****
Carter
“Roll call!” Eric yelled out as he stood in the center of the main room, clipboard in hand. “Carter, you’re on equipment duty today. We need a total count of everything. Brass wants it within the week.”
“Everything?” I questioned, just to make sure I heard him correctly.
He nodded. “I don’t make the rules, I just follow ’em.”
“This is bullshit,” I grumbled. It could take weeks to properly inspect and count the station’s entire equipment count. “I’m definitely giving the rookies some of this bullshit task. Corey too.”
“Why me?” Corey called out from the other side of the room.
“’Cause unlike the rookies, I’m pretty sure you know how to count,” I chuckled.
Corey frowned but eventually laughed, too.
“Let’s get started, shall we?”
“Whatever, man. Hey, Harvard, to make it up to Carter and I, I say you have that wife of yours bake us up another one of her chocolate lava cakes.”
“My wife doesn’t take baking orders from your clowns.” Eric pointed his pen in Corey’s direction. I had a laugh at his possessiveness. Now, I knew exactly what he felt whenever someone in our squad mentioned his wife’s name. Immediate and swift protection is what mine felt like.
Speaking of Michelle ... I had finally gotten her onboard with the interior designer idea. She was reluctant from the start, especially pointing out that I’d had Diane ambush her at her office. She was right on that account. I’d told Diane to take some pictures and samples with her, knowing that once Michelle saw them she wouldn’t be able to turn her away. It was a risky move but it won her over. I waited a couple of hours after she sent that angry text when Diane first showed up. By then, she was much calmer having looked at the layout. Still, she was insistent that it wasn’t her place to design. After we spent family day together with my brother’s team, she was less hesitant. I took that opportunity to schedule another appointment with Diane for the following evening. That one was scheduled at my house and Michelle couldn’t help but get excited about decorating. We were making progress.
“Oop! That’s us!” Corey yelled seconds after the firehouse alarm sounded. We both tossed down the equipment we’d been sorting to grab our boots and fire repellant gear, and headed straight for the trucks.
“What address did they say?” I stopped in my tracks. Oddly, a feeling of trepidation moved through my entire body. I never got nervous when calls came through, but the address …
“One Townsend Squ–” Corey paused, realizing what he was saying. “Shit!”
“Let’s go!” I ordered, climbing into the passenger side of the truck without thinking about it.
Eric was behind the wheel and in no time we were pulling out of the garage.
“You know the layout of the building better than anyone,” he yelled over to me.
I nodded, looking straight ahead, pulling the lever for the horn to sound. These fucking cars were taking their sweet ass time to get out of the way.
“Carter! Are you listening to me?”
I turned back to Eric. “What?” I growled impatiently.
“I said that maybe you’ll wanna sit this one out. Watch from the ground.”
I scowled at Eric. “Why the fuck would I do that? You just said I know this building better than anyone. That’s my fucking family in there!”
“Alright. Alright! I was just making sure. We’re going to need your total attention on this. No distractions.”
I nodded tightly. I knew Eric was just doing his job, making sure he sent the right guys where they needed to go, but there was no way in hell I was about to remain on the ground while my family’s business was in flames.
“What floor did the fire start on?” I questioned as soon as I jumped out of the truck of one of the guy’s of another squad.
“They’re saying it started on the top floor. Birthday party or something.”
A pang of nervousness hit my gut.
“We need to get up there!” I yelled to Eric.
“Reports of one, possibly two people trapped on the first floor.”
I ran to the back of the truck along with Corey and Don. We packed our gear onto our backs, along with our helmets, and started for the main entrance where employees were still running out of. Eric and Don directed employees to the nearest exits and Corey and I went to lock the elevators. The building was thirty stories high and while it was a general safety rule to never take elevators in the event of a fire in the building, people often did. The best way to prevent them from doing so was to lock the elevators. One advantage I had was that I knew this building very well and knew the precise code to punch in the keypad to lock the elevators. We didn’t have to waste time waiting for the building’s security manager.
“Stairs!” I yelled to Corey and turned to run past the elevators to make the long trek up the thirty flights. By most standards it was an arduous task, but this was the reason we trained so hard, everyday. Our gear added almost hundred pounds to our bodyweight. But carrying all that up thirty flights was nothing at this point. I just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other, until we hit the next floor level. When we did, we hit the doors, yelling out and making sure all employees had evacuated.
“Let’s go! You gotta exit the building!” Corey yelled as we reached the tenth floor, finding a young woman tucked under her desk, in shock. “Can you walk?” he asked. She nodded her head. He guided her to the stairs and instructed a passing employee to help her down. We proceeded to check out that floor and then moved up to the next. At about the twelfth floor smoke had begun filling the air, obviously having made its way through the air vents.
“Eric, if there’s someone trapped on the top floor, only escape option might be the roof,” I told Eric as we bound up the stairs already at the twenty-fifth floor.
“We’ll head up!” Eric yelled.
We finally made it to the thirtieth floor but Eric and Corey continued up to the next flight for the roof. I removed my glove to feel the handle of the door. The metal was hot, the flames obviously still ablaze on the other side. I pushed my hand back into my glove and adjusted my face mask so it was secured over my face. Bracing myself, I pulled the door open. As if I’d just opened a hot oven and stood in front of it, a gush of searingly hot air washed over me. I looked to my right and saw a wall of fire. Flames had taken over just about half of the lobby.
“Fire department!” I yelled. “Anybody in here? Call out!” I braced myself to move farther into the inferno. I kicked over chairs and pushed desks, making sure no one was there.
“Help!” I heard from behind me and I turned to see a man in a wheelchair in the corner.
“Son of a bitch!” I grunted. “Are you hurt?” I asked, checking over him.
He’d removed his shirt to cover his face and use as a filter to breath through.
“N-no. I can’t get out.”
I nodded and looked around. I knew my best bet wasn’t going to be to attempt to carry this guy down the stairs.
“Carter to Rescue Four come in!” I yelled into my intercom.
“Rescue Four,” Eric’s booming voice responded.
“I’ve got a wheelchair bound male trapped. No way we make it down the stairs.”
“Copy that. Can you make it to a window?”
I looked around―the windows were obscured by the flames. I debated and came up with an idea. I wheeled the guy through the lobby and farther down the hall where the offices were. I twisted the knob to Aaron’s main office but it was locked. My heart rate quickened.
“We’re gonna get you outta here, buddy,” I assured the man. “Do you know if anyone else is in here?”
“I-I don’t think so.’”
I nodded and raised the hatchet I’d been carrying with me this whole time. Making sure the guy was far enough from my swing, I swung the hatchet into the door, breaking an inch or two into the wood. It took about five more swings before I had a hole big enough to reach my hand through and get to the lock. Opening the door, I wheeled the guy in and closed the door behind us, trying to put a small buffer between us and the flames.
“Aaron!” I called, searching the office.
“The boss is out of the office today at a meeting.”
My shoulders slumped in relief just a little bit. I didn’t have time to rejoice that my brother wasn’t in danger since I still had a trapped man that needed rescuing. I made a beeline for the windows, feeling them out. One opened, allowing for some ventilation, but both of our bodies would never fit through the space.
“Alright, buddy. What’s your name?” I asked, removing my mask.
“M-Mark.”
“Okay, Mark. We’re going to have to go through the window.”
“What? No, no! I can’t. I can’t walk. How will I be―”
“Mark,” I yelled, palming the sides of his chair, “I know you’re afraid but I’ve done this countless times. If I said we’re going to make it out of here, we’re getting the fuck outta here!” I didn’t have time for niceness. “Keep that shirt over your nose and mouth!” I ordered, picking up my hatchet again and heading back to the window.
“Carter to Rescue Four. Come in.”
“Rescue Four to Carter.”
“I’m on the southeast end of the thirtieth floor. I’m going to break a window. I need you to send that harness down as fast as you fucking can!”
“Copy that. Heading for the southeast part of the roof.”
Again I lifted my hatchet and took my best swing at the office window. It cracked but didn’t shatter. For that I needed three more swings, but eventually glass was everywhere at my feet instead of being the barrier to the outside it once was. And despite it being close to the low eighties outside, the gust of air felt at least twenty degrees cooler than the air in the lobby had felt.
“Okay, Mark, my guys are sending down the harness. We’re going to have to leave the wheelchair behind. I’ve got you,” I stated sharply when he began to protest. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw something swing past the now bare window. Running over, I caught the harness the next time it passed.
“Few more inches, Rescue Four!” I stated into my intercom. Seconds later the rope of the harness slackened and I was able to pull it in enough so that I could step into one of the two attached harnesses and strap it tightly around my legs and waist.
“Alright, Mark, let me guide you.” I put the second harness over his feet and up his legs before attempting to lift him from the wheelchair. Mark and I both grunted when I lifted him from the chair.
“I got you!” I had to partially drag Mark toward the window. When we made it, I said, “Alright, Mark, we’re going out of the window. I need you to just let yourself be moved, okay?”
He nodded, obviously terrified.
It took a bit of work to get us both out of the window. I lifted a hand from Mark and then tugged at the rope to let my guys know it was safe to start lowering us.
“Oh God! Oh God!” Mark began repeating over and over.
“We’re okay,” I consoled. I looked up to see Eric and Corey looking down over the edge of the roof.
“Ladder’s beneath you on the fifteenth,” came through my walkie-talkie.
I nodded and gave a thumb’s up to the guys above me.
“Mark, we’re going to be lowered to the fifteenth floor to the ladder of my truck. It’s already in position to receive us and will lower us to the ground,” I informed him. By then his entire upper body was trembling. “Don’t look down,” I advised when I saw his head beginning to lower. Worst thing anyone in this position could do. I glanced up to stare above us. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I took a mental picture of how beautiful it was and how grateful I was to do the job I did.
I’m sure for Mark it felt like forever until our bodies hit the metal of the ladder. Don and one of the rookies were in position to receive us. I unhooked my harness and Don helped me carry Mark down to the truck’s roof.
“How you doin’, Mark?” I asked.
“Uh, um, ask m-me once I’m on s-solid ground.”
I grinned a little and nodded. “Seems fair.”
With Don’s help we brought Mark down the side of the truck where there was already a gurney waiting for him.
“Th-thank you!” He grasped tightly onto my hand, squeezing it with his still trembling hands.
“You’re more than welcome. Let these paramedics get you fixed up.” I was sure he’d suffered some smoke inhalation and a few burns, mainly minor, but they still needed to be checked out.
I watched as he was rolled off, paramedics placing an oxygen mask over his face. He was probably in shock at that point. My attention was pulled to yelling behind me. I turned from Mark being loaded in the ambulance to see my brother storming down the sidewalk, yelling at everyone in sight.
“What the hell happened?” he barked at the nearest officer.
I slowly made my way over to him, unbothered by his mood. Funny enough, despite the officer being the one with the gun, badge, and handcuffs, he looked frightened as hell of Aaron.
“Aaron!” I called, to take the attention off the poor officer.
“Carter! What the fuck is going on? I’ve been at meetings all day and get a call my damn building’s on fire!” His face was in an even more treacherous scowl than usual.
“Not the whole building. It’s been contained to the top floor, but the damage will be extensive.”
“Anyone hurt?”
I nodded in the direction of the ambulance just as it was pulling off. “I had to pull a guy named Mark through the window. Minor burns and some smoke inhalation, but his chair is still up there, probably destroyed.”
“Son of a bitch!” he yelled. “This was Mark’s first week as my junior assistant.” He shouted for the second time, “How the fuck did this happen? We have all types of safety measures for this.”
“We don’t know, but someone made mention of a birthday celebration gone wrong.”
My brother snarled. And that look alone told me heads were going to roll. I might even be intimidated a little by that look if I were one of his employees. Aaron zeroed in on something across the street and started in that direction. I glanced over and saw a group of his employees huddled amongst the crowd. In typical Aaron fashion he was none too gentle, even as he asked for the second time if anyone had been injured or hurt.
“He looks pissed,” Corey whistled, coming up beside me and staring across the street.
I shrugged. “He’s always pissed. It’s his thing,” I stated. I saw Corey turn to me but I didn’t meet his gaze. Aaron’s deal wasn’t my business. My job was done and I was just satisfied that no one had been seriously injured. Besides, I knew I’d learn all about what transpired to cause the fire through the investigation and my family’s own private review of the incident.
“Let’s load the truck. I’m fucking starving.” I slapped Corey’s chest with the back of my hand. “Eric, let’s stop at Luigi’s on the way back. Don’t you say shit!” I pointed at Don whose mouth was already partially opened, ready to talk shit about my choice in places to eat.
I watched as Don mumbled something while he tossed equipment in the back of the truck, but he didn’t directly respond.
We stopped and picked up some pizzas on the way back. I impatiently waited for the next four hours of my shift to pass. All I wanted to do was shower the day off and spend the evening in bed with the love of my life. We had a date that night and her mother had already agreed to keep Diego overnight. And although I’d miss the hell out of the little guy, I was greatly appreciative of the opportunity to have some alone time with Michelle.