Marcus

 

I’m sitting in my bunker room at the firehouse when I get an alert indicating an incoming text message. I open it up and smile at the text I see from Carson.

 

Carson: Your woman is a pain in the ass.

Me: What’s she done this time? I type with a smile breaking out on my face. My woman can be difficult on the best of days, but you piss her off and you best be running in the opposite direction. Damn, I love that feisty girl.

Carson: She threw a fit when I lifted her ink bottle for her.

Me: Sorry man, just don’t let her be doing any heavy lifting. An ink bottle she can handle, anything heavier fight her tooth and nail if you have to.

 

A few minutes go by and I don’t receive any more texts, so I lay back down. I wake to the alarms sounding. I run out of my room and go into the bay. I get on my gear as fast as I can and jump into the fire engine. We take off like the hounds of hell are chomping at our feet. I notice several engines leaving the bay and know that this is going to be a big one.

“What have we got?” I call into my mic and ask the dispatcher.

“Four alarm fire at an office building. Four confirmed stuck inside with no way to escape. Rescue and extinguish is needed.”

“Thanks,” I reply and inform the crew.

“Fuck!” Jensen, my fellow firefighter says, “I hate knowing that people are stuck in something like this, they must be scared out of their minds.” I nod my head in agreement.

“Rig one on at the scene and on stand-by,” Sam calls into the mic. We pull up and seeing as we are the first responders, it’s our duty to make sure we get the location secure before the others enter the building.

I get my oxygen tank on and scan the perimeter looking for the best point of entry. When I ask for the specs of the building, I nearly lose my shit when I find out there’s a daycare center on the lower level. One of the trapped is a baby no older than six months of age. I can’t help but think of little Devon and what Ariel and Dillon would be going through if it was him trapped inside the burning structure.

My team goes in to search the lower level and begin putting out the inferno that is blazing. We make it through the lobby and begin going through the rooms one by one. When we enter the daycare center I immediately begin scanning beds, one of them is surrounded by debris and beams. I understand why the workers couldn’t get to the child. Jensen and I get to work on removing it, so we can rescue the poor kid. It takes us a few minutes to get the flames out and remove everything. The baby is limp in the bed, and I grab my rescue inhaler and place it over her face.

“Team two heading to second level,” I hear called into my mic. My only concern is getting this little girl out of here and to a medic for treatment. Jensen grabs her from my arms and runs for the door. I double check all of the beds and room and find no other children. I pray with everything in me, that she survives the smoke inhalation and she has no other injuries from the debris falling around her crib.

Once I’m one hundred percent satisfied that the room is clear, I make my way to the second floor to help. The further I go up, the more damage I encounter. I make it to there and begin to defuse the fire. It’s burning hot, but luckily there isn’t anyone on this floor. “Level two has no occupants in it,” I say into my mic, “moving to level three for search and rescue.”

“10-4,” is said into the mic from my chief who never comes in but stays at ground level work intake. “Level three clear,” I hear called into the mic by Dustin, so I keep moving to the fourth, once I hit the floor I call it in, “Moving to level four.” I open the door and see the men hard at work, so I begin my search for any survivors. I call out, “This is Marcus from the fire department, if you can hear me call out.” Nothing, so I keep moving from space to space, repeating myself. When I hit the back and go in the final room with Sam hot on my heels, I see feet sticking out from the desk. I quickly run over and pick the young woman up. I search for a pulse on my journey as I move through the floor. I see no sign of life, but I keep moving anyways. She may have only been out for a minute or so, and if she can be saved I will do everything I can to make sure she has the best chance. I didn’t stop to check for a pulse, my job is to recover and remove from the scene. She has black soot all over her face, so I can’t tell what she looks like, but I can tell she’s young. I run down the stairs as quickly as I can with Sam calling it in as he runs behind me, “Chief says to get out of here, the building has been deemed unstable.

“Fuck!” I call out. When a building is deemed unstable, it means it could collapse on us all at any given time. As we make it to the first level, I can hear the structure giving out. The creak of boards and debris falling all around you gets your mind in survival mode. As I’m just a few feet in front of the lobby doors, the ceiling gives way, blocking my escape.

I hear my team running up behind me, Sam calls out, “We’re trapped, debris in front of the door and beams that are too heavy to be moved.”

“Let’s head to the back door,” Jensen calls out, I hadn’t realized that he’d made it back inside. He’s my best friend and closest confidant. I’ve known Jensen since I was in the service. We served together for six years, both of us no older than eighteen years old when we joined. We went through boot camp together and ended up serving in the same unit. He’s from here and actually is the one who talked me into moving this way. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have met Emory, I owe him everything for that alone.

We make it to the back door and I hand the woman to Jensen, who takes her out the door and around the front. My job is to be the first one on a scene and the last to clear it. I hold the door open and count my men as they leave, noticing we’re one short I call out, “Where’s Micah? Is he accounted for?”

“He hasn’t come out yet,” Chief calls back to me.

“Going back in,” I tell him. I will not leave one of my men behind.

“The structure isn’t stable, you have to exit now, Marcus.” My chief gives me the order. I can’t do it though, it’s ingrained in my soul to never leave a man behind.

“Sorry, Chief, I can’t,” I tell him as I go back into the building.

“You’re disobeying a direct order!” he calls into my ear piece.

“What would you do, Chief?” He sighs in my ear.

“I’d go get my brother, be careful.”

“Roger that,” I reply.

“Marcus?”

“Yes, Chief.”

“You will be reprimanded for this, just so you know.” I chuckle at him—our chief is a good man who hates to discipline us…but he will.

“Understood,” I say. I do a quick search of the first floor but find nothing. I go back to the stairwell and climb the second floor. Just as I reach the top, I see him trapped under some debris and a heavy beam. He’s unconscious, letting me know I’m on my own with his rescue. He’s a heavy son of a bitch, so this should be fun. I go to one end of the beam and bend my knees. I get a hold of it and am thankful it isn’t as heavy as it looks. “Found him Chief, I need to remove a beam and some debris from him, he’s out for the count. Shouldn’t take me long.”

“10-4,” he says, I can hear the relief in his voice. I know he didn’t want to leave him behind any more than I did. I understand that as a whole he’s responsible for us all, and he’d have to make the decision to leave one behind to save the rest. I get a good grip and slide it over his body, I get everything but his feet and lower legs uncovered. I go to the other end and start the process all over. Once I have the beam removed, I start clearing the debris from on top of him. He is slowly coming around, I hear him moan and call out to him, “Micah, it’s Marcus, I need to remove this debris from you, then we’re out of here. Hold still for a few more minutes.” He communicates with me using a grunt. At least he’s letting me know he understands what it is I’m saying, even if he doesn’t quite have his wits about him yet.

I get the last piece removed and ask him, “If I get you lifted up, do you think you can walk?”

“Yeah,” he grits out between his teeth. Once he’s steady on his feet, I notice a limp and that he’s having a hard time standing on his own. I take his right arm and throw it over my shoulder, and I grab a hold of him by his waist. I assist him, going slowly down the stairs, I know we need to hurry, but he can only move so fast due to an injury. He keeps grabbing his faceguard with his left hand, letting me know he must’ve hit his head.

“Almost free, man,” I say to him as we make it to the first floor. When I open the door I direct him towards the back door, not even trying to make it to the lobby. “Coming out the back, need a medic for Micah,” I tell the Chief who immediately responds that a medic is on standby in the back. We barely make it out the door when I hear the structure give way. I rush us the best I can until I feel my men gather around us and grab him from me. I immediately hit my knees, my body suddenly feeling weak and worn out.

“You’re in so much trouble,” my chief says standing over me.

“Yes, sir,” is the only thing I manage to get out before I collapse on the ground.

 

 

“Where is he?” I wake up hearing her voice and the sound of her anxiety forces me to open my eyes.

“He’s in here,” I hear my chief tell Em. I hear feet pounding the hallway making their way to my room. Wait? My room, I open my eyes further and notice I’m on a gurney in the hospital. Fuck! No wonder she sounds frantic. She runs in the room, with tears running down her face.

“Don’t cry, beautiful, I’m alright,” I tell her, opening my arms. She runs to my bed and collapsed on top of me.

“What were you thinking going back into that building, Marcus!” she screams at me through her sobs.

“Please don’t cry,” I coo at her. I can’t stand to see her tears, and knowing I caused them causes my heart to ache.

“Answer my question, Marcus,” she says laying her head on my chest.

“He was trapped a burning building, Emory, what would you have me do?”

“Stay safe and not go in alone,” she mumbles.

“What kind of man would I be if I left a fellow brother behind to burn to death? That’s not the kind of man I am, Emory, I wouldn’t be the man you loved if I was.”

“You put yourself in danger, Marcus. You didn’t follow direct orders,” she sniffles out. I give my chief the evil eye to which he smiles at me. When he said I was in trouble, I thought he meant I’d be written up or verbally reprimanded, I had no clue he was going to sic my girl on me. The damn coward!

“Em, look at me, baby,” she lifts her head and I see how red her eyes are from all the crying she’s done. “I will never intentionally seek out dangerous situations, but this is my job. I serve and protect in my own way. I will never sit back and do nothing, while someone is stuck inside a building, praying for their life to be spared, if it was one of your family members, what would you want me to do?”

“I don’t like it when you’re all rational when I’m pissed off at you. Why can’t you just let me be angry for a little while longer?”

“Because I love you, Emory. I can’t stand the thought of you being upset or angry at me. I need you on my side, baby.”

“I love you too, and I am. I will always be at your side, Marcus. I was just scared when I got that phone call.”

“I know you were, baby, and I’m sorry. I can’t promise it will never happen again, but I do promise you to always be careful.”

“That’s all I can ask, I knew what you did for a living when I got with you. I accepted that then, and I accept it now. Just try not to be a lone wolf, please.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” I tell her.