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************************************************** From: Patti or Jeff or Cassidy <theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com>
Date: Wed Jun 28, 2006 4:33 am Subject: One Tracked Mind..
At Rampart, the red light
went on over the glass enclosed base station next to Dixie McCall's desk. The head nurse set aside
her chart filing and made her way into the room, turning on the recording reels. "Unit calling in,
please repeat.." she said on reflex.
Nothing came over the air, just the sound of wind blowing.
"This is Rampart Base on the air. Go ahead with your transmission please.." she tried again.
Dixie frowned when she thought she heard a faint scuffling and some very quiet strangled gagging.
Startled, she automatically snatched up the red phone over the radio that gave her an instant
open tie with the county's fire department dispatch. "L.A. County, this is Miss McCall at Rampart
General Hospital. I've an incoming call from a paramedic unit that's just been initiated. I've a
confirmed open comm but no one's talking. Sounds like they've got some real trouble. Could you
run a trace?... Yes, I'll keep their radio frequency open. All right, I'll be standing by.." she
replied to L.A. "I'm turning our FD scanner on right now."
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Chet opened his eyes to the sound of cool hissing. He reached up muzzily and found a heavily flowing
oxygen mask parked cock-eyed over his chin. He remembered that moments ago, he had spat out something
hooked over his tongue.
Rolling over dizzily, he spotted an oropharyngeal tube lying in the
dirt next to him. ::That oral was mine? What the h*ll happened to me?:: he thought with a heavy confusion.
Groaning, he looked up from where he propped belly down on his elbows and spotted Roy and Johnny
lying in a heap on either side of him. Stoker was out, too, twisted haphazardly around his legs. "Guys?!
Can you hear me?!"
Kelly's knee plished against a used ambu bag assembly as he untangled himself
from his unconscious crewmates and got up onto his hands. Instinct made Chet pull his plastic oxygen
mask back over his nose and mouth, hastily pressing it down to gain more protection. ::They're
all skin flushed. And the white vapor hanging over us is new..:: his mind screamed at him. Sucking
in frightened gasps, Kelly looked quickly at his surroundings for a better solution to safeguard
himself from a suddenly gone-hostile breathing environment.
He found it.
Struggling, Chet
groped for the air bottle's mask lying near Mike's reddened hand and he put it on himself as fast
as he could. Dragging the tank near, he hurriedly felt the carotids and breathing attempts of all
three firemen lying near him.
Unlike the others, Gage wasn't even trying to cough through his
fast, very shallow respirations.
In pain from a tremendous headache, Kelly set the oxygen mask
that he had found being used on himself over Johnny's face and cranked up the flow to try and
boost the paramedic's far weaker vital signs.
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Satisfied that Mike, Roy and Johnny were stable for the moment, Chet got onto his feet in a hunt
for Marco and Cap and for more air bottles to fit into place for his downed coworkers.
Weakness
kept Chet from standing and he was forced to drag his air supply's tank weight behind his crawling
feet by its straps.
A little clarity allowed a gasping Kelly to hit the distress button on his
bottle's PASS device as he made his way towards the parked, light flashing Ward engine. Its piercing
audible wail comforted him as it told the others that he was coming.
As Kelly drew closer
to the road, he could hear L.A.'s hail, for his station's reply, repeat itself continuously. ::They
know. Oh, Thank G*d.:: he thought as he slowly dragged closer to the truck. ::But it won't hurt to
tell them to hurry their *sses a little faster.:: Chet thought. He reached a trembling glove into
his pocket and hit the emergency squelch tone on his handy talkie until it began sounding out triple
whistles over a live channel.
All radio chatter coming from the engine ceased as the main frequency
was instantly priority cleared by all units working around the county to await a further explanation
or reply. Kelly kept crawling with the HT tethered around a wrist as he spoke, his thumb pressing
down over the talk button. "Mayday... *gasp* L.A.,..Engine 51.. Mayday..." he gasped desperately.
"Environmental ex--exposure.. Unknown vap-- vapor.. From the mine..." he yelled through his face plate.
##Engine 51, how many?## returned L.A.
"Six..... Code..I." sighed Chet, dropping his head.
"All above ground.. *cough* by the eng--..." A spasm silenced him instantly.
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Kelly found he was no longer able to talk, gagging in agony at the fire in his lungs. :: Is this
methane on top of the CO? Somewhere, that perpetual coal fire's broken through to the surface in a
new place close by.::
##Engine 51. Do you read? Engine 51. Respond by HT distress toggle if you
can't speak. ## L.A. ordered. ##Hazmat and two alarms have been notified. Their ETA is at a maximum
of three minutes out.... Engine 51, do you read?##
Chet ignored the voice, his vision tunneling
tightly when he spotted Marco and Cap lying face down in the dirt beneath open cab and equipment doors.
Lopez already had an air bottle working for him to the point of half-conscious coughing, so Chet crawled
past him and got to Hank's limp body.
Flipping Cap over, Chet tilted Hank's head back adequately
while he sagged over him. A resting forehead on Stanley's chest confirmed a slow rise and fall of
continued air movement by feel to Chet without his ever having to open his eyes as fatigue began
rolling in waves over him from trying even a half upright crouch against the pull of gravity.
With a jerk, Kelly got away from the impending blackout by hastily flopping back onto his stomach.
Chet got Cap into a flowing air bottle mask as fast as he could manage after the hypoxia stars had
left his eyes. Then, with an effort, he finished what Hank had started by completing the long trip
back to the rescue squad with three new air bottles in tow for Stoker, DeSoto and Gage.
The
last of these were fitted to them successfully when Chet's gas sickened condition swept him once
more into unconsciousness.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Hazmat Incident Commander studied the mine company's landscape from a distance. He had made
sure that all of his crews were carefully upwind of Station 51's location.
"Have you spotted
them all lieutenant?" he asked his safety officer.
"Yes sir. It seems they had time to get into
their air bottles before blacking out." replied the fully hazmat suited firefighter. "But we can't
tell their statuses, those vapors are too dense."
"Easy son, we'll get to them just as soon
as we can. You know I'm not risking any more men down there until we know what the situation is fully.
Tell the Operations Officer to set up for Level Two Haz Mat. Showers and full respiratory suit
precautions. I'm not convinced the mechanical sniffers were accurate on those methane and carbon
monoxide readings. There may be another gas working down there that we haven't detected yet."
said the IC scoping his binoculars once more over all the vomit stains.
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"I'll get everyone started.." said the Safety Officer. "Whatever those fumes are, they weren't fast
acting enough to prevent those paramedics from reviving someone during the early minute intervals.
We spotted a bag valve mask lying next to them and a resuscitator supply fitted with a nonrebreather,
turned on, by a used oral airway."
"Maybe that was the fireman who eventually called out the
mayday. Have you found him yet?"
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"Yeah, he's the fourth casualty you're seeing lying by the paramedics with the HT around his arm.
His jacket says his name is Kelly."
"Keep having our people trying to contact him through his
talkie. He may still be responsive somewhat despite being unable to move." said the fireman in
charge. "Once I'm convinced things are safe enough through which to enter, we'll stokes them all out
to Decontamination."
Soon, the IC was joined by Battalion One and all factors were worked out
and decided upon in a course of action.
Six minutes after the Hazmat response arrived, suited
crews entered the Hot Zone to rescue and decontaminate Station 51's fallen firefighters.
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was several hours later in ICU at Rampart Hospital.
Station 51's crew had all been admitted
to the same open nursing station in six different cubicals of vacuum controlled isolation rooms arranged
in such a way where they could all see and hear each other.
Chet smiled a few seconds after
his eyes reopened around his oxygen mask. ::We're safe now, partially because of me. Gage is never
gonna live this down once he finds out what went on after I woke up out there.:: he thought in wonder.
He caught one young isolation suited nurse newly studying him from her place in front of the vital
signs monitors wired to all of them at the nurses desk. "Yes, folks. Chet Kelly probably has single
handedly saved the lives of his entire station crew today. And all in one shot, too." he mumbled
happily to himself. "Johnny Gage, you are gonna eat your heart out big time once you find that
that fact's the absolute truth."
His iso room door opened just then, and Chet soon found himself
face to face with a hazmat suited Dixie McCall and Doctor Brackett.
Chet opened up his mouth
and started speaking hoarsely...
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Click waving flag for a new music track.
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*************************************************** From: Patti or Jeff or Cassidy <theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com>
Date: Wed Jun 28, 2006 9:31 pm Subject: Full Circle------
"Doc,...h-how are they?" Kelly
whispered.
"They're all fine. Johnny was touch and go with a bit of acute respiratory distress
syndrome but that proved just temporary." replied Kel. "He only entered into crisis because his
blood carboxyhemoglobin levels were near forty percent. Anyone would pant a little with that kind
of PO2 shortage. The hazmat triage paramedic said your treating him probably made all the difference
in the world, Chet. You bought him more voluntary breathing time than he normally would have had
following that kind of carbon monoxide exposure."
"Then that's all it was that got us? Carbon
m-monoxide?" Chet blinked in confusion. He didn't even wince when Dixie drew out a followup arterial
blood gas from his arm.
"And methane. No special decontamination was needed in the end. Just
a lot of O2 and a little Amyl nitrite to get rid of the cyanide traces built up in your systems from
the fresh coal smoke blowing in from the road. That's what saved all of you from serious cases
of atelectasis. The medication was injected at the scene until your I.V.s could be established
to prevent bronchial cast formation caused by protein rich fluids potentially washing into your airways.
"Now with Gage, we had to blow off all of his CO a little more rapidly. He's just finished
a twenty three minute session in a hyperbaric chamber to speed up its half life decay inside of his
bloodstream. His PO2 levels are finally out of the eighties." Kel shared. "You yourself only have
fifteen minutes or so before you're cured of your carbon monoxide poisoning. It exists in the body
for only seventy five minutes or so on one hundred percent oxygen."
Chet looked at him skeptically,
still feeling the effects of smoke inhalation deep in his chest.
"It's true.." soothed Dixie.
"The worst is over for you and the rest of the gang. They're all resting. See?" she said, throwing
a hand about the ward.
"Then what are you two still doing inside of those funky space suits."
Chet asked. "What aren't you telling me?"
Brackett and Dixie exchanged looks of amusement. "We
found that Marco's infected with a particularly virulent pathogen." said Kel.
"What's he
got?" Chet asked with worry.
Dixie tried to hide her grin. "He's got the chicken pox. Only he
hasn't erupted out into the weepy lesion stage yet."
"He's got the chicken pox?!" Kelly frowned,
still not believing.
Brackett nodded. "Yep. Its antigen came out clear as a bell in his blood
work. We had to isolate each of you into separate self contained cubicles until we learned your exact
histories with the disease. You're the last one to awaken to tell us yours. Have you had em?"
"No. Can't say I've had the pleasure." he grumbled miserably. Chet sighed softly when he felt
Dixie place a comforting hand on the side of his cheek to ease the not so happy news and he closed
his eyes wearily.
"As I thought." Brackett said. "Well then, it looks like all six of you have
earned a protracted stay at Rampart until the pox runs past the highly infectious stage."
"You're
kidding. You mean nobody on my shift's had them before?" Chet said with surprise.
"Nope." said
Dixie. "Not even Roy with his two school aged kids."
"What about our folks at home? How are they
gonna cope?"
Kel met his eyes evenly. "Do you really want to subject your friends and family
to the chicken pox like this? It's the best part of summer right now. Not too cool. Not too hot.."
he tried reasonably.
Chet quieted down. Just a little. "Cap's gonna hate this. He's probably
already his own worst enemy for missing the escalated coal fire conditions under us."
"Not
his fault.." said Dixie. "I spoke with your Battalion Chief to get what kind of gases he thought you
fellas were dealing with in the triage area. Apparently, secondary fire crews found a very recent
surface soil failure above a very large, new, burning vein of coal. A hundred foot section of the
road upwind of your rescue site gave way just when you went down into the shaft and caused a silent
steam explosion, releasing years worth of trapped gases. No one could have foreseen that happening.
Not even your captain." said McCall with conviction.
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"So, in spite of wanting suddenly to be put in a zoo for my future spots, how am I doing right now?"
Kelly asked, sitting up a little higher in the bed.
"You're going to be perfectly fine. Your
chest roentgenograms were negative. Your kidney functions are showing normal. Your EKG shows
absolutely no signs of secondary smoke inhalation related cardiac ischemia. All we have left to
do is assist in displacing the elevated level of carbon monoxide from your blood's hemogoblin."
Kel said, raising both eyebrows thoughtfully.
"And how are you going to handle that?" Chet asked,
his leariness of hospitals and doctors showing almost as strongly as Hank Stanley's did.
"Me?
I don't personally have to do anything more.You're doing all the work fixing yourself just by breathing
in the humidified oxygen flowing through that face mask of yours." Brackett smiled. "Try and get
some sleep. It'll speed up your detoxification. I'll have Dixie go on rounds to tell the others that
you're finally back in the land of the living."
"Appreciate it, doc." Chet folded his hands
behind his head. "Oh, and Dixie?"
"Yeah?" asked McCall, turning at the door in her iso suit.
"Could you deliver a message to Marco Lopez for me?"
"Sure. What do you want me to tell him,
Chet?"
"Tell him to watch his back when this pox thing's finally over. Looks like the Phantom's
gonna be real busy paying him back for a week's time spent in the hospital.." Kelly gestured empathetically
with his non I.V.'ed arm.
Dixie just rolled her eyes before she left the room on Brackett's heels.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was
Day Two at Rampart in the Isolation Ward.
By then, Chet Kelly felt that he knew every irritating
mannerism his coworkers possessed, and then some, by the time lunch finally rolled around.
Captain Stanley, in the cubicle to his left, took his tray from the dietary aide and smiled sweetly
at her. "Thanks for the food, miss." And he cracked the lid open, trying not to make a face. "Smells
wonderful."
"Cap,." grumbled Marco, trying to take a nap in his sheets, with his back to the
others, said. "Don't you know it's wrong to tell a fib? You're lying now. I can tell."
Cap
huffed and slammed the aluminum lid back down over his plate of turkey and reconstituted mash potatoes.
"Oh, really? What if I meant it in spite of things?"
"Impossible, Cap. You're not the contradicting
type. You can get real mean, but you definitely never get deceitful. Ever." said Gage around his
oxygen cannula.
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"This coming from a man with two prongs shoved up his nose.." Chet gestured.
"Shut up already,
Chet." roared Johnny. "We've heard enough of your Freudian observations to last a lifetime."
"And
whose lives did I save last week?"
The rest of the gang fell silent.
"That's right. I saved
all your hides. Least you can do is allow me an ear or two whenever I got something to say for at
least a little while." Chet said with some sting.
Gage met Chet's gaze eye to eye. "Since when
have you got anything worthwhile to say to us anyway?" Johnny told him crankily.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"So that's how it happened.." said Roy, as he and his partner waited for the rescue call to finish
airing through the overhead speaker. "You offended Chet in his highest charitable benefactor mode
when we all were quarantined at Rampart last week. Johnny, I think remembering what you did then's
keeping Chet from speaking to you any today.."
"You think so?" Johnny asked, parking his helmet
back onto his head as Roy reactivated the squad's lights.
"Yeah, I probably know so." Roy returned,
equally firm.
"Well, good. I think I'm actually enjoying the peace and quiet for once." Johnny
said empathetically with anger.
"You sure could have fooled me. Just a minute ago you were really
fretting about what hidden shinanigans he might be up to." Roy exacerbated.
"Things change.
I change. Especially when Chet does." Johnny said with heat. "Now are we gonna roll on this call or
am I gonna have to get out and push the squad all the way there?" he said holding out the piece of
paper containing the address he had written down to his glaring partner.
"I'm going. I'm going.
We gotta wait a tad for the slower engine, remember? Now hush and let me drive this thing without
you doing it from the perverbial back seat." Roy fired right back.
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L.A. unexpectedly cancelled their response. ##L.A., Station 51. Return.##
In the Ward, Marco
grumbled. "Aw.. there's goes another chance to burn off the rest of my scabs with some real fire heat.
That's not fair at all."
"I got some calamine lotion with your name on it.." said Roy, holding
up the bottle out his driver window.
"You know I hate the smell of that stuff, Roy. Thanks
but no thanks. Epsom salts and another serious bath'll do me just fine."
"No baths while on
duty, Lopez. You'll lag behind changing back into your uniform because you'll be too wet to be speedy
enough." Cap told him with a firm jerk of his thumb.
The others chuckled as they peeled off
their jackets and helmets to return to the kitchen and the rec room to resume downtime activities.
Gage grinned. "You can always elicit Boot's help with your itching. He loves to lick people when
they don't want him to."
"You keep him away from me, Johnny. He must have pulled a dozen sneak
attacks on me last night as it was. I didn't get any sleeping done at all for keeping up my guard."
Lopez complained.
"Maybe a little sleep deprivation'll de-sensitize your skin a little more, Marco."
Cap grinned, offering up a bright side.
Gage and Roy laughed as Marco glared at them all while
trying not to scratch at his withering pox marks. Lopez grumpily snatched the topical's bottle
out of Roy's idle hand and he immediately peeled off his uniform shirt down to his white tank top
to dab some on liberally with the flat of several fingers using the squad's side mirror.
"Any words of wisdom from the wise on this subject matter?" Gage asked Kelly directly, with a smile.
"Why should I have anything better to offer him, Gage? I'm not the paramedic here." and he stormed
off, dragging Boot after him by the collar so he wouldn't leap up and lick off the medication Marco
was slathering onto his skin.
"Wow, what a grouch.." Johnny hissed to the rest of them in a subdued
voice.
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"Yeah, well at least Chet's talking to ya again." Stoker remarked.
"You call that talking? I
liked him better when he was staying mute." Johnny told him no nonsense.
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It was the middle of the night when the next response toned all of them out of a sound sleep.
************************************************** From: "Mark Panitz" <mrpanitz@yahoo.com> Date:
Wed Jun 28, 2006 9:41 pm Subject: Service Dog Rescue
The tones sang out. ##Squad 51, we've
got a 911 call with a dog barking. 3560 Riverside Drive. Cross street Hollywood Blvd. Enhanced 911
shows a person with a service dog at that address.## said L.A.
Roy and John got into the squad
and responded.
John said. "I wonder who called us?"
"Who? The person or the dog?" Roy replied.
"I'll bet the dog made that call.." John said.
"We'll soon find out." replied Roy as they
pulled away.
************************************************** From: Patti or Jeff or Cassidy
<theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com> Date: Thu Jun 29, 2006 8:35 am Subject: Man's Best Friend..
"You know, Roy? I don't think I like this new experimental phone system they're working
on. It may be great keeping an open line whenever someone's incapacitated and not able to talk..
But at the onset, there's not enough information given to any crew who's supposed to be getting there.
I mean, dog barking.. assistance dog. It could be anything going on at that house." Gage grumbled
while he and Roy tightened their helmets under their chins a little more. "Me? I'd rather know
what I got coming.. Be it a man down, child trapped, or a house fire..... ya know?"
Roy smiled.
"Everything the fire department does is for a good reason, Johnny. I've been with working for them
long enough to know that usually when Headquarters springs a new idea like this 911 thing, it's usually
revolutionary in nature and awkward only temporarily. That network's probably gonna save a lot
of lives."
"Just three little numbers.. What's to keep your kid from dialing those up whenever
he feels like it?" Johnny mused.
"The chief says there's an operator on the other end who'll call
right back to see if there's truly an emergency at the incoming call address that covers that."
"Still wastes valuable time if you ask me. A neighborhood watch gives better info on what's happening
with someone better than an electronic phone system. I mean, what difference does it make whether
or not we know a person's got a help dog with em or not? That only means they're physically handicapped
in some way. Either being blind, or deaf, or with challenged mobility.. That's something a paramedic
can learn getting face to face with a patient... ...in about two seconds.." Gage insisted.
"Try
not to fuss about it too much, Johnny. People like you are a little slow warming to anything new,
but once you've been convinced that an idea or new technology works, you settle down and decide that
you feel comfortable with it." DeSoto told him.
"With this idea though?...Not in a million years.
There's been too many bugs with the 911 Sifter. And what does enhanced mean anyway? That things
sound louder?" Gage's face was dubious.
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"No, it means that L.A. can track a phone's location on a map and discover where it's at when a caller
can't talk themselves. All a victim has to do is kick a phone off the hook and leave it there after
dialing out." Roy told him.
"You sure know a lot about this funky new system, don't ya?"
"Sure I do. I'm a paramedic trainer, remember? Gotta keep up with the latest for all those trainees
we get coming through.." Roy grinned cheekily. "I'd be happy to show you all the paperwork on it..."
he offered.
"No thanks. I'm a staunch supporter of the eyes and ears first theory. Just like
Cap. I don't wanna know about the 911 system, not until it's been ratified into our county's fire
department policies, and only when I've been officially ordered to learn about it." Gage told him
firmly.
"Suit yourself. It's always a good thing to keep current...Remember how surprised you
were when Cap dragged out that life net to catch us when that apartment building was threatening to
flash?" Roy asked him.
"Yeah. What about it?"
"You didn't even know it existed until
Cap had that other company drag it out to use for us. And that was OLD technology.." DeSoto shared.
"So? Do I look like I suffered for not knowing about it?" Gage snapped.
"Well, no. Not exactly.
But it's always a good thing to be prepared.." Roy told him.
"I'm not a boy scout.." Gage grumbled.
"Turn a right turn. Here."
Roy never lost his smile as he rounded a bend onto Riverside Drive.
Johnny's face completely washed into a hard line. "And there's yet another 911 bug biting us in
the *ss again right now, Roy. Get a load of that situation.." he said angrily.
A house was
engulfed in flames down the block and its address matched the one on their notes. And an assistance
dog was waiting for them, seated nervously in its harness on the lawn, torn between training to
stay until help arrived and running back into the house after his companion. All Johnny had to see
was its fidgety behavior to know that the house wasn't the slightest bit empty of human life.
Roy pulled up a hundred feet and upwind of the dwelling while Johnny got on the squad radio. "L.A.,
Squad 51. Respond two pumper companies to our address! We've a fully involved single story wooden
house structure on fire with a possible victim or victims inside. Their exact number is unknown."
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Click Gage and Roy treating you to go to Page Three
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