“Yeah, whatever.” I wave off the threat I assumed was about to spill from his lips. “You’ve all been skirting around something for weeks now and I want to know what the fuck is up.” I work to control my anger.
“I—” He stops when footsteps can be heard coming down the stairs. “We’ll talk about it later.”
I’m ready to tell him later isn’t good enough when the alarm sounds for an incoming call.
“Rescue Four, two young men trapped on the scaffolding of a building. Address …” the operator’s voice sounds throughout the entire station on the speakers.
Whatever I was about to say to Sean is forgotten in an instant as I turn off the stove and race behind him toward the garage. I easily step into my turnout gear, pulling the suspenders over my shoulders, and grab my jacket but opt not to throw it on at this time.
I head straight for the driver’s seat since I’m driving that shift. Sean hops into the passenger seat since he’s the highest ranking member on the squad for the night. Don and Carter get in the back of the rig. Once I do a quick head count to make sure we’re all in, I look over at Sean who gives me a quick nod, granting me the okay to pull out. I raise my hand and pull on the wire that is attached to the horn, alerting all surrounding vehicles and personnel that we’re on the move.
I make a right out of the station, checking the GPS locations at the front of the steering wheel that shows me we are about eight minutes out from the location.
“Dispatch says two young men, early twenties, were hanging out on a scaffold and now it’s hanging from one side.”
“What the fuck were they doing out there in the first place?” Don growls, angrily.
“You can ask them when we get there,” Sean retorts.
“Emanuel, you’re going to be strapped into a harness just in case we need it, and Carter is going to be the point man on the ladder …” Sean continues to call out directions.
I take it all in, while still navigating the rig around some tight corners, finally bringing us to our final destination.
“Shit!” everyone in the truck says simultaneously when we look up and see two pairs of arms flailing for help about fifteen stories off the ground.
“Help! Help!” Their yells get louder once they notice the fire truck pull up. The only problem with that, is with their increased volumes comes more exaggerated flailing and body movement, causing the scaffolding to sway even more.
“Let’s get this done!” Sean yells.
Everyone begins moving in their respective positions. Stepping into my harness, I silently say a prayer that I won’t have to be delivering any bad news tonight.
The initial plan was to try to get inside the building to head up to the fifteenth floor, open a window, and pull the boys inside, but by looking up at the building, I know that plan is a wash. There’s no way we’ll have time to wait for a building manager to make it down here to unlock it and let us in. We have to get them from the outside.
“Emanuel, you’re gonna have to go up on the ladder,” Sean instructs.
I was already climbing to the top of the rig to turn the ladder on.
“Your harness on correctly?” Don questions.
“Yeah.”
“You sure?”
I give him a look. “I’ve been tying harnesses for a decade. I know what the fuck I’m doing.”
He frowns but doesn’t say anything.
Right now isn’t the time to question him on it either. I start to hear the sound of the ladder being raised but that’s followed by another loud, crashing sound.
All of us look up to find that another piece of the scaffolding has fallen off, crashing to the sidewalk only a few feet from the rig.
“Shit! Carter, get that ladder up there faster!” Sean orders.
We all know Carter is moving as quickly as he can, but right now yelling is about the only thing we can do.
I move to the bottom of the ladder and start to climb even though it hasn’t reached its full height yet. I hear footsteps behind me and I can tell by the sound that it’s Don bringing up the rear.
When the ladder finally reaches its full length and is safely resting against the side of the building, I run up the steps as quickly as possible to reach the two young men.
