The Fire Talks

Chapter Ten

by GCS and Hotshow

DISCLAIMER: "Emergency!" and its characters © Mark VII Productions, Inc. and Universal Studios. All rights reserved. No infringement of any copyrights or trademarks is intended or should be inferred. This is a work of fiction. This story is only written for entertainment. No financial gain is being realized from it.

The story, itself, is the property of the author.

As soon as the guys got back into the squad and on the road back to the station the tones went off calling them on their second run of the day. This time the engine was called out with them to a hiker over a cliff. "Well Roy I guess it's a good thing I got loosened up this morning, looks like we'll have to do some climbing." Johnny smiled towards his friend. Roy could see the excitement welling up in his partner. Johnny loved to climb. Up or down it didn't matter. He loved it all. Roy could not help but chuckle at the childlike appearance Johnny sometimes had when he anticipated a difficult run.

Pulling up at the designated location the two paramedics saw Vince Howard already on the scene looking down over the edge of the cliff. "Good morning Vince, what do we have?" Roy asked as he shook Vince's hand.

"Hey Vince, nice to see ya again. I enjoyed eatin' with ya last night. We got one over the cliff? Can you see him? How far down is he?" Johnny bounced on his heels as he rattled off his rapid fire questions.

"Good morning Roy, John," Vince smiled at Johnny's anticipation. "As far as we know there is at least one man down the side of this drop. I haven't found the caller, so I don't know if he is alone or not. I can see some red over to the right down about 100 feet, but I can't tell if that is him or not." He pointed to the area he mentioned.

"Okay thanks," Roy turned to his partner. "I'll get the binoculars and maybe we can see him." By that time the engine crew had arrived and Johnny was busy filling Captain Stanley in on the details. Mike was moving the engine into place so they could tie off their lines to the front of the engine. Chet and Marco were helping Johnny get the gear from the squad loaded into the stokes in case they needed it below. They would have the stokes from the engine if they had to send the victim up before treatment. Vince was busy directing traffic around the emergency vehicles. In no time Johnny and Roy were belted up and ready to go. Stepping to the edge of the drop off Johnny smiled over at Roy and winked. "Take it easy Johnny. We don't need to have to rescue you."

Johnny leaned back and jumped off the edge easily gliding down the face of the cliff. Roy moved slower and more deliberately. Captain Stanley yelled over at his men, "Gage slow it down." Johnny was in his element. He often hiked and climbed on his days off and was very skilled at it. He arrived beside the victim. It was a young man probably 17 or 18. He was unconscious. Johnny felt around on his neck and the back of his head for injury after making sure he had a pulse. Roy joined him on the small outcropping and slipped a safety line around the man's waist.

Johnny pulled the HT from his pocket. "HT 51 to Engine 51."

"Engine 51," Captain Stanley responded.

"Cap we'll need the stokes, a C-collar."

"10-4. Chet send down the stokes from engine and a C-collar." Captain Stanley pulled the bio-phone from the other stokes and opened it up connecting the antennae. "Rampart this is Squad 51 how do you read?"

"Squad 51 we read you loud and clear," Nurse Dixie McCall responded thinking that now she knew why they had not performed their morning radio check. They must have gotten called out as soon as they came on shift this morning.

"Rampart we have a victim of a fall while hiking on a cliff. We are extracting the victim now. Please stand by."

"Standing by 51," Dixie reached up and dialed the hospital operator to have Dr. Brackett paged.

Johnny and Roy had the victim packaged and ready to send up in no time. Roy came up the cliff with the victim while Johnny stayed below to hold a rope to help steady the stokes on the way up. Once up top Roy began to get the vitals and transmit to Rampart. Johnny climbed up in much the same way he went down, fast. He knelt down beside the stokes and helped Roy to start the requested IVs. Together they loaded the patient into the waiting ambulance. Roy rode in with the patient; Johnny followed in the squad. "See ya later Vince," he called as he pulled away.

No sooner did Johnny back into the ambulance bay than the radio squawked, "Squad 51 what is your status?"

"Squad 51 available at Rampart." The dispatcher proceeded to send them on another run to a single car accident involving a pedestrian. Johnny quickly loaded the gear Roy had waiting beside the ambulance and jogged into the automatic doors to find his partner. He spotted Roy beside the nurse's desk sipping coffee. "Roy," he called and held up the HT to let him know they had a run.

"Well here we go again Dix. See ya later." Roy jogged over to his partner and they were off again. Their morning went pretty much the same way from beginning to end. At around 1:00 pm they finally backed the squad into the station already tired and weary. Slowly walking into the dayroom they were greeted by Mike who was putting two plates on the table with their missed lunch. Marco was busy pouring them drinks. Chet handed them napkins and forks.

Captain Stanley came into the room at that time and went straight for the coffee pot. "Welcome back. I was beginning to think we might not see you boys until dinner." Both paramedics nodded their heads and continued eating afraid they might not get to stay there long enough to finish. They were lucky this time and the tones remained quiet. After lunch Roy relaxed on the couch to finish reading "The Fire Talks". Johnny got up and went to get his notepad from his locker. He had some things he wanted to jot down while they were fresh on his mind. He walked slowly across the bay rolling his shoulders. He felt stiff and achy again after a busy morning of runs, and his scratched arm was really getting sore. Chet followed a little behind him. Johnny didn't notice Chet. Stepping up to his locker he opened the door and heard the spring of the launching water bomb only there was an additional clanging noise as the device broke apart sending the spring toward Johnny's right eye. It happened so fast and unexpectedly that Johnny didn't have time to react before he was hit in the eye by the flying metal piece. "Ouch!" he yelled as he grabbed the side of his dripping wet face and stumbled backwards falling back onto the bench.

Chet burst through the door having seen the whole thing through the window. "Johnny what happened?"

"You happened Chet. That, that contraption of yours malfunctioned and hit me in the eye." Johnny sat cradling his head in his hand. The rest of the crew had come into the room having heard the yelling.

"What happened?" Captain Stanley was the first to ask.

"Let me take a look," Roy sat down next to Johnny and reached for his hand to pull it away from his eye.

"It hurts Roy."

"I don't know what happened. The spring just flew off and hit him in the face. That's never happened before," Chet was trying to explain to Cap.

"Johnny you have to let me see."

"Okay Roy just give me a minute. It stings," Johnny said as he slowly pulled his hand away from his face and squinted at his partner. His eye appeared very blood shot and watery, and Johnny couldn't keep it open. Roy gently pulled the upper eye lid up and shined his pen light into Johnny's eye.

"I don't think it's too bad Cap, but we should probably get it looked at by a doctor. He may have scratched his cornea."

Just as Roy finished that statement the tones sounded sending the crew to yet another run. Johnny jumped from the bench, "Guess that will have to wait."