Free Hot As Blazes by Dani Jace

tunnel reduced in size midway. She worked through the mild claustrophobia imagining Vic chasing her.
    En route to the next event, she found her second wind and dragged a dummy weighing one hundred and sixty pounds for thirty-five feet. After rounding a barrel, she returned to the start line. Her back screamed nearly as loud as the tester did for her to advance to the final station―the breach and pull.
    Nearly at a run when she grabbed a six-foot pike poll. She rammed it upward with all her might. Three times, she popped a sixty pound, hinged door. Then with the hook of the pole, she tugged on the eighty-pound device five times.
    The tester yelled, motioning her out of the testing box while clicking his stopwatch. “Nine minutes, forty-five seconds.”
    Her oxygen-deprived brain failed to compute.
    Tami’s frantic hopping finally registered.
    “Whoo! Hoo!” Jo jumped with glee. She’d only been more proud when she won the East Coast Surfing Championships. All the adversity she had faced in the past year faded to black.
    She set the chronometer on her cell phone as Tami bolted from the starting line. Her new friend appeared faster in completing the events until she entered the maze. A pale Tami emerged and made up time on the dummy drag. By the time she stepped into the box and rammed the pike poll, she had less than thirty seconds.
    Tami exited the evolution sucking air like a mullet.
    “Time! Nine minutes, fifty seconds.”
    Jo grinned and handed her a bottle of water from her backpack. “Now if we’ve passed the written exam, we’re good to go.”
    Hesitantly, they approached the wall beside the exam room door and scanned the list for their identification number.
    Tami found hers first. “Holy Gawd!” She let out a long whistle.
    Jo sank to her knees, running her finger along the numbers with her heart pounding and tears forming in her eyes.
    “Oh hell, tell me those are happy tears?” Tami knelt beside her.
    Jo nodded, and pointed.
    “Shit, don’t scare me like that―I need a drink.” She ran a hand through her short hair.
    “Me, too.” Jo felt like a frayed wire.
    Back in her truck, she texted Ray and Bobby as reality sank in. Seven months of rigorous training and studying lay before her. She turned up the radio and smiled.
    Should be a picnic compared to a dirty jail cell in California.
     
     

Chapter 11
     
    Jo stepped into the regional fire training facility at six-forty-five AM sharp and took a seat at one of the desks. Tami arrived a few minutes later and sat next to her. Of the nearly thirty in her class, only six were women. Half of the candidates were already volunteer firefighters.
    Their instructor greeted the class with the warmth of a marine drill sergeant. A couple of younger candidates sat bug-eyed and pasty-faced. Tami leaned back in her chair like no big deal. Jo compared it to her night in jail and did the same. She’d proven her innocence in California. She’d prove herself worthy as a firefighter.
    After the stern initiation, they were issued books and other materials. The daily physical training would be extensive. On the fun side, she’d get a lot of fire play and she could eat her fill of food if she had energy left to pick up a fork.
    Next, she and her classmates received matching sweats and tees and set outside for PT. Jo kept pace pumping out fifty push-ups, determined not to fail before veteran softball player, Tami.
    After a three-mile run, she finished midway in the pack without heaving like some others. As the morning wore on, her muscles voiced their discontent.
    Lunch gave them a welcome relief.
    “So you live on The Banx, too?” Tami opened her mini cooler as they sat at one of the tables in the lunchroom.
    “On the beach road. Next to The Post grocery.” She popped the top on her diet soda.
    “Vintage. I loved those old style beach houses. Wrap around porches and window shutters.” She chewed her baloney sandwich.
    “Dad inherited the place from his