Haunted By The Past - A Surrera Story

Chapter Nine

Maya's pov
Andy had finished her shift for the day seeing as she'd been pulling doubles all week, so it was just the rest of us here. Ripley was also here acting as captain seeing as Sullivan had finished his first 24hour shift. I still had no idea what was going on between him and Andy, but I really wanted to find out.
Me and Vic were in the beanery attempting to make chocolate brownies when the alarm went off. Engine 19, Ladder 19, Aid Car 19. "So much for a quiet night," Vic sighed, and I rolled my eyes in agreement. We both ran to the barn where Ripley was waiting for us all.
"There was an explosion at a coffee shop a few blocks away. There are lots of injured civilians inside, and the place is still on fire, so we need to get there ASAP. Hughes and Warren you are on aid car. Bishop and Gibson on ladder, and Montgomery and Miller on engine. Let's go!" Ripley informed us all. I jumped into the drivers seat as Jack got in the other side.
As we pulled up at the coffee shop, I saw just how bad it was. Ripley had been telling the truth when he said the place was on fire. The whole building was surrounded by flames, and the air around it was filled with smoke. I'd been to this coffee shop a few times, and knew that it was always really busy, so there would definitely be a lot of people inside. And I hated to say it, but with how bad the fire was, they must all be in pretty bad shape.

Andy's pov
I don't know what happened. One second, Robert and I were kissing, and everything was perfect. The next, there was an explosion behind us, and we were both laying on the floor. I don't know how long I'd been out, but as I started to wake up, I noticed that the whole room was filled with smoke. All I could see was smoke and fire. "Robert?" I said, my voice quiet and hoarse. I started to cough, I must've inhaled quite a lot of smoke. "Robert?" I repeated when I got no response. I looked around me and saw him laying on the floor a few feet away. I tried to get up to go over to him, but as I did a sharp pain shot through my body. It was only then that I looked down to see the extent of my injuries. I couldn't tell what it was, but something had fallen on my stomach, so I couldn't move. I couldn't see my legs because of it but I was in a lot of pain everywhere. I also knew that I was bleeding, a lot, but I don't know where from. As my head started throbbing, I begged myself to stay awake, at least until Robert woke up. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop my eyes from closing again.

Robert's pov
I started to blink as I slowly woke up. The first thing I noticed was how much pain I was in. I didn't know where the pain was coming from, just that it was bad. All I can remember is kissing Andy, and then, there was an explosion behind us. How can things go from being so amazing to so bad so quickly? I don't know what happened exactly, but it was definitely bad. The room was filled with smoke and fire, making it hard for me to see anything. I couldn't move properly because of the pain, but I eventually spotted Andy laying a few feet away from me. It looked like she was trapped under something, but I couldn't tell how bad her injuries were. "ANDY," I shouted, but she didn't reply. God I hope she's okay. I hope we both make it through this. I tried distracting myself by thinking about a future with Andy, but I couldn't stop myself from closing my eyes.

Travis' pov
As we pulled up at the coffee shop, I took in how bad the situation was. The whole building was engulfed in flames and the air was filled with smoke. Even sat in the engine I could tell that this was going to be a hard one to put out. Plus there are a lot of people inside who we need to get out, if they're not already too far gone.
I got out of the engine and walked over to Ripley for instructions on where to start. I watched as he took in the scene, and then spoke into his radio requesting additional engines and aid cars. This was going to be a long shift.
"19, listen up! As you can see this is a bad one, but we need to focus on getting the fire out and trying to get out as many civilians as possible. Search for any safe entrances, and only if they're safe, go in and start evacuating. Remember to only do so if it's safe, we're can't risk losing any of you today. As for the fire, attack from the outside and try to get it out as soon as possible. We're down Herrera and Sullivan as they're both off shift so we'll all have to work extra hard," Ripley ordered us all. I was on engine with Dean so we ran to start putting out the fire, which we soon realised was going to be even harder than we thought. As we put the hose on the flames, not much happened. No matter how long we kept the hoses there, only a few flames went out, but they soon appeared again. This really was going to be a long shift.