Fenton looked up, startled by the sound of the ringing phone.  As the man who answered, murmured softly into the phone he glanced at his prisoners and smirked.  Fenton felt a knot begin to form in the pit of his stomach.  Something had gone wrong.  Maybe Ellison got cold feet about contacting the boys and Sam; maybe the ringleader found out about it; maybe things just happened too quickly… Whatever the reason, Fenton realized he and Kevin had just run out of time.

The man who had answered the phone was now putting it back in his pocket, the conversation apparently over.  The second man was already upstairs in the main part of the house.  Fenton heard the front door open and then footsteps echoing on the porch.

“Gentlemen, you’ve been extremely cooperative and I do appreciate that.  However, my partner and I have to be going now.”  Without further explanation, he turned and walked up the stairs, closing and locking the door behind him.

“What? What the-” Kevin began.

“Shhh!” Fenton hissed, cutting him off.  Straining, Fenton heard two sets of footsteps walking around the house accompanied by muffled voices.  The first man had returned…but why?  A moment later, a strong, pungent odor began seeping into the basement.  The footsteps and voices faded away, then disappeared completely, leaving the echo of the front door being slammed shut in their place.

Kevin sniffed the air.  “That smells like…”

“Gasoline,” Fenton finished grimly. He turned to Kevin, determined that at least one of them would get out alive.  “You need to get out of here.”

“Not without you,” Kevin replied, surprising Fenton.

“Kevin, I can barely walk.  I’ll just slow you down.  At least if you get out, you can get help.”

“But, I can’t just leave…” Kevin stopped, looking up the stairs at the closed door.  He sniffed the air again and cocked his head slightly.  “Oh, my God…” he said, paling considerably.

Fenton, too, listened to the intermittent crackle and pop coming from the other side of the basement door.  He smelled the smoke, now mixing with the gasoline.

“They set the house on fire!” Kevin cried out.

“Which means you have to get out – now!”

“But – how?  They locked the door on the way out.  I don’t know-”

“Do you have a credit card on you?”  Fenton asked calmly.

“Y-yes,” Kevin stammered, looking at Fenton utterly confused.

“When you get to the door, slide the credit card in between the frame and the door right where the lock is.  Jiggle it up and down a few times, until the lock pops,” Fenton explained, amused at the shocked expression on Kevin’s face. ‘Guess every kid doesn’t learn how to do that before their sixteenth birthday.’

“Uh… okay…” Kevin replied, looking a little dubious.  He stood up, looking down on Fenton.  “Are you sure you won’t come?  I can help you; that way we can both make it out of here.”

Fenton glanced up the steps as smoke began curling under and around the door, seeping into the basement.  He could feel the room had gotten hotter just in the past few minutes.  ‘Heat and smoke rise,’ Fenton thought.  The fire was a lot more intense and spreading much faster than he’d anticipated.  The floor above them would be engulfed in minutes, cutting off the only avenue of escape.

“Kevin, you have to get out now or you’ll be trapped down here.  Get one of the hand towels from the bathroom.  Saturate it with cold water and hold it over your nose and mouth.  It’ll help cut down on the amount of smoke you inhale,” he instructed.

As sweat dripped into his eyes, Kevin seemed to finally understand the urgency.  He rushed into the bathroom where Fenton heard the water running for a moment.  Kevin returned with two towels, handing one to Fenton.

“Thanks,” Fenton smiled.  Reaching into his pocket, Fenton pulled out his cell phone and offered it to Kevin.  “Call for help as soon as you’re outside, but get as far away from the house as possible.”

Kevin looked at him, puzzled.

“In case it explodes,” Fenton explained grimly.  “Now go!”  He watched as Kevin ran up the steps, and disappeared into the smoky haze at the top.  Listening intently, he heard Kevin struggling with the locked door, muttering a few curses and then a muffled shout of joy.

“Get on your knees and crawl out!”  Fenton called out, coughing on the last few words.  “Close the door behind you!”  he yelled as smoke poured into the room.  He picked up the soaked towel and put it over his face. As he heard the door click shut, he leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes.  The smoke had already started to burn his eyes and throat and he choked back a cough, wondering what had gone wrong….

*****

Immediately upon entering the kitchen, Kevin dropped to his knees.  Trying to hold the towel over his face with one hand and crawl at the same time proved almost impossible.  The cloth quickly slipped from his grasp.

‘No!’ he thought, trying not to let panic get the better of him.  He tried to hold his breath, while patting the floor around him.  The smoke was already so thick he couldn’t even see his hand in front of his face!!  After what seemed like an eternity, but couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, he gave up.  ‘Gotta get out of here!’

Keeping his head low, Kevin began crawling blindly into the smoke.  Hearing the crackle of fire to his left, Kevin veered to the right.  He’d only crawled a few feet, when a wall of heat came out of nowhere, feeling like a blast furnace.  Turning around, he headed back the way he’d come – at least that’s what he was hoping for.  Unable to hold his breath, Kevin took in a small lungful of air and began coughing uncontrollably.  He felt lightheaded as dots of light danced in front of his eyes.  The room began to spin and the last thing Kevin saw before he was engulfed in darkness was the floor coming up to meet him.

*****

Joe flew out of the car and up the steps of the porch, knowing Frank was right on his heels.  Reaching out, Joe grabbed the door knob, yelped in pain and instinctively jumped back.  Trying to shake off the pain, Joe watched as Frank reached out, the sleeve of his jacket covering his hand and opened the door.  Both of them immediately ducked down, as a wall of black smoke billowed out and encircled them.

Joe lifted the neck of his t-shirt and pulled it up over his nose and mouth.  Dropping to his knees, he crawled into the burning house.  Frank was following so closely behind him, Joe could feel him brushing up against his feet.  Unable to see anything, Joe pushed ahead moving on sheer instinct.  Vince Ellison had included a crude floor plan with the letter he’d sent and Joe tried to visualize it in his mind. 

He crawled several feet and then veered sharply to the right, making sure Frank was still right behind him.  Already his shirt was soaked with sweat and sticking to his back.  He kept his head low and took short, shallow breaths, knowing to inhale the smoke and its deadly gasses would be suicide.

Trying to keep track of how far he’d gone, Joe moved slightly to his left and ran into something…a body!  Reaching back, he grabbed Frank’s arm and yanked hard.  Frank quickly scrambled to his side, patting the floor with his hands.  Suddenly a tiny beam of light pierced the smoky darkness.  Frank’s penlight, Joe realized.  He held his breath as Frank played the beam of light over the body, hoping it would reveal they’d found their father.  As the smoke swirled and momentarily cleared, Joe’s heart sank.  He recognized his cousin’s face from the pictures in his home.

Without a word or gesture to his brother, Joe crawled over Kevin’s prone body, intent on finding the basement door.  He knew Frank would get Kevin out of the house, and, if Joe hadn’t emerged with Fenton by the time he got Kevin to safety, would return to help find their father.

Joe pressed forward, picturing the floor plan in his mind.  Stretching a hand out to his right, he encountered something hard and smooth – the leg of a chair or table. He pushed it slightly and heard it scrape across the floor a few inches.  Confident he was in the kitchen, Joe picked up the pace and crawled several more feet.  Stopping, he reached out to his left.

‘Yes!’ he thought triumphantly as he felt a doorframe.  Pulling his shirtsleeve down over his hand, he ran it up the door until he found the doorknob.  Grasping it, he turned and pulled, relief flooding through him as the door easily opened.

Scrambling through it onto the landing, he yanked the door shut.  The smoke wasn’t quite as thick in here allowing Joe to peer down the stairs into the room below.  His heart leapt as he saw his father, on the opposite side of the room, seated on the floor with a towel over the lower part of his face.

Taking the steps two at a time Joe practically flew down the stairs to Fenton’s side.  “Dad!  Dad, are you okay?”  Joe cried out, grasping his father’s shoulder. Relief flooded through him as Fenton slowly opened his eyes.  The towel fell away from his face and he smiled tiredly.

“I knew you’d make it,” he said softly.

“You better believe it,” Joe agreed.  “How’s your leg?  Can you stand on it?”

Fenton nodded gamely, already trying to struggle to his feet.  Joe looped an arm around his waist and helped him to his feet.  Fenton hissed in pain and fell against Joe as he tried to put some weight on his injured leg.  Joe stumbled slightly, but quickly recovered.  Readjusting his grip on his father’s waist, he took Fenton’s other arm and slung it over his own shoulder.

“Ready?” Joe asked, knowing it was a useless question.  Whether Fenton was ready or not, they were running out of time.  In fact, Joe wasn’t exactly sure how they were going to make it out of the house.

“Let’s go,” Fenton rasped, his voice filled with pain.

Joe pulled his own shirt up over his face and then reached over and did the same for his father.  Lurching forward, the two staggered up the steps, with Joe trying to keep both of them upright.  Reaching the top of the steps, Joe reached out and turned the knob pushing the door open.  They were instantly engulfed in a cocoon of darkness.

“This way,” Joe said hoarsely, peering through the smoky haze.

As they slowly moved towards the front door, Joe readjusted his grip to get a more secure hold on his father. He could hear Fenton hissing in pain each time he put even a little bit of weight on his injured leg.  Turning in what he hoped was the right direction, Joe stopped and felt his heart drop to his feet.  Their escape route was now blocked by a solid wall of flames!

“Back door,” Fenton said, tugging on Joe’s arm.

Joe maneuvered the two of them around and started back the way he’d come.  In the short time it took them to retrace their steps, the flames had spread and were now licking at the walls all around them.  The heat was becoming unbearable and breathing was nearly impossible.  Joe felt Fenton sagging against him and knew his father was close to losing consciousness.  Joe himself wasn’t much better off.

“Almost there, Dad,” Joe coughed out.  His head was starting to spin. Not knowing how much longer he could support both of them, Joe wished they could just sprint for the door that periodically appeared and then disappeared from view as the black smoke grew thicker still and swirled about them. 

“Only a few more feet…that’s it….” Joe kept up the steady stream of encouraging words to his father, all the while staring at the spot where the door would randomly appear, willing it to move closer to them.  It seemed as if the journey across the house to the back door had taken forever, although he knew it had been less than thirty seconds since the wall of flames had blocked their access.

Blinking rapidly in a feeble attempt to keep the smoke out of his eyes, Joe was relieved to see the door was now visible and within reach.  Joe shook his arm vigorously until the sleeve of his shirt covered his hand. Reaching out, he grabbed the doorknob, grimacing at the intensity of the heat emanating from it despite the fabric covering his skin. 

“We made it, Dad!” he grinned.  Turning the knob he pushed the door open and felt a cool blast of air.

Just as they stepped through the doorway, Joe heard a loud whoosh from behind and suddenly found himself airborne.  He flew through the air for several seconds and was slammed to the ground with such force he swore he felt his teeth rattle.  Thinking only about his father, Joe tried to get up before the burning debris falling from the sky buried him.  Shakily getting to his knees, Joe looked around for his father, wincing as something struck him in the back and fell to the ground.  A broken, smoldering two-by-four landed on his legs, balancing precariously across the back of his calves.

Reaching behind him to push it off, Joe never saw the piece of metal coming at him with deadly speed.  Pain exploded on the side of his head as Joe crumpled to the ground, unconscious.  Flaming and smoking wreckage continued falling from the sky.  Within seconds, he was almost completely covered by pieces of the burning house, only his left arm and leg visible under the pile of rubble.