"Grab all the books that you can off the floor! If they are too close to the fire, leave them!"

I had organized the mess of librarian patrons into three different groups; Children, elderly that can't bend down that easy, and adults. 'Average' looking adults would go and gather books that were by the fire and place them in stacks for the children to grab, adults with more of a build would push bookshelves that were not in immediate danger of catching fire to the sides of the library, but not where the fire could spread to them. The children would in threes take the books that the adults placed down to where the bookshelves were being moved. The librarians pushed the tables out of the way and cleared out an area in the middle of it all that anyone that wasn't/couldn't do anything could be and not worry about catching fire. 

Everyone had something covering their faces from the smoke, from t-shirts to undergarments. To be honest, everyone would have looked really stupid if it wasn't for the 15-foot wall of fire that was slowly edging its way to us despite our efforts. 

Somebody screamed, and I whipped my head around so fast that my neck hurt. 

"Stop Drop and Roll!" someone else yelled, and I saw that one of the highschooler's jacket sleeve had caught on fire. "It won't go out! Help!" she screamed in response, and two adults that were nearby ripped off the jacket and stomped it out. 

The girl's arm was bright red, which I recognized as a first-degree burn,  and I ran to the water fountain that was in the back, pulled off my sock, and got it as wet as I could. 

"Put this on the burn; it may not be sanitary, but it may help," I said to her, and she took it and walked with me to the center area. Then, I saw Sana-san running toward me.

"I found it! It took a while, but I found it!" she said to me hurriedly.

"Found what?" I said as fast as I could with my thin Japanese. 

"The -! I found the -" She said, but I could not understand what she said in the gap. 

One of the other librarians looked over her shoulder and yelled"What did you say?! You found the door to the old basement?!?! What are you doing standing there? Let's get everyone in there!" 

Basement? "There is a basement? Is it concrete?" I asked  

"Better! Come on!" Sana-san said.

"HEY! EVERYONE! WE FOUND SOMEWHERE THAT IS SAFE! FOLLOW SANA-SAN!" I yelled on the top of my lungs and pointed to Sana-san. Yup, my voice was going to be gone when this was all over. I thought. 

At first, there was a very slow reaction, but when a bookshelf caught on fire due to the heat, everyone picked up the pace and Sana-san down to a metal door, and down a set of stairs. 

The basement was in the back of the library and had a thin layer of dust everywhere, telling me that we were  the first ones to be in here for a while. 

"Is everyone here?" I got out

"I think so," someone else replied. 

We all promptly colasped on the ground, breathing in the stale, but smoke free, air. 

They were all safe at last. 

Or so it seemed.