Fire has started in the woods somewhere.

Clare calls emergency services, vaguely aware of protocol for evacuation despite her short period on the job. She's most familiar with the procedures for bursting pipelines, spilling oil into their town. Oil had always been a consideration. There was no fears of factory fires; they all shut down years ago.

Through the open doorway, the wind blows through the room. It's too warm for their thick heavy coats.

There is no one working at the motel at such a late hour. The burner phone they've bought does not have data, and the motel wifi requires a credit card purchase. Audrey sits at the wall, trying to remember how fast forest fires burn. Chelster is a flat expanse, for once an advantage. With the zephyrs flying through town, there is no telling how long they have. Three hours, likely. At least one.

The town is built on oil lines. Maybe much less.

When Clare gets off the phone, everyone in the room stares at each other.

"My family," Clare is the first one to speak.

Kaia stands up. She moves over to the door to put her shoes on, tightening them as best as she can. Before Clare can say anything else Kaia steps into the door and waits for them. Clare's eyes crinkle, and they both head off into the wind.

"Fuck," Ajay looks down at Leo, who he doubts can run.

Corrin.

Fallon bolts too. Thankfully, she's still wearing her shoes so she doesn't have to waste time. The wind is so violent she can't run. Her hands are raised to protect her face from baking. It's like the burst of heat from an oven when she is checking on the dinner Corrin has made. Corrin soldiers on.

Ajay's family too. He hurries out the door too, barely sliding into his shoes. He grew up a decent way from here.

After he leaves, Este realizes he has the gun. Jayce is alive, again. At least, Audrey thinks so. Maybe Este doesn't trust what Audrey thinks, but people are shifting, looking at their shoes, and here Este is a sitting duck. She's not going to die again. She's going to put Jayce back in his fucking grave.

So she bolts out of the room too, moving as quickly as she can. Shouting Ajay's name through the whipping wind.

When Ambrose slips out the door, Audrey follows him. His body is the closest wisp they have of an answer. She won't let it walk out the door without them. Eva follows too, not really aware that Audrey has left behind their pocketknife. She will not let Audrey continue this lack of rest. Ambrose wants to be buried, intact, in the fucking dirt. Eva has no one she cares about to warn.

How strange that she is an omen. Not much is different, at least. Eva and Ambrose were both freakish in life too.

Barry takes Lydia's hand and heads out into the wind together. Where exactly they should go, Barry is uncertain. He can't let go of Lydia's hand. She's his, like it or not. She's not going to die again.

There are only two people left in the motel. Nico and Leo, of course. While Nico should go warn Kye's family, they never found their home. Beside Nico, Leo lies in bed. He's smoking, a worse smell than the one which always clings to Eva's clothes, but it just might be the open window blowing in air. The wind whistles through the room.

"Can you run?" Nico asks, looking at Leo.

Leo grunts as he forces himself up. Nico braces his arm. A show of strength isn't possible, no matter how much Leo wishes he could prove to Nico he is fine. They must evacuate.

"How long will the notification take?" Nico asks.

When Leo furrows his brow, Nico realizes Leo doesn't know about the emergency alert system. Honestly, Nico isn't sure this province has the infrastructure to provide it. Maybe they will have air-raid sirens. Their community is remote, and Nico doesn't know how fast helicopters can travel, or how quickly buses can arrive.

Nico never messaged Kye and told him they miss him. Nico never told Kye that they are sorry for loosing the Epi Pen, or that Kye doesn't need forgiveness for giving Nico a peanut. They've got to get out, and they've got to do it quickly. Yet, Leo cannot move.

"Can you walk?" Nico amends their statement.

Leo nods. He will walk, whether he can or he can't. He must walk. Leo pries himself from the bed, standing up and resting his weight on Nico. Miku stands in the doorway. She nods at him. They make it outside.

The smell is not Leo. It's acrid, and Nico resists scrunching their face. They can barely open their eyes in the wind. The air is sepia, tinged with haze and faded memories. It's certainly carcinogenic, but neither of them will die of cancer later if they don't live now.

"Fire!" Leo screams through the wind, hoping his voice is carried to the other motel residents rather than muffled. "Fire!"

Together, they walk through the streets. Nico screams. The first one is uncomfortable, sucking through him. Leo's throat rips and cracks from the force. So Nico gets louder, the two screaming in tandem. A light turns on in one of the windows.

The pair keep going, swerving towards residential areas.

"Fire!" Leo begs the air, pleading with the ashes to be only ashes and not sparks.

Nico grabs Leo and stops him from moving forward. It's easy enough. Leo cannot walk on his own.

"If we don't make it," Nico begins.

"No," Leo cuts them off.

Fallon did the same to him hours ago. Neither of them are allowed good-byes. They are going to make it out. Here and now, so close to absolution. If one more person makes it out because of them, Leo will be free. Maybe Miku will still be here. He could never forgive himself for her death, even if logically he knows he had no part in her death, not the Leo who lived or this resurrected omen. One saved person is enough. Even if that person is Nico. Even if that saved person is Leo himself.

"I want to be with you," Nico doesn't care for Leo's objection.

He cannot run, and neither can Leo. Avoiding this for so long has done neither of them any good. Nico can only betray Kai by living unhappy. This could never be the life Kai would want for Nico, burning in a town with a boy he likes but will not give a confession. Here it is. Leo's a cop, probably could at extracting one, but Nico gives this willingly.

The wind warm, and somehow Nico is cold. Leo hopes he isn't doomed to burn forever.

"We will be," he says. "Together. Once everyone is out. Alright?"

Nico nods, and then Leo yells again, "fire!"

~~~

Though Barry doesn't know Chelster well, they are the one who leads the way. They don't run. It's a principle of the matter. Barry does not run. Even as the sky brightens, dawn threatening them though it is not even the witching hour, Barry stalks through the streets with Lydia. One fist in their pocket, Barry grips the poem they wrote. It doesn't give them a papercut, the paper is too wrinkled and moist. It's lost it's edge.

Everyone else who left is searching for their families. The old Lydia would too. She'd bow her head and tell her parents, let them lead the way out of the fire. She doesn't know. Acutely aware there is nothing which tethers her here, no reason to follow Barry, she does it anyway.

"Maybe..." Lydia hesitates. She keeps walking.

Barry stops, waiting for the end of her sentence.

"Maybe we just..." Lydia bites her lip. She turns to look at them. "No one is at the motel. Maybe we go back."

Barry feels a tickle in his throat. It's the air. It's orange. Barry had expected the sky to turn grey from smoke in a forest fire. Not that he, in Toronto, would ever be vexed by flaming trees. It looks too much like the beginning of a new day. He holds in the cough. Lydia's opera lungs are more powerful than his. She's always been stronger.

He's not strong enough to agree.

"No," Barry says.

Lydia furrows her brow. Last time, she had no chance to accept her death. This time, she wants to sit and drink and laugh and kiss Barry as the motel burns.

"Barry, I-"

"I can't lose you again," Barry shouts.

She turns her head toward the motel, the wind is behind her, throwing her hair towards it. If Lydia's feet weren't solid, she'd be blown back regardless of her choice.

"We can't leave here," she whispers.

He knows. Barry watched her disappear. He did it himself. But maybe there is another way. Barry would never describe himself as an optimist, but the world cannot be so self-hating that it would rob itself of Lydia James Darcy twice. She's getting out. No matter what.

"We have to try," Barry doesn't wipe the tear that wells in their eye.

So, Lydia nods.

~~~

By the time they are approaching the home where Clare grew up, there are lights on in windows. No one is on the streets as of yet. Through the hollowing around them, the cawing of birds that fly away from the forest, and the thundering of their feet on the ground, Clare and Kaia don't hear any of the emergency texts blaring through phones. The houses here are thin, made of vinyl. The lucky people have brick homes, stained grey with charcoal by inhabitants a century ago. Houses that have termites and bats, but houses that insulate from the cold. The sounds too.

Clare's family lives in one.

"Is there a tornado siren?" Kaia huffs, only wasting her lungs for that one question over the past forty minutes.

Clare shakes their head, "no. There isn't even one in the capital down south. The north isn't part of tornado valley."

There isn't a siren for spills either.

Far away, there is the siren. Undoubtedly a cop car. Municipal budget is so small, and rarely anyone else here has a police service. There is a small emergency hospital in town, which treats broken bones for all the farmers in miles. It was underfunded before the opioid crisis, and now it is underfunded and overcrowded too. Likely, it's not an ambulance.

They stop in front of Clare's house. She stares up at the windows.

"Knock for me," Clare asks Kaia.

Kaia stops.

Clare wants her to meet their family.

So Kaia reaches over and takes Clare's hand.

"I don't want to scare them," Clare manages.

All Kaia does is nod. Of course she'll meet Clare's family. Her Catholic parents, ones Clare loves dearly, who always accepted her. Even if Clare's father hates that she is a police officer, and her brothers never stopped irritating her. A family Clare whispered about to Fallon while they hunkered over playing cards in the church basement, unaware of Kaia listening in.

"I've got it," Kaia squeezes Clare.

She runs up to the door. Kaia finds a spot around the side of the house, hiding. Kaia knocks, slamming the hell of her hand into the door. She rings the doorbell three times.

When the door opens, Clare barely peeks around to see her mother's hand. She can't hear what Kaia says to her mother. She can't even see her mother's face. The hand disappears. Kaia turns and offers Clare a thumbs up. Clare nods, just a bit.

A dog appears in the doorway. Clare's heart tangles in her chest. Max. Kaia bends over and begins to pet the dog.

Clare's mother comes back and leans out just enough for Clare to catch her hair, falling over his shoulder and covering her face. Max gets pulled back inside by his collar. Then, Kaia's mother hands something to Clare. So, Clare watches as she pockets it. Then, Kaia steps off the porch. She rounds the side of the house to meet Clare.

"Ross and David are out of town," Kaia tells her. "Your parents are just getting dressed and grabbing a few things."

"How long are they going to be?" Clare asks, peering around.

Kaia shrugs, "I told them I'm going around knocking, and that they are the first house who answered. Your mom is said she's going to take Max around knocking, since apparently his barks drive the neighbours crazy. Apparently he's banned from someone's apartment building."

Clare closes her eyes, smiling. Ross bought her that dog. Maybe his apartment building, somewhere far away where he is safe.

Then, Kaia pulls out a soft, fabric mask from her pocket. It has a little metal piece.

"I told your mom I would keep running to a friends house," Kaia says. "She wouldn't let me leave without it. Ease of breathing."

Clare takes it, looking at the paint house. Her parents must be remodelling. She always told them upgraded kitchen hardware would be nice.

"Put it on," Kaia tells her.

Clare does as she says. Then, the pair step out. With Clare's face hidden, they wander back in front of the house. Clare's mother is in the doorway, bent over and putting a collar on Max. Clare holds back a sob, waving at her little dog. He barks at her. Clare's mom shushes him.

Clare lingers for a second too long. Her mother looks up. With the mask obscuring Clare's face, she watches her mother shiver. Maybe she doesn't recognize Clare. Back in life, Clare always wore glasses. On duty that day, she was wearing contacts, and since coming back to life never needed her glasses again. The world was blurry the first few days, but now she sees her mother clearly. But maybe she doesn't recognize Clare. Perhaps, she does.

Clare waves again. She takes Kaia's hand, and runs with her away from the home where she grew up.

~~~

As always, Fallon wastes time. She knows it's not far to Corrin's from where she lives, but she circles the block three times to build up her nerve. Up at the top of the building, Corrin lives. She could buzz in, wake Corrin from her slumber and beg her to come down. Over and over in their lives, Corrin saved Fallon. This pattern has repeated with others again. Nico saves Fallon every day. Spinning drunk at night, Lydia saves Fallon too. Kaia, running through the playground, and Clare at meals, and Nico and Ajay by playing guitar in a church basement. Now it's Fallon's turn.

She stop on the apartment porch and cannot make her fingers buzz in to her apartment. Fallon's fists shake. She punches the first apartment twice. Then the second. And she keeps moving up the building, skipping over her unit, and then starting again. Eventually, the door clicks open, someone tired of her incessant buzzing in the early hours of the morning. There are lights on, people gathering supplies ready to head out of town. Fallon doesn't waste time waiting for the elevator. She books it up the stairs, taking one and the next and the next, and then she knocks on Corrin's apartment door. Twice.

The door swings open, and there stands Corrin. Her hair a messy from sleep, braless, drool on her cheek. Her sleepy eyes widen when she sees Fallon.

"I'm dead," Fallon tells her. "There's a fire, and I need to get you out."

"What?" Corrin stumbles back, rubbing her eyes.

Fallon steps into her apartment, a wave of nausea hitting her before she stumbles back. The scars on her stomach hurt, and so too do the places where she didn't scar. The wounds which killed her. She hears Corrin scream, but looks to Corrin's face and sees nothing.

If she steps in the apartment, Fallon will end up like Leo.

"Grab keepsakes and extra underwear and throw it in a bag," Fallon's voice shakes. She's strong enough for them both.

Corrin stares at her.

"Open a window!" Fallon shouts.

Only then does Corrin finally stumble back. She twists open the blinds, face the murky sky, the colour of rust and things old and abandoned. Corrin opens the window a crack, and from here Fallon smells the smoke.

Corrin hurries into the bedroom. From her spot in the doorway, Fallon hears her rustling. The apartment looks the same. No shrine has been put up in her honour, no new photos, no removed photos. Around the island in the kitchen, there are bags of garbage, takeout containers spilling out of the top, the smell only just stronger than smoke on the wind. A pillow and blanket on the couch. Fallon wonders if Corrin has slept in their bed since she died.

This is familiar. This wallowing, melting, sadness. Before Corrin can step out, Fallon calls out to her.

"Don't just go through the motions," Fallon calls out. "I love you, Corrin. I always will."

Corrin stumbles out of the bedroom to stare at her. She's more awake now, eyes wide, and Fallon recognizes the look on her face by the way it feels when Fallon's own face tightens that way. It's the way Fallon looks at Audrey.

Fallon is something wrong. Something Corrin loves all the same, certainly, but something deeply wrong. Even if this building weren't going to come down, Fallon would never knock on it again. It is time to let Corrin go.

"Goodbye," Fallon manages, before thrusting herself back down the hallway.

~~~

The way Ambrose bolted, Audrey would have thought he was in a hurry. The motel is far from the church and his family home even further. When they approached the house, Audrey remembered stepping into the backyard that first night. The coldness of the air, her anger at Ambrose's persumptuousnes, the vastness of the air above them once the trees had parted. Then, Audrey grinned. They were going to go back to their graves. Ambrose would show them one more answer.

He stopped in the backyard, instead choosing to throw rocks up at a bedroom window. His brother popped out, and Ambrose told the man to flee. It worked well enough. The young man and his mother are out of the house within five minutes, crammed into a car which revved as the wheels spun out.

After that, Ambrose didn't go into the forest. Instead, he walked into his home. Audrey stared at the trees. Eva was smoking a cigarette, and the smell barely could pollute the air. When Eva skipped inside after Ambrose, Audrey was resigned to join them.

Inside the home, Ambrose made a pot of Kraft Dinner, boiling water. It's finally ready now. After draining the water, Ambrose puts in margarine and milk. The bright orange powder spills into the pot. As Ambrose mixes it in, Eva peers down, breathing in the smell.

"It looks radioactive," Eva muses.

It was a food his mother could easily afford. Certainly comforting, but definitely no good. Ambrose takes the hot dogs out of the microwave, dumping the water. He chops the three up before mixing them into the pot.

He gets three bowls. He brings them to the kitchen table where Audrey sits, careful to set down the bowls around the piles of cut up coupons. They will make kindling, but it is a habit Ambrose holds from childhood.

Audrey looks at the bowl with disgust.

Eva wolfs down her bowl, scarfing it. Audrey's face contorts. It makes Eva smile, somehow the ability to manage to disgust Audrey even now.

"Where should we go next?" Ambrose asks, peering around.

"I hope my mom burns," Eva shrugs, mouth half full.

Never now will she rob her mother's house. All the things Eva was never allowed to touch as a child, all the clothes which hung over her when she was locked in a closet. Eva should have thought about arson. The act seems more to Este's taste, but Eva likes Este. Maybe the sight of Eva would tear her mother from the house as well.

"Morbid," Audrey shrugs.

Her mother likely will survive. It wasn't a thought that bothered Audrey much either way.

Standing here, looking at the yellow artificial food, Ambrose is reminded of the dust on his brother's fingers as he crashed into the town sign. Ambrose remembers his death now, the sudden snap of his neck, coming after he hit the ground, his body having crashed through the windshield to slam into the sign.

It's not tangible. It's not like he's there. The memory is surprisingly human.

"We could go and scare her like Ambrose did," Eva laughs.

"I didn't mean to scare them," Ambrose looks over at Eva. He stabs his fork into the bowl, the metal scrabbing on the ceramic. "I want my brother to be safe, even if he killed me."

Eva swallows. She overdosed in a bar. Never once has she sought revenge on the man who gave her the tablet. Revenge is not above Eva, but suddenly here, Eva realizes she never wanted herself to be safe. Horrifying, scary, but safety was never a consideration for her.

She died, alone, in the cold, a pill dissolve in her mouth. Perhaps it is freaky. Eva wanted that for herself. Ambrose became the way she is accidentally.

"I wish I was like you," the words slip from her mouth quickly. Her tongue burns, so Eva lights a cigarette quickly, washing down the bitter taste with something worse.

Sitting at this table is miserable. Audrey just wants to go into the forest, even if she has to kick Ambrose and drag his unconscious body inside the forest. She'll die there, but maybe with the tip of an answer on her hands. She wants it. She needs it.

Just like she needed to win that chess tournament. This moment here, she feels the same shock and rage as she did when she lost. It's a nasty feeling. Audrey thumbs the notebook in her pocket. She chooses not to pull it out. Pulling the bowl in closer, she looks at the contents. Disgusting, undoubtedly. And she stabs a hotdog with her fork and bites it.

~~~

They've been running so long. Almost there, Ajay says to Este even though she doesn't ask. The pair just have to turn past the graveyard. Ajay lives close to it. The thought terrifies her. Smoke rolls through it. The scene looks like one from a seventies horror movie, one maybe Este would have liked to watch with Kaia, if things were different.

A figure shifts in the smoke. Este stops running. Even through the smoke, she can see the silouhette. No features, but a long scarf hangs on the body.

If she hadn't watched Kaylee die a second time, Este would hope it's her. Este never had hope to begin with. The head turns, just enough that Este is sure the hair she sees is cropped short.

It's Jayce.

Ajay looks back at her, only hesitating.

She runs up to Ajay, grabbing him. He stops. Este wraps her arm around him to grab the gun out of his jeans. She takes it. Ajay looks up at the graveyard, nodding slowly.

Este has to do it. Ajay knows. He can run alone. Without Este, things aren't as fun, but he isn't going to chase a ghost through a graveyard and waste time. With a slow nod, he turns to run.

From there, Este stares back up at Jayce. He hasn't seen her, she suspects. Right now, she has the advantage. It's too far to shoot him, too smoky. Sirens are blaring far away, leading the evacuation. She could make it and kill him.

He's still ruling her life, even after she's ruled his.

Ajay is far up the street. Este squints, shaking her head. She runs after him, dumping the gun in a trashbin so she's not running with it exposed in the streets. Only after ten seconds of sprinting does she manage to reach his side.

He smiles, if only a little.

Ajay starts to bolt up the steps of his porch. The lights are on in multiple rooms. Cars are warming in the driveways on Ajay's street, remotely turned on by the people in their homes packing their things. Sirens now blare far away, lights hidden by the small houses and smoke. Ajay smells burning rubber and hears the crunch of his bones even over all the chaos.

Before he can step closer, Este grabs him and pulls him back.

"You can't just show up," she hisses, dragging him away.

Ajay stares at her hand, before turning to look at her.

"Why?"

She blinks, scanning his face. The pair had visited her home already, terrified her husband. Este has shown herself to Kaylee too, breaking that car window and walking away. Their fears about experiments and laboratories seem ridiculous now, relying on them fleeing this place alive and breathing. Regardless, Este had been trying to terrify her ex-husband and his mistress. Yet here Ajay is, staring at her, seemingly unaware of the cause of her concern.

"You can't just turn up unexpectedly," Este says.

The car turns on in the driveway beside them. Neither of them are startled by the sound, not even Ajay who hears it and sees a blinding flash of white light.

"They might need help packing," Ajay manages, looking back at her.

"Oh, Ajay-"

"They need me," his lip starts to quiver.

Leaning up, Este puts their hands on his cheeks, forcing him down to look at her. They keep their face straight and firm, even as he melts between Este's fingers. He's always been the cold one, the icy one. Now he's burning up next to them, and somehow Este has to harden their stare. It's always been easy to keep everything in place. Este wears beautiful cashmere sweaters and has perfectly placed hair. They never swear when they want to spit vitriol. Yet now, Este's head is so hazy they can barely bat their eyes slowly, blinking back their tears and dignity.

"I know they need you," Este whispers. "Everyone who meets you needs you."

"They need me," Ajay raises his hands, snatching Este's shoulders. His fingers dig into them, clawing at her like the earth. He's buried alive again. "I can't leave them, Este. They need me."

"I know," she tries to hold him up.

Ajay begins to crumble beneath her. The pieces of him blow away in the harsh wind. Este collapses to the ground with him, the grip he has on her making the act not so much her choice. She doesn't fancy the ground, but she fancies Ajay.

He holds on to her, not looking back at his house. In the next few minutes, his parents will walk out. Maybe his sister. Maybe his parents aren't even alive now, though they are young. Maybe Baba had a heart attack. Ajay would have saved him. He ran across town, which took the better part of an hour and a half, and what help is he?

Heart rushing in his chest, Este's cold hands on his burning face, and Ajay finally realizes he's dead.

He pulls himself up and starts to move again. One hand in Este's, the other hand in Death's, they leave Ajay's house. The pair follow the sound of sirens. They head towards disaster. 

~~~~~

This is so long, and when I read it I want to puke and sob. Only one chapter left. Any hopes or predictions?