New team

28.Alone or together

It was supposed to be a normal day, or at least that's what everyone hoped for. Liam didn't have shift today, but before going to Cardiff he met with Julia, Chris and Tony outside the fire station to say hello.
But it wasn't even an hour into their shift when the alarm went off. They took the cat down from the tree, then had to put out the fire in the garbage can, and then they had to help tourists who got lost in the mountains. It wasn't until around noon that Pontypandy calmed down and the firefighters were able to clean their equipment and then, as a reward, play with Daisy.

However, this peace did not last long, because when the sun began to get a little lower, the alarm called them again, but this time to a fire in a lonely house.
They didn't know why, but Station Officer Jones had gone with them too, and he seemed strangely anxious. They drove out to the outskirts of Pontypandy and stopped in front of a low house that stood in a row with others like it along the street leading to Tonypridd. Fortunately, other buildings did not catch fire, which was clearly visible through the remains of window panes, even from a distance.

"What are you doing here, Penny?" Station Officer Jones asked in surprise as soon as he opened the door of Jupiter.

"It's none of your business, Sam," Penny replied, or rather growled angrily.

"Do you know if anyone was home?" Sam asked, his voice was emotionless.

"I don't know. Station Officer Steele wasn't answering," Penny replied more calmly, although her voice trembled slightly.

"Chris, Julia, go inside and do a quick search. Tony, go in and put out whatever you can," Sam ordered, turning to the team.

"Roger that, sir!" they saluted and ran to prepare their needed equipment.

In less than a minute, Chris and Julia were inside, followed closely by Tony with the hose. They walked through the narrow hall to the small kitchen. Chris reached for the power switch along the way, which gave Tony the opportunity to work on putting out the fire while Julia and Chris continued on their way in silence. As they walked through the living room, they noticed the baby cars laid out on the carpet, as Chris almost slipped on them because he wasn't paying much attention to what was under his feet as he made his way up the stairs.

"Chief, it looks like there's another child here. Let's continue upstairs," reported Julia, who was hanging back and looking around carefully.

As they reached the stairs and slowly started to climb them, they heard a loud bang and turned their heads to see flames shooting out from the kitchen.

"Tony!" They both screamed.

They only had time to exchange terrified glances before they turned around without a second thought and ran in the direction they came from. As they approached the fire, they bent down and walked almost to the floor. The flames were still too high to pass under, but they knew they had to get Tony out. Fortunately, they saw something right at the exit of the room. Julia lay down on the ground and managed to grab Tony's hand and pulled her towards her. The first time she slipped away, but the second time she managed to reach out and didn't let go of Tony's hand, but she wouldn't have been able to get him out of the kitchen if not for the helping hand of Chris, who grabbed the harness of the breathing apparatus and together they got his friend out of trouble.

Julia was about to reach for the radio, but suddenly Tony opened his eyes and looked at them with a dazed look. With his back on the ground, he couldn't see much, so he turned around and looked at his friends. He owed them his life, but he would thank them later because now all three of them had to get out of the building safely firstly.
After much thought, they managed to decide that they would try to go down to the basement, because it was the only door they had access to. Holding Tony, who was still a little unsteady on his feet with emotion, they went down a few steps.