Hey Nugget, Dad and I saw there’s a festival in town in a few weeks. We’ll be coming down. Hope your guest room is ready!
17
~
Calder
I immediately jumped to my feet when the sirens sounded.
According to my phone, it was the middle of the night; 2:34 AM to be exact. I had hoped I’d be able to sleep all the way through, but that clearly wasn’t going to happen. Even the smallest call would take at least half an hour. With the station’s recent track record, it was possible that it would take hours.
And the next shift would start fairly early in the morning.
This was why I hated being on call between shifts. That was always the time that the worst calls would come in. By the end of the last shift of the four, I’d be completely exhausted.
Which meant I’d have to sleep more. Which meant I’d see Rhea less.
Luckily, both Ash and Beck were on call with me that night, and were on the same rotation. So, they’d be just as tired as I was; though I had a feeling Ash would take advantage of that. He’d know Beck and I would use the time to sleep, and he could sneak an extra date during that time.
“Let’s go,” I said loudly, even though both of them were already up. It was a tradition, and being as superstitious as firefighters often were, I wouldn’t break it.
I slid down the pole first, and the two of them followed. By now, we were all wide awake. We needed to be to get ready fastenough. It was the kind of situation where training took over and it was all basically automatic.
We rushed to the equipment room, where a quick flash of Rhea and I together crossed my mind. I pushed that to the side. Now was the time to focus.
“I’ll be first,” Beck insisted as he grabbed his stuff, already flying into his thick pants.
“Over my dead body,” Ash answered, similarly hurrying himself into his uniform.
I shook my head, pretending that I couldn’t be bothered to be part of their petty competition. In reality, staying quiet was giving me an edge of seconds, and I knew it would end up with me winning, which I did.
“I slipped,” Beck shrugged as he finally had his helmet on his head, just after Ash. “Anyway, where’re we going?”
I expected Ash to answer with some ridiculous quip, but he was listening to his radio, which had crackled to life telling us where to go. It was about fifteen crossroads over, downtown. I didn’t recognize the address, but Ash had gone pale.
“You know the place?” I asked, but Ash only gave me a short glance.
“We need to move,” he said, rushing to the rig and getting himself in position. Beck seemed concerned for a second, but he followed shortly. I got into the driver’s seat, wondering what had Ash so out of sorts.
I got the rig out of the station and we tore down the street, sirens wailing. It would take a few minutes to get to our target, no matter how fast I went. I hoped that the fire wouldn’t spread too much in that time. All of us were already tired, and having a huge blaze on our hands was the last thing we needed.
Luckily, the roads were mostly abandoned, and I only passed one or two cars. I threw the rig around corners and broke the speed limit several times before we reached the spot.
It was on an old street, with only a convenience store still operating a few buildings down. That was a good thing; it meant there were no civilians to evacuate and nobody in imminent danger. At the same time, with the buildings here in such disrepair, it was possible that the fire would spread fast.
The one that was actually on fire seemed to be an old ice cream parlor. It wasn’t very familiar, but I’d probably gone there a few times when I was much younger. It had clearly been closed for years now, which meant that it wouldn’t be the biggest loss.
I leapt down from the rig alongside Ash and Beck.
“Nothing better than a midnight ice cream, hey Ash?” Beck called out as he rushed toward the hoses.
Ash glared back at him as if he’d just insulted his mother. Beck didn’t notice, given that he was too busy attaching the end of the hose to the truck. Quietly, Ash started unrolling it, so fast that I was sure he’d make a new personal record.
He handed the end to me and I got into position, analyzing the size, origin, and locations of the fire. It was definitely bigger than the kiosk fire, and had already ravaged most of the parlor’s structure. We’d have to work fast to get it under control so that it didn’t touch the surrounding buildings. But with the amount of debris around it, that was a tall order.
“Second hose,” I yelled at Ash and Beck. “Get the perimeter tight.”
They moved fast. Beck made another joke that I didn’t hear. Ash didn’t react at all this time. He seemed furious aboutsomething,but I had no idea what that could be. Ash didn’texactly open up about his feelings very often, and I was sure he wouldn’t this time, either.
