Clouds Of Hope (Delaney)

[Ace McCloud]

Ace arrived at the school. The rumors were true, the school was on fire. But how? They said someone was messing around in the chemical lab, and one thing led to the other, but how could that be? Couldn’t a teacher have spotted them, or some other official that worked there? The fire was still young, and powerful. The only good thing that happened that Ace saw was that almost everyone was evacuated out of the building. He sighed a breath of relief, but it didn’t last long. He saw a girl fussing with one of the firefighters, screaming, “My friend’s still in there! No, let me go!,” She said, as she kicked and punched the firefighter. Who was this friend of hers? If she was in the building, then, hell Ace had to do something about that.

Ace made his way towards her, and nearing her, he saw that the firefighter had let her go, and now she was on the ground, drowning herself in her trees. Ace walked in front of her, and kneeled. Putting a arm on her shoulder, he whispered, “who’s your friend? I can help.” it was true. If need be, he would rush into that building faster than Goku could beat Freiza. Sure, that was a little far fetched, but hey, he could do it. The girl looked up at him with wide watery eyes.

She grabbed him by his shirt. “Can you?! Promise me!” She screamed, almost tearing his shirt off of his body. Ace figured that if she did, that would give her something else to think about.

A ghost of a smile appeared on his face, but it vanished as quickly as it appeared. “Yes. I promise.” he said, as winked at her. Sure, that was something people did to show someone else they were interested or something, but it also calmed some people down.

“Her name …..It’s Delaney Kane,” She whispered. She tugged at Ace’s shirt even harder. “Please save her.”

Ace put his hands on top of hers. “I will.” He said, as he saw that her hands left his shirt and began to cover her tears again. He stood up, and looked around.

Perfect, he found a stray axe just laying around. Looking back at the girl, he asked her what floor this Delaney was on. The girl told him the second floor. Ace nodded, and ran off towards the axe. Still running towards the axe, he wondered if he had changed just enough to be able to risk his life to save another? Yes, he was. He knew it. He felt it. He was going to save Delaney no matter what, not even if he died, he was going to make sure she lived.

He picked it up, and figured that it would work. It better had. He took off his shirt, and ran towards the school, avoiding any fire fighters trying to stop him. They couldn’t catch him, he was too fast. In seconds, he was in the burning school, headed for the stairs, avoiding any falling debris, or fires for that matter. He reached the stairs after about a minute. He knew the school wouldn’t last long, and as he reached the stairs, his suspicions were confirmed. The entire staircase was filled with debris. Burning debris. “nuts!,” Ace yelled. He would have to jump over it.

Pressing his back against the wall opposite of the staircase, he ran towards the staircase at full speed. As soon as he was mere inches away from it, he dove. Ten seconds later, he was on the second floor. “Delaney!,” He screamed, “Where are you?!” He knocked down the first door to his right, and looked around inside. There was no sign of life. Or death for that matter.

He knew who Delaney was. He had saw her around school, and though they had never met, they had 3 classes together, and during Attendance, he heard her name being called. She never replied however, so she was always marked as absent, but she didn’t care from the looks of it. Ace had a crush on her, but that was before, when he had first come. But it didn’t matter now, no, not anymore. All that mattered was getting her out of the burning building. But where was she?! Where the hell was she?!

[Delaney Kane]

[Ace McCloud]

Ace’s hand went numb as he knocked down yet another door. Sticking his head inside, he scanned the classroom quickly and thoroughly. No one, not even a soul. This was beginning to frustrate Ace, not only because he now had a numb left hand, but because he couldn’t find Delaney. He wondered if he should have started on the other side. It didn’t matter now, it looked like the fire did start from the other side, Ace noticed when he finally decided to investigate how the fire could have started.

At his old school, stuff like this would never have happened. They were used to it, and thus, they weren’t as panicked as the people in this small town. He was sure that the students probably knocked over desks as they tried to leave the room. Hell, the teachers probably did the same. They, never in a hundred years, would’ve imagined something like this would have happened. Sadly, it had, and they all had to deal with it. Thankfully, they had a hero.

Ace came to the last room on the hallway. Apparently, it seemed to be the one where the fire had started. Maybe, maybe not, no one could be too sure. His hand was still numb, so chopping the door down would be hard, if not, impossible. Shoving the axe into his pocket, Ace was sure he would have to kick the door down. Going to the opposite side, being careful of the flames if he didn’t want to faint or die, and revved up. With a sudden push off the wall with his right leg, he ran towards the door at full speed. Bam! Ace was laying on top of the door, as sore as ever.

To make things even better, the ceiling above the door collapsed. The worst part, Ace was right near it, or rather, his feet were. “AH!,” Ace screamed in pain. He knew his right foot had to be broken, but this was no time for crying. He had to move the rubble somehow. With one working hand, he knew that would be even harder than the door. Making matters even worse, the heat was getting to him. He was fading slowly. No, he had to do this.

You’re going to be a failure, Ace! And you’re going to die!…..No that can’t happen, no!……Shut up, and get up!

Ace awoke. He didn’t have time for this. Pushing his body up with his available hand, the debris shifted off. Sure, it looks easy, but hell, it spent up most of Ace’s energy just trying to get his hand free. He was up, barely, but at least he was up. Looking around, he noticed the classroom was fairly intact except for the broken door. But he did that, so it was still in good shape. Finally, he noticed her. She was laying under some debris, unconscious. Maybe that’s why she didn’t respond.

Ace limped his way over to her, and realized something. There was no way he could lift that debris. He could, but he was sure he would faint. It would require too much energy. He dropped to his knees as he reached her, and tried to lift the debris. Thankfully, the numbness in his left hand had receded, and he was sure the axe would do no good. “nuts!,” he said aloud. He was able to turn her around so that he was able to see her face however. That part was easy.

“I am so sorry for this, but it must be done,” He said, as he moved the hair away from her face. Getting closer and closer, he finally went for it. He kissed her. Kisses gave him motivation, and seeing as she was unconscious, he might as well had. It would save her life. He pressed down on her stomach, hoping to make her conscious again. Wait, that was CPR. Water would help in this case, not the opposite.

He slapped her. Not hard, just enough to wake her up.

[Delaney Kane]

[Ace McCloud]

Ace wondered if the slap would be enough to wake her up. Sure it was hard to concentrate on other things when your body was aching with tremendous pain, but at times like this, you never could worry about yourself. You have to worry about the person that’s in real trouble, not yourself, because even though you can save yourself, who can say the same about the person who needs saving? No one.

Ace didn’t have time to think about what was right and what was wrong, so he simply shook off those thoughts. A smile crept onto his face as he saw that Delaney had woken up. Yes! She stared at him, obviously confused. Ace had been in a situation like this, when he had seen his mother and sister’s corpses. He knew everything that was going on, but yet, he was confused. There was no simple way to explain it. It was just one of those things that just happened, and you didn’t need to comment about it, knowing there was no way you could explain it without people thinking you’re crazy or anything.

She broke him out of his daze when a cry left her mouth. Ace simply knew that it wasn’t because of his slap, he didn’t hit her hard. So where did this cry come from? He immediately put his hands on both sides of her face, looked down at her. “Don’t worry. You’re alright. There’s a fire going on, and you’re in it. Well, not in it, but you’re where it’s happening, and I was sent by God to save you.” He smiled. He knew she knew the situation of the fire, just not the whole point of why he was here. He looked back towards the debris that was pushing down on her, and automatically rushed over to it.

How could he move it? He was too spent, too weak. He had to think of a solution, and to do that, he had to do this. He rushed back over towards where Delaney’s head rested, and then, gave her another kiss. He added more force into this one, it would give him more of a adrenaline rush, and in his case, the more adrenaline, the better. He released the kiss, and then rushed back over towards the debris. He was tired of rushing from one point to the other, so he decided that it was now do or die. Literally.

Thankfully, the debris was just one big piece of some sort of material, which meant, it would be easier and harder to move at the same time. Easier, because he wouldn’t have to worry about moving one thing and then having the other inflict more damage on Delaney’s fragile body. Harder, because now it would be heavier, but at least, he could move it all at one time. He felt around the bottom part of the slab, being careful not to touch against Delaney. He knew that he had already kissed her, so he didn’t want to go to jail for sexual harassment. That is, if they lived.

Perfect! He found a small opening, just big enough for his fingers to fit in. He planted his fingers, and crouched down, getting into position. He attempted to lift the slab of hard rock, and immediately felt the strain of his body. Nonetheless, he kept trying. He knew all of his veins were probably popping out of his head right about now, but finally, the slab shifted just slightly. He didn’t attempt to stop the pressure, but kept going along with it. He knew that if he stopped, there would be no other way to move this crap.

Finally, the slab was at least a foot off the ground. Perfect. With one last surge of strength, Ace sent the slab flying into a nearby desk. He fell down, due to the lack of energy, onto his stomach. He had to get back to Delaney. He began to crawl towards her. He finally reached her, and smiled. “Let’s get out of here.”

[/size]

(it was all i could think of. sorry )