Against the Flames Part I

"Hold on! We're coming for ya!" Frank Jackson screamed. He could hear whoever it was on the other side of the door screaming. It sounded like a young woman. From the sound of her voice, Frank guessed she was somewhere between twenty and twenty-five years old. "Hold on ma'am! Just hold on!" Frank turned around and didn't see anything but smoke behind him. Frank put his shoulder down and prepared to ram the door. He threw himself against the door and it shattered apart. 1

"HELP ME PLEASE!" The young woman screamed. 2

"Please hold on ma'am, try not to panic! I'm comin!" Frank yelled back. He fought threw the smoke trying to find the woman by following her screams. He finally found the woman stuck in the corner of the room. Frank could tell that she was running short of air. Frank took of his mask and placed it on the woman's face. "Here!" he screamed. "Wear this! It'll help you breathe!"3

Frank picked up the woman and started to make for the door. Just then the roof collapsed in a huge ball of fire. Frank fell back with the woman still in his hands. He started coughing and realized that he had given his mask to the woman. 4

"Frank! Frank! Where are you?!" someone screamed.5

Frank recognized the call of his friend Howie. "Howie! I'm in here!"6

He saw the figure of his good friend in the doorway. Howie rushed over to Frank and the woman. He maneuvered his way around the fire. "Dude, let's get the hell outta here huh?" Howie said. 7

"Good idea." Frank responded. 8

Howie grabbed the woman and Frank and got them up. They rushed out of the room just in time for the rest of the room to go up in flames. 9

They ran out of the building and gave the woman to the paramedics. The ambulance ran off before Frank could even tell if they had the woman out of his arms. 10

Frank turned around to where Howie was staring at the building. Frank removed his helmet. "This was a bad one Howie. A real bad one." Frank said. 11

Without looking over to where Frank was Howie responded: "Yes it was. We can't save the building, but at least we got everyone out."12

Frank looked back up to the building. It was completely engulfed in flames. Luckily, there were only two people in the house. A brother and sister. The brother got out before the fire spread, and thought his sister was right behind him. By the time the fire department arrived, the place was burning quickly, and the girl was still up there. According the her brother, their parents and younger sister were out Christmas shopping.13

Howie finally looked away from the building and toward Frank. "So, are you not gonna tell Christine about this one?" Howie had a little grin on his face as he delivered the question.14

Frank just looked at his with a blank expression. "Probably Howie. I mean, you know how she gets. She hates that I'm even a firefighter. I don't need to worry her and Claire by giving them details about her husband almost kicking the bucket." Frank looked back up at the building. 15

"Well man, let's hope that Christine decided to put Claire to bed and read her a story instead of catching the evening news." Howie said.16

"What do you mean?" Frank asked.17

Howie motioned over to his left. Frank glanced over and saw the news team for Channel 10 with their cameras.18

Frank sighed. "As if this night wasn't long enough."19