Tess took in the sleep mask, the earplugs. There was a little bottle of something on the nightstand. Shit. Apparently Susannah took something to help her sleep. Fantastic.
Still no lights or sirens from outside. The smoke was getting thicker and lower. It was in her face now even when she hunched over.
This couldn’t wait.
It had been a while since Tess had been to the gym. Walking Waffles was her daily workout, so when she grabbed Susannah, clad in dark silky pyjamas, lifting her turned out to be a whole new problem. Those long legs were a menace, and everything about Susannah seemed to be willfully floppy as Tess tried to leverage her off the mattress and into a fireman’s lift.
In the end, sheer panic did most of the lifting, and Tess just had to hold her in place as best she could, the damn slippery material of Susannah’s pyjamas only making it harder.
Moving was difficult. Tess was already out of breath, and Susannah’s dead weight over her shoulders made keeping low much harder. Opting for speed over ducking down, Tess headed back to the door.
Smoke everywhere. Shit. Which way are the stairs? Tess turned, facing the door to get her bearings. To her right. That was it.
Susannah started to wriggle but Tess held on tighter. Even if she was waking up, this was no time to try and explain the situation to a groggy woman.
The roar of the fire was louder. Wood was splintering. Glass smashing. Tess took a step. Then the next.
Step. Step.
She wanted to cough so badly, it was like her throat was itching on the inside, but that was a bad idea. If she started coughing, it would only get harder to move. To think. To get out.
Halfway down the stairs, Susannah started to struggle, coming to. Tess shouted at Susannah to help her wake. When she finally gained consciousness, slipping from the clumsy over-shoulder hold under her own steam, Tess began dragging her, one insistent arm around her torso, down the rest of the steps.
Tess couldn’t tell which of the doors downstairs was safe to open. The pub itself was a lost cause. She turned, pulling Susannah with her. There was no chance of going back the way she came in; that door had thicker smoke pouring through it.
“Which way?” she yelled against Susannah’s ear, hoping she was rallying enough to have some kind of instinct.
Susannah lurched towards one of the doors. Tess moved with her.
It was the back room. Babs’s living room. They staggered through it, both now on their knees by halfway. Tess looked around.
A door. A window. Anything?
Tess saw the heavy grey fire-exit door like a mirage through the smoke, a faint glow of green above it. Thank everything holy and not for whatever health and safety law made those fluorescent signs mandatory, because Tess could barely see a foot in front of her.
She threw herself at the door. The bar across it was pressed in by Susannah’s shoulder as Tess yanked her towards it.
It opened. It was open, and they were out.
Stumbling, Tess made it as far as she could until her momentum finally gave out.
They were in the car park. There were voices, other hands lifting Susannah and letting Tess slump to her knees. Then, finally, she let the coughing come. Heavy barks squeezed her chest and shook her body. She hacked and hacked until she could breathe again, wondering how she hadn’t passed out.
Adam was tending to Susannah. That was good. Adam was a sensible guy. Did all his first aid qualifications. Put the certificates on the wall. He was kneeling beside her and talking to her.
Someone passed Tess a bottle of water, and her gulps were punctuated by more coughing.
Tess crawled over to check on Susannah, but she was in the recovery position, eyes closed.
Tess’s panic rose.
No, she was definitely breathing! Chest rise, chest fall.
Tess pressed her fingers to Susannah’s neck and yes! That was her pulse. Not fast or strong enough, but there.
Adam was talking, but Tess couldn’t hear him.
Maybe Susannah couldn’t either.
The blue lights came at last. Bells ringing, sirens screaming. Chaos in the shape of a big red truck. Behind it, higher and reedier in pitch, came the ambulance. Help was here.
Tess had done enough, and now they were going to take over. She was crying—or was it just the smoke irritating her eyes? She lay on her side, facing Susannah.
Tess didn’t care what the madding crowd thought when she reached out to stroke Susanna’s soot-stained cheek. “They’re coming. So don’t you even think about not being okay. You got out, that’s all that matters. And you promised me that once you got this pub issue sorted that we’d go out and celebrate your yes vote. You owe me a party, Lady Karlson. Don’t you forget that.”
Then the paramedics were suddenly there with their neon jackets and their latex-coated, capable hands.
Tess felt the last of her adrenalin wearing off and just let herself become pliable. She answered their questions and let them shine lights and prod things. Then there was a mask over her mouth and nose. Horrid, rubbery thing. Felt clammy, like someone else just had it on. Then she took a deep breath for what seemed like the first time in hours. Well. Much better.
“We’re going to take you both to the hospital,” the tall paramedic was saying, steering her to the waiting ambulance. No, there were two ambulances.
“I want to go with her!” Tess cried out, or tried to. The effort of saying it felt like a dozen knives dragged across the inside of her throat.
Susannah was on a stretcher and already being loaded into one of the ambulances.
“No room, and they have to monitor her on the journey,” the paramedic replied. “Come on. The sooner you get in, the sooner you can see your friend again.”
Tess didn’t bother to correct him. She wasn’t sure what she’d be correcting. She climbed up the vehicle’s steps and took her seat, waiting
