Fire in The Eyes Part II

I was already wheezing by the time I had caught up with Dad near the garage. My lungs were burning from the smoke. Dad heaved a burning branch off the bonnet of the car. The sickly smell of smoke was making me dizzy but I could still see the greedy flames beginning to envelope what we used to call our home. Dad was trying to fit the car-keys into the lock without much success. I used my ever-so-slightly steadier hand to jam them in.
At a click that seemed to last forever, the door opened and we almost fell over each-other getting in the car. The flames were closing in on the cottage now. Except from us and the car our whole world was deteriorating in front of our eyes. Just us now, all we had left was each other.
As I watched our house being encased by flames, I felt grief heading my way. Almost all of our worldly possessions were gone within a space of two minutes. Tears were coming to my eyes as I watched this horrific nightmare come to life. This was real! Whatever was going to happen, there was no going back. I could cry later but right now I needed to be on full alert. I came back to Earth as I became aware of dad struggling to start the car. I gulped down my fear and panic and reached over to try and help him.

Of course, no such luck with the car and we continued sluggishly on our own two feet. It was torture tramping along the blackened dirt road with just the occasional dead animal to break the stretch of nothingness. The nearest town was some eighty kilometres away and that was the direction from which the fires had first come so the town was probably nothing now, just charcoal houses and blackened foot-paths. We had passed a few farms along the road but the houses and land; what was left of them, were abandoned, and left to burn.
So much had happened in the last few hours I was struggling to keep up. Dad and I had been trudging along a dirt road for ages when suddenly, thankfully a house that for some miracle hadn’t been consumed (much) by flames appeared. We ran up to the front porch using up the little energy we had left and nearly fell against the door in relief. We soon figured out the house was abandoned but that didn’t stop us from going in. At least it had beds and food. The owners wouldn’t be too happy but hey, what else could we have done?
Dad said we were only staying in the house for one night. I asked why but he pretended he didn’t hear me. Which is strange, for dad.
As I was trying to rest that night, the shock of the day finally washed over. To think that just this morning I still had a house, friends and even my own pyjamas. It would have been nice to have any of those things right now. As I thought of what was until a few hours ago and what will be a few days from now, I slowly drifted off to sleep.