Steph looked at the smoke damaged homeless. It was sad that one of their own would light a fire like that in a revenge stunt. How had a simple afternoon turned into a firefight? Crimson and Sabrina had smoke inhalation, badly, Selena's elbow and part of her rib cage had been given a third degree burn, two homeless had died and those who remained were singed, charred, and now had scarred lungs. All because one man had been caught stealing from a bar.
Steph breathed in and remembered she was hooked up to an oxygen tank. Almost everyone was on oxygen right now. Except for two homeless half sisters. They had escaped with only a few singes here and there. Steph looked over at Mark who was watching the damaged cars and temporary sheds be carted away. A male nurse was wrapping some bandages around a minor cut and some burns. Steph was proud she hadn't panicked and that they'd helped in saving those that had been saved.
Steph looked up at the stars, how long had it been since the fire started? Six, eight hours? She remembered what had happened after Crimson burst in...
They rushed outside and heard screaming from under the overhang of a bridge. The flames were huge and the smoke wasn't helping. Selena screamed for someone and Sabrina followed her towards the rising flames. Crimson and Mark had run in the direction the girls had taken and Steph followed suit.
Six homeless were trapped inside a burning section of what once was their home. Three managed to escape and the others were still inside. The two sisters had been the furthest back and Selena and Mark and almost lost their lives trying to save them. Sabrina had found a fire extinguisher somewhere and had doused the flames surrounding the closest homeless, after they realized they were missing the sisters and an elder couple Selena had rushed into the higher flames towards the screaming and Mark followed her.
Selena had been burned after she let the sisters run and the elders were already dead by the time Mark got to them. Mark and Selena tried to recover the bodies and a part of the rafters above fell, which ignited Mark's leg and unfortunately for a tripped Selena her side. They made it out with flames still lit on them and Sabrina used the fire extinguisher to finish the flames.
Steph remembered helping the homeless who escaped and then the sirens. She remembered Selena passing out from pain and the EMT's carrying her into the ambulance, they hadn't received word if she was alright or not. It had been a sad day.
Steph looked at Mark again and he smiled and waved when he noticed her staring. She did the same in return and relaxed slightly. The nurse finished on Mark and let him remove the oxygen mask and he walked over to her. He had a slight limp and was pretty unconcerned about it.
"Mrs. Callaway? You can take off your oxygen mask now." a female nurse reported.
"Thank you." Steph said, pulling off the mask.
"So, do I still look pretty?" Mark asked Steph, motioning towards his leg.
Steph laughed and made everyone jump. She lunged into his arms and had a mental breakdown. She started crying, laughing and just humming in between.
"You will always look pretty to me." she said in between breaths.
Sabrina popped over and said the EMT's had cleared Crimson and her to leave. Soon word came that Steph and Mark were cleared to leave and Sabrina asked if they wanted to go out to dinner.
"Are we really in the state to go out to eat?" Steph asked.
"We're going to the hospital to check on Selena, last I heard she inhaled a lot of smoke. We can eat in the cafe there." Sabrina replied.
"OK. Lead the way."
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More cliffhangers? I need to jump cut to the hospital scene. I will try to update tomorrow!
The next chapter will be based around personal experience from cousins giving birth and aunts being in the hospital, which we did have a cafe in ours, I was planning to send them to Denny's but I realized they'd be too rag-tad to eat there.
See you then, peoples of the internet!