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"Just find that first aid pack we theorized about earlier.." Roy mumbled as he got a better grip on his patient's face and nose. Desoto retreated back into the shelter of his air mask, coughing. But immediately, he shared his tidal store in yet another breath for the very pale young man stretched out beneath him. "Joe?" Gage asked as he pivoted in the silver haired man's direction. He didn't like the color change occuring in the older maintenance man's cheeks. "Did you hear that?" "Yeah.. yeah.. uh, one of the ranger boys,.... you know the sierra wilderness types from 110's? ..they left a pretty good one behind for us for just this kind of medical emergency happening in the tunnel.." "Where is it? Are you all right? You look like you're gonna faint." Johnny said, keeping one glove on Roy's back, the other on Joe's elbow. "I-I'm fine. I just know Benny's mother. That's all. If he dies, I'm the only one who's a friend enough to break the news. Know what I mean?" Joe shuddered, absently bumping his fingers against his faceplate, trying to rub his forehead. "The kit, Joe.." John ordered. "We need it." "Oh, uh huh. right. It's right there, John. Under the supe's desk in the corner. But don't we gotta get Benny to a doctor? You two are just firemen. And with him not breathin and all, it's gettin real scary..real fast!" he said, his voice rising higher in panic. "Let's just carry him outta here. Come on, I'll do it. I'm bigger than the both of ya. So just tell your buddy ta move out of the way.." Then Joe actually tried to lift Benny up into an arm carry to remove him from under Roy's hands. Gage snatched him away from the desk quickly. "Joe! What the h*ll do you think you're doing?! Benny's better off right where he is where we can deal effectively with his hypoxia. Just go get the bag." "But..." the balding man sputtered through his mask. "It's ok.." Johnny qualified. "We're paramedic firefighters. We can treat him right here. Enough to stabilize him. Then we can think about figuring out a way to get us all out of here. Until Benny's condition falls one way or another, we're staying put!" Clunk! The big blue bag full of medical supplies landed in Gage's lap. Johnny's pen light found his teeth as he dug through it to the bottom using its meager beam. "This is heavy Roy, I'll just bet that it has--" a clanging sound greeting his ears as his questing fingers found a fair sized oxygen cylinder and a valve wrench tethered on a chain. "..Yep. O2." He snatched it out and set up its demand valve, replete with a hard black rubber face mask. "Here. I got an oral out, too." And Gage gave Roy the two pieces of equipment. "Joe, go get my partner a new air tank. That one's getting too low." Roy gratefully let Joe slide the new scba mask back over his head and face, coughing thickly as the clean air slowly washed away the strongest chlorine fumes he had been suffering eyewise. He shook his head to shake the face plate into place vigorously around his temples. |
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All the while, his hands never missed delivering a breath to Benny using the new positive pressure apparatus they had found. "Roy?" Johnny asked, checking out the breathless man's eyes with his light for their responses. "I've still got a bounding carotid on him." "Thanks for the update. But I was asking about you. How're your eyes? And your chest?" Gage said wrapping a bp cuff over Benny's near arm. "Both'll pass with a push.." Roy said, his voice starting to grow hoarse and cracky. "I don't think I got a whole lotta chlorine." "Once we get Benny going again, you're gonna grab some of that 02." Johnny said firmly no nonsense. "We'll see. So far, he's deserving all of it." Roy rasped. "Step it up then and turn him around, so you guys can share.." Gage quipped half serious. Gage leaned into Joe and whispered to him out of the corner of his mouth so Roy wouldn't hear him. "Joe.. go stand by Roy and light up his face a little. I wanna see his color." Joe rose, smiling, but Johnny stopped him with a tight grip. "Do it subtlely or I'll never hear the end of it.." he hissed. Joe nodded, his earlier panicky reactions finally easing down a little. He moved around the desk to the other side. At Roy's curious glance up at him, Joe remarked, "I wanna see what yer doing.." And he casually aimed the flashlight's rays down on Roy's hands so that its icy white backwash lit up his features. Johnny's eyes flickered up from the breath sounds, to which he was listening, up to Roy's features and back down again in a crafty scan. He feigned being interested in searching for burns on Benny's bare chest as he asked. "Since when did you start hiding the fact that you've got a couple of broken ribs, Roy?" Desoto looked up in surprise, and the sudden motion made him wince. "How'd you know?" "Oh.." Johnny said matter of factly, continuing his secondary survey down Benny's pelvis and legs, "I kinda knew when I threw Benny here onto your back to get him away from the chlorine containers. You were favoring his weight on your good side. I also noticed you were double timing your mouth to mouth to make up for your shortness of breath and now you got a bit of cyanosis starting up on both your lips that's not from any kind of chilling cause it's not cold in here. Far from. " Johnny tilted his head in question. "Which ones did ya crack clear through, Roy?" Roy stopped concealing his hunched over posture. "Floating ribs, left side, bottom three." he sighed painfully. "Did they get into your spleen?" "Don't know yet. My shoulders hurt but I think it's from wearing this scba gear for so long. Doesn't feel like I've got any real kind of belly pain yet." Roy said. Joe frowned. "Say, ah.. how'd uh.. how did he get hurt so bad?" Johnny and Roy both exchanged knowing looks. Gage was the one who broke the news. "Uh, we were forced to retreat inside from a fuel fire at the tunnel entrance when a rock slide took us by surprise.. Here, gimme that Roy, I'll take over breathing for him. Take a break." Joe paled even more and sat down on his rump into a nearby chair. "You mean we're sealed in here with that raging inferno out there threatening to burn the cement wall in right through to us?" Roy gingerly set aside the over coat he had peeled off. His scba tank was nestled in between his knees. He looked almost comical wearing just the face gear in a blue paramedic's shirt that was torn and ripped in a dozen places from the fall he had taken. "That's putting it in a nutshell.." he grimaced, feeling out the painful locations of his own rib breaks. Johnny was quick to optimism,, "Uh, that's if we can't find another way outta here." Gage glared at Roy.. Then he snapped rapidly into a sham of counseling charm. "Joe, there is another way out of here.." he prompted. "Almost has to be. This is one h*lluva big mountain. Right, Benny?!" he added shouting into the young man's ear. An answering stomach belch from his artificial respiration came out in reply. "Good boy.." Johnny said, patting the unresponsive man's face. He had done so to break Mr. Dawson out of his bystander funk as much as to test for any telltale responsiveness in Benny. Joe's eyes stopped glassing over in emotional shock and he actually stifled a smirk over the odd humored joke Johnny shared about his coworker. "Yeah, there's bunches of ways outta here. What does the D.O.T. look like? We're far from being a bunch of numb skulls. We built plenty of bolt holes into this monstrosity.." he said expansively waving his hands up at the tunnel's infrastructure arching all around them. "Which way to the nearest?" Roy buzzed hoarsely, barely loud enough to be heard through his air mask. "Down fifty meters south, right fork, three doors on your right, then up the stairwell to the plateau overlooking the valley. It's the same route we take every month. It leads up to the radio tower." Joe rattled off. Roy smiled. "We could sure use clean line of sight. Our HTs aren't working down here." he said. Joe's eyes got bigger and he sat up straighter in his chair. "Well why didn't you tell me before that your radio jobbies weren't functioning. We gotta phone right here." And he opened up the drawer to the left of Johnny's knee, displaying a red emergency colored hand receiver phone that had been stuffed into it. "We use this to report any newly sparked forest fires while we're working the span. The boss says it connects with a fire chief or someone like that, down in the city." Gage sighed. And so did Benny. Johnny's face popped wide open. "Benny?" he said, lifting the demand valve away. "Can you hear me?" he asked. He slid his hands out of the way just in time to see Benny spit out the oral airway that was gagging him. Roy saw that he didn't need to be tipped over for nausea. "Benny?" The young man groaned at the sting of chlorine fumes he started feeling in his eyes, nose and mouth while Johnny quickly strapped Benny's scba gear back on him with one change; he stuffed a balled nasal cannula line inside the young man's mask, leaving it in a knot under the man's nose, set to a light flow, as a breathing booster. Johnny watched as Benny lapsed into an adequately respiring but unconscious stupor similar to the state that he had been in when they had first found him. Johnny reinserted another oral airway carefully to avoid spasms. Gage fitted the demand valve's working end to a new feeder mask and handed it out instantly to Roy. "Start clearing your chest out, partner. Looks like we've quite a hike coming up real soon." Johnny grinned. He picked up the landline phone to contact L.A. ::I've waited a long time to relay our status in to Rampart and the firecrews still working on the fuel truck. Cap's gonna smile bigger than the whole state of California when he hears from us.:: he smirked. He winked at Joe Dawson and was very happy to see the older man relaxed enough himself to wink back. Unknown to all of them, the hissing from above, grew louder. ------------------------------------------------------------------ |
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********************************************************* From: "Cassidy Meyers" <killashandrarey@hotmail.com> Subject: Deliverance.. Date: Tue May 25, 2004 8:48 pm - 2048 (PDT) "How's Benny doing, John?" asked Joe Dawson. "He- he-he.. still looks kinda sick ." Johnny Gage rechecked the amount of oxygen left in the ranger's tank by reading the valve by penlight as he said. "Well.. he was awake enough to feel us fussing with his face and fight the airway for a bit. That's a good sign. It'll be up to Rampart Hospital to decide whether or not he'll come down with complications once we get him to our docs there by helicopter. I'll be on the line with one of them in just a minute or so." he nodded. Joe's dirty face beamed. "Outta sight." Roy coughed, splinting his side with an elbow to ease the pain as his ribs protested. He couldn't quite hide the new agony. Gage looked up. "That reminds me. " he said, shouting through his SCBA gear. He held up an incriminating finger at DeSoto. "You're victim number two, pally. Get a vitals set on yourself..." he ordered, peering at Roy's face in analysis. "Or... I can do it if you think you're too laid up to manage." "I'll manage. Just talk.." Roy said hoarsely. "The O2's working." he said, taking in another shot of oxygen from the positive pressure valve. "My head's clearing now and there's no more blue here." he said waving a few fingernails under the torchlight in his lap. "My ribs aren't flailed." Gage squinted, appraising Roy for a long moment and DeSoto was smart enough not to look away. Johnny saw that the vitality in his partner's eyes remained steady and unwavering. "Ok. The job's yours." The indian paramedic turned his pointing arm towards Dawson. "How about you? Any knocks, bumps I should know about that you didn't share earlier?" he asked. The tone in his voice held a partially serious jest at Roy for doing the same sin. Roy rolled his eyes, unamused, and didn't rise to the bait as he began shifting in his chair to get comfortable enough to take a BP reading on himself. "Pick up the phone, Mr. Gage, and call us in. Your casualty number ...is gonna be only two.." Joe said defiantly, holding up that count before Johnny's face and shaking it. "I'll be watching Benny for ya so your partner can rest." The rugged tunnel man sat down in the desk chair by Benny's head to check the young man's mask's seal around Gage's jury rigging and he began staring at the shallow rise and fall of Benny's chest to pointedly ignore Gage, ending the discussion. Gage was satisfied. He picked up the red landline. "This is Squad 51 of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Emergency. I've updated fire information with two people injured in this tunnel's operations base." he shouted loud enough for his voice to carry into the phone through his face plate. The voice on the other end rapidly acknowledged Johnny's call sign and he was immediately patched through to L.A. and onto Rampart Hospital once he had relayed enough information to the fire dispatcher to tell Cap and Batallion 14 of their status. Gage heard the call frequency click into a familiar mode as it rang the red wall phone near Dixie McCall's emergency desk. |
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The furry voiced RN looked up in surprise from a coffee mug when the rare critical use line began ringing. She padded over and hefted the phone's receiver. "Rampart Emergency." She cocked her head as she listened closely as she recognized Johnny's voice. " Johnny! Are you four in a safe location? Is there anything you need me to tell the chief out there?... Ok. ..ok. Got it. Now, what do you have? I'm set here." she said snatching up a pencil and pad for note taking. As she did so, she flagged down an orderly to go fetch the nearest doctor to report to the call. -------------------------------------------------------------- Johnny bent down to his note pad under penlight and read his data. "Dixie, it's chlorine gas on both victims one and two. Victim One is an unconscious male who's approximately nineteen years of age. He was briefly respiratory arrested but now he's breathing on 6 L's of O2 via SCBA. No trauma. Vitals are : BP 88/64, pulse 120, respirations are 22 and his lungs are wet on both sides. No signs of aspiration. Victim Two. It's Roy, and he's got possible fractures of all the lower left lateral floating ribs, sustained in a fall. He denies lung or abdominal involvement but he's showing a strong positive for crepitus. Dix's he's been oriented times four throughout and he's now on fifteen liters O2. He's dealing with some upper pulmonary tract swelling that also seems to be effecting his throat and larynx. I'd say his exposure was around two minutes despite having tanked air. He had to do some resuscitation. Victim One's duration with the chlorine is unknown. Roy's vitals are : 120/74, pulse 90 and respirations are shallow due to pain. Color is now good on both. Uh,, just a side note, we've only rudimentary gear, a ranger's pack, basic life." ----------------------------------------------------------------- Dixie studied her note pad, writing furiously as Johnny talked into the red receiver cocked on her shoulder. "10-4, Johnny. Hold on, Joe's here." Dr. Early peered over Dixie's back as he took the phone, reading. "Johnny. How bad's the fire? Are you going to be able to extricate yourselves soon? The faster you're all out of that gas, the better I'll feel." he said, chewing on his pencil. ##Soon, doc. A man with us knows a safe way out. We'll carry the young man out on a door if we have to. He and I can manage ok and Roy's ambulatory.## Joe Early nodded, despite of only being tied to the paramedic through a telephone wire. "If you can, get a good look in your medical pack. If it's a standard forest rescue ranger's bag, it should have IV's and a bee sting kit inside. Use that kit's epinephrine on the teenager. Give him 1 mg. IV push of that if it's 1/10,000, into an IV of normal saline, then set it TKO. It may bring him around enough to stabilize him for the trip out." For Roy, if you need to, 5 mg's MS, IM. The bag oughta have that, too. I know the head ranger on that mountain who's a paramedic. Make sure Roy drinks nothing by mouth. Not until he's evaluated. Chlorine turns to hydrochloric acid in the mucosal tissues when exposed to even a slight amount of water so be aware of that and watch for signs of choking. It may develop fast in both your victims. Watch your step around any fire hoses, too. Water fog may be enough to cause further burns in the lungs because of the chlorine sitting in them." Joe rubbed his lips. "Oh, and be sure to take out all of your loose pocket change." he added with a slight grin of embarrassment. Dixie was only puzzled. |
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---------------------------------------------------------------- "Pocket change?" Roy coughed. He was near enough to be able to hear the voice on the other end of the phone. Gage shushed him as Joe Early elaborated, his quiet calm voice filling the dark smoky circle of space around all four men. The flashlight set on the table between them fizzled fitfully as it struggled to stay lit in the smoke. The paramedics and Joe Dawson hung on Early's every word. ##I've had people before stuck in a chlorine cloud. With a hidden complication. ## the doc went on. ##The chlorine grew concentrated enough on the scene to cause the copper in the pennies in their jeans to spontaneously ignite their clothes. So get rid of your coins or risk getting a hot seat. Literally. Silver change suffers the same effect. Only they go off later on. So get rid of those, too.## Joe Dawson hastily flung his vending machine money away into the darkness. Where they landed on the floor, little fires popped and erupted as their substance burned under the layer of green chlorine hanging over the floor. Hastily, Joe got Benny's pockets cleared, too. And Roy and Johnny rapidly did the same self purging. They all flinched when the coins rolling around them, caught flame and melted in noisy tiny explosions. |
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Gage sighed in relief. "We're ok, doc. That was very good advice. Thanks." ##No problem. Let me know updates at the slightest changes as you go topside when your walkie talkies start working again, ok? ## "10-4, doc." And Gage repeated his medical orders back to Dr. Early quickly. ##Good luck.## Joe said, and the phone in Johnny's hand clicked off. Gage quipped. "That Doctor Early,.. He's a regular 007, you know that.. exploding pocket change.. Geesh." Then on a thought. "Say,.. I could have a little fun for the future knowing that. Next time Chet and I are in a chlorine spill, I think I'm not gonna warn him." He bent with industry to get his IV, laced with epi, going on Benny. Joe Dawson split a gut. Roy found a second bee kit, smiling. "There's more than one of these." "Good. Put your name on it. If you get yourself wet, you're gonna need it." Johnny said seriously. "Man, first I've ever heard. Firemen avoiding water vapor like the plague. I wonder if Cap knows about it." "I'm sure he does.." Roy chuckled, his laryngitis staying thick. He wrapped up the O2 and put it away for later use into the blue medical bag and put back on his air mask. "We're under extenuating circumstances. Normally, we aren't stuck under a chlorine gas cloud for long enough periods to worry about it. And any wash downs conducted are always done under safe air conditions so no dangerous amounts of acid are ever formed enough before they're washed away entirely." "Yeah, but it's still weird. Being temporarily allergic to water.." Gage snorted. "If you can put it that way.." Roy agreed. "The allegory fits. In a sense, Benny and I ARE sensitive for the time being." "Ok.." Joe said suddenly. "Does your sweat count as water? If it does, I'm not waiting around to find out the effects. Benny, let's go." and he picked up the young man into his arms. "I'm moving us out. Now." he said firmly as he grabbed the boy's air tank from the floor as well, and slung it over his shoulder around them both. DeSoto hastily handed the older worker the IV bag Gage had begun on Benny while Johnny snatched up the blue bag quickly to keep the man from ripping the oxygen tubing off the cylinder inside. "Slow down! Don't pull out Benny's oxygen!" Johnny said. "Joe! Roy can't move that fast." "Yes I can.." Roy said, painfully rising from the chair. "Oh. Uh. Ok. Guess that means you can give yourself your own morphine. Here." Johnny said, handing over the capped syringe to his partner with his one free hand. Then he was yanked away by the stretched cannula tubing between Joe, Benny and the ranger bag, into the darkness. DeSoto shook his head, amused even in crisis as he rolled up his turnout sleeve as he walked to inject himself into the meaty part of his forearm. He shuddered when the metal needle from the injection tube evaporated into flame as it hit the floor after he was finished. The four men moved down the dark cracked tunnel, comforted only by the small nimbus of torchlight as it swirled in the chlorine around their ankles. They reached a junction where the ceiling hissing was louder. "Uh oh. That's water I'll bet." Joe said, pointing upwards. "That d*mned chlorine's eating all the pipes!" "Oh, I get it, acid baths for everyone.." Gage said sarcastically. "Those pipes copper?" "Don't ask.." Joe said, gently cradling the comatose Benny a little more protectively in his arms. They walked a little faster past the area. |
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Joe paused in the darkness. "Here. There's a stairwell." "How far up?" Gage wanted to know. "Again... D--" "Don't ask.." Roy parroted simultaneously, smiling grimly. Joe opened the door into the landing and looked up. Right then, the pipes in the ceiling gave way and let loose a flood of water. The older man and Johnny leaped into the safety of the stairwell but Roy was a little slower because of his injury and medication and got water onto his arm as he jumped. The forearm on his turnout began to smoke from newly formed hydrochloric acid. "Ahhh!" and he pulled his arm up out of his sleeve and inside his jacket, while Johnny pulled the acid singed material away from Roy's body with his coat halligan. "Joe! Close the door behind us. Roy, don't move! I got it!" DeSoto froze in place where he lay sprawled on the concrete steps, breathing painfully in high pitched wheezes of panic as he remained still and watched his jacket bubble and steam. Johnny reached into the ranger bag and pulled out some clothes shears. Ruthlessly, he cut off the smoking sleeve and it dropped to the ground. Then he knelt, cupping his hands around Roy's face plate, "You ok? Roy? I got it off. Can you still breathe ok?" For several numbing seconds, Roy couldn't reply. Then his helmeted masked head nodded. "It didn't get to me. And my mask kept out the water vapor." |
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Joe Dawson reported out loud, too. "Benny's still ok. He's breathing the same." Gage, didn't doubt the man, but placed a hand on the teenager's stomach anyway subconsciously in a check. "We were lucky." he panted. "Come on. Let's get to the top. Joe, if you get tired. We'll trade. I may be scrawny, but I'm strong. I can carry Benny.." "You just go right on playing bellhop. I'm doing fine." Joe said, barging past the two paramedics. He started climbing the stairs strongly. "I can carry him all day if I have to. I owe it to him and his ma to do my absolute best." his voice echoed. He turned around and just waited for the other two to catch up to him. Johnny Gage gave Roy DeSoto a hand up from where he curled on the floor. "Wow. With devotion like that, I'm surprised you never joined the fire department, Dawson." he said. "Not enough pay.." spat the older man. "Really?" Gage said, stopping in his tracks. "Yeah.." Roy gasped. Then he staggered. "Roy?" Johnny startled, grabbing him. "I'm ok, it's just the morphine." "You sure about that?" "Yeah. I'm not shocky. Come on, let's go." Roy insisted. "Benny can't be delayed and it's gonna take a while for any help to get to us once we're out on the mountain. It's probably getting dark already." he coughed, and immediately doubled over in pain. Hefting the blue bag and its precious tether of oxygen from Benny a little higher on his shoulder, Johnny pulled Roy's still sleeved arm over his neck. "Easy. Don't drop your head like that, you're gonna make yourself black out. Now take a big breath. That's it. Ready? Ok. Up. First this stair. That's it. Now the next. Roy, pick your right leg up a little higher. Ok, now you're doing it. Good." Slowly, the four men made their way up out of the heart of the burning tunnel and soon, they found themselves underneath the scented canopy of a spectacular boreal forest of slash pines. They all threw off their air masks gratefully and sucked in cool earthy air that was tinged with tannin and a hint of rain. Gage's heart sank. "We gotta go higher. The talkies won't reach anything under here. These trees are huge. And thick. Joe, where's the nearest ridge?" Joe turned around in a circle with his limp burden, Johnny keeping pace, as he caught his bearings. Then he threw his filthy haired head upwards. "Up there. That's Devil's Head Trail. A ranger station's at the top. With any luck, ...Tim Cassidy's still there." "Who? " Roy asked, resting against a spicy tree trunk. "Tim Cassidy.." Joe elaborated. "He's the assistant head ranger. A real short wicked kinda guy at times but he's got a real level head. He'll help us out in a flash. Who knows, maybe Julie Beck's up there. She's working today." "Julie Beck?" Joe filled him in. "Remember the medic the doc said he knew who packed out this medical bag for us? Well she's it." Gage's mouth fell open. "That ranger paramedic's a..a...woman?" "Yep." Joe said distractedly, still holding Benny. "And she's a ranger?" "What's the matter with your ears, John?" Joe asked quizzically. "You going deaf with fatigue? Yeah, a real Sierra Nevada forest ranger. One of the first ever stationed at Devil's Head. You'll like her." "I'll bet.." Johnny said, warming to the idea. "Does that tower have a radio?" Roy asked, still catching his breath. " We may still be out of HT range of Cap and the chief from up there. Our truck crash's on the other side of the mountain where we might not be able to reach them." "It's got one. You see, that station up there is the state's best lightning research base in the entire country.." Joe said proudly. "Lightning?" Gage's smile fell away. "Yeah, happens all the time. Especially this time of year. Something to do with the way the weather patterns fall around these parts." Joe said. "How long will it take for us to reach it?" Roy asked. "Oh, about ten minutes. It's just up that trail that way." "What trail?" Gage said, seeing only massive boulders and lumpy juts of steel colored outcrops with no level surfaces underneath the monster pines. "That one. See the sign?" Joe pointed. "It's right up that way. It's not far at all." Johnny's hope for an easy rescue was dashed. A tiny weathered, tilted wooden side proclaimed the trail's head up the mountain. The way was difficult and gnarled by car sized playdoh ball stepping stones. |
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"I see it, Mr. Dawson." he said unhappy. "But first, set Benny down. I wanna get another set of vitals. On him and Roy both." "Ok.." Joe said cheerfully. And he gently set Benny's quiet length down on a giant mossy log near them. "Better sit down, Roy, while I get yours next." Johnny said, taking the teenager's carotid pulse as he studied his wrist watch. "Looks like we got a long couple of hours ahead of us. Try to catch your breath back." Johnny told him. Roy just hung his head and he let the morphine take over. It swept over his body in a rush and took the edge off his pain. ::Just a little. Only,...just :: he thought wearily. ::I wish I could take a nap like Benny here. Right now, I don't feel like I'm much use to anyone. I hope I can make it to the top of all that.:: |
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***************************************************** From: Jeff Seltun <finiterider@yahoo.com> Date: Thu May 27, 2004 8:35 pm Subject: Search and Rescue.. Gage gently shook DeSoto's shoulder, "Hey... Roy.." "Huh?" he replied, bleary eyed from the depths of a deep nap. He looked up to see Johnny wearing a stethoscope and the oxygen was out again at his knees. Roy felt his face to find the bag's mask there on a flow and his shirt was flung open, his chest exposed to the growing chill of the late afternoon forest. "What happened? Was I out?" he wheezed. "Nope. You came around to a rub with me barely touching you. My guess is the pain killer's messing with you a little bit. I only got this on ya to make waking up a little easier. You were sleeping more than soundly." Gage said, repositioning the mask over Roy's nose and mouth absently. "So I took another vitals set a minute ago." "What are they now?" Roy asked, tossing a careless hand towards the stethoscope around Johnny's neck. "Better. BP 124/ 78. Resps normal at 14." Johnny replied. "Your pupils are sluggish though because of the morphine." Roy looked down at himself and started buttoning up his shirt. He glanced up in a question about the rest of the infomation concerning his chest. Gage waved a dismissing hand and turned off the O2 on Roy. "I was only listening to that edema you've still got. Benny's showing the same thing. Only a little worse. He says he's bubbling on the left side but he refused to use any of this." Johnny said, rapping on the O2 tank with grimy knuckles. "You still have no signs of a tension pneumothorax showing up. Start counting your lucky stars, pally." Roy sat up a little higher against the log he was slumped against. His ribs ached only dully and it no longer felt like a vise was wrapping around him. "Benny's awake?" "Umm hmm and hungry." Gage nodded, taking Roy's pulse and scribbling his reading down on his notepad. "Seems all this fresh air out here's all he needed to make a fantastic recovery. He's already asked when we can begin heading up to the ranger's station. I told him just as soon as you felt like walking again." "How long has it been since we stopped?" Roy wondered. He couldn't tell from his muted down aches at all. "Oh, about forty five minutes or so." Roy struggled to his feet, pulling off the mask. "An hour?! My G*d, Johnny. Cap must be outta his skull with worry about us." "No he's not." said Gage coolly. "Remember my conversation with Dixie at all? She said she'd relay our game plan to escape to the engine crew and the chief. I told her that we had a sure fire route out of there with no possibility of any problems cropping up." "You're forgetting the water pipe bursting in on us making all that acid rain out of the air." "That didn't get you. Only your jacket. That wasn't a problem at all." Johnny countered mildly, staying calm. "Close enough!" Roy flared. He immediately regretted his reaction when his ribs reawoke into agony. "Sorry, I'm not myself." |
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"I noticed." Johnny said, the slight smile never leaving his face. He put away the mask and tubing into its pouch and began repacking the portable tank into the blue satchel. "Come on, gimme the arm on your good side and I'll help ya to your feet. You can sleep all you'd like once we get there." "Can't we wrap me up first?" Roy asked hoarsely. "You won't be able to breathe freely enough for all the exercise we'll be doing climbing those rocks on the trail. You'd never make it." "What makes you so sure I'll make it now?" said DeSoto with a foggy head. "Because of the sheer fact that you're arguing with me about it, Roy. Anyone truly off their feed would never do that." Roy's stomach rumbled right then, betraying him. "So that makes four of us who're starving." said Joe, moving nearer to the two paramedics when he finally saw Roy maneuvered to his feet. "Man, I hope the tower's got good chow. I've never been up there." "Wait a minute. Wait a minute." Roy started up again. "If that's true, how do you know this is the right way to get there?" he said tossing a head at the tree log sign declaring the existence of a path in front of them. "Those d*mned stairs tell me so, mister fireman." Joe said with a wink, pointing. Roy's eye finally focused on a precarious flight of maroon stained wooden staircases meandering through tangles of boulders and into a chasm. He could see them all the way to the top of the peak to which they were heading. "Oh." DeSoto muttered weakly. "Didn't see those." "Not surprising with that shot giving you a close run in with the sandman." Dawson retorted. "Benny says he can make it ok without help. How about you? I offer you a shoulder up." Roy shook his head after pushing off the tree he was leaning on. "That trail's single file. I promise I'll sit down if it gets to be too much." "I'll be the one right behind ya." Joe said, grabbing up Roy's tossed aside turnout. Johnny watched Joe speak quietly with Benny, offering the young man Roy's jacket for warmth. Gage leaned in dangerously to DeSoto. "Want mine?" he mumbled. "No. I'm not cold." "Ok.. ok.. just doing those weird first aid things you already know about." he said smirking. "Race ya.." and he dashed off after Benny and Joe with the blue bag and both helmets clattering around the air bottle he had forgotten to take off his back. Roy shook his head ruefully and followed after. About half way up the mountain, it began to rain. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Ho.. in the tower!" Gage cried out as they mounted the final stairway in the driving rain. The sun, to the west, was fleeing. "I've injured people!" Tim Cassidy and Julie Beck both, came out of the glass enclosure of the watch tower and out onto the balcony. They saw the four men and immediately recognized all the fire gear despite chlorine staining and water marks. "Coming!" said the red long haired woman. Julie Beck immediately grabbed hold of the teenager and helped him up the final steps into the dry interior of the ranger tower. Tim Cassidy, took over for Johnny and helped Roy out. |
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Tim recognized Joe right away. "Mr. Dawson? That truck crash was in your tunnel?" "Don't you two monitor your radios?" said the maintenance man harshly. "Of course that was my tunnel. The fire department scanner should have told you that right off." "They had to be relocated before they could mobilize the two of us down there." Gage said, "What?" Julie Beck nodded. "Mr. Gage. Captain Stanley told us you were coming. I'm Julie Beck, head rescue ranger and this is Tim Cassidy, my local side kick. I'll answer all your questions just as soon as we've taken care of your injured partner and Joe's tunnel worker first. I wanna get the four of you out of those wet things and into dry clothes." And she opened a locker and pulled out a box full of spare civilian fall clothes in plaids woven with thick, warm wool. Roy's teeth were chattering so loudly that Gage didn't protest. He went right for them as Roy began peeling down. "Just how long is it supposed to rain a-anyway?" DeSoto asked. "Not long. This is just an isolated cloud front. Maybe... another few minutes. Then the real show starts." she replied cheekily. "What real show?" A sharp vivid crack of purple lightning struck very nearby and hit the rod on top of the tower. Thunder jolted and made everyone except the two rangers jump. Tim Cassidy smiled. "That one. Happens every two days or so right around this time after the sun goes down." The rain, as quickly as it had come, departed. But the lightning only grew stronger and happened more often. A machine whirred into life on the ranger desk that reacted similar to a seismograph but it went ignored as the two rangers helped Roy and Benny change and get under blankets. Johnny took the opportunity to get his bearings on just how high up they really were. A spectacular 360 degree angled view of jutting buttes and a broad pine valley filled the look out and the sight took Gage's breath away. To the east, was a dark smudge of purple pink smoke and a tongue of fire a mile wide. "A wild fire?" he gasped. "Is that why rescue operations at the tunnel were halted?" |
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Julie Beck could only nod sadly. "Yes. The truck fire started up a minor brush burn, but then this lightning did the rest. The whole valley's about to go up." "What about us?" Gage asked. "Oh, we'll be safe enough up here. There's nothing but bare rock around us for a quarter of a mile. Only lightning can reach us. And we're far too insulated to be effected by that." Julie said. Cassidy got on the short wave radio to let the distant fire stations know that Gage and DeSoto and their victims had made it to Devil's Head. Roy looked up from his blanket wraps where he sat on the couch. "Johnny, I don't like it. We only had two brush assignments called out. And that bluff over there looks really bad." Beck had abandoned the view Johnny was transfixed by and was digging inside another locker for all of her medical gear and medications. "Captain Stanley thought the same thing. He didn't know the condition of Roy and Benny here so he ordered your crewmates to hike in to meet you here. Lopez and Stoker and Kelly should be arriving in about ten minutes, last radio call." "Can I talk to them?" Gage said, surprised yet again. "They might be in trouble." "They're fine. They're not even in that threatened valley, Mr. Gage. The lightning will knock out their HTs for a while so you're gonna have to trust me as to their ETA. They're here because I've formally asked for help." Ranger Beck said. "What for?" asked Johnny. "Not for us, surely." Tim Cassidy shook his head. "Not you." "There's a kid's camp at Happy Hollow along the Verdigris River and they haven't had time, like you four did, to get out of the way. On the last transmission from the camp counselors, seven kids are still unaccounted for after the camp was evacuated." Julie laid out her paramedic gear and two fresh O2 tanks for Johnny. Then she rose and hefted a laden backpack full of climbing and extrication gear and set it by the door. "You can contact your hospital base station using that short wave radio right there. I've IV's in plenty and I've also most of the narcotics you fellas are used to from your squad drug box. Make use of them and your doctors." she said and she reached for some rain gear. |
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