Chapter 4: Inferno and Escape

I coughed, choking. Every time I tried to open the door, I failed. I had one chance—start the car, get away, then open the door and run.

But as soon as I started moving, the wind whipped through the broken windshield, feeding the flames. The fire blazed higher. In no time, I was surrounded by thick, choking smoke, coughing, blind.

I slowed, unlocked the door, and forced it open. With my leg broken, crawling out was excruciating. As soon as my head poked out, the couple caught up. I waved weakly, begging, “Don’t hit me, the cops are almost here.”

The man’s jaw clenched. “I don’t want you in jail—an eye for an eye, that’s justice!”

He kicked me in the face. My head slammed into the doorframe. Dizzy, I heard the woman scream, “Don’t let him out! I want him burned alive!”

The man shoved me back into the car, pinning me down, wedging my other leg outside. He barked, “Use all your strength—slam the door!”

Desperation and raw panic took over. My hands closed around something heavy in the glove box. I didn’t even look—I just swung, again and again, fueled by raw panic. He staggered, stunned. I saw I’d grabbed a thermos. I raised it, smashed it into his nose, over and over.

Blood poured from his nose and mouth. The woman tried to slam the door on my leg, but I yanked my left leg inside. My right leg was still out. She slammed the door again—pain shot through me, but adrenaline numbed it.

I shoved the man toward the back seat. He’d been kneeling on my ribs—my push sent him tumbling. The car filled with his screams. Flames engulfed him. He rolled and screamed, trying to escape, but I’d locked the child safety lock.

He couldn’t open the door. On fire, he screamed and tried to crawl out the window, but got stuck. The woman panicked, trying to pull him out, sobbing helplessly.

He screamed, “Unlock the door!” She ran to the driver’s side, hitting the unlock button again and again, not realizing the child lock was on. “I did unlock it!” she cried.

I punched her hard in the eye. She clutched her face, wailing, as I finally crawled out and collapsed on the ground. The man managed to crawl out the window and fell beside me—still burning. He rolled, screaming, as the woman sobbed, not knowing what to do.

At that moment, someone ran over—the driver from behind. His hands shook so bad he nearly dropped the extinguisher, but he sprayed anyway, voice cracking as he pleaded for everyone to stop. “Stop fighting, everyone calm down, let’s talk.”

I was in despair. Though the man’s screams were gut-wrenching, so far his burns were only on the surface. But as soon as the fire was out, he lunged at me, grabbed my neck, pinned me to the ground, and screamed, “I’ll kill you!”

Sirens wailed closer, but not fast enough. On that broken street, every second stretched into forever, and I realized—no one here was ever getting out unscathed.