The Return Of The Firefighter As A Trillionaire

Chapter 6

The second floor was an inferno.

Tyler moved through the smoke, his breathing mask filtElenag the worst of it, his eyes watElenag from the heat. Flames crawled across the ceiling above him, orange and hungry. The stairwell behind him was already collapsing, sending sparks and ash cascading down.

He found the man in the bedroom at the end of the hallway.

The guy was pinned beneath a massive wooden beam that had come down from the ceiling. His right leg was trapped beneath it, and his left arm hung at an awkward angle. His face was covered in blood and soot. He looked up when he heard Tyler approaching.

"Get out," the man gasped. His voice was raw from smoke. "The whole thing is coming down. Go."

Tyler knelt beside him, already assessing the situation. The beam was heavy, maybe two hundred pounds or more. He would have to lift it and pull the man out at the same time.

"Where are you trapped?" Tyler asked. His voice was calm despite the flames racing across the ceiling.

"My leg," the man answered. He was coughing now, his body wracked with it. "You can't move this thing. You need to leave."

"I'm not leaving you," Tyler said. He pulled off his breathing mask. "Put this on."

"What?" The man's eyes went wide. "You need that mask. You can't breathe in this smoke."

Tyler was already wrapping the mask around the man's face. "I've been in worse. Keep it on."

The man tried to protest, but Tyler was already positioning himself beneath the beam. He wrapped his hands around the wood and began to lift. His leg screamed with pain, his back burning with effort, but the beam began to move. Slowly. Inch by inch.

"Pull your leg out," Tyler commanded. His voice was tight with strain.

The man pulled, groaning with the effort, his whole body shaking. His leg came free with a sickening pop. Tyler held the beam for another moment to make sure the man was completely clear, then dropped it.

The beam crashed to the floor beside them.

Tyler helped the man to his feet. The guy was using Tyler for support, his weight heavy against Tyler's shoulder. They stumbled toward the doorway.

That was when the man looked down at Tyler's chest.

"Wait," the man said. His voice changed. Something shifted in his tone. "Your shirt. That symbol on your chest."

Tyler glanced down. There was an orchid embroidered on his gear, a small thing he had forgotten about. It was nothing. Just a patch.

"It's nothing," Tyler said, pulling the man forward. "We need to move."

"No, wait. That orchid. I need to know where you got that," the man said, his voice suddenly urgent despite the smoke and fire closing in. "Tyler, I need to know—"

The doorway ahead of them collapsed in a shower of flames and debris.

The corridor was completely blocked now. Fire poured through the opening where the door had been. The window was their only way out.

"Come on," Tyler said. He didn't have time to answer questions.

They stumbled toward the window. Tyler could feel the heat getting worse by the second. The air was becoming thinner, harder to breathe. Flames were spreading across the walls now, racing toward them.

Tyler kicked the window open and helped the man climb through onto the roof. Tyler followed, his hands and arms already burning from the heat. He pulled himself onto the pitched roof, helping the man onto the peak.

The view from up here was terrible. The entire landscape was on fire. The road they had come in on was now completely engulfed. There was no ground access anymore. The only hope was a truck somewhere in the courtyard below.

"Can you hold on?" Tyler asked the man.

"I don't know," the man answered. His voice was weak. "I'm hurt pretty bad."

Tyler positioned him on the roof, trying to give him something stable to hold onto. Behind them, through the window they had just exited, the bedroom erupted in flames.

The flashover happened in an instant.

The sudden explosion of superheated air burst through the window like a force of nature. It hit Tyler and the man simultaneously, a blast of heat and pressure that lifted them both off their feet and threw them through the air.

They fell off the roof.

For a moment, Tyler felt nothing but air around him. Then the man's body slammed into him, and they were both falling, both spinning through space toward the ground below.

Tyler reached out instinctively and grabbed the man's shirt. He had one thought, clear and sharp. He had to protect this man. He had to shield him from impact.

Tyler twisted his body in mid-air, pulling the man against himself, wrapping his arms around him. He positioned himself so that when they landed, he would take the full force of it.

They hit the ground hard.

Tyler's back struck the earth first, absorbing the impact. The world exploded into pain. Something cracked inside his chest. His ribs screamed. His spine felt like it had shattered into pieces. The breath was driven from his lungs completely.

He couldn't move. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't do anything but lie there and feel the fire all around them.

The man was coughing beside him, gasping for air, his body convulsing. He was alive. Tyler had protected him. The man was alive.

Then Tyler heard it.

The sound of an engine. Voices shouting. Backup arriving in the courtyard. They were here. They had made it.

Tyler felt his body relax against the scorched earth. The pain was still there, but it felt distant now. His vision was getting blurry. The edges of the world were going dark.

He had done it. He had gotten the man out. He had protected him.

The conscious part of Tyler's mind started to slip away. The last thing he heard was the man still coughing, still breathing, still alive beside him.

Then there was nothing but darkness.