Kelly and Matt right in the mix of the bombing of course. Hope you enjoy. That sounds so wrong considering it's a bombing, but you know what I mean. Thank you for the reviews! No ChiFi for a couple of weeks, so I'm cranking this one out pretty fast.
Kelly felt the air sucked out of him. Literally every bit of air sucked out to the point where he felt his lungs so deflated he thought he would never breathe another breath again. This must be what dying feels like, he thought, conscious of how his body was falling down, down. The blast itself didn't hurt; it was so far away from him. He guessed down in the basement. It was everything around him driving into his body that hurt...part of the house collapsing around and on top of him. Literally broken apart.
Finally, he crashed down to the lowest level, couldn't go any deeper except maybe hell itself. His shoulder hit first crashing through boards, his back taking more of the force as he went through wood, landing on concrete, a stopping point at last. He heard the scream pick up again. He hadn't heard the woman in quite some time, had never found her. Now there was that damn scream again.
The pain in his shoulder was a hot fire, his back spasming already, the agony far worse than his broken neck, worse than anything he'd ever felt. He didn't think that was possible, that pain from over a year ago that had him eating pain pills like candy. Stealing them, trading sex for them. Now he thought he'd do all of that and more for them.
He was on his back watching parts of the house fall on his body. Instinctively, he tried to hold his arms up around his head. Only one would go up, the other pinned underneath something. He turned his face to that side looking at the immobile limb as if it belonged to someone else. He dropped his uninjured arm back down not having the strength to keep it up... letting beams, bricks, drywall, the house hit him, wishing something would just knock him out, release him from that pain now covering his body. He realized he was breathing, his chest rising and falling so rapidly, so shallow. His mouth was open, dust and debris falling in, choking him. He couldn't hear the screaming anymore. Right before everything finally went black, he recognized that scream. It was his own.
Casey ran to the house, yelling Kelly's name. Over and over. Picking up one piece of wood after another. Erin following his lead. Part of the left side of the house remained standing but threatening to collapse and join the rest of its parts.
Chief Boden was on the scene looking for his lieutenants. Relief swept over him when he saw his firefighter, alive. He was at Matt's side grabbing him around his shoulders, pulling him in tight for a quick second. He slipped his turnout coat off putting it on the freezing Casey.
"You are getting checked out," he ordered pulling him back, seeing the haggard look in Casey's eyes. Not liking the lack of stability in the partial house above them, he pushed Matt and Erin back.
They looked around at all the paramedics treating the seriously wounded. A scurry of activity, everyone with a purpose. Nurses and doctors who were initially running or cheering on others at the race jumped in wherever needed. Really anyone with any medical training at all helping, treating the fallen.
"Chief, I'm fine. We gotta get Kelly out of there. He was on two," Casey's voice broke and Boden pulled him in again grabbing Erin also.
"What's wrong? What?" Clarke ran up on the three out of breath, panting hard.
"Severide's in there," said chief getting a handle on his emotions.
Clarke didn't say anything, looking at the pile that was a house a few minutes ago.
"Well, why are we just standin' around here playing grab ass. Let's get my lieutenant outta there," he said running to the house.
He did not start pulling pieces of house off the trash heap. Instead, he laid down flat at a dark open part of the pile. He flashed a light inside, not seeing much, just more beams, drywall.
"Severide! Call out!" he yelled into the black abyss. He pressed his head into the hole listening for something, anything. He couldn't hear anything. He knew what the deal was. He knew the chances of finding someone alive in there was slim. He also knew that it was possible. Earthquake victims pulled from under buildings three times the size of this house. People trapped for days...a week.
"Severide! Kelly! Call out!" he screamed louder. Again and again. Pausing to listen in between each call. After the fourth time, he heard it. A small cough, maybe classified as more of a wheeze. It sounded human.
"I heard him!" Clarke yelled at Casey, Boden, and Erin. "I'm gonna snake my way down there. Assess what we got. We'll work out a plan then." He removed his coat and jacket underneath.
"No," Casey said moving toward the gap. "I'm going."
"I can't let you do that," Boden replied grabbing Matt by the arm. "We need you checked out. It's been less than a year since your head injury. Clarke's going."
"I'm going. There isn't a damn thing you can do to stop me," said Casey looking the two men in the eye, challenging them.
"Okay," answered Clarke handing over his helmet with radio, knowing that he'd be wasting time arguing. "Crawl in as far as you can. Hopefully, close enough to get a look at the pocket he's in...how big, stable. You might be able to see how hurt he is. Based on what you find, we'll use a front loader or some small dozer to move this mess. Or we'll have to dig him out by hand."
Clarke knew he was giving some serious orders to a lieutenant and a chief, but he also knew they were having a hard time wrapping their brains around the situation. He'd been in enough binds in the military to know how to let go of all emotion and just act.
"Let's do it," said Casey moving to the gap and pushing in head first.
"Get in, then back out. Make it quick," said Boden holding Matt's shoulder shaking it lightly.
"You got it." Casey went in, the light on his helmet shining a pathway he could see was wide enough for him to get through. He sighed heavily, relieved that there was a gap, he wasn't met with a wall of bricks or wood.
The going was slow, but he was making progress.
"Nothing yet," he said every few feet knowing the people above were waiting for any news.
"Kelly! Call out!" he yelled over and over. "I can hear something," he said knowing the sound was not breathing but more of a groaning. It was the best and worst sound he'd heard. It meant his friend was alive. It also meant his friend was hurt.
It took a good 20 minutes but he finally reached squad's lieutenant, seeing one leg first. He crawled in closer sucking in his breath trying to make himself smaller. The space getting narrower and narrower. He was stopped before he could touch Kelly, a pile of cinderblock and bricks piled up in front of him. The opening just large enough so that Matt could see Kelly's leg. The other leg looked to be under piles of debris. He shone the light in seeing it was really from his hip all the way down to his foot, crushed beneath parts of the house.
It was so quiet, the sound of the groans seemed louder even though they were light.
"Kelly," he whispered. "Kelly," he tried again.
The moaning stopped abruptly.
"Took ya long enough," Kelly whispered back, his voice sounding different.
"Boden, Clarke. I got him. He's alive!"
Casey thought he could hear a cheer from outside but knew it had to be his imagination.
"He's pinned down," he added looking inside, noting the blood all along his friend's leg and hip. He craned his neck in the hole as far as it would go, shining the light directly on Kelly's face.
"No time for moving the crap by hand. Use whatever you got. Just do it." Casey saw that look on Kelly's face in other men's eyes before. Every single time, the victim had died. He knew Kelly cut the noises because he was there. But he was hurt. Bad.
"Okay, back outta there. We're getting the equipment now," commanded Boden.
"Negative. He doesn't have the thirty minutes it'll take me to get out of here. Do it now. Get us out." Casey wasn't moving.
There was no way in hell he was leaving his friend. He switched off the transmitting part of the radio, so no one else could hear him.
"I'm not going anywhere, Kelly. I'm right here, buddy. Okay? I'm right here," Casey pointed the light at his friend's face wishing he could pull him out of there, do something.
"Go. Please g-go," Kelly said a slip of a voice coming out. "I can't have a-a-another friend d-d..." A louder sound came from his lips, a cross between a cry and a scream.
"I can't have another person die on me, Severide, so you better hang in. You hear me?"
Nothing.
"Answer me, dammit," Casey yelled inside the hole.
"I hear ya," whispered Kelly.
Well, what do you think? More soon with a conversation between the friends I wish would have happened on the show.