Another One Bites the Dust (14 page)

The smell is what hit me first.  It was unmistakable.  Undeniable, and I knew it would bring the whole building down.

Gasoline.

I started to get up, unequivocally terrified that I would be left in here to burn alive, but Alpha kept me seated.  The sound of cursing reminded me that I was still connected with Max.  Bringing the phone back up to my ear, I listened to him give orders, but I also heard the rumble of his bike.

Sirens broke through the silence of the night just as an unmistakable whoosh, followed by the sound of breaking glass sounded from the living room as the gasoline caught fire.  Alpha bolted from the closet, and I was close on his heels when I felt the unmistakable form of a body.  I didn’t stop to check on the person though; most likely he was dead, and I didn’t have the time to deal with him right now.

Fear was practically pouring out of me, and I was trembling so hard that I could barely crawl.  Smoke was now billowing into the room from the crack underneath the door, and I knew I had to find a way to block it.

Taking the comforter off the bed, I dragged it over to the door and shoved it underneath the crack as best as I could.  I made my way to the bedroom window, stopping first beside the bed to grab a blanket that never left the underside of my pillow.  Wrapping the blanket around my face, I stood to drag the window open, but knew I would have nowhere to go unless I wanted to jump.

To my total dismay, I realized that the bedroom windows also had the safety glass that prevented any burglars from entering as the living room windows did.  This completely baffled me though seeing as there was no balcony on this side for them to stand on to even get into the windows.

I would definitely have to complain to management as soon as I got finished here.  This was so beyond safe that it was borderline suicidal.  What they were thinking when they put these windows in was beyond me.  There was too much smoke barreling out the opening behind me to get any real oxygen, so I laid myself down on the floor in hopes of getting better air quality.

Sirens could now be heard right outside my window, but I suddenly no longer had the strength to do much of anything.  Alpha laid his head down next to my face, and I wrapped my arms and legs around him, holding him, hoping that somehow I got out of this alive.  If I did, it would be a miracle.

ɸ

Max

Seeing a burning building is life changing.  You don’t understand the ferociousness of a fire until you’ve experienced it firsthand.  Fires have a mind of their own.  They are intelligent.  They are beautiful.  They are merciless.

Realizing that the love of your life was in that very same building did something to a man.  Especially when he had no way to fix it.  I didn’t have the knowledge of fires, nor the know how to do anything in this situation but sit back and pray for the best.

I pulled up next to a fire engine that had a large number three painted in bright gold on the side.  Firefighters were running around pulling hoses off the truck, hooking them up, and unrolling them.  Drew Dillon was standing at the back of the rig, so I ran up to him in a panic to get information on what they were doing, and whom they’d gotten out so far.

“Dillon!”  I said urgently.

Drew’s black eyes swung to mine, and I saw the worry on his face before he even told me.  “Hey man, I’m kind of busy right now, but I’ll get with you as soon as we have this under control.”  He gestured with a nod of his head towards the fire.

Drew was an absolute mountain of a man, and with his bunker gear on, he looked all the bigger.  “My fiancé, Payton, is in the second floor apartment.”  I said pointing towards her window.  “She just called me not even eight minutes ago saying she was inside, and I can’t get her to answer anymore.” 

The panic in my voice couldn’t be hidden.  He knew immediately that she was important to me, and knew that I would go in there myself if he didn’t get her out on his own.  I didn’t give a flying fuck if I had no clue what I was doing, as long as I got her out of there alive, I didn’t care if I burned.

“Captain!  There’s no sign of movement.  The people on the first floor said the woman in 2B hasn’t been home in a few days, and they don’t think she’s there.”  A young firefighter came up to the both of us and said.

“No!  She’s in there!  She just called me!”  I pleaded.

“Bowe, this is Max.  He says there’s a woman in there.  Let’s go get her.”  Drew  ordered.

Bowe took off at a sprint to the truck, informed the man that was working the controls on the truck, and then pulled his mask from the truck.  Drew did the same beside me, and  started walking determinedly towards the front door as Bowe caught up to him with the rammer.  The rammer was a tool used to get doors open more expediently.  This one looked just like most I’ve seen, with the exception of ‘Open Up’ written in bright green letters on the side.

Just as the two of them in all their bunkered out glory made it to the front door and into position, a series of barks came from a different area of the apartment.  “Stop!”  I yelled.

Both men froze.  It was evident they didn’t hear the barking, but I did, and I knew that Alpha would lead them straight towards her.  I ran up the rickety steps, and was assaulted with the most intense heat I’d ever felt in my life.  It was even more intense than the helicopter crash, and I was only three quarters of the way up the steps.

“Alpha is a trained protection dog.  He’ll have taken her to the safest place he could, and he won’t leave her until she’s found, even if it kills him.  His barking is coming from the west side of the building.  That’s the master bedroom.”  I explained quickly.

They nodded in understanding, and then Bowe ran back to the truck while Drew went around to the master bedroom window.  I followed closely on his heels, and was able ot hear Alpha’s bark much more clearly now.  The smoke was billowing out the open window, but security bars were in place securely over the window.

The next few minutes was a flurry of activity.  Bowe brought a ladder from the truck and placed it underneath the open window.  A halligan bar was used to remove the bars, and shortly after a limp Payton was pulled out the opening by Drew.  Bowe went in for the dog, but I couldn’t spare the dog a glance.  All of my attention was focused on Payton’s limp body.  She was covered in soot, head to toe; there wasn’t a single clean spot on her. 

Her hair was still in the ponytail she left with it in, yet it was sliding down and to the side, hair falling in disarray around her face.  She wasn’t moving, and I wasn’t even sure she was breathing.  The last thing I’d heard her say was a whispered I love you before the phone went dead a minute before I arrived.

Drew ran full force with her cradled in his arms like a baby.  He laid her down gently on the gurney, and then I couldn’t see her anymore.  There was yelling, shouting, and suddenly the sound of the apartment collapsing behind me.  Not once did I divert my attention from the group of firefighters that worked on her.

They loaded her up into the ambulance, and then were gone seconds after that.  A series of whimpers pulled me from my daze.  I looked to my left to see Bowe laying an oxygen mask down over Alpha’s face.  Alpha was staring longingly at the departing ambulance, and I knew we were both feeling the same thing.

Helplessness.  Failure.  Sadness. 

I don’t know how many minutes passed while I watched the empty road where the ambulance hadn’t been in quite some time.  Seconds?  Minutes?  I don’t know.  What I do know is that I needed to stop moping around, call Payton’s parents, and get myself to that emergency room.  Fast.

I looked around the scene, but didn’t register the woman in the corner of the lot with a smirk at the corner of her mouth.  I didn’t notice the exhausted firemen putting out the last few flames.  What I did notice was Alpha standing up, shaking off the oxygen mask, and padding over to me.  He leaned against my leg, and I ran my hands down through his wiry fur.

We leaned on each other, both taking comfort in what the other was offering.  I took a long slow breath, blew it out, and then made the hardest phone call I’ve ever had to make.  I made a statement to the officer that asked me what happened, and he gave me a ride to the hospital since I knew that Alpha didn’t have the ability to ride on my bike.

One thing I was sure of, and that was that she was alive.  She was a fighter, and I wouldn’t accept anything different.

ɸ

Payton’s parents were sitting in the corner of the ER with solemn faces.  I was completely unsure what to do.  I didn’t want to upset them.  Seeing me might remind them that I didn’t watch over their daughter as I’d promised just a few days ago when I came to see them on my own.

They took the choice out of my hands however, when they both got up out of their seats and charged toward us.  Alpha leaned into my leg, letting his entire body weight lean against me, and we watched their approach.  I readied myself for the inevitable right hook to the face, but one never came. 

Instead, arms circled around my midsection, and I was pulled into their embrace.  It’d been years since I was hugged like this.  My body stayed stiff, my mind told me that I didn’t deserve a damn thing from these people.  I’d let their daughter go out by herself, and she’d nearly been killed.

“Oh, Max.  Come sit down with us, you look about ready to keel over.  The doctor came out a little while ago and told us she was stable and awake.”  Jessie said.

When I’d gone to visit them for the first time, Payton’s mom had answered the door.  She gave me the once over, and immediately decreed that I would call her Jessie.  Payton’s dad had been a harder sale, but after an hour of assuring him that I would watch over his daughter at the cost of my life, he finally relented, agreed that I could marry his baby, and told me to call him Tony.

Tony sat on one side of me, Jessie on the other, Alpha at our feet, and we waited.  Over the next hour, Ember and Gabe came in, followed by Sam and Cheyenne.  James, Jack, and Elliott were next.  Blaine stayed to watch the brood of kids that were now so much a part of all of my friends and loved one’s life.  I was grateful that they were here; I just didn’t have anything left to spare them.  I was running on empty. 

“Payton Alvarez?”  A young doctor called from the front of the waiting room.

My eyes snapped open, and I was on my feet instantly in front of him.  Smith, M.D.  was monogrammed on his shirt.  Payton’s parents still flanked my sides, and we all waited to hear what he had to say.

“Are you the husband that she keeps asking for?”  Dr. Smith asked.

“Yes.”  I said without hesitation.

“Good, you can come with me, as well as her parents.  She was fully awake when she arrived at the ER.  The firefighter who was on scene reported no injuries besides a mild case of smoke inhalation, and we concurred.  She’s on a small amount of oxygen as of right now, and we’ll probably want to keep her over night just for observation, but she’s looking good besides that.  She was extremely lucky.”  Dr. Smith told us as he led us through the hallways to room five that had only a curtain surrounding it.

Payton was curled into a ball in the middle of the bed.  Her nose had a nasal cannula in it allowing her lungs the oxygen they needed.  Alpha slipped in between my legs, and jumped up to curl his body beside hers.

“That dog can’t be up there!”  A nurse said as she entered the room.

“If you try to take my dog, I’ll beat you like the bitch you are.”  Payton rasped.

Everyone laughed, relieved that we still had Payton here to give us those witty remarks.

“So you decided to burn your apartment down, PP?”  Bennett asked as he entered the room.

She raised up on her arm, and glared at the newest addition to the room.  “Did you know that Max thinks he’s going to call me Pet when we get married?”

Accusing eyes turned to me and I held up my hands in capitulation.  “Those will be her initials!”

Laughter filled the room, and I felt something ease inside my chest.  Something gave way, and I felt emotion hit me full force.  I hadn’t realized I was holding it all in until this moment.  When I’m in an interrogation room with someone, I can’t afford to show emotion, or feel sympathy for someone.  That’s the quickest way to lose ground.  When they see that something they’ve said has affected you, they don’t have that same basal fear anymore. 

That’s what I’d been doing since Payton’s phone call, suppressing everything, making myself function the same as I normally would.  Now that I knew she was going to be all right, I couldn’t hold it in any longer.

I dropped down to my knees beside her bed and buried my head into the soft flesh of her stomach.  I took deep breaths to keep the tears at bay.  I haven’t cried since the night I found out my parents had died, but in this instance, I was close to totally losing it.

“It’ll be okay, Max.  I’ll never leave you either.”  She whispered.

Chapter 9

“Hello.  My name is Inigo Montoya.  You killed my father.  Prepare to die.”

-The Princess Bride

Payton

“If you don’t leave me the hell alone, I’ll geld you with a rusty damn spoon!”  I said to Max as he inserted himself up my ass.

It wasn’t in a good way either.  He hadn’t left me alone in two damn weeks.  Constantly stuck to my side.  When he wasn’t at work, he was right at my side, and that included when I was at work!  Several of his friends had spoken with him about his obsessiveness, but it hadn’t stopped him one bit.

Several parents looked at me as if I was loco, but otherwise left me alone.  We were at Bennett’s homecoming football game, and it was a madhouse.  Dad paid out of district fees so Benny could go to Longview High School.  They had such success in their football program that dad wanted to make sure he got every advantage he could possibly get.

The Lobos were having an amazing year.  Some of it was because my brother was purely awesome, but most of it was because they had one heck of a team.  They worked like a well-oiled machine, and just watching them at times was like watching art.