by Nella Tyler
“Backdraft!” I screamed, but he couldn’t hear me over the falling debris and breathing unit. I leapt to shove him back before he managed to get the door open, but it was too late.
As soon as the door opened a crack, a colossal explosion came roaring out of the room, knocking all four of us to the ground as the heavy door blasted into the nearby wall with destructive force, embedding it into the wall. The edge clipped me on the way by, smashing some of my ribs, but leaving me otherwise unscathed.
It hurt like a motherfucker, but it wasn’t the first time I’d broken bones, and it beat the alternative. If I hadn’t pushed Johnny out of the way of the door, he would’ve been smashed into the opposite wall and killed. I’d take broken ribs over another firefighter losing his life any day, especially one I loved like a brother.
I pulled myself off the ground, wincing at the pain shooting through my midsection. The door careening into the wall had caused a significant amount of debris to come crashing to the ground around us. The smoke was getting worse as the fire grew, quickly burning out of control.
The pile of smoking debris stood in between the rest of the team and me. It also stood in between me and the exit. As the fire spread, it was weakening the stability of the factory’s structure. The ceiling and walls were only minutes from collapsing. The guys had to get that woman out of here while I looked for an alternate way out of this inferno before everything came crashing down on my head.
“Get the hell out of here, guys!” I shouted, and I knew they heard me by the way Hector and Johnny hesitated. Greg had receded with the woman, and I waved a hand at him, meaning for him to get her to safety. He hesitated a moment before turning and disappearing into the swirling wall of smoke behind him, headed for the exit. Hector was looking for a way around the chest-high pile of shit that had fallen in front of us from the second floor, but it was blocking the entire hallway and more was coming by the look of the hole in the ceiling.
“I’ll find my own way!” I hollered. “You guys have to evacuate before you’re trapped!”
Johnny tried to climb over the pile just as a ceiling tile came lose and nearly crushed him. He stumbled backwards, avoiding another close call.
“We’re not leaving you!” he shouted. “There’s no exit back there!”
I knew that and was wracking my brain for a way out, but I needed to know they were safe first. There was no reason for us all to die in here. I met Johnny’s eyes first and shook my head, then I looked at Hector.
“If I don’t make it out of here, make sure to tell that new baby of yours what kind of man I was. And, tell Sami I love her. Make sure she knows how much.”
Hector nodded, but he and Johnny still weren’t moving. The fire was spreading. They had to get out now. The smoke was filling the hallway. I could barely see their eyes. And, the heat was rising as it consumed the building.
“Go!” I ordered. After another lingering second, they did, retreating into the smoke on their way to the exit. I watched their backs disappear, leaving me behind. Now that I wasn’t worrying about their wellbeing anymore, I could start worrying about myself and how to get out of here.
I readied my halligan bar, the ax portion pointing up. The building was falling down around me as the flames spread. I knew how badly I was trapped, but I wasn’t ready to give up just yet.
Sami was at the center of my thoughts, even now. I wanted to watch her walk down the aisle on her way to share her life with me. I wanted to see the children we would bring into this world together. I’d be damned if I let this fire put an end to any of those plans. I was going to see the woman I loved again.
Chapter Thirty Six – Sami – The Same Evening
I rinsed the few dishes I’d used for dinner, humming along to the music streaming from my cellphone. I cut off the water and loaded the dishwasher, which I never ran more than once or twice a week when I was alone. Cooking for one didn’t create many dishes.
My phone rang just I was drying off my hands. I tossed aside the dishtowel and picked up my cell.
I answered the phone when I saw that it was Amy, already smiling in hopes that she had some more gossip about the new guy Lisa was dating. He seemed great and Lisa couldn’t stop talking about him. I hadn’t seen her this happy in years between the new job she’d landed that paid double her old salary and this new guy. All of our lives had started coming together exactly the way we’d hoped at the end of last year.
“Hey, girl, what’s up?” I asked.
“You need to turn on channel three, Sami.” Amy sounded really upset, which knocked the smile right off my face. She sniffled into the phone, and I realized she was crying.
“Amy, what the hell is going on?” I walked out to the living room as I waited for her to get it together enough to respond, taking a seat on the couch while she struggled against sobs. I had no idea what the hell had happened, but Amy was usually so rock solid. Whatever this was, it was big.
“I’m on my way over, Sami. Please just watch channel three!”
“Amy?” But she cut me off again, her voice rising to a shrill scream on the phone.
“I’ll be there in 10 minutes. Just watch. I’m sorry, Sami. We’ll get through this.” She hung up abruptly, and I dialed her right back, my heart racing as my guts twisted into knots. What the hell was going on? She didn’t answer the phone.
I looked at the television, afraid to turn it on. What had she seen that had freaked her out this much? I didn’t want to know, but she was on her way over here. I unlocked the door so she could come right in when she arrived and then returned to the couch, steeling myself as I turned the TV on. I pressed the number three on the remote after the cable box came all the way to life.
My heart sank at the special report on the screen. Another fire, this one much bigger than the one at the apartment building several weeks ago. The reporter was explaining footage taken from the news helicopter flying over a large building in the industrial district of the city. It was a food processing plant, the woman said, and it was engulfed in flames. The fire was raging out of control, even with the presence of many firefighters from multiple departments in the area, all of them battling to keep the flames from spreading to more than a few of the nearby buildings.
“The firefighters were on the scene within minutes of the breakout of the flames,” the reporter said, her loud voice rising over the noise in the background. The picture suddenly changed from one of flames and smoke to her face as she stared directly into the camera with the smoke billowing behind her. She appeared to be across the street from the plant. Police officers were behind her, keeping back the small crowd of spectators and news crews.
“Thanks to that rapid response, the fire hasn’t spread to all of the neighboring businesses. There were also no reported fatalities as of this time. Several people were trapped inside and later rescued by firefighters. Three victims are in critical condition, but are expected to live. Ten others were taken to the hospital for treatment, but are expected to be released later tonight.”
I was literally balancing on the edge of my seat, waiting for whatever crushing news Amy had heard that made her jump in her car and drive the 20 minutes to my house from her apartment. She’d been planning to go out to a movie with another friend of hers. Whatever was going on had caused her to cancel those plans.
The dread was boiling over in my stomach and rising up my throat. I thought of Blaze as I’d last seen him, grinning as he walked out of my apartment before his current two day shift, telling me he loved me and would see me soon. We were supposed to meet with the wedding planner later this week and start planning our lives together. Was it him? I didn’t even want to consider it. But what else would get Amy so upset that had to do with a fire?
The reporter continued as the screen showed more footage of the fire, this time taken from street level. “The building is likely to be a total loss, and though most of the other buildings in the area have been spared, a few others have also caught fire. This will result
in millions of dollars in damage.”
The reporter touched her ear, seeming to be listening to some information coming in from her earpiece, her gaze shifting to just past the camera. She nodded as her eyes sprang back to the lens, looking even more serious than before. That black dread moved through me, numbing my insides. Whatever it was, whatever Amy had heard, was about to come out.
“We mentioned in our initial report after we arrived on the scene that several had been injured in their heroic attempt to save the lives of those trapped inside the burning building, none critically.”
The relief I felt beat back some of the dread seizing me — but not all of it.
“We just received an update that at least one firefighter, Blaze Simmers, is currently unaccounted for. He was last seen inside the fire by his team, who has been unable to reestablish radio contact with him.”
Suddenly, Johnny’s face filled the screen, his dark eyes teary and expression heart-wrenchingly tortured as he told another reporter about what had taken place. The clip had obviously been recorded earlier.
“Simmers saved my life in there,” he said in a deep, wavering voice. I could plainly see he was doing his best to hold back tears. “We located a victim right before a massive backdraft caused the ceiling to collapse, trapping him on one side of the debris and us on the other.” He covered his mouth, the desperate look in his eye punching into my stomach, causing that dread to spread its awful tentacles throughout the rest of my body. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the screen. It felt like Johnny was talking directly to me.
“Smith!” someone shouted from behind the camera, and Johnny ran off that way. The camera followed him, watching as he assisted with setting up another hose line to battle the fire.
The live feed returned, the female reporter staring directly into the camera. “As you can see, this fire is very-”
Before she could finish, a giant explosion lit up the air behind her, the background flashing white before more flames rose. She ducked from instinct, screaming, the sound overtaken by the noise of falling debris.
I dropped to my knees on the ground, my hands covering my face as my tears began. I couldn’t look away from the video of the fire, now raging completely out of control as the teams of firefighters retreated from the mess the explosion had created.
Blaze was trapped in there, alone. I was never going to see him again.
Chapter Thirty Seven – Blaze – The Same Evening
I couldn’t get past the debris blocking the path to the main entrance of the factory, so I went in the other direction. It became a dead end a few hundred feet away from the pile of rubble that had fallen from the second floor. Several large sections of the ceiling had fallen in, and the fire was spreading. A few closed doors lined the corridor, but they were all windowless storage spaces that didn’t lead out. I was running out of time.
I tried my radio, but it wasn’t working. I must’ve broken it when I fell after the backdraft. I checked the air on my breathing unit, which was the only thing keeping me alive with all the smoke filling the hallway. The tank was almost empty. Running out of air would be a death sentence.
I couldn’t see a way out of this fiery maze, which meant that no one from the outside was going to be able to get in, either. The smoke was building walls around me as the flames grew. It was hard to ignore the irony of the situation, even as serious as it was: I was a man named Blaze who was about to be burned to death. Thanks for the moniker, Mom and Dad.
A wall collapsed close by with a rending crack. From the other side of the factory, I heard a booming explosion that shook the weakening walls, sending more debris showering down from the ceiling onto my helmet and shoulders.
The wall that collapsed right next to me had revealed a metal staircase, the walls around it appearing ready to crumble at any moment. Through a hole newly formed in the collapsed ceiling, I could see a window in a room upstairs, but there were flames, too.
I didn’t like the look of the stairs or the idea of walking across an upper floor that had mostly collapsed onto the one below it, but what choice did I really have? If I stayed down here, I’d be dead within a few minutes.
I threw down my useless radio and climbed the stairs, clutching my halligan bar in one hand while I held my aching ribs with the other, the pain from the multiple breaks making it difficult to breathe. All the while, I braced myself for a fall if the stairs collapsed beneath me. Somehow, I made it to the second floor. The smoke was even worse up here, and the walls and floor seemed to be made of actual flames.
I squinted through the smoke, catching sight of the closed door that had to lead to the room with the window I’d glimpsed from below. My ribs were killing me and breathing was getting harder, but I pushed on, keeping close to the wall to avoid the gaping hole in the floor. Falling through that would mean breaking a leg. Breaking a leg would mean dying.
I got clear of the weakest part of the hall, the floor groaning and nearly giving out under my feet. I moved carefully to the door, the ground continuing to bend beneath me with each step I took. I made it to the door before the floor gave way, plunging me towards the first floor.
I dropped my halligan bar, but managed to stop myself from going all the way down. I roared behind clenched teeth at the jolt to my ribs as I came down hard at the edge of the hole that had opened up under me. I clawed my way back onto the second floor, roaring again as my ribs pressed against the jagged edge of the hole. I lay still for a few seconds, blinking back tears at the stabbing, relentless pain in my chest, and then I dragged myself to my feet. I didn’t have the time to spare.
I pushed through the door, kicking away piles of debris from the collapsed roof over my head. I looked up and could see the sky through a shifting cloud of smoke. I was so close.
A wall of flames was separating me from the window, and more flames were closing in behind me. My body was exhausted and sore. I could hardly breathe between the wallop my ribs had taken and the nearly empty air tank strapped to me. I only had a few seconds of breathing time, if that. I had to do something, or die just standing here. I thought of Sami somewhere safe, wearing my ring on her finger. I’d do anything to see her again. It was now or never.
I sucked in the last of my air, let loose a roar that tore at my sore ribs, and charged for the window, running through flames that stung like a son of a bitch. The smoke blinded me, covering my mask completely. I leaned into it, leading with my shoulder the way I’d been taught on the high school football team.
All of a sudden, I crashed through the window, the glass shattering to let me through, and then I was falling through smoke and flames and to the ground below.
Chapter Thirty Eight – Sami – Later That Evening
I turned the engagement ring on my finger as I sat by Blaze’s hospital bed, just watching him rest. He hadn’t regained consciousness since he’d flown through the second floor window of the factory and onto the ground below, breaking his arm, leg, and several ribs. He had first and second degree burns in several places as well as some serious smoke inhalation — it had taken time to get to him after he’d fallen, leaving him breathing in that smoke.
But it could have been so much worse. I was just so relieved that he was still with me. I didn’t know how I would have been able to go on without him, not now that we’d planned to spend our lives together.
I looked up from his pale, peaceful face, and gave a weak smile to Johnny and Hector, who were seated on the other side of the hospital bed. They returned my weak smile, both of them looking as worried as I felt. They had been amazing through all of this, staying with me while I cried and worried over Blaze and making me smile with stories from all the years they’d served together in the department.
“He’ll be okay, Sami,” Hector said in a gentle tone, a reassuring shine in his eyes.
I nodded. “I know. I just hate seeing him like this.”
Johnny hadn’t stopped looking terrified since he and Hector arrived still in their uniforms.
We’d been sitting by Blaze’s bed for a few hours now. The guys had stripped out of their yellow uniform jackets and pants, leaving them in dark blue pants and shirts emblazoned with their station number. They had soot on their faces that they hadn’t even taken the time to wipe away.
Blaze made a low noise that drew all our gazes back to him. I wouldn’t be able to calm down until I saw those green eyes again. His face scrunched into a scowl, his eyelids pressing tightly, like he was struggling to avoid waking up again. He had bruises and scrapes on his forehead and cheeks from the fall, but the rest of his face was deadly pale. His auburn hair shone against the white pillowcase under his head, giving him an almost angelic look.
His eyes opened slowly and blinked for a moment before meeting my gaze. I smiled at him, apprehensive, my heart thundering, until he smiled shakily at me in return.
“Hi, baby,” I whispered, reaching for his hand and giving it a squeeze. His other arm was the broken one and had been set in a cast along with his leg. His ribs had just been wrapped tightly.
“Hi,” he replied in a small, creaking voice. It sounded like his throat was bone dry.
Johnny sighed, the relief obvious on his handsome face. His wide eyes were shiny, like he might weep at the sight of Blaze regaining consciousness. Instead, he flashed a brilliant smile as Blaze looked over at them. Beside him, Hector was smiling, too.
“I owe you my life, Simmers,” Johnny said. “I’m going to find a way to pay you back. Whatever you need, man, I’m there.”
Blaze gave another small, pained smile. “We have each other’s backs.”
Johnny nodded firmly once, his chin trembling as he wiped at both eyes to keep the tears from falling. I had a brand new soft spot for this man after tonight. Player or not, he was a sweetheart who loved Blaze like a brother. I decided to introduce him to Amy, after all. She’d been single for several weeks now and kept dropping not-so-subtle hints.