Running

"Let's get out of here already."

TW: Cursing, themes of death, fire, violence

Virgil's POV:

The scream that inturrupted our conversation draws the attention of all six of us. We hesitate for a moment before Roman steps past me and opens the door to the room.

Oh. I get why they were screaming now.

As we step into the room, we see that it the far left corner has been doused by fire. The heat of it makes me cringe, as I can only imagine how much warmth is radiating off of it for the kids who are actually close to it, further into the space.

It doesn't take me long to figure out that the culprit who started the blaze was Ezran.

They look guilty and scared, and it is their power. I'd assume the yelling and me kind of killing a man set off their powers.

I can see that both Roman and Remus immediately go into battle mode, running towards the flames to grab some kids around the ages of 5, because they probably think: 'Ooh, fire pretty!' and wanna touch it as their immediate reaction.

"Right, I guess we were planning on leaving anyway, we're just gonna have to be a bit quicker because the building is on fire." Logan says, looking to me.
"Hah, yeah.." I pause. "Seriously though, we should go, like right now-"

"CMON GUYS!" Patton shouts, making the kids all start to hesitantly walk towards the door, some running out of fear.

I count them as they filter through, the fire getting a lot bigger and starting to become more of a problem.

33, 34, 35, 36.
When they're all out I take a look back to Quinne's body on the floor and run over, feeling a little bad as I pry her teddy bear from her cold, dead hands.

She looks so peaceful. Her hair is slightly over her face and her lips are parted as if air would be passing through them if it weren't for the drying blood covering her torso. After pulling the bear away, her hand falls slightly and lands on the floor, lifefless as ever.

I bend down on one knee and pull her both of her hands to be lying on her chest, as if she were in a coffin rather than here.
"I'm sorry."

She doesn't respond.
Not that I expected her to.

"Virgil!"

I turn myself around to see Patton at the door, beckoning me over pretty hastily. Right, yeah.

Before I'm gonna leave, I see Ezran standing up against the wall, and I take one last look back and Quinne and run over to them.
"Hey, Ez- Come on, we need to go-"

They hesitate, looking back to the floor and shaking slightly.
The fire isn't waiting for us to leave. Infact, it's spreading quickly, so I grab their wrist and pull them away from the wall, starting to run and forcing them to do so to in order to not be pulled over and draggeed along the floor by the force I'm holding them at.

I get that they're scared, genuinely, I do. But I can calm them down when we aren't at risk of being burnt alive.
Priorities, you know?

When we get out the door of the room and into the corridor, I have a thought.

If I set off the fire alarm, it'll open the doors to the cells, yeah? And, even though they're already open, that'll log. Which would give the media and general government the impression that the lab somehow caught on fire, and oh so tragically, none of the staff survived.

Only us.

"Virge?" Patton calls to me while we're running, since we're behind most of the others, who are also probably sprinting to leave before we get crisped-up like when your dad would burn the chips in the oven and set the smoke alarm off.