Because Jasmine was by his side he did not say 'shit' out loud but he certainly thought it when he saw what was written on the side of the barrels in the warehouse they had just entered; 'Highly - Flammable'. Callen did not recognize the chemical symbol on the side of each container but the words were enough indication that they probably wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible considering there were hundreds of barrels stacked about the warehouse.
The shouting and increasing gunshots erupting behind them told him turning around was not an option so they had to press forward and quickly clear this warehouse if they wanted to survive; a stray bullet could set the barrels on fire or as kill them; neither was a good scenario.
Swiftly scanning his environment, Callen noted it was a tall, one-story structure with windows mainly along the upper edge of the building near the ceiling though there were also a few windows along the side of the building. At the far end of the space were two regular and three bay doors, like the ones that you'd find in a warehouse where trucks backed up to a loading dock. The floor of the warehouse was littered with large pieces of abandon machinery along with the hundreds of deadly barrels. Deciding their best avenue of escape was the doors at the far end, Callen firmly gripped Jasmine's hand and dragged her across the space, zigzagging in and around the obstacles.
He could now hear shouting outside the warehouse too, but couldn't make out what was being said. Suddenly, small projectiles burst thru the lower windows, shattering the glass. Canisters containing smoke bombs, rolled across the floor up against the barrels of flammable materials where they let out a 'popping' noise then proceeded to spread a layer of dense fog.
'Great,' Callen thought as if escaping hadn't already been hard enough. Worse, if there were any phosphorus-like materials in those bombs, he and Jasmine were in serious trouble of being caught in a firestorm. Time was of the essence, so he started running across the floor again hauling Jasmine along with him. A quick look over his shoulder confirmed his fear, flames. They need shelter and they needed it fast.
The smoke thickened and visibility was quickly fading. Callen knew they could not make it to the doors at the far end before the first barrels exploded. One hundred feet ahead of them there appeared to be a rectangular pit in the floor; it would offer shelter and relative safety.
"Jasmine, move," he yelled yanking harder on the girl's arm as they sprinted towards it. When they got to the edge of the pit, Callen looked down in it estimating it must be about 12 feet deep. Dropping to his stomach, he dragged Jasmine down with him, then took her by the wrists and swung her over the edge. Extending his arms as far as he could without falling into the hole, he lowered Jasmine towards the pit's floor but she was still a few feet from the bottom.
"Jasmine, I am going to release you. You are going to drop a few feet, nothing scary. You've jumped off higher things."
Her big brown eyes stared trustingly into his blue ones. "No problem Uncle Callen."
Callen was impressed by her willingness to do whatever he asked and it was a good thing too as he could feel his bullet wounds tearing open and bleeding and he wasn't sure he could have held on to her for a prolonged debate.
"Good girl. I am going to drop you on three. One, two," and on three he let go of her wrists. Jasmine dropped the last few feet to the pit's bottom landing easily. She smiled and gave the thumbs up at her Uncle to let him know she was OK.
"Move out of the way, I'm coming down," Callen instructed as he turned his torso and started to shimmy, feet first, on his belly, over the edge, leaving red streaks on the metal floor. It would have been a great plan if some of the flammable barrels had not picked that exact moment to explode. The unexpected shock wave pushed him over the edge in an uncontrolled manner and he felt the searing heat of a fire ball as it skimmed across the top of the pit on its way to the overhead doors, which promptly blew outwards.
Callen hit the bottom of the pit back first which knocked the wind out of him. However, he feared another blast was coming so even as he was gasping for breath, he rolled over, grabbed Jasmine and hauled her into the corner, sheltering her smaller body with his larger one. As he dreaded, a second blast shook the warehouse causing pieces of hot metal to fly thru the air and rain down around them. A few of the fragments landed on Callen's back and he felt the blazing metal slicing his skin followed by a fierce burning sensation on his back. However, Callen didn't care what happened to him as long as he shielded Jasmine from the hot falling debris. After a few more smaller detonations, it grew quieter, in the fact that there were no more big 'booms' just the roar of the flames as they ate their way thru the warehouse.
"Is it safe to come out now Uncle Callen? You're squishing me and no offense but you stink," a plaintive voice said from under him. Biting his lower lip to stifle a groan, Callen carefully maneuvered so he was sitting on his butt facing her, keeping his damaged back from her view; unfortunately he could not hide the blood on the front of his shirt and pants from her. He noted he had also bled on her clothes.
Jasmine sat cross-legged and stared at him. "Now what?" she asked evenly.
Callen was amazed at the girl sitting in front of him who was being quite level-headed about this whole situation. She was better than some highly trained agents he had worked with over the years. As Callen was thinking how amazing Jasmine was, he unconsciously shifted his body to try to reduce the pain in his side and back. When he did that he felt something in his left back jean pocket poke him; Sam's phone.
Callen wanted to smack himself in the head for forgetting he'd taken it off his partner when he had 'frisked' him earlier in the day. Whipping the phone out of his jeans, he was ecstatic to see that it had a signal. "We're gonna call for help," he reassured the brave girl in front of him. He debated a moment who to call, obviously not Sam since Callen had his phone, so instead he dialed Eric.
Another blast shook the warehouse causing Callen to drop the phone and disconnect the call. Swearing, he picked it up and quickly redialed.