Template:Featured Articles/43-2019
Xavin gave a tight nod, shifting into the rocklike form they'd been working on all summer. This was what they'd been training for and training had said that it was pretty impervious to heat. "Yeah. I can help." "Kermit, you fireproof?" Kyle asked, and then retied his bandana over his face. "I'm not, so if you are, you're gonna be a firebreak. Pound down doors, walls, whatever can get us a path. Tinkerbell, you go up - windows are open, we're gonna get up to the windows or roof and get people out that way. Not likely we're gonna get anyone back down the stairs." Pixie flew up to the second floor, calling out, "Is anyone trapped in the building? We're here to help!" Establishing verbal contact with any conscious victims was vitally important. She also looked through the open windows for anyone might be unconscious. "Right. Let's go." Even in this shape, the heat of the fire pressed against Xavin's skin. The people in there.... No. Focus. Xavin moved at a slow, lumbering run up the stairs. The ground floor was mostly lobby and up the stairs, to the first floor. "Is anyone here?" Xavin coughed from the smoke and laid a shoulder into the first door, opening a studio apartment. Empty. And then the next. Kyle wished, desperately, for comms. He could hear Pixie and Xavin over the fire, and sirens, and general sounds of the city but that and also trying to listen for people calling out was difficult at best. Smell was right out - he had smoke up his nose, and had since they'd gotten to the city and it was only getting worse. He wasn't going to be able to smell shit - literally - for hours yet. "First floor's clear!" He yelled, rasped loudly really. "Fire's coming down from the top. Lets head up a floor." Pixie heard the all-clear and flew to the window above. It felt like the heat was increasing, or maybe it was just the intensifying pressure to find anyone alive and trapped. "Anyone on this floor? We're here to get you out!" At the next window on the third floor, a man and a woman rushed to her when she called out. The woman was clutching some photos, apparently worth the risk to save. The man hurriedly pushed forward a third person, a man who didn't seem panicked or rushed at all, just stunned. "Is there anyone else?" Pixie asked the group. No. "I've got three!" she shouted . "Nothing!" Xavin shouted and slammed into the door. They lacked finesse, making up for it with close to 400 pounds of solid mass and momentum and skidded to a coughing halt in front of Pixie's three people. "I'm sorry about your door!" because suddenly, impossibly, that mattered. "We're here to help..." We're here to get you out of here but the building is on fire and how the hell are we going to get out and oh my god this is insane and we're too high up to jump. Another deep, coughing breath and Xavin said, trying to fight away panic, "Kyle, what's the plan?" "The plan is ... " Fuck, he was the grown-up. Kyle coughed, both to cover his pause and to clear his lungs. "Kill the doors, unless they're hot. Shit, shit can you feel if they're hot right now?" "Pixieface, get people down and come back up, you call the shots, go window to window, if there's flames, we gotta skip." He shook his head to try to clear it. "Meantime, X and I are just gonna bust down doors." "It's okay, I'm going to fly you down," Pixie addressed the group. "One at a time. Who's first?" Stunned man didn't respond. Other man looked skeptical. Okay, stupid idea. Stupid, stupid. "Come with me," she said to the woman, reaching out and firmly grasping her shoulder. "Just put your stuff down and hang on to me, we have to go NOW." |
