Holokautein

[Poko]

With a desperate, scraping push that Poko could feel tearing at her fur and coat, she forced her slender ferret body through the tiny storage room window, pouring slowly to the ground below in a smooth acrobatic tumble. She rolled to her feet and gazed back at the opening where she could still see Istvan?s paws. A crease of worry etched itself between her eyes.

?I?m going to go through the side door and unlock your door from the outside!? She called, but it was unclear whether they heard. Pursing her mouth into a thin line of resolve, she made a dash toward the smoke and fire where the demolished forges had blown a hole in the side of the brick building further down.

As she neared the section of the building where the side door used to be, she slid to an abrupt stop, rigid with trepidation. Creeping slowly along the ground, eating through everything it touched, a pool of liquid fire was spreading and devouring the building, melting the bricks at the base.

?Lava?? breathed the young ferret with fear and awe.

The explosions must have had a deeper impact than any of them had planned. They had ruptured the side of the mountain itself. There was no side door now ? only a burning frame. The lava was spreading, seeping forth unchecked and inexorable. It would consume them all, slowly and steadily.

Poko broke away from the mesmerizing sight, charging off in the opposite direction. Panic fueled her momentum. There had to be another way out. The end of the building had large windows, but they were barred. There were no doors either, aside from the giant steel utility door. She had seen it raised and lowered by a complicated system of pulleys and half-ton counterweights when she first scouted the place, so she knew there was no way it could be lifted manually ? even by many paws. So even if the others managed to break out of the holding room, they would still be trapped.

The young ferret charged around the other side of the building to the tall turret that stood midway along the wall. She knew the mechanism for raising and lowering the great steel door was housed here. In the past it was well-guarded and Poko had avoided it, but it would surely be abandoned at this point. With alarm she noted that the pool of lava stretched across to this side of the building too. Fire and smoke was issuing from the foundry rooftop.

There was not much time left before the entire place turned into a tomb.

Poko could see the only way in was another small window, though this one was higher up on the turret near the top. Without a second thought the ferretmaid applied her claws to the coarse brick surface and began to climb, scrabbling quickly until she reached the window, muscles straining as she raised herself up and over the sill.

Inside was heat of such an intensity that the ferret immediately found herself panting and quickly removed Gashrock?s coat for relief. The air distorted around her, filling with smoke that thickened as the crackle of fire echoed up from below. Poko?s eyes watered as she peered down at the base of the tower. The wheel crank was on fire. Not only that but the wall had a red glow to it that could only mean the lava was near. The molten rock could push through at any moment.

After a second Poko recognized an opening with a railing, which allowed those in the tower to see out across the floor of the foundry. She ran over and looked across the bay area. At the far end she could see Istvan, Zevka, Mekad, and Nyika, as far from the encroaching flood of molten rock as they could get. They were tugging and pulling at the great steel door, but to no avail. Poko looked down at the flaming wheel and the red hot wall and swallowed. She knew what she had to do. It was the only way they would ever make it out alive.

It was too late already for her parents, Cookie, Gashrock, Noonahootin, and maybe even Vanessa, but there need not be any more death. Save one.

The mewling cry of the newborn weasel babe reached her ears and Poko trembled, glancing at the open window to blue sky and safety. She thought of each of her companions, and all they had been through together.

?No more death,? she promised aloud, gritting her teeth and bracing herself for what needed to be done. She wadded up Gashrock?s purple coat firmly and purposefully with the ear feathers, hat, broach, pipe and additional notes to Takis inside ? all of her greatest treasures ? and threw it out the window with as much force as she was able.

Then she turned, took a deep breath, and descended the stairs?into Hell.

All around her was smoke, thick and black, though the wheel to open the door was outlined brightly with fiery tongues of flame. She could feel her tail smoldering despite her efforts to keep it close and ripped the sash from around her waist to protect her paws as best she could from the burning wood she was about to seize. The wall behind her was red hot and she could feel the fur of her back curling and shriveling as she began to crank the heavy wheel with all her small strength.

Shouts echoed from the foundry floor when her friends saw a line of light appear at the base of the steel door.

Poko spun the mechanism frantically, feeling the pads of her paws turn raw and blistered, yet willing herself to continue. She was committed to this single, crucial task. ?No more death.? She croaked aloud with determination, and coughed, feeling her lungs burn with the scorching heat and smoke as tears streamed down her face. She tried to think of her parents instead of the screaming pain in her paws.

?Be brave,? she heard her mother?s words again. ?But it hurts!? She pleaded with no one but herself, sinking her sharp fangs into her lower lip as she inhaled a hiccuping gasp. ?Papa, it burns?? She began to sob, ash-filled snot running from her nostrils.

Yet she continued to rotate the burning wheel.

?And what makes you think that you deserve what you?ve been given? What makes you so much more important than the other kits?? Raul?s gentle scolding echoed in Poko?s memory. ?Did you ever stop to think that perhaps they deserve the same kind of chance as you? You have parents who love you, and they have no one to care whether they live or die, but that has nothing to do with what you or they deserve, does it?? The young ferret shook her head, fighting against time and her own limitations. ?You?ve had a very good life, my sweet. Maybe it?s their turn.?

Poko labored relentlessly, shifting the door inch by inch until she was howling with aggravation at the wheel and her crackling paw pads which were starting to slip from her hands as they cooked against the wooden framework.

She could no longer feel her paws touching the handles of the wheel crank and knew she wouldn?t last much longer. Every breath was a wheeze of agony, rasping through her raw throat.

Finally, with one last burst of effort, Poko heaved herself at the burning circle, grasping with her bloodied and blackened paws to turn it one last cycle.

And then the lava broke through.

In an instant everything in the tower was incinerated and the heavy ropes that had been stretching taut against the pulleys snapped. The steel door fell with a final, resonating THUD.