










As Cap approached the engine, Alex's mother shot to her feet, tearing out of the grasp of the fireman
sitting with her, monitoring her D tank's O2 delivery. He started after her but Hank waved him still
when she rushed over into Cap's arms for reassurance. "Did you find my baby? Is she all right?"
she sobbed. "Please tell me.."
Hank supported her and grasped her firmly by the shoulders.
"She's with my men and we're going over to her right now.." He hefted up the woman's oxygen tubing
and the apparatus from 36's man and he lifted it under an arm. "This way.. but first, we're switching
you to a mask so this smoke won't bother you so much." He pulled down the mother's cannula around
her neck and he detached it. Stanley got her into a nonrebreather mask. "Doing this cause the air's
a bit dirty over there." He ripped away the cannula's female end off the regulator port and connected
up her new mask's line. "Ok. I've got it. Ready?"
The woman fiddled with the oxygen, getting
used to it. "What about you? There's only one mask here."
"You're forgetting this.." Hank said
with a smile, lifting his air mask dangling on its connection from his air bottle. "I've got one
right here." And he moved his helmet long enough to put it on. "Ok, I'm set. Let's go." he said
through its face piece, and he led the woman over to where he could just barely make out the squad's
outline in the smoke. He led her to where they were going well away from any swirling ember clouds
to keep her flowing oxygen from living up to its extreme fire risk tendency.
He was more than
ready for the woman to try and break out of his grip when they got within eye contact of Kelly's
scene.
"Alex!!" her mother shouted, almost darting forward.
Cap hung onto her. "Hold it..
It's ok. It's ok..Easy there." he encouraged in a stream. "Alex's just out like that because
some lightning landed near her."
"Lightning?!"
Cap fought with keeping his grip on her
again firmly.."My men are taking good care of her.."
"Ohmyg*d. Isn't that fatal? Is she all
right? Alex! Can you hear me honey? What are you doing? She needs to be in a hospital!"
"Easy,
easy.. Maam?.. Just listen to me..all right? Alex IS getting treated ..RIGHT NOW ..and there's a doctor
on the other end of that phone line you see my paramedic holding. It's like already being in an
emergency room. There's nothing they can't do now, that's normally done by a doctor, concerning
any definitive care your daughter might need. Think of my men as extensions of that same ER, who
just happen to be already HERE."
Captain Stanley felt the woman in his grasp stop trembling
and she quieted into a levelheadedness immediately as his words of reason finally sank in. Roy,
next to them, saw that he wasn't needed to help Cap out with her and he crouched down next to his
partner to learn about the little girl's status from him.
Hank let the woman sink down by
Chet where he was crouched inside his own air mask, keeping the positive pressured one over the
little girl's face. Kelly was feeling happy with her respiration status so he said. "Here, mama.
Wanna help? Just keep this O2 over her face like I'm doing.." and he guided her hands to the proper
places on mask and jaw smoothly. "That's right....Set your hands,...just....like..that."
Alex's
mother began to burble. "But I don't kn--"
"You're doing fine, maam. Just watch me. Keep holding
this tight over her nose and mouth to keep all this smoke away from your daughter. Johnny will
show you how to punch a button on this valve here if she needs a little more help later on, but
only when he tells you too, all right? She's getting enough passively for right now by it just sitting
here like this. Got it ok?"
"Uh, y- yeah.." she muffled through her O2 mask.
|

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"Good. What you're doing is absolutely perfect." Chet said tightening the straps on his own mask
to cut down the number of times he was coughing from the building smoke. Then he dashed away to get
a stokes for the little girl's rush evac. Alex's mother immediately calmed down, as Cap knew
she would. Chet usually never missed on guessing what was up whenever Cap led a parent close
to the paramedic's work space. Kelly had a gift for always inventing physical things for them to
do that didn't get in the way of a victim's patient care.
Johnny delivered his next data set
to Dr. Brackett on the phone, shouting so he could be heard through his covering air supply faceplate.
"Rampart. She's responding on 15 liters of 02. She's got perforated eardrums and positively ID'd
dendritic burns on the upper aspect of her left shoulder. I am getting that pulse rate I gave
ya only apically due to vasospasms."
He watched Roy bundle a plastic shock wrap around Alex
and tape her arm onto an IV board.
##10-4, 51. Those meds I ordered should calm her down parasympathetically
in a few more minutes. Continue the IV and strap her in on a backboard with a cervical collar.
That active resuscitation's the best thing for her now, until you get her in here. Monitor her
vital signs carefully and check her over again for any sign of fractures. She may have incurred some
due to the force of the strike she took, even though it's clear to me through your findings, that
it wasn't a direct hit.##
"10-4, Rampart."
##And 51, I want you to send me a strip so I
can see how her cardiac functi---##
"Uh, doc. We can't right now. We're.." and Johnny lowered
his voice so the mother didn't overhear him. "..we're in danger of getting pinned down by a brush
fire. We gotta evac her out first."
##By chopper, Johnny?##
Cap got Johnny's attention
about his next plan of action by nonverbally pointing to the squad.
"Uh, negative doc. Our
chopper's just a water tanker."
##10-4 on that. Uh, what's your ambulance's ETA?##
"We
don't h--"
##...have one for the same reason.##Brackett sighed in frustration.. ##I see.. Radio
in as soon as possible on any LOC alteration en route when you HAVE a route or any other detrimental
change in her vitals signs. Rampart base, signing out.##
|

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"Squad 51." Gage replied by narrowing his eyes in concentration and he flung down the phone and
sealed it up into its box swiftly along with the medical gear he didn't need right away. These
he handed off to Cap to stow back into the squad that Marco was now backing up towards them.
The little girl's mother looked up. "What's happening? Why is that fireman pulling up that fire truck
near us?"
Cap spoke with a big smile through his maskplate. "That rescue squad's gonna be yours
and Alex's ticket outta here. See that stokes, er.. metal bed that Roy is getting set up? Well
we're going to give your daughter a lift on top of there while you ride along with them in that
cab, to Rampart Hospital."
"Alex is going to ride on the roof?"
Kelly chuckled. "Yes,
maam, with either Johnny or Roy sitting up there with her. You see, those bars will keep the stokes
from sliding around once we get her loaded up. Here, take my radio and you can talk to the paramedic
once we're ready. Know how to use a walkie talkie?"
"Y-Yes, I do.."
"Here you go.."
Kelly said acting calm as a camel. Inside his boots, though, his toes were curling tighter than
his hair.
Johnny's face erupted into a broad smile. ::I could just kiss Chet. That was
ingenius! She'll keep calm and cool the whole way now.:: "Ok.. " Gage said brightly, keeping a
hidden hand on Alex's chest under her yellow blanket so he could feel her continued breathing
and heartbeat without pause. "Roy my partner here's all done getting her into this collar of hers
and onto the board. Ready to lift Roy?"
"Yeah.."
"Ok, Alley Oop." and Gage and Kelly
and Cap and Roy lifted the small pediatric backboard and the unconscious child and nestled her
into the stokes. Again they picked up Alex as a team with that. Two of 36's firemen followed with
the gear boxes and 51's defibrillator. Soon, Alex was safely on board the squad's roof deck. Gage
climbed on board and sat with the biophone, butt perched on a yellow air store bottle. He hefted
his HT to show the girl's mother that he had his for anything she wanted to say to him in route.
Then Cap gave her a spare helmet Marco got from the engine for her to wear and they piled on board.
"Kelly, go with Roy and his passenger, all right pal?"
"Right, Cap." Chet answered. He knew
he was going along in case the girl soured into V-Fib due to the jostling she was going to have
to take while in transport. ::At least the squad's going to be a lot less bumpier than the engine
would have been for this.:: Kelly sighed mentally.
The men, calmly loading the mom and girl, made
it a point not to look up the road where the fire was eating the pavement into ruin inch by rapid
inch, nearer and nearer, ahead of them.
::Where's our water drop?:: Cap thought. He refrained
from asking L.A. for an ETA on it because Alex's mother now had an HT. He contented himself with rounding
up their remaining trailing hose for their rapid getaway attempt and affirming Steve Carter's confirmation
that he also, was getting his men and engine out of there in a strategic retreat.
Cap cut away
the lifeline Chet had used, still tied to the engine's bumper, and left it lying in the dust on the
pavement. Then he was the last man on an engine.
Truck 36 hit its airhorn to inform him that
they, too were ready to roll.
Hank eyed the wall of fire blocking their escape route and wondered
if they really could make it by charging through when Steve came on the line. ##Engine 36 to Engine
51. I've got an idea. I've got my engineer aloft in our water cannon. He's going to provide a water
curtain for your rescue squad. Have it roll between, with us two situated at its front and back.
My man will keep a nozzle fog on your victim to protect her and your man while we're moving through
the firezone.##
Cap thumbed his radio mike derisively. "Let's do it.. We can't wait. Are
you set?"
##That's affirmative.. Just give the word and warn your medic about what we're up
to.##
"10-4.." Hank said, using his mirror to watch the bucket on Engine 36's back rise just
enough to clear its own cab like a shovel on a snorkle. ::Oh, boy. Gage is going to kill me for
this.:: He picked up his HT. "Engine 51 to Squad 51.." he hailed.
|

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##Go ahead, Engine 51.##
"Looks like it's going to rain in thirty seconds from the looks of
it. Make your victim waterproof. We're breaking out!" Hank yelled.
Gage didn't even hit his
call back, "What?!" he said immediately getting it and glancing over his shoulder to the looming
water bucket now set and locked overhead from engine thirty six. It was hanging only about eight
feet above him. He got a salute from the man on board, signing a non verbal countdown from seven..
::...when his hose's gonna fire. Who thought of that?.. It's absolutely brilliant! And here I was
afraid that we were gonna haveta cook a little:: Johnny kept his grip on the little girl's body and
wrapped her up around the mask with her sheet. Then he hastily created an umbrella with a row
of crow bars, axes and jimmies with a spare tarp over Alex's face and himself. Then he gave the
bucket man a thumbs up.
Hose water began to rain down on them, adjusting, until it was just
a dense coning mist and then Johnny felt a lurch as Roy carefully matched Engine 51's speed and course
as they crept down the road towards the raging inferno whose flames were now as high as the tops
of wheel wells.
Roy gripped his steering wheel, peering around his moving windshield wipers
inside the driving artificial rain, as Stoker paused the Ward right at the very edge of the burning
road, waiting for Cap's go ahead. He and Chet gave Alex's mother smiles of encouragement around
the fear they were really feeling.
The woman just blinked and talked on the radio. "H-Hello..
Johnny? How's Alex?"
Gage heard the mother from under his improvised umbrella and he lifted
his plastic wrapped HT to his lips. "Not a drop on her, maam. The weather's fine." he quipped, trying
to keep his sense of humor. In the dark under the tarp, his eyes were on Alex's lit up EKG screen
he had going and his stethoscope was in his ears as he monitored her inspiration effectiveness
by sound. He slipped in a nasal airway for extra control as he spoke. "We're holed up solid and snug.
Don't you worry." ::I'm trying not to.:: a little voice whispered unbidden in his head as he repositioned
the demand valve back over her face to keep out the smoke that was still getting in. "Alex and
I are ready to rock."
Kelly saw mama's eyes fill, in touched gratefulness, at Gage's brave
attempt at humor about their situation.
Ahead of them, in the cab, Cap bit his lip and looked
at Marco and Stoker. He lamely attempted the same gallows humor as Gage. "What do ya say? Think Goodyear
tires can stand the temperature of molten asphalt and fresh fire? We all got em on.."
Stoker's
frowning doubt didn't warm his heart one bit. And the fire before them was growing taller.
Cap
and everyone in all three vehicles, except Gage, looked up into the spiralling columns of smoke for
any sign of Chopper Nine and its precious roadsaving load.
Seconds dragged by as they idled,
revving up their nerves and engines for what was being forced upon them.
Kelly broke the strained
pause building in the squad. "Say," he said turning to the girl's mother. "Did I tell you yet
how well transporting folks on truck roofs really works? Well there was this one time where Johnny
got himself bit by a rattler...and..I just happen to be with him..And we didn't even HAVE a squad.."
Roy rolled his eyes at the blooming tale.
Sometime in eternity, Cap lifted his microphone
and he said..... ------------------------------------------
|

 |
 |

************************************** Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 19:20:15 +0100 (BST) From: "Katherine
Bird" <kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk> Subject: Fire and Water..
Acknowledgments to Donald Lee,
Retired LACoFD Captain about Engine trivia on 51's truck abilities via a snail mail sent flyer and
for sending a replica of Johnny and Roy's paramedic patch to the theater hosts to give all of us
further encouragement to keep on writing in the spirit of Emergency. :) ----------------------------------------------------------
......"Engine 51, to Engine 36 and Squad 51... Hold your position.. " Cap said, yelling through
his air bottle mask. He ignored the heavy weight of his loose air bottle rattling on the metal
grate of the floor of the Ward beneath where he sat from the rough idling of the engine due to the
thinning air surrounding them. "We're going to give the drop three more minutes to happen."
Stoker
did what he could to keep the Ward running despite the lean combustion conditions growing under her
hood from the proximity of the low fire surrounding them. His bottle was firmly on a hook in the
wall of the cab, leaving his feet and hands free to coax the pumper's clutch away from killing the
motor and his facemask was hiding his emotions from view as he gripped the large steering wheel
in front of him tightly, waiting for the word "go..".
##S- Squad 51, 10-4.## came Roy's nervous
voice.
##Affirmative..## came a stronger, more experienced reply from Engine 36 behind Cap's.
Carter immediately added more to soothe all listening ears, including L.A.'s Sam Lanier, who was
now stuck in the waiting-for-resolution silence mode. ::He's undoubtedly chewing on a few pencil
erasers right about now over his inability to direct better air cover to us before we fry.::
Carter realized. He hid his private thoughts with a cheeriness he did not feel. ##No problems here,
Hank. My bottled man aloft in the bucket's fine and his nozzle line's fog is still doing its
job over your paramedic and victim. Looks like things are still plenty cool enough for them out there##
Mike Stoker grumbled. "We've got an eighth of a mile of hose, a thousand gpm pump with a five
hundred gallon tank full of water, just sitting here." he said in frustration, "And we can use none
of it..?" It wasn't a stab on Cap's decision to try to run and save their rears at all. Hank knew
it for what it was. An outburst given inside feelings of utter helplessness, vented in anger.
He didn't even glance over at Mike, keeping his eyes on the sky.
"You got that right. We're
stuck staying mobile, Mike." Marco shrugged nervously. "Can't be mobile if we've hoses strung out
behind us. Only the snorkel can move and use water that way with her bucket.." Lopez said trying
to sound calm. Stoker didn't have the heart to tell Marco that he knew that fact better than anyone.
Marco tried some levity and he spoke over the tandem HT. "Say gang, we could always roll down all
our windows and try to spit on the fire from here.."
Hank tried to grin, but felt numbness
twist on his face instead making him lift his radio. "A minute forty more seconds.... Stand by,
gang.. Keep watching the sky..." he said through his handy talkie.
--------------
Roy
jolted in his seat when a burning tumble weed impacted his closed driver's window. He saw the bucket
stream immediately move to drown it out in his side mirror. He took a deep breath through his mask
and said, "Chet, the fire's getting too close. Better turn off that O2 on her now. The oxygen's
building up too high in the cab for safety. Go to sharing your air. If you run low, we'll use mine
between the three of us."
"Right.." Chet said. He pulled off his helmet and calmly began to
share his mask with his passenger, holding his breath whenever she took any of hers off it, before
taking it back for himself to use.
"But what about my daughter and your *cough* partner?
She's still got pure 02 on!" Alex's mother gasped.
Roy smiled reassuringly at her. "He'll
discontinue that for manual air. Probably right about now. They'll manage just fine, maam." he
saw the mom's skin begin to pale in fear. "Hold that mask completely against your face when you breathe
in, all right? Then this heavy smoke won't irritate you at all." Kelly and Roy both saw
her nod in frightened obedience.
---------------
Up on top, Johnny began to hear the angry
crackling of open flames reaching the road near the squad. "Whoa.. That's getting a little too
close for comfort.." he mumbled. He quickly shut off the oxygen feed that was leading to Alex's resuscitator
and threw its face valve aside. Gage pulled off his helmet and unstrapped his air mask from his
face. He sucked in a good lungful from it. He paused only long enough to seal the girl's mouth up
with a hand before offering his breath of clear air to her through her nose carefully, timing
what he gave her to when she attempted an inhalation. He kept up the pattern, giving her air taken
from his mask through his mouth, keeping both his eyes screwed protectively shut against the
acrid smoke that was now doing its best to make them water fiercely. Even the unconscious girl's
cheeks were wet with tears.
In Johnny's lap, the wrapped HT crackled in crisp warning. ##Gage..?##
asked Hank..
Johnny looked up from where he was curled around Alex's head and he lifted his
HT to his face, shouting from underneath the heavy tarp that was still getting a welcome pounding
of water from 36's elevated bucket line. "I know. I know. The fire's near. I've already shut
my O2 down! We're still fine..I've figured out a way to keep the smoke from her." then he asked another
question changing tact. "How are you doing down there, Mama?" he said, giving Alex yet another
following breath of air just as her chest rose with one of its own. "Alex is just napping up here."
he said, keeping his eyelids shut to spare himself eye irritation. He used a finger to keep tabs
on her carotid while he continued being a clean air source for her. On a sudden idea, Johnny taped
the girl's mouth shut with an IV strip to free his other hand to monitor her chest movements. ::I
can always tear this off if she gets sick on me.::
## I'm f-fine, Mr. Gage. You guys work
like this often?## the mother quipped, trying for humor. Johnny could hear Chet cue-ing her to
take another pull from his mask.
"All the time. No sweat. Er,...figuratively speaking." Gage
grinned into his radio, wiping the sweat dripping down his face with a sleeve from the fire zone's
heat. He gave Alex another smoke free breath through her nose slowly to keep her from getting
any of his air into her stomach.
##Mr. Chet just told me about the wild ride you took a few summers
ago.##
"Oh, you mean when I got snake bit? Yeah, believe me, I got deja vu visiting me something
fierce right about now. But listen, only the snake's got bad memories of that day , I assure you.
We ARE going to get outta here. It's only a matter of when that will be. No big deal." he chuckled.
Alex twitched, making Johnny open his eyes to squint through stinging smoke at the EKG monitor.
::Tachycardia. D*mn. She's getting shocky despite her IV.:: He turned up its flow to wide open.
Johnny began to breathe FOR her, as well as with her after that, at an increased rate. He went on
laying down a calming transmission despite his change of treatment. "Kinda comfortable up here.
Lotsa room.." he quipped. "And the view's.." he broke off, hearing a thrumming vibration ripple
the air and felt the same against the tarp lying across his shoulders. "...great! Cap! Heads up..
It's the chopper at last. I hear it!!"
|


Right then 36's bucket man thumbed through on the HT frequency. ##HT 36 to the engines and the squad.
The air crew's here, arching in at our ten o'clock. I can just see them above the smoke. They
are starting their dumping run.##came the fireman's shout, muffled thickly by radio technology and
his bottled air mask.
##10-4, bucket HT.## both Caps and Roy acknowledged.
The arriving
helicopter's rotor blades buzzed almost vengefully over the firestorm raging its edge over the road
in front of the three red fire vehicles. It swept down low over the engines with a brief greeting
waggle. ##51 and 36, This is Chopper Nine. Making the drop in ten, nine, eight,....##
"Go!.
Go! Stoker! Move it!" Cap shouted as he hit the cab's dashboard. "We gotta time it to get exactly
where that falls to spare our tires. Anything we get will only hold for a short bit. The cross
wind's too strong. More fire will move in instantly after the chopper lifts away!" Hank shouted to
his engineer driver.
Mike Stoker pushed the pedal to the metal and Engine 51 lurched forward,
spinning ash behind it.
Cap shouted into his radio. "Roy, go! We're in motion. Gage, hang on!"
Gage heard Cap's urgent holler and grabbed onto the squad's roof rail above him and a bottle bracket
as he continued to stay positioned over Alex's face to aid her breathing. "Here we go, Alex.
We're getting outta here." he coughed before leaning over and imparting to her another shared breath.
Time seemed to stand still for all of them.
-------------------
The brush fire writhed
like a furious beast under the sudden chemical onslaught released by the helicopter sweeping above
it. A rain of retardants and lake water bit deep into the block of flames on the road and completed
just before Engine 51, the Squad, and Engine 36 sped through the place that had been tricked chemically
into turning from raw plasma to just a hissing morass of earth stained ground steam.
Walls
of flame and rolling alighted tumble weeds shot around them, as Chopper Nine's backwash and dump shoved
the inferno away from the vehicles. Then flames, newly pushed by the high storm winds still roaring
above the valley, rallied, and suddenly, the three speeding trucks seemed trapped by the raw
heart of the wildfire's flames once again.
Their bid for the canyon's rim and safety was instantly
compromised when their surrounding smoke turned midnight black, forcing the fleeing fire companies
to slow in their escape. Mike Stoker suddenly couldn't see the road as a suffocating blanket
of ebony ash covered them in a thick pall as the wind stilled. He was forced to hit his brakes
and the engine's wheels began to bake on the superheated earth and shattered bones of the fire. ::No,
No.. Can't stop. The tires will melt down. But I can't go fast enough either..:: Mike warred with
himself silently. ::The smoke's blinding me.::
|

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 |

A blast of dust and sand filled his windscreen right at that moment. ##Engine 51, I am on your fender
as a guide. Follow our lifting wire.## Chopper Nine notified them.
Just ahead, Mike Stoker
could see a wedge cable and bright orange basket buoy dragging along the road right in front of
his bumper through the inky murk. It was tantilizingly close.
He glued his eyes to it and didn't
look away, trusting instinct and the helicopter's pilot to lead them out of the growing fire. -------------------
Engine 36 screeched to a halt when they lost sight of Squad 51's tail. The bucket man barely
hung on when his truck skidded to a halt in the ash and soot. He yelled down to his captain. ##You're
all right. Keep going towards twelve o'clock! You're fifty feet from them. Nowhere near colliding.
Hurry.. Gage's out from under my water.##
------------------
Ahead of engine 51, the
chopper buoy on the ground was eaten up by a wall of flame. Stoker gave out a cry of alarm and
warning as he flattened the gas to the boards. "Going in!"
Engine 51 was consumed by fire..
-----------------------------------------------
The incessant boom and rush of 36's watering
mist ceased.
Johnny Gage threw the tarp aside inch by analyzing inch as he lifted his masked
head cautiously to see why Engine 36 had fallen behind. They were gone. All he could see
were flames behind him.. and more black smoke. The sun was practically nonexistent overhead and
it dimmed more, ominously, throwing Johnny into a surrealistic world of night and glowing embers.
Johnny's mouth went dry when he looked over the squad's hood towards his station's engine. They
were charging, full reds on, through a fire wall taller than the engine. "Oh, d*mn..." he whispered
and he rewrapped the tarp back tight around himself and Alex, before he knotted into a ball of
protection, sealing off her nose with a grip, just before Roy too, drove high speed, into what felt
like pure unadulterated living h*ll.
|

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 |

Superheated air flooded around Johnny and he could hear some of his hair sizzling where a lock of
it stuck through a hole in the old tarp. He slapped out the fire started there with his free hand,
pressing his air mask as hard as he could over his nose and mouth to keep out the burning atmosphere.
He looked down. Alex's involuntary chest muscles rippled under his arm. She was fighting to breathe
around her blocked off air passages. ::Not yet. You're gonna fry your lungs big time if I let
go. And I will too if I take this mask off right now.::
John subconsciously started counting the
seconds Alex was going without air. That number had reached about fifty five when Gage felt the
resumption of 36's cannon hose water against them through their tarp. Johnny threw aside the smoking,
partially melted wrap and he let the rain of water drench him and Alex both in a desperate attempt
to cool off their skins and the scorching metal that was almost searingly hot to the touch, around
them. Johnny opened his eyes. They were in blessedly open air and daylight and the horrible unchecked
fire was now faltering behind them along the road, wind carried, away from their direction.
Gage coughed and choked, bending over Alex to reassess her status, using his body as an umbrella
to keep the pouring water from reaching Alex's ghostly white face as he let go of her nose to
let her breathe. Right then, the water cascading around them was shut off and the fireman, manning
it, shouted in triumph.
-----------------
"Look out!" Roy stopped the squad on a
dime when he realized that both the squad's tires had melted in front and that he was riding on
their bare rims. The force of his emergency stop threw all three of them into the windshield. "Sorry.
We've no tires left.."
"It's ok.." Alex's mother and Chet both gasped.
Chet, the girl's
mother, and Roy all exclaimed in puzzlement, when the dust cleared and they saw Chopper Nine circling
in the air just up ahead, but then they saw it hovering above the road. "Why are they landing?"
Kelly asked.
"I don't know.. Let's go find out." Roy said without looking at either one of
them, and his voice began rising in alarm.. "Ma'am wait here. Kelly I think you'd better come with
me.."
"Right.." Kelly said also, without taking his eyes off where the exiting pilot was just
starting to urgently point. The two of them slid out of their seats shedding air bottles and opened
the squad doors, getting out in confusion. As they watched, the chopper pilot finally gave up
on communicating something to them and he started instead, a sudden, frantic beelining run to
his left.
Roy finally saw Engine 51 in the thick underbrush slightly off the road. He saw
her cab was impacted right up against the hillside and that all of her tires were melted off and shredded.
The top row of the hose bed was still subtly smouldering.
"Ohmyg*d! Cap! Stoker!?! Marco?" Roy
lifted his radio to his lips as Chet and he bailed the squad's cab and together, they ran towards
the horrific sight. "Squad 51 to Engine 36. E51's off the road! Notify L.A and all our responding
units!"
He dropped the HT, pushing Kelly on ahead of him urgently. "Chet go check em out!
I'll be right there! I'm going back for Johnny and the girl.." he whispered.
Kelly ran towards
the engine like a shot with a door pry he had snatched from the squad's side compartment.
|


"Johnny!?" DeSoto cried out, hurtling himself up onto the back roof of the squad. "You all right?"
He saw Gage ventilating Alex on the demand valve to ease some blistering cyanosis. "We're ok.
She didn't take in any superheated air. But her cardiac rhythm's-"
"Johnny. Listen to me.."
The tone in Roy's voice shut Johnny up immediately. "Stoker crashed. I'm going over there! Stay with
her!" he shouted, leaping back down again.
"What?!" Gage dropped the demand valve and climbed
up on his knees to peer over the squad's chrome top bars and cab's roof. He immediately cursed himself
for his reaction and got right back on Alex, snatching up the ventilator again to resume her 02.
He snatched up his HT. "Cap! Stoker?! Marco? This is Squad 51. Respond!"
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