 |
 |
|
 |
FULL MOON BLUES |
|
| PAGE THIRTEEN |
|
A rock was inside blocking off his throat. Roy hooked it free with a couple of fingers.. "Johnny? Hey.... It's gone.. Come on spit it out." he said, slapping his partner's face, lightly. The sudden sting to the skin on his rock rubbed raw face, drove Johnny to full wakefulness and he flopped over onto his side, coughing wetly. He threw up a lot of dirt and mucous until he gasped in; the first solid breath of air he had taken since he'd been buried. "*Hack* Whaa? Roy?....*gasp* Oh man... I thought.. I wasn't ever ........gonna make it......out of t-there.. " Roy dropped his head in relief.. "So did we... Just keep breathing regular. You're still blue.." Gage added more as his head cleared. "Thanks for trying to shield me Chet. Almost worked." and he sagged onto the ground in exhaustion, grateful to be seeing daylight and moving air. Then hypoxia nausea rose up and he got sick again. ::Mud this time. Better from my stomach than from a lung or two..:: "Got it all out?" Roy asked, still hanging onto him when he was through. Johnny nodded, without opening his eyes. "Yeah.. I think so." "Believe it or not, you're completely pink now after all that.." "I feel green.." "Just lie still for a sec. Hurt anywhere else besides your hand?" Roy asked. "My hand?" Johnny said, picking his head up and peering down. A bent rod was embedded through the bones in his left palm and was sticking out the back of it. "Aw Roy, why did you tell him about that? Now he's gonna freak out.." Chet said. "Oh, man.." Gage said, ignoring both of them. He curled around himself as his eyes seemed to reconnect his nerves centers into a core of agony through his impaled hand. "Royyyy?... this just isn't my day...ah, h*ll.." he grimaced. Chet was still coming down from Johnny's close call. "Not everyday a full moon earthquake scores a direct bullseye on Johnny Gage..That's for d*mned sure. " And he laughed. He stopped immediately when Gage caught his breath, around another spasm.."Oooo. Come on. It's time to get up Gage. If we let you think about it too long, you're going to have to be carried out of here." he said gently.. "l'll tape that immobile after we get ya over to the biophone." |
|
|
|
Gage let the three of them sit him up and then with a groan, he let the burly Vince lift him bodily to a very shaky pair of feet. Bonnie nearly leaped somersaults when she saw her favorite fireman finally standing vertical. She barked happily, frisking in the dust, until she saw the huddle of frightened kids by the old engine. She dashed off to be with them in a cloud of dirt.. Very soon, the kids snapped out of their dazed stares to timidly reach out to pet her dirty back. "Would you look at that.. Bonnie works better than smelling salts." Gage grinned, halting them all. "You owe her a ton of bacon my friend. She's the one who found you, Johnny.." Kelly commented. "Well I'll be.." "Come on Captain Hook, let's get you cleaned up. If we don't hurry, you just might have to stay this way...." Roy quipped, glancing down at Johnny's speared hand. "Oh ha. Aren't you funny.."Gage replied sarcastically. He shifted his weight as Roy moved his good arm over a shoulder. Then he paled, when he saw what was dripping on his shoes. "What makes you think I wanna work after this?" DeSoto went on with his interrupted sentence.. "We've got three injured patients to attend to, not counting you. Don't worry, I'll let you black out if I have to, just as soon as another squad gets here to relieve you.." Roy nodded for Chet to start applying pressure to Johnny's brachial artery when the wound around the rod started to spurt as Gage's blood pressure rallied with his mental clarity. "You're all heart.." Johnny grinned weakly. As soon as they all got over to the others, Johnny promptly forgot his hand. "Chet, let go of me.. Just put a tourniquet on this. If I have to work, I'll do it verbally, You can at least get vitals sets.. Roy, what do we got? Looks like Miss Thorne's the worst of them.." he said, reaching over with his good hand to get the band Chet needed to stop his hemorrhaging. Gage grabbed it out of one of the gear boxes Mike had flicked open for him, between one of his positive pressure valve ventilations he was delivering to the stilled teacher. Roy said, "Natural gas inhalation. On her and Marco both. He's breathing ok, but she's partially unresponsive. Marco's also got an unexplained elevated temp. Cap found it assessing him. Cap's got a slight concussion I think. He was out for a while. I haven't gotten a look at his pupils yet.." "Chet you go handle that while Roy calls us in." Gage snapped. "Stop fussing with me." |
|
|
|
"Right. Almost got this secure.." Chet said, giving one last yank on the tourniquet around Johnny's upper arm. "There.." he smiled, biting a lip. "Going numb?" "Not fast enough..." Gage peeped in pain. "Good. You're set. " His eyes flickered downward.. "Give me that.." and he pulled out Johnny's penlight from his pocket to look at Cap. "Walk me through the neural Johnny. I've only seen you guys do this a few times.." he said seriously, then he beamed, full charm, smiling at Cap as he knelt by him. "Hiya Cap. Great to see you winking those peepers at me. Thought you were dead for a sec in there. .." he leaned in with his light.. "This won't hurt a bit.." Johnny began instructing Chet by rote what things to look for. Soon, he had the info needed to share with Roy when he was ready on his end. DeSoto threw an eye on Miss Thorne to count the actual times she tried to breathe around Stoker's vents and he shivered in utter weariness. The initial adrenaline he always got in a crisis, was leaving him, letting him feel every bump and ache the earthquake had imparted to him. ::But.....It sure feels great knowing no one died. It could have been worse...:: He coughed once to clear out the acrid dust in his throat. Then he started writing in his note pad the findings in prep for a medical base station hail. Trussed up and no longer bleeding like a stuck pig, Johnny checked the psi on the regulator of outgoing 02 on the apparatus feeding Marco and the teacher's masks. ::Plenty of oxygen left here.:: he thought with satisfaction. He even nodded with approval when Chet was simply perfect getting an accurate BP off Marco where he lay in the stokes. ::94/60. Not too shocky..:: Gage thought after Chet had told him what it was. A minute later they all heard a chorus of sirens as the first of the responding stations rolled up to their scene. It looked strange seeing firetrucks actually rolling TO a firehouse, with all their reds flashing. Cap got on his walkie talkie as soon as he bird eyed the number on the pumper's door. "Engine 51 to Station Eight. We've got four victims in the yard. B-- -uh,...Bring three s-stokes.." The fast reply from Eight's Captain Stone made it clear that they knew who at least one of those stokes was for. ##Hank? Hang on. We're coming. Looks clear along your south exposure. Man what a mess. Hope you aren't bad yourself..## "I'm fair.." Cap replied. "Watch it in there. Gas leak in the kitchen. "And don't tell me any details about the engine or the squad. I simply don't wanna know..We just pulled one of them back from the brink only this morning..!" he wailed. Nearby, Roy grinned and mentally downgraded Cap's medical status a few notches after overhearing his joking remark.. |
|
|
FULL MOON BLUES |
|
|
Click Rescue Squad to Goto Page Fourteen :) |
