Chapter 26 Liam
The heat was unbearable.
Even through my gear, through the layers designed to withstand this, I could feel it pressing against my skin. Sweat poured down my face inside the mask. My lungs burned despite the filtered air.
I stayed low, one hand on the wall, moving forward by feel. The smoke was so thick I couldn't see anything. Not the floor, not my hand six inches from my face… just black.
The roar of the fire surrounded me. Crackling, popping, the deep groan of wood giving way. Plaster rained down, hitting my helmet.
I needed to find the stairs.
My boot hit something. I reached down and found the first step. Still intact. Barely.
I tested my weight, and the wood immediately groaned… but held.
One step. Two. Three.
A crash behind me, part of the first floor giving way. The heat intensified, flames punching through gaps in the floorboards.
Just keep moving, I thought. Just keep going.
Four steps. Five.
Another groan, louder this time. The whole structure shuddering.
Six. Seven.
The landing. I pulled myself up, stayed low. The second floor was worse—hotter, smokier, the ceiling sagging. I could hear fire eating through the walls.
I had seconds before this whole place came down.
"Fire department!" My voice came out muffled through the mask. "Call out!"
Nothing. Just the roar of flames.
I moved forward, sweeping my arms. Feeling for walls, for doors, for bodies.
My hand hit something solid. A door frame. The door was open, hanging crooked.
I pushed through into what looked like a bedroom. The smoke was slightly thinner here; not much, but enough that I could make out shapes. Something that could be a bed, or maybe a dresser. And then…
A body on the floor.
I moved toward it, dropped to my knees. Male, young, unconscious. The homeowner's son. His breathing was shallow and irregular, but he was still breathing.
Then I saw movement beyond him.
There was someone else here. Pinned under a fallen beam, EMT uniform visible through the soot. He was conscious but struggling, trying to push the beam off himself.
Daniel.
His head turned toward me. Even through the smoke I could see the relief flood his face.
"Thank God.” His voice was raw, barely audible. Then he focused on my face through the mask and recognition hit. "Sullivan? I thought—I thought this was it. I thought I was done."
"Not on my watch." I moved to the beam and assessed. Heavy, but I could lift it. "When I get this off you, you move. Understand?"
He nodded, coughing.
I braced myself and lifted. The beam shifted, groaned, and Daniel scrambled out from under it, gasping.
I let it drop.
"Can you walk?" I asked.
"Yeah. I think so.” He was coughing hard, smoke inhalation obvious. His face was covered in soot, eyes red.
I pulled off my mask and shoved it at him. "Put this on."
"What—no, you need—"
"Put it on." I turned to the kid, checked his pulse. Still there. "Help me get him up."
The ceiling groaned above us. A crack appeared, spreading like lightning.
We didn't have time to argue.
Daniel put on the mask, took a few breaths, then grabbed the kid's legs while I got his shoulders. We lifted together. He was dead weight, completely unconscious.
"Go," I said. "I've got him. You lead."
We moved toward the door. The smoke was thicker now, flames visible through the walls. The heat was a living thing, clawing at any exposed skin.
Daniel stumbled, caught himself, and kept moving.
The hallway was worse. The ceiling was coming down in pieces, flames eating through from above. I could hear the structure failing, that deep, horrible sound of a building giving up. It was happening. We were almost out of time.
"Stairs," I shouted.
We reached them. Daniel went first, moving backward, supporting the kid's legs. I followed, step by step, feeling each board flex under our weight.
Three steps from the bottom, the landing above us gave way.
A crack, a rush of air… then instinct took over. I knew exactly where it was falling.
Daniel.
“Move!” I shouted, shoving into him, driving Daniel forward with the kid’s limp weight between us. He stumbled, hauling the boy’s legs, and they went down hard at the bottom of the stairs.
The beam slammed into my shoulder.
Pain detonated, white-hot and blinding. I hit the stairs hard, breath gone, vision swimming.
"Sullivan!" Daniel's voice, distant through the ringing in my ears.
Hands grabbed and dragged me. The heat was intense, flames everywhere now. I couldn't see, couldn't breathe, couldn't—
Cool air hit my face.
Outside. We were outside.
Hands pulling at me, voices shouting. Someone was working on my shoulder. Someone else was on the kid, doing chest compressions.
I tried to sit up, but someone pushed me back down.
"Stay down, Captain. You're hurt."
Daniel. Where was Daniel?
I turned my head, saw him ten feet away. Paramedics had him on oxygen, checking him over. He was conscious. Coughing but conscious.
The kid was breathing too. I could see his chest moving.
They’d made it.
Relief hit me so hard I couldn't breathe.
"Captain Sullivan, can you hear me?"
I tried to respond but the words wouldn't come.
The pain in my shoulder was spreading, turning into something else.
Something darker. The sky above me was orange from the flames, and I could hear the house collapsing behind us.
The hollow sound of timber crashing, flames roaring. We'd gotten out just in time.
Daniel was safe.
Piper wouldn't lose him.
That was all that mattered.
The darkness at the edges of my vision spread, creeping inward. Someone was calling my name but the sound was getting farther away, like I was sinking underwater.
I let go.