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Chapter 3

Fire is burning your time away. Smell the smoke, church boy?

The words ran through Brian's head continuously as he swallowed and jumped up, almost
knocking Sara to the floor.

Kevin was already at the door, holding it open for everyone. Nick, Jenn, and AJ had already
rushed out and Howie was following them.

"OUT KEVIN!" The security guard yelled. "C'mon! Move your asses! Sara, Brian, lets go!"

Brian looked up to find Sara's worried eyes staring back at him. His legs had froze but, he wasn't
sure if it was from fear or from his health problems. His eyes watched as his cousin was ripped
from the room and the guard coming towards him.

"Go Sar..."

"Not without you." Her voice was filled with desperation and he knew she meant it.

"Damn it..." He muttered under his breath. Finally, his mind overpowered his body and he found
himself able to move his legs. Grabbing his wife's hand he bent and fanned the smoke away that
was beginning to loom into the room.

Silently, he thanked God that he had been to this arena before so that he knew where the exits
were. Otherwise, they would've been as good as dead.

"Brian! Don't go that way! Stuff is fallin over there!" Howie shouted as Brain turned to his left.

"Howie?!" He coughed and fanned more smoke away. "Where are you?!"

Suddenly, Brian felt a head pulling his own. He could see the curls in Howie's usually perfect hair,
dampening with sweat and becoming wavier than he had seen it in a while. He just hoped his
Latino friend knew where he was going.

"Howie! Didn't Kev and the others go the other way?" Brian shouted, afraid of the silence around
him. He knew it wasn't a smart move to be talking with all this smoke.

"Yeah. We just have to hope they're okay." Howie's voice was becoming raspier and Brain
decided he should just keep silent.

As much as he feared it.

It was a few seconds before the man heard his wife break into a coughing fit behind him.
Suddenly, she stopped walking and let go of his hand.

"SARA! Are you crazy?! You can't let go like tha- Oh my God..." Brian quickly knelt where his wife
was laid out on the floor. "Sara...wake up..."

"Holy shit..." Howie whispered, running back to find out why Brian had let go.

A loud boom rang out through the hallway and both of the Backstreet Boys looked up to see the fire
headed their way.

"HOWIE! We can't leave her here!" Brian's voice had become high pitched as he held his wife
close, unable to lift her. His legs were slowly failing him and tears were burning his eyes as well
as the smoke. "DO SOMETHING HOWIE! I CAN'T GET HER UP!"

Howie's adrenaline shot though his body as he lifted Sara from Brian's arms and ran from the fire.
"Come on Brian!"

He only hoped they weren't trapped.

Kevin walked quickly, but careful not to stop on any of the fallen debris. He cursed to himself as
the smoke grew thick. Too think for him to find Nick, Jenn, and AJ.

"Nick! JENN!" He shouted, knowing it would hurt him in the end. "AJ! Where are you?"

Suddenly, he heard the sound of someone running towards him. He made out the figure to be Nick.

"NICK! Where's Jenn and AJ?" Kevin shouted, but there was no answer. The man ran off the
other way. "Where the hell are you..."

"KEV! Over HERE!" AJ's raspy voice came from the opposite direction.

"But...Nick..."

"Nick's over here too! Hurry! Jenn got hit with this falling shit and...and...w-we can't find our way
out." AJ shouted again.

Kevin took off in the direction of AJ's voice, almost sure he was crying. So, who was that guy that
he thought was Nick?

"Oh God, I'm hallucinating." He mumbled to himself. With this, he picked up his pace as he saw
Jenn in Nick's arms and AJ trembling behind him. "THAT WAY!" He announced, pointing a finger.

Within seconds, they had found the exit. Not soon enough though.

Jenn was knocked out cold.

Kevin managed to bust open the door and force the others out in front of him. They all got a few
feet from the door, then collapsed in coughing fits. When Kevin managed to catch his breath he
looked around. He saw fire trucks heading to the stadium and saw a few of the personal that was
still there. Then he realized that Brian, Sara, and Howie were not there.

Kevin quickly got back up and ran back into the building. he faintly could here Nick and AJ yelling
at him to come back, but he didn't pay them any attention. Once back inside his eyes started to
burn due to the smoke.

"Brian!!" He yelled out, and it was followed by many coughs. "Howie!!" He yelled out once more,
only to find himself now suddenly feeling very light headed. He pushed that feeling aside for now
and moved further back into the building. He stopped suddenly when he heard a frantic pounding.

Turning to his right he saw a door a few feet away. Once he made his way to it he knew that the
noise was coming from there. "Stand back!!" He yelled as he positioned himself to knock the door
down. After throwing his shoulder into the door a few times, it finally gave way. He fell into the
room and looked to see Brian leaning over Sara's still form, and Howie looking at him with thanks.

Kevin even say anything, he just bent down and picked Sara up and told the other to go in the
direction he just came. They were all struggling to breath through the smoke filled air. Soon they
came to the door that Kevin had just came in from, only to find chains now held the door closed.

Kevin couldn't believe this, this HAD to be the door that he had used. Howie fell to his knees in
front of the door, shaking the handles as he kneeled there. Disbelief fell over all of them as they
though of where they could go next.

Brian let out a hacking cough as he tried to speak, "I think there's an exit" he coughed again, "over
there, about 100 feet away." He pointed to the left, they all headed into that direction.

The door was there, but nobody could believe their luck. It was blocked, by a huge piece of stage
that would take at least five men to move. "This can't be happening!!" Howie yelled out. The one
who never believed that something was impossible. "We can't die like this, we just can't!" He
seemed near hysterics.

Kevin quickly put Sara down on the ground and headed over to the object that was holding off
their escape. "Howie, I need your help." Howie quickly made his way over to Kevin and they both
began to push with all their might.

Brian watched in awe as the two of them managed to move it, when it would have taken much
more man power than that. Howie was the first to make his way out of the door, collapsing in a fit
of coughing onto the pavement from all the excursion and from the lack of oxygen. AJ ran to his
side as soon as he saw his best friend emerge from the burning building.

Kevin made his way over to Brian and Sara, "Brian go, I've got Sara, get out of here NOW!!!" He
pushed his cousin towards the door and scooped Sara into his arms. Once out into the open air
Kevin thought that he was gonna pass out. He quickly laid Sara down next to Howie and collapsed
along side of Howie.

Kevin just couldn't seem to get in a breath as he struggled. He rolled over onto his back and
looked up into the star filled sky, watching as the stars began swirling in front of his eyes. Taking
on last glance to make sure all of his family was no longer in the building, he gave in and
welcomed the darkness.

***

“Kev, man, can you hear me? Come on man, open those eyes.” Kevin awoke to hearing AJ’s
raspy voice in his ear. At first he began to get pissed off at the one that was bothering him, he just
wanted to sleep a little. Then it all came back to him as he took in a whiff of AJ’s smoke filled
clothes, causing him to quickly snap open his eyes and try to sit up.

AJ quickly pushed Kevin back down into his bed, relieved that the older man was now awake.
“Take it easy there Kev, its okay.” Kevin leaned back into the bed, but his eyes showed his worry.

“Is everyone ok?” Kevin was surprised at how raspy his own voice was.

“Nobody was hurt too badly. See look, D and Brian are over there.” AJ said as he pointed over to
the two other beds. They both looked to be resting comfortably. “Nick is in the other room with the
girls. Everyone with the exception of Jenn just got a bit too much smoke in there systems. They
are keeping everyone overnight for observation. Something fell on Jenn and hit the back of her
leg. They are guessing that when it hit her it caused her to fall and knock herself out. She’s got a
nice size bump on her head, and her leg was all scrapped up, but everyone is fine Kev.” AJ said
reassuringly.

“Oh thank god.” Kevin said feeling a huge weight lift off of his chest.

“But Kev,” AJ started, but hesitated for a minute. “I think that this was not an accident. Howie
told me all about the door being chained.”

Kevin let out a deep sigh, “I had the same feeling, but we will have to talk about this later.” With
that said Kevin shut his eyes and fell back to sleep.

***

Nick couldn’t believe this, two years ago he thought this would be over. Now within the past 48
hours everything had changed. AJ had shared his fears with him only an hour ago, and he knew
deep down that this was the work of Rick and Kara. He took a deep breath and looked at his wife.

She still had not fully woken up yet. Sara had woken up a few hours ago, and had gone back to
sleep once she was reassured that Brian was safe. Jenn had been mumbling things for the past
hour, he could tell that she was scared.

His thoughts were interrupted when AJ walked into the door. “Hey Jay, any changes?” Nick asked.

AJ gave a nod, “Kev just woke up, but he’s out again. He seemed really tired, but the nurse said
that its normal for him to want to go right back to sleep.”

“Well its good that he’s finally awake, he was in that smoke for a while. I still can’t believe that he
ran back in, but it was a good thing he did. If he hadn’t, who knows if Brian, Sara, and D would
have made it out.” Nick had tears in his eyes.

“Don’t think about that man, everyone is here and okay. All I know is that I don’t think I’ll ever
smoke another cigarette again.” AJ said trying to lighten the mood.

“I think everyone would kill you if you tried to smoke.” Nick responded. They were interrupted
when they heard a small moan come from Jenn. Nick quickly was right at her side, holding her
hand. “Come on baby, open your eyes.” Nick pleaded.

Jenn’s eyes slowly fluttered open. When her eyes connected with Nicks she let out a sob. “Oh
Nick, I…I…”

“Shhh, baby its okay. It’s all okay now.” Nick said soothingly as he pushed her hair back off of her
face.

Jenn still continued with her cries, “No Nick, it’s not. In the fire, I saw Rick.”