"Officer down! Officer down! Requesting EMS immediately!"

Danny stuffed the hand-held radio back into his pocket as he tried to run through the debris. The dust in the room was thicker than honey from the brick crumbling just moments earlier. He coughed and spat as his lungs objected to the lack of clean air, but continued running anyway. More of the building fell apart around him as he maneuvered through it and the walls didn't exist anymore. The historic little church was gone.

He tossed everything in his path as he tried to get further into the mess, closer to his friend who was lying in the middle of the chaos, under the weight of it. Though he couldn't see through the dirty cloud that had filled the air around him, he knew he was close. It was a small structure and he could just feel his best friend's presence.

And then he saw him.

His arm was the only thing Danny could see at first. The light blue shirt he wore, still rolled up to his elbow, was torn and stained with blood. He could see more torn clothing and blood as he began to pull pieces of brick, plaster, and wood from Don's body, and he knew he was in bad shape. When he tossed a piece of a support beam away from his feet, the sight scared him and made him sick all at once. With the large beam out of the way, Danny was able to push away the one beneath it that was pinning his friend's shoulder down and covering his face. Every inch of the skin on his face was covered in a light coating of dust from the collapse, interrupted occasionally by a scratch or cut.

He knelt down next to him, nervously searching for a heartbeat, afraid he might not find one. He nearly cried out when he could feel a weak pulse in his neck. But he knew Flack was far from okay. "Flack, help's on the way, man. You just hang in there." He squeezed his hand quickly before standing again.

He made quick work of retracing his steps, trying to better clear the path he had taken to get to Flack, in hopes that the EMTs would be able to get to him that much faster.

Just as he was kneeling back in front of the detective, he heard the familiar wail of an ambulance siren approaching. When they pulled up, he waved them in frantically and pointed out the path he made.

Flack was strapped to a backboard and carried out of the rubble within minutes. As he was loaded into the back of the rig, the technician told Danny which hospital to meet them at. He nodded blankly and stepped back as the ambulance pulled away, almost in slow motion.

He didn't move, didn't blink, wasn't even sure he was breathing. As he started to walk away, trying to remember where his truck was parked, across the street maybe, he heard voices and commotion.

He turned to see Stella and Mac running toward him, Mac clutching his radio in his hand. That's when he remembered his own radio, tucked away in his pocket, and he distantly remembered hearing it ringing out while he was digging Flack out of the rubble; Mac had probably trying to find out more information since the initial distress call.

"Danny, what happened?" Stella demanded as she grabbed Danny's arms, looking his body up and down for injuries.

He looked back at the remains of the old church, then back to Stella. "Flack. The building…it collapsed before we got out."

"Danny?" Stella pushed him to continue.

He was quickly losing focus and knew that within a matter of minutes he would be of no use to anyone as he went into a shock-like state, trying to process everything that happened. He blinked hard as he felt tears stinging at his eyelids, threatening to the surface.

"He looked bad, Stell. He may not make it."

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I heard a crack behind me. It was faint, but I heard it. And I knew I was in serious trouble. I started running before Danny even yelled to get out.

We knew the building was old and unstable. But we were told that it was safe to go in as long as we didn't mess with the supports on the back wall. We made a point of staying away from that wall. In fact, we didn't touch any wall. We only looked around. After taking a few more pictures and lifting a shoeprint from the dust on the floor, Danny decided that he had enough evidence for his case without risking anymore time in the shaky old building.

I took the evidence box out to the truck while Danny packed up his kit. When I met him back inside, he had his stuff packed up and he was ready to go. We were headed for the door when the supports along the wall started to give.

As soon as I heard that sound, I felt my heart skip a beat. I remembered Danny dropping his kit and yelling to get out. And I didn't even need to be told the first time to move; I was fast on my feet right behind him. But not faster than the first beam that fell from overhead, landing on my right shoulder and pinning me to the floor. I saw Danny running ahead of me still. He didn't realize that I was stuck now, and I wasn't about to turn him around just for him to end up with the same fate.

As I struggled under the weight of the piece of ceiling that was holding my body down, I could hear the building quickly crumbling all around me. I knew in a matter of seconds, most of it would be on the ground and I would be on the bottom of the mess. This would be my demise and my mind flashed back on all of the great moments I had in my life in that instant.

Then suddenly, the world went black.