The sky lay over the city like a dirty, gray blanket, suffocating and omnipresent. I choked on the smoke that roiled out of the buildings around me. The fire snarled and charred brick buildings started to crumble, sending clouds of sparks swirling into the ashen sky. The heat that escaped from the buildings was unbearable, it washed over me in waves, stealing the breath from lungs. It pushed me down into the ground, where it was only slightly cooler and the smoke floated above me; daring me to rise again into its poisonous, roiling depths.

Sirens wailed and people screamed in the distance. On my hands and knees I stared at another, who was also struggling to crawl free of the fiery buildings. Small, fragile, and helpless, it was a kitten. I drug myself toward the sooty, little thing as I watched its legs give out near the curb, in a pile of damp leaves. At least it was smart. Painstakingly, I avoided smoldering pieces of wood that were falling off the houses around us.

I sheilded the kitten bodily from the smoke and heat. It mewed piteously, and attempted to push its way under the damp leaves, where it stayed. My head spun as the grayness closed in on top of me.