SideNote:
Kingdom Hearts/Final Fantasy fans, especially those who love Axel from Organization XII, this chapter is for you~!! *^^*
-----------------------------------------
The police officer finally let Yami and Yugi go, and the two of them joined a group of firefighters in trying to get Jaden out, for he was the only one left inside.
"Whoa!" One of the chief firefighters stepped in front of the two, "Where do you think you're going?"
Yami put his hands on his hips, clearly angered.
"We need to get in there to save our patient." He said, slightly glaring.
"Well, sorry buddy. But you're not going anywhere." The chief shook his head, "It's too dangerous."
Yami and Yugi stopped.
"Why the hell not?" Yami eyed him.
Yugi gripped his hand.
"He's right, Mou Hitori." Yugi muttered to him.
The chief smiled, friendly.
"Listen to the young man." He said, "You two don't have the equipment to go in and come right back out. We'll go in and get him and then bring him back out to you two."
Yami stopped, looking back at Yugi. Yugi nodded, telling him to waiting and then receiving a nod of approval from the chief himself before he turned.
"Good men." He said, putting on his mask and running in after a few words to his team.
Yami and Yugi simply stood there, tense as all get out. They had just getting settled down with everything and then they are thrown into a huge disaster such as this one. Yami is in the hospital, dying almost, comes back, everything is happy and then BAM.
Jaden, the closest patient they had, gets into an accident like this one.
Did life ever leave anyone alone?
How about give them a break and give them a time when everyone is okay and well and no one is in ICUs and are dying?
Guess not.
Yami and Yugi watched intensely as the firefighters entered the burning building.
-------
The team ran through the flames, glancing this way and that.
"Where is he?!" The chief demanded.
"Calm your shit, Axel!" A gruff voice replied.
"How can I, Xigbar?!" The chief returned.
The team dashed through the flames, looking for anything to give them pointers on where the boy they were looking for was.
"Hey!!!" They looked into a classroom, being greeted with piles of debris and such having to kick down the door just to get in.
"Hello!!!!" The same person repeated, "Answer Demy if you hear him!!!!"
Axel stepped past the other one and walked in, running over to a body in the corner, lying in a heap on the floor in the flames and covered all over with burns. Axel stooped low and picked him up.
"FOUND HIM!!" He called back, shielding the body from the flames as he ran back.
The third, named Demyx but called Demy, held the door open for him and let him through. The team met back up with Axel in the middle, covering the body securely with his equipment.
"He's overheating!! We gotta get him out of here!!!" Axel said to his team, "Scout the place for any other survivors, but be careful. I gotta take him out."
Demyx looked at him.
"But everyone else got out!!" Demyx said.
"We need to be sure!!" Axel said, breaking into a run, "That's an order!!!"
Without another protest, they separated and the team went through the building. Axel clutched the lifeless body, the exit finally coming into view as he neared it. He saw the two faces of the two doctors who anxiously waited for him outside.
-------
Jesse and Alexis stayed outside, both of them paled and shaking from the worry the two harbored for their friend. Their two bodies were both hot against the Heat being emitted from the flaming building, but they wouldn't move.
Their best friend was somewhere in there, and he never came out.
They had to wait for him, and they wouldn't leave.
Yami and Yugi felt the same way. They were both extremely tensed, their eyes wide as they waited for the firefighter to return with the young boy that they so desperately needed to help.
Suddenly, a tall and lean man came running out of the door, immediately dropping the young boy at Yami and Yugi's feet. The two crouched down, inspecting Jaden, the boy.
"Third degree burns on arm, lower right leg, neck, right side of face, could have possible blindness in right eye, and hearing also might be affected." Yugi said, lightly dabbing on some cream into the burns to south the pain.
Yami looked at him, his eyes wide and his heart pounding, but second nature taking over as he put on his stethoscope.
"Heart rate...15 beats per minute. We need to get him a tube." Yami said, looking at Yugi, "Vocal cords damaged, no breathing sounds in the lower left and right quadrants. Get him a tracheotomy."
Yugi made all these mental notes, examining the remaining bits of the body he had to. Other paramedics came to help, wrapping his wounds and putting casts around broken bones. Yugi had just finished patting down some lotion on Jaden's burned eye when he took notice to how little Jaden took his breaths.
"Hey! Get him a mask and a tube!! We need to stabilize him!" Yugi called to some paramedics who came running back and forth.
"BRAIN BLEED!" One doctor called after pressing his fingers against the scalp of the boy's head, "Brain is bleeding excessively!! We need to stop this now!!"
Jesse and Alexis listened, tears filling their eyes as they held each other closer.
Jaden couldn't breathe...
His brain was bleeding...
He was covered with the worst burns you could get from head to toe....
He was going to be blind through one eye.
His life was basically over.
"Get a stretcher!" Yami turned and called over his shoulder, "He needs to get to the Emergency Room NOW!! He's overheating too fast!!!"
An ambulance drove up right behind Jesse and Alexis and a stretcher was rolled out of it,
"J-Judai..." Jesse muttered his friend's nickname under his breath, his eyes watering as he looked on, still holding Alexis.
He bit his bottom lip and held Alexis's hand, gripping Jaden's limp and lifeless one. The only one that was not burned to a crisp. Jaden didn't deserve this. He save Jesse and Alexis's lives, but he couldn't save his own. He squeezed the hand, looking at the still face of his usually happy go lucky best friend.
What happened to that smiling face?
Now it was still and tranquil. It looked dead under all it had on it from the bandages to the slightly gooey lotion to the breathing mask strapped to it over the neck brace that had been place on him. Jesse didn't want to let go of his friend's hand.
But before he was taken away from them by the doctors, Jesse could have sworn, though he knew it was nothing but imagination, he felt Jaden squeeze his hand right before being taken. It was so subtle, but it was still there.
As if he was trying to reassure Jesse that everything would be alright. But he knew Jaden might have already been dead from the start.
He was so lifeless then. He is so lifeless now.
Yami and Yugi walked up to them and Alexis gripped them, her legs almost giving out under her weight. Her tears ran fast down her cheeks and she trembled violently.
"D-Dr. Sennen..." She muttered, shaking from her sobs, "T-Tell me...t-tell...us....How high...are his chances...?"
Yami and Yugi exchanged glances, Yugi stepping to Jesse's side. Jesse didn't look up and instead, stared down at his feet, in denial. He couldn't believe any of this and yet, he listened.
Yami knelt down and hugged Alexis, giving Alexis the worst feeling ever. She buried her face into Yami's chest, sobbing and crying out for her boyfriend.
"There...." Yami sniffed, "Is none..."
Jesse froze, tears finally falling from where he held it all in for so long. He fell to his knees and gripped the grass, screaming.
"JADEN!!!!!!" He cried, as if trying to get a reply.
Yugi held him as well, tears falling down his own cheeks.
There really was no chance of survival for Jaden. If there was, it was minuscule and a 99.999 percent chance of his incident resulting in death.
They all held each other, silently consoling and crying in each other's arms.
Finally, it was done.
Yami and Yugi separated from the two, but reluctantly. They didn't want to leave, but they had to get Jaden back. They began to push the stretcher in the way of the ambulance, the other paramedics there helping as well.
The stretcher was loaded into the ambulance, Jesse and Alexis kneeling in the grass and hugging each other, silently sobbing as thunder rolled for the first time. And rain started falling.
Jesse and Alexis didn't move.
They got drenched as they watched the ambulance drive off, and their gazes never left that spot. It was as if they were waiting for Jaden to come right back down that street like he always had.
But now, never again.