Sharon's alarm clock rang at 5 AM. It was the second time she has gotten up tonight to take the dog out for a walk. She barely got any sleep and felt a headache forming in the back of her head. After slipped her coat over her pajamas and pushing her feet into her uggs, she grabbed Malin's leash and gently patted the dog on the head. Malin lifted her head and looked at her with sleepy eyes.
"Don't look at me this way," Sharon sighed, "I'm also tired, but you need to be housetrained." She attached the leash to Malin's collar.
The pavements were wet with the night's heavy rain and the street was empty. There was barely any traffic and even the sun didn't fully rise yet and gave a pale glow. Even though she was exhausted, she was able to find comfort in the empty street and the walk with Malin soothed her. At these odd hours, she had some quiet time to rearrange her thoughts. For a complete neat freak, she had quite a mess inside her head.
Rusty knocked on Sharon's door for a few times before he decided to open it and enter her room. Sharon's head was buried under the pillow and he gently put his hand on her shoulder.
"Sharon, you have to take me to school." he said in frustration. It was getting late.
"What time is it?" Sharon's sleepy voice was muffled by the pillow.
"It's almost 8," Rusty replied. Sharon moaned and pulled her head from under the pillow and jumped in panic when she saw a tiny, fury little monster curled against the curve of her waist.
"What is she doing here?" she mumbled. Rusty tried to hold himself from laughing, but the ends of his lips still curved upwards against his will.
"She's a puppy, Sharon. She thinks you're her mother." he said. "How many times did you take her out during the night?"
"Twice," Sharon yawned and gently lifted Malin in her arms. "And it seems she will be coming with us. I don't trust her with my shoes." She slipped her feet into the uggs, which she had kicked off her legs when she came back with Malin from the walk earlier.
"Come on, let's go." she said.
Sharon was happy to take a long, relaxing shower at the end of the day. She put her head under the stream of water and closed her eyes, enjoying the water flowing down her shoulders and back, calming her nerves. For her, the simple pleasures mattered and she certainly considered her evening shower as such. Suddenly, she heard loud thuds against the door. It was disturbing and quite alarming as well. She turned the tap off and grabbed her towel.
"Sharon, you have to get out of there right now!" She heard Rusty's voice. The steam from her shower started to clear off and she could smell an unpleasant smell.
"Rusty, what's going on?" Without even wiping herself dry, she pulled a dark tank top over her head.
"You have to come out right now, Sharon, even with your towel. I'm serious!" Something was definitely off. She pulled up the flannel pajama pants and opened the door.
"What happened?" as soon as she opened the door she could see thick black smoke encompassing them. It penetrated her lungs and eyes.
"I have your shoes and phone; let's get out of here, now." He would grab her arm and pull her if his hands weren't full. He was lucky that Malin was small enough to be shoved into one of Sharon's uggs.
"Go, Rusty. I'm right behind you." she said, coughing. They ran out of the apartment and used the emergency staircase to leave the building, with the smoke surrounding them.
It didn't take them more than a few minutes to leave the building, but it felt longer.
Outside, Sharon made sure that Rusty has made it out and she sighed in relief. Malin's head peeked out of Sharon's ugg and Rusty took her out and handed Sharon her boots. She put them on her bare feet. Looking up at the building, they could see that the 10th, 11th and 12th floors were burning.
"Are you okay?" Rusty asked when he heard her cough. He had covered his nose with his shirt as he was going down the stairs and even though he felt an unpleasant tingle in his lungs, he could still breathe normally. Malin didn't seem to be affected either.
"Call Lieutenant Flynn," Sharon whizzed, "Tell him to pick you up. If he doesn't answer call Buzz," she felt dizzy and faint, but she tried her best to act normally for Rusty. She didn't want to scare him, even though the inability to breathe was quite frightening for her as well. "I'm going to go over there to get some treatment," she said and pointed at one of the many ambulances that were parking in front of the building. Rusty followed her, knowing very well that smoke inhalation is very dangerous and that Sharon was not sounding good at all. As the paramedics laid Sharon on a gurney and put an oxygen mask on her face, Rusty found Flynn in Sharon's contact list and called him, giving him basic details of what has happened.
"What hospital are we going to?" he asked the paramedic and immediately informed Flynn who said he'd meet them there. The paramedic was not too keen to let Rusty ride with them to the hospital while holding Malin in his arms, but Rusty convinced him. Sharon was still conscious and he squeezed her hand. The paramedics put an IV in her arm and connected her to a beeping device that Rusty assumed was a cardiac monitor. The thoughts raced through Rusty's mind. If they stayed in the apartment for another minute, they could both be dead. He had no doubt that people died in this fire and while he felt incredibly lucky, he was still terrified of what might happen to Sharon, whose disorientation seemed to be growing by the minute.