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**************************************************************** From: "Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com> Date: Wed Sep 1, 2004 3:46 pm Subject: The Shriek Box~~ Johnny Gage came whistling into the kitchen area and helped himself to a hefty portion of Dale's Everything deep dish pizza which was Cap's meal offering for his turn at KP food detail. "Must be Thursday afternoon." he said to no one in particular, "I can set my watch by when the delivery guy comes with these." "Speak for yourself." Roy said, overhearing from his checkers match with Marco Lopez by the television table. "I'm getting so good at guessing time of day by activity that I can guess the actual minute by that pizza's physical temperature.." he bemoaned. "It's exactly 2:15 in the afternoon." he sniffed. Gage huffed in amusement around a food stuffed cheek. "Huh, don't blame me for the slow week we've had. Blame dispatch and headquarters. They're so worried that we'll scuff up the crown jewel of the fire department that all we've been given is medical calls." "I wouldn't say Ivory is the crown jewel of the department." said Stoker from where he was doing the dishes. "She's more like.. a backup while we're waiting for Ol Red to finish up in the repair shop." "Believe what you like. I'm just hoping you guys aren't bored and all with being support O2 and bandaid backups for Roy and I when we do get out of the station.." he emphasized. "Things balance out, Gage. Give it time. It always does. " Hank said from where he was working on a miniature ship in a bottle model that he had been fawning over for two days. "I don't know about you. But I'm enjoying the light week of duty. I haven't seen a stretch like this since Woodstock weekend." The guys laughed. "Well, at least we're getting in some good hobby time." Johnny decided. Then Gage suffered a bout of deja vu when he spied Chet Kelly bent with industry over the same pile of gadetry and wiring that he had been working upon on the day that Ivory the white engine had arrived. Being sly, he walked slowly and silent past Kelly so he could get a good eyeful without being caught prying his nose into Chet's self professed secret invention again. Johnny spied a new device that looked for all the world like a mini handy talkie with a large red light attached to its face and a very long radio antennae, longer than what the Battalion Chiefs used on their high powered HTs at a fire scene. Barely reining in an unbearable curiosity, Gage sidled away from the table to sit by Henry on the couch to check his remote EKG monitor on the harness he was wearing around his torso. The holster was about to send a cardiac reading to Doc Coolidge at the animal shelter. |
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Roy noticed and excused himself from his game. "I'll be right back, Marco. This'll only take a sec." "Fine by me. I thought it was time for Henry's betablocker pill." "Nah, that's at three. Forty five minutes from now." DeSoto clarified. "Glad you're keeping Henry's rehab schedule straightened out in your head. I'm totally confused on what he needs and when still." Lopez complained with a smile. "It's a paramedic thing, Marco. " said Johnny from where he was connecting Henry's canine EKG module to the new phone they had rigged on the magazine table by the brown leather couch. "To keep track of treatments and med deliveries. It kinda becomes second nature after a while. Though I'll admit, having Henry as a patient for this long's novel." he admitted. Henry looked up and whuffled in excitement as he saw the two men moving to fuss over him again and he rolled over for a belly rub, making it hard for Roy to connect the phoneline feed to the transmitter. "Hey you crazy hound.." Gage said, scrubbing Henry's ears. "Back onto your belly. Roy's trying to get you set here." Chet fixed the problem by tossing Gage Henry's favorite huge rawhide bone without looking up from his busy project building. He announced its airborne trajectory with a whistle. Gage barely caught the bone with which to lure Henry's attention. "Thanks." Roy said when Johnny only glared back at Chet for the stunt. The gray phone next to the couch rang. It was Barney, the shelter vet. DeSoto picked it up and set it onto the table while he plugged in the EKG wire from the readout into the module wired to the send only phone. A few minutes later, the transmission of Henry's nightly cardiac record completed and Roy hung up the phone receiver again. "Hope the doc's happy with Henry's progress. I know I am. He's had no PVCs in four days now. I think he was right with that diagnosis of arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy on him. His heart's no longer acting like an M.I.'s." Gage disconnected the holster wire from the phone and wrapped it up again into its bundle compartment on the side of Henry's EKG monitor harness. "He's eating fine, drinking even better. Heck he even went after a few of Stoker's ball tosses in the yard this morning, without getting out of breath even once." he said, playing tug of war with Henry and the bone. Cap smiled from where he worked. "Of course he is. He's in the best paramedic firehouse in the whole county. I wouldn't expect any results less than perfect from my men on a medical patient that stable." he joked. That brought up a question from Chet. "Hey Cap, are we getting billed at the station for Henry's Mayfair ride to the Animal Shelter last week?" "Nope. Doc Coolidge found some dog loving sponsors at a local school to cover our costs. All it'll take is letting those kids visit Henry once he's back on a clean bill of health to get the money." Hank mentioned. "Nice. How'd they hear about Henry getting sick?" Marco asked. |
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"One of the nurses walking by the ambulance that day saw us working on resuscitating him out in Rampart's driveway, and took up the cause on her own through friends and relatives. And I believe that new medical resident you guys tangled with the day that old woman was burned was very instrumental in bailing our butts out of Henry's treatment bills, too." "He was?" Gage said, surprised. "That's incredible." "Yeah, Dixie McCall said that he felt guilty for being so new to answering calls at the base station that he wanted to make it up to us somehow for making us work her airway needs around him without an order." Captain Stanley related. "Miss McCall called and told me the whole story last night after we got back from that seizure call." "And Brackett ok'd that?" Gage said, incredulously. "Why not?" Roy smiled hugely. "Maybe that resident's on probation for endangering his patient and finding funds for Henry could've been Brackett's version of assigned community service as his unofficial penalty." "Yeah? Well what about the official one?" Gage complained, remembering the risk he took that day acting as a paramedic first with Brice without a doctor. "You know medical residents have immunity against incriminations for their first six months working solo. That old woman suffered no lasting ill effects." Roy reminded his partner. "For that time, maybe." Gage interjected. "But what about the next time we get him on the biophone line?" Roy shrugged. "We'll just have to repeat our findings. Twice if we have to, and...help him out. I've already talked to Brackett about having a senior physician standing by next to him when he does take another of our medical calls. So you can say that yes, I thought of you at the last paramedic's meeting, you know, the one you missed for having to stay here with Henry on his first night back from the animal shelter." "Thanks." Gage said appreciatively. "Brice'll sure be a lot happier with that arrangement." Right then the kitchen side door rang. Chet Kelly left his work table to go answer it. Dixie McCall came into the station. She was dressed in earthtones and her hair was down. All the gang rose to their feet. "Hi Dixie.." Roy said. "What brings you out here?" "Oh, I wanted to see my favorite mascot.. that's why.." she crooned, sitting down next to Henry and smooching his ecstatic freckled face deeply. "How are ya doing, baby?" she asked, holding his head. Henry's tail thumped loudly on the couch cushions as he ate up the attention. |
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Then Dixie looked up at Roy and Johnny. "Got copies of Henry's latest EKG strips handy? Dr. Brackett admitted to me last week that he wanted to see how he's coping on Coolidge's rehabilitation plan." "No kidding.." Hank said. "The way he grumbled last week, I didn't think Dr. Brackett cared a bit about him." "Stand corrected, Captain Stanley. " Dixie demurred. "Kel's just a big softy at heart once he's been proven wrong about a patient. Even if that patient's cute, fuzzy and has big long floppy ears.." she said, smooching Henry's silky head loudly where it nestled on her lap in between her arms. "Oh, he's looking a lot better today." she crooned. She leaned over to look at the table side of the couch. "And you boys have stopped hoarding the spare defibrillator down here. Guess his cardiac readings are checking out?" she guessed. "They sure are." Roy said. "We just sent today's reading in a few minutes ago." "Well, I've got to go get to work. I only had a few minutes to spare." "Here." Johnny said, scooping up the paper bag with Henry's old EKG strips in it. "Give these to Kel when you see him. We'll pick them back up again next rescue call." "I'll do that. Thanks, fellas." Dixie said, leaving back out the side door and waving. "Wow, Dixie came all the way out here from her apartment to see Ol Henry?" Gage said. Chet quipped. "Yeah. Unlike some people I know, Henry's a real popular guy for a dog." "Very funny. "Johnny said, squinting his eyes at Kelly. "So what have ya been working on all week? The guys and I are just busting out all over with curiosity over those things. Right guys?" No one else spoke up in support over Johnny's admission. "Ok, ok. I'll admit to being the only one. So what is it?" he pegged, poking a finger at Chet's shoulder in emphasis. Chet Kelly looked up from the metal dust and oil he was rubbing off of his fingers with a cloth rag to see all of his crewmates regarding him eagerly for an answer. "All right. All right, ya nosy bums. I'll let ya in on it, seeing that none of you have the capacity nor the desire to put any inventions on the market like I do." Kelly motioned them over to the table. "Come on over here and I'll explain a few things to ya. Only don't touch anything. Gage, that goes double for you.." The gang gathered around. |
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Kelly slipped into lecture mode which actually suited him this time since he was so passionate about what he was working on. "You guys all remember the incident with Moreno two weeks ago. Where we went rushing into a vertical fire thinking that he was still in there, only he wasn't, just his turnout coat?" "Yeah, I remember that very well. " Hank said. "Stoker, Lopez and Gage here took in more smoke than necessary searching pointlessly for a man down who wasn't even inside the building anymore." "Exactly, Cap. That's exactly the word I'd choose. Pointless. Pointless and dangerous. We all would've been a h*ll of a lot better off if we knew as a department where everybody was at all times without tying up the radio so much checking in to central command every few minutes with position reports. That's always been real messy. Now I was stuck in traffic the other day and I saw a bunch of surveyors working in a ditch. You know the guys, the ones who measure how much the roadside ditches slip after all our earthquakes we get all the time?" Everyone nodded. Chet went on. "Well I had a long look at them while they were working and I saw something interesting when one of them got himself caught in a land sink by the legs and fell down. I was gonna rush out over there and help him get free when his crewmates, ones that couldn't even see him at all, suddenly arrived and got busy with their shovels." "How'd they get there so fast?" Gage asked, entranced with the story. "He sure as heck didn't use his radio. That got buried when the sand gave way. I noticed something when they finally got the guy out. The man reached down and touched something on his belt and I saw a light go off. Bingo! I thought. That's how he did it." Chet said, sitting on the edge of the top of a chair. "It was a sheer revelation guys, I'm telling ya. The whole way home I kept thinking,.. why is it that the fire department's always be nine steps behind the other guys? It's not fair. So I figured, we can make that kind of invention work for us, too!" The rest of the guys scratched their heads. Johnny finally spelled it out for Chet. "I don't get it." "He had a locator on him, Gage. Plain and simple. About yey big and attached to his belt with wires sticking out of it. Antennaes, I suspect." Hank's forehead creased. "Ah, I see, a motion detector." Chet nodded eagerly. "Yeah, one that knew that he had become still and sounded an alarm. That thing on his belt must have been some kind of personal alert safety system that kicked in the moment he got into trouble." "Wow.." Marco remarked. "But how does what you saw apply to us, Chet? We don't work with land surveying, not often anyways, unless we're called to a cave in." "I'm getting to that." Kelly said. "Just hush a minute and let me show you what I've got." and he pointed to the two or three black boxes on the table including the modified HT that Johnny had noticed earlier. "Now I figured out a few things on my own. A simple motion detector that works can run on a tiny 9 volt battery in a nested compartment here. Reads anywhere, even through smoke. I tested it in the shower." "The shower?" Gage chuckled. Kelly held up a hand. "Hear me out. Just hear me out. Where else was I gonna find safe smoke? Steam works just as well. I hadta test out heat bearing ability, too." "Well how does a motion sensor help us as firefighters, Chet?" DeSoto asked reasonably. Kelly held out a small box, "Here, put this on." he said. "Now go walk around and don't stop until I tell ya. Just flip on the little switch on the side until that red light comes on." "Ok," Roy said and he did what Chet asked. The guys watched Roy move around the table in circles. "Nice invention, Chet." Hank quipped. "Now we'll be able to tell just how many miles we cover each week to measure up to how bad our aches become." he said sarcastically light. "I'm not finished, Cap. Hang on a minute." Chet motioned. "Ok, Roy. Now go down on the floor. Like you were in a fire and a roof fell on top of ya." Roy crouched down and got onto his belly. "Like this?" "Yeah, like that.." Kelly said. "Now don't move for 30 seconds." Then he didn't say anything and simply pointed to the second radio like device that he had switched on that rested on the table. It had a yellow light that was blinking on top of it. Very shortly the large talkie device on the table had a loud shrieker device go off that just about shattered all their eardrums. Henry protested in earnest with howls of his own. Kelly scrambled and apologized, turning down the device's volume control. "Sorry about that, guys. Sorry, Henry.. I forgot I tested this receiver outside this morning." "Congratulations on inventing an airhorn, Kelly. I'm proud of ya." Gage said thoroughly unimpressed and shaking out his ears. He moved to the pizza platter again for seconds after helping Roy back up onto his feet. "No, wait Gage. Come back here. It's not done cycling yet. Listen." A speaker came to life on the side of the unit and started a pre-recorded message in Sam Lanier's voice that they all recognized as having originated along a relay from the main dispatching offices. ##Mayday. Mayday. Mayday. Detector number two has been activated. Attempt radio communications to locate a fireman detected in a horizontal position and motionless for longer than 30 seconds. May day. May day. May day. ## Captain Stanley startled. "Wait a minute there Kelly. You mean to tell me that you linked that funky radio gadget straight to Headquarters?" "No, Cap. This is just a side band that Sam and I rigged on a spare transmitter. We're off the official air. He was just as enthused about this whole man locator device I learned about, as much as I was. In fact, he was the one who was all gung ho making this recording and airing it from work with his manager's full approval." Kelly said. "We're unofficially calling these things shriek boxes." "Shriek boxes?" Gage asked, chewing. "Yeah, well I knew nobody would warm to the idea of naming them Kelly boxes. Especially you, Gage." "You're right about that." he said without barbs. |
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Now the gang was mystified, when the transmitter kicked on a light on the belt unit that Roy wore, telling him that the message had been delivered to the tower. Cap picked up the broadcasting radio receiver and switched it off. "Just what kind of range do your belt things have to reach the transmitter?" he asked in a hushed voice. "I don't know, Cap. I haven't tested it yet in the field. Sam and I are still pulling the paperwork to get these testers approved by the chiefs to work at an actual scene." Chet said. Stoker was frank. "Cap, if the bugs are ironed out, do you realize how many firefighter lives this device of Kelly's could save?" "I'm trying not to get too excited." Hank admitted, peering at the device in his hand, marveling at the simplicity of it. Then he met Chet's eager eyes. "Can we do that live test again? I mean, is Sam ready for it?" "Cap, that was a pre recording on automatic frequency set to channel nine. The same nine on our handy talkies. We're clear to use that channel for another three days he said. That's why he left the loop open when he went on vacation. Yeah, we can do another live test, anytime. As long as we're under Sam's home repeater tower umbrella. That's the only one he's allowed access to for this home project of ours." "How does it work with water? I mean does it still work, getting wet? We are usually swimming in hose wash." Marco asked. "I haven't tested them yet that way either." Chet said. "I only got to the level liquid mercury switch to activate on that remote announcement setup when the bubble hits either of the terminal brackets inside. I used old transistor radio chips to serve as triggers." "Let's go find out, shall we?" Hank said, motioning for Chet to gather his tester units into a bundle. "Who wants to be the lost man to wear the belt unit? We can rig the reel line from Ivory for a light spray out in the backyard." Everybody's hands went up just as the call tones went off. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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********************************************************** From : patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> Sent : Thursday, September 2, 2004 10:33 AM Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] The Markers Move ##Stations, 18, 36, 99, 24,..51. Library fire. 12400 Washington. Cross street Milton. 12400 Washington Ave. Cross street Milton. Citizens report persons are trapped. Time out. 14: 27.## Johnny Gage quickly grabbed some of Henry's dog food and wrapped up his pill and tossed it to him on the way out. "Early's better than later, Roy. He's set." "Sounds like it's gonna be a hot one this time." remarked Chet. "They probably had no one else to spare for a fire call. Looks like we're going to be polishing Ivory up a storm come supper time." Not having any place better to put them, Kelly hung onto the four shriek boxes and radio transmitter device, bringing them with him as he ran for the garage. "Looks like." said Mike Stoker, throwing on his jacket and running over to the white engine. "I promise I won't get picky about the chrome." Cap snapped out an order. "Gage, DeSoto. Follow in the squad. With all that paper, this is going to be a real fast fire with the heaviest kind of smoke. We'll need your spare air bottles and lifelines. Go call us in, Roy." "Right, Cap." and he picked up the acknowledging mic. " L.A., Engine 51-A and Squad 51 are responding. KMG 365." Soon, they were charging down the boulevard to the east where already a plume of ink stained the sky, adding a widening tail to the city's smog belt. In route, Captain Stanley overheard another engine get to the scene. ##L.A. This is Station 24. We've multiple victims of smoke inhalation. Respond three additional ambulances and a sixth alarm. Fire containment's a priority!## called out that captain. ##Engine 51-A, what's your ETA on your aerial cannon?## "Stoker?" Hank asked. "Four minutes." the engineer replied over the roar of the engine and sirens. Hank gave the estimate over the air and stated that extra paramedic gear and oxygen was arriving with Squad 51. He heard Craig Brice's entire station called out for the sixth assignment. Then, they were there. |
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People were scattering like milling pepper from the stricken three story glass and steel structure and fire crews already on scene were hard pressed to get them clear of exploding glass. Cap pulled out his HT from his jacket pocket. "Engine 51-A and Squad 51, on scene." ##Station 51, Your time in : 14:36.## bookmarked L.A. Captain Stanley spied a chief's car and he pulled off his mirrored sunglasses. "Battalion Nine, where do you want us?" he asked over the HT. ##Hank. Cover the west side, main entrance. Most of the victims are being recovered through there. Have your engineer rig your four incher from Engine 99 for a heavy attack and I'll send another over to man your ladder's water cannon. Tell your men going in to use caution. The roof is unstable. We've had multiple explosions.## said Battalion. "10-4. Setting up on the western exposure." Cap nodded. Then he contacted Roy and Johnny over their vehicles' band. "Engine 51-A, Squad 51. Join the paramedic search teams with full air gear. Marco and Kelly will dog you on an anchor hose from Ivory. I want solid life belts on all four of ya, doubly knotted." Johnny, Roy, Chet and Lopez all copied Hank's barked order over their radios and rushed to carry it out. While they were gearing up in the shadow of the trucks, Kelly jogged over, passing out his novel shriek boxes. He clipped one onto the SCBA harnesses of each of them. "Don't rely on these at all. This is the water test fellas. Sorry it's gonna be such a b*tc*. If you drop to crawl around flames, tell Cap on channel nine and he'll reset your unit manually. I already got him monitoring the transmitter's band. The units are tagged one through four and will label themselves. I got three, Marco's four, Roy and Johnny's are one and two respectively. Got it?" Johnny grinned as he fitted into his face plate and tested the air flow out of his regulator. "We're gonna do this testing thing around the chief?" "What better way to sell something than to demo it up front, eh? Cap's all for it cause this fire's just begging a collapse chance greater than normal. He said that he'll take any insurance he can get. " Kelly quipped. "Think these things are gonna work?" Gage asked Roy on the side when Chet was busy replacing his helmet and out of earshot. "Who knows. Trial by fire, I guess." DeSoto smiled craftily. "If they don't work, it won't matter. We've more than enough fire crews milling about to bail us out. Hey, looks like Brice and Bellingham are on our quad's team. We're gonna be totalling six very soon." "That'll be a whole h*ll of a lot safer. Now I know why I love Battalion Nine's style of command. You take Brice. I got Bellingham." Johnny groaned. "I don't think I can stomach Craig picking apart Kelly's invention once he gets wind of it." "Protective of Chet's little gadget, aren't we?" Roy teased. "You're d*nmed straight I am. What happened at the station's simply incredible. I think the idea'll spread through the whole entire fire department like wildfire, Roy. And not only in California." "Gage, the raging optimist." "I'm not the only one. Look at Chet. He's grinning like a kid in the candy store." "About picking a flank man." Roy teased. "You're gonna take whom you're gonna get." "Ok. Anchor's in." Marco said, passing Kelly the uncharged four inch from Ivory's bed already laid out from Ivory where Stoker had mated her to the Y line from 99's. "Mike's set for us. We're enabled for full pressure on demand when we want it. I just verified with 99's." "Let's do it." Kelly said, getting ansy as he saw two more firemen leave the stricken building with multiple walking wounded for the ambulance crews. As yet, there were no criticals being found to warrant immediate paramedic attention. The team of six stayed on the job as a point to point search team. |
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Roy glanced back as the blocks and feet on Ivory were extended for the ladder's deployment. It was a soothing comfort to feel the bucket's looming presence hanging over all their shoulders. Soon, a high force arch of water stabbed into the fire's gut and split the worst of the roof burn into two weaker halves. Desoto heard the snarling blaze's growl falter into a belch of steam. ::One point for us. I'd rather it rain runoff on us in there instead of all that burning chaff from the ceiling tiles.:: He gripped his ceiling hook even tighter as they approached the flame pocked library. Then, they felt the perimeter firefighters shove them in the right direction towards the axe gutted main doors of the library. Roy sighed in relief when he saw that body sheets weren't dotting the sidewalk before lurid smoke swallowed them up. Craig Brice's glove gripped Roy's shoulder. "To the left. I see some doors that aren't chalked off yet." DeSoto nodded, giving Chet and Marco behind them a sharp signal, showing them where he and Brice were headed to next. To their right, Gage and Bellingham branched on the parallel row of doors to that side of the ascending fire engulfed staircase. Bookshelves and carpetting both, were alighted with hungry fire. Marco and Chet had their work cut out for them. They set their nozzle to the largest fan and snuffed out a path for both parties to navigate through. All the while, Kelly kept one eye on the uppermost story ceiling. So far, no smoke seeps or heat stains were warping through the grid of tin tiles above the darkened suspended chandeliers. "Man, what a shame.." Chet shouted to Marco. "This is such a classy Victorian building. Must be a hundred years old, at least." "It is. We passed the foundation plaque on the way in." Lopez replied. He snapped back into a close attention of the way ahead when a gust of smoke visually smothered all four paramedics' locations. Chet drove the hose fan over their heads to push the smoke up away from them. |
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When it cleared, he saw five doors were open and yawning fire as the two teams kicked them ajar one by one beneath the stairway and fresh hot pink chalk marks glowed in the firelight. Then he heard Johnny over channel nine. "Shriek Two is crawling, Cap. I think I see something!" he told Hank, monitoring the safety unit's transmitter channel. Johnny didn't move until he saw the yellow reset light flash on his shriek box. Then he dropped down to the floor and crept under a studying desk. There he found a man, unconscious, lying unmoving on his back. "I got someone!" and he pulled off his glove to feel for a neck pulse. "He's alive. Cap send in a team fifty feet forward. Tell em to hook a left ninety behind the grand stair case. I'm at the third door." ##Gotcha, pal.## said Captain Stanley. ##They'll be there in thirty seconds. Stay inside. Roof's fine out here. Another squad's here to take over your man's care.## Gage shared his air with his found victim while Bellingham shared his with Johnny as they monitored the man's struggling breaths. Then the reply team arrived to take him away and they helped lift him onto a large firefighter's shoulders for the trip out. Gage let go of his carotid reluctantly. Johnny heard Roy give out a crawl warning just as he had done, and he held his breath. But that was all that came over the radio. No other person had been located. "Ok, Bellingham." Gage gasped in his air mask. "Let's keep it going." Craig had finally noticed the changed channel on HT and the yellow light flashing on Roy's SCBA straps. "What's that?" he asked. "A lucky charm. I'll tell you about it later." DeSoto grinned. "Something one of the guys cooked up. Now let's get out of these study rooms before we cook." Chet suddenly whistled, off the live frequency, and it carried over the crackling fire. Immediately, Roy and Brice along with Gage and Bellingham jogged back to Kelly for news, who was still on the main fire fighting channel. Chet motioned for them to lean in close and he peeled off his mask. They parroted him for better hearing ability. "Second floor's been searched." Kelly coughed. "Two found and safely out. We've been ordered to go to the third. First floor's now clear thanks to us. You just searched the last final areas that were left. Ready to head up?" The four paramedics glanced up the carpet flaming staircase. "Yeah.." said Gage. "That doesn't look too bad. Go ahead and hit it." Chet gave a thumbs up and slid his mask back on. Kelly and Marco braced themselves and swathed the wide wooden rail staircase with cold water, snuffing the fire stripes they saw burning there until they were replaced with steaming curls. They all jumped when a bookshelf from the second story fell over the loft rail and down to their level. Chet hit that, too, to keep their reverse escape route open. Johnny and Roy pole checked each stair's surface as they climbed to test for weak spots. But there weren't any. They rose past the second floor. Then they wrapped up to the third. A set of ornate wooden doors greeted them at the top. Brice, in the front of the team, peeled off his glove and felt the door for heat. |
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An explosion blasted them backwards and set Craig's hand on fire as he was reaching for the still cool door handle. All six firemen went down. And just as quickly, they got up again to beat back the fire in the doors with an aggressive water stream. Gage and DeSoto and Bellingham dragged Craig into the raining hose water to drench him down thoroughly. After a delay, Brice began to yell when he realized that he'd been burned. Gage whipped off his mask and grabbed Brice's shoulders. "Craig. *cough* Let me see you. How's your face? Easy! How's your face?! Is it ok?" Brice nodded, moaning. Finally he relaxed his arm enough for Johnny to check his left hand. "Second degree on most, Craig. Third only on your thumb. No, quit fighting me. We've got to keep it under the water. We gotta get the heat out of it." Chet Kelly shouted. "How is he? Is everyone else ok?" Roy replied. "We're fine. It's Brice's hand. Flames caught it just when he went for the door handle." "Shut them back up again. Steam from the water I just sent in will knock out all the fire in the room. Nobody's still alive in there. It's too hot." Kelly said. Roy swept an eye down to all the 51 gang's shriek boxes. They were still showing steady red. ::Functioning, despite a bath. Second point for us.:: he thought. Marco Lopez was watching the ceiling above them grow molten."I'm seeing some sag. Let's hug a wall guys. Now.. We'll have to find another way out of here with him." The six firemen dashed with Brice supported between to the nearest wall, just as heavy pre-flash smoke descended to below their knees. "It's gonna go!" Gage shouted, looking up towards the roof. "Yeah, but which part?" DeSoto asked, gasping. "I can't see anything." |
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Chet Kelly gripped all of their shoulders. "I've got an idea. Gimme your shriek boxes." "What are you doing?" Johnny said. "Hear me out, Johnny. I'm gonna use em as markers. There are four pillars in the room, one in each quadrant of a square around the room, remember? I'm gonna put a shriek on each pillar and then we'll wait until it's over right here, where we're safer. The ones that finally holler after things are done will be where the ceiling came down. Cap can tell us which ones went off! Then we'll be able to get out through the spot that's still showing shriek quiet. We won't need to see where we're going." "*Cough* I just hope to G*d you don't get them mixed up, Chet. Or we're bacon. One. Two. Three. Four. North. South. East. West." Gage suggested. "I'm way ahead of you, man." Chet said, crawling away from the others on his life line with the four shriek boxes in his hands. Roy radioed to the outside on channel nine. "Cap. We're gonna sit through a flash. Looks like the ceiling's gonna cave centrally." ##Get out of there!## "We can't. Not yet. Brice's injured and we'll be too slow to reach the entry doors. We're along an exterior wall that's safe enough and we've got a plan, now listen close..." Kelly gasped, taking a breath of air out of his loose dangling mask. A low growling rumble made the ceiling fire ripple and the monster backflash finally came. All five firemen fell onto Chet's rope as a furnace hot belch of fire rolled low over their backs. Marco lifted it away from them with the upturned hose water fan as it passed by, yelling in defiance. Then it was over and the smoke thinned and lessened. "Chet!" Gage called, tugging on the rope snaking across the floor. |
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His grip on it was tugged back. Twice. Gage smiled. "He's all right out there." "Thank G*d. " Bellingham said, holding Brice's injured hand under water where it trembled, to cool it. Brice began to droop. "Hey. hey..hey.." Johnny shouted. "Stay up, Craig. Fight it." he told Brice. "You're gonna haveta help us get you out. It's bound to be a longish climbing obstacle course out there. I'll letcha black out once we're outside." "U- Understood.." Brice mumbled as his partner gripped his face to encourage him back to full consciousness. Kelly crawled back into their arms just as the ceiling fractured. All six firemen felt the air gust and change color around them when all that tonnage hit the carpeting. The smoke went from orange brown to gray black and the temperature dropped by dozens of degrees. Chet pulled up his legs to his knees as a main beam from the ceiling bounced on top of where he had just scrambled. "OH, that was too close.. Ahh. I hate this job! " A few breaths later, he delivered what they all wanted to hear. "It's done guys. Got em in place. Keep an ear out on that HT band on nine." Soon, Hank Stanley's voice called out shakily over the HT. ##Kelly, Units one, four and three are barking. Your butts still intact in there?## "10-4. All six souls. Gotcha. Moving out to the south. Thanks for the info, Cap. I owe you more than one. " ##Quite the reverse, pal.## said a very relieved Captain Stanley. Roy added onto Chet's transmission. "Craig's going shocky. We'd appreciate some med gear to use when we get out there. It's Brice's hand and he's suffering possible explosive impact effects." ##Consider it done.## ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto finished loading up Craig Brice into the ambulance and into Bellingham's transporting care. The groggy paramedic had checked clear of any internal injuries and was only on light O2 with just a precautionary I.V. His hand was badly burned but they all thought it would prove fully salvagable in a few months time. The 51 gang watched his Mayfair depart. Then Captain Stanley set a supporting glove on Chet Kelly's shoulder. "I'm sorry your pet project had to burn. But you sacrificed them for a very good cause. That was one of the smartest ideas I've ever heard come out of your lips, Chet." "Thanks, Cap. I appreciate it." "So do I. " said Gage as he and Roy cleaned up where Brice had been treated to get set for the next walking victim from the fire. "What shall I do with this?" Cap asked Chet, holding up the shriek box tower transmitter. "Give it here. I'll give it to Sam next time I see him. Maybe he can put it up on his fireplace mantle or something as a souvenir. I'm done playing the mad inventor. But it sure was nice while it lasted." he grinned, rubbing some soot off of his face. "There's always next time, Chet. Those shrieking things were a sound idea." Gage smiled. "Promise me that you won't give up on it entirely?" Chet studied the ground with disappointment showing bright on his weary and flushed face. "There's always someday." Roy reassured, laying along side Johnny's remark. "Yeah, someday I guess." Chet Kelly sighed, then he looked up at the smouldering gutted building thoughtfully and a sparkle returned to his gray blue eyes. "Maybe when I'm older. And grayer." "There's the ticket." Johnny quipped, turning to greet their next victim being helped to walk by the strong arms of Vince Howard, the policeman. "How does it feel to be a future millionaire, Chet?" "Don't know. I've got too much soot in my eyes to even think about it. Right now, the only thing I can picture is a hot shower, a soft bed, and maybe a rivetting chess match for later. Are you game? I'm officially challenging you." "Right after I win my match against Roy." said Johnny. "You're on." FIN Episode Thirteen- The White Engine -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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