Seconds later these were destroyed and the beam crashed to the ground. Sparks shoot up. Slowly the barn began to collapse.
With another squeaking noise, a piece of the ceiling peeled off and hit the floor just a few centimeters from Raidou. This just pressed itself even harder against the wall.
Where did they get in?
It was so desperate. He felt like he was being burned alive.

Suddenly something creaked behind him. It was one of the rotten shed boards, he realized as he turned around for a moment. It looked rotten, like everything here. And that's when the idea occurred to him. He grabbed Genma's arm to draw his attention. Finally he kicked the bar behind him and from the look on Genma's face he could see that he understood.Now both tried to push out the lower part of the board together. It wobbled and moved, but it didn't want to give way for good. Nonetheless, the two children mustered astonishing strength in their panic. They had now left their actions entirely to their instincts.
In fact, the board eventually splintered, exposing a hole that the two of them could have climbed through with ease. Raidou had kicked the board so hard that he stumbled back. But they had made it. You would come out of here.
The two boys looked at each other triumphantly.
Her way to freedom had appeared.
In their hurry to destroy the wall slat, however, they had not noticed one thing: The fire had set the roof on fire and so it was now continuously raining charred thatch from the roof. The roof structure was already so unstable that another, burning beam came loose from its holder. The flames roared on the beam as it hurtled toward the floor.Neither of the boys moved an inch as one end of the wood hit the ground and then fell completely to the ground. Raidou didn't feel much at that moment. It was only a short blow, but he could no longer feel the pain. Immediately his eyes went black, the last thing he even noticed was the smell of burned hair.

Genma had been standing right next to his friend, but the only thing he got was the splintered edge of the beam, which tore a long, deep gash in his shin. He jumped back gasping. Horrified, he stared at Raidou, who was apparently unconscious under the strut. Then he turned his head for a moment to the only accessible exit.
He had the opportunity to flee.
He would get away with skin more or less intact. But should he leave his very best friend behind for his own life?
The fear paralyzed him. He just didn't dare move an inch towards the burning wood.The inhibition threshold was so great. Again his gaze fell on Raidou, whose face touched the still smoldering wood. Only now did Genma notice that a narrow trickle of blood was making its way through Raidou's face.
Raidou couldn't escape. He would surely die here alone.
Strengthened by the sight of his helpless friend, he stepped quickly to the side of the beam and grabbed Raidou's wrists. He pulled it awkwardly and actually managed to free his friend's upper body, even if he slipped several times because his hands were stuck with sweat.
Next, he wrapped his arms around Raidou's torso and leaned back to free his leg. The sand crunched under him and he slipped away easily. He also felt beads of sweat running down his face. It seemed like the leg was only moving in slow motion.
And then something happened that in all his desperation he had not expected.
Raidou's shin gave way and - despite the crackling of the fire - a hollow crack could be heard.Genma winced at the sound. Surely the leg was broken now. And it was his fault.
But the advantage of this involuntary sacrifice was immediately apparent. Surprised, Genma stumbled backwards and hit her head against the back wall.
He did it. The leg was now also free.

Genma quickly got up. He no longer felt the pain of the cut in his leg. It was one of those situations in which a reflex kicked in that man has retained from primeval times. When you're scared to death, the animal instincts come back and take over. A useful effect: the pain disappears, making it easier to escape. As long as he wasn't looking at his wounds, he would feel absolutely no stinging in the calf.
Panicked, he stumbled backwards and grabbed Raidou by the collar, which was the easiest to grab. With all the strength he could muster, he pulled him backwards.Finally he felt the edges of the slats press against his back. Relieved, he squeezed through to the side. For the first time that day, he was happy to be a child.
He should only have been two or three years older and it would have been impossible for him to pass the hole.
He was finally outside the barn. The cool night air brushed his sweaty forehead. Escape! He literally jumped the shovel of death by opening a "back door".
But it wasn't finished yet! He quickly dived back to the hole and grabbed Raidou's shoulders to pull him through the hole as well.
His fingers dug into the fabric of Raidou's dirty and partially charred t-shirt. It turned out to be extremely difficult to pull his friend through the gap in the wall. Especially because Raidou's body kept twisting and tipping back and forth, so that he only managed to pull it outside when some splinters lying on the ground had dug into Raidou's skin.It couldn't be avoided, it couldn't be more gentle.

Still unable to think, Genma, unaware of his leg injury, sprinted across the lawn that lined the shed. After a few meters he collapsed exhausted.
Raidou lay next to him.
Unconscious.
For the first time since the beam had come off the ceiling, Genma took a closer look at Raidou. He looked terrible, there was no other way to say it.
The smoldering support beam had burned half of his face. There was nothing to be seen of the upper layers of the skin. Instead, a partially milky white layer of skin was now visible. The edges of the wound were black as coal and emitted a disgusting, pungent odor, which also reminded a little of something rotten. The wound ran down his neck. Parts of the T-shirt were smoldered and the skin underneath was visible. Here too you could see burns, even if they weren't as serious as those on the face.There was a laceration on one side of the forehead, which, for the fact that it was only quite small, was bleeding insanely. The self-made cut on the hand, which was much larger, didn't shed as much blood by far.
Because Genma Raidou had dragged across the floor beforehand, all clothing was covered with sand and patches of grass. There were cracks and holes where splinters of wood had bored into Raidou's skin. However, the splinters did not seem to be stuck deep in the skin.
Still, the sight of his friend was so shocking that Genma's tears ran down his face and mixed with his sweat.
He looked around desperately. The cool night air brushed against him as if to calm him down. There was no one here. Not a soul!

A loud bang made him flinch. Another part of the roof had collapsed. And when he looked at the blazing barn, Genma really realized it for the first time.
You were free.They actually managed to escape.
And suddenly, with an uncontrollable tremor, Genma's muscles loosened from their tension. Every muscle seemed to hurt. Was he tense up like that?
Slowly the spirits returned to him, the reflex to flee disappeared and he noticed the stabbing pain in his leg. His muscles trembled. He couldn't get up because he was so exhausted. He had to get help with that!
Whimpering, he tried to sit up again and again, but he just couldn't. Why not? Where was his strength? He couldn't have used that much of it in those few minutes, could he?
Again and again he began to stagger violently when he had halfway managed to straighten up. And so he had to let himself fall over and over again.
At some point he gave up. He lay flat in the damp grass and, trembling like crazy, crawled across the ground. You could constantly hear splintering and cracking noises from the direction of the barn.Flames came out of the roof and gradually the rest of the outer walls burned too.
It was ironic. The wood was so peaceful here. The stars sparkled in the sky like tiny diamonds. The green grass was damp and would certainly have persuaded many herbivores to rest.
In contrast, the otherwise abandoned, dilapidated barn burned to the ground. A little drama had just happened here.
Genma suddenly turned his head slightly when he heard the crunch of sand. Someone was approaching, he was sure of that. Since he could no longer speak, much less stand up, he had no way of drawing attention to himself.
But he could hear the person calling. He knew the voice from somewhere, but of course he could imagine that too. In any case, it was a man who called, but that was all he understood. His overwrought senses were too tired.
And slowly and imperceptibly his consciousness slowly floated into a trance-like state.He just saw how someone turned him onto his back. He saw the man's face, but it was impossible for him to grasp the individual nuances and sections of the head together.
However, he was aware of one thing: they were saved.

It was a mystery to Genma what happened in the next few hours. The minutes passed like seconds and there was nothing around him anymore. The shock had only set in slowly after his escape from the barn and he felt the full effect. He couldn't tell anyone what his name was, what he'd done in the barn, or where he came from. Don't think, don't speak, don't do anything.
I don't know who brought her to the hospital. Unable to say thank you, the boy watched as their rescuer left the hospital without looking at him again.
Only gradually did his senses begin to function properly again. Still, he couldn't say anything when his parents arrived. They didn't scold him, didn't yell at him, didn't admonish him.And for that he was very grateful in retrospect. Apparently they had realized that so soon after their action it made no sense to show him his