Hello again to you all! I have been writing this story in my head for the past few days, ever since I went boating in my area. I hope you all like it. I do not own Emergency!, but I really wish I did. Please read and review!
"Hey, you guys want to do something fun this weekend?" Johnny asked to his workmates. Everyone was in the kitchen, trying to eat as fast as they could before the klaxons could go off on them.
"What do you have in mind Gage?" Chet asked, reaching for the ketchup.
"Well, I have a buddy of mine that rents boats and he said he would loan me a couple of his pontoon boats, if we want to go out. He keeps them at Marina Del Rey, mainly at Tahiti Marina, so we could ride around then head out to Venice and Santa Monica if we want to."
The others thought for a moment. "I would need to ask Beth, but she does like boating, but I will let you know. I'll call her after we eat," Mike said, taking a bite out of his hamburger.
"Same here," Cap and Roy said at the same time.
"I'm game," Marco replied, smiling. "I love Santa Monica Bay. Its beautiful."
"Yeah, I'm in too," Chet said. "Maybe we can tube or something like that."
"Yeah, definitely. My buddy's boats are always in good condition and his offer is that all we would need to do is to pay for gas, that's it. Plus, since we will be so close to Venice and Santa Monica, we could go to dinner afterwards. You can wear beachy clothes to those restaurants in the area."
After calling and getting the okay from the wives, the 6 men began planning their day on the water.
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Saturday turned out to be the ideal summer day in sunny Southern California. Out in the beautiful Pacific, not far from the mouth of Marina Del Rey, 3 pontoon boats were tied together, floating in a small bay. The smell of hot dogs wafted away from the boats.
"Johnny, this was a great idea! And it is such a beautiful day today!" Marco said, relishing his second hot dog, kicked back on the middle boat. The others agreed heartily.
Captain Stanley and his wife Emily were on one boat with Mike and Beth. The middle boat held the bachelors Marco, Chet and Johnny. The last boat had Roy and his family. Everyone was kicked back, enjoying their picnic on the water. They had been out swimming, tubing and just riding around for the morning. They had moved to a smaller cove to make lunch and hang out together.
"Yeah, this has been an awesome day so far," Joanne said as she began to put away the potato salad and coleslaw, anything that could spoil in the hot summer sun. The others began to clean up their lunch items as well.
"Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I am going to float around for a little while," Johnny said, jumping in the water off the end of the boat he was on. He grabbed his inner tube and jumped on. He leaned his head back and got comfortable. The others looked at each other, grinning.
"Aw, what the hell," Cap said grinning as he jumped off his boat. He joined his junior paramedic floating in the calm bay.
The others soon followed suit. Soon, 9 adults were floating and 2 kids were swimming. The relaxation they were getting was what they all needed. They floated around, talking to each other, laughing over old jokes and growing closer as a group of friends.
Soon, it was time to head back to the marina. They all climbed back on their boats, letting the air out of their inner tubes and folded them, putting them back in the seats of the boat. Then everyone dried off and started to put on their dry clothes.
"Hey everyone, make sure you have your life jackets on," Cap said, snapping his on. "There's more traffic out here now than before."
"Got it Cap," Chet said as he, Marco and Johnny all grabbed theirs and snapped them on. Roy helped his children and JoAnne put hers on. Mike, Beth and Emily had theirs on as Cap untied their boat from the bachelor's. Roy untied theirs and they all started the boats up. Cap moved his boat in front of the others, Roy following him. Johnny was working on getting theirs started while Marco and Chet got everything together so they could take off.
What happened next burned its way forever into the minds of the ones watching. Johnny had just started the boat, getting ready to follow Roy. He never saw the speed boat lose control and accelerate straight towards them. Roy and Cap both heard a powerful motor coming closer and looked up. The watched in horror as the silver and blue speed boat crashed into the right side of the pontoon boat with the bachelors on it. The speed boat crashed into the pontoon boat, half way through somehow riding straight up in the air and stopping. The impact of the crash threw 2 of the bachelors and the 2 occupants from the speed boat into the waters of Marina Del Rey.
Instantly, Cap and Roy had their boats turned and heading toward the wreck. Cap was on the radio, contacting the Coast Guard regarding the wreck. Mike had spotted a red life jacket and jumped in. Cap pulled the boat as close as he could to Mike and helped to pull the survivor up and out of the water. It was one of the occupants from the speed boat, a 30-something young woman. She began coughing as soon as she was on board. Emily and Beth helped her out of her life jacket as Mike swam on.
"Are you okay?" Emily asked the frightened girl.
"Yes, my leg and arm hurts, but I'm okay," she said coughing again. "You gotta find my husband! He was driving the boat. The accelerator stuck! He couldn't stop!" She began to cry. Beth didn't say anything, she just wrapped her arms around the woman and watched as Mike pulled another red life jacket up out of the water.
Mike got on board with the next victim, as he was unconscious. Beth was horrified when her husband began doing mouth to mouth on the husband of the first victim. The woman in her arms let out a terrified scream, seeing her husband in the state he was in. Beth had to physically hold her back while Mike worked on her husband. After about a minute of rescue breathing, the victim coughed up water and began to show signs of regaining consciousness.
"Hold on there, you're going to be okay," Mike said, trying to hold down the now combative man. Beth couldn't hold on to the woman any longer as she pulled herself away and kneeled next to her husband. "Its okay honey. Your going to be okay," she said, wiping hair off his forehead.
Confident that the man was okay for the moment, Mike jumped back into the water. Cap had moved closer to where Roy was looking for the 3 missing fireman.
"Hey, there's one!" Emily yelled, pointing to a bright blue life jacket. Mike swam and pulled the prone figure up out of the water. "Its Marco!"
"Bring him over here Mike!" Roy yelled, putting the ladder down on his boat. Mike helped Roy manuver Marco onto the boat. Joanne pulled the kids away so Roy could help the unconscious Marco.
Mike jumped back in when Beth yelled, "Hey! There's another one!" She was pointing to another blue life jacket.
As he swam over, he heard Roy talking to Marco, who had just come around. "Its okay Marco. You're gonna be okay."
Mike prayed that all three of his friends were going to be okay as he swam up to his friend. He couldn't tell who it was at first because the life jacket caused him to roll forward. As soon as he rolled him back, he knew it was Chet. He was scared because Chet's lips were blue. He pulled his friend over to Cap's boat. Cap reached down and helped him get Chet on board. Mike checked Chet over, terrified when he couldn't find a pulse.
Mike began CPR on his friend, barely registering that he heard a boat pulling up. He never paid attention as one of the Coast Guard rescuers got on the boat with them. All that he had on his mind was to save Chet. "Damn it Chet! Don't give up man!"
He checked for a pulse and was relieved to find one. Moments later, Chet began to breath on his own. "Thank God," Mike whispered under his breath.
For the first time he noticed Cap and Roy pointing to something on the wreckage to the Coast Guard rescuer. "What is it Cap?"
Cap looked down for a moment before looking at his engineer. "Its Johnny. He's trapped on the boat."