The Rats, The Cats and The Callahan

by Trigger_Finger

When it hits the fan

Callahan raced his car up as close as he could and hid Squeak in the glove box, since Ms. Abernathy had he cats outside. Callahan raced up to one of the firefighters, “what the hell is going on?” Callahan gasped and the firefighter turned to him, “some scented candles were left burning and caught fire to the drywall in a house on the fourth floor” the firefighter informed him and Callahan felt as if his stomach sank, he had forgotten to put out the candles before he left like he always did.

“Is every-pony okay?” Callahan asked worriedly and the firefighter shook his head “no there’s still an elderly stallion unaccounted for from the fifth floor and we can’t get to him” the firefighter replied. Callahan’s heart sank even deeper and he rushed into the lobby of the burning building and the firefighter yelled at him to stop. He knew that the elderly stallion had to be Mr. Brody. He raced up the stairs but as he reached the 3rd floor smoke started to sting his vision. Callahan tore a piece of his shirt off and wrapped it around his mouth like a bandana and got lower to the ground.

He proceeded to the 5th floor as fast as he could, staying low to avoid the thickening smoke. He reached the 5th floor and literally had to crawl along the ground to breath, even with his improvised bandana. He reached Brody’s door and opened it, being right above his room Brody’s home had suffered catastrophic fire damage and the floor boards where either burnt away or very unstable. He looked around and but couldn’t spot Mr. Brody.

“Brody, where are you” Callahan yelled, there was a hacky response “over here, in my room” Brody coughed. Callahan crawled cautiously along the floor and carefully made his way to the old stallion’s room and saw Mr. Brody huddled up in a corner, covering his mouth with some bed sheets. Callahan reached Mr. Brody and tugged him “Come on, I’m getting you out of here” Callahan told him and the old stallion let out a hearty laugh. “You shouldn’t have risked your life for me” he laughed but Callahan shook his head “no-pony deserves this kind of fate” Callahan told him and put Mr. Brody’s foreleg around his neck and carried him out, but the smoke was becoming intoxicating.

Callahan fell to the ground and coughed violently. “Hold on, can you get me to my closet across the hallway?” Brody asked and Callahan nodded and staggered himself and Brody across the hallway to the closet. Mr. Brody opened the door to the closet and pulled out an old military canvas sac and presented 2 old gas masks. “Here, put this on, it’ll make breathing a whole lot easier. Kept these after the war thinking my kids might like them… I’m glad they thought they were ugly and didn’t take them” Brody laughed as he slipped on his mask and Callahan put his on as well.

“I can barely see out of this thing” Callahan muttered, his voice distorted by the breathing apparatus. “Trust me it’ll be worth it, now let’s get outta here” Brody told him and wrapped his foreleg around Callahan’s neck and they both started walking to the exit. However as they began to leave Mr. Brody’s home the floor collapsed beneath them and they both came crashing down into Callahan’s apartment room. “Oh fuck” Callahan groaned as he looked over to Mr. Brody, who was grunting as well.

Callahan picked up Mr. Brody but realized that Mr. Brody’s hindleg was broken and he couldn’t walk. “Leave me kid… you won’t make it if you try and bring me along” Brody said valiantly. “Like hell. I ain’t leaving any-pony behind” Callahan told him as he threw Brody over his back “especially not a good friend” Callahan told Brody.

His mask’s goggle’s had cracked and smoke burnt his eyes but thanks to the design of the mask smoke wasn’t able to fill the entire mask and Callahan was able to breathe properly. He grunted as smoke burned at his eyes and his cuts on his face and he paced slowly towards his door.

“Oh sweet Celestia fuck me” Callahan groaned as he approached his doorway, Brody turned to see what Callahan was swearing about “what’s wrong?” Brody asked curiously and Callahan turned and walked Mr. Brody to a safer spot to set him down. Callahan set Mr. Brody on the floor and leaned him sitting upright against a wall. “Some burning beams of wood are blocking our way out, I can’t get us both out” Callahan told Brody with sadness in his voice. Brody grabbed Callahan and brought him in for a hug “Kid, don’t worry about me, I’ve lived a long enough life and besides my kids don’t even visit me anymore” Brody told Callahan and Brody began to cry softly and pushed Callahan away “now get outta here before the roof collapses on us both” Brody ordered.

Callahan looked around desperately, he wasn’t going to leave Mr. Brody, he couldn’t. Then a memory played through his mind of when he and his brother Jimmy were refurbishing the kitchen, Jimmy looked to him and laughed “brothey you can never be too careful, it was a good idea for me to get this fire extinguisher” Jimmy laughed and the memory faded away. Callahan raced into the kitchen and found the fire extinguisher and ran to the front entrance of the house and tried to put out the flames with the extinguisher but it was no use, the flames were just too thick.

Callahan let out a defeated roar and dropped to his knees in failure. “FUCK” he roared. Suddenly he realized the fire extinguisher was getting hot in his hands, “maybe” Callahan began but then remembered that all fire extinguishers had release valves in case they built up too much pressure. Once again Callahan roared out and threw the fire extinguisher at the burning wood beams.

He felt heavy, and the heat of the fire began to make him feel nauseas and he started to sway back and forth. He pulled out his M1911 figuring he’d rather die a quick and painless death than a painful and long one. He crawled over to Mr. Brody who coughed “why are you still here?” Brody asked and Callahan brought out his handgun for the elder stallion to see. Brody knew what he was referring to “one for me… and one for you” Brody gasped and leaned his head back.

Callahan began to tear up and began to sob then looked at his pistol. “I’m getting us outta here” Callahan told Brody and looked back to the fire extinguisher. Sure it had a safety release valve for high pressure but that didn’t mean puncturing it wouldn’t set it off.

Callahan lined up his shot and pulled the trigger, the pistol let out a loud BANG, the pistols shot was muffled by the explosion of the fire extinguisher, which erupted and sprayed fire retardant everywhere, effectively putting out the fire at the doorway, for the moment.

Callahan holstered his pistol and tossed Brody over his back and ran out the door. Just as he entered the hallway the roof
collapsed inside his old room. He looked back and figured it would be best not to waste any more time. He ran down the staircase as fast as he could with Mr. Brody on his back.

He reached the lobby and heard another explosion rip through the building, along with screams from outside. Callahan ran up to the lobby doors but realized they were locked, and there was firefighters keeping ponies away from the building, the firefighters must’ve locked the doors to prevent ponies from entering the building. Callahan placed Brody on the floor and gave a mighty buck to the glass panel, it shattered to pieces and Callahan picked up Mr. Brody and ran outside, several ponies screamed and pointed to Callahan as he rushed outside and paramedics met him even before he reached the firefighters.

They took Mr. Brody off his back and placed him on a stretcher and wheeled him away. They attempted the same with Callahan but he simply shrugged them off and walked over to his car and ripped off the gas mask, it had probably saved his life.

Suddenly media came rushing over to Callahan and flashes from cameras began erupting. “Sir what do you have to say about this catastrophe?” one of the reporters asked and Callahan looked to the reporter “sorry” Callahan apologized, remembering that it was his stupid candles that started this mess. “Sir how do you feel now that you’re a hero?” another of the media ponies asked holding out a microphone for Callahan to talk into.

Callahan sighed an exhausted sigh and looked to the media “I’m not a hero, any pony would have done what’s right, it just so happened to be” Callahan began but suddenly the pony interviewers were pushed out of the way and another pony stepped forward. She had a dark indigo fur color and her hair was a light grey. “Move, move, get out of my way” she said in a British accent which made Callahan laugh. He recognized this pony from a T.V. show he watched once, this was the ever famous Photo Finish.

“Get this pony ready for action” Photo ordered and several ponies with fashion products approached Callahan. “Get away from me, I don’t want any special photos for some stupid calendar or something” Callahan grunted and pushed the ponies back. Photo Finish pointed to her camera-pony, “now take pictures of him before and after” she ordered and the camera-pony got right up in his face and started taking pictures. Callahan tried to push him back but he wouldn’t back off. “Buddy get out of my face” Callahan ordered but the pony kept taking pictures.

Callahan snarled “last chance bozo” Callahan growled but the pony took no care to his warning and Callahan got up onto his hindlegs and punched the front of the camera and the camera smashed back into the camera-pony’s face, the force knocking him out cold. Callahan scratched his ear and walked away, the media stepping back in fear.

Callahan walked over to where the paramedics had Mr. Brody. “How is he doc?” Callahan asked and the paramedic looked to Callahan. “Other than some smoke inhalation he’s fine, he’ll be up and about in a few hours” the paramedic informed Callahan and got up to write his report.

Callahan placed the gas mask Brody had given him on Brody’s chest “here, you can have this back… maybe for a memoire” Callahan told him. “How you feeling?” Callahan asked, and Brody let out a cough “like Celestia just hit me in the head with a sledgehammer” Brody replied and they both chuckled. “Callahan, what are you going to do?” Brody asked Callahan who looked off, he sure as hell wasn’t staying around anymore, on account that he had lost his job and that his home had just burnt away. “I gotta find some-pony who can help my rat, he’s sick and the vets here don’t know anything about rats” Callahan told Brody who nodded. “Didn’t you tell me that you met the princess?” Brody asked and Callahan recalled telling Mr. Brody about how he had met the princess. “Yeah why?” he asked and Brody chuckled, “listen after I left the military I kept myself busy by looking up current events in Equestria, things like Nightmare moon’s return and what not… anyway there is some mare that works for Celestia or something” Brody informed Callahan who nodded. “Her name is Uttershy or something… I can’t remember, but I do remember reading that she’s an animal freak, you know like one of those vegan save the earth types… she even lives in a fucking tree” Brody laughed but began coughing violently.

“You think she’ll know about what’s wrong with Squeak?” Callahan asked and Brody nodded “oh yeah, positive… but I forget where she lives, anyway contact the princess and arrange a meeting with her and tell her about your little predicament. I’m sure she’ll help you out” Brody told Callahan who nodded. “What about you?” Callahan asked and Brody looked to him with softened eyes, “I called my kids, they said they’d take me in” Brody told Callahan who nodded. Brody grabbed Callahan and brought him in for a hug “thank you for saving me” Brody whispered his thanks to Callahan who returned the hug. Brody let go off Callahan and Callahan looked to his elderly friend, both with tears in their eyes. “Well I have a pony to find, goodbye Brody… hopefully our paths cross again one day” Callahan told Brody who looked to Callahan and called out to him as he left “be safe on your journey Callahan”