Jot 1.6

Laurel dug her forehead into the soft cool grass as she continued to cough, desperately trying to clear her lungs. She was alive! She could hardly believe it was true. She should not still be here, should not be crying, breathing, almost laughing in hysterics with a strange man next to her. He was watching her intently as she continued to cough.
"Are you alright?" he asked, concern distorting his features along with the black soot that had caked his skin.
Laurel chuckled and rested her cheek on the ground, looking at him. "Am I alright? I'm alive, aren't I? If not for you, I'd...I'd be much worse than I am now."
"Yes, but are you hurt, hurt badly?" The stranger seemed completely unconcerned with his own heroics, passing off her declaration that he had saved her life as if she had told him the time.
"My lungs burn and my legs...I don't know how bad they are. But other than that, there's not much seriously wrong with me. Are...are you hurt?"
The man smiled. "Just a few bumps and bruises."
"Good."
Sirens could be heard in the distance, speeding toward them. Laurel struggled to push herself up and looked back at the Bed and Breakfast. Flames licked every inch of the lot, burning what was left of the rubble. The fire roared bright and hot and reached high into the night sky, illuminating the entire block.
"We...we weren't the only people in there, were we?" Laurel asked, her lower lip quivering.
The man lowered his head. "I took the last vacant room this afternoon."
Laurel looked around frantically, in search of other lucky survivors. There was no one. No one but the wide-eyed people that emerged from surrounding buildings.
"They...they all...they all," Laurel suddenly began sobbing, sobbing with the realization of how many had not been as lucky as she had. Who had been in there? Newlyweds? Families? Children? All gone. Whoever they were, they were all gone. Dead.
The man scooted closer to her and wrapped his arm around her shaking shoulders. The emergency vehicles soon pulled up and doused the raging flames, but it was too late. The fire had consumed everything, everyone.