Blood Gulch, New Mexico

Prologue

"Donut, move! You're way too close to the-!"
"Aw, Tex is worried about me! It's all good, you-!"

Boom.
The explosion was ear-splitting, sending the chatty blonde through the wall on the opposite side of the room.
Tex's ears were ringing, and her hands were still clamped tightly around her bright red hatchet, which she had been slamming into the crumbling wall with reckless abandon.
"Ah, fuck... Kai's gonna kill me!-"

She threw down the tool, stumbling towards the splintered wood that Donut had been launched through. Smoke billowed out the nearby windows, and sirens faintly shouted of peril.
"Tex?!"
She whirled around, the voice terribly familiar to that of someone long lost from her past.
"Texas!"
It's been a while since someone called her by that name.
"Who's there? Show yourself! What the fuck are you doing up here?!"
The firefighter screamed into the wind, coughing harshly as the soot coated her uniform.
"Texas, ge-!"
Another explosion overtook her ears, sending billowing flames out the window above the floor she was in. Kaikaina came on over the radio.
"Tex, what the fuck are you two doing?! Grab Donut and get the fuck outta there!"
"But the people-"
"Everyone's out except you and Donut! He isn't answering his radio, what the fuck did you-"

Donut.

The other firefighter was lying in a heap of wood and broken glass maybe twenty feet away. Tex scrambled to get to him, and threw him over her shoulder, not bothering to check his pulse - no time.
As she positioned herself at the window to throw Donut out, her eye caught a glimpse of that cherry-red hatchet, covered in a thick layer of soot and half hidden by charred insulation.
"Shit."
She chucked the boy out the window with as much outward force as she could muster, just as another explosion sent wood pieces flying into her back.
That'll bruise.
Tex thought to herself as she climbed out the window. Hauling herself to her feet, she jogged towards the firetruck, the ringing still present in her eardrums.
"Tex! What happened to-"
It was Kaikaina.
She was almost sprinting in their direction, yanking off her helmet when she got within thirty yards of their location. Tex could see Kaikaina's face pale once she noticed the other firefighter piled into a heap in the grass, blood staining his bright yellow-striped jacket.
"Don't just stand there!"
She barked madly, throwing her helmet aside and scrambling for Donut, trying to prop him up. Another explosion rang from the second story of the factory, flames billowing out the windows and glass spraying from above.
"Help me get him!"
Tex was startled by how intense Kai's voice was, but did as she was told and hooked her arms around Donut's shoulders, Kai picking him up by the ankles. She cringed at his face, his helmet still on and partially melted into his skin. His scalp was smoking, freshly out of the crossfire of the intense flames. The sirens from before were louder than ever as they approached the barrage of emergency vehicles parked twenty yards away from the firetruck. Only one ambulance remained, the others having already chauffeured any of the injured away from the scene. The only ones who remained were a trio of paramedics and one EMT; Doc and his crew. Tex breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of people she knew, York greeting her with a giant smile while the other two paramedics rushed out with the gurney to accommodate Donut.
"No time for fooling around, York."
Maine's voice was gruff and commanding as ever, and had already stolen Donut away from the two firefighters and already was checking his vitals, CT pushing him back toward the ambulance. York's smile turned apologetic at the notion, and he disappeared into the back of the ambulance with the others. They sped off in the direction of Chorus, leaving the burning factory in the hands of Tex and Kaikaina.
"What the hell are we supposed to do now? They just took our guy and fucking left!"
Tex stared up at the building, blackened smoke rapidly coating the bright blue sky. Kai was just about to answer when very familiar sirens filled the air.
"Chorus Fire Department-"
Tex began.
"Why the fuck did they only just get here now?!"
Kai's anger was evident, as the paleness of her face had been replaced with redness that wasn't from the heat in of the fire.
She stomped through the grass to retrieve her helmet, then climbed into the firetruck without another word. Tex watched her go the entire time, taking deep, methodical breaths to make sure she didn't end up doing the same.
The firetruck was already running by the time Tex had situated herself into the passenger's seat, and was speeding away as the Chorus Fire Department readied their hoses to smother the inferno.
Kai was muttering in rapid Spanish under her breath, switching between languages rapidly.
Tex could pick out the words,
"stealing our thunder... Donut... our only goddamn axe..."
And that was all she could hear as they bumped along in the dirt road, the radio quietly playing along to 90's show-tunes. Dust splayed across the truck, fading the bright red paint. Within a mile, they had turned onto a main paved road. After a couple of minutes had passed, they pulled into Blood Gulch, the sign hastily stabbed into the earth in front of the community pool.
Welcome to Blood Gulch
Population- 1,698
"Home, sweet home."
Kaikaina muttered disdainfully as they approached the village, haphazardly parking the firetruck in the driveway of the station.
A shout came from their next door neighbors, the voice belonging to one of the only members.
"Welcome back, you three-"
He waved as he came out of the door to the police station, stopping when he only saw the two of them.
"Where's Franklin?"
Kai bit her lip, ignoring Captain Flowers and quickly shuffling inside.
"A gas main exploded. Donut's on his way to Chorus General Hospital."
Tex informed him, Butch's expression twisting into horror.
"That's horrible! Where was he hurt? Can we go see him-"
She cut him off.
"Burns and lacerations cover his face. We don't know the extent of the damage."
Only seconds after Tex had finished speaking, Butch's radio clipped to his shirt collar buzzed to life.
"Flowers, get your ass on the highway. Ambulance turned over, looks to be a 505."
Tex now was the one to pale considerably.
"Butch, what's a 505?"
"Roger. On my way."
Butch leaned the radio towards his mouth as he talked, his usually serene expression morphed into what almost seemed grim.
"Reckless driving. I'll fill you in later if it's who I think it is."
He had his hands on his hips as he turned to shout at the building that housed the police of Blood Gulch, stamped with the BGPD logo.
"Sarge! Get out here, we got a 505 on our hands!"
The garage door opened, and the white haired cop pulled out in the only squad car.
"You're the one laggin', Blue."
His voice had always been gruff and relentlessly southern, something Tex often found difficult to understand. Butch jogged around to the other side and threw open the door, slamming it behind him as he climbed into the vehicle. He saluted to Tex.
"I'll give you a call when everything is defined, okay?"
Butch had his usual gentle smile tugging at the corners of his lips, which made Tex feel inclined to scowl.
"Fine."
With that, the squad car turned the corner and sped off down the road, leaving Tex to deal with a distraught Kaikaina, a mostly empty police station and being down a firefighter. Begrudgingly, she made her way back into the fire station, climbing the stairs inside to the second story and flopping into one of the leather recliners. She laid her cracked iPhone on the kitchen counter.
Kaikaina was curled into a ball in the other leather recliner, hers brown instead of gray like Tex's. She had the remote clenched in her hand as she flipped through channels, finally deciding on reruns of Untold Stories of the ER.
Tex raised an eyebrow at Kaikaina's choice of television, but kept quiet. About thirty minutes into the episode, Tex's iPhone buzzed and rang with the sound of crickets.
"Basic."
Kaikaina muttered as Tex got up to take the call. Stepping into the kitchen, she flicked the answer call button and was greeted by Sarge.
"Texas."
That caught her attention.
"All four of them are alive."
Her grip on the phone tightened.
"All four of them? So it was..."
Tex couldn't tell if her goosebumps were from Kaikaina's insistence on keeping the AC on full blast or from what Sarge was saying.
"The big one got some shrapnel in his neck. Nobody has any idea why he or the other dude with the giant cut on his face is even alive."
"Do you mean... Maine? York?!"
"Sure. The gal... the brown-haired gal is gone. The EMT at the wheel is already at the hospital with the original patient."
Tex quickly flicked on the speakerphone.
"Say that again."
Her voice was hard and methodical.
Sarge repeated every word, this time to both Tex and Kaikaina.
Kaikaina covered her mouth with her hands as she listened, turning away from the device.
"They're likely to live, but we dah' know."
Click.