|
|
|
|
|
***************************************************
From: patti keiper (pattik1@hotmail.com)
Sent:
Tue 3/19/13 1:24 PM
Subject: The Mound...
Sam Fujiyama winced at the powerful lightning erupting
around their black county
coroner's wagon. He began to grip the dashboard even tighter. "Uh, Quincy.
I'm
beginning to think checking up on that nurse for Dr. Brackett isn't such a great idea.
We
could get ourselves killed out there!"
"We're not out there yet." said Quincy, turning up the
wagon's wipers even higher
as he gamely struggled to peer through a windshield being pummeled by a
sheet of wind
and intense rain through the darkness. "It's plenty safe for us in here. Do you see
me
taking any unnecessary chances?" he snapped in frustration and partially from hunger.
"Your
whole persona's about taking unnecessary chances. And you like to drag me
along with it." Sam griped.
"Here.." he growled in passive irritation.
"What's this?" Quincy grunted, feeling a smack on
a leg as a fist and arm laid something in
between his knees onto the seat beneath the steering wheel.
"Food." Sam retorted, keeping a very watchful eye on the road barely seen in front of them.
"A
Mounds bar. I can hear your stomach growling louder than the thunder. I figure if I can
keep you
fed, maybe we'll both survive this little side trip of yours with the barest minimum
of griping from
the boss."
Quincy eyed up his assistant in utter mortification. "Sam.. Do you honestly see me
that
way?"
"Frequently." Sam huffed, not bothering to hide being uptight about the violence
of the
weather. "Your mouth's only slightly faster than your moralistic impulses most of the
time."
he said, snatching up the Mounds bar only long enough to peel off its clammy
paper and to shove half
of it into Quincy's mouth.
"I can't help it. I'm a hot blooded Jewish coroner!" the M.E. groused,
chewing the large
bite of candy muffling him quickly.
"God save my poor slant eyes. And my
rear." Sam mumbled.
"You're not Christian, you're Buddhist. So quit pretending. Sam, I'm shocked
at you. Your
famous kusala's drowning in just a bit of invading nivirana now, eh?"
Sam winced
again, this time in self admonishment.
"You did ask me to remind you whenever it crops up." Quincy
suddenly hit the brakes,
sending Sam into another full lock armed brace against the dash to keep
his face in one
piece. "Oo! That's our turn!"
"How can you tell?" Sam asked, rubbing a pulled
down sleeve to clear a steamy window.
"We passed the mall sign. It's yellow. Remember?" Quincy
scowled.
Sam's eyes widened. "Uh, but I'm not seeing any mall to go along with it. Are you?"
Quincy swallowed the last of the sweet. "Hmm. No, I'm not. That's odd." he said, slowing
down. "We
are in the right place." he said, peering around the parking lot. He flicked on the
high beams as
they crept ahead.
"The vet's office should be right in front of us." said Sam. "The hardware store's
right next
to it, isn't it?" Sam asked over the roar of the rain.
|
|
|
|
"Yeah. ACE. See the awning? But where's the vet's store front to the left of it?"
The extra head
lamps' light suddenly illuminated some nastiness; the thick slurry of a
recently expended mudslide.
"Whoa.." Sam grunted as Quincy hit the brakes to avoid driving into it. "That's mud!"
"A
whole lot of it. I think we've just found our answer about the mall, Sam. It's been buried.
Come
on!" the M.E. said, flinging the station wagon's door open so he could get out . Quincy
yanked up
the hood of his rain slicker with one hand as he grabbed a flashlight from a side
pocket with the
other.
Sam quickly joined him, also decked head to toe in rubber. "Wait a minute, Quincy. We can't
do anything about this. This is fire department or U.S.A.R. territory."
"The h*ll we can't!
Don't worry, Sam. We'll play it safe. But I've got to find out if anybody's still
alive under all
of that." Quincy urged.
They were only seconds into beginning to mill about in front of the new
hill of mud draped over
the shopping mall when three new flashlight beams appeared out of nowhere
through the
driving night storm surrounding the coroner and his assistant.
"Halt!" came
Vince's booming voice. "This whole area's an emergency disaster zone site. You
civilians clear out
of here, pronto!" he ordered in a command tone, thinking Quincy and Sam
were a pair of early looters.
"Not civilian, officer." shouted Quincy as he saw the wink of Vince's badge in his light beam.
He
raised his wallet, showing off his own shiny coroner's shield and then he aimed the flashlight
toward
the wording stenciled on the side of their black wagon. "L.A. County Coroner's Office.
We're not
robbing the place. We're here checking up on a possible missing nurse that a Dr.
Kel Brackett at
Rampart Hospital told us about. Her name's Dixie McCall. I'm Dr. Quincy and
this is Sam Fujiyama,
my lab assistant."
Les Taylor and Dave Gordon from the Animal Shelter took over the anxious search
for a way
into the vet's clinic. Les toggled his plastic wrapped radio once again. "Unit 60 to Base..
Doc,
do you hear us?" he shouted. Their channel to the vet remained silent. "D*mn it!" he cursed.
"They're still not answering."
"Try again." said Gordon, the burly African American. "We're closer
where the roof antennae
should be."
Vince heard this only peripherally as he addressed Quincy
and Sam. "Vince Howard. And
these two work for the animal shelter, Les Taylor and Dave Gordon. Sorry,
Mister. But you're
going to have to leave. We're far from safe conditions here and legally, it's
still too early for
you to be on site before the scene's been fully secured by rescue services."
Quincy's ire rose swiftly. "Do you see any fire engines or ambulances coming, sir? The five of
us
are the first in! And probably the only ones available to come for hours yet. If there's any
rescuing
to be done by any kind of coordinated team, I'm afraid we're it. So, respectfully,
where do we really
stand here?!"
A tense stand off charged with worry, challenge and anxiety filled long seconds,
broken
only by the frequent thunder booming over their heads.
Finally, Vince nodded his helmeted
head. "Okay, you can help us scout around. But you
take orders from me."
"Understood, Officer.
You're in charge." Quincy grinned through the rain coating his
hooded face. "That much is clear."
Vince eyed up his two frantic companions as they started a running beeline for the
mud pile. "Not
that way! There's not gonna be a hole anywhere near that. We'll try
through a wall of the Hardware
store. There's plenty of tools we can use in there."
They all clustered before the store's shuttered
door. Vince drew out his gun and flipped it
around so the butt of its handle was facing out towards
the glass in his gloved hand.
Sam blinked. "You're breaking in?"
Howard smiled. "Sure.
Executive powers. This is a rescue operation as of this moment.
The owner's insurance will cover this.
One more broken window won't matter much with
parts of the mall already demolished by the slide."
He carefully tapped a place out near the dead bolt inside and smashed a hole large
enough so he
could reach in and open the door.
They rushed inside after not smelling any signs of natural
gas indicator.
Vince pointed. "Try the phone to reach your friends. If it's ground wired, it may still
be in service internally even though the outside phone lines are down to the rest of
the city. I'll
look for an adjoining service door that may connect up with the vet hospital."
"Good idea." said
fair haired Les. "Dave, can you go with them? This will only take
a sec." he said, picking up the
counter phone's receiver by the cash register.
He began to dial out. "Let's hope this works. I hate
not knowing anything like this." he
growled.
"Join the party." Quincy mumbled, snatching up
more flashlights, tarps and hand tools
that would prove useful to them.
"Everybody on the double,
I think I found an access!" shouted Vince.
|
|
|
|
"Is it a door?" Gordon asked as they all crowded around Howard in the darkness.
Their flashlights
eerily illuminated the sagging mud heavy ceiling tiles above them and a
neat row of dripping water
streams coming from the earth burying the mall.
"No. It could be a return air ventilation grill.
I'm feeling blowing air and smelling animals
through here."
"The power's still on in the basement?"
Dave wondered.
"It's probably just the emergency generator. Places this big usually have backup
systems
that run independently. Even so, watch for fallen electrical wires and unplug anything
plugged
into the wall near your feet. Everything's wet." Vince cautioned. "I can't tell
if somebody's pulled
the master switch to cut off the mall's main power supply yet."
"Can't we do that to make things
a little safer?" asked Sam.
"I don't know the best way into the basement from here. And besides,
that would only
waste time. The mud's probably already taken out the electricity on its own most likely."
Howard guessed.
"Let's hope you're right." Quincy said, handing Vince and Dave two crow
bars to
work against the air vent grill. "Or I might find myself in official business here."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Boy am I glad I we ate so much food last night." remarked Marco as he and
the others sped in
Johnny's rover for the city of Rialto and Five Points Plaza
Shopping Center. "We're gonna need it."
It was crowded in the rover with Roy, Brice, Sharon, Johnny, Stoker and Lopez.
But nobody was
complaining. Their minds were on the mud slide Chet had told
them about over the phone from the hospital.
"Do you think they're still alive?" Sharon asked, worried about Dixie, Boot, and
the staff at
the animal shelter.
"Mud's heavy." replied Roy. "Once it's got you, breathing gets impossible
real quick.
Not so much from drowning but from suffocation. But they've have points in their
favor."
he told her honestly as a firefighter. "They were inside a strong building when it
happened on level
ground. What mud there is, probably isn't very deep and it's getting
thinner by the minute from all
this rain."
Gage agreed as he gripped his steering wheel even tighter as they travelled the freeway
quickly. "I'm definitely in the they-were-protected-okay camp, Sharon. That mall's got
mostly steel
girders in its makeup. We used to do rappelling exercises in its rotunda
for rescue operations demos
for the public. At best, they're buried from leaving
just from the outside, trapped inside a room
somewhere with the air getting a little
stuffy. Nothing they can't survive if there isn't a gas l--"
He bit his tongue at the last
of his comment.
Walters gasped but remained quietly sitting
at what could be reality for Dixie and
the others.
Stoker provided moral support. "We grabbed
a few diving tanks from my boat.
We can release air into any space for over an hour each if we have
to. And I
can't see the vet's not having oxygen tanks in its surgical areas. We'll cope."
Brice
shifted from his dozing spot underneath a pile of blankets. "What's our
E.T.A?"
"About half
an hour. If it were daylight." grumbled Gage. "In this storm? I'd say
probably a good hour ten minutes
away, barring obstacles."
The group of six fell silent as they mulled over their worried thoughts
privately
as the minutes ticked by.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
This episode is still being written before a live audience. Please join the writer's list to view
the latest scenes weeks ahead of those appearing in this preview vault.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Click the Mayfair to
go to Page Ten
|
|
|
|
