“One Townsend Squ–” Corey paused, realizing what he was saying. “Shit!”
“Let’s go!” I ordered, climbing into the passenger side of the truck without thinking about it.
Eric was behind the wheel and in no time we were pulling out of the garage.
“You know the layout of the building better than anyone,” he yelled over to me.
I nodded, looking straight ahead, pulling the lever for the horn to sound. These fucking cars were taking their sweet ass time to get out of the way.
“Carter! Are you listening to me?”
I turned back to Eric. “What?” I growled impatiently.
“I said that maybe you’ll wanna sit this one out. Watch from the ground.”
I scowled at Eric. “Why the fuck would I do that? You just said I know this building better than anyone. That’s my fucking family in there!”
“Alright. Alright! I was just making sure. We’re going to need your total attention on this. No distractions.”
I nodded tightly. I knew Eric was just doing his job, making sure he sent the right guys where they needed to go, but there was no way in hell I was about to remain on the ground while my family’s business was in flames.
“What floor did the fire start on?” I questioned as soon as I jumped out of the truck of one of the guy’s of another squad.
“They’re saying it started on the top floor. Birthday party or something.”
A pang of nervousness hit my gut.
“We need to get up there!” I yelled to Eric.
“Reports of one, possibly two people trapped on the first floor.”
I ran to the back of the truck along with Corey and Don. We packed our gear onto our backs, along with our helmets, and started for the main entrance where employees were still running out of. Eric and Don directed employees to the nearest exits and Corey and I went to lock the elevators. The building was thirty stories high and while it was a general safety rule to never take elevators in the event of a fire in the building, people often did. The best way to prevent them from doing so was to lock the elevators. One advantage I had was that I knew this building very well and knew the precise code to punch in the keypad to lock the elevators. We didn’t have to waste time waiting for the building’s security manager.
“Stairs!” I yelled to Corey and turned to run past the elevators to make the long trek up the thirty flights. By most standards it was an arduous task, but this was the reason we trained so hard, everyday. Our gear added almost hundred pounds to our bodyweight. But carrying all that up thirty flights was nothing at this point. I just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other, until we hit the next floor level. When we did, we hit the doors, yelling out and making sure all employees had evacuated.
“Let’s go! You gotta exit the building!” Corey yelled as we reached the tenth floor, finding a young woman tucked under her desk, in shock. “Can you walk?” he asked. She nodded her head. He guided her to the stairs and instructed a passing employee to help her down. We proceeded to check out that floor and then moved up to the next. At about the twelfth floor smoke had begun filling the air, obviously having made its way through the air vents.
“Eric, if there’s someone trapped on the top floor, only escape option might be the roof,” I told Eric as we bound up the stairs already at the twenty-fifth floor.
“We’ll head up!” Eric yelled.
We finally made it to the thirtieth floor but Eric and Corey continued up to the next flight for the roof. I removed my glove to feel the handle of the door. The metal was hot, the flames obviously still ablaze on the other side. I pushed my hand back into my glove and adjusted my face mask so it was secured over my face. Bracing myself, I pulled the door open. As if I’d just opened a hot oven and stood in front of it, a gush of searingly hot air washed over me. I looked to my right and saw a wall of fire. Flames had taken over just about half of the lobby.
“Fire department!” I yelled. “Anybody in here? Call out!” I braced myself to move farther into the inferno. I kicked over chairs and pushed desks, making sure no one was there.
“Help!” I heard from behind me and I turned to see a man in a wheelchair in the corner.
“Son of a bitch!” I grunted. “Are you hurt?” I asked, checking over him.
He’d removed his shirt to cover his face and use as a filter to breath through.
“N-no. I can’t get out.”
I nodded and looked around. I knew my best bet wasn’t going to be to attempt to carry this guy down the stairs.
“Carter to Rescue Four come in!” I yelled into my intercom.
“Rescue Four,” Eric’s booming voice responded.
