Catch A Flame

Chapter 5

There was a ringing. It took him a few dazed seconds to discover it wasn't his ears, but the alarm attached to his coat. Which meant he hasn't moved in a while. Dean didn't feel as if he could move. Every single nerve was burning, reminding him of where he lay. The flames around him cast a red hue all around him. Black patches of ash floated down from the ceiling. The stuff was smeared on one side of his mask. If the situation was a little lighter he'd be alright with comparing it to snow. Then Dean discovered it wasn't ash that blocked his view, but blood. His own, no doubt. The part of his brain that wasn't distracted by the pure agony his body was in, tried to reign in his situation. He was laying on his side, pain searing through his left shoulder.

'Dean! Dean report!' Rufus's voice filled his ears above the alarm that hung at his side.

Dean's fingers inched toward his radio. He gritted his teeth in the renewal of the burning. Darkness was starting to swallow his vision all over again. His head pounded so badly that he couldn't even think straight.

And suddenly there were hands gripping his numb arm. "I found him, Rufus. He's in bad shape." The sound of Dean's air mask was making an eerie rasp. It was working harder than it needed to. That meant there was an air leak. Only so much time before the thing malfunctioned. That was if it wasn't already.

Dean gritted his teeth as Benny lifted him from under both arms and started to drag him. His vision swirled into nothingness. It was a series of drifting in and out of that very state.

"C'mon Dean, stay with us." Benny paused, setting the Lieutenant down. "Dean!" He shook the man's shoulders effectively rousing him.

"I'm up, I'm up." Dean wheezed. His chest burned with his sides. His throat was closing up. The air had a bitter taste.

"Jesus," Benny muttered.

"We aren't... out of the w-woods y-y-yet." He was choking on his own breath. Speaking sent him into a coughing fit that caused stars to line Dean's vision.

"Hey, hey, hey." Benny tapped the side of his mask. The air was getting stale and full of smoke. "What hurts?"

"Everything." Dean managed to choke out. A thick and metallic taste ran over his tongue. Over the crackling of the fire around them, there was a screeching from above them. Something was starting to give, and Benny didn't seem as if he'd move them anytime.

"Requesting back-up. Guys I can't carry him out on my own." Benny talked to the radio. "He's hurt too- Dean!"

Dean lunged as well as he could in his state, managing to push Benny out of the way as more debris fell. The pain erupted in his chest and back as it came down on his bad shoulder. He would have screamed if he already wasn't gasping for the air that wouldn't enter his lungs.

"Shit, Dean!"

It was starting to go black again. The world was fading away.

Then it was all lifted from him. Three more pairs of hands and voices surrounded him. They rolled Dean onto his back.

"Alright boys, let's get him out of here." If Dean wasn't half out of it already, he'd be surprised to hear Fergus Crowley's voice.

Any joy that could have been there was drained from him as he was picked up. Dean's howl of pain was raspy and breathless.

"Almost there, Dean." Benny.

"C'mon Winchester, stay with us." Crowley. "Charlie and Jo have already left. It'll have to be Tessa and Meg who take him." There was a mumbling as Crowley communicated that with the paramedics from their firehouse.