Read the following excerpt and answer the question that follows. I creep up to a window to have a look outside Only thing I can make out is something buring in the distance, organge flames roiling like a thing alive. Doesn’t seem right that a house half-submerged in water can burn, but burn it does, and nobody to stop it.

“No fire department,” Mr. Tru points out. “No police.”

“How come?” I ask. “Where is everybody?”

He shrugs. “They ‘vacuated with the rest, or don’t care to enter this particular neighborhood, or ain’t got here yet, or maybe all three. Whatever the reason, we on our own and that’s the troot. Nobody look out for us but us.”

All of the following explain a theme this interaction between Zane and Mr. Tru develops except?

The feelings of friendship and survival.
The helplessness caused by racism and poverty.
The heroism of rescue workers.
The power of fear in ones life.