"Get me down there Casey!" Gabriela Dawson yelled as she looked over the cliff to where their fellow firefighter and friend was tangled and seemingly impaled by the dangerously sharp limbs of a long dead tree.
"You're not trained on Rescue Squad Dawson…I wont risk it!" Matthew Casey, commanding lieutenant of Truck 81, scowled back at her while he fitted his harness and Otis, real name Brian, secured his line to the fire truck's winch. "He's yours and Shays when we get him topside!"
"You're not Squad either," Dawson fired back, "and if Severide is impaled on those branches you're gonna need me down there. I've been rock climbing half my life Casey – I've got this!"
Staring at her he nodded quickly "Suit up," He turned back to the truck! "Mills get Dawson a harness and get her hooked up now!"
Less than two minutes later Dawson and Casey had climbed over the twisted remains of the guardrail and were skillfully making their way down the rocky embankment to their injured and still immobile friend. Casey's pulse was pounding, not from exertion but from fear for his friend and a fear about what the hell had happened. One minute Kelly Severide had been at the edge of this same cliff, successfully completing the last few inches of the rescue of the ejected driver from the car accident that had called them all out here. The next minute…Casey's mind flashed again to the moment at the top where he had glanced over and saw Severide grab for purchase in the loose gravel that dusted up and followed him over the edge as he disappeared. It took mere seconds but it seemed to play infinitesimally slower in Casey's head. Kelly looked…confused..? or was it shocked? The rescue stretcher holding the driver had partially blocked Casey's view as Severide waited for the man to be pulled clear so he too could come up.
Casey paused in his descent allowing Dawson to split away from him as they neared Severide and she moved to get closer to their friends upper body. He knew she would check his vitals first before assessing his wounds. He held his breath as Dawson reached for the vein in Severide's neck.
"I've got a pulse!" she shouted, smiling briefly as a cheer erupted above them. "Severide…can you hear me?" She carefully maneuvered her self around the entangling branches to get closer to the bloody branch protruding from his jumpsuit. He did not answer her. Steadying herself against the tree so as not to jostle her patient she reached for a clasp dreading what it might reveal..
"Wait!" Casey barked. "I think his harness is compromised somehow. That jumpsuit could be all that is holding him from falling the rest of the way down this cliff.
"That and this tree," Dawson answered holding her hand back.
Casey looked up the 30 foot embankment to the top and yelled "I need a C-collar and a rescue stretcher down here now!" He looked back at Dawson who was inspecting a gash on Severide's brow that was dripping blood down his face. That explained his lack of consciousness. "Dawson can you get your hand inside the jumpsuit without opening it too much? See if you can tell me how much of that tree we have to take out of here with him!"
"Yep that's my plan," Dawson reached into her back pocket for her blue latex gloves. Snapping them on she reached to slip her hand inside her injured friends clothing guiding her hand towards the painfully sharp blood covered tree limbs that jutted out of Severide's jumpsuit.
"Cruz?" Casey hollered up the embankment.
"Yeah…" came the reply
"I want you down here with that stretcher and bring handsaws!"
"On my way!"
Casey watched as Dawson pulled her hand out of the jumpsuit and sees it covered in Severide's blood. Casey searched her face for a clue to the worst he was afraid to imagine. "It's ok… Casey, it seems to have torn a good sized laceration in his side and it's ripped right through the jumpsuit but he's not impaled… thank God!"
"Good,… good that will make getting him out of here easier for sure" Casey nodded to her. "Cruz and I will lift him into the stretcher. You get the collar on so we can keep his head immobile. Then your whole job will be to keep pressure on those wounds. Got it?" She nods at him. "How are his vitals?"
"Pulse is steady, if a little weak and his breathing is shallow and hitching. I am going to presume he's got come cracked ribs. He's got a good gash on his head too," Dawson answered.
"Where's his helmet – he had it when I saw him fall?"
"Up there," Dawson pointed and Casey looked where she was indicating to see a white climbers helmet snagged on another jutting dead branch close to 20 feet above them. When Casey looked back to Dawson she was looking at Severide's face and said "He's got a good friction burn here on his jaw he must have pulled right out his helmet, probably got caught and he was hanging by his helmet before it ripped off landing him down here."
Casey winced at the thought.
Some loose rocks showered around them as Cruz climbed down next to Casey at Severide's feet. Casey reaches into the stretcher and retrieves the C-Collar and maneuvers himself to hand it to Dawson. After she has it secured around Severide's neck Cruz moves to position himself around and past Dawson at Severide's head. Dawson opens the medical zip pouch that is attached to the stretcher and grabs out gauze pads to staunch the wounds in Severide's side. She can see Casey expertly cutting away limbs to ease the stretcher closer to their injured friend. Without words they work as a team and quickly have him transferred into the stretcher, turned and readied for the accent up the embankment.
"Keep the pressure on those wounds Dawson," Casey orders as he finishes strapping in the patient. "You're going up together"
"Got them, don't worry," Dawson replies as she steadies her feet on the embankment face and prepares to ascend with the stretcher.
"Mills!" Casey yells to the top of the embankment.
"Yes Lieutenant!"
"Stretcher is secure and ready. Start the winch together with Dawson's line, give a 5 second delay then pull me and Cruz up behind them! Watch the lines and harnesses closely too I want everybody out of here safely"
"Got it Boss!"
Casey watches as Dawson moves up the embankment and with only a few stumbles as she keeps her hand firmly in place on Severide's wounds. They disappear over the top in to the helpful arms of their fellow firefighters. Casey manages the last few feet and steps up and clear of the embankment before shrugging out of his harness. Severide's rescue stretcher has been placed onto the ambulance stretcher and Leslie Shay is adding more gauze to the blood darkened ones held in place by Dawson as the wheel him quickly to a waiting ambulance.
Shay is listening to his chest and she frowns and calls to the ambulance driver. "Let's get him out of here! Breathing is ragged and pressure is dropping. Get me to Lakeshore… now!" I've got him Dawson, you get out of your gear and follow us there! Ok?
"Yes…go! We'll be right behind you"
She helped Shay load the stretcher in place and closed the door behind her friends and banged the door to signal the driver. As the ambulance races away she turns to look for Casey. She sees him next to the ladder truck, he has shed his climbing gear and he has a part of a harness in his hand looking it over with a scowl. Suddenly Dawson hears a loud explosion and as if in slow motion she sees a section of the ladder falling towards Casey.
"Matt! Look out!
