Walk Through The Fire - Emergency!

(These guys aren't mine, although I wish they were.)

(PS: A WWOMB Prompt "Walk through the Fire." I thought it was appropriate for "Emergency!" And if you choose to see it as a challenge, and I've never done a challenge before, feel free. It would be interesting to see what others come up with.)

The decision to walk through the fire to rescue the child was simple enough.

Five steps. Maybe six. That's all it would take. Reach down. Grab the child.

I didn't matter that the flames had already engulfed the walls of the room and began consuming the small twin bed.

It didn't even matter that he felt dizzy, hot and ready to pass out or that Roy, already overcome by the heat, was tossed over his shoulder.

He could do it.

All he had to do was walk.

So why wouldn't his legs move?

Five seconds.

An eternity.

Just move, John. Put Roy down, take five steps, maybe six.

Just walk through the fire.

He didn't put Roy down.

Instead, he stared at the flames that licked its way up the door-jamb even as his right foot walked forward. His left foot took him past the threshold. His next right and he was over the boy.

Three steps. It had only taken three steps.

Legs shaking, he bent and scooped the blond child up under his arm just as the flames turned their attention to him.

He would have put the oxygen mask over the boy's pale, sooty face, but his hands were full.

Straightening just as the spray of water washed over him, he ignored the flames that licked at his heels and turned. Making his way out of the room, he surrendered his partner to the two that waited, and shifted the child, cradling him.

Two hours later, as he lay quietly in Exam Room 2 awaiting the results of his tests, John wondered how a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk compared to the life of a child.