The Return Of The Firefighter As A Trillionaire

Chapter 7

The nightmare came on the fifth night.

Elena was lying in bed when Tyler walked through the front door. He looked exhausted but alive. His turnout gear was streaked with dirt and ash, and there were bandages visible on his arms and hands. But he had made it home.

She sat up in the dream, relief flooding through her entire body. She opened her mouth to say something, an apology maybe, or an explanation. She wasn't sure.

That was when his face changed.

The skin on his face began to darken. It peeled back in strips, revealing blackened muscle beneath. His eyes sank into his skull. His mouth opened wider and wider until it was nothing but a gaping hole. The smell hit her then, the smell of burned flesh and death, and she was screaming, screaming so hard her throat tore open.

Elena woke up in bed, her heart pounding so hard she thought it might break through her ribs. The room was dark. The house was silent. She was alone.

She reached for her phone. No missed calls from Tyler. No text messages. Nothing.

Five days. Tyler had been gone for five days.

Elena got out of bed and went to the window. The city streets below were normal. Traffic moved. People walked. Nothing had changed except that Tyler wasn't here and she couldn't reach him.

She told herself it was fine. What had happened with Matthew wasn't actually unforgivable. People made mistakes. People had weaknesses. Tyler had to understand that. He had to forgive her eventually because that was what you did in a marriage. You forgave each other.

But the silence was terrifying.

She had called Tyler seventeen times over the past five days. He hadn't answered once. His voicemail was full. There was nothing but silence on the other end of every call.

Elena dressed quickly and called Kitty, one of the other foundation board members. Kitty's husband was a fire department liaison. He would know something.

The phone rang twice before Kitty answered.

"Hey, Elena," Kitty said. Her voice sounded surprised. "Everything okay?"

Elena sat down on the edge of the bed even though she wanted to pace. "I need to ask you something. About Tyler's deployment. Can you find out where Engine Seven was sent?"

There was a pause on the other end. A long one.

"Elena, I don't think Tyler would want me to—" Kitty started.

"Please," Elena interrupted. Her voice sounded hollow even to her own ears. "I can't reach him. His phone isn't working. I just need to know where he is."

Another pause. Kitty sighed.

"Okay. Give me a minute. I'll call Tom," Kitty said, referring to her husband. "Hold on."

Elena held on. She listened to the silence on the line, which felt like it lasted forever. Through the window, the sky was beginning to lighten. Dawn was coming. Another day without Tyler.

Kitty came back on the line fifteen minutes later. Her voice had changed. It was quieter now. More careful.

"Elena, Engine Seven was deployed to Los Vangees County for the wildfire," Kitty said slowly. "The big one that's been on the news. It's still burning. They've got mutual aid crews from five different counties up there."

Elena's chest tightened. "Okay. When will they be back?"

"That's the thing," Kitty's voice wavered slightly. "I don't know when they're coming back. The fire is huge. Tom said it's one of the worst wildfires in state history. They're not rotating crews back until they have it contained."

Elena stood up from the bed. She walked to the dresser and gripped the edge. "How long is that? When will Tyler be back?"

"I don't know, Elena. Could be another week. Could be longer." Kitty paused. "Is something wrong? Are you okay?"

"Did Tom say anything else?" Elena's voice was tight. "About the deployment? About Tyler's crew?"

There was another pause. This one felt heavier.

"Elena, there have been casualty reports coming out," Kitty said quietly. "Fifteen firefighters confirmed dead so far. But they haven't released the names yet. The families are still being notified."

The room tilted slightly. Elena sat back down on the bed.

"Fifteen?" she heard herself say. It didn't sound like her voice. It sounded like someone else talking from very far away.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean—" Kitty started.

"He's not answElenag his phone," Elena said. The words just came out. "I've called seventeen times in five days and he's not answElenag."

"That doesn't mean anything," Kitty said, and now there was sympathy in her voice. Real sympathy. "Cell service up there is terrible. The crews are probably too busy to call anyone. Tyler is probably fine. He's a senior firefighter. He knows what he's doing."

Elena wanted to believe that. She wanted to believe that Tyler was fine and just too busy to call her. She wanted to believe that when he came home, she could apologize and everything would go back to normal.

But the nightmare was still fresh in her mind. Tyler's face peeling away to nothing but bone and ash. The terrible smell. The sound of her own screaming.

"I need to go up there," Elena said.

"What?" Kitty's voice went up. "Elena, you can't go to an active wildfire. It's not safe."

"I need to go to the command center," Elena continued. She was already thinking about what she needed to pack. Her car keys. Her wallet. "They have to know something. They have to have information about the crews. I can go to the command center and ask."

"Elena, that's crazy. You should wait for official notification—"

"No," Elena said. Her voice was steady now. "No, I'm not waiting. I need to know if he's okay."

She hung up before Kitty could say anything else.

Elena moved through the house like she was in a trance. She packed a bag with clothes and her wallet and her phone charger. She grabbed her car keys from the kitchen counter. Matthew was still asleep in the other room. She didn't wake him. She didn't leave a note.

Three hours later, she was on the highway heading north toward Los Vangees County. The sky ahead of her was grey from smoke. The closer she got, the more she could see it. The smoke stretched across the entire sky like a blanket, thick and black and terrifying.

She thought about Tyler. She thought about his face in the dream turning into a skull. She thought about fifteen firefighters confirmed dead and names not released yet.

She drove faster.

The command center was a chaos of trucks and personnel and radio static. Elena parked in the gravel lot and got out of her car. The air smelled like smoke. The heat radiating from the fires to the north was intense even from here.

She made her way through the crowds of firefighters and emergency personnel, looking for anyone who might have information. Her heart was pounding. Her hands were shaking.

She had to find Tyler. She had to know if he was alive.

Because if Tyler was dead, if he had died out here in this fire while she was home with Matthew, if she had wasted their last moments together fighting with him and telling him their marriage was just a fair exchange, then she would never forgive herself.

The fear that had been building for five days crystallized into a single desperate need. She had to find him. She had to see his face alive. She had to tell him that she was sorry, that what happened with Matthew didn't matter, that all she cared about was knowing he was okay.

Elena moved deeper into the command center, searching for someone in charge, searching for answers, searching for Tyler among the names of the living and the dead.