Burning Flames (Chicago Fire Fan-fiction) - Under Editing

Chapter 48: Lakeview Hospital

Capp and I run over to where Cruz and Otis are preparing the ladder to go up.
"Cruz, can you get us up to the top floor?" Capp asks as we climb on top of the truck.
"Yeah, Mouch and Otis are going up to help vent. Almost there hold on......... okay, go!" Cruz says as he puts the ladder in place.
I follow Mouch and Otis up. We are halfway up when a window busts on the top floor.
"Help! Help us!" A nurse calls out waving at us getting our attention.
Mouch and Otis get on the roof and set to work venting as I radio Cruz and say, "Move us down to the woman, we'll get these vics out and go in through that window."
"Got it, hold on." Cruz radios back.
"Mamm, we are coming. Hold on, okay." Capp says as we gingerly move up the moving ladder.
Cruz sets the ladder at the window, and Capp and I climb faster.
We reach the window and I mask up. I climb in, and find three patients, two RNs, four LPNs, one aid, and two doctors.
"Capp, we have 12 vics here. We need two travel boards fast." I tell Capp as I help the aid onto the ladder and over to him. He takes him down, and Cruz replaces him.
"I've got one travel board, Casey's on his way with the second." Cruz says as he passes the board to me.
I quickly strap the first patient in and pass him over to Cruz.
Cruz lowers him down to the waiting paramedics below and I help a doctor out to him. Casey comes up behind me, and passes the second travel board to me as the glass in the door bursts letting flames lick up the door and spread across the ceiling.
"Hurry up, Dawson!" Casey calls as I strap in the second patient.
I pass her to Casey, and he lowers her down to the next set of waiting medics. Next, I pass an RN over to him. He takes her down as Capp comes back up the ladder.
I help another RN over to Capp and he takes her down. Cruz takes two LPNs as Casey starts back up the ladder. The flames start to burn through the wood door, and the remaining doctor and two LPNs press closer to the window ducking their heads from the smoke.
Casey reaches the Ladder and takes the doctor. I turn to the two LPNs and say, "I'm going to help you two out on to the ladder. Then, I want you two to climb down the little way to the firefighters climbing the ladder. I heard someone calling for help in a few rooms away. Now, come on."
I help the first LPN on to the ladder and she starts to slowly climb down to meet Capp a few feet down. I help the second LPN on as Cruz makes his way up the ladder. He reaches her just as she steps out on to the ladder.
"Cruz, there's someone in the room across from here. Keep the ladder here, and whatever you do do not move it. It'll be my only way out if I have a vic." I yell over the flames spreading through the room.
He nods and calls out, "Be careful, Dawson."
"Always." I call over my shoulder as I bust through the door after kicking it open.
I listen carefully, and hear it, "Help... help me, please!"
I run down the burning hallway to the last room and kick the door wide open.
"Chicago Fire Department! Call out!" I yell over the crackling Flames that are licking up the walls and across the floor and ceiling.
"Over here... help me... please..." I hear a woman call out in between gasps.
I feel around trying to find the woman through the thick heavy smoke. I feel an arm, and pull. I find the arm is attached to an elderly woman around the age of eighty.
"Dawson, hurry up they want the ladder to be moved down to the fourth floor." Cruz calls over the radio.
I grab my radio and say into it, "I've got the vic. I'm on my way."
"Over and out." Cruz says.
I pick the woman up, who is surprisingly light, and hold her against me. I move as fast as I can through the flames, but I'm slowed down by the extra weight, though she couldn't weigh more than a hundred and ten pounds. I finally make it to the room that the ladder is waiting at the window, but the ladder's gone, moved down to the fourth floor.
"Dammit, Cruz. Where the hell's my ladder?!" I call over the radio.
"I'm not at the controls anymore. I'll see what I can do. Hold tight." Cruz says as my SCBA starts going off. I'm moving so I know I'm out of air.
I pull my mask off as I crouch down closer to the ground. I look out the window, and see Casey, Cruz, and Capp arguing with the Battalion Chief in charge.
"Guys... I'm out... of air." I say in between coughs in to my radio. All I get in reply is static, and look up to see the room filled with smoke, cutting off any reply I should have received.
I pull webbing out of my gear pocket, and quickly construct a rope netting. I slip it on over the woman, and slip her out the window.
"Get medics waiting, vics on her way down." I say just before I start lowering the victim.
I see Casey, Cruz, and Capp all look up, and watch the vic as I slowly lower her. I see Mills and Shay prepare to take the victim with a gurney waiting. They take the victim, and I let the webbing fall down to them. I then turn back towards the flames, and start making my way to the stairwell.
I stay low underneath most of the smoke as I make my way towards the door labeled stairs. When I reach it I push against it. 'Locked.' I think to myself.
I look around and see a used fire extinguisher laying on the ground a few feet away from me. I quickly grab it, and hit the door handle with it. After a few hard hits the door handle falls off. I throw my shoulder against the door once, twice, and a third time, and it blows open.
Thank god for the building being vented, other wise I'd be dead by now. I shake my head, focusing on the task at hand.
I cough into my sleeve as I start to descend the stairs. I get down one flight of stairs before collapsing on the landing. I hear one thing on my radio as I lean against the wall beside me.
"Pull out. Start the hoses. The firefighter insides burnt out. Start the pumps." The head Battalian chief says.
I don't even have the strength to lift my hand to my radio to reply. I just hear someone say over the radio, "I'm in the stairwell, Chief give me five minutes to get my guy out." I hear Severide say in to his radio.
"Five." I hear the reply.
I hear the pounding of footsteps on the stairs approaching fast.
"Severide! Severide... over here!" I call out as loud as I can which comes out a little louder than a whispering gasp.
"Dawson! Dawson that you?!" He heard me.
"Dawson, come on. I've got to get you out of here." Severide says as he helps me to my feet.
He puts my arm over his shoulder, and we start making our way down the stairs.
"How long has your tank been empty?" Severide asks as he pulls his mask off and presses it to my face.
I suck in a deep breath of air, and say, "Thirty, forty minutes, maybe. I've been on the stairwell for about fifteen minutes."
I hand him his mask back, and he pulls it on. He shakes my shoulder as I start to black out. I stumble down the last few steps, and fall to the ground.
"Okay, almost there. Stay with me Dawson. Don't pass out on me." Severide says as he we come to a ground level exit.
"Medics!!! I need medics!!!" Severide calls out as he drags me out the exit. Pulling his mask off his face. I see Rapherty and her partner as they put an oxygen mask on me, and load me onto a gurney.
I reach for the oxygen mask, and pull it off. I ask, "Is the fire out?"
"They're workin' on it Dawson. Come on we need to get you to the hospital." Rapherty tells me. Then she quickly adds, "We'll call your company when we get to the hospital."
Rapherty places the mask back on as I laugh saying, "Oh the irony."
Rapherty and her partner load me up. Rapherty gets in back with me as her partner drives.
"Look at you, still cracking jokes when your about to go unconscious." She says as she starts taking my vitals.
"You know it sister. What else am I supposed to do?" I say just as I go in to a racket of coughing.
"Hey, don't talk too much, relax." Rapherty says as she starts writing my vitals down.
We pull in to Chicago Med a few minutes later. My heads spinning like a top as they wheel me into the ER.
"Female firefighter, 28, smoke inhalation." Rapherty tells the nurses as I black out...