“Fire department! Anyone inside?” Cole’s voice booms through the smoke. “Call out if you can hear me!”
Nothing.
We move through what feels like a living room. I can barely make out shapes—couch, coffee table, armchair. Smoke’s getting thicker, which means we’re getting closer to the source.
“Kitchen’s ahead,” Cole says. “That’s where the smoke’s coming from. Stay low.”
We push forward. My mask filters the air, but I can still feel the heat building—fire’s close.
Then I hear it—a voice, faint and muffled.
“Help! We’re in the bedroom!”
“I’ve got a voice!” I call out. “Female, sounds like it’s coming from the back of the house!”
“Move!” Cole’s already changing direction, heading toward the hallway. “Fire department! Keep calling out!”
“Back here! Please!”
We navigate the hallway, checking each door. The first room is empty. Second—
“In here!”
Relief hits me so hard I almost stumble.
“I’ve got two victims!” I call into the radio. “Adult female and elderly female, conscious and mobile.”
Cole’s beside me immediately. “Can you walk?”
“Yes,” Rachel coughs out. “But Dorothy’s struggling.”
“I’ve got her.” Cole scoops Dorothy up in a firefighter’s carry. “Park, get Rachel out. We go now.”
I grab Rachel’s arm, pulling her toward the door. She’s coughing hard, barely staying upright, but she’s moving.
Smoke’s even thicker now. I keep one hand on the wall, the other gripping Rachel, retracing our path back toward the front entrance.
“Almost there,” I tell her. “Just keep moving.”
We burst through the front door into daylight. Fresh air hits my face when I rip off my mask.
Rachel collapses onto the lawn, coughing violently. I kneel beside her, checking her pulse, her breathing.
“Paramedics!” I call out. “We need medical here!”
Cole’s already out with Dorothy, setting her down gently. Garcia and Henderson are on us immediately with oxygen masks.
I stay with Rachel while the paramedic checks her vitals. She’s still coughing, eyes streaming, but she’s breathing.
“You’re okay,” I tell her, even though she probably can’t hear me over the chaos. “You’re out. You’re safe.”
Cole appears beside me. “Fire is contained. Kitchen origin, looks like it started near the stove area.”
“Arson?”
“Can’t tell yet. Marco will determine that.” He looks at Rachel, then at me. “You good to get back in there? We need to make sure it’s fully out.”
“Yeah. I’m good.”
