DORIAN

 

The sound of sirens in Ivory wasn’t anything new. If you were up to no good, there would be a cop right there on your ass to haul you off to jail. Federal agents in town meant everybody was especially on their toes these days.

Even though the cops were the good guys, citizens in town weren’t happy when they heard sirens. That meant something was wrong.

Not me though.

I lived in Ivory for most of my life. I wanted to do everything I could to help these people. When I heard the sirens, I knew it was just another opportunity for me to do my part to help.

Everybody knew how I felt. Including the man sitting across from me.

As I stared forward and tried my best to maintain my composure, Adams looked at me with a confident half-smile on his face.

“What the hell are you doing, Sullivan?”

I ignored him. Adams was always trying to say some shit to get under my skin.

“You worried about messing up your hair?”

He shared a laugh with the men sitting next to him. I would have rolled my eyes but I was too focused.

“Just another standard call,” Adams continued. “Not a big deal. We get in there, evacuate, then put the fire out. Nothing big. Try not to piss your pants. And don’t try to be a hero.”

I finally glanced at Adams.

The smirk was gone from his lips, replaced by a bit of disdain.

Adams had a problem with me. I didn’t know why but frankly, I didn’t give a shit. He was just someone I had to deal with.

I’d known guys like Adams all my life. They always had to let everybody know they were the ones in charge. He was a little pudgy because he spent all of his time eating and lifting weights. You couldn’t really expect much from a bully like him.

The truck rumbled all around me with the sirens blaring into the sky. We raced through the city and arrived at our destination in the blink of an eye.

“Let’s go, boys!” Adams shouted.

We filed out of the truck as quickly as we could. There was already another truck on the scene with fighters tending to some people on the ground. I couldn’t tell if they were injured but that wasn’t my main concern at the moment.

A two-story was ablaze with flames gushing out from every window. Adams got the situation explained to him from some of the other men on scene. I made sure my gear was ready while I waited for him.

“What’s the situation?” I said.

Adams walked up next to me as we examined the building.

“Grease fire,” he explained. “Started in the kitchen and spread upstairs. Most of the family is out but there’s still a man left. Upstairs. Old man. Seventies. Bad hip.”

“We gotta get him out.”

“Hold your horses, Sullivan. We’re already on it.”

I watched as the next fire truck raised the ladder up toward the second story window. It was the only spot on the building where black smoke wasn’t billowing out.

I grabbed my gear and put my mask on as the ladder was set right on the window. I gave Adams a nod and headed up the ladder as quickly as I could.

It wasn’t the first time I’d had to deal with a blaze. Hoping it would be the last was futile. But regardless of how many times I would have to go through with it, I never got used to it. Despite how much gear I wore and how much experience I had, there was nothing to describe the feeling of the flames as they got closer to you.

I got up to the second window and smashed it open.

“I’ll head inside,” I said as I turned around to Adams. “I’ll get the old man. Just be ready.”

“Vent the building—”

“There’s no time,” I interrupted. “I’ll get the man out.”

“Sullivan!”

He shouted at me but I ignored him. I dived through the window and through the smoke. I was immediately surrounded by fire. The heat coming from the other rooms was starting to seep through. I wiped the smoke from my mask and kept moving forward.

If you’d never been next to a roaring fire before, you’d be surprised at how loud it was. Even through my mask, I could hear it. It was as if it were taunting me. I drowned the sound out as best as I could, listening for someone still trapped inside of the house.

“Help! Somebody!”

The voice was faint but it was there. I rushed into the next room. As I stood on the second floor of the house, I noticed that the entire first floor was set ablaze. There was only one way back out and that was the way I came in.

“Help!”

The voice shouted again. I came to the end of the hall and kicked the door open. Down on the floor, I saw an elderly man crouching, trying to hide from the smoke that covered the ceiling and the flames that were melting the walls.

“I got you.”

I quickly reassured him and took a knee next to him. I grabbed an oxygen mask and held it to his face. The man blinked his eyes as he looked at me. Just from the redness, I knew I didn’t have much more time to save him.

“Can you walk?” I asked.

He shook his head.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I’m gonna have to carry you. Is that all right?”

He nodded. I crouched down next to him.

“Lean on my shoulders!”

As soon as he did, I pushed myself up with all of the strength in my legs.

I headed back down the hallway where I came from. The first floor of the house was unrecognizable at this point. Just a single wrong step would be the end for the both of us.

I gritted my teeth and breathed hard through my nose. I kept moving until I was back in the room where I came from. The place was covered in black smoke, so it was hard to tell which direction I first jumped in from.

“Shit…”

I muttered to myself as I searched left and right for the window I smashed to get in.

“Come on…”

I thought about it for a second before remembering the right direction. I moved toward the wall just as the fire behind me closed off. If this were the wrong direction, I would have nowhere else to go.

The floor started to crumble beneath me. The flames danced closer. I moved forward until I faintly saw the broken glass of the window I smashed.

“Adams! Come on!”

I lowered the old man from my shoulders and gave him a reassuring nod.

“This way!”

I pointed through the smoke and he nodded. He couldn’t move any faster. I turned around to see just how much of the fire was gathering around us then turned back. The man disappeared into the smoke. I hopped up and down on my feet for a few seconds, hoping that Adams had gotten a hold of him, and then stepped forward into the smoke.

The black smoke engulfed me. I couldn’t see in any direction. I put my hands up and wiped the soot from my visor until I saw the beautiful Ivory blue sky before me.

I got onto the ladder as quickly as I could.

“Bring us down! Now!”

Adams shouted down and the ladder descended. I turned around and watched as the flames melted the room I just stood in.

I sighed a deep breath and realized how fast my heart was racing. Every inch of my body was covered in sweat. But even with the house ablaze behind me, I was comfortable in knowing that I had done everything I needed to do.

As soon as we got to the ground, the rest of the family gathered around the old man.

“Grandpa!”

“Is he all right?”

I noticed that the man’s eyes were closed. Medics put the oxygen mask to his face but he wasn’t moving.

“He’s not responding!” I said. “Are you gonna help him or what?”

I took a knee down next to the man and removed the mask.

“Come on…”

With both hands flat on his chest, I started pumping.

Just like they taught you. Just like they taught you…

I kept pumping the man’s chest. I drowned out the sound of the sirens around me. I ignored the burning of the house. I tried not to think about the man’s family sobbing next to me.

“Come on…”

I kept pumping the man’s chest. My eyes locked on his, I waited for a response but there was none.

“Sullivan…”

Adams was talking to me but I kept my head down. I had to stay focused. There was still time.

“Sullivan!”

It didn’t matter that he was shouting at me. I kept pumping. He wasn’t dead. He was just unconscious.

“Come on!”

Just as I shouted it, his eyes popped open. A deep gasp filled his lungs. I pulled my hands away and sighed a deep breath of relief.

“Grandpa!”

A young boy took a knee down next to the man as he laid there. More paramedics arrived on the scene. As he was examined, the old man looked at me. A smile formed on his lips as they loaded him onto a stretcher. I watched the entire time while they hauled him away in an ambulance.

I turned around to see that the fire was finally contained. Mostly because the fire had burned the entire thing to the ground at this point. But I wasn’t focused on the building. There was a bald man standing just a few meters in front of me with his arms crossed, staring a hole right through me.

“Sullivan!” he shouted at me. “Come here!”

He motioned for me to follow him with an index finger as he observed the burning house.

“How is everybody?” I asked.

“Everybody’s doing fine. The family got out first. You got the old man.”

“Any pets?”

“No, you got everything.”

The bald man turned to me. You would have thought he was in a good mood, considering everybody was saved. But Chief Burton was never in a good mood. I didn’t know if that were just the way he was or maybe I just rubbed him the wrong way. Whatever the case, I knew a long conversation was coming.

“Next time you’re at the station, I wanna talk to you,” he said.

“I’m heading back to the station right now—”

“No,” he said as he shook his head. “You’ve had a long day. Why don’t you take the rest of the day off? We can take it from here.”

I looked around and tried to see if there were any other way I could help. But all of the other firefighters seemed to have everything under control. I sighed a deep breath while Burton continued to oversee the final containment of the blaze.

I headed back to the truck and started taking off my gear.

“Well, well, well… Nice going back there, Sullivan…”

I could recognize Adams’s voice anywhere. There was a bit of a high-pitched squeal to it, which made it even more annoying. I always had to bite my tongue and stop myself from rolling my eyes whenever I heard it.

I distracted myself by finishing with the rest of my gear but when I turned around, he was still standing there, staring at me with his arms crossed and that obnoxious smirk on his face.

“What the fuck did I tell you?” he said. “I said don’t try to be a hero.”

“I’m not trying to be a fucking hero,” I said. “I was just doing my job.”

“Sure, you were. Dorian Sullivan. The pretty face of Ivory. ‘I was just doing my job.’”

He took a step toward me. He leaned in close with his chest against mine. I gritted my teeth as he whispered into my ear.

“You’re a Black Reaper. I know the kind of fucking man you are. Don’t think you can fool anybody by working at the fire station.”

He pulled away and glared at me with the same kind of disdain he always had.

I bit my tongue again to stop myself from saying anything I would regret. My hands balled into fists. If I didn’t have any sense, I would have done something I would regret.

But before Adams tried to test me any further, he turned around to join the rest of his brethren.

I rolled my eyes and sighed a deep breath as I took a seat on the bumper of the fire truck.

It was a beautiful day in Ivory. The sun was shining. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. More importantly, everybody was safe.

I’d done the right thing. I wasn’t about to let Adams ruin this for me.