True-Life Adventure

came right out of left field. I had no more idea they were somewhere inside me than I’d known I was going to be coming through a window thirty seconds earlier. But there they were, so I got up. Freddie was on his way through the window, the same one I’d crashed through. Sardis was flopping, hard, onto one of the plushy sofas, and Koehler was withdrawing his arm. His hand had a tape in it.
    Koehler took off down the corridor, making for the way out. I caught him in the reception room, bringing him down with one of my leftover high school tackles. We rolled over and over, from one end of the small room to the other, neither able to get the advantage.
    I had him by the jaw, trying to push it back and snap his neck, and he had me by the jaw-holding hand. I heard a commotion and then someone— Freddie, I realized later— started grabbing at Koehler. Koehler kicked and Freddie went down, knocking over the wood stove.
    It separated from its chimney, pouring smoke into the room. The door fell open and burning wood flew out. The drapes caught fire.
    Koehler was on his feet before I was, battling Susanna and Sardis, who by now had made it to the reception room. They flailed at him, but he got past and started up the stately wooden stairway to the second deck. The fire roared up past him. We ran back down the corridor, toward the back stairs. Or Sardis did, and I followed. Susanna and Freddie followed me.
    The sensible thing to do at that moment would have been simply to go out the front door, leaving Koehler aboard the burning ferry. But I wasn’t going anywhere without Sardis. I didn’t know what Susanna and Freddie were thinking of, though later it came clear— Freddie had left his Minicam in the focus group room and they weren’t going anywhere without it. I found out later they picked it up, then tried to get out the front door like grown-ups, but by that time the fire was blocking the exit. So they ended up tearing up the back stairs somewhat behind Sardis and me.
    The air on the second level was already gray with smoke and rapidly turning black. Up there, there was also one sensible course— go out on deck and yell for help. But Sardis, in some primitive frenzy, tore down the corridor, apparently bent on killing Koehler with her bare hands. My plan was to catch her, subdue her, and drag her to safety, by the hair, if necessary.
    I was gaining on her, only inches away, when she bumped smack into Koehler, who was running right toward us. The impact spun her toward me and I hit the side of the corridor. She fell back against me, and Koehler, once recovered from the blow, tried to run past us. Sardis stuck out her foot and tripped him. Then she hit the deck, arms flying, boxing his ears, his shoulders, straddling him, pounding him with her tiny fists. Then she started to cough.
    I pulled her off him, and once again he started running toward the back exit. The smoke was awful and I was pretty sure we were going to a watery grave if we stayed there much longer, but it turned out there was no choice.
    Just as Koehler got a good start, and we had a certain momentum behind him, he hit something and reeled back toward Sardis, who reeled back toward me. All three of us went down. There was an awful crash up ahead as Freddie, the thing he’d hit, reeled back toward Susanna and they both went down.
    The smoke was pretty black now, and besides that, it was so irritating you couldn’t really keep your eyes open. So I guess Koehler and Freddie didn’t see each other when they scrambled up. I could see them only as silhouettes. The silhouettes bumped heads with a nasty whack. Freddie reeled again. Really reeled— went around almost a full turn— and landed in Susanna’s arms. She hit the side of the corridor and swayed for a minute. Then her knees buckled and she started sinking, Freddie weighing her down. Koehler zipped past them.
    Freddie was coughing and so was Sardis, and so was I by that time. But Susanna wasn’t, and that worried me. I wanted to get her out of that smoke fast.
    Neither Sardis nor I could catch her before she hit the ground, Freddie on top of her. They completely blocked the corridor, so we couldn’t have chased Koehler even if we’d been free to.
    I heard the sound of broken glass— Koehler breaking out a window to get outside— and then there was a big whoosh and the fire roared closer, a thick orange cloud sweeping the corridor. Suddenly it was a furnace in there. And the orange cloud was