to the small structure which was almost entirely engulfed in flames.
"The workbench!" Brody sprinted forward. He kicked down the door and staggered back from the heat. "Get the hose!" He ran along the building and glanced in. The workbench was still intact. He flew back to the doorway.
"Douse me!" Brody called as Amber strained, pulling the garden hose toward him.
"What? Are you insane?"
"Do it! It is our only chance!" He grabbed the hose and saturated himself. He handed her the hose and looked straight into her eyes. "I love you!" He turned and sprinted through the flames.
His lungs screamed as he held his breath. The heat of the flames evaporated the moisture in his clothing immediately. He untucked his shirt and drew it up, covering his mouth and nose. He made it to the workbench and grabbed a drawer handle, singing his skin against the metal pull. He opened drawer after drawer, the heat and smoke making it hard to see and impossible to breathe. The bottom drawer had a metal lockbox. He grabbed it and used the handle on the top to swing it against the Plexiglas of the greenhouse.
Coughing, gasping for breath, he dropped to his knees, still banging the damn box against the wall of the greenhouse. His vision gone, he fell to his hands, the box still clutched in one. He tucked the damn thing against his stomach and rolled to his side.
He couldn't breathe. In sudden clarity, he understood he was going to die, but he was going to fight that motherfucker until his last rattling breath. He'd just found his family; Death could go screw himself.
Amber screamed for help; her radio forgotten. She saw him dash through the flames and moved on the outside of the greenhouse following him until he burst through the flames and crashed against the workbench. The smoke was so damn thick she could barely see him as he searched through the drawers.
The smoke obscured him. She screamed and pounded on the thick plexiglass. A sudden slam of a metal box against the plexiglass snapped her attention two panes down. Again. There he was, she could see his hands. She pulled her weapon and moved one pane further down. Praying he hadn't moved she pointed at the center of the bottom pane and emptied her clip through the thick membrane. She launched back and slammed her foot against the window. It gave slightly.
"Move!" Captain Terrell bellowed, as he ran toward the greenhouse. She spun away as the man left his feet and drop kicked the pane. It snapped in half, pinning the captain between the two halves. His great arms spread the warping plastic. "Get him!" She scrambled past him on her hands and knees and turned right, using the side of the greenhouse as a guide.
She found him and grabbed his shirt collar, dragging his massive weight an inch at a time. Her lungs filled with smoke as another set of hands grabbed Brody. She pushed as the unknown helper pulled. As he slithered past, she turned. Her foot kicked something metal. The box! Coughing and trying desperately to breathe, she patted around, found it and grabbed hold of the burning hot metal. Oh God, which way was out? The heat and the smoke seemed to be on all sides of her.
A hand slammed on her shoulder, grabbing her shirt, and she was tugged backward. She struggled to keep a grip on the box. Cradling it to her chest, she pushed with her legs, helping whoever was pulling her. A cool wall of air hit her. She curled around the box and blinked through a curtain of tears. "Brody!"
He was flat on his back, and two firefighters were on their knees, working on him. Someone tried to cover her face. She struck at whatever it was and tried to roll onto her hands and knees.
"Swanson, stop!" Terrell was in front of her. "Let them give you oxygen. King is alive. Let them work!"
She would have fought harder if she hadn't had to cough so hard, she puked. The oxygen mask covered her face as soon as she stopped retching.
"What in the hell possessed you two to go into a fucking building that was burning?" Terrell's question reminded her of the box.
She pointed at it. "Evidence." The single word caused her to cough again.
Terrell grabbed the box and muscled it open. He removed several pieces of paper. Shaking his head, he dropped the papers back into the box. She reached