The Right to Die | ✓ Amby Winner 2023

2. Hello New World Order

"We said no one dies."

"Rot and ruin, we can argue about this later! Let's get out of here."

M'yu shook his head and tossed the linkcard he'd swiped from Alley-Cap to her. She barely caught it before the priceless tool tumbled to the snow. "Go."

M'yu turned toward the raging fire and ran.

The fire crackled and lit the scene with ghastly clarity. Sweat dripped down the futile firefighters' brows. A few bodies lay among the snow and ash, slit necks painting the white pink. The fire whooshed, a beam collapsing inward.

"You're not gonna put it out!" he shouted at the men and dashed past them full-speed into the building.

The heat hit like a wall, and he gasped, then coughed up smoke. Yanking his beanie off, he used it to cover his mouth. His eyes ran, and he searched through the blur. The fire roared the hardest to the left; Karsya must have tossed the bomb through one of those windows. Screams echoed from upstairs. Footfalls thudded behind him. Through the smoke, outlines of soldiers stormed the building with him. They followed the screams.

M'yu ducked his head and ran the opposite way.

He'd been surveilling this house for weeks, monitoring light usage, figuring out when everyone went to sleep, looking for the sweet zone to catch them off guard. Most of the bedrooms were upstairs.

A flaming beam fell, and M'yu dived past it. Scrambling up, the heat of the floor almost burned his feet, and he ran harder for the one bedroom tucked away from all the others.

The fire grew hotter, beams weakening around him. He ducked past falling wood and flaming debris. Through the smoke, the door appeared. The frame was askew, and someone pounded weakly on the other side.

"Back up!" M'yu called and coughed. He threw himself against it. "Back up!"

Cracks ran through the frame, and M'yu used his bruised body as a battering ram again and again. Sweat drenched his skin, smoke burned his lungs, and dark spots pressed his sight. He crashed against the door, and the frame finally gave way. Smoke filled the room. One entire wall roared in fire. A girl about his age lay on the floor opposite it, wheezing.

World spinning, M'yu pulled her to her feet, stringing her arm behind his neck. He passed her the beanie, and, holding his breath, ran back the way he came.

The house was a fire maze. Smoke made paths almost unrecognizable; fallen beams made others unpassable. M'yu desperately reached for any memory of windows and doors in the security plans, but the thoughts danced away, a mirage in the heat. He spun, searching.

There. Near the floor. A hole in the fire, a beam raised caught at a diagonal, just enough space to crawl beneath. The girl went limp on his shoulder, and M'yu staggered. Recovering his balance, he pressed the beanie back against her face, dragged her over to the beam, and lowered her down. Past the break, military boots ran out the open front door.

"Over here!" M'yu coughed and gagged, his strained voice blending in with the crackle of the flames. Teeth grit, M'yu grabbed the girl's wrists and crawled backward through the hole.

The heat intensified; M'yu's head lolled. His fingers loosened on the girl, vision growing darker—

Control. He dragged the both of them past the hole and into the entryway just before everything went black.

* * *

M'yu's whole body ached. As he floated to consciousness, he tried to remember who'd beat him up this time. One of his gang members? A starving thief? A brute of the Magnate's?