worry about, but the dense school book papers act like flying matches everywhere. Even a relatively green field would have little chance of NOT catching fire.
Everyone runs to their vehicles, trying to get out. However, the once easy to pass dirt road is now filled with shallow muddy potholes from all the vehicles coming in for the party, and several of the smaller cars have already gotten stuck blocking people in.
Derek and I run to help some guys trying to push some of the stuck cars out of the way with one of the larger 4x4 trucks by ramming into them, but nothing seems to be working; others have tried to cut through the fields running over the crop, but the soft loamy ground makes any except the largest lifted 4x4s quickly sink.
Minutes that seemed like hours go by while the area is getting brighter and brighter. More fires have started around us, and people are crying and screaming. A distinct chemical smell in the smoky air lets me know that the farmers have recently sprayed and the fire is burning it. It is becoming harder to breathe with each breath.
I grab at Derek’s shirt and run past a shiny new sports car, also stuck in a small muddy rut just spinning its wheels. As I get closer, through the smoke, I see that it's Clare's car.
Fearing for Clare and Derek's safety, I yell. “Hey! we need to run RIGHT NOW! We aren't going to make it!”
A few other people hear me while I open Clare’s car door, trying to pull her out quickly while she is completely freaking out. Grabbing her arm and looking at Derek, we run.
Others start abandoning their cars. Soon, everyone else starts leaving theirs as well in a small stampede into the fields like scattering rats. About a hundred or so people came to this Bonfire night that was supposed to be filled with happy memories but was now filled with terror.
“Run towards that fence and hop over!” I yell.
“ALEX!” Derek yells at me, as he points behind us.
I turn around, and my eyes constrict to see Clare on the ground opposite the fence, clutching her phone and holding her knees.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
I turn to Derek, who is staring at us wide-eyed, and motion to him to keep going, “Just go get help will be right behind you man.”
I turn back, forcefully grab her arm and drag her over the short split rail fence. Not caring about anything else, I begin to run while pulling her through the still-smoldering remains of corn stalks, smoke burning my eyes and lungs.
Clare begins to resist and wrests her arm from my grip and yells, “Just leave me here!”
“Fuck no I’m not leaving you here, let's go!” I look back, shocked she would even suggest such a thing. ‘Why is she looking around so much? Let's go!!”
“I can't get burned, I have a..a condition..I...I'll die!” ‘What is she talking about?! We don't have time to deal with this.’
Once again grabbing her hand tight and practically dragging her to follow me, we take a few steps…
*WHACK!* “Augmph”
Something had hit me in the back like a bull. Winded from the impact, I crumble to the ground wheezing, gasping for air with tears streaming down my face. My vision spins.
Struggling to breathe air into my already smoke-irritated lungs, I try and stand, but stumble a bit as I try and orient myself. I moan, “Ugh, damn, what the fucking hell.”
Shocked and panicked by what just happened, I looked around and could tell she had run off somewhere. ‘I don't know what she hit me with or what this is about, but I can only try to get to a road for now. Please be safe, Clare.’
I look around me and see the fence we had just jumped over. I turn around and run, still reeling from getting winded so blindsidedly. After a few minutes of cutting through the field, I can hear sirens and a gaggle of voices in the distance.
Running out of the field and onto a gravel road, I see several crews of firetrucks and ambulances, with many of the other kids from the bonfire still crying and what appears to be a gathering of parents. ‘Shit…ma’s gonna kill me.’
“ALEX!”
Spinning around, I see Derek standing there. Part of his face has been blistered and clothes a bit singed, but otherwise alive and well.
“Fuck man I thought you died. What took y’all so long? Where’s Clare?” Derek says with concern in his voice.
“Clare…” I turn to look around us, hoping to see a yellow dress with a mop of silver hair but I see nothing. I stare out into the inferno we had just run through, blood draining from my face. Without skipping a beat, I run back in, desperate to find her.
I hear Derek yelling at me to return, but I can't. I can't abandon her like that. “Clare, where are you?”
Running frantically, I see some lightly burning brush with what seems to be clear green stalks on the other side, so I try to run through.
“AAHHAGH!” The embers and ash fall onto me as I shield my face with my arms, burning parts of my clothes and hair. ‘Please, I don’t want me and her to die out here.’
I start to feel pain shoot up my body. I briefly look down to see my exposed arms and legs through my burnt pants and shirt from running through the fire.
Blisters..everywhere.
The burnt flesh smell quickly invades my nose. Combined with the searing pain and smoke, I feel the need to throw up, but I resist and keep running.
At some point, I calm down enough, or at least get too tired from the prolonged state of my body, and suddenly start to become more aware of my surroundings.
“CLARE!!!”
The deafening noise of sirens, screaming, yelling, and hollering, the searing heat, and a steady choking haze everywhere… adrenaline and fatigue is taking a toll on me.
Quickly losing sight of what direction I was running and any idea where Clare could have gone, I start to panic more than I already was.
Fighting back the pain in my lungs and throat, I stand still and yell. “Clare!...” “Hey!!......”
“........”
“....”
”ANYBODY?!”
‘Shit, it's getting tough to breathe. I need to go back somehow.’
Running in the moonlight surrounded by spots of smoldering burnt stalks, I find myself running into an opening in a field of some sort. I'm spent. The chemical-laced smoke is getting to me.
My eyes are watering. Things are getting blurry, I feel a massive headache come over me which pounds to the sound of my racing heart.
I rip my shirt off, fighting the pain in my blistered arms, and try to make a bandana to cover my face, having no idea if it will have any effect.
I look around this random clearing I’ve found myself in. The corn stalks are smashed into a circle of sorts. ‘Is this what those guys were doing for a prank to be on the news? A damn crop circle?’
Just those few precious seconds I spent trying to figure out what this clearing was or if someone was in it was enough for me to start feeling light-headed and stumble.
I really hope I can see my folks again. I start to cry a bit. Both from panic and the pain. The tears instantly dry from the heat of the air.
“I hope everybody is safe” I start wheezing and fall to my hands and knees “I don't think I'm going to make it guys. I'm sorry.”
I collapse onto the still green corn stalks, thankful they are at least a little cool from the scorching air around me. ‘Odd, what is this smell?.. Is this…Kerosene?...why….’
I start fading out from the exhaustion and smoke, slowly succumbing to my inevitable death. I always thought I’d leave this place and make something of my life, but I guess the universe is funny that way. Now it’s where I’ll die.
My eyes tear up again, but they stream down my face. My breath turns shallow as I imagine what my life might have been like had I not stupidly run back into this damn place...How fucking stupid am I? I wasted all these years and will have died searching for this girl, and I don’t even know if she cared for me the same way I cared for her.
Suddenly some fluttery lights start beaming me in the face that I can see through my blistered eyelids and a hissing sound. ‘!?!?!?!’ I gather my strength to open my eyes and peek.
‘A flashlight? Thank God the firefighters found me.’
Whispering, “Help…”
*CRUNCH*
“........”
“......”
“.....”
“....”
“...”
*step*...*Step*...*STEP*
“.....”
“What the FUCK…is this nasty ass….0.0…aaah shit.”
“Commander Leon Sir! “
“Yes Soldier A!”
“I crushed that one annoying specimen with the damn grav elevator.”
And that’s the story of how I died.