Page 4 of Hollywood Undercover
Chapter 2
SEBASTIAN was focused.He and his team had to be fearless tonight. Controlling this raging fire had already been hell. Sirens wailed and the sound grew louder as an ambulance hurtled to a halt near the curb. Uniformed police officers were already onsite, struggling to maintain the perimeter with the expanding crowd. The once sleepy neighborhood street transformed into a scene from any family’s worstnightmare.
Neighbors gathered outside the burning single story residence, their concerned faces illuminated by the orange and red flames lighting up the dark night sky. The voices in the growing crowd didn’t help. They blended into a monotone rumble, except for one frantic cry that overruled all the noise. Sebastian noticed a woman running up to him, dressed only in a tattered robe, with bare feet and wildhair.
“They’re still in there!” she screamed. “My babies are still in their bedroom! I couldn’t get to them! Oh myGod!”
Sebastian was one of the firefighters preparing to enter the house. Others were on the hoses, raining down high arcs of water from several directions. Somehow, the wild flames still pushed dangerously through the windows that had been shattered. The fire was fully involved by then. It took several police officers to safely pull the panicked mother out of harm’s way, and to keep her from trying to re-enter the house. Sebastian felt for her. She had to be feeling overwhelmed withuncertainty.
“We’re going in now, ma’am,” he reassured her as his team geared up toenter.
Time was of the essence. Within moments, he was the first one through the front door of the house. Inside, all he could hear was the deafening hiss of steam as water hit the flames nearby. Three more firefighters followed behind him. None of them were deterred by the wall of fire blocking their path. This was what they were trained to face as a search-and-rescueunit.
“Keep going, guys. Watch your step,” he called out to encourage his crew. They split into two teams so they could cover more ground. No matter how many times he did this, he always got that nervous feeling. As lead man, he was confident in his abilities. He was the right person for the job, and responsible for his team. He knew how high the stakes were, for them and the people they were sent in to save. It was a lot on any one man’s shoulders, but he refused to doubt himself in the heat of the moment. Not this night. Not when there were children relying on him, and a woman out there who would die inside if he didn’t get them outsafely.
He struggled between breaths to listen for the sound of children’s voices. The monstrous roar of the fire and his rapid, shallow inhales and exhales through the breathing apparatus drowned out some of the noise. There were also pops and creaks of walls settling, glass breaking, water cascading down walls, things falling around them—everything but the sound he was desperately trying tohear.
Please, let them bealive.
He methodically moved through the house. From the living room, through the kitchen, and into a short corridor that led to several bedrooms, he and his men waded through what felt like the bowels of hell. In the back of his mind, he tried to keep track of the slow-paced movement of time. As slow as it felt, he knew they were running out of it. Behind him, everywhere the fire had died down, there was stillness and quiet. The firefighters outside were making progress. Through the smoke up ahead, he could make out a faint orange glow. It was the last of the crackling fire in this part of the house. But the smoke was too thick for him to see much else. He began to move more quickly. Those kids were running out ofair.
Just as he made it to the last bedroom of the house, he bumped into an oddly placed piece of furniture. It sat smack in the middle of the hallway, and stopped him dead in his tracks. Searing pain shot through hisknee.
“Dammit!” he growled through grittedteeth.
“You alright,Bash?”
He felt a hand on his shoulder. His teammate, Jeff Barker, gestured for Sebastian to get back outside to tend to hisinjury.
“I’m fine,” he shouted back, tensing through the pain until it became a dullthrob.
He took careful steps, and there was almost no visible limp. He was too close to turn back now. Pushing into the bedroom, he called out the kid’s names. He looked past the blaze at the bed in the middle of the room. The flickering light illuminated a child-size bundle beneath the covers. He groaned in dread. Then, suddenly he heard it. It was the sound of coughs and sobs, coming from thecloset.
He turned to Jeff. “I can hearthem!”
With his heart racing, he tested the heat of the door handle. Gesturing for Jeff to stand back, Sebastian carefully opened the closet door. Each of them gathered up a child in their arms. They signaled the other two firefighters performing search-and-rescue, and everyone made it out of the house alive. Outside, he and Jeff passed the kids to the paramedics. The children’s mother showed her heart-felt relief. She kissed her little ones over and over as they were placed into gurneys and lifted into the back of anambulance.
As Sebastian stepped away from the happy reunion, his leg seized. His knee was injured more seriously than he had firstthought.
* * *
“Just giveit to me straight, Dr.Orwell.”
Sebastian was itching to finish up his visit to the emergency room. Flexing his knee, he looked at the x-rays that the orthopedic surgeon loaded on the computerscreen.
“See this here and here?” the doctor asked, pointing out two sections with a stylus. “That’s a rip in your meniscus, and those are some tiny bone fragments in the joint space. It’s nothing life-threatening, but it’s going to keep you off that leg for a few weeks, and it’s going torequire—”
“Don’t say it,” Sebastiangroaned.
“Surgery,” he answered. “Yes, I know that’s not what you want to hear, but we can’t have those fragments moving around. We’ll want to take a closer look by doing an arthroscopy. It’s a simple procedure. We’ll go in with a camera and see what can be repaired. The good news is we can fix it once we know more. For now, you can start some physical therapy, get the arthroscopy procedure, and eventually, you’ll be back on yourfeet.”
“What’s the badnews?”
“You’ll be out of work for a fewmonths.”
Dammit.
“Did you saymonths?”
