Always Forever | Eddie Diaz

Chapter Six

Chapter Six
MIA

NOW after a new rope was tied around Eve and properly tied on the girl they managed to rescue, the three firefighters and their newly saved civilian—Ali— set their way back to a more stable ground.

Eddie was in the front carefully going down the tilted stairs making sure Eve nor Ali would suddenly slip and fall, not that he thought that Eve would necessarily fall it was more of for his sake after having guilt for her rope snapping.

Eve was in between Ali and Eddie making sure Ali made it down the stairs as safely as possible, grabbing onto her hand as they descended down the stairs, Buck was stationed behind Ali making sure she was stable and in case she slipped up or the rope snapped—again.

"You're doing great." Buck told the blonde civilian."you've, uh, you've done this before, haven't you?" He questioned trying to make friendly conversation to lower her nerves.

"Yeah." Ali answered sarcasm in her tone. "It was, uh, my major at the Rhode island school of Design."

Eve snorted at the retort as she held onto one of the blondes hand while looking behind herself as she stepped backwards.

"Sorry." Ali apologized, she had one of her hands on the rail and the other in Eve's gloved hand."Sarcasm is my fallback for pretty much everything."

"I totally get it." Buck told her as they made it to the 7th floor.

Eddie had managed to get to the landing right after the floor and held out his hand for Eve to take while Buck held onto Ali. Eve abided and took his hand allowing her to better decline down the steps and later help Ali.

Once Eve made it to the landing she turned to her brother and their newly met blonde and held out her hand. "I got you." She spoke.

Before Ali took Eve's hand she peered over the railing "you think he'll still be on her sidewalk when we get down there?" She questioned looking behind her at Buck.

"No." Buck answered shacking his head. "And we're not going out that side anyway."

"Let's hustle up you three." Eddie huffed ready to be out of the death zone of a building. "We don't want to be here for the next aftershock."

"Oh come on I thought it'd be fun to wait for the next one." Eve sarcastically spoke glancing to her side to look at Eddie who stood leaning back due to the tilt of the building.

"Wait," Ali began panic heard in her tone. "What do you mean, the next aftershock?"

Eve sighed and held out her hand a little further. "Just come on." She told the blonde who rolled her head back not wanting to do this anymore then grabbing Eve's free hand and slowly went down the steps. "That's it, you're gonna be fine." She tried reassuring when Ali whimpered probably thinking about what happens if she fell or if the next aftershock comes when they're still in the stairwell. "Buck's right behind you and I'm right here."

Okay." Ali breathed out the air she had been holding in while she was stepping onto the landing.

Eddie went further down, so he could help Eve get Ali down the stairs, however a problem stopped their plans of going down any further. "Oh, you gotta be kidding me." Eddie grumbled seeing all the crumbled building that had fallen and now blocked their way out. "We're not getting out this way."

"Now what?" Ali questioned looking between Eve and buck who began to look up the stairwell at the many flights of stairs.

"We go back up." Eddie answered.

"Back up?" Ali snapped.

Before someone could comment the three firefighters comms came on and their captain's voice could be heard. "Ladder 118, respond. This is captain Nash I need a head count."

Eddie took his comm that was patched onto his shirt and spoke into it. "Ladder 118 responding. Diaz, both Buckleys, we're good, Cap." He told his captain.

Another woman's voice could be heard I've the comms. "Castillo and Jackson responding."

"Paulson, Marcus and Riley responding." A male voice added.

"Chimney responding." Chimney told them through the comms

Everyone in the stairwell paused, there was one person not responding.

"Hen, do you copy?" Bobby questioned. "Hen? This is captain Nash for Henrietta Wilson. Do you copy?"

No answer.

Dazed expression fell over the firefighters when their fellow colleagues and friend didn't answer, she was missing and there was nothing they could do about it.

"Is that a friend of yours?" Ali asked based on their expression.

"Let's keep moving." Eddie told them, pushing down his emotions so they could get out of the building as fast as possible.

This is like really short bc I wanted to post something for y'all, the next chapter is already in works and will be out at some point... I'm super busy at the moment and can't really catch a break. I have a AP chem test on the first, EOC on the second then AP English exam on the 9th and my final big test on the 12th my driving test.

I promise I'm doing my best to post, just time isn't on my side as much as I'd like.

So here's a chapter I hope y'all enjoy :)