BURNED - A Chicago Fire Fanfiction

Chapter Thirty Three

We arrived at the scene and froze. I-90 was absolute chaos. Multiple cars were smoking, one was flipped upside down, at least two were pouring gas onto the road, and traffic in both lanes had come to a complete standstill. Between the sirens and people shouting and horns blaring from the damage to the cars, I could barely hear myself think. One thought came instantly to mind though...what the fuck happened?

"Uh, Chief?" Casey spoke up. "We're getting backup, right?"

"I'll call it in," Boden reached for his radio. "Until then, get to work."

"Work?" I thought to myself. "Where the fuck do we even begin?"

"You heard the man," Severide called out. "Squad, on me, we're gonna get those in immediate danger out before one of those cars spark a fire."

"Everyone else, start triage," Casey instructed. "Dawson will provide everyone with START triage cards. If you can't remember what the colors mean, the cards will tell you, we can't afford to make any mistakes here. One wrong call could mean life or death. Mills, I'm gonna need you as a paramedic for this."

"You got it," Mills nodded.

"Until backup arrives, everyone will be split up into groups. Herrmann, you're with Dawson; Mouch, you're with Mills; Zahra and Otis, you're with me." Dawson quickly passed out at triage cards to everyone and we rushed onto the scene.

Our first car was a small red Acord. It was stuck behind a flatbed truck that was hauling rebar; the truck driver was off taking to two men on the side of the road. As we approached the car, the damage looked horrific but, to our surprise, the driver and his passenger was still awake and talking.

"Hey," I smiled. "I'm Zahra, I'm a paramedic. I'm here to take a look at you."

"Please, get my wife first," the man muttered, his eyes darting to the woman in the passenger's seat.

"We're gonna get you both out of here, don't worry. We're waiting on backup, so we're just gonna start triage, is that okay?"

"Yeah," the man faintly nodded.

"Brian, can you check his wife's pulse and respirations?" Brian nodded and walked around the car and began his examinations. I began checking the man's pulse as I looked him over. His left arm, stomach, and right leg were pierced with the rebar, pinning him to the seat. I don't know how fast either driver was going, but what was certain is that the truck driver slammed on his brakes.

"She's stable," Otis informed.

"Any obvious injuries?"

"No, the rebar just barely missed her leg. Ma'am are you in any pain?"

"My back," the woman nodded. "I think it's just from the force of the accident though."

"Give her a green tag." Otis nodded and carefully slipped a green tag around her neck.

"Tag?" The man asked.

"It's triage protocol," I informed. "It's how we decide what patient needs assistance first."

"Get her the highest priority. I need her to get somewhere safe."

"I'm sorry sir, but that's just not how it works. We have to take those with the most life threatening injuries first." The man weakly nodded. "Casey, pass me a yellow tag." Casey fumbled through the stack of tags and handed me a yellow. I slipped it around the man's neck and smiled. "Someone will be here to get you soon. The most important part is to stay as calm as possible and try not to move, okay?"

"Yeah...thanks." I motioned for Otis to follow Casey and me as we made our way to the next car.

"Why didn't you check his respirations?" Otis asked.