HoloNet Buddies

[hk47fan]

Sister Ethea pulled Niko up, and then she rushed inside, looking around frantically for Abbi. "Wait till Miss Jinkins hears about this!" she commented in a yell, then continued to look around for Abbi. She saw a few burnt bodies, but nothing much. However, soon, she saw a girl struggling with the flames. "Niko, that may be her!"

[RobbyL9]

"Oh man. Abbi! Are you okay?!" Niko rushed into the kitchen and saw that familiar face. The flames were everywhere and were only spreading. Smoke filled the room and it was so hot Niko felt like he might pass out. "We need something to put the fire out with or this watch is going to become part of my skin!"

Wait... Watch... No! Computer! "Sister, look for a fire extinguisher. I will be right back!" Niko said seconds before disappearing outside and running towards the speeder.

[Abby]

Abbi writhed in the flames, tears rolling down her face. She shied away from the fire, but every movement caused the hot metal around her wrist to bump into more skin, blistering it more severely than she could’ve thought possible. Fire, she thought hopelessly, glancing at the destruction around her. The world will end in flames.

Her skin was hot and fevered from the heat, and she could feel the datapad beneath her jacket beginning to warm. She let out a scream of frustration, pulling at the handcuffs for all she was worth. She let out another, lower yelp of pain when they burned ever deeper into her wrist.

She was inhaling too much smoke. Her world was red, orange, and blue–so bright that it caused he actual pain to keep her eyes open. Were they tearing up with frustration and hopelessness, or was it just the smoke?

She sobbed in earnest, heart beating ever harder against her ribs as she pulled at the handcuff. The ceiling buckled underneath the pressure, and she pressed herself away from the path of its’ fall.

With her free hand, she used the handle of her knife to bash open the pipe she was bound to. Cool, heavenly water washed over her burning wrist. Gentle coils of steam rose in the air from where it touched the hot metal. The handcuff was caught before a fork of two pipes, though–so she was, for all reasons, stuck.

Her head was pounding. Her lungs screamed.

All she could hear was her heart, an uneven beat against her mind.

Bam... bam.

I will end in flames, she thought.

Bam... bam.

She closed her eyes hopelessly.

BAM.

“Abbi! ABBI!”

“What the hell is it?” she grumbled, turning back around to struggle with the handcuffs. She was going insane, that had to be it. Insane, insane, insane. She was afraid, heart hammering and tears obscuring her vision. Her hands shook with the rush of adrenaline.

She tried to hold on. She tried to. She could see her vision narrowing, and even breathing the air from under the sink brought her no respite from the smoke. She coughed violently, breathing into her shirt.

I can’t die like this.

Her vision was nearly spent. She thought she could see somebody moving in the flames. Their voice came from far away. “Niko! That may be her!”

There was a brief commotion. And then: “Oh man. Abbi! Are you okay?!"

There was a dark spot in the flames. She closed her eyes. All sounds seemed to be coming from somewhere else, somewhere underwater. "We need something to put the fire out with or this watch is going to become part of my skin!"

She blinked, still struggling feebly against the handcuffs that bound her to her own personal stake.

“...will be right back...”

Embers from the flames were everywhere, brightening her vision for a second. She heard her breathing–a labored, coughing sound–the loudest. Her head was about to explode.

She let out a long, pleading wail when the embers reached her, burning golf-ball sized welts on her legs and arms. “Ahhh,” she whispered hoarsely. “I’m fine, HK,” she muttered. “Don’t send RJ...”

Her datapad was in her jacket. She’d never reach it to tell him.

[hk47fan]

Sister Ethea rushed outside for a moment, and literally ripped a fire extinguisher off the wall. With that, she rushed back inside, the extinguisher in one hand, and the Bible in the other. "GOD'S SERVANTS ARE HERE!" she proclaimed, and she ran towards the flames and began spraying the extinguisher everywhere.

[Abby]

Her own hell was suddenly draped in snow... it was the world ending. She'd survived one. Now the cold would destroy her.

She was delirious, she knew. Really, really delirious. But the snow made the pain go away, and she finally relaxed. She lay on the floor, her arm still hooked to the pipe, and just breathed the cool air, knowing she'd be colder later. But right now, she welcomed it.

And the flames went away. She sighed through her nose, eyes closed in a semblance of relief. The datapad still burned within her chest, but she realized that was her lungs. They still burned, but not as bad now. Maybe she could get a message sent sooner than she thought.

Then she came back to her senses, and vision cam eback with a suddeness that surprised her.

"Oh," she whispered. "Ohhhh my head."

[hk47fan]

"Thank goodness you're alive, girl, I know my God wouldn't have been happy if those sinners got their wish!" Sister Ethea exclaimed as she looked down at Abbi and all the flames went away, she slowly tried to lift Abbi up and got her arm unhooked from the pipe "Can you hear me?"

[Abby]

The adrenaline was still there, burning away the pain she knew would be immobilizing tomorrow. “Oh my...” she whispered, shaking uncontrollably. She knew it was from fatigue and adrenaline burning through her system, and hoped it would pass quickly. “Oh my...” It was all she could manage.

She noticed that the handcuff wasn’t on her wrist anymore and dropped to her knees to wrestle it off. She slid the fire extinguisher foam in there, making it slick. Her burns flared at the touch, but she managed to wriggle it out. She sat on her haunches, opening and closing her fist to get circulation back. Her entire wrist was blackened and red like somebody had cooked it over an open flame. She probed it curiously with her hand. She couldn’t feel anything anymore, and wondered if that was good or not.

She took the handcuffs in her good hand and threw them down the collapsed basement stairs in a fit of anger, but it was more of a weak toss than anything. She let out a woosh of air and turned back to her rescuer.

“I can’t...” she whispered, face twisted up. “I can’t... believe this.”

[hk47fan]

"Well, Satan's servants were trying to get to you. I saw him very briefly, oh yes I did. But the Lord won again, and while lives have been taken, you have survived. Those sinners ain't gone get nowhere now." Sister Ethea said to Abbi "Your friend is somewhere around here too."

[Abby]

"Niko," Abbi muttered. "Idiot. The idiot followed me here. Gah, dammit!"

It was just adrenaline talking, she knew. But she plowed on anyway.

"He tried to kill me... I fought him. I could've killed him... I could've killed him."

[hk47fan]

"Honey, God don't condone no killing. If you did such a horrible sin, unless it had to be done, you'd be just like those evil servants of the devil! And Lord, Miss Jinkins would've had a fit. You gotta resist the temptation that Satan is putting on you!!!" Sister Ethea exclaimed, waving her Bible around "And Niko was just doing the Lord's work, just like me. However, that boy has been doing some serious sinning lately, but I'm getting him into shape."

[Abby]

Abbi wiped soot from her forehead, still shaking. "Yeah... he's a weird guy," she muttered, staring out into the distance.

Above, the ceiling rumbled.

"We should go before CorSec gets here," she muttered.

[hk47fan]

"You're right. They would not understand God's work." Sister Ethea said, motioning for Abbi to follow her out of the apartment as she quickly threw the extinguisher away and headed for the exit

[Abby]

Abbi stumbled ahead of her, exhausted. She thought of Deej, all over there at Naboo, and thought of Houston. She could imagine she knew what they were thinking right now, and she imagined she brushed their minds with her's. I could have kill him, she whispered.

Niko was rummaging around in the speeder when she stumbled out, clutching the wall for assistance.

[RobbyL9]

"I got it! I got it! I g-" Niko cried, running back to the place he was before and stopping, dumbfounded. He had actually gone out to the speeder, picked up his computer and ripped the coolant tank out of it, in the hopes of using the liquid coolant to put out the fire. But apparently, Sister Ethea had taken his words about finding a fire extinguisher to heart.

And now here he was, with a wrecked computer, a forcibly-removed coolant tank and egg all over his face. "Uh, hi... Abbi." he managed to embarrassingly force out "Uh... I'm glad you're not dead." Cringing, he face-palmed himself with the coolant tank, realizing all at once he had just almost left his only friend to die.

[Reza]

Reza immediatley grabbed her Laptop when she was free and signed onto MSN. She groaned to see no one online.
"Hmph, I'm finally free and have electronics, and no one can talk to me. I hate Murphy's law." She went online and looked up the exlosion of the school. When she saw the fatalities number she froze. Missing persons was even larger.
What if Abbi or Rabby had died, or were missing? If any of her friends had been hurt, she just might go crazy.
"Calm down, Reza, they're probably fine. Everyone's fine. They'll get on later." She told hersolf as she closed the computer. "Just read a book and listen to music. Someone will get on later." For some reason she spoke to herself in the third person.
She couldn't focus her eyes on the words in her book. She was too freaked out to do anything. She grabbed her laptop and looked at the news in full detail again. She was- for once- disgusted by all the deaths.