“Harp!” Jax’s voice reaches my dimming consciousness.
He’s standing over me. There’s blood trickling down his forehead.
“Can you move?”
I lift one foot, then the other. All sorts of pain shoots through my body. “Yeah. But I think my ribs are broken.”
“Come on. We gotta move.”
I get up and immediately feel queasy.
Jax runs over to Joey who’s lying on his side. The lieutenant is pulling pieces of debris off him. I look around. Dennis is sitting up, his back against a wall. I go to him. “You okay?”
“I think so. Here, give me a hand.”
As I help Dennis to his feet, I look around.
We’re in a room that’s unlike the others. For one, it has a hardwood floor. Seems to have been used for storage. Empty kegs line the walls. There are chairs scattered around. It looks like no one’s been in here for a while. Everything’s covered in dust.
I see the probie struggling to get Manny to his feet.
In Iraq, I’ve seen things I’ll never forget. And when I came back and started this firefighting gig, I got a bunch of new images to add to my collection of nightmare fuel. And here’s yet another one. Evan’s three fingers, stuck to the wall, looking like the rest of him was on the other side, somehow reaching through.
We make for the nearest door. The room’s getting hot. Flames from the hall above us are reaching in, lapping at the edges of the door. Just as Jax is about to pass through the doorway I hear a loud bang. We’re all on the floor again, pushed back by a wall of fire.
In spite of the unbearable heat filling the room, I feel an icy fear drench me from head to foot.
We ain’t getting out of here. This is it. Has Evan won?
I desperately look around. A small crack in the wood floor catches my eye.
I run over to it, and I can tell right away there’s a cellar below us. Without thinking, I grab a chair and start bashing.
I take turns whacking the cracked floor with the cheap metal office chair and stomping on it with my boots. Both actions hurt like hell, but I don’t give a damn.
I want to live and see Kailee grow up. I want to kiss Penelope a thousand more times. No, a million more.
The guys join me. Everyone’s got chairs. Everyone’s bashing. After a minute of this, when the air’s so hot I’d bet anything that the whole room will ignite within the next thirty seconds in a giant flashover, Joey lifts his chair high into the air and brings it down with tremendous force.
We fall again.
“Harp!” Jax says.
I turn my head. And there’s the pain. A whole new batch of it. Jax has his helmet light switched on and points his finger to a cellar door.
I turn my helmet light on too and we find the other guys. Everyone’s still in one piece.
Wait. Where’s the probie? I look around, frantically.
There. Laid out by some boxes, unconscious.
We go over to him and pick him up. Then, as a unit, we hobble over to the door.
Joey and Dennis undo the hatch and push. Daylight floods in. We’re safe.
As soon as I’m outside, next to a dumpster behind the building, I collapse, exhausted.
“Come on, Harp, don’t fall asleep on me.” It’s Marcus’s smooth voice.
