The last thing I remember before going to sleep was that it was hot. The kind of scorching, dry heat that not enough water in the world can quench. I was sleeping nude to try and maintain some normal body temperature, my old fan slowly pushing hot air around the room. I thought I would never fall asleep.
The first thing I thought upon waking up was that somehow, it had gotten worse. I felt like my skin was on fire and that I was burning up from the inside; and then I tried to breathe. My lungs had tiny fires burning all over them and my throat was filled with razors that cut the air. After a few moments of blind panic I realized that the building must be on fire and grade school memories began to come back to me. Get on the floor, the air is cooler down there. Don't breath too deeply, the smoke can damage your lungs. Crawl towards the door, but put your hand on it first to see if it's hot. The door was very hot and I remember thinking that there was something about a towel I should be remembering before the pain in my lungs started to blanket out my thoughts. Then there was a loud noise and suddenly I was airborne.
Someone was carrying me through the building and down the stairs, I was handed off to someone else and all of a sudden we were outside and the air was still warm but free of those killing knives. Whoever was carrying me set me down at the back of an ambulance and left. I know it was silly after just having my life saved, but I was suddenly conspicuously conscious of my nudity. Apparently everyone else had thought to wear pajamas before getting rescued, I was the only one in the nude. Normally I'm not shy about my body, although I'm too short to be a supermodel, I'm content with my looks. However, it felt like I could feel everyone looking at me, and while it wasn't an unpleasant feeling, I did feel mildly inappropriate.
Just as I was looking around for something to pull over my body an EMT appeared, grinned at me and then reached around me to grab something. Her arm brushed against my bare shoulder and the contact sent sparks shooting down my body.
"Here, put this on". She had a low voice that went with the broad shoulders and spiky hair, "My name's Casey, let me take your vitals, make sure you're ok."
I put on the white doctor's coat she handed me and considered that just as my concern about my nudity had been slightly absurd, so were the feelings of lust that were coming over me for this woman. Despite being covered up almost to my knees by the coat, I managed to feel sensual knowing that it was only a thin coat between the world and me, between Casey and me. Meanwhile, my EMT was talking as she took my pulse, listened to me breath and wrote things down on a pad of paper.
"Rough luck about the fire, although I think they contained most of it on the first floor where it started. I overheard the fire fighters saying it was mostly smoke damage on the upper floors; that's where they found you, right?"
I nodded, still not trusting my throat enough to talk.