Blake agrees to spend the summer at Joe's farm to lend a helping hand to his girlfriend's father and make a few bucks. That sounds like the perfect plan for his jealous girlfriend. Stuck at the farm, Blake will not cheat on her while she is away... If only she knew!
All characters featured in the story are above 18.
This story is entirely fictional and only meant to be read by a mature audience, and in any case, by people over the age of 18.
*
A SUMMER AT THE FARM
Chapter 24: Rising from the ashes
"Liv! Liv, wake up!"
I shook her up, but the girl was fully out.
I knew she was taking sleeping pills sometimes and she must have swallowed one to adjust to the time zone difference because she was not opening her eyes.
Fucking bad timing!
I could barely see anything in the room, the black smoke was everywhere.
For the first time in my life, I really thought I was about to die there. I was twenty-two, only learning about who I was, and it was way too soon for that!
"Liv!"
I grabbed her in my arms and tried to lift her up.
I needed to get her out, the both of us actually, from the burning building.
But then... I thought of Joe...
If he was not howling yet, it meant that he was still sleeping. The fire had not reached his bedroom yet.
What to do?
The father or the daughter? Who was I supposed to save first?
Another huge boom came from the outside. The barn was collapsing on itself and the window in the bedroom exploded. I sheltered Liv from the pieces of glass flying, she was finally -- but barely - waking up. She looked lost.
Maybe her state was more serious than I originally thought. Maybe she was unconscious because of the fumes?
I had read something somewhere about the worst complications from fires were often coming from inhaling the smoke.
Shit, shit, shit...
"Blake?" She muttered.
I lifted Olivia up and carried her in my arms once and for all.
The orange flames were already eating up the door of the bathroom but they had not reached the other door leading to the corridor yet.
It was the quicker way out anyway but that worried me for Joe. I had no idea where he was but I knew he tended to sleep very deeply.
One problem at a time, though.
I struggled moving as I was feeling the heated wood flooring under my feet, ready to collapse at any time, but I did reach the corridor, the stair cases, and brought Liv downstairs where the situation was more manageable.
Because she was still out of it, I had to held on her and to bring her outside.
I lied her on the ground about sixty feet away from the farm.
From there, I was finally able to have a larger view of the situation. The barn situated on the left of the farm was already turning into ashes, while flames were dancing on one side of the roof of the house, right above what used to be my bedroom.
It was strangely beautiful as it was terrifying.
Animals were only adding to the terror by running around the farm and trying to escape.
FUCKING GOATS.
I had always hated them.
"Joe?" I shouted.
He was nowhere to be seen.
I cannot say if this was bravery or plain stupidity but I ran back inside the house.
"Blake, no!" Liv screamed behind me, finally coming back to her senses.
She was full-on crying.
"Joe?!"
I went back to the stairs to try to reach his bedroom but the flames had already blocked the access to the corridor. The situation was getting worse by the second, deep black smoke had now invaded the first floor as well.
"Blake..."
I heard a muffled and terrified voice calling me.
Despite the heat, - it felt like a volcano in there -, I had chills as I heard Joe's weak complaint. It was like a totally different person.
He was trapped.
"I'll get you out of here!"
"Run, Blake... Go away, everything's..." He coughed. "My farm... My farm is burning down! It's over."
"Joe!"
I ran to the kitchen to fill a basin of water. I emptied it, or rather threw it, on the flames in the stair cases but it did not help much.
"Go, Blake! Go! My life's already over... My farm..." He was howling like a hurt wof.
I finally saw the massive figure of Joe, stark naked, standing behind the flames, swallowed by the smoke.
What a sight!
I did not have the luxury of breaking down, I had to stay strong for the both of us. I could not let him give up.
"You just have to go through, or you'll be stuck. It's getting worse."
"I've lost everything."
It was gut wrenching to see him and especially hear him like that.
"Joe! FUCKING HELL! There's a way here, you can come down! It's now or never!"
"My farm... My life..."
"I'm begging you, Joe. Please. Don't let me see you die in here. Don't do that to me! You need to come down."
"Go, Blake... Go..."
If he would not go down himself, I would have to get him. I started to find a way up. I was not even scared anymore.
"Joe, I'm here. See, come on."
"What the fuck are you doing? You're gonna kill yourself."
"I won't leave without you!"
Finally, Joe seemed to understand that we were either surviving or going down together. He tried to find himself a way down the stairs.
"Fucking hell..."
"Here. Jump here!"
He did, but he was too heavy.
We both were.
He managed to go over the flames with an impressive jump but the entire stair case collapsed and everything went black.
Maybe I had died after all.
*
From pitch black, I was suddenly blinding by white lights.
I had an oxygen mask over my mouth and people were bustling around me.
I felt a bump in the road, that made me realize I was in a moving vehicle.
I tried to move but...
"Aaaaaaaaaaah."
My right arm and leg were hurting like crazy. In fact, everything was hurting.
"Calm down, Sir." A woman told me. "You're in an ambulance, we're bringing to an hospital."
"It... Hmm... Hurts."
So much that I could barely express it. I had never felt a pain like that in my life.
"I know that this is very difficult, but we're gonna take care of you. It's a good sign if it hurts, Sir. It means you're certainly not paralyzed, we'll get you to a doctor."
Memories started to come back like flashes.
"Joe?" I blurted out.
I had survived but if Joe was dead or seriously injured, I was not sure I wanted to live.
"Is that your name? Joe?"
"No... I'm... I'm Blake... Joe is..."
"The farmer?" The woman smiled at me. "He's fine."
I had never felt more relieved.
"Where is he?"
"He's the one who got you out of the farm. Quite the character! He's been insulting us for about twenty minutes, we weren't doing enough to help you. He's in another ambulance right now."
They put the oxygen back on me and I cannot remember what happened next. I supposed I fell unconscious until I was waking-up in my hospital bed.
A few hours had passed, it was late in the morning.
Olivia was holding my hand, she seemed very distraught.
"Oh, thank God, you're here..." She spoke as I slowly opened my eyes.
I felt sore everywhere but the pain killers were helping. They were also making me high.
"Thirsty..." I muttered.
"I'll get you a nurse."
I grabbed her arm.
"Liv... You look good... Like an angel..." I told her.
"Shhh... Don't use your energy, babe..."
"Where's Joe?"
She bit her lips, she seemed worried. One would be for less; both her father and boyfriend had almost died the same night.
"They're still assessing if he'll need surgery, but he... He's mostly fine."
"I love him."
I heard myself saying it and only then, realized the bomb I had just thrown on Olivia.
She looked a bit surprised. She had been crying a lot and she wiped her tears.
"I know, I love him too. And I love you... You... You saved him, and you saved me."
Phew, she did not seem to think a lot of what I had just said but I knew I had to shut up or other things might slip up.
The situation was hard enough as it was, no need to confess that I was fucking with her dad.
The doctors and nurses came to visit us shortly after, and by some miracle, we would all be pretty okay despite the violence of what had happened.
My right ankle was twisted and my right wrist was broken but there was no surgery to be done at this stage, I just had to wait and have my forearm casted.
This part was merely inconvenient though; the real pain was sitting with my ribs. I had a couple which were broken and this was a living hell.
It was literally hurting at every single breath I was taking. Yeap, staying alive was definitely painful.
The doctors told me that I would have to wait for a minimum of three weeks to see any improvement, but overall, it could have been much worse for Joe and I, meaning that I had to be grateful.
Somehow, Joe had managed not only to survive his fall, but to stand back up and carry me outside of the burning farm on his greasy shoulders.
That man was a beast and Olivia had gotten to see us walk out of the fire, naked, hurt, but alive.
Joe was only dealing with a few bruises although his back had been partly burnt and he had to wear bandages 24/7.