Escaping the Giant Wave by Peg Kehret Read Free Book Online Page A

feet.”
    BeeBee kept Daren from sliding headfirst down the stairs, while I lifted his feet and swung them around the landing so that we could proceed. It was slow going, and I wasn’t sure I should be taking this much time. What if I saved Daren but in doing so, cost BeeBee and me our lives?
    Sweat dripped off my forehead; my shirt clung to my back. As we crossed the second-floor landing and started down another section of stairs, the smoke got thicker. Ahead of me, I heard BeeBee coughing and choking.
    â€œTry not to inhale the smoke,” I said. “Keep the towel pressed against your noise and take shallow breaths.”
    â€œHey!” The sudden voice made me jump. “What’s going on? Where am I? Let go of me!” Daren pushed my hands away.
    I couldn’t see him, but it sounded as if he rolled onto his side and then sat on one of the steps.
    â€œWe’re in the stairwell,” I said. “We’re taking you downstairs with us because the hotel’s on fire.”
    â€œWhat are you trying to do, break every bone in my body?”
    â€œYou had passed out up on the third floor,” I said.
    â€œNo, I didn’t.”
    â€œWe found you lying on the floor next to the elevator.”
    â€œI didn’t pass out.”
    I saw no reason why he would contradict the truth, but I wasn’t going to stand there and argue with him while the hotel burned down around us. With both of us coughing in between words, breath was too precious to waste.
    The acrid smell was stronger now. It smelled like hot plastic or rubber mixed with some other odor that I didn’t recognize. With my hands free again, I pressed the wet towel closer to my nose and mouth with my left hand and took hold of the handrail with my right.
    â€œIt stinks in here,” Daren said.
    â€œIt’s the smoke. I told you: There’s a fire in the hotel. We’re almost to the ground floor. Can you walk by yourself now?”
    â€œFire!” Daren said as if he had finally come to and understood for the first time what was happening. He scrambled to his feet, lunged past me, and shoved BeeBee aside as he went by her. She lost her footing and fell, landing on her knees two steps down.
    â€œI have to get out of here!” Daren cried, panic making his voice squeak. “The hotel’s on fire!”
    I helped BeeBee up. “Are you okay?” I asked.
    â€œI told you we should have left him behind,” BeeBee said.

6
    Now that I didn’t have to drag Daren behind me, BeeBee and I moved quickly down the remaining stairs. As we rounded the last landing, we saw a bright flash of light below us.
    Daren had opened the door from the stairway to the lobby.
    â€œHelp!” he shouted. “Somebody help me!”
    We hurried down the last few steps toward the door, but before we got there, the light disappeared; Daren had left the stairwell, letting the door close behind him.
    My brain raced even faster than my feet. I knew the electricity was still off; if it had come back on, the lights in the stairway would be working. So the flash of light that we saw when Daren opened the door to the lobby could mean only one thing: The first floor of the hotel was on fire.
    Could we run through it and get outside? Or should we go back up to the second floor, try to find an unlocked room, open a window, and yell for help?
    What if all the rooms were locked? Even if we got to a window and called for help, who would hear us? As far as I knew, the desk clerk was the only staff person on the premises; everyone else, like the bellhop and the room service man, came over as needed from the new Frontier Lodge. Better to take our chances crossing the lobby now, before the fire got any worse.
    We reached the bottom of the stairs. I put my hand on the doorknob but didn’t turn it.
    â€œThe main floor is on fire, isn’t it?” BeeBee said.
    â€œI think so.”
    In my mind, I pictured the hotel