Straight Up Typhoon – 11
Annnnnnd eleven. …Yeah. I guess It gots nothin' t'say. Enjoy please! Sorry about the shortness!
By the time Sue and Reed reached the scene, it was a devastated mess of panicking human bodies and chaotic confusion. Hysteria was growing at all ends below a billowing tower of hellish black smoke rising from the other end of the ocean of horrified spectators, the air filled with coughs, screams, crackling ashes, and the semi-distant wail of urgent sirens.
Reed and Sue only took a brief moment to look at one another before diving headlong into the crowd.
Reed barreled through the wall of panicking bodies as fast as he could, knocking past seemingly endless rows of shoulders and nearly tripping over various feet along his way. In such widespread disarray, neither he nor those he pushed against had the time or mindset to think on it. By the time he struggled to the head of the mob, things had only escalated in their disastrous state. Reed almost toppled over a police barricade as he broke through the front of the throng and slipped into the clearing amid the ambulances and fire trucks relatively unnoticed. Officers and firemen alike were keeping the bulk of the crowd at bay frantically while Reed and Sue managed by into the scattered region amid paramedics and the frenzied residents of the currently burning building. For a minute, Reed lost himself in the calamity. He looked in every direction, unable to discern the way he was going from the way which he had come. He almost turned the wrong way before he suddenly caught sight of a familiar and unmistakable figure in the midst of the horde a fair ways off.
"Ben!" Reed called out, to no avail. He immediately dodged around a group of confused spectators and made it out into the clearing just in front of the building. Ben was coughing, and under his arm was what looked to be a rather charred and unconscious elderly man by the shirt as he pulled himself away from the inferno. Over his shoulder was another younger man, who, upon closer inspection, appeared to be a firefighter himself. "Ben!" Reed called out again, rushing to meet him.
"Reed," Ben panted, handing over the two men to some very wary looking paramedics. "Boy are you a sight for sore eyes."
"What happened?" Sue asked before Reed had the chance, following up quickly onto the scene.
"Don't know." Ben replied, trying to catch his breath. "Me and Al were just…comin' back here to…" he cleared his throat and coughed, wiping some ashes from his shoulder. "She forgot somethin' or other. I'm down here waitin—next thing I know, the whole place is up in smoke."
"Is Alicia okay?" Sue looked around for a moment in panic.
"Yeah, she's fine…" Ben nodded.
"Where's Johnny?" Reed asked next.
Ben shook his head. "Kid ain't here. …He ain't with you?"
"No." Reed cursed inwardly. Johnny was always there when they needed him, and now he wasn't, and Reed couldn't help but feel responsible. "Ben," he started, resting a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Is everyone out of the building?"
"Uh, I…I don't know, yeah, yeah, I think…" he looked back and forth between the fire and the bystanders littered around them. "I didn't see anybody else in there. I guess I could check again—"
"No, Ben, that's crazy, you can't go back in there." Sue interjected, putting a hand to his arm.
Reed coughed hoarsely and held an arm to partially cover his face, squinting up at the eruptions of smoke clouds and flames. "How did it start?" he asked no one in particular.
"Please!" a voice wailed out behind them, and they quickly turned over a shoulder to see the source of it.
"Miss," a more masculine voice entered the situation, and they were fast to pick out the two figures. "We're doing all we can now, you've got to—"
"No, you don't understand!" a nearly hysterical young woman was trying to push past a blackened and slightly burnt firefighter, neither of which was paying any heed to the adjacent team of super heroes.
"Miss—"
"Someone's still in there!" she screamed.
Reed instantly looked back towards the fire, brows knitted in alarm and eyes scanning the entrances and exits furiously.
"My sister—please! She's not out here, she's still in the building, please—"
"Miss, please, calm down. The paramedics can help you search for her, I'm sure she's with one of the ambulances."
"Aren't you listening to me?" the woman was becoming aggressive now, shoving at him gruffly and running a sleeve along her soot-smeared cheek. "She isn't out here, don't you think I'd know if she was? Please! She's only fourteen, please, I have to—"
"Hey, hey, wait now—!" the firefighter caught her by the shoulders again as she shoved forward, which caused her to erupt into fit.
Reed took a step forward nearer to the building and attempted to shield his face from the smoke, freezing in place when he heard the distant sound of…
"Reed, keep back!" Sue cried after him.
Reed didn't turn around. "I-I think someone's still in there." He said gravely.
Suddenly that thought was confirmed as a high-pitched yell sounded from somewhere among the smoke and fire.
"Leslie!" shrieked the young woman from the constrictions of the fireman's arms. "Oh my God, let me go, she's still—"
"We have to get to her." Reed blurted.
"Reed, no, we gotta wait for Johnny! He's the only one of us that can get in there!" Ben exclaimed in protest.
Reed whipped around and scoured the skies in momentary desperation before another scream sounded from somewhere in the building. "There's no time!" he shouted before rushing into the wall of smoke without a second thought.
"Reed!" Ben cried out in shock. Both Ben and Sue made a mad dash after him, but before they could cross the threshold—an eruption of flames burst forth from it with a ground-shaking roar, sending both of them to the asphalt hard.