BURNED - A Chicago Fire Fanfiction

Chapter Twenty Seven

An alarm jolted me from my sleep. "Ambulance 61, Engine 51, Truck 81, apartment fire, 1400 West 46th Street," I frantically stood up and slipped my shoes on, but when I looked around, Boromir was gone.

"Boromir!" I called out.

"Zahra, let's go!" Severide called out.

"Where's Boromir?"

"Boden put him in his office, come on!" I rushed after Severide and climbed into my bunker gear. We all got into our vehicles and sped off towards the scene.

"Ready, Zahra?" Casey spoke up.

"Just tell me where you want me, Lieutenant," I nodded.

"I want you with Herrmann on this one."

"Oh come on," Herrmann whined.

"Lieutenant—" I began.

"Relax, that starts next shift," Casey reassured. "When we get there, you and Herrmann are gonna go to the roof and vent. Have you done that before?"

"In my training, yes."

"Good, so this should be easy." When we arrived in scene, everyone stared up at the building in awe. It was a single floor building that stood at least three stories high, made entirely of brick. Smoke was pouring out of the front door as people ran out, but the source of the fire was unknown.

"How old is this building?" I asked.

"Old."

"Then won't the building be higher risk at being unstable?"

"It doesn't matter, it still needs vented."

"Grab the saw, Candidate, let's go," Herrmann ordered. I rushed over to the truck and grabbed the vent saw and followed Herrmann up the roof access stairs. I looked around for a moment, my stomach in knots over being on the roof of a burning old as hell building. I was quickly yanked from my thoughts when Herrmann let out a whistle to get my attention. "Oi, get to it."

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"Vent the roof." I stared at Herrmann for a moment before he scoffed and yanked the saw from my hands, found a good spot, and began to cut away. "You know, if you're gonna act like you know everything, at least put your money where your mouth is once in a while."

"What are you talking about?"

"That shit with the kids today. You know how bad you made me look?"

"I didn't make you look any way. You didn't want to do it, I did. If you don't want to look like an asshole who hates kids, stop being an asshole who is pretending to hate kids."

"You still don't get it, so you?" Herrmann tittered. "Your entire presentation was way over the top. Forget making me look bad, you made everyone who has ever done the presentation before look bad. The teacher called while you were sleeping and said that you and your damn mutt were all the kids could talk about when they got back. You know how many times we've all gotten calls like that? None."

"So you're mad at me because you're jealous?"

"I'm not jealous of shit!" Herrmann dropped the saw and got into my face. "The others may not see it, but I do! You are trying so hard to prove yourself that you're making all of us look bad! You don't belong here in 51 and you sure as hell don't belong in the fire department!"

"Because I'm a woman, right?"

"Because you're a woman and you don't know shit! You don't know what it's like to lose someone on a call, you follow everyone around and need constant instruction, which we don't have time for!"