Chapter 1.
"Willis! It's a kid's cap." Rox held up the pale baseball cap.
"He has to be inside." Willis began his run to the entrance of the burning building. Smoke was billowing from every opening casting hazardous air in every direction.
"Ethan wait!"
"No, you stay here and be ready for any survivors. I'll be right back." He urged, his face already covered in black soot. She nodded and allowed him to enter the building.
"Hello! Hello, is anybody in here!" He yelled, trying to yell louder than the flames around him. His combat boots were protecting his feet from the embers burning underneath him, but the rest of his body was practically unprotected.
There, a child was sitting near a filing cabinet in the back. "I found him!" Ethan yelled, rushing to the unconscious child. "Hey, hey, wake up, you're going to be okay." The child opened his eyes. He gave a few weak coughs before laying still in Willis's arms. Ethan covered the child's face with a handkerchief, "Breath through this."
A cacophony of falling debris resonated throughout the small building, the front entrance was no longer an option.
"Willis! Over here!" Rox was yelling from the window to Willis's right, she had punched through it and broken the glass to create an exit.
Willis could feel his lungs already starting to burn with the effort of breathing now, the smoke was overtaking his tired body. His right arm was already causing him severe pain, only now realising, he had a large gash bleeding freely down his arm. He briefly wondered how it had happened.
"Carefully, watch the glass," he said, handing Rox the boy through the window.
"I got him, come on pal, stay awake." Rox rushed him to the truck outside, ready to give him the proper treatment.
She didn't notice Willis hadn't followed the child out of the window.
There was a large beam that had fallen in front of the window, it's flames growing by the second, licking up the walls until they were near the ceiling. "Shit," Ethan muttered to himself.
His lungs were burning, his chest trying to pull in breaths of oxygen, but instead being replaced with black smoke. He could practically feel the alveoli sputtering out. He grabbed his chest, covering his mouth with his jacket and began searching for a new wait out.
The front entrance, it was far, and he'd have to hurtle another of the burning beams, but at least he didn't have a child in his arms. Just as he was traversing a careful path towards the entrance, he heard the loud creaking of an unstable building. Pieces of the roof were beginning to fall.
"I need out of here, now." Pushing back down the agony of his chest and lungs, he dropped his jacket and tried to make a sprint for the door. His lungs went into an intense spasm, snatching his last breath from his lungs. He fell to one knee, his gloved hand resting on the ground trying to keep him from reaching the floor.
He clutched his chest as he gasped for air, making his severe condition worse. He briefly saw the debris from the ceiling falling to the ground around him, what he hadn't seen was the piece to his left.
The giant piece of ceiling landed on his left side with an intense brunt force. Ethan fell to the ground with a loud yell, his arm and chest were trapped under the wood.
"Rox… Rox." He tried yelling but his lungs wouldn't allow it, it sent him into a coughing fit, his vision began to go dark.
He could hear someone calling his name faintly, lifting his head with all of the strength he could muster, he thought he saw a flash of yellow from a firefighting suit. But he couldn't be sure. He'd have to find out when he woke up… if he woke up.