I bound up to the neighboring house with CJ at my heals; I could feel the heat from the flames and hear the awful crackling sound as the fire ate away at the tenement house.

We rushed in through the front door; my plan was simple, I was going to take advantage of the fact that the two tenement houses were so close together.

I took the flight of stairs leading upward two at a time. If we did not hurry than we would be trapped in this building by the spreading fire. We reached the top floor of the tenement building and I opened the door of a room on the side of the house which was facing the rapidly burning tenement building.

The room was small and dark; however to my relief there was a window which looked out toward the tenement building we were trying to enter. CJ and I darted to the window. It held no glass; there was just a scrap of cloth covering it. I tore the cloth away and looked out.

Facing us was a window through which we could see smoke pouring out. The window was not directly aligned with the one we were looking out, but we could still climb into it.

"Alright," I turned to CJ, ready to explain my plan; looking at her face I saw an unfamiliar emotion; she looked frightened. However when she spoke, her voice was even;

"We are going to climb out this window and into that one, that's the plan?" She said, I suppose my idea was a bit obvious by this point,

I nodded, "I will go first," As I moved to the window I stopped; I took off my mask and placed it in the floor to the side of the window; it hindered my breathing and I could not afford that in the smoke filled rooms. I climbed difficultly through the small window and balanced with half my body outside and half inside. I placed one foot on the edge of the other window, then one hand, then I shifted my weight as quickly as I could and tumbled into the other room.

The moment I entered the room and hit the floor I felt as though I had fallen into a different world; my usually perfect sight was immediately obscured by the clouds of black smoke and the temperature rose considerably; sweat beaded on my forehead the moment I hit the floor.

Something hit me in the back before I had time to move and I knew CJ was in the room. I looked around; it was impossible to see anything clearly through the thick smoke, but I guessed there was a doorframe somewhere to my right,

"Hello!" CJ yelled into the smoke, she moved and held out a hand, with the other she grabbed my shoulder, "Come on, find the wall," she said to me,

My hand hit the wall; it felt hot, the fire was close. We moved, dragging out hands against the wall for direction. Suddenly the wall disappeared; we had found the doorway.

Looking out I could see a stair going downward and a door across from me.

"It there anyone who can hear me?" CJ yelled again, and I strained my ears for the sounds of a response.

There was nothing at first save for the growing crackle of the fire which was raging below us. Then I did hear a sound rising over the smoke and flames, it sounded like crying.

Her fear was apparently gone; because CJ dashed past me and opened the door facing us. The crying grew louder. I followed CJ into the room and out of the shadows emerged two small forms, two children coming toward us,

"Mother?" One squeaked, the other was still crying,

"No, but I am going to take you to her, alright?" CJ swiftly scooped the young boy into her arms, "Where is she? Is she in this room?"

The boy just shook his head. CJ quickly turned and headed back for the window escape; leaving me to pick up the boy's crying sister. I was thankful for the dense smoke; it prevented her from seeing my face clearly.

At the window, CJ set down the boy and moved agilely into the other tenement building, then she turned around. With out losing a minute I picked up the boy beneath his arms and handed him to CJ. I did the same to his sister. Across the way I could hear her telling the boy to take his sister straight downstairs and outside. I fervently hoped the downstairs was still accessible.

CJ climbed back over to me; we had an easier time finding the doorway after having found it before,

There were no more rooms on the floor we were on, so we headed down the stairs, I kept a hand on CJ's shoulder so as not to lose her in the dark smoke which was wrapping around us like the closing fingers of some evil hand.

As we moved downward, we could hear screaming; someone trapped in a room. The place from which the sound was emitting emerged out of the curling smoke. Now an eerie glow was illuminating the fumes around us; the fire was burning close to us now; it would not be possible to move much lower in the building.

The door we were faced with was no longer a door really; it had crumbled much as the front doorway had, and now the collapsed door and large portions of the ceiling lay between CJ and I and the people inside the room.

Frantically, CJ began picking up pieces of the wreckage and hurling them out of the way, truly I wanted to leave, but if CJ could stand being in here than so could I. I helped her clear the doorway as quickly as I could; however it was not coming along very speedily.

"This is impossible CJ!" I yelled to her; I was dripping with sweat and my back was hot with the approaching flames,

"Someone is in there; they are not going to burn to death!" she yelled back angrily, furiously throwing aside a large piece of wood blocking the door. A small hole had appeared and someone called to us,

"Help! Can you hear me? Help!" the voice sounded terrified,

"We are going to get you out of here!" CJ yelled back, "But you have to help us too! Help us un block the door!"

From the other side I heard something move; whoever was inside sounded as though they had started to shift the rubble.

The house suddenly emitted a loud groan; it was failing under the heat of the fire.

"We have to get out of here soon," I muttered wiping sweat off of my face and believing that even soon was not soon enough,

Together, CJ and I lifted one massive piece of ceiling and the hole became larger; large enough for a person to fit through. No sooner did this hole appear than someone wriggled through.

It was a young girl, no more than ten, and she turned quickly as a pair of hands passed a small baby through the hole. A moment later a woman scrambled out of the room.

"Follow me!" I had to yell to make myself heard; it seemed the noise of the fire was growing louder and louder and the denseness of the smoke absorbed any other sound.

I led the family up the stairs and into the window room, I instructed them to climb out and head downstairs. The three completed the act with admirable calm considering the circumstances. I was about to climb out myself when I realized I was missing someone.

"CJ!" I yelled irritated as I ran back to the stairs, I could not see her through the smoke, "CJ!" I called again, then I descended to the second level, and I saw her. She was silhouetted against the fire and smoke, gazing down the stairs,

"CJ!" I grabbed her shoulder and spun her to face me, "What the hell are you doing? We have to leave!" I tugged her in the direction of the exit,

"There are still people down there, I can hear them!" she protested, and her voice was a bit hysterical,

"But we can't get to them! We have to go or we are going to die in here!" I pulled her up the stairs just as the house shook beneath us. It would not last much longer. I sprinted up the stairs; ignoring the pain in my legs and the burning in me lungs; dragging CJ along with me. The tenement house was beginning to tremble beneath our feet, making me feel as though the whole world was shaking.

Panting, we reached the window. I shoved CJ to the ledge, forcing her to climb out before me. I did not want her running back to try to help someone else; it was a lost cause. I exited as quickly as I could after CJ, jumping into the other room to find CJ waiting for me,

"What are you doing?" I yelled, "Go!" She nodded, but she also handed me something,

"Don't forget," She said as she turned to the stairs; she had picked up my mask, which I carried as I ran down the stairs. I knew the moment of truth was near, when we would see if the front door was accessible.

As we went, I was sure that the fire would be blocking our way. I did not see how the flames, which had already been licking at the side of the house when we had entered, would not have spread to this building.

However, as we approached the bottom, I could hear voices close to the door, and as the front entrance came into view I saw that the firemen, aptly called the 'bucket brigade,' had been throwing water on the front of the house to keep the entrance open.

We sprinted out of the house; my head was spinning. Neither of us stopped until we had reached the edge of the throng of people watching the fire. I did not notice if they gave us a strange look. I was taking great breaths of air; the very air which I had earlier deemed noxious I now gulped gratefully. It was wonderful compared with the close, smoky air of the fire.

I looked over at CJ, she was panting, soaked with sweat and covered in soot. I thought I must have looked similar to her. She turned her head to face me, green eyes shining out from her soot blackened face,

"Alright?" She asked me between breaths,

I nodded, besides being covered in soot and sweat, having a stinging pain in my legs from running so fast up and down stairs without breathing proper air, and a soreness in my arms from un blocking the door way, I was fine. "You?" I asked her, and she nodded back at me,

At that moment there was a great commotion; the firemen backed off from the tenement house, which was now swaying dangerously. The great crowed that had gathered around took several steps backward. The house emitted one last loud groan, the final cry of a dying beast. The walls finally gave way, and the top floors of the building sank down as the bottom floors collapsed upon themselves.