 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
| Page T welve |
|
Cap looked up, waving on Stoker and Marco, Chet and a man from ten's. "Take two inch and a halfs! Get where Roy and Detello are searching!" Johnny Gage came running up and Cap seemed surprised. Johnny shrugged. "Squad Ten took him in. I'm no longer needed. Where do you want me?" "Go with them!" Stanley gestured, pointing out the hoses writhing on the wet pavement from his men's hose teams. Johnny fled, fastening on his air mask. He knew what was going on and held his radio near his ear. Soon, he heard the staticky tones of a call button being pressed in a series of three tones. "They're all right." he gasped, slapping Chet's back as he and the others got a powerful covering fan into the building to begin to combat the inferno. "They just ran a three on the radio." Chet gave him a thumbs up and together, the group stormed the building. The smoke was thick and the fire belched out of cracks in the neat brown marble floor. The firemen played water onto these fissures and steam rose, obscuring their view. Slowly, they advanced northwards. Detello hauled Roy to his feet and pulled off the asbestos blanket he had thrown over on top of them. The paint on the lockers around them were melted and dripping. "Let's go, irishman." Detello grinned toothily at him. "We won't be needed this anymore." he said and he tossed down the smoking ruin of the blanket which had saved them from the worst of the explosion. "I'm feeling like that's the worst of it." Roy shook his hand and turned where he stood. They resumed their room by room search. Then Roy halted Detello by tapping him on the back. "It's really hot in here. If it was hot, and I was a child, where would I go in a fire?" Detello and Roy both exclaimed. "The restrooms." They doubled back to the third grade class room and the stairwell, which was now fully involved. They met Chet and Marco and took a welcome spray onto their jackets before pressing on with a "We're ok." hand signal. There was door barely concealed underneath the stairwell. Detello pointed to it. "Hit this! Hit this!" Marco and Chet snuffed out the tendrils of flame beginning to threaten that entryway and it died with a hiss. Roy kicked in the door. It was a faculty bathroom. "Hey.. Anybody in here?" Detello never got into the room when the ceiling came down, separating them. The flaming stairwell soon followed, and it trapped Roy away from Chet and Marco and Detello. The three on the outside frantically began to hose down the surging fire blocking the door. "Roy! You ok in there?!" Roy had flattened himself against the smooth tile wall and he felt hot moisture on his face. "That's not from the hose.." he mumbled. and his gloves sank into a dark section of the room. The showers! One of them was on. He dragged out a flashlight and scrambled on his hands and knees towards the sound of the running water. |
 |
 |
|
There he found the little girl, lying motionless beneath its stream. He grabbed her by the shoulders and picked her up into his arms and carried her back into the main part of the bathroom where the daylight from the skylight let him see the child he held. He pulled off his helmet and mask and crouched down against the wall with her, checking. "Come on, honey. Just take a breath.." She didn't. Roy began mouth to mouth. He couldn't tell if she had a pulse because she was twisted up so badly in the sweater soaked from the shower. Roy fumbled until he found one. He laid her down on a sink, onto her back, for a moment while he worked to keep her going. In between another set of breaths, Roy got up and grabbed a steel waste can and used it to smash out the tiny thick, textured bathroom window leading to the outside. Shouts of attention from the firecrews manned there reassured him that someone now knew he was trapped right there, with a victim. He returned to the child, taking her into his arms and stretched her out onto the glass sharded floor. He alternatingly took breaths off his own mask to give to her using his own lungpower to keep the ammonia tainted air out of her system. He pulled out his radio. "Kelly, Lopez. Hurry it up! Now would be a good time!" Images flashed through Roy's mind of the bus crash. The wet and the dark. It felt very much like where he was now. And the tiny living weight of the girl he fought to save was so like the feel of the girl from the storm drain as the water tore her away from his grasp. Roy began to cry, shouting. "Come on.. Cindy. Come back. It's ok.. I got you.." he sobbed. |
 |
 |
|
He again, breathed for the tiny girl from his air supply. He kept burning shards from landing on her clothes and he curled about her, using the wet on the floor to put out the small blazes burning around them. Then, there was a gasp, small, choking. Cindy began to cough, then to cry.. Roy held her close. "It's ok. I'm a fireman. We're going to get you out of here. Keep breathing from this mask ok?" he told her. "I'll be right back.." The frightened girl nodded. Roy's relief was palpable. He rose from the floor and went to the doorway where he saw Chet and Marco's hose water extinguishing the fire. Soon, there was nothing but sooty insulation and wood beams between them. Detello kicked these away. "Found her?" he asked, pulling off his mask. "Yeah.. She's ok.." Roy said, staggering against the wall. Detello's eyebrows went up. "Smart idea using the showers to keep the fire off." "It was her idea.." Roy grinned. Detello lifted both the air bottle and the girl from the ground and saw Cindy looking up and coughing at him in confusion and fright. Then he looked at Roy. "I believe you have a rescue to complete." he said, grinning through the ash on his face. Gently, he set the tiny girl into Roy's arms for him to guard. Then he stormed back out through the blackened doorway out to Kelly and Marco. "Chet, Lopez! Give us some cover. We're coming out!!" And soon, they did. Roy felt the sunlight on his face and the world narrowed down to just him and his tiny victim, still warm, alive and full of life in his arms. He started laughing as Detello roared his displeasure at the crowds standing between him and where the squad's equipment was parked. Just like that, Roy's nightmare, was over.. "Come on, Cindy. Let's get you checked out. My name's Roy DeSoto and I'm a paramedic with the L. A. County Fire Department. You're gonna be just fine..." |
|
Gage met them with fresh O2 and a live biophone and together, Roy and his partner made sure that one tiny life, stayed saved. Roy thought. ::Maybe this is the feeling Detello keeps banking on. This, certainty,.. that everything that's meant to be, will always turn out for the better. I'm no angel, but right now, I certainly feel like I'm in heaven...:: FIN :) Season One, Episode Three- JUXTAPOSITION We hope you liked Juxtaposition and enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed producing it for you. Please see below to go to Juxtaposition's END CREDITS :) |
 |
 |
|
To read the End Credits Click Roy and John below..:) To see this episode in a screensaver, visit the following webpage below and click The Juxtaposition Banner found there. Just type the link into your browser's address bar. http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/screensavers.html |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|