Excerpt: Trial By Fire

Heero Lyn’s mind started racing. It was only a matter of time before he was smoked out. Or worse yet, if there was a slight downhill slope towards the door, gasoline, being of similar viscosity of water, could wash and start a fire in the room. Knowing he had to do something before he was either smoked out or burned, he did the only thing he could. Raising his foot, he kicked the push handle on the door. The door swung open before him, revealing a towering inferno before him.

The floor, the pillars, and even the roof of the corridor were blazing with white-hot flames. Over the crackle and snapping of the flames and the heat cooking his face, he could hear the shrill sound of the fire alarm going off. Oh, now it goes on, Heero Lyn thought bitterly. He looked through the blazing hall, searching for a fire extinguisher. And he saw one, just across the hall. Okay. One fire extinguisher. Heero Lyn looked down and saw that the flames were blocking the way. He only had one way to go…through the fire. And blazing gasoline was going to melting the soles of his shoes and the splash would likely catch his ankles on fire. Still, blazing ankles, death. He’d take the former any day.

Heero Lyn dashed into the fire, his shoes slipping and sliding on the blazing liquid on the floor. He could immediately feel gasoline-fed flames latch onto his ankle, but nothing would save him from getting that fire extinguisher and carbon dioxide-zing his way out of a flaming doom. Shattering the glass with force at the point of his elbow, Heero Lyn opened the door, took aim like Bruce Willis with a shotgun, and starting feeding the flames some good old-fashioned CO2.
The flames cowed in his presence, clearing a path for the physicist as he worked his way towards the stairs, ditching his shoes and dusting his ankles off with what was left of the fire extinguisher’s contents. The worst of it was over, but the smoke was still heavy. He had to get out, now, before the smoke claimed him and he ended up in the morgue with his girlfriend weeping over him.