by Jake Biondi
BOYSTOWN
Season Four
Jake Biondi
BOYSTOWN Season Four
Jake Biondi
Copyright 2015 by Jake Biondi
Smashwords Edition
©2015 Jake Biondi
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Table of Contents
Title
Copyright
Start of Book
Episode #31
While smoke fills space with suffocating darkness, fire illuminates the world around it. As the roaring flames reached up from the roof of the building as if trying to grab the stars in the night sky high above, the guests trapped inside chaotically scrambled for safety and freedom. Loud sirens from the approaching fire trucks easily drowned out the cries for help coming from within the building.
As his taxi cab approached the area, Marco Ciancio saw the flashing lights from the trucks. He instructed the cab driver to get as close to the restaurant as possible; then he paid the driver and jumped from the taxi, practically running into a fireman who was hauling a hose toward the building.
“Whoa,” the fireman said to Marco. “You’re going to have to stay back.”
“The hell I am,” Marco replied. “My brother’s in there. And my girlfriend.”
“We’ll get them out,” the fireman replied assertively, as he grabbed Marco’s arm. “You need to stay back here where you’re safely out of our way.”
“Fine,” Marco said, pulling his arm free of the fireman’s grip. “Just hurry up and get in there.”
The fireman turned and joined the rest of the fire fighters who were pulling on oxygen masks and removing more hoses from the trucks.
“Jesus,” Marco mumbled as he stared at the flames dancing along the top of the building. The glow of the fire lit Marco’s face as he watched it devour the building.
At the same time in her hotel room, Jacqueline stepped out of the shower. She dried herself off with a soft, white towel and then stared at her naked body in the full-length mirror in front of her. Running her hand over her abdomen, she thought about the baby growing deep inside of her, as well as the baby’s father, who had caused so much stress and anxiety for so many people.
She grabbed her robe from the back of the door and wrapped it around herself, slowly tying the belt around her waist. Then she walked into the next room and sat down on the edge of the bed. Staring at the television, she watched as the program was interrupted with “breaking news.”
A news camera from a helicopter high above the restaurant fire provided horrifying images of the inferno as Jacqueline listened to the newscaster’s words: “We interrupt this broadcast to bring you breaking news from the north side. A fire has broken out at a north side restaurant during a private fundraising event. Fire crews from all over the city have arrived on the scene. We have no word yet on injuries or casualties…”
“Oh, my God,” Jacqueline said, reaching for the remote control to turn up the volume on the television. “Jesse…”
Inside the restaurant, flames spewed from the sprinkling system along the ceiling and engulfed the entire space below. With the front door blocked by hot flames, guests raced toward the back of the restaurant where all exits had been locked from the outside by Ben Donovan.
“This way,” Tyler Bennett called to Joyelle Mancini, taking her by the hand toward the back of the restaurant.
“Get down! Get down!” Michael Martinez yelled to the panicked guests scrambling about the space. “Stay low to the ground. Stay low! And stay calm!”
“We’ll never get out of here,” Joyelle said.
Tyler quickly kissed Joyelle. “Trust me, I’m going to get us out of here safely.”
Joyelle forced a smile and followed Tyler as he made his way toward the back of the restaurant. Michael pushed through the crowd to get to the rear doors as well.
Upon arriving at the back of the restaurant, Michael directed people to stand back so he could access the doors. Pushing as hard as he could, Michael tried to get the doors to open, but did not succeed. “Tyler, help me.” Tyler joined Michael at the doors and, together, they threw all the weight of their bodies against them. “Again!” They repeated their body slam against the doors and again accomplished nothing.
Keith Colgan rushed over to them, carrying a highboy table. “What about this?”
“Yes,” Michael said, helping Keith with the table. “Come on, Tyler. We can use it as a ram.”
“Everybody, stand back,” Tyler ordered the guests gathered around them. “Give us some room.”
“Over here,” Joyelle told the others while coughing loudly. “Stay over here.”
Michael, Keith, and Tyler adjusted their grips on the table, holding it horizontally.
“On three,” Michael instructed the two men. “One, two, three!” The men rushed forward, smashing the end of the table into the double-doors, which bent slightly from the pressure. “Again!”
The men rushed toward the doors once more, forcefully hitting them with the table. Joyelle continued to cough and then collapsed onto the floor behind the men.
As the second attempt to break through the doors was made, Cole O’Brien and David Young worked their way through the thick smoke in the club area. Coughing loudly, they navigated the smoke determined to find an exit.
“Cole!” Jesse Morgan yelled to his best friend. “This way.”
Cole struggled to find Jesse in the chaos of the smoke-filled area. “Don’t wait for us,” Cole called back. “Get yourself out.”
“Hurry! This way,” Logan Pryce said back. “You’re right behind us.”
Cole and David hurried through the blackness as the fire ravaged the ceiling above them. Suddenly, it collapsed, large wooden beams falling to the floor. As they smashed onto the ground, they sent more flames and soot into the air, forming a fiery cloud in the room.
Logan cried out as a large, flaming portion of the ceiling crushed him to the floor. Pinned beneath the massive piece of debris, Logan passed out as a ceiling beam crashed down on top of Cole. David and Jesse jumped toward the club wall to avoid being hit by the falling debris, which continued to shower down throughout the area.
“Logan! Logan!” Jesse yelled in his direction, but Logan didn’t respond. He remained motionless beneath the burning slab of wood and metal. “Logan!”
“Fuck.” Cole winced as the heavy beam knocked him to the floor. He immediately tried to lift himself up from the floor but he couldn’t.
“Cole,” David said desperately as he rushed back to him.
“Go ahead! Get yourself out,” Cole urged David.
“No way,” David replied. “I’m not going anywhere without you.” David tried to remove the beam that was holding Cole down.
“It’s too heavy,” Cole said helplessly. “Get yourself and Jesse out of here.”
“You don’t always get to be the hero,” David said through the smoke. “Let someone save you for a change.”
“Logan!” Jesse yelled again, making his way over to his boyfriend. He knelt down next to Logan. “Logan, wake up.” Logan didn’t respond. “Somebody help!”
“I’ll be right there,” David called out as he continued to help Cole out from under the beam.
Suddenly, Max Taylor emerged from the smoke and ran over to Jesse. “Go to the other side,” Max told Jesse. “Now!”
Jesse hopped over t
o the other side of the flaming mass, as Max instructed, and yelled back, “It’s too heavy. We need more people!”
“We can do this,” Max said.
“He’s not waking up,” Jesse added.
“Shut up and lift this with me.”
“Fuck you,” Jesse replied before returning his attention back to helping Logan.
Small pieces of the ceiling continued to rain down around David as he worked to lift the beam from Cole. Gritting his teeth and pushing hard, David managed to lift the beam just enough for Cole to get out from under it.
Slowly rising to his feet, Cole held his left arm alongside his rib cage. He let out a moan and David asked, “You okay?”
“Not sure,” Cole said.
“We need your help over here,” Jesse called to them.
David rushed over to help Jesse and Max. Positioning himself between the two other men, David knelt to get a grip on the ceiling chunk on top of Logan.
“Don’t leave me,” Jesse pleaded to Logan as the three men struggled to lift.
Cole attempted to help the other men and David saw the pain in his face. “Don’t hurt yourself any more than you already are,” David told Cole. “Get out of here. We’ve got this.”
“I want to help,” Cole said, coughing.
“See if you can find Emmett,” Max instructed. “I can’t find him anywhere.”
“I’ll do what I can,” Cole said, slowly walking away into the smoke.
Max yelled at the other two men. “Come on. Lift!”
Slowly, and with great difficulty, the men lifted the heavy slab from on top of Logan. They managed to turn it on its end and let it drop to the floor in the direction of the wall. As it hit the ground, it sent more debris in every direction.
“Logan! Logan!” Jesse said as he bent over his unconscious body.
“There’s no time to waste,” Max declared, quickly lifting Logan’s body from the floor and over his shoulder. “We have to get out of here.”
“This way,” David said, heading toward the restaurant area.
At the rear of the restaurant, Michael, Keith, and Tyler continued to attack the locked double doors with the highboy table, unaware of Joyelle lying unconscious on the floor behind them. Their first few hits managed to bend the doors a bit and they were determined to burst them open all the way.
“Again!” Michael yelled, holding the table with one hand and quickly wiping his forehead with the other.
“It’s no use,” Keith said, coughing as thick smoke surrounded them.
Michael looked encouragingly at Keith. “We can do this, Stormy. Come on!”
Tyler turned around and saw Joyelle on the floor with a few guests hovering around her. “Joyelle.” Tyler let go of the table and knelt next to her. “Joyelle!”
“Get over here,” Michael ordered. “Let’s get these doors open and get her out of here.”
Tyler returned to Michael and Keith and the three men charged forward again with the table. It hit the doors hard, bending them enough to make a small opening. The smoke shifted direction and worked its way through the opening to the outside. “Once more.”
The men slammed the table against the doors one final time, causing them to burst open and air to rush into the restaurant. Guests charged outside as firemen entered the space.
“Everyone out,” Michael said loudly. “This way. Hurry.” Several pieces of burning ceiling fell to the ground, leaving streaks of fire in their wake. In their panic to leave the building, guests rushed around them and continued to flee the building.
Tyler returned to Joyelle and lifted her unconscious body gently from the floor. Then he followed Keith and Michael out of the building.
“We did it,” Keith said to Michael as they stepped into the alley behind the restaurant. Several fire trucks were parked there and firemen were racing in myriad directions trying to attack the fire.
Tyler called out to the paramedics. “Can I get some help over here, please?” They ran over and helped Tyler put Joyelle onto a stretcher. “She needs help.”
“We’ll take a look,” one of the paramedics told him.
“Thank you,” Tyler said as they brought Joyelle to one of the nearby ambulances.
A fireman approached Michael. “Those doors were locked from the outside.”
“What the hell?” Michael asked. “Why?”
The fireman shook his head. “We need to get the others out.”
“Stay here,” Michael told Tyler and Keith. “And see if you can find the rest of your friends out here somewhere.”
“Where are you going?” Keith asked.
Michael looked directly at Tyler. “Watch him and keep him out here.” Then Michael turned and ran back into the fiery building.
“Michael, no!” Keith tried to run after Michael, but Tyler grabbed his arm and held him back.
“You heard what he just said,” Tyler stated.
“But--”
“He’ll be okay. He knows what he’s doing.”
“He thinks he’s a superhero.”
“He’ll be okay,” Tyler repeated. “I’m going to follow the ambulance to be with Joyelle. You see if you can find your friends.”
Tyler left the area as Keith made his way out of the alley and around toward the front of the building. Inside, Dustin Alexander rushed over to Max, who still had Logan’s limp body over his shoulders.
“Is he okay?” Dustin asked.
“We need to get out of here.”
“Head to the back, it looks like they got the doors open. Hurry, before more of the roof caves!”
Suddenly, two fire fighters burst through the front doors of the restaurant, sending glass into the air and causing the fire to shift the direction of its dance.
“Over here!” one of them yelled through his oxygen mask.
Dustin and Max headed toward the fireman and the exit near him. Jesse and David followed.
“There are others still inside,” David told the fireman.
“We’ll get them,” the man replied as other firemen hosed down the area.
“I need help here,” Max said as two paramedics ran over to help him with Logan. Together, the three men got Logan onto a stretcher and into the ambulance. “A piece of the ceiling fell on him.”
“You’ve got to save him,” Jesse pleaded as he peered into the back of the ambulance. “Please.”
“Get in and ride with him,” Max told Jesse. “I have to find Emmett.”
Jesse got into the back of the ambulance; the paramedics closed the doors and the ambulance quickly pulled away.
“Have you seen Cole out here?” Max asked David, who shook his head.
“It’s so dark and smoky; it’s hard to see anything.”
“I have to find Emmett,” Max repeated.
Dustin grabbed Max’s arm firmly. “It’s too dangerous to go back in. Let the firemen do their work.”
“I can’t just stand here and watch when my husband may be trapped inside.”
Dustin looked directly into Max’s eyes. “Look, they will find him. And he’s not your husband yet.”
Before Max could respond, Marco approached the small group. “Where’s my brother? And Rachel? Have you seen them?”
“No,” David replied. “We haven’t.” David paused and then added, “How did you get out so fast? You don’t have one mark on you.”
“We have to find my brother,” Marco persisted, ignoring David’s comment. “Where the hell is he?”
“There are a lot of people still missing,” Max said. “The firemen will find them.”
“I can’t wait that long,” Marco said. “I’m going in.”
“The hell you are,” one of the firemen said. “No one is going back in there; the whole place is about to cave in. Now, please, step back. I need all of you to step back across the street where you’re safe.”
Two policemen walked over to assist the fireman. “Let’s go, folks. We need everyone away from the building.
�
��You’ve got to get my brother out of there,” Marco pleaded.
“Sir, I’m not going to ask you again,” the policeman insisted. “Step back across the street.”
“Come on,” David said. “Let’s get out of their way.” David led Marco across the street followed by Max and Dustin. As they walked, Keith jogged over to them from the alley.
“Is everyone okay?” Keith asked. “Have you seen Michael?”
“An ambulance just took Logan to the hospital,” Max said. “He looked pretty bad. Jesse is with him.”
“Joyelle is on her way to the hospital, too,” Keith said. “She collapsed inside; Tyler went along with her.”
“Has anyone seen Derek at all?” Max asked
“No sign of him,” Keith said. “And Michael ran back inside to help more people. I’m scared he’ll be trapped. That ceiling is caving section by section.”
“Yes,” Dustin added. “That’s what fell on Logan.”
“You didn’t see Gino inside?” Marco asked. Keith shook his head. “He has to be in there. And Rachel, too.”
“And Emmett,” Max said while Dustin put his arm around Max’s shoulders.
As ambulances carrying Logan and Joyelle raced toward the hospital, the new Chief of Staff at St. Joseph Hospital was in his office with a nurse, whom he had pressed up against the wall. Open boxes sat on his desk and on the floor in the corner waiting for the doctor to unpack them as he settled into his new office. His shirt lay over one of the chairs near his desk.
The doctor kissed the nurse passionately, running his hands through her blond hair as she dug her fingers into his strong back. Wrapping her legs around him, the nurse pressed her firm breasts against his muscled, hairy chest. His tongue licked her jaw line and her neck, eventually working its way down to her hard nipples.
She ran her hands down his back and into his pants so she could feel his ass. Then she opened the front of his pants, revealing his erect penis. His mouth still on her breasts, he forced himself into her as she let out a soft moan.
