Unburnt: a speculative firefighter novella

By A.M. Weald and H.S. Arthur

A different kind of superhero story...

 

After emerging unscathed from the house fire that killed his father, Ed Stoneman had recurring dreams about rescuing himself as a boy, sitting amongst the flames, unburnt. The dream stopped once he became a firefighter, later earning the nickname of "Dodge" by surviving a lethal flashover fire. Dodge embraced his supernatural imperviousness to the heat of fire by going in when no one should, breaking the rules of rescue because he had to, because he could. With the Wyoming steppe becoming increasingly arid and fires igniting every few days, his 'talent' is needed now more than ever.

On his 50th birthday, Dodge dreams of the boy not on fire for the first time in over 30 years. Chalking it up to stress, he thinks nothing of it. With retirement from active fire duty in his near future, he's depressed and aimless. Other than firefighting, what purpose does he have? Twice divorced and childless, believing himself to be infertile in exchange for his superpower of unknown origin, he has no one to confide in but his cat, and he daydreams of walking into a wildfire just to see if he'd finally burn. But when he answers an emergency call about a local house fire, renewed purpose greets him in the flames, making him question everything he once believed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: A.M. Weald
• Release date: Sep 25, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223196617

A.M. Weald

A.M. Weald writes adult character-driven fiction in a mix of genres from the romantic to the speculative. She is a freelance editor, a semi-retired archaeologist, and a neurodivergent xennial who thinks about cats way too often.

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Copyright © 2023 A.M. Weald

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, including for use in AI datasets, without the written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations within critical reviews.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, institutions, locales, and events are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

Cover art by Tithi Luadthong (grandfailure)

instagram.com/grandfailure9

Cover design and title by Rebeca Covers

fiverr.com/rebecacovers

Editing and interior formatting by A.M. Weald

amweald.com

Fonts embedded in this work, Bernier, Yrsa, and Inconsolata, are licensed under Google Fonts OFL.

For Wyoming

AUTHOR NOTE

Any actions within this work are in no way meant to be instructional in regards to real-life firefighting. Please consult your local fire department or emergency services for instructions if there is a fire in your area.

Should you need them, content warnings are listed on the very last page of this book.

If you or someone you know is considering walking into a fire, please know that it will hurt—a lot. Know that you are not alone, even if it feels that way sometimes, and that there are better options for addressing the pain within.

Consider reaching out to your country’s mental health hotline.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines

https://www.helpguide.org/find-help.htm

GLOSSARY

Firefighting terms included in the novella.

Bunker gear: Bulky firefighting coat and pants used for structure fires.

Brush truck: A fire truck specialized for fighting wildfire, including a water tank and hoses.

Company: A group of firefighters in the same station or vehicle, though not always working the same shift.

Control line: Any constructed or natural barrier meant to control a fire.

Counter fire: A controlled burn, intentionally setting fire to plants and trees so that a wildfire will be starved of fuels.

Crown fire: A fire involving the tops of trees and bushes.

Engine: A fire truck fit with a water tank, pump, and hoses.

Firebreak: A broad track with no fuel, such as a road or path, often stripped by a bulldozer, intended to starve a fire and allow vehicle access.

Fireline: A scraped area at least 1 ft/30 cm wide free of fuel or dug to mineral soil to prevent the spread of fire. Additionally, the act of working a fire is described as being on the fireline.

Firestorm: An intense, destructive fire generating its own weather systems such as strong winds, clouds, and lightning.

Flashover: When every flammable object and gas in an area ignites simultaneously.

Fire devil/whirl and Fire tornado: A vortex of air formed from the wind currents produced by an intense fire. Fire devils/whirls are smaller, like dust devils, while fire tornadoes are much wider and stronger.

Fire front: The leading edge of a wildfire, potentially one of many.

Fire officer: A ranked firefighter. From bottom to top, these include lieutenant, captain, battalion chief (BC), and chief.

Fire retardant: Water, foam, or chemical compounds (often red or pink in color) used to suppress or quench a fire, or slow down the rate that fuel will catch fire.

Fire suppression: Efforts made to contain a fire, often before one even begins.

Fuel: Any flammable material.

Fully involved: When a structure is thoroughly and dangerously consumed by flames.

Hotshot: Elite firefighters specializing in wildfire suppression not limited to a single jurisdiction.

Multimission gear: Gear certified for both wildland and urban search-and-rescue efforts.

Primary search: A quick search for occupants in a structure, often before extinguishing efforts begin.

Secondary line: A control line constructed at a distance from the preliminary lines at a fire front.

Senior firefighter (SF): An unranked but experienced firefighter.

Spot fire/spotting: When embers carried on wind cause fuel to ignite, starting a new fire potentially miles from the fire front.

Structure fire: A building on fire requiring tactics and gear different from wildfires.

Widowmaker: A detached tree limb nestled against other branches, capable of falling at any moment.

Wildfire: A fire not involving any structures, only forests, grasslands, and other open areas, though they are a threat to inhabited areas and structures.

Wildland: Typically an uninhabited area such as forests and grasslands. Wildland season is the period of an area’s warm, dry months when wildfires are common.

UNBURNT: A NOVELLA BY H.S. ARTHUR

CONTENTS

Cover

Copyright

Dedication

Author Note

Glossary

Title Page

Contents

Cake

Dream

Call

Girl

Drip

Dragon

Confession

Whisky

Fireline

Dark

Pulse

Breath

Tale

Future

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Inkfort Publishing Derby

Content Warnings

CAKE

Dodge sat at the dining table in the fire station’s mess hall, staring into the tiny flames of the 5 and 0 candles set atop a homemade fire-engine-red cake. With each of his tense breaths, the flames flickered, threatening to blow out. The crew sang the ever-upbeat Happy, Happy Birthday, clapping, laughing. They couldn’t know he’d been dreading this day.

Into the candlelight he wandered, the memory of a much larger fire roaring over the sing-song din, the flames surrounding him, avoiding him, refusing to consume him. The crew whooped and applauded, and Dodge painted on a smile, made no wish, then blew out the candles, sending his uncertain future as an aging firefighter up in smoke.

It was only symbolic, fifty—a half century old and beginning to feel it. It was only symbolic, yet he’d been pouring money into a retirement fund, taking side jobs to make up for it. Eventually his knees or back or lungs or mind would irrevocably give out, and he’d have no choice but to retire from active fire duty.

But the department wasn’t pushing him out, not yet anyway.

Albany County had been so desperate for firefighters that they’d created paid career positions even for small towns like Centennial that previously only had volunteer firefighters. The county even created dedicated emergency medical teams, letting firefighters focus on fighting wildfires that seemed to ignite on a whim on the increasingly arid Wyoming sagebrush prairie. Some local firefighters had even branched out to form their own federally certified hotshot crews to battle wildland fires around the continent.

Like everyone else around here, Dodge was trained in both structure and wildland firefighting, but he didn’t have the stamina for hotshot work anymore. If the thought of being in a leadership role didn’t scare the shit out of him, he’d have long since sought a promotion to lieutenant. If he’d done that, he might’ve been a captain by now. But Albany