Jake Timpey huddled himself under one of the tables that lined the corridor, thick black smoke blinding the exits, heat burning his every breath and invading his very being. The pipes were ringing with pressure, walls blistering in the heat and over it all the wailing serein of a fire alarm, calling out into the empty night.
Funny how this afternoon he had planned to spend the evening in. Just the same bland evening where he would sit back a watch whatever rubbish the media cared to push out, distracting the nation from the coming conflict. Sitcoms that weren't that funny, romantic flicks that had no reflection on true relationships or an action film with impossible stunts. All finished with smiles and happy endings. All to serve as a reminder that life was good and that one shouldn't complain. But never the news, never anything real. Funny how his quite evening had turned into him being at work, while the building burnt down around him.
He almost found himself laughing at the ridiculousness of his situation. It was his own unfunny comedy.
The blaze was consuming the walls around him, though had not yet made it into the corridor he had hid in. The rising heat making his skin itch. He had tried to open the door at the end of the corridor, but the security circuits had probably been fried in the blaze, and the door remained locked. He had tried to hack it open, but even then it remained as good as the walls around him. He tried to turn back, leave via the door he had come in, but the room was now an inferno. He had scrambled into one of the side rooms hoping that there might be a window, but it was of course it was one of the internal rooms where the only light was artificial. He had banged at the doors, shouted for help, but who was going to be on the Fort Devens base at 2am?
And so Jake found himself curling up under one of the tables, resigned to his fate. Head tucked into this knees and in the safety of solitude, he allowed himself to cry. An odd sensation fell over him as he realised that despite being trapped in a burning building, he was now almost completely free.
He was going to die, but that was OK. After all he had started the fire in the first place, he supposed that this was fitting punishment. And even if he got out, then what? He would be held trial for his actions, court-martialled, jailed or more. Even if none of that came to pass, his life was nothing to go back to. A shitty flat, no girl, no money, no life. At least Derric and his gang would be paid off, its what the two men in dark coats had told him. They promised if he did this one thing, he would be free of the debt, and then maybe, just maybe he could start over again. But then that was all a dream that would never come to pass, and so this was his alternative.
Stupid he thought, life is never that easy.
The dark smoke filtered into the corridor and caused his eyes to sting and darkening any light. His breathing began to rasp but he welcomed the black to fill his lungs, his thoughts beging to slip.
"I'm sorry mom, dad, Lucy. I'm sorry I wasn't good enough. I'm sorry I couldn't fix any of this." He croaked, tears wetting his knees.
He felt his body lean more heavily into the table, trying to force himself to relax and allow memories of a more pleasant time to overtake him. The sounds of the crackling fire dissolved into the crackling of popcorn and cotton candy, children were screaming in joy as the rollercoaster flew then through the carnival sky. His throat was sore for all the sugar he had eaten and his eye stung for the bright lights of the Ferris wheel.
Jake smiled, allowing himself to fall into the memory, thinking that maybe if he thought about it hard enough it might become real. I deserve this he thought, I deserve peace The sound of fire engines too far away in the distance.