Sometimes people would die. It wasn’t on purpose. Sometimes they just couldn’t be saved no matter how hard we tried.
My team and I didn’t ever kill anyone on purpose but people do die. It’s a fact of life.
The job I used to work well…… you could say it’s a hard pill to swallow.
I would break into peoples houses wearing a mask. I wouldn’t ever speak to the victims during extraction but it was my job to take them from their home, I would then take them to a second location and sometimes I would inject them with drugs.
I know you want to judge me but it was my job and it had to be done. And I think I want to do it again.
One day my team and I got a call. We were needed at a one story house. My team and I immediately put on our gear and loaded up on equipment.
We rushed to the location we were called to.
When we got there the house was on fire. In the front lawn stood police officers holding a woman back screaming for her child. Her screams for her child still haunt me to this day.
Our job was to go in and extract this little girl. It didn’t matter the circumstances. Even if there was danger our job had to be done. It’s for the greater good.
We immediately hopped out of the truck dressed in full gear. Our masks were on and we were ready to go in, the little girl would never see my team members faces.
My team split apart and started working, half of my team were to circle the perimeter and see how much damage the fire had caused so far. Half of our team had to go inside the burning building.
We quickly rushed inside despite the police being there, no one stopped us. Visibility was extremely poor due to the smoke. But we saw the little girl. She was crying and sobbing I felt bad for her but as soon as she noticed us she ran. We had to extract her and take her to a second location.
Due to the low visibility my team and I had to crawl on all fours to try to avoid the smoke as much as possible.
My team split up still crawling on all fours feeling around for the little girl. I could feel the intense heat and knew we had to get out of that house fast with the girl.
I felt around and realized I was in a hallway. I crawled to the nearest door. I saw it was partially open. Just a crack.
I opened the door and went inside. There was no fire in this room yet but there was still intense heat and smoke surrounding me.
I systematically patted down the room. I had found nothing. No sign of the little girl so far. I crawled towards what turned out to be a bed.
I patted the top of the bed desperately searching for the little girl knowing there wasn’t much time left for her. There was nothing on the bed.
I went to reach under the bed and something moved.
I grabbed it. It was a small ankle. I had found the little girl. She was hiding under the bed.
As soon as I grabbed her foot she started kicking my mask with her bare feet. I knew she was afraid of me but that wasn’t going to stop me from doing my job.
With one of her ankles in my hand I kept trying to grab the other but she kept kicking making it difficult to get her from out under the bed.
That’s when there was a loud crash. We had run out of time. A surge of adrenaline rushed through me and I yanked the little girl by her leg from under the bed. Even over the roaring of the flames I could hear her screaming.
I realized with horror I had broken her leg.
Now that she was out from under the bed I grabbed her and held her in my arms. She fought and she screamed but I wasn’t going to let go of her. My team had to bring her to the second location it had already been planned.
I rushed out of the house with my teammates trailing after me.
I ran out of the house where I saw the mother of the little girl sobbing on the front lawn on her hands and knees. It was a heart breaking scene until she saw a firefighter in full gear holding her daughter. She burst into tears again this time what I guess what out of relief. Her daughter had survived.
My teammates trailed out behind me one pushing me to get going to the ambulance faster. But I couldn’t take my eyes off of the mother that was clearly over joyed to see her daughter alive.
It was time to take her to the second location. The hospital.
Once the little girl and the mother were in the ambulance I took off my respirator in front of the little girl who had ran from the firefighters trying to save her life.
She saw I was just a normal human woman and was confused. I had to explain to her that we are just people in protective gear and we were there to help.
The little girl survived. Nobody perished in the fire.
But that’s not always the case. Little kids run from firefighters more often than you think. They just see scary alien looking humanoid forms in their burning home and run from us.
The part of the story that scares me the most is kids will run from firefighters not understanding we are there to help and sometimes we don’t always find them in time.