A Little Twist

Discovery

They arrived on scene a few minutes later. They parked the trucks so that the road was blocked on both ends and they all got out of their vehicles. They took a minute to take in the scene. Groups of people were standing in the grass, trying to calm down groups of terrified children.

"I hate it when it's in a school. Especially with kindergarteners." Travis stated, shaking his head. The others could only nod in answer.

They gathered in a circle, waiting for the captain to give his orders. However, he seemed out of it, eyes going back and forth between the different groups of people and children and the small smoky building.

"How do you want us to work through this, cap?" Maya asked when he remained silent for 30 long seconds.

"Right," he said, pulling himself back together, shifting his gaze so that he was now focusing on his team. He gave his orders and a couple seconds later, they all got to work.

Before entering the school, Sullivan took a deep breath. It looked like the building was not completely on fire yet. There was a lot of smoke though, so they had to make sure that everyone was out, and fast. He turned to look at his team.

"We're splitting up. Herrera and Gibson, you go east, Bishop and I will go west. Miller and Montgomery check the back. Building isn't that big. We should be able to check everything quickly." He ordered before they all made their way into the building.

"So...What's wrong with you?" Gibson casually asked Andy as they walked through the corridor.

"Nothing. Focus, Gibson." She replied curtly.

"Ok..." He said.

As they walked deeper into the building, they could feel the temperature rising, smoke thickening.

"There's a classroom here." Andy said opening a door.

"How did you see that? The smoke is so thick I can barely see a thing."

"A feeling." Herrera answered simply.

They checked the room, but it was empty, so they continued down the corridor, opening all the doors as they went. They were getting to the last door before the emergency exit. They tried opening it, but it seemed stuck. Gibson pushed against it a few times, pulling all his weight on his shoulder. It took him a couple of tries before he finally managed to open the door. They entered the room, Andy taking a half second to take in the scene. There were on adult and five children sitting on the floor, as far away as possible from the windows and door. The adult looked like she was having a hard time trying to calm the kids down, so she threw them a relieved smile when she saw them enter her classroom.

"Hi ma'am, are you ok?" Gibson asked, kneeling in front of her.

"Ok kids, is anyone hurt?" Andy asked, crouching before them. They just nodded in answer, their little eyes wide in fear. "Cap, we've got five minors, one adult here. We're getting them out, rest of the wing is clear." She radioed.

"Copy," came the crackled voice of Sullivan in her radio.

Gibson and Andy made sure it was safe for them to exit the room, then they made the children walk in line and led them to the emergency exit.

"I'm sorry I didn't have the time to make everyone exit the classroom. I got most of my kids out, but there was suddenly so much smoke..." The teacher tried to explain.

"It's alright, ma'am. As long as everyone is ok, it's ok. Fire is a tricky thing. No flames do not equal no danger." Jack reassured her. "You did good."