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CHAPTER ONE - A GHOSTLY BOY

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The noise from the floor cracking is loud enough to some furs out of the building be able to hear it, what to say about Mick that was just in the next room? He screamed for his friend, but the flames had now blocked his way and he couldn't see the snow leopard that had fallen to the floor below.

"Vehicle one! Lieutenant MacDonald has just fall into a hole!

"Where?" Said the voice of Alexander, cracking over the static of the radio.

The old yet heavy muscled hyena was standing next to the truck, next to him the other people from the fire unity were running and trying to restrain the advances of the fire from the outside, not that it was easier than doing that from the inside, but it was less risky.

"Can u see the broken glass? A room after it, to... east? Towards the.. the..." Mick was angry with himself to not be able to give a perfect description to the hyena that was controlling the activity of the firemen.

"Towards the empty apartment?" Alex risked.

"No, in the other direction. To the other side."

Alexander held the radio away from his muzzle; he narrowed his eyebrows and quickly found the spot that Mick was talking about, for a fraction of second he wanted to have Superman's X-ray vision. He placed a paw over the fur next to him, this one turned around revealing to be a relatively fat boar.

"Porkchop! Man in danger at the second floor. Take Berelli and two other guys with you and send Good Tony to cover Mick

The boar just nodded and waved to two of his companions, it was enough to make them follow him. Good tony was at the entrance of the building, covered in dust and God knows whatever more, just a few words were exchanged and all of them lurched into the building and to the stairs.

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I fell into a hole, yet I know someone is coming to get me out of here, to save me. When it is one of us, our blood boils with pure adrenalin, you give two hundreds percents of yourself. It is not that you make an effort for everyone, but that one might be a fellow, someone that you know, someone that may have had dinner with you, or owns you money, but maybe it is just another fireman... and that is enough, you forget the rules and follow your instincts.

Beyond that... you feel as an insect, crawling as other furs hop over you.

While I was there, not moving, I knew people were looking for me as I would do in their places; they would put their paws to the closed doors, thinking: "this room, it must be; see if it hot; mark"

When we enter a room while searching someone, we mark the half of an X to the door, the other half you just do as I get out of there. This way the other know that rooms was already searched,... or that it is where you might be if there is someone missing at the end. You never want to be missing at the end.

That room I was in wasn't as the other one, there were almost no fire here, the only flames had started because of the pieces from the upper apartment that felled when the floor cracked. I could move my arms, but my legs were stuck, luckily I could feel then, so I would walk.... If I managed to get out of there in time. I knew someone was looking for me, but I didn't know how much long would take to them to found me.

I heard a door being forced open with a powerful kick and smiled with a certain effort. It was Porkchop.

"We found him" I hear him saying out loud to the other behind them, which I don't pay much of attention at the time "The ceiling, or what is left of it, is going to collapse soon guys, lets take him out of here.

I moan as I feel the weight being relieved from my legs. They try to help me stand up but I move my arm in a wide circle, demanding some space. " I am cool, I can to that."

Don't you try to be the nice guy in the middle of a fire, you just get yourself killed that way. I felt my strength missing and Porkchop helped me to stand before I fall again.

"Of course that you are cool, man; Now, let's get out of here before u get too much crispy." He says with his always teasing voice. No matter what is happening, he is always with a teasing tone, there was just one day that he abandoned it, but it is no time to telling it.

With the other furs of the unity helping me, we are about to get out of the room we are, but suddenly the ceiling crushes; we are still alive, it has just blocked our exit.

One of the guys places his paw to his waist and whistles. That must be Berelli, the Dalmatian, I knew that attitude.

"Ok, we are not going out that way." He says. It was Berelli.

"Hey guys."

The voice makes us all look up and there was that old lion waving at us. He was near of the edge from the upper apartment.

"Is everything alright? Where is the boy?"

"There was a boy" asked Porkchop, a little worried and trying to found someone else in the room. Indeed that strange boy that didn't bothered with the flames wasn't there anymore.

"Yes, MacDonald fell to the hole with him"

Berelli helps me to stand as Porkchop walks away, trying to find that mysterious boy. As a retribution, I puke on the Dalmatian, I say nothing and neither does he. It is a part of the job, I don't apologize, he doesn't complains, it is like getting burned, it just happens.

Porkchop scattered the place but there was no trace of that pink furred boy, where was he?

"There is no one here." The boar says.

There are several part of this job that he must get used to... getting soaped in closed places....

"Looks in the closet, everything. Quick."

"Right"

... Finding dozens of carbonized bodies and with no ways of identification whether there are males or females or even the species. You can get used to all that... but there are certain things you never manage to get used to... like losing a child, you never get used to lose a child on duty. Never...

We were out of the room, Berelli had found another exit that led us to the corridor outside. We heard a loud crack and Porkchop hurried out of the place; a wave of fire and debris followed him as did the smoke. The apartment was sealed in fire, no one there would have survived.... The child was gone.

I met a guy some time ago, he was searching a building for victims, he went to a door, marked and opened,... and found two children, dead, on the other side... Smoke inhalation, nor burning, it was just as they were sleeping... Five years later he says he still sees them at least once a day... As I am always going to see that little boy that I left inside.

The fire was now.... Under control, but it hadn't died yet. People were evacuated and the rest of the unity were using the hoses from the outside. Not me. I was sitting on an ambulance, near enough to watch everything and feel the warmth of the flames in their agonizing breaths. Next to me was a paramedic, a rather cute otter, just a few inches taller than me, checking how I was.

He smiles, his blue eyes made me calm and at piece for a moment, then I moan and flinch as I feel the peroxide of hydrogen working on my injury.

"There you go. I cleaned it, but you going to need some stitches in there."

Porkchop walks by, eating a burger, I wonder how he manages to find those things wherever we go. Berelli says he hides some beneath his shirt. Knowing Prokchop, maybe that was true.

"Get the hell out of here Luke, go with him, tremendous stud this paramedic." He winks at me and takes another snack on his burger.

The otter blushes but say nothing, as he hadn't heard that.

"You need to come in the ambulance now... I tried to delay a little more... to see you; to see if.. you know.... If they could find him.... But now I need to put you in then ambulance and go.

"I know, I just..... I know." There is not much to say.

The ambulance advances quickly through the street, that annoying alarm commanding the other vehicles to open space so the ambulance might pass. It is not a quiet ride, and some bumps remind me of the speed the vehicle is moving, I wish I could drive that way with my own car, would spare a lot of time.

"Have you seen the Jets game?" asks me the driver. The otter is quiet, watching me with the corner of his eyes.

"I am not a great fan of football, I do prefer baseball."

He chuckles "Firemen, all are such faggots."

"Yeah... we are."

I move my view from the ceiling to the otter, and see that he is serious; as our eyes meet a smile born in our lips... but something tells me that he wants to say something else. I continue with the smile as he stops... and after a time he asks me...

"What is it?"

"You are just a cute guy, that is all."

He gives me one of that looks, as if I was a kid and had said something silly.

"And very well mated, thank you."

"Whatever, I am just saying that u are a cute, and that is true, you being mated or not."

"Yeah.... I bet u say that to a bunch of guys, don't you?"

I laugh out hard. That is not true, I never even look to a lot of guys, I've had no one since my previous mate.... Rest is peace Matt.... Maybe I've just said that because of Porkchop's comment... me joking or not, that otter was really cute.

I almost fall from my place when the ambulance reduces drastically the speed. The Otter helps me to stay in my place, from where I am I can't see what the driver or the otter can... Al I just see is a part of the chest of the water mammal and a piece of the ceiling.

"Do you mind if we take a little longer to get to the hospital, boss?"

"It is Lieutenant, or Luke; but I don't mind; why? What has happened?

"Josh, Grab your medical kit ... We have something out of schedule here.

I don't need to sit to understand what is going on... in the twilight, the orange and yellow colors of the fire outside tainted the white from the ceiling of the medical vehicle.

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The two paramedic got out of the ambulance in the blink of an eye, that was the time they were supposed to act. Three cars have collided and all of them are now a pyre. Police cars were there, making the curious crowd of fur stay away from the flames. Isn't funny how death can be such a curious thing to people?

Josh, started to look at the cars, and there was no hope wherever he looked at, bodies, all mutilated by the accident or by the fire that came after it. So he went to the car in the middle, there, with a small boys dead at his side, with the driver reduced to a pile of blood and this reddish liquid that follow any injury covering almost everything of the car, was a small boy on the back seat of the car.

Josh hurried to take him out of there.

"You are a lucky boy." Said Josh to the young wolf he had take out of the car. "No bruisers, no broken bones... everything seems in order. But we should exam your head, take you to your home, find your dad or mom..." he was not sure about this... the one in the driver's seat might be or this child mom or dad, but the way it looked like it was not possible to assure.

The boy was in a disturbing perfect state, even his clothes, his dark shirt and ragged jeans that were supposed to be ragged. This boy had a pink fur and deeply green eyes.

"Daddy is worried, there is an war coming."

"I know dear, it is a moment of fear now... but ..."

Josh had turned back, he recognized the sound of the back doors of the ambulance being opened, and it was just in time to see Luke, the rather good looking Snow Leopard coming out of the vehicle. When he turned back to the boy, he had vanished.

The otter waved to a cop in a police vehicle just a few meters from where he was.

"Hey you! Have u seen the boy that was just with me."

"I saw him when I arrived here, but not now."

The otter sighed and got to his knees trying to look beneath the vehicles there, it was not rare children hide when they have just passed by a traumatic experience.

"We have four bodies, but one of the driver could..."

"Dear, where are you?" said josh, not paying any attention to the snow leopard.

Luke was still wearing the trousers from his uniform, and also a black Shirt with FDNY written in large and blue letters. He stopped as he saw the otter crawling and peeking beneath the vehicles.

"What are you doing?"

"I lost my patient. A boy... using some ragged jeans and a black shirt. He was here a minute ago but now he is gone."

Luke dropped his jaw...

"this boy had pink fur by any chance?"

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Two accidents and this same boy, what does it means?

"I must have dozed of for a second. I thought I had let him fall with me, but they didn't find him... it was too weird... maybe he had crawled to a closet, things like that happen.

A badger in a vehicle that was near was talking with us. His name was Odre. He got curious when we are describing the boy.

"But you said that the fire seemed to be involving him, yet he couldn't touch him."

"And the boy I've seen on the back seat of that car, with two bodies around him, without safety belt... he hadn't a scratch or bruiser in anyplace

I got curious when the officer followed us when josh and his partner brought me to the hospital. Now I was resting on a bed there and had already got some stitches on my back.

"What the hell is happeneing?" Asked Josh; he had his head resting over his hands and was sitting next to my bed. Odre was leaning against a wall while the nurse medicated me.

As the nurse gone away, the badger closed the green curtains around the three of use and got a serious look.

"I've seen him too..." he said as that was some sort of a crime. "I thought it was some sort of ghost or something like that.. I don't know... I was answering a call, A father that had just killed his daughter.

Josh whined, later I would knew that his father used to beat him and his sister.

"My God, Why?" The otter asked.

"He thought it wasn't his daughter, maybe he never heard about recessive gems. In any way, after what happened, I got a little... shocked by what had happened... not focused... then I looked and there was this little boy, pink fur and black shirt, walking towards me... a ten years old, maybe eight, but he was small.... The same that I saw on the street with you" He pointed at Josh "before he had disappeared"

"I tried to rescue a girl that disappears , how that can happen?" I asked, more to me than to the others.

"I don't know, I really don't" said the badger.