CHAPTER FIFTEEN - CASEY
I was standing at the bar when I heard an extraordinarily loud WHOOSH from the opposite end of the event room, toward the stage. I set down my beer and immediately swiveled around, my heart racing. That whoosh was a familiar sound. A painfully familiar one. And it was followed by equally horrific sounds: the screams and shouts of terrified concertgoers.
There was a rush of gray smoke billowing across the room. I hastily clambered up onto a bar stool to get a better view over the heads of the crowd and saw a bright orange glow. The music had come to an abrupt stop. The microphones squealed discordantly with feedback, and the speakers let out a series of ear-piercing buzzing sounds that made the floors tremble.
A wave of sudden heat radiated from the stage and across the room, reaching me and nearly knocking me off my bar stool. My pulse quickened. The noise in my head grew to a flat, deafening roar, and my instincts set in. I glanced around the room, squinting. I had to find the exits. I could make out the glowing EXIT signs in two places along the far wall to my right. From my place on the bar stool, I cupped my hands around my mouth and bellowed over the raucous din of frightened people.
“Attention, everyone! Please remain calm and make your way toward the two exits on the far wall. Move in an orderly fashion. Do not push or shove your neighbors. Move quickly and keep moving. Do not hold up the line for any reason. Move, people, move!” I shouted. The bartenders behind me had climbed over the counter to help shepherd people away from the stage and toward the exits. Meanwhile, there was something more pressing that I needed to tend to.
Luke. I didn’t see him.
The last I knew, he was still up near the stage. Near the source of the fire.
“Fuck,” I murmured. I jumped off of the bar stool and went pushing through the crowds, ignoring my own advice in my desperation to find the man I adored. I could not let this happen. Not here. Not now. I refused to leave this place without him.
Moments later there was another powerful cracking sound, and a bright flash of sparks and flame, followed by the screams of the crowd. They were no longer moving in an orderly fashion. Terror had taken control of the room, and now the crowds were rushing to the doors like lemmings off a cliff, blindly shoving their way through with no regard for anyone else.
I couldn’t expect any more from them than that. Normal people were not equipped to cope with this kind of primal terror. They went into fight-or-flight mode instantly, and no amount of cajoling or comforting from me would change that. Besides, as much as I wanted these people to survive, to be okay in the end, I was most worried about Luke. I had to find him. It was the singular thought thrumming like a steady beat in my mind. Find Luke. Help him. Save him.
As I shoved my way through the screaming throngs of people, I yanked out my cell phone and hammered out 9-1-1. I pressed the phone to my ear, barely able to even hear the dial tone over the din. Finally, I was able to make out the soft voice of the operator and I shouted into the receiver, “Fire at the Sentry Casino! Send everyone! We may have injured people, and the fire is spreading. Hurry the hell up! Now!” Without even waiting to try and hear what the operator had to say, I quickly hung up and then dialed another number: Chief Reyes’s direct office line.
He answered immediately and asked in his usual jovial tone, “What’s the occasion, Casey? Getting cold feet about coming back to work tomorrow?”
“Chief!” I yelled into the phone.
“Where the hell are you, boy?” he demanded, the tone of my voice and the roar of the crowd dawning on him. “What’s going on?”
“I’m at the Sentry Casino in the city, Chief. There’s a fire! People are hurt, and it’s getting worse. I think something malfunctioned with the pyrotechnics on the stage!” I explained. The receiver all but pressed to my lips as I shouted.
“Jesus, Casey! Did you call 9-1-1?”
“Of course, I did! But send our boys, too! Send everybody you can spare! This is bad,” I told him honestly. I hoped he couldn’t hear how frantic I sounded. Normally I was so under control, so calm in this kind of emergency. But this time, it was personal. These weren’t just strangers I had to save—Luke was in here somewhere. Possibly hurt.
“I’m on it. Hang in there, Casey. Do me proud, boy,” Chief said and hung up with a click.
I jammed the phone into my pocket and resumed my search. The crowds were dissipating now, the room clearing out slowly as the people hurried out into the hall. I was sure they were going to break the elevator trying to cram themselves in. But right now, I didn’t care about that. I wasn’t on duty. I was on a fucking date and I was not about to lose him. Not like this.
I was pushing my way through the crowd, fighting the urge to just shove people in my haste. I could see the stage now, the decorations and the curtains engulfed in bright raging flames. The band was rushing off the stage, abandoning their instruments and disentangling themselves from the cords and wires that had collapsed onto them. They all seemed to be upright and mobile except for the bassist, who looked to have been knocked out cold by a falling amp. I knew I needed to help them escape. But then the other three band members ran over and picked up the bassist, who was limp as a sack of potatoes. They leaped off the stage and ran along with the crowd, the bassist slung over the drummer’s shoulders.
Now that the crowd was thinning, I started to look down toward the floor, searching for anyone who had been knocked down or had fainted from smoke inhalation or plain old fear. Surely there were people present with heart conditions. Breathing problems. Health issues that would make them the most vulnerable in this catastrophe. Luke seemed to be so healthy, but I knew better than most people that even the strongest and toughest among us were no match for an inferno like this one.
The fire alarms were wailing, the room being sprinkled with water that was no match for the arching flames. I pushed on, my heart sinking lower and lower with every passing moment. Luke had to be here somewhere. He could not have just disappeared. The fire was rushing down the stage now, swallowing up the spots where the band members had stood mere minutes ago. They were lucky to have gotten out as fast as they did, and I hoped they would make it out of the room with the rest of the crowd. Meanwhile, I pressed on, even as the smoke grew thicker and darker. The sparks shot into the ceiling, no doubt igniting the insulation inside, feeding the fire. The air was getting choked with dark ash, and I covered my head as I bent closer to the floor, creeping along with my mission solidly in mind.
And then suddenly, I flashed back.
Back to that burning bungalow. To the scratchy ache of smoke in my lungs, choking me and blinding my eyes. To the wails and whimpers of a trapped, terrified little girl. Screaming for her life. Screaming for me to save her.
I shook my head, trying to throw off the memory. I needed to focus. I had to be in the moment. Luke needed me. I couldn’t get pulled backward. I had to be here, right now. I could feel my legs getting heavy, my body getting weaker as I breathed in the toxic smog.
“Luke,” I managed to choke out. “Luke!”
There was no answer but the silence and the crackling fire. I fell to my hands and knees, crawling along the filthy floor in search of a body. I squinted, my eyes burning. I wanted to close them, but I couldn’t. I could not risk missing a glimpse of Luke. He was here somewhere. I just knew it. It occurred to me, somewhat distantly, that perhaps he had gotten out with the rest of them and I had just missed it. But my heart, my instincts, told me differently. That guiding force within me pushed me to keep looking.
Finally, my hands collided with something soft—a face in the darkness. My heart skipped a beat. I grabbed for the body and yanked it close to my chest, cradling the head to my heart. Through the tears stinging in my eyes, I could just barely make out the curve of Luke’s lips. It was him, and he was out. Out cold.
Very cold. Despite the heat radiating through the room.
I had to get him out of here. Holding him up with one powerful arm, I began to crawl back away from the stage. I was weak now from breathing in fumes, and a dark voice in my head reminded me that I had a long, long way to go. That I was not moving fast enough. I was doing everything in my power, but it was not enough. I could feel my head getting heavy, my eyes closing as I struggled to breathe in the thick smoke. I moved on my hand and knees, refusing to give up, refusing to leave Luke behind to be consumed by fire. I pushed on for as long as I could, my mind playing and replaying the same scene over and over again like a movie reel.
Flash of light. Coughing. Screams. The searing pain in my cheek.
Flash of light. Coughing. Screams. The searing pain…
From the darkness emerged some larger shapes—men in full firefighter regalia, reaching through the smoke with both hands. I could no longer even tell if I was awake or not, cradling Luke to my chest desperately. And then as the hands reached down to grab me, it went dark.