Burning Flames ¦ Evan Buckley

Chapter 59 - Texas

I'm back!! Thank you for all the birthday wishes!! Here is an extra long chapter!!!

-

It was a long and uncomfortable 20 hour drive to Texas. A few members of the 118 who had signed up for emergency deployment, were sent to help tackle the wildfires in texas. El sat beside Buck and across from Eddie, which around 8 hours in realised it was a mistake. They were loud. In fact, no, that was an understatement.

They soon arrived, not that El or Buck realised as they were both fast asleep. Buck with his head against the window and El resting on his shoulder. "Guys," Hen spoke, "Wake up, we're here"

"Oh we are?" Buck groaned and waited for El to sit herself up before he opened the door and stepped outside. "Ooh! What's up with the air?" Buck questioned, the air smokey and full of ash.

"Wildfire, remember? That's why we're here" El rolled her eyes as she stepped out behind him.

"I mean the way it feels" Buck rebutted, giving her a sarcastic look.

"You're so weird" El shook her head with a little smirk as she stretched out her body, having been crammed in the same position for what felt like forever.

"I feel like I'm getting slapped with a wet towel," Buck grimaced.

"It's called humidity. Welcome to Texas Buck" Eddie spoke as he joined the trio.

After only having a few moments to settle into the new environment, they were all summoned round for a debrief. "I'm Deputy Chief De Leon of the San Angelo Fire Department, acting incident commander. For those of you just joining the party, welcome."

"Buck, stop staring" Hen whispered, his eyes wandering over to one of the female firefighters.

"I'm not staring" He protested.

"You're staring" El crossed her arms, giving him a stern look.

"I wanted to introduce my operations section chief, Captain Owen Strand out of Austin." Chief De Leon spoke.

"The thing we were praying wouldn't happen has happened. The wind has shifted. The fire's now on a collision course with the city of San Angelo. There's a possibility of weather coming in, but we can't rely on it, and we won't. We have one last shot to turn the tide. Here. On Copper Ridge. We cut a containment line here and we can stop this beast in its tracks. I know you're exhausted. A lot of you haven't had more than a couple hour's sleep in days. But on behalf of the city of San Angelo and their 120'000 souls, we're gonna get you up on that fire line and you are going to cut like hell. Good luck. Stay safe." Captain Strand spoke.

"Buck, seriously?" El snapped at him.

"No, no, no. I swear I know her from somewhere. It's killing me." Buck protested.

"I don't even wanna know" El shook her head and walked off with Hen.

"How do you put up with him?" Hen chuckled.

"I don't," El chuckled, rolling her eyes.

"Lord help you" Hen laughed as they began to explore the set up they had.

They arrived at the medical tent and El couldn't help but ask, "Hey Hen, mind if I shadow you on this? With you going to med school, Chimney is gonna need someone a little more capable than Buck" She chuckled, "I'd like to learn from you"

"You would?" Hen was surprised.

"Yeah, don't tell Chim but you're definitely the better paramedic" She smirked, "Plus I think you'd actually teach me rather than...well do whatever it is that Chimney does"