31. Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-One
Raif
T he fire is big, really big. When they first got the call that there was a warehouse fire, they prepared for it to be bad.
Warehouse fires always are. But this is by far the worst Raif has seen.
Usually, when they get to a fire, Raif mans the hose or checks the truck, he doesn’t go in.
Because while he’s been trained and they’ve practiced simulations at the fire station, and he knows exactly how all the gear works, he’s never been inside a fire. Until now.
It’s out of control, all hands on deck. The Chief is there, manning the hose, and Aiden, the other volunteer, is helping him.
Raif is geared up, tank and mask on. Ash has already disappeared inside the building along with Ben and Lucas.
But they haven’t come back out, and the Chief can’t get them on the radio.
It’s burning hot, Raif can see that with his eyes.
They were told two workers were inside the warehouse when it went up, and the three firefighters had gone in to secure them.
Now, though, it’s been five minutes, and the fire is only getting worse.
“You ready, Henderson?”
The Chief yells over the sound of the blaze.
“Yes, sir.”
The Chief looks at the fire, then back to Raif. It’s clear he’s thinking.
“You need to keep your head on straight. We have three of our own in there, plus two civilians. You get out who you can, and be safe. I don’t have anyone else I can send in.”
It’s true, the Chief can’t go into the fire, doesn’t even have his full gear with him, as they didn’t expect it to be like this. And Aiden looks like he’s shitting bricks right now. Raif doubts the man would go in even if the Chief told him to. It’s up to Raif, it’s all on his shoulders.
He takes a deep breath and pulls his mask on. He’s got about thirty minutes of air in his tank, a little longer if he can control his breathing. There’s nothing else to do, so he picks up his ax and goes through the warehouse bay door.
Inside is chaos, fire everywhere. It looks like it was a storage facility of some kind, but almost every box and pallet is on fire, including the walls and roof.
It’s going to come down soon, he’d guess.
As he makes his way in further, he can feel the heat penetrating his suit.
The roof is high enough that most of the smoke is overhead, but even with that, his line of sight isn’t clear.
Flames lick everything, and there’s no clear path.
He hacks his way through with his ax and uses his bear strength to move heavy boxes. He can hear the Chief on his radio till he can’t, then it’s only the roar of the fire. Something cracks overhead; the roof is failing.
The warehouse is huge. And now it’s been over seven minutes since the rest of the crew went in, and they could be anywhere inside the vast space.
He moves forward in a straight line as much as he can.
There’s no point in trying to scent for Ash, the smell of burning and smoke is too strong, especially with his mask on.
Up ahead, he sees a flash of yellow and practically runs forward.
It’s Ben, trapped under a box that’s thankfully not on fire.
He moves the box, picks up the large man, and throws him over his shoulder.
He doesn’t even know if Ben’s alive at this point.
It takes him almost two minutes to get back outside, where all he does is dump Ben on the ground and turn to go back into the fire.
He can hear the Chief yelling, but he doesn’t have time for that now.
Lucas is still in there, plus two civilians and Ash.
He can’t focus on just one person right now, knows that if he thinks about the fact that his mate is in this horrendous fire, then he will shift and tear the place apart.
He chooses left this time, thinking maybe they would split up to try and rescue the workers trapped inside.
He moves through the warehouse, laser-focused.
It had been hard to spot Ben, just a small bit of yellow before flames moved over his line of sight.
It would be very easy to miss another person, especially the workers, as he has no idea what they were wearing or what they look like.
Another three minutes going to the left, and hacking his way forward till he sees the wall in front of him.
The flames are huge, licking up the whole side of the building here, and he stops, unsure where to go from here.
It’s when he moves forward, pushing a huge crate off to the side, that he sees Lucas.
He’s trapped, standing in a small opening with flames all around him.
The boxes were probably too heavy to move, and it looks like he’s without his ax.
Even through his helmet, Raif can see the relief on Lucas’ face.
Raif motions him forward, grabs his arm, and pulls him along. Lucas is smart and stays close to Raif’s back, Raif continuously checking to make sure that Lucas hasn’t been lost in the fire again.
When they finally make it outside, Lucas rips off his helmet and bends over, coughing.
“Where is she?”
Raif bends down to get Lucas’ attention.
When there’s no answer, Raif grabs him by the shoulders and hauls Lucas up.
“Where is she?” he yells in Lucas’ face.
Even outside from the sidelines, Raif can feel the fire has gotten hotter. Accelerant. It has to be. A fire like this, so totally out of control. It has to be an accelerant that was used.
“I don’t know, we got separated. Raif, you’ve got to get her.”
“The workers?” Raif shakes Lucas when he hasn’t answered. “Lucas, what about the workers?”
Lucas shakes his head no and can’t seem to stop coughing. Raif turns and runs into the building.
He’s gone straight, and he’s gone left and knows he’s been extremely lucky that he’s found two of the people inside.
Now he goes right. He moves as quickly as he can.
There’s another loud crack, and when he looks to the left, he can see that the roof there has collapsed.
The water from the hose is doing nothing to dampen the flames.
He uses all his strength and speed, doesn’t care if he shifts partway.
He needs to find his mate. His blood pounds in his ears, and he realizes it’s because his tank is getting low, with only another two minutes before it’s out completely.
As a bear shifter, he can survive a lot of things, even severe burns.
But oxygen is something he needs, and with a fire like this, there’s not a lot of it in the air.
If his tank is low, that means that Ash might very well be out of oxygen by now. She’s not dead, she can’t be.
The direction he went turns out to be fruitless, there’s no one there.
Now he has to decide to go back the way he came or choose a different direction.
He goes left, making his way back towards the middle of the warehouse.
The smoke is getting thicker, making it harder to see.
He crouches, moves quickly, and uses his ax to move things too hot for him to touch.
He’s getting warm in his suit, too warm for a human to handle. Too hot for Ash.
When he goes to take a breath, he finds he can't, his oxygen is gone. He reaches up, disconnects the apparatus from his face, and keeps going. It’s hard to breathe, no doubt about it.
It slows him down; his fast pace is gone.
Now he’s just trying to survive long enough to get to his mate.
He has to at least bring her body out, and has to give her parents something to bury.
The tears well up and almost evaporate instantly with the heat of the room. He has to find her, has to. They didn’t have enough time together; he should have told her she was his mate. He should have found her sooner in life, so they could have been together, they could have had years together.
He feels his arm burning and looks and sees the material of his suit has melted away, exposing his skin. It hurts like nothing else he’s ever experienced. But he keeps going. He will give his last breath to find her, if only to see her again one last time.
His eyes burn, from the smoke, from the heat. He wonders if human eyes would even be able to see at this point or if they would have been blinded.
There’s an area up ahead with less fire, but it’s closed in by a wall of crates. He climbs up the stack and vaults himself over, he doesn’t have time to move them one by one.
She’s there, lying on the concrete. She could be sleeping except for the strange angle of her arm. Like she collapsed right where she was standing, like she ran out of air.
He moves lightning fast and picks her up.
He sees the flames encroaching on the boxes surrounding her and kicks a wall of them.
They tumble down, and there’s an opening big enough for him to fit them through.
He carries her bridal style, close to his chest. He can’t tell if she's breathing.
He just knows he needs to get both of them out.
He runs, as much as one can run in a burning, collapsing building. Using his powerful legs and bear strength to kick crates and boxes out of his way. He can only see the front of the warehouse, as that’s where a small opening of flames is. All the rest of the walls are engulfed in flames.
He’s there, going outside. His legs collapse with her in his arms, him falling to his knees hard. He stands, needing to move her further away from the flames.
The paramedics are there, and he sets her on a gurney, ripping her mask off to see if she’s breathing. Then, he collapses.