It was fifteen minutes until the end of my shift. All I had left to do for the day was to feed the salamanders and to lock up for the night. As I was making my way to the other side of the building for feed, I heard the T.V. in the breakroom talking about all the cases of arson that have been happening around town. Nothing major like this has happened in our quiet mountain town since I moved here, and people have been talking non stop about all the fires.

   Walking back past the break room now with a bottle of feed tablets in hand, I smelled something awful in there. The old man in charge of the place must have burnt his dinner in the microwave staying late to do paperwork again, it reeked of smoke in there. I was walking through the snake and other reptile enclosures making my way to the salamander section, I remembered all of the times I spent in nature with my grandfather before he passed away and all of the times I found different animals in the woods. Along with the fun I had studying in college about different animals and how they live, including my final project about endangered species which let me get this job in the first place.

  After feeding the animals I packed back up the food and was heading to the breakroom to turn off the T.V. and the lights, when I thought that the smell from earlier was a lot stronger and I saw a glow and smoke coming from under the door. The building was on fire. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and called nine one one as fast as I could, I told them the reptile house was on fire and I was going to start getting the animals out.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

   I started pulling out the bags and containers to transport the animals, it took two trips to get all the snakes out, I saw the fire was getting larger luckily the fire was on the storage side of the building and not the animal side of the building, it looked like it was reaching the admin office and I was running out of time luckily there were only a few lizards and then the salamanders left.

   After bringing out the lizards the first firemen and police arrived, they told me that the fire was out of control and I wasn't allowed to reenter the building I pushed past him, two of the salamanders were the last breeding pair in captivity if I didn’t save them then that could be the end of a species all I could feel was the adrenaline in my veins and the smoke in my lungs.

   The fire was a large blaze now, all the documents in the storage area must've really helped the fire build. The smoke was filling my lungs and the heat of the flames which finally reached the animal enclosure hit against my skin, the salamanders live in water and are on the opposite end of the room of the fires I scooped them up into a container and put it in my jacket I ran to the other side of the room but the flames were blocking the doorway, the only way out, I hesitated for just a second before I pushed past the flames and ran to the exit. I just made it to the parking lot when I collapsed, the last thing I saw before blacking out was the first responders running towards me.