To People I Save

When I was a child my dad asked me who do I want to be when I grow up. I knew I wanted to help people, so I said someone who helps people. It wasn't good enough for him so he continued.

"A doctor?"

"No, they need to study a lot."

"Policeman?"

"No, they deal with scary people."

"That leaves only one option my boy."

And that's how it was decided I will become a firefighter. That and I was born with a peculiar ability, I can siphon carbon. Turns out there is a lot of it during a fire, making it difficult to breathe. Also, fire loves carbon, think coal, wood or gasoline. But there is one form it can't stand. Mostly.

"Seki I need help here!"

"Coming!"

This is my friend Shin, we're in the same crew. He wasn't born with an ability. Only about a third of population was gifted with one.

The apartment we entered was one of those very small ones. It's common we're called to them to perform wellness checks. It's hard to get in because of all the trash the floor is filled with. Now add flames and absolute stench of whatever is burning inside to the mix.

Anyway, siphon implies that it comes in and out, right? With one hand I inhale the carbon oxides, with other I force them onto the floor to put out the fire. This naturally makes oxygen go higher for a bit. Electrical fires get put out easily that way. Trash isn't electrical though.

"Catch!"

Here comes the other cool part, plastics are mostly carbon, so while others would start questioning their friendship if their friend just threw a burning plastic bag towards them, I simply catch them and the bag turns to ash. Well, powder, gasses and a small pressure wave forcing it to collapse inwards first. But it basically turns to ash.

Disintegrating the trash freed Shin's way inside and the person collapsed inside was carried outside. I had no time to help him sadly, I was needed in the next apartment. The entire building was burning, 20 apartments. I saw my colleagues struggling with opening the doors, so I ran to every door and uncarbonized them. Much quicker than an axe and less injuries from body-slamming.

Rei was another 1 in a 3, he could control feathers. Those abilities range widely but can be broken into three categories, Rei's is the most common one, conveniently called "common type". He can control a 'thing'. While it might seem not so useful at first, as feather are quite easily burnable, he's indispensable. While I get burning trash thrown my way, Rei get's people thrown at him. He's gotta catch them, and after he's put them down he has to start the extinguishing process with the water hose.

"Catch!"

A layer of sheets of feathers quickly moves to victim's position and softens the fall as they break through them.

"Medic, get them in the ambulance, I'm quite busy here!"

View of a burning apartment complex, people exiting emergency vehicles and rushing to save whoever can be saved while tragic sadly isn't uncommon. By the way, uncommon abilities would include controlling 'types of things', a bit broader category; like metal or fluids.

Another firefighter unit arrived at the scene, 6 regular people. Sadly people like me or Rei were a rarity. Good money is paid to employees with abilities, and risking their lives is making an already rare resource even rarer. That's my category by the way. 'Rares' can control elements of periodic table with a huge precision. While it's not as broad as fluids, it's much more sought after.

One of the paramedics asked for a backup:

"We need more ambulances, MCI caused by an ELEC."

It means 'Mass Casualty Incident' caused by an electrical problem. Fire of this magnitude meant that either the entire electrical system was very faulty, or someone filled the entire building with easily burnable gasses or fluids. I bet on the former mostly because of the plasticky smell often accompanying those fires, but with all this trash burning around you can't be sure. There was another problem approaching. There are 9 of us firefighters. Well, Rei needs to be outside and put things out, so make that 8. Two people an apartment means we could get into 4 apartments at once, leaving us with 5 trips. Not a great situation.

Other thing Rei could do, albeit it was very draining, is to use multiple hoses at once with his feathers. Best he can do while providing a safety pillow is 3.

Something else I can do is break walls, quite easily. Carbon is the thing making the walls sturdy, so if I remove it we may be able to manage to save everyone.

I screamed loud enough for everyone to hear:

"I WILL MAKE HOLES IN THE WALLS AND SEE IF SOMEONE NEEDS HELP, IF YOU SEE A CLOUD COMING OUT RUSH IN!"

"Don't be ridiculous, what if you break a load-bearing beam!?"

Shin clearly wasn't on board with my idea, but time was of essence. They will either die of the fire if we take too long, or maybe die of a building collapsing. Personally, I'd take a maybe over a certain death any day.

I rushed into the apartment we already cleared and made an opening by placing by right hand on the wall and sucking all the carbon inside me. I forgot to mention, but I can also hold the carbon inside. Just for a short moment though, if I take too long it rushes straight out of my chest. I ran inside and with my other hand and covered the hole with a solid coal block. Much more draining than taking out a fire.

Nobody inside, next apartment.

I repeated the process and this time I found someone. Heavily burned, either unconscious or dead. I sent a signal nonetheless.

As I made my way through the entire complex, I realized we were too late. Later I learned there was exactly one person still alive as we took them out. They died in the hospital. Everyone else was too far gone.