Chapter 4
Jumping and Falling
Everyone looked at Kevin like he was mad. "Are you mad?" asked Julie. "No" said Kevin. "But we're going to die" said Julie desperately. "Well we are going to die even if we stay here. Come on, we have nothing to loose do we?" said Kevin flinching at his own question.
'Except our lives' thought Wendy and flinched at her thought as well. No one said anything for a couple of minutes. People were still running around and screaming. Some had caught fire, some had fainted and some had been crushed to pieces. But most of them had died.
But everyone ignored them, the four people standing in a huddle- two boys and two girls with tears running down their faces. Finally the boy said, "He's right. It's the only way." They all nodded. "What about you parents?" Wendy found herself asking.
The boy looked at his fainted mother and crying father. He sighed "They won't come" he said "they always loved Amy more than me.2 Julie touched his hand gently in a reassuring way. He smiled at her and said, "If we are going to do this we have to do it now."
They all nodded and walked over to the edge of the building. Where the windows had first been at first now there was only rubble, fire and smoke. Lots and lots of smoke. They looked down but at once wished they hadn't.
Down below they couldn't see the ground at all. The smoke had covered it all. They decided to hold hands together. Kevin took Wendy's who took Julie's who took the boy's hand. "Goodbye mum, goodbye dad and goodbye Amy" he said quietly.
"Ready?" asked Kevin. No one said anything as none of them had been less ready in their entire lives. "OK" said Kevin, "Jump" they jumped. All of their visions were clouded by smoke so they had to close their eyes.
Above, in the hotel, the fire swallowed Amelia or Amy as her brother liked to call her, her father, mother and all the other occupants of the hotel. Down below the four survivors were heading towards their deaths. Wendy opened her eyes to see that the smoke had gone and the ground was fast approaching. Suddenly she hit the ground. It wasn't as hard as she thought it would be.
She suddenly realised that during the fall she had lost her hold on Kevin and Julie's hand. But a second later she heard three thuds one after the other which meant they had fallen as well.
Wendy groaned. "Kevin, Julie…." She whispered and realised that she did not know the boy's name. With that realisation her vision clouded and everything went black.
All four lying on the ground lost consciousness.