"Russ?" her voice called from the bedroom, he walked back and leaned in the doorway "Yeah?" She smiled at him "I thought you'd gone out" "I've got something I've got to do later but it won't take long, you'll be here?" She stretched out and smiled "I'll be here, thinking about making up for lost time!" He glanced at his watch, "Well, I don't have any firm plans..." he pushed the bedroom door to and smiled.
The heat hit him like a wall and he pulled up, desperately looking for a way in. "Sophie!" he yelled though he knew in reality no-one would hear him over the noise of the fire; he ran around the building checking for a way in. Round the back he found the cellar door and tried it, it rattled firmly locked. He carried on round and found the delivery door, he tried it and fell back as it flung open at his tugging. He found himself in a hallway and scrambling over empty boxes and crates of empty bottles he made his way to what seemed like the doorway through to the bar and the living quarters. These were all locked, he shook the handles furiously but they resisted his attempts to open them. He looked around for an implement to try prising them open but there was nothing. He needed help and he needed it fast, He grabbed his phone from his pocket and rang 999, "Which service please?" the voice asked "Fire, Ambulance, Police!" he garbled back, "Which service do you require" the voice asked again "All of them!" he screamed in frustration, "There's a fire at the Dog, there's people still inside, I can't get in.. and it's arson" he added "I need help!" "Location please caller?" "I'm at the Dog in the Pond pub Hollyoaks village please hurry!" He shut the phone and ran back outside and round to the front, he noticed Nicole lay curled in a ball, he ran over and grabbed her, "C'mon! Get up! We've got to get them out!" She moaned and curled tighter in a ball, he sighed in frustration she wasn't going to be any help, frozen in shock. He heard the sounds of sirens in the distance, too far yet to be any help; he looked back at the pub now well ablaze and hoped to God Sophie was anywhere but in there. "Oh my God!" at the sound of the voice he spun round, Darren stood there open-mouthed with shock. Justin shook him desperately "She's in there, Sophie's in there, people are...in there!" his last words screeched into Darren's ear to motivate him, anything to get him moving. Galvanised by the noise Darren ran forward towards the front door "No it's no good, it's too far gone, we can get in through the back, have you got the keys?...the keys!" He shook Darren in frustration at his slowness to take it in. "Yeah yeah I do" He delved into his jacket pocket and produced a bunch "C'mon then!" Justin grabbed him by the arm and dragged him back around to the delivery door and into the inferno.
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