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"10-4 Rampart, 100% O2 with a full chemical washdown. Starting an IV NS. Please stand by for his EKG. " he nodded at Chet, who had replaced Marco to aid Johnny and Roy in their patient care. Kelly began cutting away the man's clothes for leads placement. Soon all was ready and Roy got Chet's all set nod about the monitor. "This will be on lead two, Rampart." Roy shouted. We'll inform you of any pertinent medical history. 10-4, Rampart, on the epinephrine ban, we'll treat for shock and do a frost bite check. Understood that further treatment is en route." Roy parroted. Dr. Brackett sighed. ##51, do you know how many casualties you have at your location?## "Not yet, doc. The area's still in chaos. But our numbers could be substantial. Looks like a filled five story water tower collapsed on an occupied construction site and parking lot as well as on top of part of the northbound freeway system here." Roy replied. Dr. Brackett grimaced and sighed. ##10-4, 51.## Kel finished his studying the down man's EKG strip and he turned off the machine. ##51, I'm reading nominal elevations in his ST segments. Looks like the 02 is easing his abnormal rhythm. I am confirming a lack of medical cardiac involvement. Looks like this is just the gas doing a number on him. Also, from here on out. During this crisis, you have my permission to treat first and ask questions later. This goes for all medical situations. Use the protocol you know for guidelines. I'll take full responsibility for your actions. Our radio communications will most likely get unreliable as operations progress over there..## "10-4. Rampart." Roy answered. Both he and Johnny began to relax as the man's potential coding risk was ruled out as being very unlikely. "Ok, Kelly, start the washdown." Gage shouted to him and the other firemen gathered around him. Chet began playing a brisk hose over the man's body and skin as others in waterproof suits rolled him from side to side to get full coverage. Hank kicked a sandbag back into line as the run off from the man channeled down in a made path to the base of a broad sand pile at the edge of the construction site. ::The freon will soak into this sand and Hazmat'll be able to barrel it and haul it away.:: Gage kept up reassurances to his patient as he guarded the man's airway with a firm hold over his O2 mask and his face. The man had Johnny's gloves in a death's grip. "I know it's cold. Almost through. We've got to get any trace of that gas off your skin. Stick through ten minutes more of this and I promise you a pile of heated blankets once we're in the ambulance." he grinned cockeyed through his airmask. The man tried to laugh but consciousness fled and his eyes rolled up into his head. "Hold it! Hold it.." Gage told Kelly. He made sure the man was still breathing and slipped in an oral airway before switching the 02 mask for a demand valve. He began forcing oxygen into the man's tired lungs. "Ok, keep going, I got him secured." Chet continued the man's hose bath. Soon, the man was placed in a specially plastic lined and rigged Mayfair for his trip to Rampart. Johnny handed off the hanging IV and gave his verbal notes to the pair of paramedics inside who weren't wearing SCBA, being careful not to get the water running off his clothes onto the floor of the ambulance. "Careful, I'm contaminated with freon here." he told them. "Brackett wants to know of any COPD or cardiac history if he wakes up. Also, sweep for frostbite and treat. We found no injuries." Nearby, the air masked Cap spoke to the firefighter paramedics assigned to take over the man's care. "We've a tipped tanker that's burning over there so anticipate phosgene and hydrogen fluoride traces, too, on him." he informed, throwing a head at the unconscious man being carefully assistance ventilated by an ambulance attendant. "And get his name and occupation to me if you can. We've a missing man out here." "Right, captain.." replied the senior paramedic. "We'll broadband when we get in if he comes to." Gage closed the doors of the Mayfair and slapped it twice before backing away. As it departed, two teams of firefighters washed it down with hoses as it drove slowly out of the disaster area and onto the freeway. CHP motorcycles escorted ahead of it showing the traffic cleared route to the hospital through the maze of abandoned vehicles angled everywhere. Lopez jogged over from the Battalion Chief's car over to Hank, pausing first before entering the ambulance landing area to be briefly hosed down by perimeter hazmat firefighter crews. "Cap, I got our orders, just like you asked me to do. Chief wants us to enter ground zero of the water tower to start a victim search. The construction boss just told us a van filled with teens was joyriding in the back of his company lot just before the semi hit the tower. No one has seen any of them or the van since." "What does the van look like?" Hank asked, wiping water spray off his mask with a glove. "We might as well start there." "Uh,..." Lopez hesitated. "Well..?" Cap thundered. Marco peeped. "Have you ever watched Scooby Doo, Cap? The boss says it looks like that. Sort of purply technicolored." "Wonderful.. " Hank said sarcastically. "Gage. DeSoto. You heard him. Pack up your gear again and go. You're first in after the hazmat team checks out that end of the scene." "Right.." Gage said. "Chet, help me pack up this EKG monitor. Run it to us as soon as we're outta there with somebody." "You got it." Cap and Kelly started to turn back to the staging area when Roy stopped Hank. "Cap, when Johnny and I were in there. We heard some leaking gas. Sounded like a portable tank going off." "Where?" Cap said, whirling around to face the heart of the collapsed tower. "By a red pickup and a pile of pallets, Cap. I heard it, too. If I didn't know any better, I'd say the truck was unloading its payload AT the construction site when the water tower fell. The tanks I think I saw were already piled neatly outside the truck. They looked stacked about three or four rows high and nine deep." "Really.." Cap breathed in significance. "Chief'll love hearing this. Five times over the National Federal Standard trucking through the heart of L.A. judging from the number of tanks you're telling me about. Somebody's heads are gonna roll. But not from any resulting explosions from them that's for sure." and he hefted his HT to his faceplate. "This is Engine 51 to all units. A paramedic has reported leaking freon from a tank cache in the immediate vicinity of ground zero next to a red pickup truck. Watch yourselves." Immediately, Hazmat responded. ##HazMat Two to Engine 51.## "Go ahead Hazmat.." Hank answered via radio. ##We've found the point source and more in a box car. We are cooling down with foam and fan spray. Your rescue men are clear to re enter the area.## |
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"That was fast.." Chet remarked, wrapping the EKG leads back into the case rapidly. "They'd better be." Cap said. "There's too great a density of civilians and department personnel to monkey around with. Gage. DeSoto. Get going. Keep on your radios. Marco, Kelly. Go with them. If this van of kids was full we're gonna need a lot of man power. I'll have a team run with your gear soon as you spot anything. Carrying any will just slow you down." "Right, Cap." came everyone's reply. Johnny and Roy felt the hot sun on their backs and the wet coolness of the covering spray being blown on the wind from Hazmat's water curtains and shuddered as they retraced their steps from the victim decontamination area and back into the disaster zone. Gage whistled low under his breath as he spotted car after car that the water tower had levelled as it fell flat. He picked up a wooden board and banged three times on the hollow, still intact massive drum of the water tower. It answered back, still liquidy hollow. "Water's still in there, Roy. If that gives way..." "I know.. Just keep lookin.." DeSoto said through tight teeth. The four firemen rounded a turn after pushing aside metal debris and tangles of construction wire. They found where Hazmat was containing the leak Roy and Johnny had heard getting their first victim out. The foam was thigh deep and the water curtain thick over a box car full of powdered aluminum labels. "Oh, great.." Gage groaned. "Freon only reacts with metals of certain types and what do we get? A whole box car full of em.." "Think positive thoughts, partner.." Roy grinned. "Tryin to." Gage replied. Then there was a shout from Kelly just ahead. A gust of wind rose in a dust cloud making things hard to see. "On the double. Found one..!" Chet shouted. Marco, Johnny and Roy rushed forward to see Kelly kneeling over an asphyxiated girl on the ground whose hands were locked tightly over her own blue throat. Gage snapped his radio receiver over his mask and shouted. "Any available recovery team. We need a resuscitator to our 10-20. Now! Watch for my vertical hose spray!" and he snatched up a standby charged hose and shot a stream up over the debris dust cloud to mark their location. Short moments later. ##We see you. There in less than one.## came a Hazmat reply. Behind them, was the van of teenagers they had been seeking. It was partially buried by tower beams with a crushed roof. Looming overhead was the bulk of the unruptured ten thousand gallon water tower reservoir hanging right over the van and the whole mess was still creaking as its tremendous weight still crushed down closer to the ground. The moans grew louder when the van's flimsy roof gave way another six inches under its burden. Kelly, Marco and Roy knelt helplessly unable to do anything for the apneic girl with their SCBA masks still strapped to their faces. |
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Chet started to take his off to do something active about that but Roy stopped him. "No! Your safety's first. We're downwind of those tanks and the burning truck. Wait. She's still got a carotid. We've got time." Marco ran the rest of the way to his gangmates and slammed to his knees at the top of the girl's head. "Roy?" He didn't like the fact that Roy and Johnny didn't yet have their gear nor the darkening cyanotic color forming over the young teen's features. "She's gotta pulse, Lopez." Roy said calmly tense. "Then she's only just resp arrested." "Looks like." DeSoto said, opening her airway further using a jaw thrust in prep for the airway and O2 that was on its way. Pounding footsteps and clattering O2 metal greeted them from the sunlit gloom. "Over here!" Gage said to a Hazmat man with the medical gear, dropping his hose and shutting it off. In no time, they had their resuscitator. Gage saw Kelly begin to use it around Roy's airway hold and he subconsciously held his breath until he saw the girl's chest rise. Once and again. A few ventilations later and the ominous cyanosis began to retreat. "Chet? She fighting you?" "Not at all." Gage reached into the small jumppack the firefighter had given him for an esophageal airway and a tube of lubricant. ::Thanks, doc, for the pre go ahead. We owe you one.:: As he waited for Kelly to hyperventilate the girl in prep for his airway insertion, John felt a sudden chill of recognition as the resuscitator mask was lifted off her face. A sudden memory flooded his mind's eye of a golden laughing smile and a baby gurgling happily on her mother's lap. "Oh, my g*d. I know this girl." Johnny blurted out to the others waiting for him to move.. "She's..............." ------------------------------------------- |
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********************************************************* From : "Champagne Scott" <chameleonkate@hotmail.com> Subject : Under the Shadow.. Date : Sun, 07 Sep 2003 20:36:27 -0500 ...Drew's wife...! This is Kelsey...." he whispered in shock. "What?!" Chet shouted through his mask. "You'd better concentrate on finishing up there, pal. Her clock's ticking down. My last vent on her was fifteen seconds ago.. sixteen... seventeen..." "Oh, ...right. ... uh..Roy?" Johnny asked numbly looking to share his horrifying news. But his air masked partner was listening to something being said over the HT by Cap and he didn't hear Johnny speak. Numb with reaction, on autopilot, Gage gel'd up the EOA and threaded it down the unconscious woman's throat. He nodded to Chet to give her a couple of shots then remembered belatedly that he couldn't use a stethoscope to verify his placement of the tube. ::Gonna just haveta watch for distention..:: he thought. ::Ohmyg*d, :: his mind shouted in his head ::This is Kelsey!:: Unbidden, came a memory of Drew, his friend the police officer, lying shattered on the margin of the freeway under his hands, and the crackling hissing ghost of a broken frequency coming from the biophone. Johnny shook his head. ::That was two years ago. Knock it off, man! Gotta concentrate. It's SHE who needs me now.:: The sweaty steam on Johnny's face mask covered his shocked expression and only Chet noticed the slightest hesitation as Gage shakily followed up his intubation by reconnecting the demand valve to the EOA that he was holding stable in his glove from where it jutted from her teeth. Chet's voice sounded as if from a distance through the roaring in Johnny's ears. "Giving her four. Johnny let me know how it feels." Kelly said, thumbing his first breath into the woman's lungs carefully. "Her color's still good." he said peeling back her lips to view her gums. "Ok, ready.." Johnny felt his lips say. Gage placed gloves over her chest and abdomen trying to feel for telltale gurgling under one and chest rise under the other. He counted three more rises under his right one as he monitored her. He found he couldn't find his voice to tell Chet things were fine. Cap's voice came over the HT, echoing eerily around the fallen tower's spidery debris field and the shouts coming from the hazmat team as they struggled to seal off the freon leaks they had located near the area where Johnny, Chet and Roy were working on the girl. “Engine 116, lay in from the hydrant on mile marker 117 and hit that rising gas vapor in a covering fan from the south. Engine 45, stage from the cleared part of the freeway and hit the box car from the west. Squad 45, do a primary search of the involved automobiles to the west of this location and make sure they've been evacuated." |
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"Truck 127. Set up to the east two hundred yards away from the water tower. You’re gonna assist my men in attacking car fires in the area.” Hank crammed the HT back into his pocket, barely waiting for any acknowledgments. He looked up, spotting a masked and chem suited Marco waving at him. Hank turned toward his engineer, motioning vigorously. “Charge up a new line over Johnny Roy and Chet, Mike! They're working on a victim! Lopez? What's up?" "Cap, I think I spotted the van that construction boss told us about. It's directly under the water tower's drum about sixty meters from here. Looks like things are already settling around it." "What?! There's no way a flimsy van'll keep its structural integrity under that much weight pressing down onto it. Most of the water's still inside of there.." Hank muttered. His furlative in-command glance turned into one of deep worry through his mask as he eyeballed Chet and the two paramedics working to ventilate the girl. He shouted, realizing that a ton of of help would be needed to emergency evac everyone from the van Lopez had found. "Kelly.. Front and center. Gage can take over for you.. We're gonna need a lot of manpower to get those kids out of the van." "Right, Cap.." Kelly rose and Gage took his place. "It's all good first time, Johnny. They're going in nice and smooth.." he said of his quickened ventilations he was giving the woman. "Here.. Take this. Cap wants me for somethin.." Chet, in his chem suit and mask, readjusted the heavy weight of his air bottle under it, with a groan. "I'll be right back...." he promised. Johnny barely looked up at Chet as he took over the demand valve. He didn't even see the curly haired fireman leave to join up with the others at Cap's side. Roy just then noticed how quiet his partner had become. "Johnny..?" He reached out a glove, damp from Stoker's nearby spray, and grabbed the arm of Gage's jacket. "What?" Johnny looked up at him. "What's the problem..?" DeSoto shouted through his mask. "Let's get her into the stokes. We can take her with us. She's breathing on her own." he said, rising and leaving the oxygen valve connected to Kelsey's airway. "Bellingham can take over her care for us. I see him by Kelly and the van." Roy turned, from gathering up Kelsey's torso and upper body into his arms craning over his shoulder to see where Johnny was pointing. "Ok,.. I got her shoulders.." Gage grabbed her legs and they set her awkwardly into the metal stokes a passing fireman had left for them. Gasping, the two paramedics lifted their burden and walked, straight as they could, through tangles of steel towards Cap and the new focus of EMS personnel knotting under the shadow of the water tower's looming bulk. He could just make out the sounds of creaking metal as sinking tonnage slowly crushed all the vehicles trapped under the drum. Swiftly, Bellingham and Brice intercepted Johnny and Roy and they were suddenly relieved of their burden. Kelsey was lifted from their hands. "We got her.. Go..." Brice said as he placed a hand on her chest to make sure she was still breathing. |
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Gage spun around in a daze still not recovered from knowing his victim and he watched them start to head for the safety of the yellow zone. "Johnny?" Roy asked, concerned. "Your air running out?" Gage grabbed his valve regulator and checked. "Nah,... I'm fine.. almost eight minutes left. Don't worry about me, I'll tell you about it later.. Let's go.." He picked up a second resuscitator from the ground and curled it under one arm. Gage and DeSoto ducked, moving closer towards the van, trying not to pay any attention to the moaning stressed metal sounds filling their ears. Cap intercepted them. "We've got six victims. All of them are pinned by debris except for the driver. We're gonna haveta do some cutting." Right then, a high shriek of friction torn metal stabbed through Cap's sentence and deep into the bones of their skulls. "Look out! The tower's giving way!" Kelly shouted. Everyone under the shadow began to run for the daylight. Only Cap, Kelly and Lopez, got out. The water tower's huge bulk split like an egg and a tongue of frothy flood water began to gush out as it flattened partially to the ground. Roy, Johnny and one other, were swallowed whole under the water filled dome. Hank scrambled.. barely getting his legs out in time from beneath the folding skin of the tower and was instantly soaked by frigid water when he was too slow getting out of the way. He hauled Kelly and Lopez to their feet and Hank started a desperate head count, including himself. "1, ....2, .....3...." He saw Bellingham and Brice slowly rising and dripping, to their feet twenty feet away.. Their gloved hands were empty. ::Oh, no..:: Cap thought. "Where's the girl in the stokes?" ::4....5...:: Brice shook the stars from his head and almost took off his air mask. His partner stopped him before he could complete the move and grabbed his shoulders, looking at his face through his mask when Craig remained silent and slightly off balance. Bellingham's gasp said it all. "She must be under there, Captain Stanley.. I don't see her.. Brice got hit in the head and we dropped her." Cap motioned Kelly and Marco to get Brice out of the area... "And I don't see two of my men.." he replied grimly. "They're gone, too?" Bellingham blurted out, whirling. Hank refused to acknowledge the fact that Roy and Johnny could have just been killed along with the woman. "I want a team of men with K-12's and axes over here immediately! There's a chance the shell fell AROUND them." "Under all that water?" Chet shouted in alarm. Cap cut him off curtly. "Get Brice to safety. Get him seen.Then hoof it back here with everything you've got.." "Right, Cap.." Chet and Marco swept up Brice into a seat held carry and moved. |
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Cap called out the same priority over his HT to the available companies. "Engine 51 to all units. We've trapped victims and firefighters under the tower. I need a full detail scrambled, wearing full protective gear and air bottles. We're on the south side of the tower's drum..." Men began to run as the massive rescue operation around him shifted shape and form to accomodate. HT activity tripled. To Cap's horror.. the gushing water around his legs lessened and began to die off as the dome sealed itself tightly to the stained ground. ::Not enough.. Not enough..:: his mind screamed. ::There's still too much water in there. They won't stand a chance if they're not awake enough to tread water.:: The last agonizing screeching sounds of collapse trickled away in eerie silence. |
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****************************************** From :"Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com> Subject : ~~Red Pool~~ Date : Fri, 26 Sep 2003 19:54:27 +0000 Cap slipped and slid in the newly created ankle deep morass of mud and shards to start a hasty inspection of the water tower dome for any signs of large leaking breaches through which to target a rescue attempt. He didn't hesitate to rain the metal shell with sharp ringing blows.. "Roy! John! Can you hear me?! *gasp* Hang on.. We're gonna get you out of there ASAP!! " His head whipped around, first right then left, but no other fireman was as yet, near. He lifted his HT once again and ordered. "Move it everyone! I'm located on the south side, upwind! I'm twenty yards from the site of the second victim's initial location!" Cap's breaths whistled painfully inside his SCBA mask as he attempted to remain clear headed around a panicking heart which slammed wildly inside of his chest. He tossed the handy talkie aside when he heard multiple reply backs and didn't care that it skittered out of reach and into the muck at his feet. Numbly, his soaked gloves beat out another regular pattern to the taut hollow dome he hastily stretched out upon. He shouted once more to those trapped underneath.."DeSoto!? Gage?! If you're o.k., respond in any way you can..!" Cap first freed, then plastered an ear to the tower's skin after eyeballing the prevailing winds for safety. He no longer cared about any possible contamination with the spilled freon. "My men come first." he sobbed aloud, with roiling raw emotions. The professional side of him countered that irrationality with instant support. ::There was enough of a wash down from the dome's spill over to dilute the stuff nearest here.:: it said. Some small part of Hank Stanley still waited for the telltale burning of sub freezing temperatures to bite into his exposed wrists and neck, as subliming freon searched for a way to call him a liar. But only the hot sun was searing into anything he could still feel that wasn't completely wet. Hank's relief about not burning himself with any coolant exposure never materialized. A larger part of him was rapidly losing objectivity. "Come on you two..Just one sign. Won't take much to grab a piece of scrap to wail an answer back.." he whispered, fogging up his face plate. "Come on.. start tapping!" Cap filled some time checking his air tank's regulator. "I've got nine minutes left.." Hank silenced his own adrenaline twitchy mouth and he held in a ragged breath as he willed his body to stillness as he listened. Seconds stretched into long moments as violated metal talked to itself and its mercilessly settling gravity net. Chink.. Ping.. Creakkkk -kkk --kkk. k k.. *hisssss*.. Soon, waves of water lapped musically soft inside as the tower reached equilibrium at last in its new horizontal position. Cap's eye finally found the surface of the trapping pool through a ragged crack. It was staining with a growing red through the clear depths the sun illuminated. Nothing else clearly identifiable as actively struggling life gurgled from the pocket of deep water that he could see to reward Cap's vigilance. Drip.. Drip... Drip.... Hank's eyes stung sharply. "No..." ---------------------------------------------------- |
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************************************************* From: "Cory Anda" <andacory@hotmail.com> Subject : Full Circle Date : Sat, 27 Sep 2003 02:30:55 +0000 GAASSPPPPPppp!! *cough!* choked Gage as his head broke the surface of the water inside the van. He had long ago peeled off his air bottle in order to swim up towards what meager light he could see. "Roy!?" he shouted, treading water and whirling in the frigid darkness. His hasty shout echoed in his ears. He could hear faint pounding from somewhere else but that sound was the farthest thing from his mind at that moment. The van suddenly shifted as it began to float, its front end partially buoyant from its sudden unexpected immersion under water. An eerie golden light glowed through the shattered windshield of the van. ::So, there are cracks out there..:: Johnny realized. ::The whole d*mned tower must have come down in around us..:: Gage shook away a lurid bone chilling cold he suddenly felt seeping through his turnout gear. ::How the h*ll did I get in the van?:: His own sense of orientation drifted away. A body floated up. It was wearing bright blue clothes. "Roy?!" Johnny said in fright, remembering suddenly who was still missing. John pushed off the wall of the van to get to the sodden form and he quickly flipped it over to feel for a carotid. He immediately dropped the young african american teenager with a shout of horror. Half of her features were crushed and so was the top of her head. "Gaghhh..." Johnny blurted out, back treading blindly. The young body of the girl sank out of sight, leaving only a trail of red behind. "I'm not gonna make any progress that way." his teeth chattered, and he froze in place just to listen. The dim pounding continued, but it wasn't vibrating through the chassis of the luckless van. "Outside help?" Johnny guessed. "Maybe it's Cap...!" He was just about to take a breath to reach a leg up to kick out the windshield arching above him when he saw a trail of bubbles coming from a shadow near to the left side of him in the front seat. ::The driver's still alive!:: he realized. Gage's groping hands found a football jerseyed young man's neck and head as he brought his mouth and nose to the surface of the water. He was rewarded with sputtering gasps as the teen quarterback blew out liquid in a spray from his throat and lungs. "Easy.. I got you.." Johnny encouraged, keeping the man from sinking underneath the water again as he struggled to breathing wakefulness. |
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"I didn't mean it.. I didn't mean it.. *cough* They made me do it..." the injured kid mumbled. Johnny laid the teen's head against his shoulder and immobilized his neck and forehead as best he could against his chest.. "Hey, take it easy now. No one's blaming you for anything. Especially not for a stupid joyride in the parking lot. An accident's an accident... What's your name?" "B-Bobby..*cough*" "Can you breathe ok the way you are?" "What?" Johnny Gage took that for a yes. "Do you hurt anywhere besides that arm..?" he said looking down. Gage saw a second 'elbow' bending below the young man's real one on his left arm where it floated in the water. "I'm hurt? Oh, my g*d.." and the dazed teenager began to thrash around a bit inside Johnny's firm hold. "Bobby.. Now just calm down!.. I'm feeling nothing seriously wrong with you. Now my name's Johnny Gage and I'm a paramedic with the Los Angeles County Fire Department." "I crashed the van?" Johnny spat some of the boy's hair and muddy water from his mouth. "No.. not exactly.. A semi truck hit a water tower near you and then it fell on us. That's where all this water comes in.." "What?! Aghh.HHH! Where's Angie,.. Mark...?! They were all in here with me... Steve!! Where are you??" Gage's head was banged painfully as the young man panicked as he arched his back and he saw stars. He tightened his grip on the teen to keep him still. Gage knew from the roof sloping into the water that no one else was left alive in the back of the van. "Listen to me! Bobby, we'll worry about them later. Now I'm more concerned with getting you taken care of first. And to do that, we both have to keep calm and cool about all this. We might need to conserve the air in here. Now I want you to slow your breathing rate down a bit. It's probably why you're feeling so short of breath right now." "Ugh.. I'll...t-try..." "That's it.. Nice and easy. Now, does your neck or back hurt anywhere? I'm holding you like this just in case you do." "Uhh,.. no. They're ok.. I'm not feeling any p--Ahhh! What's wrong with my arm?" "I'll be honest with you, Bobby. It's broken. " "Oh, man.. Coach's gonna l-love this. He'll kill me when he finds out I have to miss the rest of the seas-- n" he said slipping into shock. "Bobby? Stay awake. Keep your head up. Let me tie this board here on your arm. We need to splint this before we go anywhere." Gage used a seatbelt that he cut away from the van's wall using his holster's bowie knife. "I gotta get you into some dry clothes and I also gotta find my partner and another girl who was with us.." "S-Someone else? Who...who is she?" Bobby struggled. "Please.. I gotta know about my friends." Returning pain to his fractured arm silenced the young quarterback and he froze into stillness with a strangled cry. "I feel like I'm gonna puke." "Easy. Moving around will only make you more nauseated. Her name's Kelsey, and she's doing fine." "Where is she? I- I don't see her!!" Bobby said, gasping, falling limp, now only half awake. Johnny felt the change in the boy's posture and heard it in his voice. "Bobby? Stay with me.." At the same time, a flicker of sunlight and shadow made him look up through the windshield of the van into the sparkling underwater light reflecting there. Peering through the raining water trails seeping through the spidered glass, he could just make out Roy's legs and shoes kicking at a second water surface six feet above the van with the comforting shape of Kelsey's metal stokes in his arms. Gage could see the green bottle of the resuscitator still nestled in between her legs. ::He's still got the O2 for her.. Good.:: Johnny sighed in relief. ::I swear, Roy. You got more lives than a cat.:: he grinned. Out loud he said. "Kelsey's really fine, Bobby. She's with my partner. Out there. Right now." He didn't get any reply. ::Bobby?:: Johnny thought to himself. His fingers found the slow thud of a carotid at the big teen's neck and the injured teen's ribcage still rose and fell inside the bearhug Gage had around the young man. "So that's where we're going, too." he said quietly to the unconscious boy. Gage waited for the young man to take in a shallow breath of air before he blocked off the man's nose and mouth for the trip out of the van. Two kicks later, they were free, popping up beside Roy in a flood of bubbles as the rest of the vehicle's trapped air escaped with them. ------------------------------------------------------------ |
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DeSoto didn't even bat an eye.. "Here's Johnny, Cap. Looks like he's got a victim out." "Johnny? You all right, pal?" an overjoyed Hank's voice echoed into the hollow chamber, even through his air mask. "Yeah, Cap. Just hurry it up. Neither of these guys can wait without treatment much longer." Gage coughed as the outside air's freon fumes began to get to him. "Here.. " Roy said, disconnecting the O2 tubing from Kelsey's EOA. "Give him some and then take a breath of your own. We've been sharing.." "She still breathing?" "Yeah, she's just out, that's all. I still can't find any injuries." |
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