They used to call me Contradiction. They would ask me how I put fires out instead of making them worse, what with that fiery temper of mine. Or why I'm so hot-headed, even though the equipment should protect me from the heat. It's funny how your mind works. It always used to annoy me when they teased me over and over again every chance they got, Contradiction this, Contradiction that, I really hated it. But now as I lie here, I feel that those moments are some of my fondest memories.

"Contradiction! After this shift is over, we should celebrate your birthday! How does barbecue at the park sound? Or we could go to that barbecue joint that opened recently. There's also barbecue at the bar and grill a couple blocks from the station..."

My name is Calandra, though I usually go by my nickname Cal. And this is Rob, one of the older firefighters at the station, at 38 years old. He's like an older brother to me; in fact, everyone here is like my family.

Ever since I could remember, my family consisted of me, my dad and my older brother. Dad said that mom died in a car crash when I was 3, which is why I don't remember her. But when I was 12, a fire broke out in our house, killing my dad and brother as well. I was the only one that survived. That event seriously traumatized me. I was afraid of fire for years after that, and became extremely introverted.

Anyway, the person that adopted me after the fire was my father's good friend Eric, who was also the firefighter that saved me. After my house caught on fire, he recklessly rushed into the burning building by himself, which is the only reason that I'm still alive. After he adopted me, he would often take me to the station with him. Going there really helped me open up to people, slowly bringing me out of my shell. And after hearing all of the fire fighters' stories, I eventually decided I wanted to be a firefighter as well when I grew up.

Now Eric is the fire chief, and I finally became a full-fledged firefighter a couple years back, at the age of 21!

"I already told you to call me Cal! And why are all of the options barbecue?"

He grinned, "Because I really like it!"

'Haa, at least he's honest.'

"I guess I haven't been to the park for a long time, we could-" before I could finish, our pagers went off.

Apparently there was a fire in the park, a pretty big one at that. I was a little relieved. Calls like this are usually simple, and hardly ever have any casualties.

As we were heading out, Rob just couldn't stop laughing.

"What's so funny?" Richard, one of the other firefighters, asked.

Rob, who could barely articulate by this point, managed to stammer out, "Well I was just now telling Cal we should all celebrate her birthday today, and asked her where we should go. Guess where she chose?"

After he finished talking, he burst out laughing again.

Everyone looked at me funny.

"That's Contradiction. With her temper she just needs to talk about it and it'll burn!" joked Kenny, one of the other firefighters, prompting everyone to laugh.

"That's not even funny! If you're going to tease someone, at least make sense! You guys and your stupid jokes, I swear."

"Alright everybody, settle down. Let's not tease her too much." chuckled Eric.

"You say that, but you're probably laughing the hardest inside..." I grumbled, causing everyone to start laughing again.

Once we got to the park, I immediately felt something was wrong. Ever since I can remember I've had really good intuition, a sort of 6th sense if you will. I can usually tell when people are lying, or if someone nearby is in danger, stuff like that. And I had a really bad feeling this time.

I started looking around immediately once I got out of the fire truck. There were a couple groves of pine trees near a playground, with a couple grills scattered around, possibly the source of the fire. One of the groves of trees was on fire, one of the flaming trees having fallen on a large wooden playset. I immediately grabbed an ax and started sprinting towards the playground, leaving everyone else behind.

As I got closer to the playground, the feeling was getting stronger. The part of the playset that the tree fell on had already collapsed, the fire slowly spreading through the rest of the playset. I quickly started searching, shouting to see if anybody could hear me.

"Help, I'm over here!" I heard someone yell from close to where the tree fell. I hurried over to where I heard the voice, and as I got closer I saw a little boy trapped underneath a partially collapsed section.

"Don't worry, I'm here to help you. What's your name? How old are you?"

"I'm Berry, I'm 6 years old." he said as he held seven fingers up.

Just barely holding back my laughter, I asked, "What were you doing under here?"

"I was hiding from the fire. Can you save me?"

"Saving people is what firefighters do best! Now can you tell me where your parents are?" I kept talking to him as I worked, asking him questions, trying to keep him from panicking.

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I tried to find a way for him to get out without having to use the ax, but it was no use. All of the exits were either blocked by debris or collapsed. If I were to try to clear an exit by hand, it would have taken far too long.

"Ok Berry, I'm going to use this ax to get you out of there, but it may make the playset fall down. When I tell you to, I need you to get out as fast as you can!"

Seeing Berry nod, I took the ax and started chopping. But just as I was nearly finished making a hole, I got a bad feeling. Sure enough, the playset started tipping, seemingly about to collapse. Sensing there was no time, I started kicking the wood, breaking it, and immediately grabbed the stunned Berry. But as soon as I pulled Berry from the playset, the whole thing started falling towards us. Too late to escape the collapsing structure, I pushed Berry onto the ground and shielded him with my body in a desperate attempt to save him.

I felt the wooden boards and beams fall on me, causing me to collapse, pressing me on Berry. Luckily, or maybe not, nothing hit my head very hard, leaving me mostly conscious. I don't think the rest of me was so lucky though, considering I could hardly feel anything, and everything I COULD feel hurt. Then I suddenly remembered Berry.

"Berry? Berry, are you ok? Answer me Berry!" I barely forced the words out, hoping he was alright.

No response.

'Calm down Cal, he's probably just unconscious.' My intuition told me that he was safe, and my intuition was almost never wrong.

'I don't feel like he's in danger, but I'll crush him if they don't find us soon. Hurry up guys!'

As if responding to my silent plea, I heard people shouting nearby. "Cal?"  "Cal where are you?!"  "Cal!"

"Here... I'm here..."

"Guys she's over here! Hurry up!"

I was surprised by the weak voice that came out of my mouth, but it seemed like someone heard me. Luckily most of the debris that fell on us was not on fire, allowing the other firefighters to start removing it immediately. I thought there was a lot more on us than there was, but it seemed we were lucky. After no more than a couple minutes, they were removing the last pieces of debris.

"Cal, what were you thinking?! We were still getting ready when I saw the structure collapsing with you lying underneath it! You always-"

In the middle of Eric's lecture, he suddenly stopped speaking mid-sentence.

"Wha-... Nobody move her! Why is there no stretcher?! Somebody get a stretcher! Hurry up, QUICK!"

"No, there's-" *cough* *cough* *cough*

"Shhh Cal, stay still, there's help coming."

"No!" *cough* "Child, there's a child, under me, hurry, hurry..." I trailed off.

When he heard me, after a moment of shock, Eric decisively had several other people help him move me. I thought I was completely numb by that point, but apparently not. Even though they were being careful, it felt like my body was being ripped apart. After they put me back down, I felt a wave of exhaustion sweep over me as I just lie there, on the brink of unconsciousness.

I was suddenly woken from my stupor as I felt myself being lifted up again, winding up on a gurney. Unexpectedly, I felt great. I was unprecedentedly clear-headed, feeling almost no pain.

'Maybe I'm not really hurt that bad!' I thought.

As I was transported to an ambulance, I saw Berry in another ambulance, covered in blood. I was almost scared to death!

Right after I was lifted into the ambulance, I saw Eric step in and nod to the EMTs; they nodded back and stepped out of the ambulance.

'What's with that weird exchange?'

Ignoring the strange behavior, I asked nervously, "How's Berry? The kid in the other ambulance..."

"He's fine. He has a couple broken ribs, but he's stable. It's a miracle really." said Eric as he sat beside me.

"But all of that blood..."

"Most of that blood is yours. What were you thinking anyway, going off on your own like an idiot?" Eric scolded.

"Idiot? I saved his life!" I defended.

"That's not my point; you should have brought other people with you!"

"There was no time! And besides, what am I supposed to say? I guess something like 'Hey guys, I feel the presence of a human over there! Let's go save them!'" I said sarcastically.

Eric seemed unusually distressed, saying, "Yes! Say that! I would believe you, I've always believed in your intuition. Why couldn't you have just asked for help?"

"What about the time you saved me? You said you rushed in all by yourself! How was that any different?" I countered.

"Because I didn't die!" he shouted, burying his face in his hands.

Shocked, my eyes widened.

"What...? I'm not dead, I feel great!"

"The paramedics said they can't do anything to save you. They said technically, there's no way you should even be conscious! They told me I should stay here with you for your last moments; do you even know how it feels to hear something like that? Do you Cal?!" he said with his face still in his hands, trying to hold back his tears.

I was shocked. I knew I had some bruises and lacerations, and maybe a couple broken bones, but I never thought I was dying. After what felt like an eternity of silence, I finally spoke up.

"....I'm sorry. I really don't feel any pain though, so please don't worry about me. I actually feel great... I say as I sit here dying. I guess I really am a contradiction, huh?"

"Haha, why are you apologizing? You're the one in such a horrible state." said Eric as he wiped his tears away.

Suddenly I heard some voices outside the ambulance.

"Hey!"  "Contradiction!"  "Heya Cal."  "Cal, are you ok?"

It was Kenny, Rob, Richard, and Charles, my best friends.

"Hey guys, I'm doing good. How are you doing?"

"Good?! What 'good'? You look horrible!" said Rob, and while he was grinning and joking like usual, he didn't seem like his usual happy self.

Kenny silently sat down beside Eric after entering the ambulance.

As for Richard and Charles, who were brothers, they started scolding me about going off by myself, just like Eric did. Unable to hold back any longer, I burst out laughing.

"You guys are acting like my mom! You two and Eric, haha, always scolding me for everything..."

Before I could finish, my eyes started tearing up. Five grown men sitting there scrunched together, it should be comical. But all I could think of was, soon, I would never see them again. Seeing me start to cry, all of the guys decided to stay quiet and let me sort out my feelings.

After crying for a while, I finally calmed down, suddenly feeling sentimental. Seeing the group of guys beside me, I decided to vent it all on them.

"You know, I always thought of you guys as family, sniff."

Seeing some shocked expressions, I giggled, "If it weren't for you guys telling me stories and playing with me when I was younger, let alone my fear of fire, I think I'd still be afraid of people. I don't know if you know how much you helped me. After the accident, I couldn't even go to school I was so traumatized. When Eric decided to bring me to the station, I didn't want to go at first, but when he told me that the people there hate fire as much I did, I decided it was worth a try."

After I said that they all started laughing.

I felt myself getting more and more lightheaded. Feeling I didn't have much time left, I decided to get something off my chest.

"Eric, can I ask you something?"

Eric nodded.

"Can I call you dad?" I asked as I stretched my hand out.

"Of course you can!" said Eric, teary eyed, as he smiled gently and clasped my hand in his.

"I love you Dad. And Rob, and Richard, and Charles, and Kenny..."

Soon my eyelids get too heavy to keep open any longer. Seeing me close my eyes, everyone else grasps my hand as well.

As I lie here, consciousness fading, fond memories flickering through my mind, I ask myself one thing;

'Is dying supposed to feel this comfortable?'