𝖳𝗁𝖾 𝖨𝗇𝗍𝖾𝗋𝖿𝖺𝖼𝖾 𝖧𝖾𝗋𝗈

𝚌𝚑𝟷𝟶("𝚍𝚎𝚋𝚞𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐")

"Help me! Please!"

Taki stared, bug-eyed and frozen despite the towering inferno raging in front of her. She finally blinked and eyed the situation. A fire truck sat at the base of the three-story building, water spraying into the flames and firefighters dispersed about the street, and another truck sat on the opposite side to use another hydrant nearby. Several firefighters hovered nearby the vehicles, some exiting the building with civilians covered in fire blankets and covering their mouths while coughing. Shouts and commands bounced between them despite the cries and concerns of the rescued people nearby. The heat was so intense that Taki already started to sweat and made her doubt to include a hoodie as part of her costume.

Taki instinctively grabbed her phone as she turned to look up at Fatgum, "I'll help with the medics-"

"And I'll talk to the chief," he said as he turned towards a truck. He looked back at her for a second, his warm smile now replaced by a hardened frown and furrowed brow. "Be careful!"

Taki nodded, already typing mindlessly in one hand, "You too!" She darted towards the nearest medical van.

Several people huddled close in groups of three or less, some bawling into their hands, others coughing into oxygen masks, and several shouting and pulling away from the med team to talk to the firefighters. The frenzy of crying, fire crackling, and firefighter shouting was deafening as Taki honed in on the closest medical professional and put a tentative hand on their shoulder. They spun around with a gasp.

"Sorry! But let me help- what do you need?"

"Are you- yes!" the guy quickly recognized her outfit and shoved two oxygen masks into her hands. Taki fumbled as he said loudly so she could hear, "We need to ration these out among the residents. Take these two to that group over there, and tell them to take turns."

"Excus-" Taki shook her head, bewildered. "Are you kidding me? Ration oxygen? That's ridiculous! Don't you have more in stock?" She waved a free hand into the open ambulance next to her.

"You would think so!" the guy half-laughed while grabbing water bottles and handing them to a now growing line of people in front of him. "But an entire apartment is on fire, so everybody had to evacuate. That's over a hundred people! We have a limited supply of masks, let alone oxygen, and nearly everybody faced high levels of smoke inhalation. We already called for more ambulances, but the firefighters are still pulling people out of the building, and the water isn't doing enough to put out the fire and-"

"Hey! Hey- ," Taki grabbed the guy's shoulders. His attention wasn't even on her; his eyes glowed from the blaze and blinked rivulets of red tears. His shoulders shuddered as Taki repeated her words, "Take a breath, it's going to be okay."

It took him a minute to refocus his breathing, but once he did he locked eyes with her and meekly said, "I'm sorry, I should be stronger than this."

"First day?" Taki asked with a smirk. The guy let out an exasperated breath and said something she couldn't hear as the building groaned, and a large supporting beam crashed to the ground. Sparks flew up and danced in the air, scaring a few residents away from the sidewalk and more into the blocked-off road. Taki glanced their way, noting a couple police officers forming a barricade to block off any bystanders from getting too close. One woman threw herself into one of them, crying and pleading but Taki could barely hear her.

"Here," Taki pulled out another phone as she finished typing up what she was working on as she ran over. It tumbled out from under her shirt, but she caught it last second as she began typing on her second phone. "Take this oxygen mask. I'll work on making a tubing splitter and more masks too, alright?"