The lab was on fire. What had caused the fire, Tim wasn’t sure. None of his experiments required any source of flame, any spark, any flammable gas. But everything was currently on fire right now.
Tim was a biologist. One of the best. Overshadowed, yes, but that didn’t bother Tim. His work meant everything. He had a niche, wholly unexplored by other Temthan scientists. The idea of introducing small amounts of inert, dead viruses to the growing form of an embryo, allowing it to create immunities before hatching. Vaccinations were a small thing among adult Temthans, but Tim planned to go one step further, giving newly hatched babies a chance to survive before they tear their way into the real world.
For a moment, Tim wondered if all this fire was an accident or perhaps done on purpose. That was unlikely. As deranged and preachy as normal Temthans were, they never reached the point that they pushed science away. After all, science allowed them to better worship their deity.
No, it probably wasn’t. There were many other experiments going on. Several floors below him were the chemical labs, and Tim knew they were doing research on fire retardants or something down there. This had happened before. Fires. Not normally this large and devastating, but fires nonetheless. No one was working here today though. It was Sunday, no one worked on a Sunday apart from ‘freaks’ like Tim. Still, that wasn’t the strangest thing here.
The strangest thing was the creature standing a few meters away from Tim. It was standing by a computer, the one Tim normally worked at. It seemed to be going through Tim’s stuff and saving it all onto a small data-stick. Moments beforehand, the creature had tackled Tim away from the computer, saving him from a pillar of flames.
“Excuse me…” Tim spluttered. Was it just him or was it getting rather hot? “What’s going on?”
The creature didn’t answer. It wasn’t a Temthan. Definitely a Panvok being, but from where Tim was lying, he could only guess as to what species it was. Probably Threonic in origin, as it was too small to be a Rethavok. It also had wings. Weird, rainbow-coloured wings.
Finally, the creature was finished with the computer. It removed the data-stick from the drive and turned to face Tim. Was it smiling? Yes, a very toothy smile.
“You alright there?” the creature asked.
“It’s getting hot.”
“Well duh. The building’s on fire.”
“We should get out of here.”
“We should, definitely.”
The creature scampered towards Tim and effortlessly threw him over its shoulders. Despite the heat of the fire and the burning room in general, the creature’s skin was cold. Deathly cold. Like a corpse in a morgue. The creature carried Tim out of the room and down the hallway, which seemed to be even more on fire than the lab.
“Huh. No stairs.”
Tim wondered what the creature was talking about. A large number of burning things had blocked the stairs and the nearby elevator. Tim thought about how he phrased that last sentence and began to worry that he was suffering from the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning.
“No, it’s just heat exhaustion right now!” the creature suddenly spoke.
After a brief moment of thought, they turned around and headed to the nearest toilets. The creature gently put Tim on the floor, then started turning on all the taps. He blocked up the sinks, then started smashing the toilet basins. Tim realised the creature was flooding the room. They must have been pretty strong to be able to do that without hurting themselves.
“That won’t… save us.”
“It only needs to keep you from being burnt alive for…” the creature smiled, then checked an imaginary watch on its wrist. “About a minute.”
“I don’t…”
Before Tim could finish, the creature sat himself down next to Tim and put a finger to his mouth. He grinned as he handed Tim the data-stick.
“You should back up your work more regularly.”
“But what about the fire?”
“They’re coming now. Don’t worry about it.”
“But…”
The creature was still grinning as it got back up. It headed over towards the wall opposite them and tapped it with one of its weird, clawed fingers. “Temthanfire fighters are good at their job. Twenty seconds. Actually, maybe less…”
Tim shook his head. The heat was getting to him. “What is going on?”
“What’s going on, you ask?” The creature was laughing now. “I’m saving your life! Your own little personal miracle!”
The bathroom doors suddenly burst open. Three firefighters rushed in and helped Tim to his feet, dragging him back through the building. The fire had quickly died down, somehow. In fact, most of the fire was gone, the building’s sprinkler system had suddenly activated and the rubble that had blocked the stairs was gone.
“WHAT’S GOING ON?” Tim screamed, his head spinning.
“Don’t worry, doctor, we got you! You’re safe with us now!” one of the firefighters shouted back.
“But what about that Panvok guy?” Tim gasped.
The firefighters glanced at each other. “There are no Panvok here… You were the last person left inside.”
Tim fell silent and let the firefighters carry him out of the burning building. They quickly bundled Tim into a waiting ambulance, where a nurse stuck an oxygen mask on him.
“Someone saved me though… dragged me out of the fire… saved all my work…”
The firefighters and the nurse all looked at Tim.
“You’ve inhaled a lot of smoke, doctor…” the nurse finally sighed. “You’re probably just imagining things…”