Roy wedged the crowbar in the truck door and pushed hard against it. Beside him, Chet hooked his gloved hands through the broken window, using his body weight to force the door open.
"You got it?" Chet asked Roy as they prepared to jerk back on the truck door.
"Yep, let's try it." Roy pulled back on the door with Chet, both straining to make the stubborn door budge.
Chet shook his head. "You know, after five minutes I'm starting to wonder if this door has something against us."
Roy chuckled under his breath and checked his grip on the crowbar. His laugh seemed like a betrayal when Johnny was still stranded and possibly fighting for his life. Shaking himself mentally, he pulled himself back together. Things would be ok as soon as he knew Johnny was going to be alright. Chet and Roy steadied themselves for another pull when a shout stopped them.
"Roy! Brice needs help with Johnny. Marco will take over for you here." Immediately, Roy handed his crowbar to Marco and raced over to the crushed Land Rover.
Brice had his back to Roy, as he leaned through the Land Rover's window working on Johnny.
"Brice, how is he?" Roy's stomach did flip flops as he waited for his answer.
Glancing over his shoulder, Brice looked at him. "Not too good." Brice handed Roy a paper with Johnny's vitals. "Call this into Rampart would you?"
Eager to do something that helped Johnny, Roy took the paper and pulled the biophone closer. His heart lurched as he read the vitals Brice had written down. Brice hadn't been kidding when he'd said Johnny wasn't doing very good.
"Rampart this is Squad 51, come in." As he waited for a reply, Roy allowed his gaze to wander where Brice stood at the broken window. He wished he could turn back time and stop this nightmare from happening.
"Squad 51, this is Rampart…" Roy nearly sighed in relief as Dr. Brackett's voice came through the phone.
"Rampart, we have a twenty-three year old male victim. The victim is suffering from a blow to the back of the head as well as a suspected broken arm and a puncture wound to the lower right abdomen…"
At Rampart, Kel Brackett shook his head as Roy's voice carried over the line, conveying the vitals. Brackett's heart dropped as Roy confirmed his worst fears for the victim. The victim's heart rate was weak and rapid, in addition to the dangerously low blood pressure.
"...Rampart be advised, the victim's eyes are unequal, dilated and don't respond to light. Also, the victim is John Gage."
Kel pushed down the button on the radio. "Come again 51?"
"Ah, Rampart, the victim is John Gage."
Kel released a ragged breath as his mind eloquently painted the picture of the mess Johnny had gotten him into this time. He pressed the button again, giving instructions to Roy on how to save his partner.
Roy knelt on the passenger seat of Johnny's Rover, holding a pressure bandage to his lacerated stomach. His heart fluttered, watching endless amounts of blood seep into the bandage. This had to be one of the hardest things he had to do in his life. Needing a break from the endless flow of blood, he glanced up at the pale face of his partner.
In a way he was thankful Johnny had lost consciousness. At least then he didn't have to be in so much pain. Roy did a mental inventory of Johnny's injuries. His left arm was broken in two places and still pinned to the driver's side door. His partner's eyes were dilated and non-responsive to light; the lump centered at the back of Johnny's skull was most likely the cause. Then if those two weren't enough, his partner had been impaled.
A half-inch piece of iron had punched a hole through Johnny's back and protruded out his lower stomach leaving his partner to bleed to death. Johnny's weak and short breaths filled the silence as he struggled to draw in air around the rod. His stomach ached to think of how much pain his partner had to be in.
"Any change?" Brice locked eyes with Roy through the cab of the Land Rover. Roy pulled Johnny's right arm closer and gripped his wrist. He counted the hearts beats and looked up.
"No. How far out is that ambulance?" Roy fought to keep his voice level.
"Ten minutes, I just called in." Brice grasped Johnny's broken arm and scanned how it was trapped again. "We can free his arm easy enough, but I'm worried about the puncture wound. It's gonna be hard to stop the bleeding once we take the rod out." Brice looked at Johnny's pale skin and shook his head. "He can't afford to lose any more blood as it is. If we pull him out before the ambulance gets here we may just kill him."
"How's the other victim?" Roy asked, he needed to give his mind something else to focus on.
"Chet and Marco pulled him out of the truck a few minutes ago. It doesn't always seem right how one side of the accident can walk away with the slightest scratch while the other…" Brice trailed off and looked over his shoulder waiting for the ambulance to arrive. It was futile, expecting the ambulance to simply appear, but it was the most they could do at the moment.
"Roy?" Roy twisted in the passenger seat to see Cap behind him. "How is he?"
Cap leaned through the window and rested his arm on the sill. Roy swallowed hard. "Uhh… He...Um…" Roy swallowed hard pushing down his rising emotions. "We'll need help freeing his right arm from the drivers door. His arm has a compound fracture in two places. He was uhh...there's a lump at the base of his head. He was awake and talking to Brice for a few minutes he said he couldn't see."
Cap felt his heart hit the floor as he took in what Roy was telling him. His gut always clenched when one of his men was hurt but this...this was a living nightmare. Hank couldn't begin to fathom what Johnny must be feeling right now.
"He's going to be ok? Right?" Cap questioned.
Roy lifted his wet eyes up to meet Hank's. "We won't know more until we get him to Rampart."
Hank Stanley nodded, watching his crew clean up the crash site over the top of the battered Land Rover. "What do you need to get him out of there?"
On the opposite side of the Land Rover, Craig Brice looked over his shoulder once again as he listened to Captain Stanley and DeSoto talk. Brice knew he wasn't a particularly emotional man. Deep inside him, there was that thing that demanded everything had to be perfect. Every single thing had to be in perfect order and make perfect sense. That was just how his mind worked.
His mind did a good job of snuffing out any spark of emotion or care. Emotional firefighters lost control and many times ended up dead. Maybe that was why he ranted at Johnny so much. Johnny was a man who lived freely on emotion, Roy and Gage had something together, a partnership, that no matter how hard he tried Brice couldn't seem to find for himself.
Now it seemed so cruel to watch Roy beat himself up over Johnny bleeding out in the seat next to him. There was nothing they could do until the ambulance was on scene. Once again, Brice scanned the road over his shoulder willing the ambulance to arrive.