Against the Flames Part IV

The fire truck finally made it to Frank's house. Frank was already crying, not wanting to know how bad the fire was, or how his family is.1

Howie was sitting behind Frank trying as hard as he could to comfort him. He seemed inconsolable at the time. 2

Frank glanced up toward the house. It was engulfed in flames. This was worse than the house he had done the day earlier. 3

The truck slowed down and didn't even get a chance to stop before Frank jumped out of the truck and ran toward his front door. 4

"Frank! Wait!" Howie yelled, knowing he would not be able to stop him. 5

Frank was running full speed toward his house. By the time he got to the door Howie was right behind him. 6

"Now wait one minute man!" Howie screamed. "You're not going in there without me!" 7

Frank looked up at Howie, tears pouring down his face. He smiled at Howie. "Thank you Howie."8

Howie just nodded as if to say "Don't thank me" and looked up toward the top of the house. 9

"Alright Howie, when I say three, we bust down the door!" Frank said without taking he eyes off the door. 10

"Whatever you say man." Howie responded11

In the background, the other firefighters were trying to get the hose hooked up. A couple of them were trying to call back Howie and Frank so they wouldn't just bust into the house. These were the kind of fires that were the most unstable. 12

Frank and Howie ignored the call of their colleagues. "Ready?!" Frank screamed. "One....Two....THREE!"13

Frank and Howie blasted through the front door like a small child gets through the wrappings on his birthday present. They both got into the house and were stunned with what they saw. The whole house was covered in the fire. It looked like nothing had been spared by the flames. 14

Frank immediately started screaming his wife and child's name. "Christine! Claire!" 15

After about a moment of Frank screaming, Howie too joined in. Howie, Frank, and his family were all almost like one big family. Howie's parents were killed in a car accident when he was seventeen. Since then, he has never dated someone more than two months, and had never had a family of his own. Howie felt that, he too, was obligated to save Frank's family. 16

Frank finally found his wife laying next to the couch with Claire in her arms. Frank, who was sobbing at this point, ran over and picked the both of them up. Frank then proceeded to run back outside. Howie quickly followed him outside.  17

Frank got outside and laid them out on the ground. He checked for a pulse. Nothing. "COULD WE GET AN AMBULANCE OUT HERE!!" Frank screamed. He started to perform CPR on his wife. 18

Howie, who was watching from a couple feet away, knew that they were gone. He walked over to Frank who was sobbing, and tried to get him to stop trying. "Frank, c'mon man. It's over, there's nothing we can do. Just-"19

"Shut the hell up! It's not over! Get out of here, if your not gonna help me!!" Frank screamed back. 20

Howie grabbed Frank by his shoulders and looked into his eyes. "There's nothing you can do Frank! There dead! I'm sorry, but there is absolutely nothing we can do!"21

Frank just looked at Howie for a moment or two, then collapsed onto Howie's shoulder, screaming and sobbing uncontrollably. Howie started to tear up and it wasn't long until he started crying himself.22