Page 13 of Fireline

Nova shouldered through the bathroom door, heart pounding. She wasn’t a city firefighter. She fought blazes in forests, not bathrooms.

Smoke plumed through the vents, but there wasn’t an active fire.

“Jan are you in here?” The stall doors were open, but Nova checked them anyway.

“Help! Help me!” Jan coughed. “I’m trapped!”

Okay, not in the bathroom. In the lobby?

Nova dashed out of the restroom and ran to the expansive lobby. A wall of heat pressed into her face. Flames made a hot run up the walls, headed for the ceiling. Fiery tendrils spread along the baseboards, searching for more oxygen and fuel to feed itself.

“Jan, it’s Nova! I’m in the lobby. Where are you?”

She listened for the woman, but all she heard was the popping and crackling roar of destruction. Great clouds of thick smoke boiled up and stung her eyes.

Zero visibility.

She shrugged the fire extinguisher up on one hip and used her free arm to pat her pockets for a flashlight. Blast. She’d left it in her personal gear bag at her locker.

Okay, think.

She used the flashlight app on her phone to look around. Straight ahead, a red exit sign hung over the glass doors that she could barely see through the smoky haze. To the left was the reception desk no one ever used. The big wooden unit had nearly been consumed by flames at this point.

The wide doorway of the visitors’ center led into the smokejumper museum, where the fire stayed minor. For now.

“Jan! Tell me where you are so I can—” Ash thickened her tongue and she coughed.

Distant voices shouted commands from somewhere outside. Help was coming, but if she didn’t stop the fire from spreading, it would come too late.

Nova pocketed her phone and pulled the safety pin on the extinguisher. She squinted against the swirling smoke and backed into the exhibit room. White foam hissed from the fire extinguisher’s nozzle as she doused the flames around the museum doorway in a sweeping arc. She covered the floor, wall, ceiling. The expanding cloud of fire retardant smothered the blaze, buying them precious seconds.

There was a loud splintering sound over her head.

The ceiling caved.

Nova scrambled back a second before debris and fire rained down on her head. A flashover had started. The fire in the ceiling ate its way through to the second floor of the building. Any minute now, everything could collapse on top of her. Help wouldn’t be able to get to them in time.

Nova emptied the fire extinguisher on the pile of rubble and tossed the spent canister aside. She turned. Faced the darkened room.

Coils of smoke snaked around the Z-shaped museum walls. Years of memorabilia, artifacts, and firefighting collectibles. Jock’s old uniform. All massacred now by the same element they’d valiantly fought for years.

She spotted a hard lump on the floor in front of the display. Unmoving.

Images of Jan up on her tiptoes and kissing her husband beside their rig rolled through her mind.

No. No. No.

Not another beautiful marriage destroyed by fire.

Nova rushed to the figure and dropped to her knees. At least Jan had been smart enough to cover herself with an old fire coat.

Nova grabbed her by the shoulders. Rigid shoulders.

Oh no. She rolled the body over and gasped. Gave herself a little jump scare and choked. Coughed.

Her eyes stung with tears. Not Jan. Not Jan! A stupid mannequin! A dummy dressed like a smokejumper from the forties.

So much for being a hero.

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