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“One more day for me,” Rueben repeats, starting to smile.
Apparently, being reminded that he has less time to wait than Scout to start spending time with Scarlett is what he needed to hear to quit complaining.
We eat lunch in relative silence, with very little crunching involved since Rueben did already eat most of the tortilla chips. All of ten minutes later, after I’ve just cleared the table, we get a call.
There’s an apartment building fire in Silver Lake. The local FD are already dispatched, but they could use a second unit if we’re free. I confirm we’re on our way, and signal to everyone to get moving.
We drop everything, suit up quickly and get into the rig.
We’re on the road seconds later, on the way to do our job.
Chapter eleven
Rueben
Everything else stops when there’s an emergency to get to. Our training kicks in, and we go into work mode. It’s not possible to work any other way. Lives depend on what we’re doing. Every second counts. Distractions can get people killed.
Bishop drives like a bat out of hell through the traffic, siren blazing as we aim to get to the site of the fire as fast as we can. The Silver Lake unit will already be there, and we’ll take our orders from their captain.
Like everyone else in Silver Lake, Captain Marshall is a Beta. But if I didn’t know that I’d swear he was an Alpha. He has the same instincts, the same drive.
He’s a good captain. He knows his shit. We trust him.
We can see the smoke before we get close, rising up over the buildings we’re passing.
I can already feel the adrenaline pumping through me, getting ready to snap into action the second the rig stops, and we get out. When we stop in front of the building, SLFD are already hard at work, and keeping the blaze under control.
“What do we have here, Marshall?” Captain Bishop calls out to our site Captain.
Marshall turns to him. “My men are evacuating the remaining residents now. The fire’s almost under control. Could use another hose on it, and a couple men inside helping with the evacuation.”
“On it,” Captain Bishop says, motioning to Gus to go with him, and for me and Scout to go inside.
We put on our masks and make our move, radioing the other team for more precise directions.
Most of the building’s been cleared, it seems, but the fourth floor, right under where the fire started has been blocked off by a collapse. We move straight there to assess the damage and find a work around.
The fourth floor landing is dark, and flooded with smoke.
The wooden boards creak under my foot and I step back, only to see those boards break and a gaping hole open up in that spot.
“It’s unstable,” I yell back to Scout. “We need to get a ladder to the windows to get these people out.”
He makes the call to Captain Marshall as we head back down the stairwell.
One of Silver Lake’s rigs are already on it when we get out there, with a second rig joining as we exit.
Captain Marshall motions to us to go to the second rig.
I climb the ladder as it moves toward a window. The glass has already been broken. One glimpse into the apartment and I can see the floor is gone inside. I call back to Scout on the ladder, asking if he can see anything in the window below.
SLFD already cleared the third floor, but we don’t know when that floor collapsed.
“I think we’ve got something!” Scout calls back to me.
He radios down to have the ladder moved to the third-floor window and I see the woman lying on the ground straight away. I smash the glass and climb inside.
With no time to lose, I rush over to the woman and carry her to the window.
