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******************************************** The Story Unfolds... Season Two, Episode Ten.. From Loaves To Fishes Debut Launch: 1 April 2004. ******************************************* Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 18:56:43 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jeff Seltun" <finiterider@yahoo.com> Subject: Needle In A Haystack.. Chet Kelly took a firm bite into his donut and ambled into the predawn of the station's backyard. He was still sleepy and rubbed the crusty stones out of his eyes.. Then he rubbed them again. A strange pickup truck was parked in the usual spot where Gage's land rover was usually angled in and Johnny was perched in the load bed, holding... "...A pitchfork?.." Chet gaped, then he began to chuckle, waking up more fully. "Hey guys, come out here and get a load of this.. I swear, you aren't gonna believe this one bit." Johnny just paused in his assigned chore, knee deep in sweet smelling straw, spreading the bed evenly throughout the back of the truck..."..wonderful..." he mumbled sarcastically. "There goes Kelly, always sticking his nose in things. Maybe I should've waited on doing this until later." Kelly was soon joined by coffee wielding firemen fresh out of bed. Henry's snores, could just be heard through the open screened kitchen window. Chet turned around at a scuffle of gravel and glanced back towards the shadowy silhouette of the station. Stoker was running fingers through sleep matted hair and Cap was already foaming his jawline with a cream brush for a straight razored shave, a neatly folded white towel slung over a shoulder. Marco was just plain yawning and Roy was not far behind Lopez, buttoning into a fresh uniform top. "Kelly?" Hank asked. "What's the problem? Did you check the meter yet like I asked you to?" "No, Cap. Check this out first. Just take a good look around, ok? What do ya see?" Chet said expansively, gesturing about the yard with broad spread arms. "Ahhhhh.." Cap said scratching his head. "The rush hour on the freeway? Sounds like it's backed up over an hour longer than normal this morning. Odd. It's not even the weekend. Maybe a crash just occurred. We'll know about it in a few minutes if that's the case." "No, no no.. nothing so obvious, Cap. Now just open your eyes bigger for just a second. Look what one of your paramedics is doing right over there.." Kelly sputtered in frustration. Cap's eye fell on Roy, who was immediately to his left. "..Ok.. uhh, That one of the new uniform shirts, Roy?" Kelly turned purple. "No.. Gawd. Aww come on, do I have to spell it out for you fellas? Cap, you usually aren't this slow. Don't tell me that you're tired." Chet bemoaned. "Chet, at this time of the morning. Yes, I am. You know I haven't gotten a hold of Marco's coffee pot yet. Not until I get myself at least halfway presentable for day shift do I fire off enough brain cells to matter." Marco said, "Yeah, that's right, Chet. He doesn't." "Stubble and java just don't go well together, Chet. And neither will you and a mop if you don't start cutting the chaff! It's cold out here.." Captain Stanley grumbled rubbing the goose bumps erupting out on his bare T shirt exposed arms. Chet was cowed, but only on his face. His voice was still thoroughly annoyed at his crewmates' lack of observational skills. "It's Gage, man. He's up to something fishy, I know it." Hank spun his gaze around, squinting into the darkness towards Johnny, who was still pitchforking apart a bale of straw inside the rental truck. "No, I'd say he's doing only what I asked him to do.." And with that, Cap and the rest of the gang retreated once more back into the oven warmed kitchen, leaving Kelly behind with his mouth hanging open. |
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"Better close that real soon or you'll start drawing flies in.." Johnny quipped, cracking a crooked smile while he worked. Dusting his hands off, Gage gave a satisfied grunt and leaped down out of the truck's bed to the ground. Only then, did Chet see that Gage wasn't in his paramedic's uniform. Johnny ambled slowly towards Chet, swaggering, with his fingers hooked through his jeans belt loops. "So, are you going to ask ME anything here, Chet? You already failed at getting it out of them. It would've been easier doing that instead of harrassing the guys about it in the first place." Chet made a face and rubbed his nose. "Would you have answered me?" Johnny's face fell into serious lines.. Then his lip curled up wickedly in a grin and he headed for the kitchen door. "Nope. Just go ahead and ask now. Won't hurt you any to give in a little to get what you wanna know." Chet paced a full meter behind Johnny for long seconds. Then he almost whispered.. "You working today?" "Nope." came Gage's quick reply. Chet set his hands on his hips.. "Well you answered THAT question just fine. " "That's the only question you've PUT to me so far, Chet. I'm not a mystic, you know." Kelly groaned and rolled his eyes painfully, accepting his current oneupmanship lump with a decent sized shred of grace. Luckily, the lack of sunlight prevented Johnny from seeing the meager defeat writing across Kelly's features. "I'm gonna go shower. Remember, I'll kill ya if you grab that last chocolate donut from the green plate." "No ya won't,.. because you're a paramedic.." "OK, I'll kill ya first, ..THEN... I'll bring ya back.... Slowly..." Chet wasn't too reassured by that subtle change of detail. He decided to keep on a low profile to learn what he needed to learn about the new day's mystery playing out where he couldn't reach it. Kelly slunk back inside into a chair next to Henry and tickled their rotund mascot awake. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hank was completely shaven and he had a stack of papers in front of him, twenty minutes later. "Listen up folks. What you've all been waiting for.. Details on this year's Fireman's Picnic Event.." "Say, Cap." Marco inflected. "Isn't that this weekend?" "It is.." "Where's it gonna be this year?" Roy asked, wiping crumbs off his shirt. "At Bailey's Park in Anaheim." "That's the new amusement park off the 405, isn't it?" Stoker asked. "Yep. And the Fireman's Board has already gotten a hold of two dozen tickets for us and our families as well as enough for our YMCA sponsors, too. Food's already planned, and so's one minor detail. Gage is kindly providing us with a pony from home." Chet looked up eagerly from the newspaper he was pretending to read. ::Pony? So that's what all that straw is for..:: "Not a pony, Cap, uh,, sir. A Falabella." Johnny corrected scholarly and full of meek respect. Lopez reached over and patted Johnny on the back as he sat down. " Yeah, Good going. I couldn't remember that term to tell the rest of the guys. Gracias, Gage. Luis is going to simply love you. He says it's his final Make A Wish request to ride a horse." Kelly's forehead furrowed more deeply as he listened in. ::Gage is still not dressed in his uniform. The Picnic isn't until this weekend... so why isn't he scheduled a shift today?.:: |
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Right then, Johnny spoke around his long ago targetted donut, chewing loudly. "I'm gonna go out to the ranch and pick up Cochise right after breakfast. I'm sure Henry won't mind him taking over his pad for a few days." Chet just about choked on his toast, eliciting a few curious glances of inquiry from Cap and Stoker. :: How the h*ll can a horse fit in a medium sized doghouse?:: "I'm fine. I'm fine.. Henry just bumped me, stretching. I coughed it all out. " and he covered his surprise and puzzlement with a stocks section again before anyone else noticed him in closer scrutiny. "Don't forget his grain, Gage. I've already cleared it with the chief and the city to keep your Falabella on property for the two days we'll have him until then." Hank reminded Johnny. "Provided all shifts keep up with all his uh,... bodily functions." "No problem, Cap. Cochise's a stallion but he's really a pussycat, in all ways that matter, including that one. And he does know how to use a litter box." he said mysteriously. Chet's frowning expression only deepened behind the sports page. "Say, Cap. On second thought, I can have my foreman deliver Cochise for me. It's not too late to send Dwyer back to his station. They've extra crew with that rookie paramedic training this month." Hank looked up from where he was scrubbing Henry's ears affectionately. "You sure? You usually detest overtime." "Not this week. I've a spring hayfield planting to pay for." Johnny groaned. "Ok, go get changed, I'll log it into the books later this afternoon." Dwyer came in from the showers a few minutes later and he saw Johnny with his uniform shirt on, unbuttoned and shoes not yet tied. "Hey. Hey..." he celebrated. "Cap, does this mean I get to go to my son's little league practice after all?" "Sure does. Do you mind?" "Nope. I don't. Any extra time with Andy's a treat. He's growing up so fast, you know?" Cap nodded. "Have fun Dwyer, thanks." Right then, the tones went off.. Long ones. Dwyer said, "I'll do the dishes..." And he jumped to his feet. "I'll feed Henry, too, before I leave while I'm at it." "Good man.." Cap said, trucking out of the door after his men. ##Station 51, Station 36, Brush Truck 114, Engine 110. Fuel truck overturned on the overpass. 1/2 mile south of Turner's Peak. Mile marker 226. 1/2 mile south of Turner's Peak. Mile marker 226. Timeout, 07:14.## Fifteen minutes later, they all could see just what they were heading into.. -------------------------------------------- |
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******************************************************** From : patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> Sent : Friday, April 16, 2004 1:11 AM Subject : Quick Silver.. Captain Stanley saw that he was the first of high-ish rank on scene. He quickly sized up the accident while Mike Stoker took the engine in a wide C around the fire and the dangerous spreading ignited fuel streams spidering from the crash. He could just see the truck, a heavy barreled tanker, on its flank, jammed against the mountain it must have just passed underneath on the road, before it lost control. No other cars were evident. Hank thumbed the radio mic, "L.A. Station 51. We're at mile marker 226 at the foothill exit of an interstate bridge by Turner's Pass. We have a lone 7,000 gallon fuel tanker on its side with a fully involved, working fire. We'll need two additional pumper units with brush capability in a second alarm assignment. Tanker cargo is spilling burning unleaded gasoline into the river canyon. I'm reconfirming that air fire support is positively required. Curtail your ladder response, we're in the open against a mountain side." ##10-4, 51. Notifying second alarm with air support. Brush stations 19 and 26, are responding. Helicopters Nine and Twelve are now in route. Air ETA, 15 minutes. All second-in ground, in 10. Engine 51, your incident time is 0 plus two. Time : 07:36. ## "Noted.." and Stanley tossed his microphone down onto the engine's seat as Mike found a safe staging area 800 feet away from the flaming maelstrom that was once a metallic silver fuel truck. He plowed out of his seat and ordered everyone into SCBA tanks and gear. "Nobody goes in there without foam first. Gang? Be prepared to abandon at any peep of a code red tone over your HTs, we don't know if the main payload's gone up yet or not." "Cap? Any sign of the driver?" Roy asked donning his faceplate and connecting his inhalation tube to the connector over his mouth. He flipped up his collar when he felt the intense heat of the fire blazing, even from their safe distance. "No.. Don't think he made it out. There's a spot in the cab burning yellower than the rest of it.." Hank replied. "Oh, I smell it now. Think you're right, Cap.." Johnny said grimly. "Looks like zone protection duty for us, Roy. Then rehab backup later after the others get here." he predicted. "I'll delegate rehabilitation setup to 36's. They've been on duty longer than we have. We're less tired." "That's the plan." Hank nodded, then he lifted his head when he caught sight of Brush Truck 114 and Engine 110 closely followed by Station 36, all of them roaring towards them. They were barely visible in the thick rolling, black smoke. |
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Cap cast his eyes around long enough to spot a thin white and red striped pole sticking out of the chaparral off the roadway. "Only one hydrant?" Stoker affirmed. "So far. It'll take a few minutes to locate the rest. Looks like the Highway Department's behind on brush control again this year." Cap sighed. "Kelly, get and install an eductor. Engine 36 will be your booster tank water." Chet nodded. "I'll get out the bins." "Until 110 lays foam and is set for us, Stoker, a single line lay. Lopez, pull Stoker's inch and 3/4's WITH a Gate Valve.. Don't know where the other hydrants are in all this brush and no way in h*ll do we want to tie up 110 one iota." "Right, Cap.." Marco said, hopping into action, with a hydrant wrench clanging against his air bottle. "We're not attacking this?" Johnny asked Hank. "We were first in. I'm Incident Commander until one of the chiefs gets here. Somebody has to direct everybody who's incoming. " Stanley said ruefully. "In the meantime, you and Roy, go on a Primary Survey. Case the area on a buddy line. Get no farther than fifty feet from any working hose at all times. We gotta find all the hotspots ..." Johnny started eagerly away but felt Cap's grip on his arm that halted him solidly. ".....and keep your ever loving skins intact, Kapeesh? That goes double for you, Gage. I'm still remembering last month's medical leave figures." "I hear ya.. I hear ya.." Johnny grinned lopsidedly through his air mask. "I got Pally here to drag me out if I do something stupid." he gestured. "Besides, this isn't a building with a saggy roof. It's on concrete. What kind of trouble can we get into on that?" Roy just rolled his eyes. "Grabbing irons.. A lot of the wreck looks like it's off the road." Cap gave both his paramedics a gloved thumbs up, but then turned back to reporting details to the fire watch at L.A. Headquarters. "L.A., Engine 51. Send in a Code K. At least one Code F's at our location in the truck." ##10-4, Engine 51. Investigations has been notified.## "10-4, Standing by." "Stoker get a wyed line to 110 through Chet. They're ready." On cue, 110's engineer and pumper man grabbed Stoker's supply line and laid it into a triple wide, fuel spill specific foam unit. Slowly, the machine hummed to life, flooding the road with its cooling repellent which washed over the boiling flames. "Watch it! Watch it!" shouted 110's captain. A tongue of ignited flowing fuel was coursing along the curb edge of the roadway on the outside turn, narrowly catching the boots of the advancing foam team. The men hastily danced out of the way and smothered the phalange with foam liberally. Cap waved in Marco and Chet on an attack line off 36's engine to start washing the fuel byproduct away a few steps behind the foam crew. Kelly groaned. "Geez, that was close. And we're 900 feet away from the truck. Just how much fuel's outside of the tank? I'm surprised that creeper got out this far." Cap overheard Kelly's complaining shout to Lopez. "Most of it, hopefully. " he grinned through his faceplate. "Roy and Johnny are in there, checking it out." Chet and Lopez turned their eyes to the column of midnight black soot looming eerily into the daylit sky. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
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Roy got as near to the truck as he dared. ::Not much of the cab left.:: and he jogged along one side of the tanker while Gage checked the other for leakage from the mother valve in the undercarriage of the fuel tank. It was intact. ::Great. A slow leak.:: He lifted his HT to his mouth. "Johnny? How does your side look? I've got a trickling main valve, but that's all.." Gage raised an arm over his head as a flame flare shot out from the passenger side of the cab as a gust of wind swept through it while it burned. ##I can't tell. I can't see anything. All I know is that there's more fuel here than what's accounted for.## "Let's get back together on the tail end. I'm getting a little nervous." DeSoto admitted into his talkie. ##You and me both.## But their plan never happened. The mountain got in the way. A raw face of rock and blistering fire rose up out of the smoke before both firefighters. ##Roy?## "Yeah.." ##You seeing rock?## "Yep. What I can see of it through all the smoke." ##Then why is it so windy over here?## Right then, the column of smoke twisted away revealing a yawning mouth of blackness in the shape of a square, 20 feet high and the width of the road. In the dimness, Gage could just make out a hotspot. And it was heating the unmistakable shape of a chassis. ##Roy hoof it back and follow my route! There's a TUNNEL my side and at least one burning car located about two hundred feet inside of it. ## Roy switched over to the command frequency. "Squad 51, to Engine 51." ##Battalion 14 for Engine 51.## ::Ah, change of personnel. Cap will be relieved to be able to fight this fire instead of directing it.:: "Chief.. we've found more vehicular involvement. Gage and I have just located a tunnel that appears to go through the mountain. Wasn't clear before because the truck and fire were blocking sight of it." ##Survivors?## "Still too soon to tell." Hank Stanley joined in on a side band. ##Get to safe ground and wait for hose support. Air currents in tunnels are too tricky to mess with. Fire could backdraft a lot farther than you'd expect if a gas tank or something else hidden, goes up.## ##Keep me informed, Squad 51. Go in with the recovery team once your safety is secured.## "10-4, Battalion. " Roy acknowledged. Soon, DeSoto had made it over to where he could see Gage climbing up over the mouth of the rocky tunnel and onto a ledge just above it that was clear of fumes and flame. He pulled off his mask after feeling the coolness of safe air against his neck. "What do you think? See anything?" he asked his sweaty partner, who was equally pleased to pull off his SCBA. "At least one car... " he said rubbing grit from his mouth and cheeks." Roy, it's a raging inferno only partway down, that completely fills the tunnel. I doubt if anyone is alive in there. There can't be air to breathe." "Must be something if that fire is burning." Gage squatted down, watching a hasty hose and foam team advance towards them from the staging area and the engines that were preconnected to each other from Stoker's hillside hydrant. On a thought, he raised the antennae on his handytalkie and hailed out. "Squad 51 to Battalion 14." ##Battalion 14... Go ahead.## "Chief.. Do you know how long this particular tunnel is? We're seeing active fire and are wondering about the chance of casualties being on the other side of it." ##Still in the process of I.D.ing the exact specs. The sign bolted to the rock beneath you has been charred beyond recognition.## Surprised, Johnny looked down the shallow cliff over his feet. A wall of heat punished him for looking and he coughed, hastily sucking in a restoring breath from his mask as he fell onto his butt to get away from it. Roy sighed, "You ok? That wasn't very smart, Junior. Heat rises.." "I know that. I know that.." Johnny coughed defensively. "I was just.... I don't know..checking it out.. Like what we were ordered to do.." he said, wiping streaming tears from his face. "Didn't include checking out the sign ..." Johnny didn't dignify his partner with a reply but instead thumbed his radio. "10-4, Battalion 14. Standing by for details. So far, we've got clean smoke. Ok, for teams to proceed." Roy chuckled, parking his butt on a butte right next to Gage. "Gage, the mine hole canary. Say, you could ask Cap for more hazard pay. I think you've just invented a new job duty.." "Oh would you just shut up." Johnny growled. Slowly his coughs subsided as the air from his mask got rid of the fumes he had inhaled. Then the mountain started rumbling.. "Uh oh.. I don't think I like the sound of that.." Johnny peeped. --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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****************************************************************** From : Roxy Dee <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com> Sent : Tuesday, May 18, 2004 2:25 AM Subject : Heart of the Beast Their walkie talkies sprang to life in a treble tone all call of an electronic heads up, piercing and sharp. Static spat only half of Captain Stanley's urgent shout over the din of the flames and the hillside's new, sudden deep belching. ## Rockslide! Abandon location! Gage?! DeSoto?! ## Roy didn't mince words. "Move! Johnny, move!" "Where? The d*mned truck fire's flaring over the ledge outta here." Gage angrily said. Fear tinged more of his face than his voice. Johnny slipped as the two firefighters whirled around for an escape route. He hastily righted his balance using Roy's bigger frame by grabbing a quick hold of his shoulders. "Jump straight out!" Roy yelled, ducking as the first wildly bouncing boulders sliced through the brush surrounding them. A pine tree near them severed as a rock the size of a car shredded it into an explosion of dirt , twisted limbs and flying wood splinters. "The tunnel? You must be crazy." Johnny said. But his feet and hands flew in that direction over the trembling ground as his slender body skidded over mesquite and outcroppings. "You'd rather be flattened than burned to death? Johnny, I'm surprised at you.." Roy huffed. Before Gage could think of another rejoinder, the ground before them ran out. Johnny froze, but Roy gave him a firm push fowards into the small of his back. With twin shouts, both men fell over the lip of rock over the tunnel's keystone and down past the licking flames near its roof. They fell heavily onto their air bottles in a graceless back flop onto the highway eight feet below. Missiles of stone smacked onto the pavement in a thick rain, noisily annihilating themselves against the burning road around the fallen firemen. Roy lifted his HT even as Johnny dragged them both through the dust into the very dubious shelter beyond. His free hand grabbed their helmets which had been jolted from their heads when they fell. "Cap! We're going in!" Then the rockslide's quicksilver bulk cut off the outside and daylight as its bite sealed DeSoto and Gage inside the violently burning tunnel. |
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Gage and Roy dropped to their bellies as the new interior fire reached out to grab them. Johnny's stunned gasps whistled under his mask as he fought to regain breath and bearing. "Roy? You ok?" "Yeah.." came a reply, just as shaky and strained. "Did you crack anything? Your regulator? The main valve? Your mask's steaming up already." Gage said as both men clung glove to glove as they maintained contact in the murky superheated black. "My air's still good. Yours?" "It's fine. It's ok.." Gage panted. Both men stayed still until their eyes got used to the saturine fireglow coming from the flaming ceiling. Moments later, a furnace blast of heat boiled against them from the heart of the multi-automobile fire they could both see a hundred twenty meters away. Outside atmosphere was no longer the cooling protection it had been before the mountain caved in. "Ahh!" They both snatched their hands under their armpits as they crawled using knees and elbows, to a tunnel wall. "We gotta find an access door before we cook." Gage said. "There's one every hundred feet if I remember correctly." Gage groaned, "Yeah, but which hundred foot part are we in? Before or after one? We're at a mouth end." Bruises made the paramedic lag behind more and more. Roy grabbed his partner's overcoat collar and pulled him along with him as he scraped his shoulder along the rocky wall as a directional guide. "Don't slow down. We're nearly out of time. It's gotta be near 180 F in here already." "Coming mother.." Gage squeaked, exhausted. Roy risked frying his gloved fingers as he opened them to feel for the recess of the maintenance door's frame from the lumpy wall. Sizzling metal, bit into the material of his glove when he found it. "Aghh, here!" And he pulled out his jacket halligan to break the emergency key from its glass housing box by reaching only an arm up into the boiling heat above them. Gage winced as glass shattered musically onto their helmets and a brighter bounce in front of him showed him where the key was. "I got it." Roy gave out an involuntary yelp and snatched his air burned arm back down to the much cooler ground level. "My turn." Gage said. "The lock may already be warped." DeSoto panted. "I'll get us in.." Johnny said fiercely, psyching himself up for the punishing pain of heat up near the door's handle. Blindly, he groped. When one arm burned, he traded arms, stubbornly alternating them as he tried to insert the tiny key into the lock with his thick gloves. Then, a subtle click came over the rock echoey fire. Gage took a breath and got up onto his knees long enough to snatch the metal door open. ::Don't melt, don't melt.:: he willed to his faceplate's rubber fittings. Johnny hit his chin on the floor when he quickly dropped back down into their safe air afterwards. "Go. You first. Your mask may be damaged." Roy went. |
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Gage kicked the door shut behind them and sealed them off into total darkness. The cooler air inside felt like a balm against their seared jackets and pants legs. "Hah! Not today. " he sneered at the blocked fire. "Today's not a good day to die.." Roy smiled as he rested face masked down against the floor. He could feel sweat turning blessedly cold against his neck. "Is that more of the trademark Gage Indian mysticism?" "Huh? No. I'm not Cherokee. That was 100% genuine Anglo Saxon literal English. I just don't want to die right now. Do you?" Johnny smiled quirkily. "Not if I can help it. Come on, let's find a light switch." "Think the power's still on?" "Yeah. That fire out there hasn't been burning long enough for Rural Station Utilities to deal with it." "No problem. I'll just use my innate Seminole tracking skills to find us a light source." Johnny's voice laughed. Roy was big enough not to laugh when he heard the unmistakable sound of a skull bouncing off a stair railing. "Owww!" Gage said as he clicked the lights on. "What? Don't those innate skills of yours extend a bit of agility into the equation?" Johnny just shot him a dirty look. "Don't worry. I won't hold it against you. Never have in the past. I just keep bailing your butt whenever you can't get it out of somewhere." Roy replied cheekily. It took a full minute before their eyes got used to the bright industrial flourescent purple light strips hanging over their heads. Gage didn't deign to reply as both men rose to their trembling feet, using the short stairwell's banister for support. Above their heads, was a wide bright silver ventilation shaft curving away into the ceiling. Black smoke was slowly oozing out of the grilling. "Well, " Gage sighed. "You bought us some time at least. Thanks for shoving me over a cliff, Roy." "Anytime." DeSoto suddenly remembered the HT still strapped around his wrist. He reached up to remove his helmet and mask so he could speak into it. Johnny's grip suddenly stopped him. "No, Roy. At our feet. Don't you see that?" Roy looked down. A hazy murk was pooling around their ankles. "Smoke?" "No man. It's yellowish green. Are you color blind or something? That's chlorine gas unless I missed my guess." Roy was silent behind his mask. "You are? Oh, geesh. How did you ever get that by the fire department qualifiers?" "It's not a requirement of the job." Roy shrugged. "Let's just find out where that gas is coming from. If there are people still alive in here, this's gonna be real bad for them." Right then, the hissing of Roy's air bottle, ran out. "You were saying.." Gage said with a frown. "Come on, before you start choking." And he took a deep breath off his own mask before peeling it off to offer it to Roy. "We gotta find those tanks in order to know which direction to go in to get away from them. Maybe we can shut off whatever leak's there." "If we can. The explosion which destroyed those cars out there in the tunnel may have damaged the cooling lines beyond repair." "Ever the raging optimist. Come on. My guess is that we've got six minutes of my tank air left before that runs out." Roy stopped in his tracks. "Wait a minute. This is a rural mountain highway tunnel, isn't it?" "Yeahhh." he said sarcastically flippant. "We've got lots of pine trees, a biggish lump that looks suspiciously like a mountain. Gee, Roy. What--" "Hear me out. We're far from any fire station." Roy said brightly in between their mask sharing. "There's gotta be spare air in here somewhere. It's all in the Haz mat manuals." "It is?" "Junior, " Roy said craftily smart. "How did you ever get past the fire department qualifiers without knowing that?" "Oh shush. I just hit my head buddy boy. I'm allowed to forget a few things here." "Uhh.. That one was kinda important.." "That's what YOU'RE there for. You're my PARTNER. Firemen partners remember things for each other." "Not THAT often." Roy mumbled under his breath. "I seem to recall that I do it more for you than you do for-" Boomm... came a sound only a short distance away down the access tunnel. The lights flickered. Both firemen ducked against opposite walls and covered their helmets with their arms. "Where was that?" Gage asked. "Our tunnel or was that the fuel truck outside?" "Don't know. It's too hard to tell in here." Roy said, peering at the ceiling to make sure it didn't come down on top of them. "We gotta know. If it's one, the blast may have reopened the way out, if it's the other, any folks left in here are dead and we've no further reason to go in deeper to check for survivors. That was too big to live through." "Only one way to find out. But we've got our priorities here." DeSoto said practically. "If we find those civilian air bottles. We can investigate that. If we don't, it's in our best interests to fix or block off that chlorine gas. Six minutes, remember?" "How can I forget that, Roy?" "Just checking. Head knock assessment." "Save it for later." Johnny grumbled. "I feel a lump but it's nothing big. Let's move." Linking arms, the two paramedic firefighters moved deeper into the well lit tunnel after their goal. As they went, the greenish heavy gas rose a little higher up their ash dusted legs. A few minutes later, they broke into a cabinet full of ventilation apparatus using brute force and a fire axe. "What's the yield on these?" Roy asked of their new white and blue air bottles slung over their arms. Their yellow ones, they had abandoned behind them. "Says.. twenty five minutes." "How many do we have?" "Ten." Johnny counted carefully. "Sweet. After we deal with the chlorine, let's stock pile them along our route. We may find surv--" "Roy! Look.." Gage pointed. A sooty maintenance man was slumped upright against the wall to their left. Surrounding him was a cluster of chlorine coolant tanks. He didn't look conscious. Gage grabbed a spare air bottle and both ran forward. Johnny peeled off a glove and felt for a carotid. "He's alive." His hand dropped lower. "Breathing." "Let's get him out of here." Roy said. "You do that. I'll stay here to see if I can find that gas leak. We've gotta be close." Gage replied. |
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"I'll meet you by the place we found the air bottles. They may have oxygen in a first aid bag behind the controller's desk." "Try your HT. Maybe that's not so far inside the mountain there. Maybe there's a wall phone." "I'll check it out. Come on, get him up onto me." Roy ordered. He had fitted the air mask of their third tank over their victim's face. Gage helped DeSoto lift the limp man over a shoulder and wedged him in between Roy's back and the new air bottle. He handed Roy the man's air supply. "Be careful. I don't like this separating idea one bit. Cap's not gonna like it." "No other way. He comes first.." DeSoto said, throwing his helmeted head upwards. They parted ways. Gage was swallowed in silence as Roy retreated back the way they had come. "Ok.. first tank. What do we have here?" he said, talking to himself as he bent down to check the pressure guage of the chlorine receptacle. "Full. D*mn. Onto the next.." There were five tanks in the tiny anteroom. None were leaking. "Oh, boy. That leaves a coolant pipe somewhere. Not gonna be easy finding that." Johnny found a flashlight in the utility cabinet and began using it when the next room he wanted to enter, didn't light up when he flipped the light switch. "Bingo.." he celebrated. "Electrical damage. Bet that pipe's in here." Gage entered the room. |
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Roy placed his heavy burden onto the desk itself. "Let's keep you away from floor level." He could see murk drifting around his shoes that he could only assume to be more chlorine gas. He positioned the man onto his back and used a stack of files underneath his shoulders piled high enough so the unconscious man's head flopped back and his airway stayed open. His attempts to awaken the man failed. He pulled his walkie talkie out of his jacket pocket. "Squad 51 to Engine 51. Come in." Static splashed instead of clear radio air after the talk button's bleep. "Squad 51 to Engine 51. We're ok in the south side maintenance tunnel. We have one casualty. Over.." No voices came through. "Too deep." Roy sighed. Right then, the lights went off. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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************************************************************* From: "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com> Date: Thu May 20, 2004 12:32 am Subject: Improvisation Gage's retinas burned from lack of stimulus. He couldn't see four feet in front of his toes. "This isn't good.. " mumbled Johnny. "I hope Roy managed to get a hold of a flashlight.." he said, clutching tightly to his own. He cast his light beam downwards, looking for the telltale chartreuse fog of chlorine hugging the floor. He found nothing off color. Moving to a fusebox, Johnny checked the biggest master circuit breaker that he could see. But it wasn't tripped. "Now why did the lights go off?" His eyes glanced down to his wide black strapped watch. "It's been....twenty three minutes since we arrived on the fire scene. Could it be the Rural Station Utility Company ending a risk for our growing disaster call?" In hindsight, the move got Gage angry and he began complaining out loud as he walked. "Don't they know that there could be motorists still inside the uneffected part of this tunnel? We won't be able to see them well for rescue operations in here, except by firelight and I'm d*mned sure that there isn't much of anything else that can burn beyond the gasoline still inside those cars on the highway." he reasoned. "You're forgetting one thing.." said a voice behind Gage that was thick with gruffness and fatigue. "Chlorine's combustible with metals if it's got water. And heat. Especially with the copper piping running through the ceiling of this maintenance tunnel." Johnny nearly levitated and whirled around, aiming his light towards the open door of the store room. "Sir.. are you ok?" he finally said when he saw that the man was wearing the familiar gray coverall of the highway department. "I was just about to ask you the same thing, mister." replied the scba masked worker who seemed near the age sixty to Gage. "You're on the wrong track, sonny. A mountain tunnel is always graded to the south. Any of that leakage you're looking for will flow in that direction instead of pooling where you can see it." "Thanks.." Johnny said appreciatively. "Might I ask what you're still doing in here? My guess is that during any declared emergency, all console operators should be the first ones to bail out of this tunnel for safety reasons at the first sign of trouble." "Nothing was declared. There wasn't enough time. Five of us died when the cars went up. I guess momentum kept the truck that started it all skidding long enough to make it to the tunnel's mouth and past it to the outside." Gage stepped nearer so that they could share illumination as he motioned for the man to follow him back to the controller's booth where Roy had taken refuge with the unconscious worker. "Are you hurt?" "Not physically.." he snorted, wearily rubbing the back of his neck. "Say, listen. Did you come across another guy dressed like me? He's about 5 foot 2. Caucasian, with curly brown hair styled like Mark Spitz?" |
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"We found him unconscious. What's his name?" "Benny. He's one of the new kids. He was the first one I told to get the h*ll outta here on account of his age!" shouted the man angrily. "I guess he just doesn't ever listen too well." Johnny nodded in understanding. "Looks like the chlorine got to him before he could make it out. My partner's with him now. That's where we're going." Johnny said matter of factly. "Hi, I'm Fireman John Gage and I'm with the Los Angeles County Fire Department." "Joe Dawson." And the man held out his gloved hand to Johnny's. Gage grasped the worker's hand in friendship as well as in a test assessing the man's health and strength. Then he pointed back down the hallway he had used in coming as they walked. "We're almost there.." Johnny said. "I know they're this way past these sealed chlorine tanks." ----------------------------------------------------------- The lack of illumination that came was so abrupt that Roy almost felt himself lose his sense of balance. Roy Desoto bent low immediately and took off his gloves. One hand went to the beat in his patient's neck, and the other slipped under his shirt to pause on the rapid rise and fall of respirations he still felt and heard coming from the sooty man. It was inky. Completely. And Roy felt the darkness press in claustrophobically against his face through the scba mask he wore. He strained to hear anything useful coming from down the corridor. Dimly, Desoto heard a peculiar hissing. ::Equalizing pressure?:: he wondered.. ::It's from somewhere above my head.:: Mentally, he ran through all the possible reasons for pipes in the tunnel. ::Steam pipes? Coolant conduits? Are the ventilation air shafts reacting to the fire out there? Are the waste management pipes from the wayside rest up the mountain draining out because of the rockslide we encountered earlier?:: Nothing seemed definite nor did anything else leap out suddenly as the most likely answer. A new sound drew away Roy's attention from waist level. A quiet gurgling from Benny faded into a loud silence. "Mister?!" Roy shouted, not really expecting an answer in the pitch blackness. His left hand still resting on the man's stomach, fell in height and didn't climb upwards again. Roy threw away caution and pulled off his mask once his lungs were full. Immediately, his eyes began to burn and water perfusely. ::So, chlorine's in here after all.:: he decided and Desoto promptly forgot about the gas. Screwing his eyes protectively shut, Roy freed the man from his breathing apparatus and listened by his nose and mouth even as he reconfirmed no movement in the man's chest under his palms. ::Figured as much.:: Jamming his own mask under an arm, Roy gave the man a couple of breaths mouth to mouth before rechecking the fluttering pulse in his throat. Then gasping, Roy took ample good air from his own gear for himself before he did it again. And again. |
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Minutes dragged by and Roy relived some self chastisement; kicking himself mentally for not having any airways or any other useful stuff in his turnout's pockets. On a sudden thought, he drew out his pen light from his shirt and he checked for signs of vomit as an explanation for the bubbling he was hearing on all his inhalations. He found nothing abnormal. ::Pulmonary edema? Let's hope it's just chemically induced.:: Under his anchor hand, the pulse in his victim's neck was growing irregular. : That arrythmia must be from the chlorine. I can't block it all off.:: Another long stretch of seconds passed as Roy considered his options, which were slim to none. Roy's tank ran out and he quickly switched to the man's still lying abandoned in a pile at his feet. ::Now what? I've no epinephrine or atropine..:: A murky spear of wavering light cut through the haze inside Roy's midnight colored room. "Johnny?! Hurry up. He's respiratory arrested!" "On the way!" And Johnny's sharp reply was punctuated with echoing footsteps that were music to Roy's ears. Gage's running sounded like a whole calvary's. Roy finally glanced up in between his breaths as a second shadow slid in next to Johnny's. The lanky paramedic had filed in next to Roy. DeSoto was immediately punished, as a new wave of lances knifed into both of his eyes. "Aghh!" he cried out. "D*mned chlorine gas!" "Want me to take over?" Gage asked evenly. |
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