Page 112 of Not Quite Dead Yet

At the window Jet had just come out of, angry flames licked at the frame, escaping outside and up the bricks.

‘We almost died,’ Billy said quietly.

‘We’re alive,’ Jet said instead.

‘I smelled gas.’

‘Me too.’ Jet coughed. ‘Someone set fire to it.’

‘While we were inside,’ Billy added.

Jet looked over at him. ‘Becausewe were inside?’

A new sound joined the roar of the flames, fighting it, not winning yet, too far away. A high-pitched whine, keening up and down.

‘Sirens.’ Jet sat up. ‘We need to go before they get here.’

She groaned, picking herself up from the pallets one-handed, jumping down to the grass, Billy behind her.

Through the parking lot, around the vans, a loud crash behind them as half a wall caved in, scattering bricks, dragging a section of the upper floor down with it. Sparks as it landed, a snowfall of dark ash.

Billy pressed his lips together.

‘We weren’t supposed to break anything.’

‘Wedidn’t,’ Jet told him.

They walked back through the main gate, the sensor opening it for them, sirens getting louder, closer, a werewolf howl at a not-full moon.

‘Should we uncover the security cameras?’ Billy asked, pointing to the taped-up camera, the one they’d danced in front of only an hour ago.

‘Hmm, I think they’ll probably be able to tell someone’s been here,’ Jet said, another crash behind, another wall collapsing.

They followed the drive around, Jet’s blue truck there, waiting for them.

Jet hesitated, looked back.

Mason Construction was gone – everything her dad had built. Didn’t look like a building anymore, folding in around the inferno. Its death throes were loud, almost human, the hiss of things burning not far from a scream. The moon above blocked out by a roiling column of black smoke.

Something else hovered in the sky too, near the smoke: a little red light winking, a dark mechanical shadow against the darker sky.

‘Is that … is that a drone over there?’ Jet squinted.

‘Come on.’ Billy opened the truck door. ‘They’re almost here. We have to go.’

Jet could see them now too, red and blue flashes in the trees, right the way down the dark road, speeding toward them.

She opened the passenger door, dropped inside as Billy started the engine.

‘Go, go, go!’

Jet dipped her head under the stream of water. Reached out, turned the shower colder, colder still. Her skin felt too hot, like the fire had infected her, made itself at home, reminding her how close she’d come, a bit of hell that stayed behind.

The water soaked through her bandages, but she didn’t care. Needed that smell of smoke out of her hair.

A burn on her left index finger that she could feel.

A burn on her right arm that she couldn’t. A big one, above the elbow, bits of melted fabric from her jacket stuck in the wound, fused with it.

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