heat

Keith drove to the place the crew had been told to meet up, driving past all kinds of cars as he sped down the road.

He had left way too late, needing to get back on track by driving there with haste.

His phone rang as his tires screeched.

Keith accepted the call as he straightened his car.

"Hello?"

["Yo, Keith where you at man… you usually aren't this late.."] Keith could hear Franklin's voice coming from the phone on his side.

"Got held up with something, but I'll be there within five minutes." Keith needed to shout as he couldn't take his hands of the steering wheel, trying to keep his car straight as he sped past a cop car.

["See you soon."] hearing the siren Keith looked back, noticing the cop car getting out of a side alley picking up speed in an attempt to catch up with Keith.

Looking back he noticed that some cars were coming to a stop ahead of him, cursing under his breath Keith looked for a way out… Eventually noticing that there was a small construction area to the side, forming a perfect ramp for him to get into the construction sight to his left, somewhere where he wouldn't land on top of a car by accident or crash against a pedestrian..

Checking it a final time Keith send his car over the ramp, launching him up into the air, before making a hard landing on the dirt road around the construction sight, making a sharp turn to escape form the cops, now even sooner then he expected. 

Even arriving to the place Franklin was waiting much earlier then he predicted. 

Getting out of the car Keith grabbed his phone.

"Let's goo." His car would be save for the time being, and he could simply change in the car only needing to get the firefighter suit over his normal clothing.

Getting in the back, Keith confined some things with the others before they headed towards the meeting point near the FIB building.

After a short drive, Keith got the opportunity to get his gear on, making sure that the oxygen was properly mounted on his back while Michael who had come out of the building dressed in a janitor's outfit did the same, resulting in all of them being disguised as a firefighter crew.

"Time to trigger the bombs Frank." Michael adjusted the final pieces of his gear, making himself convertible in the back of the fire truck.

After a couple of seconds, explosions could be heard, all coming from the FIB building.. the explosions had carved out the side of the upper floors, with smoke climbing up as flames escaped the burning floors.

"Whoa.." Michael saw the destruction that he had caused surprised by the scale of destruction those charges managed to achieve. "Alright, lets go, we got first response." Turning on the alarm Franklin drove to the burning building.

Arriving at the main entrance, they exited their truck, all gaining a good look at the tower as some people fled the building, fleeing outside while they still could… the explosions had caused rubble to fall down, creating an uneven floor as their group headed for the door, calming people on their way as they did so…

Lester had jammed the distress signal, meaning that no other firefighters would show up, it would be a cruel fate for those who were trapped under the rubble, but it was not as if they were heroes, Keith and the others did their work not out of the goodness of their hearts, but because it paid…

Entering the building, the four of them headed to the elevator.

"Come on, lets go… Lester says these elevators should still be fine." Entering the small compartment, none of them felt that it was particularly secure.

"Was he high on his painkillers or hallucinogenic weed at the time?" Franklin asked as the doors before them closed.

"Probably a little bit of both.." Michael admitted, as the elevator began to rise.

"Well, cool for clearing that shit up.."

"Don't worry about it Franklin.. elevators are pretty safe, even if the cable breaks it wouldn't drop.." The elevator shook as Keith spoke.

"I'm not waiting to find out if you are right dog.." The doors opened, letting the four out as Michael began to guide them.

Keith and Franklin were at the back, following the route Michael exclaimed as they walked, eventually heading up an emergency staircase towards the top floor..

Finally making It to the top floor, Franklin headed up ahead as Michael asked him to place the bomb on the door to blow it open.

The work they did gave Keith a time to breath, enjoying the momentary rest as he glanced around the room, the red emergency light flickering in his eyes, as Keith adjusted the straps on his air tank, not liking the weight pressing down on his shoulders as he had some body armour underneath..

It wasn't the most heavy duty, as they never planned to get into a firefight, but Keith knew that there were many ways something could go wrong, so he had brought it along, not realising that it would cause some discomfort during the mission.

The reflection the moon gave of shined through the skylight, illuminating the area around Keith as the explosion took out the door to the server room… with Franklin heading inside to retrieve the data drive while the rest got ready to leave…

"Hey I got the data drive, lets go!" Everything was going well up to this point, so Keith had hope for their swift return to the ground level, after which he could take off his oxygen tank.

Keith let franklin go in front off him, planning to cover behind as they moved… seeing Franklin pass Keith began to run after, only for a explosion to rock the building, shattering most of the panels of the skylight as glass fell on top of them…

Luckily the firefighter gear was thick enough for it not to be a problem, allowing them to keep up with Michael as they re-entered the staircase heading down…

Noticing that Michael had stopped, both Keith and Franklin slow down, only to notice the stairs falling down a level below them, making them unable to continue…

Michael seemed to hesitate, causing Keith to point out the door behind him..

"We take this floor and head down a different way."

"Right come on.." Michael still knew more about the building than Keith did, causing Keith to let Michael head out in front of the group, naturally falling back as they entered the floor that was filled with smoke from the waist up.

"The door is stuck, I gotta bust it down." Michael and Gustavo got on either side of the door, wile Keith moved up a little standing back far enough for Michael to have full range of motion for his swings…

As the first swing was about to hit, the doors exploded from the other side, causing fragments of wood to fling at him as the explosion took him off his feet, landing hard on his back landing on the oxygen tack…

The explosion had knocked the air out of his lungs, causing Keith to need a second before getting up again. As far as he knew nothing was to badly damaged, partly thanks to the armour under his clothing, although he did get a giant backpain from the fall. He gained a new appreciation for the armour that had annoyed him before.

"You alright Keith?" Keith heard Franklins voice, most of it covered by a small ring that he gained due to the sound of the explosion.. while he was helped up..

"Thanks man… ill be fine, for now lets just get out of here." Getting up on his feet, Keith could hear Michael say something, before heading into the inferno that was behind the door.

His earpiece seemed to not be working anymore, but Keith didn't have the time to fix it as they began to move.

The heat was immense, luckily their suits protected them against it, although it did not make Keith feel any cooler, as he headed through the partly destroyed upper floors, following behind franklin, as they made their way to the others who had gone up ahead..

The building began to collapse as they neared a part of the floor that had fallen a story down, creating a ramp for them to climb safely down.

The four continued to move winding down some corridors.

A explosion happened close by as Keith rounded the corner, noticing that the three that were in front of him had reduced to two.. Looking around Keith noticed Franklin in the corner of the hall, initially hidden in his peripheral vision …

"M, Franklin is down, hold up!" Keith shouted, only for his shouts to be drowned out by the flames… seeing that his words weren't reaching them Keith bend down to assist Franklin, hoping that he was alright as he made the choice to possibly let himself be left alone at the chance of getting Franklin back up on his feet…

Shaking Franklin to try and get him awake, Keith checked for a pulse, noticing that Franklin was still alive…

"Fucking hell F…" Taking off the mask wouldn't be a smart idea, but taking him would slow him down so much that….

Keith grabbed franklin hoisting him up and throwing him over his shoulders, holding him by one arm and one leg as Keith started moving in the same direction Michael had headed off to..

His speed had dropped significantly, but Keith still managed to move through have of the floor before two agents came around the corner, pointing their guns at him.

"Hands up!" One of the agents started yelling, pointing his gun at Keith as he did so.

Keith stopped in his tracks unsure as to what had happened for agents to come into the burning building.

"What are you doing here, this burning is beyond saving, head down immediately."

"Place the body on the ground and raise your hands, we are placing you under arrest." Perhaps another alarm had alerted them that something was wrong, or they had discovered that they weren't with any fire department. Keith didn't know… all he did know was that he was fucked…

He couldn't shoot them with Franklin on his back, and making any suspicious move now could result in him getting shot… just as he prepared himself for the confrontation, he heard something…

Cooperating with their commands, Keith placed down Franklin, before whispering something in his ear.

"You take left…" Just as Keith stood up he drew his pistol, getting one of the FIB agents right in the head, before the other could respond he was blasted away by a shotgun Franklin had on him..

"Ohh man… Michael I got Keith right here with me dog… we'll be coming down soon." Franklin clutched his head as he got up from the ground.

"You alright?" Keith put his pistol back, replacing it with a bigger gun he had on him.

"yeah man.. the explosion must have knocked me out.. good thing I woke up as soon as I did though." Keith couldn't see it due to their masks, but he was sure that Franklin had a cheeky grin plastered on his face.

"Michael not to far ahead?" Keith asked, worried that they would be left to fend for themselves all the way down to the ground.

"He is one floor below us, what happened to your earpiece?" They communicated using one channel, meaning that everyone could hear what the other person said, meaning that Keith hadn't hear Michael asking about the two of them.

"Got destroyed some floors up, hadn't had the chance to fix it." Keith began to move forward checking the next passage as in case anyone approached.

"..well alright, lets group up again and head out of this burning mess." Franklin led the way, shotgunning every agent he saw, with Keith jumping in if there were multiple..