"We have a Four-Alarm Fire, I repeat we have a Four-Alarm fire, twenty story apartment building on west Channing street"
the metallic voice crackles out of the loud speaker before being droned out by a piercing screech, Search and rescue member Humphrey Collins wakes up immediately to the blaring sirens rousing the other members who are still asleep
"Shit man what's going on?"
a voice called out from the chaos of the fire station
"There's an emergency on West Channing street!"
another voice replies, sprinting down the sleeping quarters to the pole leading to the engine room directly below Humphrey reaches the exit, he quickly grabs onto the pole loose enough to slide, but tight enough to hang on, upon reaching the ground he moves towards his locker sliding in his jumpsuit, putting his boots on, buttoning up his jacket, and putting his hat on, checking his gloves and sliding in them as well, reaching for the picture he keeps in his pocket he pulls it out, and smiles, gives it a kiss and tucks it back in giving it a pat, moving towards the Fire engine he climbs onto his position, the back of the truck, grasping the handles tightly he calls out
"Hey let's go!"
the truck starts with a jerk then smooth's out to an even pace eventually reaching a breakneck speed, Humphrey is glad for those handles, or he would have been a goner a while ago, screeching to a stop, the truck about fishtails in the parking lot of the Burning building, jumping off the back Humphrey runs to the firemen who have already made it there, reaching their truck he calls out
"hey! What's the situation?"
the door slides open and the fire chief steps out
"We got a Four-Alarm fire going on, there area still some survivors left in the building, your search an rescue, get you team and get in there!"
he finished the last part with a point to my truck, my teammates already attaching the hose to a fire hydrant near the flames, running back there the job had been done and the actual firefighters are already making their way to the entrance extinguishing any fire in their path, by this time more fire engines arrive and more crew are jumping out and attaching their hose on any fire hydrants nearby, including their cars, upon reaching his engine Humphrey rally's up the search and rescue team
"Listen up guys!"
he starts
"we got twenty stories of rooms to clear, there are survivors, once the hose bearers clear the way we'll go in and look for them, am I making myself clear?"
upon saying that he is rewarded replies of yes and uh huh
"okay, great"
he says looking over his shoulder to check the progress of the other teams
"So suit up and get ready, because we're going in soon"
upon saying that he slides his helmet on and reaches into the fire engine to grab his prodding stick, grabbing his prodding stick he turns to see his men all ready and nods his head in approval
"come men we're going in!"
he hollers moving towards the team up ahead working on clearing an entrance for them following the hose them meet up with the other firefighters, Humphrey moves up to talk to the leader
"Hey buddy"
the man turns his head towards him
"Yeah?"
"how long till we can go in?"
"Just, about, NOW!"
he grunts shutting the hose of allowing them to enter without getting soaked
"thanks"
Humphrey says and then motions for his men to continue in, entering the building with minimal cracks and snaps from the charred wood they immediately began fanning out looking for survivors of the first floor, none yet flipping over furniture and other objects with their prodding sticks they call the hose team in, they enter with loud crunches signaling their arrival
"alright, we need you to head onto the second floor while we move up to the third"
Humphrey tells , they just nod, moving up the damage stairs one of the steps breaks causing Tom Brigates to tumble
"you okay?"
they all question, he gets up brushing the ash and soot off he gives them a thumbs up
"well what are you doing down there?"
Humphrey questions
"get your ass up here!"
quickly complying he makes it up the steps this time stepping over the weak spot, making it to the second floor they immediately head for the third calling out for survivors
"Anybody here?"
stepping over flames and rubble they move up
"If your up here come to the sound of our voices!"
using their prodding sticks to make sure the flour is strong, they deem it fit for the hose crew to come up and extinguish the fire, moving towards the steps to the third floor the heat seemed to become more and more intense, reading his men Humphrey says
"all right guys, this is when the fun starts, be in your toes"
reaching for the door handle he quickly turns it ad flings it open, the flames spew out scorching anything it touches causing the men to jump back
"shit"
one them says, after the initial flames dies down a bit they enter the charred room, Humphrey stumbling over something he picks himself back up, taking a look at the cause of his fall he realizes its and burnt to a charred corpse, grabbing his radio he calls in
"Uh chief?"
after a few seconds a reply comes through
"yeah?"
"well we found one of the survivors"
"Great, what's his condition?"
"Dead"
the line is met by static
"….you sure?"
his gaze trails down to the black figure
"yes"
"just continue the mission"
"alright, over and out"
he stands up
"alright you heard the man. Lets continue the mission!"
no sooner than he said it and loud beeping filled the air, looking down quickly he realized that that was if motionsenser
"Shit the ceilings collapsing!"
he managed to scream before diving into the room leading to flour four, while the rest of his men dove down the stairs into the second floor, a loud splintering sound was heard followed by the noise of crumbling brick and then *CRACK!* the whole ceiling gave out pilling its rubble on the stairway below him
"shit"
he mumbled
"guess there is only one way to go now….."
he said looking at the stair way in front of him
"…..up"
reaching for the railing he began to pull himself up and onto the fifth floor from which he heard crying
"is anybody up here?"
he cooed, upon saying that he peaks his head around the corner of the wall only to see a little girl slumped over crying, moving silently he walks towards the girl until he's close enough to touch her
"are you okay?"
he asks, she looks up to him and shakes her head
"no…"
she starts, looking around he sees an window
"come with me, I can get you out of here"
he reaches for her hand, and she takes it, but before they could move towards the window the all to familiar sound of weak wood begging to collapse makes an eerie appearance
"don't move "
he whispers and the girl stands perfectly still
"on the count of three you're going to run for that window, okay?"
she nods her head
"one…"
he looks around
"…two…"
he grabs her under the armpits
"..THREE!"
he screams throwing the little girl towards the window before the floor gives out, once she leaves his hand a quick rumble and he's gone he is smashing through floors until he hits the basement, lying there hurt and in pain, his legs are pinned down under piles of rubble, even of they weren't they'd probably still be broken, looking up he can see the girl up five floors from him and he yells
"GO TO THE WINDOW!"
the yell took away the last of his strength, he slumps down, just then he hears a crackle followed by
"Humphrey you okay?"
he reaches for the radio
"no, I'm not, I'm pretty bad"
followed by static
"you hold on man, we're coming for you!"
"NO!"
he yelled in the mic
"get the girl first"
"the girl?..."
the chief questions
"yeah, 5th floor she's looking out the window"
he set the radio down, sitting up he tried to wiggle free from the debris's grasp, but alas no luck, no matter how hard he tried, the rubble was to heavy
"Shit, Humphrey, you still there?"
the radio called out, he quickly reached for it and brought it to his face
"yeah, im still here, what?"
"aw man this is bad"
"what?"
"Well…"
he started
"you see, we don't have enough time for the both of you"
those words caught his breath
"what do you mean not enough time?"
"well, to state it bluntly it's you or the girl"
he dropped the radio
"…shit…."
he mumbled
"Humphrey you still there?"
he sat there silently
"Humphrey?
" after a few moments of silence he grabbed the radio
"Get the girl!"
the radio was silent
"what?"
his temper flared
"GET THE GIRL!"
the radio crackled
"you sure?"
tears brimmed his eyes
"…yes…"
he closed his eyes and went for his breast pocket, slowly unclasping the clip he grabbed the picture he keeps in there, bringing the picture close to his face he radioed one more time
"Chief?"
"yeah?"
"well, can you tell Kate, that I love her, and that I'm sorry we couldn't get married, also tell her that she should forget about me and go for someone else"
the tears finally left his eyes, dripping slowly across his cheeks, dropping towards he ground burning up with a sizzle, looking at the picture and smiling he could remember that day as if it were yesterday.
Two Years ago
Humphrey was driving along the highway, it was an electrical storm and he was coming back from a call when he reached a bend in the road he saw a car on its side in the ditch, screeching his truck to a stop he turned his head lights on high, and hopped out making his way towards the smoking car he looked for any signs of life, not seeing any he called out
"Anybody in hear?"
he was met by a grunt, quickly moving towards the driver's side of the car, peeking through the shattered window he saw a golden wolf crumpled up, blood oozing out of a cut on her forehead, reacting quickly he open the crumpled door with a tug, creaking open slowly the woman tumbled out, getting on his knees he took off his shirt wrapping it around her head, after tightening the makeshift bandage he picked her up and headed for her truck, setting her in the passenger side, he called 911
"911, what's your emergency?"
looking at the girl real quick he replied
"On highway 89, there's been an accident a woman looks like to have lost control of her vehicle and skidded of the road, she suffered minor injuries but I'm taking her to the hospital now"
"alright we have sent a team over now"
closing his phone he started the car up and drove to the direction of the hospital occasionally looking over to the woman to see if she has woken up, upon reaching the hospital, he turned into the ER section stopping the car in an Handicap space he jumped out and ran to the other side carefully picking up the woman, and running towards the entrance, upon seeing the woman slumped in the man's arm the ER staff quickly brought out a stretcher and wheeled her away in the operating room, leaving the man standing worried in the waiting room, after a few hours the nurse entered the waiting room only to see the man pacing
"Humphrey?"
she called out, looking up from his trance he quickly made his way over to her asking
"is she okay?"
motioning for him to follow her, after turning a few corners he entered the patients room, opening the door the nurse walked in and soon followed Humphrey
"Kate Winslow?"
her head shot up
"yeah?"
stepping out of the way so Humphrey was visible she said
"this is the man that saved you"
her eyes went wide, Humphrey realized he still in his firefighting drab, and that he hadn't had a shirt on, just an unbuttoned jacket
"sorry"
he mumbled and then closed his jacket, the nurse smiled
"I'll leave you two to talk"
and with that she left, looking around the room Humphrey took a seat
"uh, Hi I'm Humphrey Collins nice to meet you"
he stuck out a hand
"well, as you heard I'm kate, its nice to meet you too"
she sorta giggled and took his hand, after a quick pump he let go
"soo… why did you help me "
he smirked
"what did you think I would just leave a person in need slowly bleeding out at the side of the road?"
it as her turn to smile
"so, what's up with that?"
she questioned pointing towards him
"what? You mean what I'm wearing?"
she nodded
"well, I just came back from a call and was driving home and I saw your car"
standing up she walked towards the drawer and pulled something out, it was his shirt
"this yours?"
nodding his head she threw the shirt at him, catching it he unbuttoned his jacket, let it slide to the ground and then slipping into the shirt, all with her watching him, him turning red he asked
"um, do you need anything"
she blushed
"no, no I'm fine"
after an awkward silence he asks
"I know this may sound blunt but, where were you going?"
sitting down across from him she answered
"I was coming home from collage"
he raised his eyebrows
" what are you studying?"
he questioned
"Oh, I'm studying medicine"
he stood up
"were you drinking?"
her face had a surprise look on it
"NO, I'm only twenty"
he sat down and rubbed the back of his head
"oh, sorry you see most of these things happen when people drink, you know"
"Why, did you know from experience?"
she jokes
"no, I might be twenty two, but I don't drink, bad things happen when people drink "
after a silence she hops up
"we'll the nurse said I'm free to go, and I thought you might want to go do something with me?"
she says the last part fast, he smiles
"what, like a date?"
she blushes
"no, well maybe, yeah"
he stands up and takes out his keys
"well, I'm driving"
she smiles and the two walk out the door.
He smiles at the memory
"Humphrey the building is collapsing, but we got the girl!"
he ignores the frantic voices instead he focuses on the picture, it was simple picture of him and her hugging each other, he's ignoring the flaming boards falling from the ceiling, or how smoke is filling the room, All he focuses on is: The Picture.
i watched ladder 49 the other day which gave me this idea, also after done typing this i thought, you know i got an idea of how i could continue this, if you want, so here are the ideas.
Idea 1: Just more flashbacks of his life before he dies
Idea 2: He survives, but its not the way you think he would, it becomes very scifi like.
hit me up with a reveiw say no, or yes, and state which one, good night!.