BURNED - A Chicago Fire Fanfiction

Prologue

"Zahra!" Jamal called out as he and Kent rushed over, both supporting an injured woman in their arms. "Get her on a bus!"

"What do we got?" I asked as I quickly finished bandaging a man's bleeding head injury.

"A right tibial compound fracture, possible broken ribs, and possible internal damage. We found her in the stairwell on ten, people trampled her."

"Jesus," I sighed and pat the man I was working on on his shoulder. "You should be good to go. Head on out and find someone who can get you to a hospital." The man nodded and carefully stood up and made his way outside.

"Can you take her?" Jamal asked.

"Yeah," I nodded and began to take the woman from him.

"K'eon!" Jamal called out. A few feet away, K'eon was changing out his gloves. "Help Zahra get this woman on a bus."

"You got it!" K'eon nodded and rushed over to assist.

"Wait, you're not coming?"

"Can't sis, I've gotta head back up. There's still a bunch of people trapped."

"Can we get them all?"

"We're sure as hell gonna try," Jamal reassured. K'eon and I took the woman from him and Kent and we began to take her outside, but I stopped and turned to look back at Jamal, who was heading for the stairs.

"Jamal!" I called out. Jamal stopped and turned towards me. "Fly safe, Superman!"

"Go save the world, Wonder Woman," Jamal softly smiled. K'eon and I resumed carrying the woman outside. The deafening sounds of people crying and screaming was replaced with the sounds of sirens and emergency personnel shouting orders.

"Oh, God," K'eon whimpered as he began to look around.

"Don't look," I instructed.

"This is Hell," K'eon stifled a sniffle. "What kind of monster does this shit?"

"Exactly that. A monster. We gotta stay focused, people need us at our best." A paramedic rushed over to us with a gurney and K'eon and I carefully placed the woman on it. "Right tibial fracture, possible broken ribs; she was trampled so possible internal injuries and head trauma."

"I got it," the paramedic nodded and rushed the woman toward the ambulance. K'eon and I looked towards the burning buildings and quietly sighed.

"Shit's gonna get worse from here, isn't it?" K'eon asked.

"Yup," I nodded.

"Nothing's ever gonna be the same."

"After all this? Not a chance." I sighed once more. "Ready to go back in?"

"No...but I gotta be."

"You have my back and I'll have yours." I roughly pat K'eon on his back and we began jogging through the crowd of people. Small fires were everywhere, the road was covered in ash, rubble, and detritus such as metal, paper, glass, and blood. We had to hurry, but having to watch our step and avoid the falling debris diminished our speed. K'eon, suddenly stopped and grabbed me by my shirt, forcing me to jolt back at the sudden stop.

The street filled with the sound of what sounded like a freight train. The ground trembled beneath our feet. The shouts were quickly replaced with screams of panic as a wave of people ran towards us, trying their best to get to safety as the same words kept repeating from everyone who ran: they're coming down!

K'eon grabbed me even tighter and dragged me over to a nearby building that was letting people inside for shelter. The store owner let us inside along with a couple of others before forcing the door shut behind us. The streets filled with smoke, the sunlight disappeared into the thick clouds, filling the city with darkness.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

My eyes jolted open as my alarm began to go off. My body was drenched in sweat, my breath heavy with panic. I caught my breath as my mind and body slowly acknowledged where I was. I reached over and turned off my alarm and slowly sat up. My bedroom door creaked open. I looked up at K'eon as he stared at me from the doorway.

"You okay?" K'eon asked, earning a sleepy nod from me. "Another dream?" I nodded once more. "You should really talk to someone about it, Zahra. You've been through a lot."

"I'm fine," I reassured.

"Zahra," K'eon sighed with defeat. "Come on, we gotta be at work soon." K'eon shut the door behind him. Slowly, I climbed out of bed and made my way over to my mirror and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. My face was tagged with exhaustion. No matter how much sleep I got, I'd never shake that look. I ran my hands through my hair and let out a shaky sigh.

I walked over to my closet and grabbed my uniform shirt from its hanger and placed it on the bed. I made my way over to my dresser and grabbed a clean bra, underwear, socks, and my uniform pants. I stopped and looked at the photographs on my dresser. My Mom and Dad's wedding photo, a family vacation to Disney World, and a photograph of Ladder 37's firehouse. Everyone stood outside and smiled. In dead center was Jamal, standing and smiling with pride; I was standing off to the side with the other EMT's from Ladder 37.

It was fortunate that Mom and Dad died years before Jamal, no parent should ever deal with the death of their child. I know I wasn't ready to do it, I can only imagine how they would've gotten through it all. Mom and Dad died in a car accident back in '97. I was just sixteen at the time, Jamal was already twenty. It was just us two when they died; Jamal took care of the funeral arrangements and we both ended up splitting their life insurance policy and inherited all their belongings and properties. We couldn't stand living at home, but we couldn't bear the thought of some stranger living in our parent's home either, so we stayed.

I looked over at my bedside table as I placed the rest of my clothes on the bed. My folder was still open from the night before. When Mom and Dad died, we began sifting through their belongings and trashing what didn't need to be kept. We came across a safe in Dad's office and K'eon came over with some of his dad's tools and helped us crack it open. A Rolex was sitting in its box, completely untouched, a few stacks of emergency money equalling out to fifteen hundred dollars, and a manilla envelope with my name on it sat inside it. Inside the envelope was my entire childhood. Hospital records from when I broke my arm falling off my bike when I was seven, school photos, my vaccine records, my birth certificate, social security card, and my adoption papers.

Jamal swore he didn't know I was adopted, but part of me thinks he always knew but didn't want to say anything. Nothing changed between us when I found out I was adopted, but I think he was afraid that I wouldn't look to him as a brother anymore. I loved my parents, I loved Jamal, nothing was changing that.

Still, a part of me wondered what happened to my biological parents. All I knew was that I was adopted from Chicago and I was abandoned at a fire station when I was only a day old. I wondered if I was a surprise, planned, I wondered if they lacked the ability or funds to care for me, or maybe my mother was just in a bad situation and gave me up to keep me safe.

As I began to change, the bedroom door opened; I quickly covered myself up as K'eon entered the room with a cup of coffee. "Here, this should get your ass in gear," K'eon smiled as he placed the cup on my dresser.

"Dude, I'm getting dressed," I chastised. "Ever heard of knocking?"

"Yes, but I've seen your tits a million times and nothings changed. You still have the body of Kate Winslet and I'm still as gay as Leslie Jordan at a gay bar." I tossed my shirt at his face and laughed. "Seriously, hurry up or we'll be late for roll call. I for one don't wanna hear the annoying late jokes from squad again."

"They are bad, ain't they?"

"There's a reason why they're firefighters and not comedians," K'eon smirked. "I'll make us breakfast to go."

"Wraps?"

"With potatoes. Don't worry girl, I got you." K'eon exited the room, leaving me to dress once more. I grabbed my coffee and took a drink, smiling with content as taste of my favorite coffee with mocha creamer filled me with delight. I finished getting dressed and made my way back over to the mirror, double checking to make sure my uniform was up to code. I took another drink of my coffee and sighed.

"Go save the world, Wonder Woman," I softly spoke and gave myself a forced smile. Words. His words...they'll never have the same ring to it.