Slow Burn, Chapter 18/21

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Dina kept low as she raced through the corridors, breathing the fresher air near the floor.  Finding the proper path was harder now, but eventually she found her way to the office door.  Lorelei Hawkins was just as she had left her, lying forlorn in the smoke-filled room.  “Okay, Captain,” Dina whispered, “let’s get you out of here.”

Dina stooped, pulled Lorelei into a sitting position, then carefully draped her over her shoulders in a fireman’s carry.  “Like this, isn’t it?” Dina grunted as she shifted the captain into place.  “After all, you’re the expert on this kind of thing.”  She tried to avoid putting any direct pressure on the captain’s gunshot wound, but inevitably banged it a couple of times.  The unconscious woman moaned in pain, and Dina bit her lip apologetically.

As Dina carried her load back out into the hallway, it became clear how difficult it would be to carry the captain while staying low beneath the smoke.  Though Lorelei was slight of frame, more than 100 pounds of dead weight was still a lot for Dina.  And her lungs were already burning.  The captain’s limbs dangled limply as the reporter inched her way forward.

Then Dina came to a fork which seemed unfamiliar.  Which way is it?  Everything looked so different through the smoke.  She put an exploratory foot forward blindly, and promptly slipped on some sort of debris.  She fell hard, taking the captain with her.  Lorelei hit the floor with an agonized groan.

Abruptly all of Dina’s weariness and strain seemed to catch up with her.  At that moment she wanted nothing so much as to lay her head down right where she was.  A faint internal voice told her she should get up and keep going, but she wasn’t sure she could.

Meanwhile, the flames climbed higher around them.


* * *


Using the oxygen bottle and water from the kitchenette sink, the girls had managed to revive Virginia and Augusta as well; the latter was waking up Candy.  As the medic applied surgical masks to the comatose wounded, Mare spoke with Antonia and Becky from her cot.  The lieutenant’s voice was grim.

“We need to find a way out of here.  Those goons said they had the doors locked and were taking the keys with them – find out if it’s true.  Check every exit, but be quick about it.  Ford, you take the south half of the building.  Boyd, you’ve got the north; while you’re there, try to get the garage bay door open.  If that doesn’t work, grab the fireaxe from Engine 49.  We may need to cut our way out of here.”  The girls nodded and rushed off to their appointed tasks.

Mare was feeling a little dizzy; she laid her head back down on the cot.  Virginia turned toward her, concern written on her face.  “How are you feeling, lieutenant?”

Mare coughed and replied without rising again.  “I’m ok. How many more of those surgical masks have you got?”

Virginia sighed.  “Just the two.  Should help Rit and Nick breathe a little easier, at least.”

“Then get some of the dishcloths and start ripping them into masks.  Make sure everyone gets one.”  The blonde put a hand to her head.  “I swear, I’m not used to giving orders without being able to jump in and make sure they get executed.”

Virginia smiled tightly.  “You’ve got a good excuse today, lieutenant.”  She rose from her crouched position to carry out Mare’s request.

Just then Dina lurched through the doorway, looking haggard.  Lorelei was draped limply across her shoulders.  “Jesus!” Mare cried out in alarm.

Virginia quickly doubled back and helped Dina gently lay the stricken captain down on the floor.  There were no more cots available.  “What happened to her?!” the medic demanded.

“Shot in the left chest,” Dina gasped.  “Plus smoke inhalation, I’m sure.  It’s pretty thick back there.”

“God almighty,” Virginia exclaimed as she began examining the wound.

“Thanks for getting her,” Mare said to the exhausted Dina. “You doing ok?”

Dina nodded, breathing hard.

“Good.  No time to rest, though.  Ginny’s going to need to take care of the captain right now.  I need you to tear up strips of cloth, enough for everyone to be able to cover their faces.  Check the kitchen drawers, okay?”

Dina nodded again, and wearily exited.

Mare grimaced as she felt the pain of her own wound surge again.  Then she looked down anxiously at Virginia as she bent over the captain.  “Bad?”

The medic didn’t look up from her work.  “Yeah.”

Just then, Antonia came rushing in, panting.  “All the doors are shut up tight in the south half, lieutenant.  And they’re sturdy as hell.  We’re about to lose the stairs to the second floor, too.”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Mare muttered.  “Go get yourself a mask – Miss Reed’s got them in the kitchen.  I’ve got enough reasons to kill those sons of bitches twenty times over, but taking our damned SCBAs is a fine reason all by itself.

Next Becky returned.  She burst into a fit of coughing, and it took a moment before she was able to speak.  “I couldn’t budge a single door, lieutenant.  And they bashed the damned garage door controls before they left.  Looks like they used the axe for that, before taking it with them.”  She coughed again before continuing.  “But we might be able to get out through the top of the hose tower.  The ladder’s still in place.”

Mare’s heart leapt.  Could it work?

Virginia looked up from where she was staunching Lorelei’s wound.  “No way you can take her up a ladder.  Her collarbone’s broken, and some of the edges are pressed right up against her axillary artery.  Jostle her too much, it’ll slice right through.”  She turned to face Mare.  “No good for you either, lieutenant.    We try and drag you up a ladder, I guarantee you’ll tear open and bleed out in a matter of minutes.”  She said it with regretful certainty.

Mare saw that the entire crew, and Dina as well, were clustered around the doorway.  All eyes were on her.  She swallowed hard.

“Okay – sounds like the captain and I are staying here.  I want the rest of you to take these two” – she nodded toward Marguerite and Nick – “and get the hell out of here.  Get to the roof, get down again, call in some help.”

Antonia was the first to protest.  “We’re not leaving you or the captain behind.  No damn way.”

Mare’s voice was urgent.  “There’s no time to argue this.  Anyhow, we might be fine until the other battalions arrive on the scene.”

Becky piped up next.  “Either we all get out of here together, or none of us do.”

Mare was growing heated.  “Look, don’t make me pull rank at a time like –”

“Sorry, lieutenant,” Augusta interrupted.  “We’re voting you down.  With respect.”

Mare was touched and angry at the same time.  “Then what do you barrel of geniuses suggest we do?”

Augusta continued.  “The ducts?  Becky was making good time through them.”

“No can do,” said Antonia.  “Those ducts pass right over the boiler room.  We’d roast like microwave dinners.”

Candy had until now hovered silently at the edge of the group.  Now she spoke up in a diminutive voice.  “Why don’t we just fight the fucking fire?”  All eyes swiveled on her, many staring in disbelief.  “I mean, what’s what we do, right?”

“Easy for you to say,” Becky commented.  “We don’t have a tenth of the equipment we’d need…”

Mare’s keen mind rapidly reoriented around the suggestion.  She’d been tracing convoluted lines of reasoning trying to figure out a way all of them could escape.  She’d been thinking of them as she would any other victims at the scene of a blaze, whose only job was to get out of the way. Now she shook the mental Etch-a-Sketch and began to draw fresh lines.

“Ford!” she said abruptly.  “You’ve seen the fire up close.  And you know roughly the equipment we’ve got.  Do we have a chance of stopping it?”

Antonia considered quickly.  “…Maybe.  If we hop on it right now.”

“Then what are we sitting around talking for?!”  The whole room thrilled with anxious, desperate energy as the lieutenant spoke.  “Boyd, Zawisza – get some of those cotton-sheath hoses down and connect them to the internal water tanks.  Then run the lines through to the central passage.”

She turned to the dispatcher.  “Carmichael – I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before.  Get to the front desk; if they didn’t cut the phone cable, call out and get us some help.  At least two alarms.  Then get back here and help out as best you can.”

“Ginny.”  The young medic looked up.  “You and Miss Reed work on getting the wounded to the garage; pack them into Engine 49.  The fire hasn’t reached that part of the building yet – and you can seal the vents to give them some fresher air.  Also…”  Her voice lowered.  “If things start to fall apart, I want everybody to collapse back on the engine.  You won’t be able to drive though the bay door – that thing’s double reinforced steel – but when the moment comes, you find the part of the outer wall the fire has weakened the most.  Then you drive straight through it.”

“Excuse me, lieutenant,” Virginia queried,” but the wounded – does that include you?”

“Not by a long shot,” Mare replied.  “Ford, you’re with me.  Take me to the central passage.  We’re going to assess this thing.”  She took a deep breath.  “Okay – everybody know what they’re doing?”

The group nodded as one.

“Then get to it!”