If Matt had known what his friend was about to face, he would have never left Mike there alone. But he didn't know, and was walking away.
"I think we should find Puck. He'll have an idea of what to do for fun." Santana suggested.
"But why do we need to find Puck? Is he lost?" Brittany was showing her usual "smarts".
"I think we should go for slushies, like Santana said." Matt chimed in, "As long as you two promise not to slushy…"
"Hey look, Santana! Fireworks!" Brittany was looking through the window of the classroom they were standing next to.
"What?" Santana went over to see what Brittany was looking at.
"There are cool fireworks going on in the classroom." Brittany reached for the doorknob.
"BRITT DON'T!" Santana pushed her friend out of the doorway.
"Santana what's…" but when Matt looked through the window his question was answered.
"But I wanna see the fireworks!" Brittany cried sniffing and pouting like a three year old.
"Britt that's not fireworks it's fire!" Santana yelled, pulling Brittany down the hall.
"Huh?" was the only thing Brittany said as Matt and Santana half dragged half pulled Brittany out of the school. They ran to the parking lot.
"Look! It's Finn and Mercedes and Mike, we should go say hi." Brittany clearly didn't get it, but Matt ran anyway. He wanted to make sure every one was okay. When Matt got there Mike swept him into a hug. Over Mike's shoulder he could see ME's working on two people. He felt a swooping sensation in his stomach when he saw whom they were.
"Mike," Matt said, "Who have you heard from? Do you know who is okay? Mike?" But Mike wasn't talking. Matt held Mike away from his body and saw that Mike's head was lolling down on his chest. Suddenly Mike's legs gave way. Matt caught him and lay him down gently on the ground. Finn ran over.
"What's going on?" he demanded to know.
"I think he fainted." Santana said, her voice choking up.
Three ambulances came into view. They pulled up and started loading Kurt in one.
"Quick! Get him in too!" Mercedes yelled pointing at Mike.
"Yeah, we can take him!" the ME yelled back, "You guys!" He shouted at the people in one of the other ambulances, "Get her out of here!" The ME's loaded Tina and took off. Mike was placed on a gurney in the back of the ambulance with Kurt. Then it too zoomed away.
"So who do we know is safe?" Mercedes said, her lip quivering.
"Well, Rachel's in the hospital. She didn't look so good. That's one." Finn said.
"And Kurt, Tina and Mike. That's four." Said Santana, counting on her fingers.
"And us." Said Matt, "which makes nine."
"Ten, Quinn didn't come to school today." Mercedes said, "So, where are A-Artie an-and P-P-Puck?" Mercedes burst out crying.
Artie coughed. He couldn't see, he could only feel pain, yet somehow he was moving. It was somewhere between crawling and dragging Puck. He could hardly breathe. The dizziness was overwhelming him.
"Puck… please, wake up!" He called out to the lifeless body in his arms. Then Artie collapsed. He felt unbearable pain in his left arm, and then heard some shouting. He felt gentle arms lift him up and away.
Puck's woken up! Artie thought to himself, He's going to get me out of here. And then I can see Tina… Artie pictured Tina's perfect face. All he wanted was to see her again, to make sure she was safe. He felt something wet on his face, and then he blacked out. The last thing he heard was a voice calling his name.
Mercedes was crying into Matt's shoulder. She was whimpering and calling out to the two people that she needed to see.
"Do you think they got out?" Finn asked Santana.
"If they did, Puck would have come looking for me." She said tears streaming down her face.
"And Artie wouldn't have left without making sure that Tina is okay." Mercedes said through sniffs.
"But, wait. That means they're still insi…" Finn trailed off. He looked at Matt. They nodded, and then they ran. They ran toward the friends that needed them. They ran toward the fire.
"Son I can't let you go back there." A firefighter put out his arm and stopped Finn from running any closer to the school.
"My friends are in there!" Finn yelled, towering over the firefighter's head.
"Son…" But the firefighter didn't get any farther because Finn pushed him out of the way. He and Matt ran into the building, searching for their friends.
"Artie and Puck both had science!" Matt shouted over the roar of the fire, "I know that because the last thing Puck told me was that he was glad that he could cheat off Artie's paper!"
"The science room is just down this hall!" Finn shouted back. They ran down the hall calling out Artie and Puck's names, praying they would answer.
"FINN!" Matt's voice rang out. Finn looked to see him bending over two figures on the floor. Finn went over. When he got there, he screamed. Puck's face was so messed up that Finn wouldn't have recognized him if Puck hadn't re-grown his Mohawk over the summer. With a pained look Matt picked up Puck and ran off leaving Finn alone with the other figure. With a gentle hand Finn rolled it over. He felt his heart break when he saw that it was Artie. Artie's left arm and shoulder was burnt. There was blood dripping out of his mouth and nose. His shirt was stained with something else. Something blue. A slushy Finn thought The last thing that happened before this hell. With a burst of adrenaline, he picked up Artie and carried him to the door. When they got to the parking lot, Finn called out to one of the ambulance drivers. He came over and helped him carry Artie to where Puck was being loaded. Finn didn't realize he was crying until after they had left.