firefly | zhong chenle

CH5

"she needed to save lives"

-

Within seconds, everyone was dressed and on the truck. The only thing managed the wear was a white lab coat before she got yanked onto the car.

"OK. This is not a big mission but still be careful. The kitchen set on fire on the first floor of the inn. The inn is very old so the fire tore down some of the walls. Thankfully, it's only 3 levels high and not many people were in it at the time. The fire has been somewhat controlled by the civilians but the kitchen is still lit"

Mark's voice statically played through the radio, in which Chenle listened intently with furrowed eyebrows.

"Copy that"

Soon, they arrived at the inn and immediately, they saw people dash in and out of the building, civilians screaming and crying whilst other stations firefighters were trying to control the crowd.

"Jisung, help control the crowd. Jeno, Jaemin, Haechan, come in with me in the frontline. Renjun, help defend" Chenle barked each and every order as they all filed out of the car, saluting to Chenle and hurriedly taking out the water guns.

As Arin was jumping out of the truck, Chenle grabbed her arm harshly "And you. Stay out of trouble and nowhere near the frontline"

Arin nodded, but was pulled back to his side.

"Do you hear me Hwa Arin" Chenle's volume rose, in which she winced at the noise level he was speaking at.

"Yes Captain" She replied back. Chenle gave her a small nod and then ran in front of the group. Arin didn't have much time to spare as well, quickly jogging to the nearest hurt patient. This all felt so real to her. The metallic smell of blood mixed with the burning of wood, the hollows and cries of people who were hurting, the whirling of the taps as the firefighters blasted water at the burning architecture. It felt as though she was in the middle of a movie.

Though, soon, she didn't have a chance to really look around her as she helped one patient after another. As a paramedic, she had finally realised the importance training and stamina. This was truly tiring and it had only been half an hour. Her eyes dashed across the landscape, locking gazes with someone who was just carried towards her on a stretcher. Her feet had its own mind, running towards him as she felt his pulse.

"Thank god" She sighed after confirming he still had a stable pulse. A nurse approached her and nudged her gently on the shoulder, whispering "I'm Hongzi Yuyi, but call me Yuyi"

It was already odd that she had a four character name, and it was even odder she was able to start a conversation whilst a building was burning down.

"Hwa Arin" Arin replied back, nodding as she finished wrapping up the patient she had now.

"Im from unit 1." Yuyi mentioned, now properly sticking her hand out for Arin to shake, in which she took.

"Unit 3" Arin also introduced her own position here. Finally, there was a pause in the amount of patients that were being sent to them. The two girls took a break, sitting on the chairs that were like stools you'd bring to camping as Arin chugged down a bottle of water.

"When did you join?" Yuyi asked, a bright beaming smile on her face. The girl had wavy, short hair and round eyes. She was one of the brightest people Arin had ever met, just by first impressions.

"Today..." Arin replied sheepishly

"And they took you on a mission!" Yuyi yelped "It took them a month to take me on a mission and I'm just there to assist the main doctor"

"Yeah..." Arin chuckled. Turning her head, she heard something, like a voice singing mixed with the clapping of a stone.

"Do you hear that?" Arin asked, shutting Yuyi up mid tangent.

"Hm?" The nurse asked, whipping her head around to see nothing.

"It's a boy...a young one" Arin stood up slowly, placing her water bottle back onto the stool

"Arin" Yuyi pulled her back upon seeing her wanting to step past the barrier between the frontline and safe area "They hate it when we get ourselves involved, especially if you're on your first ever mission. You have to listen to their orders or else there will be a punishment. They can't afford to have one of us hurt"

Arin hesitated "But there's a-"

"You should call them and let them know" Yuyi argued, holding her back.

"Have you not seen the instructor try to call them a hundred times for none of them to be able to answer?" Arin shook her hand off. She knew she wasn't supposed to do this, and nor did she particularly want to, but she couldn't help but get the image of a small boy singing out of her head. The guilt was eating her up

"I'm serious. You can't act on your own" Yuyi tightened her grip around her wrist. Arin glanced from the small opening in the ground, to the groups of firefighters rushing around to stop the growing fire, and then back at Yuyi.

"I'll go find one of them to help" Arin nodded reassuringly "Trust me". Hesitantly, the nurse let go of her hand and Arin bolted off towards the groups of firefighters. Anxiety and panic was causing her heart to race ecstatically. Her job and duty as a doctor chanting in her head, she worked so hard to live up to this duty so she could save lives. She needed to save lives.

"Excuse me" She tapped the shoulder of who she believed was Jeno. His face was covered in ashes and his breaths laboured. He was too busy screwing on the water pipe to the hose to even look at who he was talking to

"Not now" Jeno did a small nod of apology and rushed back inside the broken down building. The smell of burnt wood was stronger than ever here thus she soon found herself coughing at the irritation in her throat. Groaning, her eyes found it's way back to the place the little boys voice came from.

"Wait for them, Arin. You need to wait for them" Arin told herself as if she was restricting every bone in her body. As she walked back to the tent set up as a temporary medical station, she heard the voice again. A soft, weak, and young voice reaching out to her, as if there was a small chubby hand wrapping around her finger and beckoning for her to save him.

Arin shook her head to rid of the thoughts, repeatedly telling herself that she could do more harm than good by impulsively rushing in there. However, when she glanced one last time at the hole, she couldn't stop herself anymore.

"Fuck it"