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“I’m okay,” I slur.
The pain in my back and head can be dealt with afterwards. They won’t kill me, but being trapped in this smoke will kill them.
I raise my head.
We’re trapped.
“Chief! Command to Chief!” Walker’s voice breaks into my daze, snapping me to attention.
Blood trickles down my temple and into my eye, but I can’t wipe it away.
I find the mic on my suit. “I’m here.”
“Status?”
I push myself off Sophie.
She is trembling. Her cheeks are smeared with soot, but she nods at me.
The doorway that I entered through is hidden beneath smoldering debris.
I concentrate on not swaying.
I can’t collapse yet. I’ll leave that to later.
I stroke Cornbread, calming her. “Civilian is with me. I have the cat. But partial collapse. The primary exit is blocked. We ain’t getting out that way.”
“Copy. Injuries?”
“Civilian is breathing. I have taken a hit to the back of my head and back.”
“Can you self-extricate?”
I hear the strain in Walker’s voice and the things he’s not asking, until I’m out of danger. He knows that I would report if I wasn’t able to walk.
I should tell him how confused I’m feeling, and the fact that I’m seeing everything in double.
But I’ll report that to the doctors when I see them in the ambulance. I know my captain well enough to know he’ll have called the hospital.
“Negative through this entryway,” I reply. “I’ll look for another way.”
“Stay on the radio. We’re coming for you, Chief.”
“I know you are, Captain.”
Sophie is pale but she’s looking at me intently enough to make me uncomfortable. “If we don’t die, then you may just have passed the sister test.”
“You haven’t passed my test,” I growl. “Because you’re fool enough to run into a burning building for a cat.”
“And proud of it.”
“This way.” I stagger toward the back of the room, as Sophie flashes the light for me. “If we get out of here, swear to me you won’t ever do it again.”
“You’d have abandoned Cornbread?”
“I’d have sent in my crew with the right training and equipment to search for her.”
Sophie coughs into her palm. “Good point.”
