Judy rolled over in her bed. Reaching out. Floundering. There was an alarm going off, and it was bothering her. Ruining her sleep. Taking her out of her nice, warm dream.
A few times, she thought she had bumped into something in her efforts. And finally, she felt something under her paw that felt vaguely like a button.

Good enough for her.

Whap.

And the next thing she knew, she had been sent from the bed and to the floor, waking her with a massive start, rear in the air as she tried to gain her bearings. Nick, meanwhile, was bolt upright in the bed, clutching his nose with wide eyes, looking torn between wanting to cry from shock and angry at his nose being smacked.

It took a moment for the connection to be made in Judy's head, but when she did, she shifted upright and reached up for Nick's nose. "O-Oooh no, I'm sorry Nick! I'm so sorry, I didn't – I heard a beeping, and I was sleeping and I just-"

He cut her off by holding out his paw, taking a gulp to steady himself and ease his anger before he slowly pulled his paw away from his nose, inspecting the thankfully clean pads before sighing.
"Geez, Carrots, you're one hell of an alarm clock..."

"I'm sorry! There was this beeping that woke me up, and I-"

She paused. Beeping. A beeping that was still going. Faint, muffled, but there. And it sounded an awful lot like a fire alarm.

Nick flicked his ears and looked to the hatch above them, before hurriedly shoving himself away and turning off the vents. He then ran over to the hatch and sniffed by the opening, before stepping back.
"Smoke."

Judy's ears fell flat against the back of her head. The house was on fire? Nick's expression was a range of emotions, from anger to shock to pure anguish. But, to his credit, he didn't waste any time, backing up to the vent and trying to pry it open. Unfortunately, the rusted screws were still stuck in place, not giving the slightest budge as he fought with the grate.

"Carrots, bad news. We might have to crawl out through the smoke."

That prospect did bother Judy slightly. But if it was that, or be trapped in the safe room, then she knew there was really no choice.

"Right, come on. Boost me up and I'll pull you out of here." She was already standing under the hatch, staring at him as he made his way back over. He hooked his paws together and held them low for Judy, the rabbit stepping into his paw and reaching up as Nick lifted her. Her paws met with the hatch and she shoved it up, and to the side, coughing as the acrid scent of smoke hit her in a wave.

"You good, Carrots?"

"Yeah, yeah, just give me a second." She shook her head and ducked down to get a breath of fresher air, holding it as she shoves herself out of the hatch and starts to crawl out from under the bed. The house was in a haze, the once darkened rooms now gray and black with smoke, and orange flames and red embers visible in the hallway.

With no time to waste, Judy grabbed the bed frame – only to cry out and let go instantly, her haste making her forget how a house fire could heat metal so quickly. She tore off her suit jacket, hooking it around the bed frame as she started pulling. It moved easy, initially – until there was a violent crack above her, and a small chunk of the ceiling crashed down onto the bed, making the frame cry out in protest.

Judy lost her grip and collapsed onto the floor, coughing hard.

"What was that?" Nick called out.

"Some of the ceiling landed on the bed! I don't-" Cough. "Know if I can move it with that on it!"

"Well you have to try! I don't think I have another way out of here!"

Judy cursed to herself and got back to her feet, heading around to the other side of the bed and trying to wrap her suit jacket around her feet. If she could get enough space between the wall and the bed, maybe she could get enough space for Nick to get out. And so that's what she did, placing her suit against the heated metal as she pressed her back to the wall, legs tucked to her chest as she started pushing against it. The bed creaked and groaned, and started to budge just as she was running out of breath, but so was the wall behind her. She could feel it shifting and burning against her back, even through the layers of clothes she had on.

"Nick, it's too heavy!"

"Is the metal already too hot to move?"

"Yeah, it burned my paws when I tried to move the bed." Judy kept pushing, but the burning against her feet was starting to get to her. It wasn't a mild warmth, like a heated blanket, but it wasn't quite like when she had tried pulling it free. More smoke was filling the air though, and her coughing was making it hard to keep pushing against the frame.

"Get out."

"What? No, not while you're stuck there!"

"Judy, listen, get out! If you breathe in too much smoke, you're done, if the house collapses, you're done, and if the frame doesn't move, you're done! You need to get out, I'll find a way!"

"Nick, no, I-"

"I"m not arguing, get the fuck out of there!"

It was the feeling of the wall nearly giving out under her that did it, making the rabbit, drop to the ground and cough heavily. Nick was right, she couldn't handle much more smoke. It already was stinging her eyes and her throat burned. She had to have faith that Nick could get out of the safe room on his own.

She pushed herself into a crawling position and grabbed her partially burned jacket, using it to cover her face and crawling forward to the hallway to find an exit. The alarm was blaring, louder, frantically so, setting her even more on edge. On her right, the main door was blocked by a burning bookshelf, the same one Nick had used to block the door before. On her left, the hallway looked clear, but she could see the orange flames licking at the stairs beside her, and a harsh light from the end of it. And across from her, the dining room area, saw a table half collapsed to the ground, the counter looking clear of the flames, but the floor itself was covered in embers from the second floor.

Judy glanced back and weighed her options. The kitchen didn't have any doors to the back, but maybe she could still find a path to -

She shrieked as a chunk of the doorway to the kitchen collapsed, sending up sparks and embers. Scrambling back, she looked frantically around for her options now. Her eyes settled on her only immediate exit – the window to the bedroom, just visible through the haze. That was it.

With more coughing, Judy crawled for it, reaching around her back to find her weapon – only to find it missing. She slumped a bit, brain running at a million miles per hour as she thought of a backup, finally grabbing her suit jacket and wrapping it around a paw as she crawled to the edge. Hauling herself up, she tried for the latch – only to find it not willing to budge.

'Does this house want us to burn in it?!' She screamed internally, tugging on it in vain. After another set of heavy coughing, Judy looked down at her paws. She could feel herself growing light headed, and her eyes were watering, tears streaming from the smoke.

Filled with a mixture of survival instinct and anger, she reared back her padded paw and slammed it into the glass. Once, twice, three times – until it cracked.

Hope. There was hope.

She punched it again. And again. Each time making the glass crack a bit more, but each time draining whatever strength she had left.

Punch, cough. Steadying herself. Punch again. Wipe her eyes to see better. Punch. A coughing fit. Punch, crack. She had to steady herself from falling back against the ledge. A glance behind her told her that the fire was creeping closer, orange flames licking at the doorway.

With a scream of rage she punched again, giving it her all – and finding herself flung out of the window as it shattered, sending her to the ground with the broken shards of glass. Something impacted her back, making her arch it and gasp in pain, rolling over. She would've searched for the source then and there if not for the heavy coughing fit that ensued.

She coughed, hard, retching a few times, until she had enough breath to focus, pushing herself to her feet as she stumbled away from the fire.

The house was consumed now, flames visible from all windows, including the one she had broken, a stark contrast to the night sky. Smoke billowed to the stars, a signal to all that something was burning. Even the artificial rains of the district weren't enough to douse it, the tree cover blocking most of it out.

She shook her head and stumbled away. Sabine's crew was still looking for them, and she didn't want to be there when they inevitably returned.

Judy barely made it thirty meters from the house before she had to stop, crouching down by a tree. The pain in her back had grown, and her eyes stung so badly she could hardly see. Not to mention the constant coughing from smoke inhalation. She just needed a moment to rest. Just a few minutes, then she could figure out a game plan.

She rested her head against the tree, and shut her eyes.

~óÓÒò~

Been a while. Life's been busy. I was burned out, hard.
But, to quote one of the inspirations to this story -

Yeah. I'm thinkin' I'm back.