HEY GUYS. You liked the second page too!? Wow, that seriously surprised me.
Anyway, I'm gonna be honest with you... this page isn't the best. T_T But I seriously spent the most time of all on it, just trying to get the story to go somewhere and it all to flow.
ANYWAY. Thanks for all your positive reviews! It's been a fun project. :D
Hiro collapsed.
He collapsed against Tadashi, who was there to catch him in time.
There was a moment of silence.
Complete silence, save the ever present snapping of the blazing fire surrounding the brothers.
The man breathed heavily.
He breathed the heated air.
It only made him wish for more air.
It was a never ending cycle.
This night was a complete disaster.
He'd wanted to encourage Hiro. Take a moment to give him advice.
Tell him how proud he was.
He looked down at his unconscious brother.
A red burn plastered the side of his pale face.
Instead, this had happened.
Tadashi then scowled, noticing something.
Hiro's breaths.
They were slowing down.
"Hey, no, Hiro. Don't...don't do this to me."
He pressed his hand against the side of Hiro's head.
Nothing.
"Don't do this to me..."
Two fingers slid against Hiro's temple.
An unstable and slow pulse responded.
This was bad.
"Hey buddy, can you hear me?" A thumb brushed against the boy's cheek.
Nothing.
"We're gonna get you out of this, okay?"
Nothing, again.
But Tadashi hadn't expected an answer.
The man gritted his teeth and stood up, lifting the limp body with him.
An agonizing pain seared the side of his leg.
He cried out.
Something had sliced the skin.
Blood gushed unmercifully from the wound.
So Tadashi looked down.
A hot piece of metal stared back.
Oh, great.
That was lovely.
When he stood, his leg had slid against it.
Brown eyes averted from the bleeding wound and back to Hiro.
His head draped over Tadashi's arm, revealing a neck filled with red burns.
Ajar lips let out small breaths.
His chest hardly moved.
It all looked so wrong.
The leg could wait.
Hiro needed help.
But there was no help to be seen within the yards of fiery chaos.
"IS ANYONE OUT THERE?"
No sound. Just fire.
"HEY, WE NEED HELP!"
Tadashi coughed and shook it off with the shake of his head.
Hiro seemed to weigh a million pounds.
What was generally an easy feat had become an excruciating task.
Each word seemed to slice his throat.
Like grating cheese.
Yelling was useless.
A waste of breath.
The man closed his eyes, sucked in a breath and took an agonizing step forward.
Then another.
He hissed with the pain.
Ouch.
His leg had ripped pretty bad.
A large chunk of wood slammed into the ground three feet away, sending fiery sparks everywhere.
It smelled like sulfur.
But despite the smell, he breathed through his nose.
He'd opened his mouth too much already.
Just calm, steady breaths.
He could do this. There were people around somewhere.
He just needed to find out the direction.
And then life threw a crummy lemon.
A really crummy lemon.
The building behind them collapsed.
It collapsed, and spreading piles of debri everywhere.
Tadashi leaned over Hiro, shielding his younger brother from the wall of smoke that washed over like a wave.
Everything was a sea of smoke.
There went finding any life forms...
Then Tadashi remembered something.
Something wonderful.
He had a phone
Excitement rose up in his chest.
This was it. This was the answer.
"Oh, yes, yes, yes, YES. We're gonna get you out of here, Hiro." He had kneeled down, heaving, and desperately rummaged for the phone in pant pocked pocket.
He found it.
It was on low battery, but working.
He speed dialed 911.
"911, what's your emergency?"
Tadashi's heart pounded inside his head, but he was happy.
"It's my brother. And me. We're stuck. In a fire..."
Hiro groaned.
It was actually exciting to hear him make a sound.
Tadashi could hardly see him through the smoke.
It was so hard to breathe.
He gently covered Hiro's nose and mouth.
He didn't to inhale this stuff.
The boy's skin was cold, despite the heated air.
His heart struck with concern.
The type of concern that kinda hurts.
Stay with me, Hiro...
"I think...he's dying..."
Less than eloquent words.
But Tadashi had lost a lot of blood himself.
He felt dizzy.
"Sir, where is your emergency located?"
There was static...
And his phone went out.
It disconnected.
"Hello?"
He desperately slammed down on the buttons.
He checked it once...
twice...
and again.
But the flashing empty battery spoke for itself.
Dead.
He hated that white battery.
Come on, come on, come ON.
He slammed the phone shut, wiping his face with his sleeve.
The heat was getting unbearable.
So was the smoke.
Tadashi managed to remove his own sweater, and wrapped it around Hiro's mouth and nose.
It would buy the boy some time.
And Tadashi walked forward.
His leg seemed to tear a little more with each step.
He didn't know where he was going.
But he focused on one step at a time.
It seemed like an hour had gone by, but it had only been 10 minutes.
Tadashi gotten Hiro at least 20 yards from the scene, but then his leg gave out.
And he fell. Hiro rolled face down onto the ground, not stirring.
He hadn't seen that coming.
It hurt.
His lungs were dry, his throat was swelling, his vision was blurring, and he'd lost at least a gallon of blood.
If Hiro was breathing it wasn't visible.
This was hopeless.
And then there was a miracle.
Light.
A car light shining through the dark air.
Then four, and five.
One of them was an ambulance.
Yes. Yes, yes, yes, YES!
They were going to be alright.
Hiro would be alright.
People with gas masks were running towards them.
Tadashi let himself slip.
But before he did, he saw something.
Something odd moving from the corner of his eye.
A figure running away from the scene.
And then the world went black.