This is Chapter 1&2. I'm still busy writing 3 In these days, there was too much trouble going on. Car bombs, terrorist attacks, murders, pick pocketing, chain snatching and stickups. But that’s enough about violence. The second worst trouble you can get is fires. Fire-fighters are extremely worried about their performance in real events of fires. They do their best effort to evacuate everybody from a building, but someone always dies and they feel responsible for it. At some point they can’t take life as a fire-fighter anymore. But when they do something right for a change of missing somebody, as I said, somebody has to die, but I didn’t say who. “Hey man”, I said to my friend Steven. “You ready for the next mission? At that moment in time, I was putting on my heavy fire fighting gear. “Of course I’m ready”, responded Steven. “I’ve been ready for the past ten years of my fire fighting life. Just as Steven was about to continue, a loud voice over the intercom said, “All units to stations. We have incoming report of a nuclear reactor burst. Toxic air is spreading through the facility and is possible that the air may be spreading outside the facility. We need all fire-fighters to get civilians safely out and to lock down nuclear reactor entrance. We’ll give you updates on the situation on your way there. Toxic suit required”. I gave a loud whoop of joy and put my toxic gear on and ran to the truck where the rest of my fire squad was waiting. We got into the truck to here just in time the com say, “Unit one, go.” The door’s opened and our truck rushed out of the fire station. “ Alright, listen up”, shouted my squad captain. “We’ll be arriving at the location soon. Get yourself ready and listen to what your objectives are. You need to close the entrance to the nuclear reactor chamber. Additionally, we need to activate toxic storing chambers. They’ll activate pipes to suck the toxins into to toxic disposal grounds where all toxins will be vaporized by a certain type of chemically filled air. After that is secure, HAZMAT will arrive to decontaminate the casualties. Ok, were here, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go! Our fire-fighter squad rushed violently out the truck, grabbed the equipment quickly and ran as fast as lightning to the scene. About that time as squad two left, the other fire squad captain was saying to his fire-fighters, “Ok, here’s what we need to do. We need to cause as much trouble for the first squad. Try and burst the oxygen tank. Make a hole in the toxic storing chambers. Then the air will be combined with the toxins and the special chemical, which I think can eat away their suits”. While the captain was explaining the wrong objective, one of my other friends, Jonathan, which was on the same squad, looked scared on what he could do to he could do to me or to Steven. The minute they arrived the first possible objective was to come searching for me. He rushed rapidly across the deadly intoxicated rooms with the oxygen in his tank going lower and lower to find me hacking the codes to close the nuclear chamber entrance. “Buddy”, he shouted to me from a couple of meters away. “Be on the watch for the other squad, man. They’re actually trying to kill your squad. My squad captain trying to get the Recommended Senior Fire-fighter Captain award”. I locked down the entrance rapidly and replied calmly to him, “Hurry to my squad captain up above and report it. He’ll report it to base and squad two will be sent back. I’ll recommend you on squad one for being a brave fire-fighter to warn other squads of any danger”. “Thanks”, responded Jonathan and he ran across the rooms again with his oxygen even lower to the safe zone to report the danger. Squad three, four and five arrived to evacuate the civilians. After that, squad six arrived to recheck the facility. By then, Jonathan had reported it to my squad’s captain. He then contacted base, which then recalled squad two without them knowing that they would be arrested for attempted murder. In the meantime, one dying fire-fighters grabbed the pole with his burning suit breathing the last few breaths he could. “I must reach the top”, said the struggling fire-fighter. But a few dramatic seconds after that, he lost all sense and dropped to the ground after the last breath. Just as he dropped dead, somebody managed to spot him on first sight on the floor. “Hey, somebody help”, shouted another fire-fighter on his loudest voice. “We have a man down”. He checked his pulse to feel pulse to feel disappointingly it wasn’t beating. The man carried the dead fire-fighter up the stairs with an upset look on his face and horrible feeling in his body out of the intoxicated facility. When I returned to the truck, my squad captain clapped his and nodded with deep respect. “You did it”, said my captain. “No deaths, no problem, mission accomplished”. “I wouldn’t say that”, said another fire-fighter. “One fire-fighter of squad six died cause lack of oxygen”. “Well in that case, personnel losses”, said my captain with a grin. I stood on a rock gazing at the stars. “Why did I ever sign up for this”, I thought to myself sighing deeply. “Hey why you sighing”, said my captain. “I can hear you sighing over the com”. “Oh nothing”, I responded trying to hide the emotions of pain I was hiding just before. “Nothing huh”, said my captain questioningly. “Then why were you looking up. Some fire-fighters do that after the event that went wrong”. “Ok, you got me”, I responded to my captain. “I just need encouragement for the things that I try to do right but get it wrong”. “Hey, here’s some encouragement”, my captain whispered as he came closer to my ear. “Get crackin’ harder!” he shouted loudly over the com as I just put my hands over my ears to cover from the shock I just received. When I returned to base, the chief captain called my squad captain desperately over to the sides. I could vaguely hear only a few words like I, present, an award, senior captain. Those words immediately clicked in my mind and I just managed to know that they were talking about my squad captain been given the Recommended Senior Fire-fighter Captain award. That award would give him the outstanding privilege of commanding all squads. My squad captain shook hands briefly with the chief and left the room. “All squad captains and fire-fighters to meeting room”, came a loud voice to intercom. Just then when the fire-fighters were going to the room, other people were busy watching LAPD officers busy forcing with their sidearm squad two’s captain into the police car. I left the garage with a relieved look on my face. After the meeting about my captain being awarded the Recommended Senior Fire-fighter Captain award, I left the station and joined my friends at a rich and famous restaurant. “C’mon you gotta admit, you did a damn good job on the last mission”, admitted Steven with a look of respect. “But I just don’t feel right, man”, I replied. “Why not, everybody feels they’ve accomplished something after a fire event”, said Steven in response to my comment. “I know what he’s talking about”, said Jonathan intervening the conversation. “Yeah well, I don’t feel the same way”, responded Steven. “I feel happy that I complete the mission, so I can’t complain about that I failed in everything. “ But that’s not the point”, I said with sigh. “Ok, I have had enough for one night. I’m going to get some sleep for the next event”. “Ok, see ya”, Jonathan replied with a joyful tone but then changed to a serious look again. “Give him a break guys”, said Jonathan. “He’s had a tough day”. Chapter II After twenty more minutes of excited chatting, everybody left. By that time, I arrived home and went straight to bed. But as I fell asleep, something just got me I started checking my email before I went to sleep again. I noticed one message in the inbox and opened. It was from Jonathan. It said: Hey man, what’s up? I have a problem going on and I need your help. Steven’s been acting strange recently and it kind of got my attention. He’s not that responsive when on missions and looked emotionless when you guys were talking in the locker. I don’t know what’s wrong, but I do know something’s is wrong. And I want you to check it out. Best Friend, Jonathan April 19 2008 The date caught my attention. That date was of the nuclear plant mission. I looked at the time on my pc to say that it was 9:37 pm. I saved as important message and shut down my pc. Just then, I heard screams of nuclear explosions across the street to see the other house bursting in flames. The fire department came too late and the house burned down to the ground. The fire department were the backup fire-fighters that come in replacement while the other fire-fighters get rest and preparation for their shift of fire-fighting. I felt sorry and guilty that I couldn’t intervene with my equipment at the fire station. I went to bed to go to sleep. Just as I got into bed, I could hear police vehicles arriving to push back any civilians from the threatening burned down building ready to collapse with boiling hot ash. But then my sight went pitch black and I couldn’t hear a thing. The darkness of my sight suddenly lightened up as someone said, “Hello, is anyone home. I have a FedEx delivery for Mr John Scythe”. I smacked head my so hard to realise that it was all a dream. I ran down stairs in my casuals that I was sleeping in and opened the door for the delivery man. I opened up the door to see it was Steven. “Hey buddy, check the headlines on the newspaper”, Steven said. I grabbed the paper and began to read it with excitement: SWAT joins LAFD on rescue event At 9:37 pm, a sudden burst of flames came out from a house to see that it was the boiler that rapidly overheated and exploded. Fire-fighters were unable to arrive in time but SWAT joined in to evacuate civilians from the building threatening to collapse with victims still inside. A man reported the smell of oil and smoke from inside the house before the outburst occurred. Apparently none other of the residential buildings were damaged by the fires. Fortunately the citizens were evacuated just in time. After the building collapsed, there was a search and rescue through the debris of the building to find dead fire-fighters, damaged oxygen tanks and broken fire equipment. “Whoa”, I said with a surprised look uttered on my horrified face. I noticed that that was the same time of my dream when that fire happened. I then realized that that fire wasn’t fake and was happening while I was in deep sleep. “Come in, man”, I said to Steven. Steven came in with a funny look thinking I was crazy or delusional. For a few agitating minutes I sat at the table thinking if I was delusional or not. I ran to my Alienware pc and checked my email. To my astonished surprise, there was a new email in my inbox sent at the same time, but it didn’t say the same as in my horrifying dream. I went to the window and saw one of the buildings on renovation currently in ashes of fire. The smell gives it away that it happened recently. “Get ready, you’re shift is in forty-five minutes”, shouted Steven across the room. Steven left with a surprised look leaving the house still seeing me at the window staring at the ashes. Steven came to where I was standing and banged heavily at the window. He caught my annoyed attention and then pointed at his watch. I nodded in an understanding way. I put on my normal LAFD gear and headed out my door to my latest Mustang GT new edition with built in GPS, V8 engine and BBS rims. Adding to the list of details, I also installed an emergency call tracker to alert the LAFD of any unregistered calls about fires. I also had my IPAD built in with Chrome to search from the smallest thing on earth to Area 51 top secret technology. I got in my luxurious car and started its great big engine. I drove out my garage with style and skidded as I braked suddenly. I then accelerated at top speed to go to the fire station. While I was driving from home to work, something caught my mind that forced me to search on Chrome. I typed: L-A-F-D It came up with the LAFD website showing how to apply for fire-fighters and what the training program consists of. Extreme heat, going through toxins to rescue an extremely heavy dummy with a really stiff suit, and communicating with fire-fighters during the event of fires. But there was a second link which said as sub-comments: Please sign in with ATC code and normal password to reveal the programming behind it. “Huh, that’s strange”, I thought to myself.”Never seen anything like that in my life. I’ll leave it till later”. I activated my supercharger which increased the speed to one-hundred and forty four mph. When I arrived, teams where rushing to the trucks with the alarm going off. I thought to myself, “Aw hell”. I rushed out my luxurious car, rushed quickly to the changing room, put on my fire-fighting suit rapidly, and ran like lightning to the truck. My captain was waiting outside with his arms folded between each other shaking his head and tapping his foot heavily. “Where the hell have you been”, my captain moaned. “The fire could have spread across half of Los Angeles by now”. “Yeah, yeah, yeah”, I replied with attitude. “Relax hotshot. I’m here, aren’t I?” “Just get into the truck”, answered my captain. I got into the truck with my captain following behind me. I saw Jonathan with a grinning smile and said, “Welcome to the pro team, man”, giving him a firm handshake. “Rock n Roll”, my captain said closing the doors. The fire station garage doors opened mechanically with a intercom response saying, “Unit one and two, you are clear to leave base. Leave when ready”. My captain gave a loud whoop of joy closing the truck doors and ordered the grinning driver to go. The two trucks left at top speed with the continuous blaring of lights and the constant wailing sound of the sirens switched on. My captain turned around to the excited team and said with sarcastic voice, “For those who weren’t there”, looking at me with a disappointed face, “Here’s what you need to do. At moment there is a fire-fight going on between SWAT and some crazy terrorists. It’ll take a while to get there, so hopefully the gunfight will be over by then. After fifteen dreadfully long minutes, we could smell the smoke of guns and could hear the sounds of bullets being swapped around between SWAT against the terrorists. Before we could even enter the location, there was a Police patrol convoy signalling us to move forward slightly. We accelerated on minimum speed forward. We were complaining that we were accelerating to slow. Even the police officer was almost starting to snore away. After an annoying twenty minutes of snoring mixing in with laughter and complaints, we finally drove to where the police officer was standing. We hooted a couple of times to find the officer jumping up in shock. He finally woke up and came to our truck in an overconfident and pompous way. The officer tried to talk, but his voice was muted by the deafening blasts of grenades and the constant rattling of automatics and shouting by the SWAT and terrorists. Two hours later, the intercom went on and a crackling voice said, “Mission failed. Return to base”. My captain ignored the comment and ordered the driver to go to the gunfight. The driver shifted the gear into second, when we arrived. But there was no damage. No terrorists. No indents in the ground. No fires. No shot people. No SWAT cars. It felt like it was all a dream. But with my close sight I saw a small radio with about five massive speakers. I grabbed my com rapidly. “Base, this is fire-fighter 1”, I spoke rapidly. “Requesting permission for ID of contactor of failed mission. “Permission granted”, replied the station manager. “Name of John Lamont, he called at Grand Avenue”. “That’s the problem”, I countered. “The mission is not in Grand Avenue. It’s 312 west 6th street. “What are you saying, lieutenant”, responded the manager. ========================= Next chapter is coming soon... Please give comments on what you liked and what you think needs to be changed. Dutycalls