Into the Fire

Transcending Times

"Hey, Dennis, is it just me, or does something feel really... off... about this whole thing?" Tori asked her fellow firefighter as they carefully made their way up the stairs of the tower they had been dispatched to, keeping an eye out for any signs of danger. They had already managed to direct a few survivors that could still walk on their own out of the building, and they wanted to rescue as many people as possible. However, they wouldn't be any good to anyone if they got themselves killed by rushing and carelessly underestimating the danger they were in. Even a seasoned career firefighter like her partner, who had years of experience on the job, could be caught off guard by backdraft or find themselves surrounded by flames if there was a hidden void in the building's structure to spread through. It's not like they could take their time leisurely memorizing the entire layout of a 110 story building like this when there were people trapped inside and dying every minute they delayed, you know?

"No joke, Captain Obvious," Dennis deadpanned, unimpressed. "It's not everyday a plane crashes into tower like this, let alone two at time! And you wonder why people still call you 'Probie'..."

"I know that!" she huffed indignantly, stepping to the side, as he motioned for her to keep a safe distance while he checked the door to make sure it was safe to open. "I just meant—"

"—g—t—!" her radio squawked suddenly. It sounded like their captain was trying to give them an update or something, but there was so much static and interference, that they had no idea what he had just said. She exchanged a concerned glance with Dennis, wondering what was wrong with the radio. Dennis grabbed his own handie-talkie, hoping it was just a malfunction isolated to Tori's due to a weak battery or something.

"This is Ferguson. Can you repeat that? Over," he said, furrowing his brow slightly as they waited for a response. Their only answer was a heavy, static filled silence. This was bad. Very bad. Neither of their radios were working, which meant they were completely cut off from communication with the command center... Trying to fight a fire while rescuing people in a high-rise structure like this without constant updates on the state of the building and everything else going on around them was like trying to deactivate a bomb in the dark...

"What now?" Tori asked, furrowing her brow slightly in concern. It was dangerous to wander around blindly without being able to communicate with the others, but they couldn't just leave when there were still people who were trapped and needed their help.

"We'll finish searching this floor as planned... then we'll go back down and check in at the command center," Dennis decided, clenching his fist with determination. Tori nodded, smiling slightly, as she gathered her own resolve and steadied her nerves, preparing herself for whatever might be waiting for them on the other side of the door. They cautiously opened the door and stepped out of the emergency stairwell and onto the floor.

"This is the FDNY! If you can hear us, then please respond!" Tori announced as loudly and clearly as possible through the mask of her respirator. The smoke on this floor was much thicker. They were definitely getting close to the main fire.

"Da... re... ka...?" a woman's voice called out weakly somewhere to their left. It took Tori a moment to realize she was speaking Japanese. Was this woman a tourist? Tori shook her head to clear her thoughts. That didn't matter right now.

"Anata wa doko ni iru?" Tori responded loudly, asking where she was, while cautiously moving towards the direction of the woman's voice.

"What's that? Chinese?" Dennis asked, raising an eyebrow. He had never heard her speak anything other than Spanglish or a bit of Italian here and there.

"It's Japanese," Tori replied as though it should have been obvious, sweat-dropping. She was glad her grandfather had insisted on teaching it to her now. "Doko ni iru no!" Tori tried calling out again.