Chapter 9
DAX
T he flames eat away at the walls, devouring everything in their path. Wood, glass, cardboard, plastic—anything is up for grabs, and this fire is hungry. The structure will collapse unless we take the monster out quickly.
It’s an all-hands-on-deck type of situation, all twelve of us stretched thin across a rapidly degenerating battlefield. I’ve got Leo by my side while Beck and his fellow paramedic Dean wait for us outside.
“They evacuated everybody, right?” Leo shouts over the roar of flames and hissing water hoses.
The Engine crew is going heavy on the water, spraying the beast through every open window and door of the warehouse. It looks like something out of a horror movie. It feels like hell, too, the temperature rising to the point where I feel close to melting in my fire-retardant suit.
“That’s what the warehouse manager said,” I tell him, then ram my axe into one of the office doors and kick it wide open. “Fire department, call out! ”
Nothing. Thank heavens.
“Clear. Moving up!” Leo announces.
We’ve got the radio channel open for the whole crew, and I can hear them calling out in a similar fashion from the other side of the warehouse.
We’re in the middle of a systematic check before we pull back and aim the big cannons at the building.
It’ll turn this whole place into an oven, but it will put the fire out before it spreads to any of the neighboring structures.
“That’s where it started,” Leo points at the end of the corridor.
The smoke is thicker in this sector, black and damn near impossible to see through.
“Isn’t that one of their storage rooms?” I ask.
Though we can’t smell anything through our face masks, I know instinctively that accelerant was used in this fire as well.” He glances down and points along the corridor wall. “Look at that line.”
The fire burns brighter along a dark line while the rest of the flames lick at the walls. At least part of this building was insulated with fireproofing, from what I can tell. Otherwise, the whole place would’ve turned into a tinderbox by now.
“It’s another arson,” I conclude.
“Got one guy out!” a voice shouts through the radio channel. It’s Hernandez, our Truck lieutenant. “East wing is clear, we’re ready to pull out! Dax, Leo! Where are you?”
“West wing, we’ve got a couple more rooms to check,” Leo replies through his helmet’s integrated comms system. “Three minutes max. ”
“Hurry!” Hernandez warns us. “We ventilated the roof, but there’s something off about this smoke.”
“Will do,” I mutter and focus on the next door to our left. “Fire department, call out!” I shout before kicking the door in.
Flames lash out at me from inside. I cry out in a heated frenzy as Leo pulls me back.
“Dax!” Beck’s voice echoes in my ear.
“We’re good!” Leo replies. “Stand back.”
We’re not that good, though. We’re both on the sizzling floor, the fire trying to get at us from every possible direction.
I want to get up, but the scorching temperature makes it close to impossible for me to see a way out.
Leo manages to pull me back on my feet, and I give him a thankful nod before we proceed toward the last door.
“Come on, one more!” I shout.
“You have to clear out!” Beck yells through the comms system. “It’s out of control!”
“One more room,” I insist.
The closer we get to that last door, however, the clearer it becomes. The desperate thudding against the wood. The screams of despair reverberate from inside. My heart starts leaping frantically in my chest as I realize the gravity and the urgency of the situation ahead.
“There’s someone in there,” I tell Leo.
“I’m on it,” he replies and moves ahead of me.
I look back and all I can see is the inferno waiting to swallow us whole. To our right, there’s another corridor leading to the south side of the building. The lights are out, and it’s filled with choking black smoke, but the temperature seems slightly more manageable. It may be our best way out.
Leo smashes his Halligan into the door’s secure lock, tearing it wide open.
A man falls out of the room, flames devouring his back.
“I’ve got him,” I say and cover the man, quickly patting him down to put the fire out. He screams and wails in sheer agony, but at least he’s alive. “Come on, buddy, we have to get you out of here.”
“Help me, please!”
“Hold on!” I shout, then hurl him over my shoulder.
It’s a move I’ve done many times before, a move that comes naturally to me. But just as I’m about to head south through the less threatening hallway, I notice Leo standing in the doorway, staring at something.
“Leo!” I call out.
“Look at that,” Leo says.
“Jesus,” I mutter, realizing what has caught his attention.
It’s an explosive device, set in the middle of the storage room and surrounded by cleaning supplies—some of which are exceptionally flammable. I see the digital timer mounted at the base, the black digits morphing across the small, green screen.
Less than a minute left.
“That’s a secondary device, Dax,” Leo says.
“We need to go NOW!” I shout, then relay my warning to the whole crew. “Truck, Squad, Engine! I need everybody out of the building right now!”
“What’s happening, Dax?” I hear our captain’s voice come through. “I’m with the candidates on the roof.”
“Cap, we need to evacuate. There’s a bomb in here,” Leo says.
We’re already hurtling through the south-facing corridor, my victim hanging limp over my shoulder.
“Get off the roof NOW!”
“The ladder’s coming,” I hear a candidate speak through the general radio channel, followed by a shuddering static.
A split second later, a terrifying BOOM rips through the entire building. The flash catches up with us right as we’re about to burst through the service doors. The force of the explosion is so powerful, so intense, that we’re thrown forward and blown out into the sunlight.
Everything turns white.
“CAPTAIN! CAP!” somebody screams somewhere nearby.
“FUCK!” someone else cries out.
I hear thudding boots on the ground. The water cannons are groaning. Everything, absolutely everything, tears apart around me as I struggle to come to, to remember where I am and what I’m doing.
“I’ve got them!” Beck shouts, his voice getting louder, accompanied by the screeching wheels of a gurney. “I’ve got them! Dean, go over to the cap’s side. Help him!”
“What is happening?” I ask through the darkness that surrounds me .
A hand wipes the soot from my visor.
Beck’s face comes into focus.
My whole body aches under an unfamiliar pressure. My skin burns hot in some places. The sting makes me want to cry, but the adrenaline rush won’t let me. Thoughts keep racing through my head, each worse than the one before, while my ears hurt from the explosion’s shattering boom.
“Where’s Leo?” I manage.
“Right here,” Leo replies.
I can’t see him, but at least I know he’s alive. There’s a growing pain in my entire left side. That can’t be good.
“Take it easy,” Beck tells me. “I’ve got you, brother.”
“What about the guy we rescued?”
Beck looks somewhere to my right, and I want to turn my head to follow his gloomy gaze, but my neck is suddenly stiff and infuriatingly uncooperative.
“He didn’t make it,” Beck says. “I’m sorry.”
“No…” Gray seeps around the edges of my vision, and I feel like I’m starting to float.
“Hey, hey! Stay with me!” Beck calls out, but he sounds far away. I feel a nudge in my shoulder, pressure tightening in my chest.
Someone removes my mask and my helmet.
A wave of dry heat washes over my face.
I glance around, trying to focus and make sense of it all. Somewhere, farther away from the roof of the warehouse next door, a man watches us, standing in the sunlight. His hair is golden. He’s tall, broad-shouldered. I don’t know who he is, but he seems hypnotized by the carnage before him.
I lose focus again.
“Dax, stay with me!” Beck shouts.
But my eyes are rolling upward.
I’m losing control over my senses. I want to stay awake, but all I can think of is going back home to Olivia, burying myself somewhere deep within her. I can almost smell the tropical hint of her shampoo, taste the coffee on the tip of her tongue. I can almost feel her, wet and warm and welcoming.
She’s home for me.
I need to see her again.
But the darkness overpowers me despite Beck and Leo’s agitated voices, despite their pleas for me to stay awake. They become echoes in the pitch-black nothingness that overtakes me, while I pray to every god to bring me back.