Home to hold on to - alternative version

Part 1

Robert rushed to the doorway as Warren and Bishop carried the old lady away. He heard Warren shouting to get Andy out the apartment, the massive creak signalling the floor was finally giving way.

"Andy!" He heard himself shout, but he was unsure anyone else would have heard it with the large groaning and creaking that was taking place as the floor simply disappeared before his eyes. He held on to the door frame and felt sick at the vast hole that had now appeared. A hole where the floor and its contents had once stood. Where Andy, who he and Maya had sent in there against her will had also been. The mess and the dust and the debris were huge, he couldn't get a clear look from there.

"Mayday, mayday, we have a Firefighter down, I repeat a Firefighter down, all personnel report to the ground floor immediately."

"Captain! Where is she?" Maya stuttered grabbing her captains arm as he tried to rush past her.

"She's under the pile of rubble down there somewhere and we need to go get her out. Now Bishop. Move."

Without thinking Maya followed her Captains orders and joined the other Firefighters that were rushing to get to the ground floor.

There was pandemonium on arrival downstairs. The rest of station 19 were already trying to find Andy, grabbing rubble and objects from the entrance to what was once the downstairs apartment and throwing it out in to the corridor, trying to make some space so they could enter. Shouts of "Andy" and "Herrera" filled the air as they desperately tried to make contact.

"People. Be careful." Robert commanded, "We don't know where Herrera is in there, tread carefully, go slowly, yes it may take longer but we don't want to injure her any more than she already is. And call out for her one at a time and then listen, we need to be quiet to see if we hear her. When we're near her we will hear her pass alarm, so listen out. Also take care we don't know how structurally sound this building is, so stay alert. Now go, go, go, let's find her."

They didn't need any more words of encouragement, so they set to it. The painstakingly slow task of removing everything out of the apartment. They set up 2 chains on either side of the door. Robert at the front of one moving items and passing them back to Montgomery who then passed it to Hughes. Maya was at the front of the other, passing to Warren and then to Miller. And as each item was passed it meant they could inch their way that much more in to the apartment.

An hour passed which felt like much more to the station 19 members, each time they called out and got no reply their hearts sunk that little more. Robert could literally see their heads dropping as time went on as they all knew, the longer it took the more chance that Andy was seriously injured or even worse. And in the back of his mind and Maya's was the fact they had made her go in when she had literally said it wasn't safe and no one should go in.

And suddenly when Robert himself had started to give up hope he heard it, the unmistakable sound of a pass alarm. An alarm that signalled a Firefighter was down and not moving. But it also signalled their location which meant they could help.

"Quiet!" Robert shouted, causing everyone to still straight away. "Listen. I can hear her pass alarm."

And there it was, Maya was first to pinpoint the location and she was off climbing the rubble heading to where the sound was coming from listening to it getting louder as she got nearer her best friend. And then they were off again, moving items and rubble, not caring that it scratched their skin and bruised their arms, Andy was close now and they were determined to get her out.

Little by little the alarm got louder and then Robert saw something which wasn't rubble or part of the apartment. It was Andy's turnout. Which part he wasn't sure yet, but she was here. They were going to get her out.

"Here guys, she's here. Let's go carefully, but quickly. I have her turnout here, we need to get her face free, we need to get this weight off her chest. Keep moving."

One by one they gently removed the things that were burying their friend and little by little a bit more of Andy was revealed to them. And she was still, so very still and so very quiet.

"Andy babe," Maya spoke, keeping up a commentary of everything that they were doing, "Keep breathing for me, you're doing amazing. We'll have you free in a minute. Don't give up on us. Andy say something if you can hear me. We need to know you're okay."

And then her face was free, Robert and Maya either side of her delicately removing the final pieces of rubble from around her head. Andy's eyes were closed. Her face deathly pale amongst a layer of dust and grime. Blood trickled steadily from her nose, her mouth and down the side of her face from a cut somewhere hidden by her hair. She made no attempt to open her eyes. She made no attempt to move. Maya looked at Robert.

"Is she... is she? I can't."

Robert understood, he knew Maya didn't want to be the one to check if her best friend had a pulse. With shaking hands he laid his own 2 fingers on Andy's neck at her pulse point and waited. She felt so cold. It took a moment but then he felt it. Weak and slow but it was there.

"Okay people, she has a pulse, not a great one but it's there. Let's finish getting this off her so we can get her out of here. Oxygen, someone pass me the oxygen now!"

It was seamless, station 19 were good at their job, they were even better when the life of one of their own hung in the balance. Oxygen was on and then in minutes she was completely free.
Maya felt tears stinging her eyes as she saw her best friend before her. Her left leg was bent at an angle that wasn't natural, and her arm lay twisted underneath her own body. Andy was in trouble. This wasn't something she was going to walk away from unscathed.

"Okay, let's get her on the board. Carefully, we don't know what is broken but we know things are. So we need to go carefully, but we can't hang around, she could have internal bleeding. Once we start we keep moving till she's outside in the aid car on the way to hospital care."

The team all nodded in agreement with Robert and crowded around Andy, each of them taking a firm but gentle hold on a part of her body so they could lift her to the back board. Robert held her neck, he knew it was vital they kept that still, she could have broken bones in her neck and back.

"After three we lift and move her to the board, 1, 2, 3."

Andy groaned in a way that hurt her friends. She was obviously conscious enough on some level to feel pain. She gave a moan again as she was placed gently on to the board and strapped in.

"It's okay Andy," Robert spoke, his hands still keeping her neck and head still, her head looking so tiny held between his hands, "We've got you, we'll give you something for the pain in a minute. You're going to be okay, just hold on."

Andy didn't make anymore noise as she was carried and transferred to first the gurney and then the aid car but somewhere along the short distance with her good hand she had gripped on to Roberts hand and still held it now in the aid car.

"You coming with us then captain?" Maya asked as she attached various monitors to her unresponsive friend.

"Er yes, I can I guess, give you a hand if you need it."

He shouted some orders at Montgomery, with the last one being, get everyone to the hospital asap. They all needed to be there, this was their colleague and their friend and she was going to need all of their support to get through this.