It had been a long day. As I dragged my tired body back towards my dorm room I thought about how tired and exhausted I was. French class in the morning, then a computer class, and finally my English class, which had seemed to drag on for at least twice the designated amount of time. Now, all I wanted to do was collapse in to my bed and sleep the night away. But I was to have no such luck.
As I trudged across campus to the safety and silence of my room, I caught a faint whiff of smoke. I recognized the distinct smell of burning wood, and turned in its direction. What I saw made me gasp and forget how tired I was.
One of the dorms was on fire.
Erin ran past me at top speed. I had never seen her run so fast. She seemed to notice me as she ran, and stopped momentarily.
"Come on Ronnie," she shouted back to me before continuing on. "That's Kyla and Geri's dorm!"
I looked towards the four-story building and felt a rush of dread. The flames were coming out of the fourth floor. Tall, red-hot flames leaped toward the sky in a dance of death that sent shivers down my spine even though I knew how hot they must be.
'Fire,' I thought to myself. 'Why did it have to be fire?'
I reached the front of the dorm a while later but couldn't see much. A crowd of people including students, faculty, and various others stood in front of the building, blocking my view.
What I could see, however, was not pleasant. I could see people running around looking frantic and hyper, I could see the president trying to keep the aforementioned people from being frantic and hyper, and I could see the flames rapidly consuming the building.
I looked around for signs of my friends, but saw no one. Erin, standing next to me, was nervously wringing her key chain through her hands as she paced back and forth.
"I wonder if they're in there," she thought aloud. "I wonder if they're okay. I wonder if they had classes today. Did they? It's Wednesday. Does Geri have Italian today or is it Thursday? Does Kyla have English today? I don't remember."
I watched her rant and listened to the ramble of worries that matched the ones running through my head. I couldn't, in this time of need, remember either of their schedules on Wednesdays either, although at any other point I might have had a vague idea. Instead of pacing, like Erin did, I just watched.
Before long the welcome wail of fire trucks, police cars, and ambulances sounded as the parade of rescue teams made its way towards the school. As yet, it was obvious from the administration's worry, that they weren't certain they had everyone out of the building yet.
"I wonder if they're in there," Erin repeated, continuing the mindless litany of questions that no one seemed to be able to answer. I barely noticed her anymore, my mind was so focused on the building, wondering and asking the same questions, trying to remember if Geri or Kyla had a class at that time or if they were still in there.
Suddenly it came to me like a flash of lightning. It was four o'clock, I realized for the first time, and that meant that both of them had been out of class for at least an hour. They could have fallen asleep. Though Geri wasn't a night owl per se, she was known to take naps in the afternoon when tired. And Kyla often did, also. Wednesday, I suddenly recalled, was a day in which both had a lot of classes. I remembered several instances in which both had decided to take naps after tiresome classes. Most of those days were Wednesdays.
"They're in there," I said suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere. Erin stopped her chanting of questions and looked at me.
"How do you know?" she asked. "Are you sure?"
"Pretty sure," I replied. "I kinda have this feeling." I explained my reasoning. She looked confused for a moment, but nodded, not calmly, but definitely accepting the idea.
"I'm going to tell someone," she announced, heading off towards the fire trucks to inform them. I nodded absently and walked around the building, not wanting to get too close for fear not only of getting burned but of having something heavy drop on me such as a loose brick.
I don't know what strange idea got into my head to go behind the building, but I did. I just moved as though by instinct.
There was a fire door in the back of the building that someone had used for just that purpose. It was still propped open, and I stepped close to it. I reached out and touched the door, and then immediately pulled my hand away. It was hot!
But for some reason the searing pain in my right hand didn't squelch my plan. I wasn't sure what I was doing…only that I wasn't going to be stopped by a hot door.
I shut my eyes and started chanting in much the same way Erin had been chanting before. But not questions. I was chanting answers.
"It's not going to hurt you," I told myself. "Mind over matter."
There was a lagging doubt in the back of my mind that this wouldn't work, but I continued chanting until I had shoved that out of my mind. "Mind over matter," I repeated. "No pain."
Would it really work or was I insane to even try? I didn't know, and I didn't think about it. I just kept repeating.
From the side of the building I heard the firemen shouting, and I knew they were headed towards me. It was now or never. Just before they rounded the corner, I took one deep breath and entered the building.
"Mind over matter," I repeated to myself. "Mind over matter."
It wasn't as hot as I'd thought it would be. That was the first thought that entered my mind after I 'd stepped into the burning building. I began to climb the stairs, headed for Geri and Kyla's second-floor room. The stairs were partially missing, the railing was burning hot, and as I passed the first floor, I saw that it had been entirely devoured by fire.
"Mind over matter," I repeated as I climbed the next flight of stairs. I barely felt the railing as I reached the second floor.
Suddenly, there was a loud roar, and I heard the firemen below screaming, probably half in pain and half in surprise. It was to be expected. The first two flights of stairs had collapsed entirely, only seconds after I had stepped off of them.
Trying hard to slow my rapidly beating heart and keep my idea, I entered the hallway. The fire was coming from the stairs behind me and the stairs in front of me. If there was a way to get Kyla and Geri out, it would be through the window, I realized.
I tried to open the door, but it was locked. I began to pound on the door and scream loudly.
"Kyla! Geri! Are you in there? Wake up!" I heard stirrings from inside the room.
"Huh?" I thought I heard a voice mumble.
"The building's on fire!" I shouted. "Get out!"
There was a scurry of feet and a tirade of "oh shit's" and "crap's" coming from the room. One of them gripped the handle to turn.
"No, don't!" I tried to warn them, but it was too late. The doorknob was too hot for them to touch.
"Ow!" I heard Kyla shout. "That's hot!"
"Shit, how are we getting out of here?" Geri shouted.
"The window!" I called back. "You gotta go out the window!"
"The window?" Geri asked.
"There's people out there. You can't go this way. The fire's coming." I coughed, the smoke beginning to get to me. "Go!" I shouted, realizing I'd have to get out of there too if I didn't want to end up a piece of living toast.
"What about you?" one of them shouted.
"Just go!" I shouted back. "Get the hell out of here!" They must have obeyed because I heard shouting from the outside and then silence from the room.
I turned back towards the flames with a sense of dread. They were getting closer by the second. "Mind over matter," I reminded myself, getting focused once again. It was harder now, with the smoke filling my lungs. But I wasn't about to allow the fire to get me. Not when I'd gotten so far.
"Mind over matter," I repeated as I headed for the stairs down the hall from me. "I can do this." I gritted my teeth and ran as quickly as I could down the flight of stairs. I steeped out the building and took a deep breath before I collapsed on to the ground.
