come back to me

keep fighting

Mayas POV

We're tossed some clothing from the wildlands fire fighters, a yellow shirt and green pants. We get changed quickly. I walk over to their captain. "Bishop, Seattle St 19" I say, reaching my hand out. He shakes it, "Carmen" she says. "We need you at spike camp 3, 3 wildlands will be with you guys out there. It's set up already, we'll have a chopper take you out there. Questions?" He says, "no sir" I reply.

I walk back to 19, telling them all what he told me. We strap on helmets and glasses, and get on the chopper. When we land, we help the wildlanders finish small set ups. I grab my phone, and attempt to send a text to Carina with the limited service that's reaching out here.

I'm safe. Deep in the woods with 19, might not have reception. I love you.

I put my phone in my tent, before meeting with the wildlanders to see what they need us to do.

3 days later

It's been the longest 3 days of my life. My whole body is aching, my lungs are tight. I'm about to fall asleep, for my average 4 hours a night. Vic barges in, "captain, Herrera isn't answering." She says. Normally I'd be in charge of all my firefighters and wouldn't rest until they were back, but the wildlanders took control, and one is out with Andy right now.

I stand up, getting dressed quickly, before walking out of the tent. "Lt. Michaels, have you heard from your teammate?" I ask him, he shakes his head. "Last I knew they were on there way back." He responds, waking up as well. "When was that?" I ask. "2 hours ago" he replies.

"What do we do?" I ask, my chest feeling tighter and tighter. "As long as my teammate has been marking her trail, we can follow her path and conduct a search and rescue." He says, lacing up his boots. I nod, grabbing my heavy bag and throwing it over my shoulders.

We head back into the woods, my body wanting me to stop with every step, but I can't. I can't leave Andy to die. "Andy?" I yell out, following Michaels' lead. He yells for his teammate, no response.

We move further into the woods, the air getting thicker with smoke, my face cover filtering a lot of it. "Andy?" I yell, waiting a second before hearing a faint response. "They're off the trail, this way" michaels says, walking down a small hill to a dried ravine. He tags a tree before continuing. "Andy?" I yell. "Maya" I hear, we're getting closer.

I see a faint light flashing, it's her. I follow the light, reaching her and her partner. I can't take my eyes of her partner, she's being crushed by a tree. Andy coughs, spitting up what looks like blood. "Andy we gotta get you out of here." I say, grabbing her arm. "We can't leave her" Andy says, still holding her partners hand.

I look at Michaels, and at Andy. Andy puts her hands around the tree, before attempting to lift it. "Help" she snaps at me. I get on the other side, pushing the tree up with everything I have in me. Michaels pulls his teammate out and lifts her up, Andy breaks into another coughing fit. Her mask is torn and broken. I take mine off and hand her mine, "let's go" I say, putting her over my back and running back through the trails.

Michaels runs besides me with his partner, both of us panting hard. The air burns my lungs, worse than I've ever felt it. I can see the camp, my finish line. They have a medical tent, and we have ben. We can help her. We break out of the heavy smoke, finally reaching the clear air of our camp site.

We're met by Ben and Hughes, who take Andy and her partner and rush them into the tent. Ben calls a chopper to take both of them to the hospital. I bend over, my knees on my hands, trying to catch my breath. Travis comes over, placing an oxygen mask on me. "Deep breaths captain." He says, supporting most of my weight.

"Carmen to Bishop, aid chopper is arriving. Spike camp 3 should be clear tomorrow. If that's the case, we will call for a removal of you guys and you'll be on your way home." He says.

I radio back to him, "Carmen, sounds good. Can I have updates on the firefighters over night?" I say, before breaking into a coughing fight. "Bishop you okay out there?" He asks, "Yes sir." I reply, "yes, we can keep you updated as much as the hospital keeps us updated." "Thank you sir" I reply.

"Maya that cough sounded really bad I think.." Travis starts but I cut him off. "I'll get checked out tomorrow." I reply, heading into my tent to finally get some sleep. It looks like I'll only be getting an hour or so until I'm back on duty, hopefully putting out the last of our spike.

I'm woken by my alarm, and I suit up quickly, meeting michaels outside. We head in and do what we can, before heading out and sending Travis, vic and their partner in. I sit in my tent, feeling like I can't catch my breath. Breathing hurts, especially after yesterday. "Lt. Michaels, fire is out." I hear over the radio. Thank god. Thank god, we're heading back home. It's been 4 long days, and I'm exhausted.

"Chopper will be over in a hour" I hear Carmen say. We pack up the site, and get into the helicopter. We're dropped off at the engine, which travis drives to the nearest hospital. There's a section for firefighters, since this fire was so big.

A nurse sits me in the bed, and does some tests. A doctor does a chest x ray, before sighing. "Looks like major smoke inhalation, probably reversible lung damage, but I'd like you to stay here for a few days to monitor." He says. I take out my phone and call carina, she doesn't answer. I call her again, nothing.