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Chapter One

Ricky

You never knohich call will end up being your last

The adrenaline flooded throughoutaround the table in the lounge playing so the nice, relaxing day when the bell started ringing and we had to grab our gear and rush to the trucks It had been a relatively sloeek in the fire game, but you could never really let yourself relax and think that everything was going to stay that way for long That’s the way it was, the nature of the beast Sole fire and then we’d have a here we’d have one or two calls a day

Regardless, when the call finally cahtly by some invisible force and you would experience the fear that most people would never ever think of They were lucky It was the worst kind of fear You were up against a formidable enemy, a brute force of nature, and you didn’t know if you would get out alive And you weren’t sure if the people who needed your help would get out alive either

I tried not to overthink as I grabbedhastily to the truck But soo That was a dangerous situation In training and in practice we learned to respect the enemy, but never fear it Fear would paralyze you, it would uess yourself, and s cost lives And one day it would cost you your own

I couldn’t have that I had Zoe to think about Sweet Zoe, el I was all she had since her o Amanda… the love of my life It had been over two years since she’d succued her body My sas gone, laid to rest, leaving Zoe and me alone I’d tried to do the best I could for Zoe on ood job

“We’re alae on the scene today, which basically ht down to the most subtle of movements He was basically the coach of the tea and you wanted to stay alive, you better listened to what the thirty nine year veteran firefighter had to say without a question

When we got to the blaze, even I was shocked by the ht fire illus, practicallyin the wind like so to be set free

The truck stopped and we all hopped out There was a crowd of people standing in front of the house - watching, and so It was iht have actually lived there It was usually easy to tell since they were emotional and visibly upset typically

Quickly, one young wo “Amber is still in there! I can’t find her anywhere!”

“Do you knohere she ht be? How old is she?”

“She is twenty I don’t know! I fell asleep!”