7. five
five
. . .
CREW
The blare of an alarm had me jolting upright in bed. Muscle memory brought me to my feet before I’d fully opened my eyes, stuffing them in my boots and moving from the bunk room to the garage behind the rest of my truck company.
The dispatcher’s voice rang out from the PA system as the bells cut out.
“Truck twenty-seven, engine forty-five, ambulance thirty-five. Warehouse fire, Maple and Alder.”
Adrenaline coursed heavily through my veins, energizing me better than caffeine ever could, and I donned my gear on autopilot. Mentally, I drew up a map of town, focusing on the area we were headed. Maple and Adler was in the industrial park, so we’d likely be heading into a warehouse, which would determine our game plan for tackling the fire.
As I hopped into the front passenger seat of our truck, the rest of the men loading into the back, something tickled my brain. Something about this night and the location of the call.
“Prom night, ain’t it?” Childers asked from behind me.
My blood ran cold as my thoughts cleared, his words catching that thread and yanking it to the forefront of my mind .
I shared a sidelong glance with Tuck, who was our driver. “You think it’s him?” I asked, loud enough that my whole crew could hear.
Tuck shrugged, eyes on the road, navigating us from the station at the edge of town and through the sleepy streets of Dusk Valley. “Hard to say until we get there. Been quiet for a few years, though.”
“That means he’s due,” I gritted out, my words mostly drowned by the sirens as Tuck flipped them on once we mostly cleared the residential neighborhoods and were cruising through the business loop of downtown.
As more adrenaline released into my bloodstream, my body began to hum in anticipation. This could’ve been another run-of-the-mill warehouse fire. I’d fought dozens in my career. But…I couldn’t forget the prom night fire I’d worked a few years back, and I didn’t believe in coincidences, especially not on this night.
My only hope was we arrived in time to save the poor woman he’d targeted this time.
When Tuck pulled up to the structure, the fire was already fully involved. Flames licked at the window panes along the side, the garage doors on the front glowed orange as they were battered from behind, and fire danced around the frame of the closed side entrance.
This building used to be an auto shop owned by a local family. They’d recently moved to a larger, more modern place they’d built on the other side of town, and this one had recently sold to a landscaping company.
We hopped out of the truck, and as the most senior person on the scene until Chief arrived, I took charge of incident command, calling it into dispatch to let them know we’d arrived. Quickly, I ran the perimeter, assessing how and where was best to breach and attack.
“Where do you want us, Cap?” Sutton Rausch, the paramedic in charge at our fire station, asked when I returned to the front, gesturing to herself and her partner, Thomas.
“I want you guys on standby. If we radio out, be ready. I have no idea what, if anything, we’ll find in there, but…”
“We got it,” she reminded me.
I nodded grimly. Like me, Sutton had grown up in Dusk Valley. She was a few years ahead of me in school and had graduated with my brother, Lane. This also wasn’t her first prom night fire.
When I looped around the side of the truck and greeted my men, Burns, the fourth member of our truck crew, held out an air bottle and SCBA for me.
“Tuck, I want you with me going in through this side door. Childers and Burns, I want you heading around to the rear entrance. That door is about kitty corner from this one. This side seems to be where the worst of the blaze, so we’ll breach away from it, assess, do a sweep for vics, and get the fuck out. Understood?”
My men nodded and, faces set in determination, moved to carry out my directions.
The building butted up to a copse of trees, and nearby sat an abandoned pile of wooden pallets.
Kindling .
“Engine!” I shouted, and their lieutenant rushed to my side. “Keep things contained while we do a quick sweep. Douse those pallets, and be mindful of the trees. Snake a line around that backside if you can in case it decides it wants to jump.”
“Roger that,” he saluted.
“Great, now haul over a line and cover us while Tuck and I go in.”
“Davis!” the lieutenant called. “You’re up!”
Emergency lights cut through the night as Chief Madden slammed his buggy to a stop at the curb, pulling his helmet on and withdrawing his own SCBA from the backseat before approaching the scene.
“Status report!” he shouted as he approached.
“Tuck and I are heading in,” I said. “Engine will cover us. I’m sending Childers and Burns around back.”
Chief nodded and yelled, “Let’s go, boys!”
Davis from the engine crew raced over, dragging a hose with him. While he positioned himself, I approached the front entrance and turned, bracing my hands against either side of the door jam. The material was hot, even through my gloves, and sweat instantly broke out on my back. I glanced at the engine guy, who gave me a nod.
“You ready?” I shouted at Tuck.
The man gave me an almost feral grin. “Let’s rock.”
“Three…two…one…” I swung my right leg back forcefully, delivering a perfect donkey kick that sent the door careening opening.
I moved out of the way as Davis hollered at his team, “Charge it!”
Across the hard-packed dirt lot, I watched the hose expand with water until it reached the nozzle, and Davis opened it up, shuffling forward, directing the spray at the flames inside.
I came up behind him, one hand resting on his shoulder. Tuck did the same behind me, and as a unit, we moved into the building.
Nothing could ever prepare you for that first blast of a fire. A lot like when you opened a heated oven and all that hot air smacked you right in the face—only times a thousand. Every time, I had to remind myself to take slow, normal breaths, to not gulp in air like I was desperate for it. As long as the bottle strapped to my back didn’t empty before I could exit the building, I was fine.
“The worst of the fire is that way!” I shouted, pointing toward our left, where the narrow hallway we were in opened onto the garage floor. “Hit this stretch and give us some room!”
“You got it, Cap!”
Davis shifted, aiming the hose where I indicated, and Tuck and I shuffled forward through the opening he created in the wall of flame. As soon as we were through, he’d fall back and contain the blaze from outside until we needed to get out.
“You smell that?” Tuck asked, remaining glued to my six as was protocol.
I spared him a quick glance over my shoulder.
“Gas. Diesel if I had to guess.”
Tuck nodded, but it wasn’t a guess. The smell of diesel fuel—there was nothing like it.
“Could be lingering from the shop.”
I shot him a look that told him we both knew that was wishful thinking. For starters, the odor was far too strong. And secondly…
I pointed at the floor, the concrete which had once been polished to a high shine that was now sooty and marred by dark scorch marks.
Obvious signs of an accelerant being used, and Tuck and I both knew the former owners of the shop hadn’t done that.
Thankfully, the floor wasn’t burning, the fuel seeming to have burned off, but even through the smoke clouding my vision, the scorch marks ran down the hall in a mostly straight line before veering sharply to the left through an open doorway.
At least that solved the mystery of how the fire had started.
Unfortunately, after burning off the diesel on the floor, the fire had climbed the walls, searching for more fuel, and grown tall enough to get into the roof. Eventually, it spread into the trusses and down to the insulation. The temperature had risen high enough to put major thermal stress on the windows, thus blowing them out .
“Follow the Yellow Brick Road!” Tuck urged, nodding at the blackened path.
Staying low, we inched along until reception opened at our left, the offices beyond that. Straight ahead was the garage floor.
We continued past the walled-off admin area until the garage opened up. In front of us were the two bays they’d use for larger industrial machinery when the county depot was backed up, and to the right were the smaller ones for personal vehicle maintenance.
I opened my mouth to give an order, but Tuck cut me off. “Don’t you dare.”
Chuckling, I did it anyway, pointing at the door in the far right corner. We watched as it popped open, the other two members of our crew appearing in the frame.
“Grab them and clear this area. It’ll be faster with the three of you. Then I want you to send them out and around the front before coming back for me.”
“And you’re heading in there, aren’t you?” he asked, jerking his head at the offices.
“Gotta clear it,” I shrugged. As their captain, as the one responsible for their lives, I’d rather be the one to do it than force any of them to risk it.
Tuck held his fist out, and I bumped it with mine. “Be safe.”
I gave him a mock salute. “Always am.”
Three offices branched off the main area. Reception itself held nothing but an abandoned desk that was lit up like a Christmas tree. After checking beneath it, I moved toward the door on the far left.
“Fire department, call out!” I shouted when I opened the door.
The room was completely empty, with nowhere for anyone to hide or be trapped, so I pivoted to the middle door. The fire was growing higher, the smoke getting thicker. I had to clear these last two rooms and bail out fast before I got trapped .
The middle room was the same as the first, but I wasn’t so lucky with the third—and neither was the figure lying near the back wall, the flames inching closer and closer by the second.
“HEY!” I shouted.
The figure shifted slightly, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Rescue, not a recovery.
Not yet at least.
I intended to keep it that way.
Rushing to their side, I realized the person was a woman whose wrists and ankles were bound with zip ties, and a gag was tied around her mouth. Even with the roaring of the fire, I could hear her sobs and muffled pleading as she pulled on her restraints.
“Miss, miss,” I said as gently as I could while still conveying the sense of urgency our situation possessed. “I’m going to get you out of here, but I need you to calm down.”
She stilled instantly, though her chest still heaved with her rapid breathing. I reached behind her, untying the gag and stuffing it in my pocket for safekeeping. Lane would never forgive me for leaving a potential piece of evidence behind.
“Please,” she whimpered, turning her head toward me.
I startled, stumbling back a step.
“Aspen, oh my god,” I breathed.
What the fuck ? I’d last seen her less than two days ago. What the fuck had happened since then? How had she wound up here?
“Crew?”
I shook my head, getting back into the game. There’d be time for questions later, when we weren’t in the middle of a burning building that could collapse at any second.
“It’s okay, honey,” I placated, the pet name rolling easily off my tongue. Reaching into my coat, I withdrew my small bolt cutter and used it to free her restraints, adding those to my pocket with the gag. She attempted to say something else, but instead inhaled a lungful of smoke and hacked out a cough instead.
Fuck, the smoke was getting worse, and she’d suffocate if I didn’t get her out of here quickly.
Groping for my radio, I pressed the call button and shouted, “Got a vic! Office in the bravo-charlie corner! We’re coming out but I need cover!”
The radio crackled to life with a response immediately.
“Got you, Cap!” Davis replied. “Head back the way you went in!”
“Roger that!” I said then turned back to Aspen. “You ready to get out of here?” She nodded, and I grinned, trying to keep her calm. “I’m going to have you loop your arms around my neck and I’ll carry you out. Okay?”
Aspen merely nodded. Bending down, I gingerly wedged my hands under her body. An agonized scream left her, and I when I jerked away, I found my gloves covered in blood and…fuck, was that skin ? As gently as I could, I shifted her over so she rested on her right side and took stock of the damage.
Her clothing was ruined, and my gut churned at the sight of the burnt skin beneath, the fire having eaten right through to flesh. God, how had that happened? Had those burns been intentional?
Still not the time , I reminded myself.
“Aspen, I apologize in advance, but this is gonna fucking hurt,” I grimaced when I squatted next to her. Before she could protest, I hauled her up into my arms. She screamed again, the sound fading to the whimpering and hissing of someone trying to breathe through the pain.
“We’ll get you fixed up,” I vowed to her as I shuffled out of the office and across reception. “Don’t worry, Aspen. I’ve got you.”
Her only response was a nod, a quick jerk of her head against my shoulder .
When we reached the hallway, Tuck was waiting.
“Follow me!” he shouted.
I was grateful for the assist. I curled my body around her to shield Aspen from further injury, making it difficult to keep my head up. The way out should’ve been a straight shot, but the air around us was hazy with grey smoke, making it difficult to see more than a few feet in front of us. I focused on Tuck’s feet as he led the way.
An ominous creaking sounded from above us, and I dared a look up.
Fuck .
“Trusses are coming down!” I shouted at Tuck. “Move!”
He didn’t need to be told twice, breaking into a run, going as fast as he could in all his gear. I did my best to match his pace, trying not to jostle Aspen too much. But if we didn’t get the fuck out of this building in the next fifteen seconds, we were all going to die.
We reached Davis, and Tuck yanked on his coat as we raced by, pulling him and the hose out with us.
No sooner had we stepped into the night than the roof collapsed with a thunderous bang , sending a fireball shooting into the sky. The force of the blast dropped me to my knees, and I barely maintained my grip on Aspen. When I managed to stumble back to my feet, still cradling her, I shouted to the engine crew.
“Scene is clear. Open ‘em up!”
The hiss and sizzle of the two elements colliding filled the night air a beat later.
Before I could call for them, Sutton and Thomas were already at my side with a gurney.
“She’s alive and lucid,” I said as I laid her down on the gurney. “Name is Aspen McKay. Thirty-three, but I don’t know anything else about her history. Definite smoke inhalation, and she’s got some pretty gnarly burns on her left side. ”
As Sutton slipped an oxygen mask over Aspen’s face, I removed my gloves and pulled my SCBA off, deeply inhaling the fresh night air.
A hand wrapped around mine a moment later, and I glanced down to find Aspen had reached for me.
“Thank you,” she croaked, letting me go as Sutton and Thomas hauled her away.
Tuck approached and settled a hand on my shoulder.
“Nice save, Cap.”
I mock saluted. “All in a day’s work.”
Tuck only grinned and bumped me with his shoulder.
“Let’s go help those engine boys.”
After a final look in the direction of the ambulance, sending a prayer up to the universe that Aspen would be okay, I faced the blazing building and got back to work.