I was going to save this for when I finished another one, but oh, well. I think you can guess how this one is going to end, but again, oh, well.

Hero

1969

Red thought he knew every aspect of his job as a firefighter. He put out fires around town and he rescued anybody inside. Everyone in town admired and respected him for his profession (and they respected him as a person, of course).

Did being a firefighter really make him a hero? What made a hero a hero? These were the questions the crossed Red's mind as he watered the flowers, a hobby of his. He didn't really see himself as a hero; he was just doing his job. Besides, he liked helping others. Although he was shy, nobody in Radiator Springs had any doubts about that. Still, he pondered over these thoughts every once in a while...

That is, until one fateful night in August 1969 where Red discovered the true meaning of the word hero.


Of course, Red hadn't expected the day to be fateful. He was just watering his flowers as he always did, enjoying the quiet. Not too long ago, the Interstate was built, completely wiping out tourism in Radiator Springs. This worried most of the town's residents, but Red didn't mind it as much as everyone else. Sure, he also worried that the town wouldn't survive, but he did like the quiet. Growing up in a large, crowded, loud orphanage after his parents had lost their lives in a horrific wildfire, Red took quiet whenever he could.

Still, he missed his friends when they left or passed away. A lot of the residents had fled for big cities. Howard and Jonathan had been killed in Vietnam. The Warszawski twins had left three years earlier to perform on Broadway like they always dreamed of doing. Most recently, Francis, Kath and their kids had moved to Chicago, so Francis could take a job at a large hospital.


Anyway, after watering the flowers, Red made his way over to Flo's where the rest of the loyal residents of Radiator Springs had gathered. There were Sheriff, Flo, Ramone and their two daughters (Grace and Angelica), Sarge, Fillmore, Luigi, Guido, Mater, Lizzie, Stanley, William, Alice, Peter, Susan and their children (Richard, Agnes and Billy), Ethel, Julia, Miriam, Robert, Janice and Victoria. They would support each other through these tough times, even though each of them was hurting. This particular evening at Flo's was filled with half-hearted conversation. Nobody felt much like talking when they were all dealing with such problems.


Later that evening, the townsfolk went their separate ways. Nobody was tired (how could they be when they hadn't done anything all day?), but they were so depressed that most of them retired early. Red was not one of them. He just stayed outside the fire station, staring at the town, once again enjoying the quiet. There was so much beauty to the town and its surrounding area. The neon lights (the townsfolk kept them going, hoping that someone would see them). The gorgeous red rocks. The quaint little businesses. The water trickling from the Stanley statue. The smell of smoke. The-

Wait! The smell of smoke?! Red glanced up and sure enough, to his horror, thick, black smoke was billowing into the air. Several orange embers danced into the night sky. It looked like it was coming from the other side of town.

"Red! Red!" Twelve-year-old Mater came charging towards the fire station. "Sheriff done sent me! Da clothes shop is on fire!"

That was all Red needed to hear. He shot past Mater and raced down the street to the very end of town where P+S Clothing Emporium was.


When he got there, tall orange flames were consuming the building. The flames shot out of the two front windows and crept slowly towards the apartment upstairs where Peter, Susan and their three kids lived.

A small crowd consisting of everyone in town had gathered. Just about all of them looked frightened to death, especially the children. The two five-year-olds, Victoria Morrison and Billy Donovan- the latter of whom had been dragged out of bed to escape the blaze- were crying hysterically. So was Susan Donovan. Her husband had a sad, shocked look on his face as he kept his arms around her. Alice Donovan had given her a coat to wear as they stood there on a surprisingly cold night.

"Is everyone out?" Red demanded right away.

"I think so!" Sheriff replied. Then he glanced back at the owners. "Peter? Susan?"

Susan nodded, struggling to find her voice. "Yes. You got Richard out, didn't you, Peter?"

"Yes. He's right here." Peter jerked his thumb towards his fifteen-year-old son, who was watching the fire in horror.

"And I got Billy and Agnes out", Susan added, casting a glance towards Billy, who hugged his teddy bear as he cried. "Agnes... Where's Agnes?!" she shrieked.

"I'm sure she's around here somewh-" Sheriff began.

He stopped talking when he gazed towards the house. From one of the upstairs windows, a dark shadow was visible.

"Oh, my God!" Susan bawled hysterically.

"I'll get her!" Red darted into the flames. "Don't you worry, Susan! Sheriff, make sure no one else gets closer to the store!"

"Can do!" Sheriff assured him.

Behind him, the rest of the town's residents continued to look on with even more horror than before. William, Alice, Peter and Susan began to pray.


"Agnes!" Red shouted, hoping he would hear a response. Though, it would be next to impossible to hear anything with the roar and crackling of the fire and the intense shrieking of the smoke alarm. "AGNES!"

He made his way towards the second storey, dousing the flames with water along the way.

"Agnes!" he called her again. "Agnes!"

Finally, he found eight-year-old Agnes in her bedroom, huddled under her bed, clutching a stuffed dog. She was coughing and gasping for breath as silent tears streamed down her face. It was hard to tell when the house was so dark (apart from where it was lit up by the fire, of course), but it looked like she had some nasty burns on her arms and legs.

"Come on!" Red pulled her out from under the bed and scooped her up. "We have to get out of here!"


It was a slow trip back outside. Smoke made visibility poor. Flames blocked some of the path, so first Red had to put them out. Debris fell from the ceiling, making it hard to see and all the more dangerous.

To make things even worse, just as they were trying to get past the kitchen, Red felt Agnes go limp in his hold.

"Agnes!" he gasped. "Agnes, can you hear me?"

No response. Her eyes were closed. Red didn't even think she was breathing. Though, it was hard to tell with all the noise going on around him.

"We're almost there, Agnes!" the fire truck whispered. He could see the night sky through the thick smoke and could faintly hear the sounds of crying and shouting. "Just stay with me!"

Red had been inside P+S Clothing Emporium before and he swore that the front door had never seemed so far away. He was edging forward an inch what felt like every two minutes.

"Red!" There was Sheriff's voice, sounding a lot closer now.

"I'm almost there!" Red called back. Then he looked back at Agnes. "Come on, Agnes! Stay with me! We're almost there!"

Closer and closer. The door seemed much more reachable now. In fact, Red could see Sheriff with his lights on.

"Red's takin' too long!" Susan shrieked tearfully. "I'm goin' in!" She tried to run past Sheriff, but he was too fast for her.

"No!" he insisted. "It's far too dangerous!" He turned and looked. "Besides, I see him now!"

Finally, he made it to the doorway and to the safety of the outside.

"Oh! Agnes!" Susan wept, rushing forward to her daughter. She was horrified to find that she was unconscious.

"Red! Are you and Agnes all right?!" everyone was shouting worriedly.

Sheriff took the young girl from Red, so he could resume fighting the fire and carried her a safe distance away from the burning building. She still hadn't regained consciousness and now, her stuffed dog dropped to the floor. Alice picked it up, insisting she'd keep it safe for her granddaughter.

"Someone, call an ambulance!" Sheriff ordered as he began chest compressions.

"I will!" Luigi offered, speeding off.


Red didn't really know what happened to Agnes for a while after that. All he really knew was that paramedics came after what felt like an eternity (it would take them a long time to get there since Radiator Springs is about as remote as you can get, although they were in a medical helicopter). They pulled an oxygen mask over Agnes's face and loaded her into the helicopter. Peter and Susan were quick to jump in after her.

"Call us as soon as you have news!" William hollered after them.

Susan didn't acknowledge him, but Peter assured him, "We will."

Red was aware of all this, but he was too focused on getting the fire out to pay much attention. It seemed to take a long time. These flames just did not want to be controlled. It was made all the more difficult being the entire fire department by himself. Of course, the others offered to help him out if he needed, but they weren't certified firefighters and Red did not want to risk them getting hurt. Or worse. Still, he wished for some backup, trying to stop this fire.


However, Red had never met a fire he couldn't contain. It took a few hours, but finally, there was much more smoke than flame. There were just a handful of small fires here and there instead of one big inferno. By that point, the sun had come all the way up and the damage was clear. Only one wall of the entire building still stood. The rest of it was just one huge pile of smoking rubble. Needless to say, there really wasn't much left. Plus, the smell was horrendous.

The rest of the town's residents just stared silently at the debris. Not one of them could speak for the longest time.

"What do we do now?" Luigi asked finally. It was the question on everyone's mind, but nobody had had the courage or energy to muster it.

Nobody answered. They all just fell silent as if Luigi had asked a very hard question.

Finally, Alice heaved a loud sigh. "Peter, Susan and the kids can stay with us", she announced finally. "I'll make sure the guest room is ready for them." She led Billy and Richard away.

"I'll help", Miriam offered. "We have plenty of bedding at the motel." She used to be a regular worker in the motel, but with the recent decline in tourism and everyone fleeing as a result, she became the only employee left and now, she owned and ran it.

William followed them, hobbling on his crutches. "I'll stay by the phone in case Peter and Susan call."

Sarge, Fillmore and Ethel offered to go into Ashgrove to secure new belongings for the family. Flo was going to whip up lots of food for everyone. Stanley, Lizzie, Ramone, Guido and Luigi volunteered to look after the children (and answer the millions of questions they were likely to have). Of course, Red, with the assistance of Sheriff, was going to investigate P+S Clothing Emporium to determine where and why the fire started.


Beneath his tyres was nothing but debris. Most of it was bits of ceiling and sooty metal racks that had once held clothes for sale in the store. There were charred books, sooty dolls, blackened stuffed animals, burnt silverware. So far, nothing stood out as evidence for a fire. Red looked at all the electrical items around the building (or at least, all the ones that were left). Not even they were out of the ordinary.

In the midst of all the horrendous smells like burnt rubber, thick smoke and wet odours, Red thought he could smell something else. Was that... gasoline? For a brief moment, he thought it was. Then the smell disappeared as quickly as it arrived.

"I doubt the stove or the oven were left on", Sheriff mused when Red reported this to him. "Everyone was asleep." By this point, there were in what had once been the kitchen. The kitchen table and chairs still stood, although they were completely blackened.

"You're right", Red agreed. He looked around at the kitchen. Besides the table and chairs, there really wasn't much left. Although, there were several half charred papers around. A lot of them were bills, demanding large amounts of money immediately. For about half a second, he felt like maybe the pieces were starting to pile up. He just couldn't bring himself to put them together. "Maybe we should talk to Peter and Susan. Maybe we can find out when and how they discovered the fire."

Sheriff nodded in agreement. "We'll make sure it's safe to leave the scene and then we'll go."

So, they did. The scene wasn't exactly safe, but it was safe enough to leave, just as long as nobody went near it. They trusted the adults to stay away until they got back and they trusted them to keep the children away as well. Then they were on their way to St. Helena's Children's Hospital in Velo City, which had just been constructed the year before.


Velo City was three hours away from Radiator Springs. So, they were hoping by the time they got there, there was some news on Agnes. It looked as though they might be. Susan was just hanging up the phone.

"How's Agnes?!" they quizzed the parents immediately.

Peter sighed heavily. "She's in a critical, but stable condition", he reported quietly. "The doctors are doing everything they can."

Sheriff nodded. "Peter, Susan, is it all right if we ask a couple of questions about how the fire started?"

Both Peter and Susan hesitated. They looked at each other seriously before facing Sheriff again and nodding.

"Where were you when the fire started?"

"We were upstairs in bed", Susan replied, confused. "We heard the smoke alarm, got up, got the kids and left."

"And you have no idea what caused the fire?"

"No!" Peter insisted a little too forcefully. "We just told you we got out of there as soon as we knew! We didn't even bother to look for a cause! We just needed to get ourselves and our kids out of there!"

"Right. And what time was this?"

"Twelve-forty-five, I think."

"What time did you go to bed?"

"Ten-thirty", Peter answered. "We'd been reading the paper in the living room and then went up to bed."

"And you didn't have a fire in the fireplace or any cigarettes?" Sheriff knew both Peter and Susan smoked.

"No!" Peter shouted. "I think we would've told you if we did!"

Red and Sheriff exchanged puzzled, concerned glances. Something was going on. They just weren't sure what.

So, talking to Peter and Susan wasn't much help. Red was just going to have to see what a search through the rubble turned up. Maybe some faulty wiring or a cigarette. That would have to wait until the next day, though. It was getting late.


"Hey, Red!" a voice called out early the next morning.

Red smiled as Richard Donovan approached him. "Hello, Richard. How can I help you?"

"I just wanted to say thank you for everything you've done", Richard began sheepishly.

Red smiled modestly. "I was just doing my job."

"Do... Do you happen to know what caused the fire?" Richard wondered.

"Unfortunately, no." The fire truck told the human teenager everything he knew so far, which wasn't much.

Richard's face scrunched up in confusion. "My parents weren't in bed at quarter to one", he informed Red, puzzled. "I was up at about midnight with a sore throat. Then I heard them get up and go downstairs. They didn't turn any lights on, so I just assumed they didn't wanna wake us up. About fifteen minutes later, I heard the smoke alarm."

Red's eyes widened in horror. "Are you sure about this?"

Richard nodded seriously. "Positive."

That was an interesting, but terrifying piece of information. Red thought he knew what was going on. He just hoped it wasn't true.


Red had to find out for sure. The only way to confirm his suspicions would be to determine the cause of the fire. So, he returned to digging through the debris, hoping to turn up clues. There still didn't appear to be much to go off of: bits of ceiling, burnt clothes and clothing racks, toys. Somewhere at the very bottom of the pile, Red unearthed very disturbing evidence. There were several old newspapers. That wasn't unusual since all of the Donovans were huge history buffs and liked to save old newspapers. The disturbing part was that the paper appeared to be doused in some kind of liquid. And there was that smell of gasoline again.

As he picked the paper up, something fell out of it. Red's eyes widened in horror as he discovered what it was: a cigarette.

Okay. Had he just discovered a cigarette amongst newspapers, he wouldn't have thought too much of it. It was possible that they'd accidentally tossed a lit cigarette on the stack of newspapers. But a newspaper covered in gasoline? There was no way that could be an accident.

All of a sudden, Red was nervous. What was he going to do? Peter and Susan were his dear friends. He didn't want to believe that they could do something like this. Still, the evidence pointed to them. Everything Red knew told him that this fire was deliberately lit. He had to turn them in to Sheriff... Then again, surely they would know it was him who reported it. What would they do? What would they say? Surely, they would be very angry.


It wasn't for another hour and a half pondering over these thoughts that it hit Red. Just like that, he knew, he knew, what made a hero a hero. It was doing the right thing. No matter what. Reporting the incident to Sheriff was the right thing to do. He shouldn't worry about what Peter and Susan would do (although, he was still a little afraid).

Just wanting to get it over with, Red raced down Main Street, eager to find Sheriff. He was behind the Radiator Springs billboard, where he usually did his patrols.

"Hello, Red", Sheriff greeted him casually. "What can I do for you? Any luck findin' out what started the fire?"

"Yes", Red replied quietly. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about."

He explained his discovery (feeling a bit safer because Peter and Susan were in Velo City, at the hospital with Agnes) and Sheriff's eyes widened in disbelief.

"I just wouldn't have thought they could do something like this", Red concluded softly. "Why would they..."

"People can do the most extreme things when they're desperate", Sheriff responded just as softly. At Red's questioning looks, he added, "Remember all those bills we found on the kitchen table?"

That was when it clicked in Red's mind. "They wanted the insurance money!" he realised. No wonder. Times had been hard on the entire town lately, both emotionally and financially.

"We better gather up all the evidence", Sheriff informed him. "Then I can arrest them."


So, they did and Sheriff was satisfied that he had enough evidence to arrest them.

"We'll head to Velo City right now", Sheriff announced.

As it turned out, that wasn't necessary. Peter and Susan strolled towards them right at that moment.

"Agnes was asking for Cookie", Susan explained quietly. Cookie was the name of Agnes's stuffed dog. "We thought we'd stop by to see how your investigation was going."

Red and Sheriff glanced at each other for a moment.

"We found the newspapers covered in gasoline", the latter reported.

"What are you talking about?" Peter asked, feigning confusion.

"You started that fire to collect the insurance money!" Sheriff accused.

"We have no idea what you're talking about!" Peter affirmed.

"We have the evidence right here!" Sheriff started raising his voice.

"We have done nothing!" Peter raised his voice too.

"Stop it, Peter!" Susan screeched as her tears started up. "JUST STOP IT!" She looked back at the police car and fire truck in front of her and continued in a much quieter tone. "Yes, we started the fire. We needed the money. But we never meant to hurt our daughter." She cried even harder.

Peter said nothing.

Sheriff sighed. "Peter and Susan Donovan, you're under arrest for arson. Put your hands behind your back."

Susan obeyed. After a few moments, Peter did the same. Sheriff put the handcuffs on each of them, starting with the, "You have the right to remain silent", as he lead them in the direction of his office.


2009

"I remember it was a real shock seeing them get arrested", Flo recalled.

"But I don't think anyone was more shocked than William and Alice", Ramone chimed in. "They practically fainted when they saw them in handcuffs."

"That fire sounds really scary", Fudge repeated at the end of Red's story.

"Yeah", Lightning agreed.

Fudge looked at her fathers. "I hope you guys never do that."

Luigi didn't even smile. He knew his daughter was genuinely scared. "Of course. We would never do that."

"By the way", Sally spoke up, "what happened to Agnes? I don't think you ever said."

"It took about two months, but she made a full recovery", Sheriff reported. "Then she moved to California with her brothers to stay with Susan's sister."

Sally, Lightning and Fudge all sighed with relief.

"That was a scary story!" Fudge insisted one more time. "Does anybody have any happier stories?"

Lizzie smiled. "I'm sure we've got plenty of those."