THE REAL (LIFE) ADVENTURES OF JONNY QUEST
"Inferno"
Part II
written by Dark Sentinel
Hadji awoke a few minutes later. He smelled something smoky, and he
heard a strange roaring sound. Dreading what it could be, he crept over
to his door and cautiously extended his hand. He shrieked and leapt
back. His doorknob was glowing with heat, and his door was scalding
hot. He got down on his hands and knees and looked under the door.
Sure enough, he could see fire. Screaming violently, he began pounding
on all of his walls to wake everyone up. He soon could see licks of
flame beginning to travel along the carpet and enter his room. "Oh no,
this is not good!" he yelped. Hadji dashed to his window and opened it
up as wide as it would go. With a fierce kick, the tan-skinned boy
popped out the screen. He wiggled furiously for a few minutes, then was
at last safe outside, shivering in the snow.
Jonny opened the door. He nearly tripped over Bandit, who ran to the
stair ledge and began barking with all his might. Jonny saw smoke
traveling up the smooth ceiling to the second floor, and he could feel
the heat intensely. "Good boy," he said, stooping down and picking up
his faithful friend. He dashed downstairs, screaming. "JESSIE!
HADJI! JESSIEEEE! HADJIIIIII!"
Bandit ran ahead of him, and into the living room where Jessie had
still miraculously not woken up. The bulldog stood up on his hind legs,
looked into her face, and barked. When she still did not stir, he bit
her face, hard.
Jessie screamed and woke up. "Bandit! What the...?!" She saw the
state of the living room. "OH NO!"
Jonny slid down the stairs on his back after Bandit to stay under the
smoke. He crawled into the living room and saw Jessie's smudged,
bleeding face. "Come on!" he cried.
Jessie and Jonny crawled through the living room, ducking flaming
embers, and into the den. Jonny, who was in the lead, stopped for a
moment, head hanging as he coughed violently. "I can't...breathe..." he
gasped.
Bandit, who could not see nor hear where Jessie and Jonny had gone due
to the flames, was soon trapped in a ring of fire in the living room.
He ran in circles, panicked, yipping violently and desperately seeking a
way out. But his racket was quickly engulfed by the roar of blaze.
Hadji just stood a few moments out in the snow, unsure of what to do.
Then, without even a thought, his feet turned and he sprinted towards
the lighthouse as fast as he could go. There was a phone in there...had
to get help...
"No! Don't stop!" Jessie bellowed. She crawled up next to him and
slapped him hard across his dampened, sooty back. "GO!"
Jonny's eyes were tearing profusely and his face was black. Small
channels of fair skin could be seen where he had been sweating. "I
can't see!" he rasped. Jessie inhaled sharply when she realized that
his asthma was kicking in due to the smoke. She had to think of some
way to lead him to safety, otherwise they both would get burned in the
inferno...
Jessie began coughing herself, but she slowed herself down and put one
flap of her bathrobe over her nose. Jonny was only wearing a pair of
boxers, so as they slowly proceeded through the kitchen, Jessie reached
into a low drawer and pulled out a dish towel. Jonny reached to take
it, but was halted again by another violent coughing spell.
Jessie was slowly becoming faint with dizziness. The smoke was
everywhere; she could not even see her hand in front of her face. The
only way she knew that she was even near Jonny was his frenzied
hacking. Jonny put the cloth over his mouth and nose, and she heard a
muffled, "Let's go.". The red-head felt along slowly, using her
hands as her eyes. She felt the kitchen cabinets, an open space that
led down to the basement...
"I think I'm gonna *cough* pass out..." she heard a squeaky voice
presently. The extreme heat engulfing her caused her hair to cling to
the back of her neck and sweat to pour from her forehead. Her breath
came in gasps, but they had to carry on.
At last Jessie felt the garbage can to her left. Just a few more feet
and they would be at the back door! She heard a thump just then, and
upon calling Jonny's name received no response. Using one hand to hold
the cloth to her face, and the other to hold Jonny, she wobbled over to
the door on her knees and hastily unlocked it. She kicked the next
door, which was entirely made of screen, right through and pulled
herself out. Jessie reached back in and pulled Jonny out. They both
fell into a crumpled heap on the doorstep.
Jessie sat on the stoop for a moment, gasping for air. She looked to
her side. Jonny's face was rapidly turning a blueish color. She poked
him, but he did not stir.
"Jessie!" Jessie looked up and was relieved to see Hadji, safe and
sound, run towards her. "Where is Jo–oh no!"
"He's unconscious and probably having an asthma attack!" Jessie
lamented. "What're we gonna do?!"
Just then, the wail of sirens halted her. A firefighter ran around to
the back of the house seconds later. "Is anyone still inside or hurt?"
she asked urgently.
"No one's inside, but my friend here is unconscious, and he was having
an asthma attack when I got him out," Jessie put in quickly.
"He's going to catch pneumonia if he stays out here...I'll get him to
the ambulance right away." The firefighter reached over and picked up
the limp 14-year old's body.
Jessie and Hadji could do nothing more than watch as their home went up
in flame. The entire house was now on fire. Suddenly, Jessie froze.
"BANDIT!"
__________________________________________________________________________
--Dark Sentinel
(
geocities.com/televisioncity)