Title: fire and foolishness
Author: ness
Disclaimer: the copyright is someone else's.
Email: nessbut@yahoo.co.uk
Category: j/h
Rating: PG-13
The alarm was still audible when they got into the grounds. Guests and staff were milling round randomly yelling to each other. The coach of a rival team had a flashlight and was swinging it in all directions.
"Chaos" murmured Jake. "Hey Will you're shivering."
"You're dressed for this more than I am."
"Look that cafe across the road is open. Can you get a hot drink for both of us? I'll stay and tell Finn you got out of the building."
"Uh."
"Chocolate for me."
"Uh. I can't take your money."
"What? It's a cocoa. I'm not gonna come back in ten years and claim your firstborn." She was scanning the crowd for Hamilton and she hadn't seen him yet. Or Scout.
When Will came back Jake wasn't there. She spent a couple of minutes searching through the crowd then went back in.
She was telling herself - Setting off the alarm was almost certainly some moron student prank. I can see Eric doing it, totally. And there was no smoke or flames on the way down. And if I'm going back in - she was across the lobby by now - - better sooner than later. Cuz if there is a fire (that I don't believe in) I don't wanna waste time messing around.
Don't use the lift. Will found the fire stairs when he was doing his puppyish I've-never-been-in-a-hotel-before routine. Here they are. This is a false alarm, right? -
Up a flight of stairs. Room numbers starting with 2. Faint smell of burning plastic. - that'll be my imagination - Jake told herself. - some kind of psychosomatic thing. Oh god. What am I doing?-
- Down another corridor. Working out the number sequence. - if Ham and Scout are outside right now it's gonna be so ironic Alanis Morrisette is gonna have to rerecord her song -
- the corridor's getting smoggy this direction. Go left now. Someone left their door open when they bolted. I can use their bathroom; I can drench my sweater and breathe through it -
- this is a localised fire, ok, gonna burn itself out. Someone just panicked with the alarm. No big deal. Room 214. Their room's directly above. Can't go back now. I have obviously assimilated way too much macho crap. (I'm really tempted to go back.) -
Another flight of fire stairs. The doors were hot to the touch.
- oh god - thought Jake, terrified. She hadn't fully believed in the fire till then. Back on the hotel corridors she couldn't see an inch. It was all black rolling smoke.
She felt her way along the wall. - have I gone past it? I should be there by now: damn. No not damn. It's a fire axe. It's a damn big fire axe and I get to use it. If I was 5 years old or male I'd be ecstatic - Jake swung the axe tentatively.
The alarm was still audible when they got into the grounds. Guests and staff were milling round randomly yelling to each other. The coach of a rival team had a flashlight and was swinging it in all directions.
"Chaos" murmured Jake. "Hey Will you're shivering."
"You're dressed for this more than I am."
"Look that cafe across the road is open. Can you get a hot drink for both of us? I'll stay and tell Finn you got out of the building."
"Uh."
"Chocolate for me."
"Uh. I can't take your money."
"What? It's a cocoa. I'm not gonna come back in ten years and claim your firstborn." She was scanning the crowd for Hamilton and she hadn't seen him yet. Or Scout.
When Will came back Jake wasn't there. She spent a couple of minutes searching through the crowd then went back in.
She was telling herself - Setting off the alarm was almost certainly some moron student prank. I can see Eric doing it, totally. And there was no smoke or flames on the way down. And if I'm going back in - she was across the lobby by now - - better sooner than later. Cuz if there is a fire (that I don't believe in) I don't wanna waste time messing around.
Don't use the lift. Will found the fire stairs when he was doing his puppyish I've-never-been-in-a-hotel-before routine. Here they are. This is a false alarm, right? -
Up a flight of stairs. Room numbers starting with 2. Faint smell of burning plastic. - that'll be my imagination - Jake told herself. - some kind of psychosomatic thing. Oh god. What am I doing?-
- Down another corridor. Working out the number sequence. - if Ham and Scout are outside right now it's gonna be so ironic Alanis Morrisette is gonna have to rerecord her song -
- the corridor's getting smoggy this direction. Go left now. Someone left their door open when they bolted. I can use their bathroom; I can drench my sweater and breathe through it -
- this is a localised fire, ok, gonna burn itself out. Someone just panicked with the alarm. No big deal. Room 214. Their room's directly above. Can't go back now. I have obviously assimilated way too much macho crap. (I'm really tempted to go back.) -
Another flight of fire stairs. The doors were hot to the touch.
- oh god - thought Jake, terrified. She hadn't fully believed in the fire till then. Back on the hotel corridors she couldn't see an inch. It was all black rolling smoke.
She felt her way along the wall. - have I gone past it? I should be there by now: damn. No not damn. It's a fire axe. It's a damn big fire axe and I get to use it. If I was 5 years old or male I'd be ecstatic - Jake swung the axe tentatively.