Upbeats

  Chapter Twelve

  We jumped on our bikes and pedalled, as if the flames were at our heels, till we got to a bus stop. The Downtown area is miles and miles away from Robyn’s place so pedalling all that way would be close to foolish.

  I could have asked Smithy to teleport us there but I wasn’t sure if he had a limit as to how many he can teleport at any given time.

  And I was a bit hesitant about teleporting myself. The idea of having your molecules scrambled so that you can move through solids is bad enough. Having them transported to a different location was a bit worse. Especially as I couldn’t control it and would have to put all my trust in Smithy.

  As we boarded a bus going downtown, I thought of our team’s trust situation.

  Everyone trusted someone, but not everyone. And even the ones they had some faith in . . . that faith would only go so far.

  Our team was only in the early days, and I accepted, right then and there, that, though we knew a bit about each other, full dependence on our teammates was going to take a while.

  I sorely hoped, deep down inside, that we could trust each other long enough to save the day, just today. That’s all that was needed.

  The bus was stopped by police officers as we came close to the burning building.

  Smoke rose in a thick, black cloud into the grey sky. The smell of burning wood, cracked paint, and furniture filled the air, making people cough.

  A crowd had gathered and police officers were trying to keep them well away from the crumbling building.

  It was a ten storey apartment building, built three decades ago. Cheaply and quickly done, it was never meant to last. A fire was inevitable.

  Fire fighters arrived at the same moment we did.

  "Just back up," the police officer instructed the driver of our bus.

  "Yes, ma’am," the driver said, obligingly.

  "Quick, let’s get off here," I hissed.

  I had waited at that bus stop for an older model of bus to come along for this very reason: there was an emergency trap door on the roof near the back of the bus.

  Smithy unscrewed it and we all climbed onto the roof. Thankfully, there was only one other person on the bus and he was engrossed in reading his newspaper, unaware of anything that was going on.

  Once we were all up, we jumped down, one by one, bending knees on impact. I hadn’t jumped a height like that without a skateboard beneath me for ages.

  The bus reversed course and rolled away from the scene. The officer wasn’t looking our way, allowing us to slip past her and into the crowd with ease.

  It wasn’t the crazy, hysterical kind of audience you’d expect to crowd around a fire. The residents who lived in the building were few and far between. They looked a bit upset, but they had lived in that building, all along keeping close in mind the fact that at any given moment, it could fall over. This was an eventuality that they awaited every day of their life. No loss. They’d been cleared out, they were alive, and that was it.

  But one lady; wearing a pink, faded dressing gown; pale, dusty blue slippers that were at some stage in their life fuzzy; with her lank grey hair in curlers; was going hysterical.

  Salty tears stained her cheeks, her chest heaved with every desperate cry. She was trying to talk to one of the fire fighters, begging something of him. The fire fighter, sadly, shook his head and said something we couldn’t hear.

  I pointed her out to the others. "I wonder what’s got her in such a phase," I said.

  "Too bad none of us got mind reading . . ." Brooke said, gently.

  Robyn bit her lip. "Actually . . . I think I can read people’s minds," she said. "I’m not really sure but I think that’s what it is. I tried it out with someone at the food fight. At first I thought they had said it out loud but they hadn’t . . ."

  "Well, I don’t think we really need to read her mind to find out what’s wrong," I said. "Robyn, you go up to her and ask what’s wrong. See if there’s something we can do and then relay the information back to us. Got that?"

  She nodded. "Got it, chief."

  "Don’t call me chief," I said, disliking the title from the moment it left Robyn’s lips.

  Robyn left us and started mingling in with the crowd, ducking, swerving and making her way over to the old woman.

  Sirens blasted, people gasped and coughed, the fire raged and orders were being thrown here, there and everywhere so I couldn’t hear what was being said between Robyn and the woman, but I could see Robyn’s sincere look of concern as she asked the lady what was the matter. The woman was pouring her heart out to Robyn, by the looks of it.

  Robyn said.

  Ned looked at me. "You did hear that, right?" he said.

  I nodded, disbelievingly. "I heard it . . . sort of."

  I did as Robyn instructed and saw her smile.

  I tried to think of how I could reply. I just nodded.

  I thought of a strategy of rescue and hoped Robyn could understand.

  She nodded, unnoticeably, in answer. She’d heard.

  "Alright," I said to the others, who were still by me. "Here’s the game plan: Robyn will stay down here on the ground and mingle in with the crowd to see if there’s anyone else stuck up there and direct us to them as well as keep tabs on all of us. Brooke and System: try and find a way of getting in through the fire escapes. Check every floor but don’t go in if the fire is too far spread or is blocking a means of exit."

  Brooke nodded. "Aye, aye, chief," she said, and before I could tell her not to call me that, she grabbed Kevin by the arm and pulled him towards the building.

  I ignored the title for the moment. "Ned: you’re invincible so I’ll need you to just blunder forth, go through the fire and see if anyone’s still in there. If they are, think out loud to Robyn and she’ll relay the message to us and we can get them out."

  Ned shrugged. "I wonder if my clothes will burn up . . ." he said as he dodged people and made his way, stealthily, to the building. No one noticed him and he got in without even an innocent bystander turning around.

  I turned to Smithy. "You and I are the escape artists," I said. "We go in, we search the seventh floor, we find that little girl and we get her out. Come on, times a wasting."

  Smithy quickly looked around, saw that no one was looking, and teleported behind the building. I had to weave through the crowd till I got out and then made my way to the rear of the apartments.

  It’s not easy, just walking up to a burning building and stepping inside. You have to watch out for fire fighters, police officers and regular good-willed civilians trying to drag you away from the danger.

  Also, you don’t want to distract the emergency teams so you have to proceed in a very clandestine manner.

  I met up with Smithy. I jerked my head towards a crumbling back door.

  He nodded in answer. We were going in . . .