Growing Lilies

What finally got her moving was the smell of smoke in the air. She had been blankly staring up at the sky for quite some time, when the slight scent startled her out of her shock. “Right. The fires…” she mumbled to herself. “Well, better get moving–” she cut off. In a flash she remembered the cell phone alarms from earlier. Those alarm titles. She hadn’t left those alarms for herself after all! There’s no way she would have known what was going to happen like this.

She sat up abruptly, wincing at the pain in her knee. As she stood up, she noted the smoke in the sky. There were now five large billows of smoke around the city, and they looked bigger. The closest one loomed ominously, appearing much closer than before. Lily cursed, and headed back towards her apartment.

Okay, the plan. She needed a plan. What was her plan? Well, obviously she had to leave her apartment. She didn’t want to know what would happen to her if the fire reached her apartment complex before she had a chance to leave. What a way to go, survive the apocalypse only to get taken out by a fire I saw coming hours before. “Well, it’d be fitting enough. Dying like I’ve lived– in my apartment and refusing to leave.” She shook her head to clear away that depressing thought.

No. Absolutely not. She was going to get some of her things together, see if she couldn’t break into her phone, and find a safe place to wait out the fire. Where even IS safe from a fire? Outside the city? “Yeah, in the forests of California, historically the safest place to get away from raging fires.” She rolled her eyes at her own stupid thought. Okay, so not there. But if not there, where? Sewers maybe? Instantly she rejected the idea as the visceral mental image of her roasting alive in a puddle of slime and gross crossed her mind. She shook her head again, and found herself at the stairs.

“Oh god damnit! I’m such a fucking screw up!” She shouted as she looked up the stairs and realized how much of a pain it was going to be to climb the 53 stairs to her floor with her knee so screwed up. But, she started up, step by step. It was agonizing, even taking it slow. She cursed her clumsiness with every single movement. But, she was making progress, and before long she sat panting and clutching her leg at the top of the steps. She looked out at the fire. Not significantly closer than before.

After catching her breath, she stood and hobbled into her apartment again. It was, unsurprisingly, exactly how she’d left it. She was careful not to close the front door behind her, feeling strangely like sealing it back up would somehow prevent her from leaving again. With a heavy sigh she approached her desk and sat back at the computer. Unable to think of something else to do, she opened her home page and ran a search.

“Survival items from around the house”

Not satisfied with those results she tried again.

“Build an emergency kit”

That was a little better. But, it was always the same items. Batteries, flashlights, candles, non-perishable food. “I suppose humans don’t really need much more than food, water, warmth, and light huh?” she said to the empty room. Glancing out the window to make sure the fire wasn’t sneaking up on her she got packing.

Bags of chips, her phone, her cereal, her energy drinks, cans of soup she hadn’t touched in years, microwave ramen, her blankets, her phone, a couple books, several bottles of water, a loose knife, bandaids, and some over the counter painkillers. She looked over her packed items and almost decided she was ready. Then, she had a realization. “Oh fuck. Clothes that aren’t pajamas.”

She dug around in her drawers, but only a few of the items she had even fit her now. She tossed on a loose pair of jeans and a dress over them. It looked absolutely stupid, but they fit and wouldn’t be too hard to move in. As she passed by the bathroom on the way out she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and stopped. She never liked looking at her reflection. But, this time she actually laughed out loud for a second. Seeing herself all dressed up like this, for such an absurd reason, it was almost comical. It took all the stress out of seeing herself. She giggled to herself, and did a small twirl. “Look everyone, it’s the most beautiful girl in the world.” At that, she couldn’t hold it in anymore and just laughed, and laughed, and laughed. Then, she sobbed, and the laughter turned into tears in an instant.

Lily sank down onto her knees on her bathroom floor, the echoes of her sobs still sounding a little like laughter in the empty bathroom. But now it sounded mocking, and only highlighted how she was feeling. So, she tried to speak to herself. “I– I can’t do this. I ruin everything I touch. I fail at everything I do. I’m scared. I think… Am I going to die…? Someone, please help me…” At that, the tears redoubled, and she laid down again.

It took a few minutes for the tears to start to clear. But she knew she had to keep going. Letting herself cry for a minute was fine, but if she stayed here forever, the fire would eventually reach her. So, even though the tears still dripped down her face, she got up, and started moving again. She grabbed her bags, and headed down to the courtyard again. Thankfully, going down the stairs was significantly easier than climbing them. Upon getting down to the ground floor though she had a new realization.

“Well. Shit. Now what?” she said out loud. Her voice echoed off the far wall, as if driving her solitude in on purpose. When she used to leave her home she had a car of her own. But she hadn’t had one in years. Sure she could drive, and in this situation it felt entirely ethical to take whatever car she needed. In fact, she’d planned on it!

But, now that she was standing here, eying the parking lot nearby she was suddenly frozen. How exactly was she supposed to take one of these cars? She didn’t know where any of the keys were! She didn’t even know which car belonged to which apartment, so even if she broke into an apartment and found keys, she’d have to try every single car to find one that would work!

The fire was moving slow enough, she might be able to just travel away from it and find a car in another parking lot or something. But, some part of her told her that she would have better luck here. Home field advantage or something, right? Sports! She knew nothing about sports.

She stared at the parking lot, looking at each car and trying to remember if she could match any of them to an apartment. But the truth was, she didn’t even know what her direct neighbors looked like, much less their cars. She was just about to give up and start walking when she found her answer.

“Oh my god I’m such an idiot. I just need to go to some suburb and get one from a house!” The car outside a house would definitely match the house. Then she’d just have to find the keys! The closest houses were just behind the apartment complex, but she hadn’t thought of the little suburban area because her apartment faced the opposite direction. She hadn’t seen it in years! Not since she’d moved in.

Hobbling as fast as she could, and cursing herself for getting hurt during an emergency with every single step she made her way around the back of the complex. Thankfully, she had remembered correctly and there was a quaint little suburban street leading out of the complex and into a block of houses.

“Okay, so now I just have to break into one. Choose a house and break into it. Like a thief. I can do that.” She paused. On an intellectual level, she had some ideas of how to break into a house. But, her body didn’t want to move. She’d always been a stickler for following the rules, and confronted with the reality of entering a stranger’s home without permission she was suddenly unsure of herself. “How do I choose…?”

Eeny Meeny Miny Moe? Idiotic. Well. Which house would be easiest to break into? Physically, one with big windows maybe? What about emotionally? Then she thought she had it. It was so simple. She would just go door to door until she found one that wasn’t locked. That felt somehow less intrusive than breaking and entering. It was just… entering. Right?

So, she started down the street. The first house was locked. So was the second. The third didn’t have a car in front of it. But the fourth opened right up. The second the door came open with a creak, Lily realized she’d made a huge mistake. For a second, she only heard the sound of movement from within the darkened hall leading away from the front door, when suddenly a dog rounded the corner and immediately started snarling and barking. It wasn’t a huge dog. It must have been a beagle, or a basset hound or something mixed. One of those low to the ground dogs with the oversized skin and large brown spots. But the dog was angry.

Well, probably scared and angry, but now wasn’t the time for empathy. Small or not, it would still hurt to get bit, and she was an intruder, and she couldn’t afford another injury right now. With a yelp, Lily dodged away from the door as the dog shot from the home like a missile, circling around the back of her and continuing to bark loudly. Before she knew it, Lily was running INTO the house and shutting the door behind her to get away from the dog.

The door shut with a click. She could still hear the dog outside, barking loudly and pawing at the front door trying to get in to defend its home. “Ugh, lucky it barked instead of going straight for my ankles with those teeth.” She took a deep breath. Well, she could worry about getting out after she found some keys.

“Hello?” she called out, pretty sure she wouldn’t get an answer but feeling uncomfortable not announcing herself in someone’s home. “Please pardon the intrusion, I’m coming in!”

With that, she did her best to absolve herself mentally of what she was about to do. One deep breath, and then exploration began. It was strange going through someone’s home while they weren’t present. Lily could almost feel the presence of the people who had lived here. There were pictures of them hung on the walls. Two husbands raising what seemed like an adopted son. At least, he didn’t bear much resemblance to either of the parents. They looked… happy. But, now wasn’t the time to dwell on that. To the left of the hallway was a kitchen, to the right a living space and what appeared to be a door that likely lead to a bedroom.

So, Lily chose the kitchen first. She opened all the top drawers, thinking that there might be extra keys in a junk drawer or the like, and found them… immaculate. “Not to judge, but what kind of family doesn’t have a junk drawer? Every house I’ve ever been in till now has a junk drawer. Where do they put all their things that don’t go anywhere else…?” She mused out loud to herself. Somehow, it just felt better to speak out loud. It’s not something she did often in her own home, but right now it was helping her feel less alone. Plus, if she was home she’d probably be listening to something on her headphones.

Next stop was the pantry to see if they had anything non-perishable she should take. For survival, of course! She wasn’t a thief. When all of this was over, and everyone had… re-appeared or whatever, she’d come back and apologize. Yeah. That’s a good way to think of it.

So, she opened the pantry. Not a whole lot jumped out at her. Spaghetti noodles? Well, it’s not like she’s certain to have a place to cook them soon. Bread wouldn’t stay very good. She already had a number of canned goods. Then, she spotted a small box of assorted hostess goods, and decided to grab that. Sugar. She was definitely going to need some non-perishable sweets over the next few days. Taking a minute to stuff the treats into her luggage, she went back to her search. If not the kitchen, then where?

Backtracking, she approached the living area. Unfortunately, there was obviously nothing of note here. Electronics wouldn’t be useful while making an escape. There was a phone on the coffee table, but it was locked. Stupid locks. She was starting to realize that this was going to be a consistent problem when it came to getting access to data she wanted.

Wait, didn’t people normally leave going out stuff like, right next to the door? She peered into the hallway she’d entered from. Sure enough, on a little hook next to the door just above head level was a set of keys. She put her hand over her face, feeling a small blush rising. “Ugh! I was so scared of the stupid dog I didn’t even check!”

She stomped back to the front door and grabbed the keys off the hook. A little black dongle hung on the chain with buttons to unlock the car, pop the trunk, and so on. So, she pressed the unlock button. Outside she heard the beep of the car unlocking. The dog instantly started barking louder.

“Now what…?” She stood facing the door. Obviously she needed to get herself and her things into the car. Also, there was a dog. It wasn’t a big dog, and she could probably take it in a fight if it came to it. But she didn’t want to hurt a dog! Especially this nice looking family’s pet dog! She couldn’t just brain the thing and run, right? She wished she could see how close the fire was from here.

She didn’t think opening the door and taking some time to make friends with the dog was going to work at this point. But, she needed to escape. Survival was on the line. Deep breaths. Form a plan. Kicking the dog was nearly out of the question. She wasn’t sure she could, even if the alternative was getting bit. Maybe she could swap places with it again by letting it in and running past? Then what, the dog starves to death in this house over the next few days, or burns alive in the fire? How is that better? No. The dog has to stay outside, so the poor thing has a fighting chance.

She redoubled her efforts to focus. “I just have to get into the car without the dog biting me. With my supplies. Easy, right?” So, she sat down and created a plan.

Ten minutes later, she found herself standing in front of the door, suited up. Lily braced herself, and opened the door, rushing out into the sunlight. The dog instantly took notice, running around from the side of the house and chasing her down. It was a foot race, but Lily was at a distinct disadvantage, having half as many feet! Half way to the car. Three quarters. She might actually outrun the dog! It was a short distance and she had a huge head start.

Reaching the car with the keys in her hands, she fumbled to get them inserted into the keyhole, when it happened. CHOMP. She felt the dog’s teeth bite down, and suddenly it was twisting and trying to pull her leg out from under her. Lily let out a scream! But, it was just a scream of terror. There was no pain.

The dog's teeth had sunk directly into the pillow she had duct taped around her leg! There was still a bit of a crushing squeezing discomfort, but the pillow had stopped the worst of it. Gathering herself, she continued fumbling with the keys desperately, when suddenly she realized she had already unlocked the door remotely! Cursing herself, she flung the door open and threw her rolling suitcase into the passenger seat. Carefully making sure she didn’t drop the keys outside she got into the driver’s seat. It was awkward and difficult with her bulky leg padding, but she managed.

She had to practically scrape the dog off of her leg with her other foot to keep it outside the car, but then she was sitting in the car, alone. “Oh god. Ooooooh god. That was awful.” Her breathless voice filled the car. “Please have gas. I’ll cry if you don’t have gas.”

Lily pushed the button that starts the car (how modern!) and it roared to life. She half screamed, half shouted for joy. Looking immediately to the dashboard… Full tank! Of course. These people with no junk drawer would have a full tank. Stupid Mr. and Mr. Perfect with their stupid protective and probably super sweet dog!

Taking a quick look around at her surroundings, Lily easily spotted the fire. It had gotten significantly closer. It must be licking at the very edges of her apartment complex already. “I hope it stops before burning my place down.” She let out a heavy breath, and flipped the car into reverse. “No sense in getting closer to the fire I think.” If there were emergency teams working on it, it probably wouldn’t be spreading so quickly. It was time to get some distance.

So decided, she backed the car out of the driveway, careful to make sure she didn’t run over the dog. Pulling into the street, she hit the gas and pulled away. The dog chased her for half a block, barking its head off before it stopped and turned around. She was thankful for that. Hopefully it will run from the fire.

She wasn’t sure where she was going, but for now away from the fire was probably enough.