[color=red][h3]Madison Ripley[/h3][/color][hr]Madison was in her fire-suit. She enjoyed the weight of her gear on her shoulders, it helped her to stay grounded. After watching the broadcasts, listening to the emergency frequencies, hearing the rumors, she had finally decided that going outside was simply too much of a risk. She had spent literal hours blocking off her apartment and stocking all of her food up, holing up to try and weather the coming storm. And oh was there to be a storm, in all its terrible fury, bearing down on the people right now. She had heard the commotion start outside and thanked her stars, because they were definitely listening, that she had already been in her suit for the past few days. She felt heavy with sweat and stress, wearing a line in her floor from all the pacing she had been doing. Maybe she should shower or bathe herself, she thought, and get rid of this sweat and dirt she had been stewing in. But was even that worth the risk?

A quick sniff to her armpit told her that yes, she could afford to at least give herself a quick scrub with a soapy sponge. A bucket of dish-soap water and a scouring sponge quickly saw to it that her stench was... lessened. Now she just smelled like chemicals, but that was better than stinking. She was disheveled at best, her hair was a mess, dark bags hung from her eyes as they looked back with that wild stare and she was as white as a ghost, to the point of looking sickly. It almost passed her mind that she was twiddling her fingers along the haft of her fire-axe. So natural it felt to be holding it now, she even slept with it at her side. She found herself running her finger along its head, chipped and nicked, but still in more than functional form. Madison almost had to stop herself from cooing to it as she heard more commotion from outside. Footsteps, hurried and panicked. She had heard more than enough of that in her time on the job. Searching seemingly empty buildings for trapped occupants, even over flames, was much easier when they were making noise.

Feverishly, she mounted chairs, tables and went around a wardrobe to peer out the looking hole of the door and saw people. People. Moving in a panic towards the other stairwells. Madison's hands didn't even double-check with her brain as she began pulling chairs and furniture away from the door to the hallway, acting on her rescue instinct that her job honed so well. How was it that something that took hours to build up, was able to be torn away in a matter of seconds? Easier to create than destroy, she supposed. But soon enough the door was clear of debris, but the chain-lock held it in place as she cracked it slightly. The people were most certainly moving toward the other floor, fleeing the lobby. It took her a few seconds more to squeeze out into the hall, locking the door behind her for good measure, and beginning to wade through the crowd, fire-axe in hand. As she moved toward the stairwell, she overheard a shout in as she attempted to escort occupants to the other floor.

[b]"We need to buy everyone time to get up to the second story! WE need to protect those weaker than us, guys!"[/b]

Madison spurred herself on faster, but the crowd wasn't stemming as far as she could feel. She pushed and squeezed as much as she could, but her speed remained the same, she was only halfway down the hall, being stopped every few steps by one of the fleeing pedestrians. She could only stutter, even her mind was a whirl as she attempted to wave people on the way, with the rest of the crowd. Her voice was shuddering and staggered as she attempted to play the director of the flow.

[color=red]"G-go! Up the stairs, you need to get-"[/color] A woman barged past, pushing her axe from her hand, which she quickly scrambled for, [color=red]"There are stairs over there that-"[/color] A child tugged at her suit's leg, [color=red]"Over toward the end of the-"[/color] Another woman yanked her by the hair for a moment, caught in a fearful flail. Madison stomped her foot and stood her ground as the tide advanced past her, putting on her best crisis managing voice. [color=red]"YOU ALL NEED TO GET UP THOSE STAIRS. GET UP THE STAIRS. STAIRS. GET. UP. GO. GO."[/color]