Page 1 of Phoenix Rising

1

BECKY

The smoke felt like it burned Becky Thompson's lungs, even through her breathing apparatus mask. The flames leaped in front of her as more of the walls crumbled. She couldn't see clearly anymore. They would have to evacuate any second now. Where were they?

"Thompson! We need to get out now!" Erin Quinely yelled from behind her.

"Not yet!" she called.

"The building is no longer stable!"

She pushed forward, looking for a clear path through the burning wreckage. Becky couldn't turn away from a challenge, even if it meant getting herself killed. She heard a light knocking over the roar of flames and destruction.

"They're in the bathroom." Becky waved over Quinely before trying to open the door.

"Please help!" a muffled voice screamed.

Becky tried the door, but it wouldn't budge."Back away from the door! I'm going to get you out!"

She took her axe from her belt and slammed it into the weak wood.

"Thompson!" Quinely jumped back from her as the ceiling fell in front of her.

She swung again. The axe chipped away at the wood, then suddenly…

"Chief Thompson?"

Becky startled awake, her cold mug of coffee clutched in her hand instead of an axe. She found that she wasn't surrounded by burning flames but by the cold break room of the Phoenix Ridge Fire Station.

"Ya hear me?" Captain Jenna Carter’s brown eyes looked at Becky expectantly.

Becky shook her head and inhaled. "I'm sorry, Carter. I was looking over the emergency relief packets until two last night and didn't get much sleep. Can you repeat that?"

"Just asking how you slept." Carter chuckled.

"Like shit, Captain." Becky poured her coffee in the sink and watched as the dark liquid swirleddown the silver drain. Even coffee wasn't helping her bitter mood. Her grip tightened on the mug before dropping it in the sink, chipping the handle.

Carter glanced at the mug and back at her face. "Hey, Becks..."

"Chief," she corrected coldly.

Even if she and Carter were good friends, as soon as they stepped into this firehouse, she was chief and chief only.

"Chief.., are you sure you're doing okay? You've got that whole 'I want to burn down the whole town' look." Carter laughed but Becky could tell she was wary.

How ironic.

"I'm fine. I have to get my notes for this morning's briefing. I'll see you there?"

Carter raised her coffee in response. Becky rubbed at her temple and walked back to her disaster of an office.

It wasn't like she didn't know how to clean. Becky just never had the time to actually go through everything and organize it. This was probably why her office was the most dreaded place in the world for her. She shut the door and leaned her forehead against the cool wood, hoping itwould help with her headache. Becky didn't even want to look at her desk. She knew what was waiting: towers upon towers of paperwork. In her fifty-five years of life, she had never wanted to do something less.

Becky loved her job. She’d dreamed of being fire chief since she was nineteen years old. But sometimes she missed the thrill of being out in the field. She missed how her muscles would burn after a grueling training day. Or the relief of saving people who needed her. She tried to remember that she was still doing that, just from behind a desk. The plaques and medals hanging on her office walls held that reminder, but she often wished for the days before they ever decided to carve her name.

Her life was, she feared to say, stagnant. Just paperwork, shitting, eating, and barely any sleeping. Alone or with company.

A knock rumbled her head from behind the wood. She groaned and unlatched the door.

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