Time Only Tells

We sat there together, not speaking and hugging each other until our heartbeats beat on the same beat a and we were both calm enough to think straight. It only lasted maybe two or three minutes if I'm lucky but I wanted it to never end, I've never been that close with someone. I loved it, but we need to get back to the task at hand. No time to talk about what just happened.

"What are we facing?" I ask.

"Not we. You don't have the stomach to be able to handle this nor the strength to be able to effectively help." he replied.

"Well what do you want me to do then?"

"Whoever I find that's alive or injured I'll carry them out to the front and outside. I'll stop bleeding if it's major but other wise I'm going to lay them in the grass where it's safe. I need you to get to the hospital as quick as you can. Tell them immediate assistance is needed at St. Evans Junior High."

"But you might injure them even more if you move them!!"

"Tor, if it were you in there would you want to risk making your injury worse so you can be brought to somewhere safe or would you want to stay in there where the roof or floor could give out at any minute?"

"Understood. Fine go. But please, please be careful."

"I will Tor. Go. Run as fast as you can." he replied.

The urgency in his face has returned, but now instead of empty eyes his eyes are filled with a fire I've never seen before. I turn and run towards the exit and Trevor does the same. As I run I'm stopped by a noise coming from one of the classrooms. It sounds like the cry of a small girl. I know Trevor said I don't have the stomach for this but I can't will myself away from helping. My ears being sensitive from band I can follow the almost unaudible sound. I arrive to a room with the door charred like the rest but the top board has fallen into the doorway. I'm small enough to fit through though. I hop over the board to a scene which now makes me understand why Trevor said I couldn't take it.

Everything. When you say everything even the people were charred. Even with all the knowledge I have from reading my mothers medical books, some bodies were unidenitfiable of if they were a guy or a girl. Personally though, however disgusting this may sound, I prefer to see that than the ones that are partially or only half burned. At least the fully burned bodies were gone faster than the others, suffering less. I feel dizzy at the sight, sick to the stomach and just untollerable in all aspects but I need to find the source of the crying. I scan the room frantically with my eyes till my eyes lock on whats to be a young girl, the only live one in the room, maybe grade seven. In my frozen state my usual reaction would be to run but I know too well that Trevor must be at the other end of the building by now and if I don't help her, she will most likely die before Trevor gets to her. I feel adrenaline firing up my body and my feet are darting to the girl.

As I got close I can see she has major burns on her arms, legs and abdomen, how this girl got out this well as she did I may never know. I pray to god that I have the strength to lift and carry her. She squeals as I carefully slip my arms underneath her neck and knees. Trevors words repeated over and over in my head, if I don't move her something may happen and she most likely will die. I lift her and she's much lighter than I thought she would be. I rush to the door and slowly hop over making sure she doesnt hit anything, slamming my back into the side of the door. I ran to the exit and as I get out the smoke and sleep outside had completely dissapeared. I take the girl away from the building and laid her on the green grass making sure she was on soft ground by putting my sweater underneath her. I saw no significant bleeding.

"Do your best to keep your eyes open alright?" I ask.

A small smile appears on her face, as a yes I interpreted. I caressed her short brown hair, smiled back, got up and ran as fast as I could to the hospital. Stopping periodically on the way as the nausea caught up with me.