Running as fast as she could Ryan entered the house, not thinking
about anything else but the mother. There was a possibility that she wasn't
even in there but Ryan wasn't about to take that chance. The first room she
went into was the same one that Bell had first went into. She scanned the
room but saw no one so she continued to do this for all the rooms on the
bottom floor.
When Ryan found nothing on the bottom floor she proceeded to the
upstairs where she had found the two children. She briefly went over to
those rooms but came up empty. It wasn't until she came to the last room
that she saw it. There, in the corner of the rather large room was a body, a
woman's body. Praying that the woman was alive because she didn't have
enough time to check her vitals before the whole building collapsed, Ryan
picked up the woman's body and started to carry it out of the room.
Hopefully they would make it back through the maze of walls and rooms.
Creak! "Oh no you don't" Ryan called to the building. Then the
sound became louder and more consistent. Creak!
Outside, Bell, Wick, and everyone else could see that the building
was seconds away from becoming a huge pile of burning wood. It was Bell that
first spoke "Ryan's gotta get out of there! I'm going to go get her." With
determination in his voice, and fear in his heart, he went into the burning
building. In that split second decision, Bell paid no attention to the idea
that a person is never to go into a burning building without an oxygen tank,
let alone without some kind of protective gear.
"Ryan!?! Ryan where are you?" Much to Bell's joy, Ryan called to
him. Her voice was coming from upstairs. He reached the bottom of the steps
just in time to see it happen.
****
Terror took a tight hold of Bell as he watched two ceiling beams come
tumbling to the ground with a loud thud. The beams narrowly missed her...an
eighth of an inch more to the right and she would have been caught by one.
"RYAN GET OUT!!!" Bell screamed at the top of his lungs. Just as he
completed the command, another beam left it's resting place in the ceiling
and fell down towards earth. This time, Ryan wasn't so lucky. She looked up
just in time to see a dark object, highlighted by red and orange flames,
coming quickly towards her.
The beam hit her on the back of the head, sending her spiraling
towards Bell. "Noooo!" Not thinking clearly, whether it was from the smoke
or from his feelings only Bell knew, he gathered her body in his arms and
carried her outside. It felt so light to him...almost as light as a feather.
"She shouldn't be this light!" he thought.
When he got to the door Wick came rushing over, wanting to know how
Ryan had gotten hurt. But before he could be answered Michael told him that
there was still a woman on the stairs that had fallen out of Ryan's arms in
one of her many tumbles down the stairs. Wick yelled to one of the
firefighters that to get the woman on the stairs. He assured Bell that as
soon as everyone here was all set he'd be at the hospital.
Bell carefully placed Ryan on the stretcher as if she was a brand new
set of fine china being placed on the table for the first time. He knew that
the most important thing was to get Ryan to the hospital as soon as possible
where the best treatment could be administered. The time from the fire to
the hospital was critical in the survival of the patient and so no time was
wasted in getting her vitals.
"I'm right here Ryan...I'm never going to leave you." Bell kept
repeating these words as if it would break some spell and she'd be okay. He
never lost contact with her hand throughout the trip to the hospital...always
finding a place to touch her face or rub her arm to bring some comfort to her
tortured body.
When the speeding ambulance came to a screeching halt in front of the
ER, Ryan was rushed into the room, and although Bell was a paramedic, he was
not allowed into the ER. That was the first time they had broken contact and
it killed Bell. He felt as though his heart was being shredded with a razor
blade.
