“Angela!” Eric shouts as he attempts to pull the back door open. It’s locked. And again, his key isn’t working to open it.
“We need the sledgehammer to break this lock.”
The sentence is only halfway out of Sean’s mouth before I’m running back to the front to the fire truck, pulling open the side door, and retrieving the sledgehammer.
“Move!” I yell as I run back around and stand far enough from the door to give myself room to adequately swing. The first hit to the doorknob bends it, but doesn’t fully knock it off its hinges. It’s the second swing that does the trick, instantly sending the doorknob to the ground.
The loud pang the steel doorknob makes as it hits the concrete barely registers as Sean, Eric, and I are barreling through the door. A thick blanket of smoke is there to welcome us.
I do my best not to think about what that smoke means. Though my years on this job already informs me that smoke that dark and thick is not a good sign for people who may be trapped inside.
“Angela!” Eric and Sean yell.
“Janine!” I repeat her name over and over as we run up the back staircase to the closed door of the apartment. The fire hasn’t made its way up the stairs just yet, but I can hear it pounding against the wood door, as smoke seeps into the space above and below the door.
I, along with Eric, shoulder our way through the locked door, nearly stumbling in.
“Status?” Captain Waverly demands through the radio.
“Made entry. Searching,” Sean reports back.
“Janine!” I call out, looking around and feeling with my hands.
I get quiet trying to hear for any faint sounds or cries but there’s nothing. I follow behind Eric, who knows his way around this place, and soon we’re moving down a short hallway and coming to a closed door.
“Angela!”
“Janine!”
The three of us yell simultaneously while shouldering through the door. The door splinters and then flings open. As soon as it does, I make out two bodies on the floor.
“No, no, no!” I repeat as I move closer to Janine. Stooping low, I don’t wait to try and feel for a pulse. I scoop her up into my arms and carry her out the same way I came in. I don’t pay attention to how limp she feels in my arms. I’m to busy silently begging and pleading that she be okay.
I carry Janine back out through the hallway, to the stairs, and back down the entrance we just came from, not taking a deep breath until we are outside again. Running as quickly as my legs will carry me, I take her around the front of the bar. Eric and Sean are on my heels with Angela.
I race around to the front of the building where there are already paramedics waiting. Placing Janine onto the gurney, I rip off my face mask. It’s the first time I’m able to get a good look at her. My heart squeezes in my chest as I watch her labored breathing.
“Sir, you have to move back!” one of the female paramedics insists as she struggles to put an oxygen mask over Janine’s face.
“Allende, let them help her,” I hear Captain Waverly’s voice say behind me as he attempts to pull me back.
“She can’t breathe!” I say still watching her chest rise and fall uneasily.
“We need to check for injuries,” another paramedic says.
This time, two pairs of hands are pulling me back, trying to put some distance between myself and the woman I love. I force myself to remember that these people are there to help her. To give her the medical treatment she needs. With that, I allow my body to be pulled away. However, I scrutinize every move the paramedics make.
“I’m going with her,” I state as they begin loading Janine into the ambulance.
“You can’t,” Don says, holding me back.
“Get the hell off me.” I push away from him and attempt to get into the back of the ambulance.
“Emanuel, there’s no room. You can’t fit, and the paramedics needs to do their job. Let them,” Carter insists, holding me back. “There’s an officer here who is going to take you and Eric to the hospital.”
Angrily, I move back so the paramedics can shut the doors. I rip off the air tank that is strapped to my back and toss it angrily in the back of the fire truck.
“Let’s go!” Eric yells, running to the patrol vehicle.
