911 -Up in Flames

S1 E1: Pilot Pt 2

A few days had passed since the whole altercation between me and Buck and we weren't friends by a long shot but we could now tolerate being in the same room and even sitting next to each other. The atmosphere of the 118 was back to normal, jokes at every corner, no super serious calls, mostly people doing something stupid but that was the job. All of us were sitting at the table drinking coffee and joking around at the start of our shift when the bell sounded and everyone scurried to grab their equipment and piled into the engine.

I busted the door open which always sparked excitement in my bones. "LA Fire" I called out, stepping inside. "Alright guys, check all these rooms" Bobby instructed, stepping up next to me and giving me a pat on the back, a smile on his face. Everyone followed suit, peering into side rooms before entering the main 'living area' which was home to snakes. My eyes went wide as I looked upon the snakes either roaming free or in heated glass cages and Chimney bumped into me out of fear, his fear of snakes getting the better of him. "Oh. Wow" I nervously looked around the room as Chim went behind me, pushing me forwards.

"Bobby, I can't do snakes. They scare the crap out of me. That scene from Conan the Barbarian with the giant snake, it traumatised me for life" Chimney admits as he clings onto the weaponous tool in his hands. "Hey, I'm uh, with Chim on this one. Not a massive fan of the-" I started but yelped as one of them slithered over my boot, moving as close to the nearest person as possible, which happened to be Buck. "Really? The big, bad, 'doesn't take any shit' Samson is afraid of snakes?" Buck jokes and I smile. "Shut it Buckle-boy" I tease him with his nickname as Bobby calls out that he'd found our victim.

Everyone rushed to meet him, carefully avoiding the snakes, and ended up in a bedroom where a girl was being choked out by a large yellow coloured snake. "Oh jesus" I immediately put my fears aside rushed to Bobby's side, attempting to pry the snake off of the woman and failing miserably as the head of it turned towards me and looked me in the eye. "What's good dude. Mind letting this poor woman go?" I strain as I pull against the snake and Bobby looks at me like I'm insane.

"Are you seriously talking to the goddamn snake right now?" he questions and I shrug. "It was worth a shot" I continue to pull against the snake and it hisses right next to my ear, apparently having moved without us noticing and I freeze, feeling it slither up my arm and over my shoulder, around the back of my neck.

"You're fucking joking" I look at Bobby with wide eyes as it moves down my other shoulder and starts to cross in front of my neck. "Please don't. I'm begging you, please. Don't" I close my eyes as I feel the tongue of it move out in front of me and touch the bare skin on the original arm it came up, the snake completely encircling my neck now and starting to tighten. All the while, everyone else is having a lovely discussion about how long Dilaulid will take to knock it out. "I say we kill it" Chim votes. "Normally I'd say no however, it's starting to get hard to breathe so, go ahead" I keep looking at Bobby, hoping that he will somehow calm me down and he doesn't.

As they argue whether or not to kill it, the snake tenses and tightens around my neck, my entire air supply being shut off and my hands shoot up, grabbing the snake and trying to pry it off. "Don't kill it!" "Kill it!" Hen and Chimney go back and forth as I make a choking noise, Bobby snapping his head up to look at me and his eyes going wide. "Kill it!" Bobby yells, everyone looking over to see me going bright red as tears go down my face. I can feel the blood pumping behind my eyes and hear my heartbeat in my ears as the edges of my vision start going black and my eyes flutter shut.

"Okay, stand back!" I hear Buck's muffled voice before a thud and the tension on the snake remains but I can move and I topple to the side, still not taking in oxygen and I feel hands around me, pulling the body of the snake off me. "Come on, come on" Bobby mutters and the pressure on my neck is released and I inhale the deepest breath I ever have before immediately coughing violently, turning myself onto my side and clutching my neck, coughing for what felt like hours. "There you go, there you go" Bobby breathes a sigh of relief, rubbing my back softly as I finally stop coughing. "Took you long enough" I croak out, my voice scratchy and hoarse from the pressure.