The fire ate its way into the room, making choking smoke that Akin discovered he could breathe easier if he did not breathe through his mouth. He had a sair at his throat now, surrounded by large and strong sensory tentacles. These moved automatically to filter the smoke from the air he breathed.
But, still, no one came to help him. He would burn. He had no protection against fire.
He would die. Neci and her friend would destroy Human chances at a new world because they were drunk and out of their minds.
He would end.
He shouted and choked because he did not quite understand yet how to talk through a familiar orifice and breathe through an unfamiliar one.
Why was he being left to burn? People heard him. They must have heard! He could hear them now?running, shouting, their sounds blending into the snapping and roaring of the fire.
He managed to fall off the bed.
Landing was only a small shock. His sensory tentacles automatically protected themselves by flattening into his body. Once he was on the wood floor, he tried to roll toward the door.
Then he stopped, trying to understand what his senses were telling him. Vibrations. Someone coming.
Someone running toward the room he was in. Gabe?s footsteps.
He shouted, hoping to guide the man in the smoke. He saw the door open, felt hands on him.
With an effort that was almost painful, Akin managed not to sink his sensory tentacles into the man?s flesh. The man?s touch was like an invitation to investigate him with enhanced adult senses. But now was not the time for such things. He must do all he could not to hinder Gabe.
He let himself become a thing?a sack of vegetables to be thrown over someone?s shoulder. For once, he was glad to be small.
Gabe fell once, coughing, seared by the heat. He dropped Akin, picked him up, and again threw him over one shoulder.
The front door was blocked by sheets of fire. The back would be blocked in a moment. Gabe kicked it open and ran down the steps, for a moment actually plunging through flames. His hair caught fire, and Akin shouted at him to put it out.
Gabe stopped once he was clear of the house, dropped Akin into the dirt, and collapsed, beating at himself and coughing.
The tree they had stopped under had caught fire from the house. They had to move again, quickly, to avoid burning branches. Once Gabe had put out his own fire, he picked Akin up and staggered farther away toward the forest.
?Where are you going?? Akin asked him.
He did not answer. It seemed all he could do to breathe and move.
Behind them, the house was totally engulfed. Nothing could be alive in there now.
?Tate!? Akin said suddenly. Where was she? Gabe would never save him and leave Tate to burn.
?Ahead,? Gabe wheezed.
She was all right, then.
Gabe fell again, this time half-atop Akin. Hurt, Akin locked into him in helpless reflex. He immediately paralyzed the man, stopping significant messages of movement between the brain and the rest of the body.
?Lie still,? he said, hoping to give Gabe the illusion of choice. ?Just lie there and let me help you.?
?You can?t help yourself,? Gabe whispered, struggling to breathe, to move.
?I can help myself by healing you! If you fall on me again, I might sting you. Now shut up and stop trying to move. Your lungs are damaged and you?re burned.? The lung damage was serious and could kill him. The burns were only very painful. Yet Gabe would not be quiet.
?The town
Can they see us??
?No. There?s a cornfield between us and Phoenix now. The fire is still visible, though. And it?s spreading.? At least one other house was burning now. Perhaps it had caught from the burning tree.
?If it doesn?t rain, half the town might burn. Fools.?
?It isn?t going to rain. Now be quiet, Gabe.?
?If they catch us, they?ll probably kill us!?
?What? Who??
?People from town. Not everybody. Just troublemakers.?
?They?ll be too busy trying to put out the fire. It hasn?t rained for days. They chose the wrong season for all this. Just be quiet and let me help you. I won?t make you sleep, so you might feel something. But I won?t hurt you.?
?I hurt so bad already, I probably wouldn?t know if you did.?
Akin interrupted the messages of pain that Gabe?s nerves were sending to his brain and encouraged his brain to secrete specific endorphins.
?Jesus Christ!? the man said, gasping, coughing. For him the pain had abruptly ceased. He felt nothing. It was
