Author's Note: Prompt suggested by SongSister2016.
F is for Fighter
From a young age, Drip had been taught to have a healthy level of respect for fire as his parents knew the trouble he could get into without having this type of guidance. But even with all of the chiding, or perhaps because of it, Drip had developed a fascination with combustion. This fascination had led him to pour his boundless energy into becoming a firefighter instead of going into the family construction business.
Drip knew how much pain his decisions had caused his parents, how much they worried about his career path. They had after all pointed out every fatal firefighting accident that splashed across their TV screens. The little skid steer simply learned to counter the argument with statistics of his own, pointing out that there were lots of jobs that were more dangerous than firefighting, many of which were in the construction industry. The fact that these deaths made the news, just indicated that they were rare enough to be newsworthy.
His parents were still clearly concerned…but they at least stopped making the 'firefighting will be the death of your argument' and eventually made peace with Drips chosen career path. They had even found little ways to support his dreams, whether it be paying for his textbooks or reaching out to find him internships. Eventually, they even became proud of their firefighting son…which made Drip's current predicament so distressing.
The little skid steer closed his eyes for a moment and breathed in an attempt to calm his nerves. He knew that he didn't have time to pause like this, but he also knew that if he didn't take a moment to calm his revving engine, he was a good as dead. He needed to think clearly, and he needed to stop panicking in order to do that. The acrid taste of smoke was thick on his tongue, and he could feel it starting to irritate his filters. He could sense that the fire was rapidly heading in his direction. He needed to focus, he needed to save himself.
Normally, Drip would have been able to rely on his team to help him survive this type of disaster… normality had been tossed out the window the moment that the jump had gone wrong. An untimely gust of wind had torn through the smokejumpers moments after they had left Cabbie's hatch and had scattered the little vehicles across the Park's landscape. Drip hadn't seen where the other smokejumpers had gone down. He had instead focused all of his attention on trying to get safely on the ground. He had at least succeeded at the getting on the ground part, but it had been a bad landing and he rolled on impact.
As one would expect, the chatter on the radio had exploded when things went wrong. The Chief had been marking orders, Cabbie was trying to call out the location of every smokejumper he could spot, Dynamite was trying to rally her troops. Each and every member of the smokejumper team radioed in their rough location. Drip too had done his best to respond, but it rapidly became clear that no one could hear him. He could hear his fellow firefighters calling his name over the radio with growing panic…but the slagging radio wouldn't let him transmit.
It was rapidly becoming clear, that Drip was going to need to rescue himself. Like a soldier behind enemy lines, the little skid steer was going to have to outmaneuver the enemy and get himself to safety. Drip took one last deep breath and opened his eyes. He had trained for years to face moments such as these. He had the skills…all he had to do was apply them.
The first thing he needed to do was to get himself to a safe vantage point. The best vantage points were of course ridge lines…but getting to one of those ridgelines was incredibly dangerous because fire moved up faster when it was going uphill while a firefighter moved slower. Many, many firefighters had been lost trying to outrun a fire on a slope, but Drip decided that at this moment it was worth the risk. He had listened hard and couldn't hear the crackle of fire yet, which meant that he had time and he could see a safe, wide, expanse of bare rock within his reach.
Digging deep inside of him, Drip dropped most of his gear and forced his treads to dig into the earth. He powered himself upward with a strength that was powered by pure adrenaline. As he moved upwards he started to notice the signs that the fire was starting to come up behind him, but he never looked back. Drip couldn't afford to waste a single second as he scaled the rocks until he was able to burst free of the trees and onto the skree of the ridge.
Now, he was relatively safe, but that wasn't enough to get him to stop. Drip pushed himself higher and higher onto the safety of the rocky ridge until finally his tracks locked up and refused to move him any further.
"I found him!" Cabbie's clipped voice came over the radio. "I say again, I have located Drip. He is located on the top of the ridge just to the north of La Parrilla." The C-119 then bit out a series of coordinates which Drip assumed was his position on the map.
"What is his condition?" Chief Blade asked with artificial calm.
There was a pause, then Drip heard the thunder of Cabbie's engines draw closer. The mighty plane flew over once, twice, then made a tight pass along the ridge at eye level with Drip to get a really good look at him. It was one of the most beautiful sights that Drip had ever seen. He had seen Cabbie up close on the ground more times than it was worth mentioning, but never in the air like this. The plane was so close that the little vehicle could feel the thrum of his engines vibrate through him and it almost felt like he could reach out and brush Cabbie's skin. Even though the little vehicle was exhausted he still waved his claw wildly and Cabbie gave a slight wiggle of his wings in acknowledgment.
"Drip is looking rough, but he is responsive and appears to be stable." Cabbie reported as he glided upwards into the safety of the skies. "I would suggest having Windlifter pick him up so that Maru can get him a good look over, while the rest of the team stomps out this fire."
"Understood." The helicopter in command gave his clipped reply. "Dynamite and Windlifter did you copy."
"Wilco." Windlifter responded has he allowed himself to rise out of his search pattern and turned his nose back towards base, most likely to drop off his tank and equip his rescue harness.
"Understood." Dynamite sounded conflicted about the order.
"Don't worry. I will stay in the skies and keep an eye on Drip until he is successfully under Maru's tine." Cabbie's voice was soft as he informed that smokejumper captain that he would make sure that Drip wouldn't be alone.
"Thank you." There was relief in Dynamite's voice, which hardened as she turned her whole attention to the task at hand. "You heard the Chief boys. It is time to take this sucker down!"
The wait for Windlifter was both long and short at the same time. Part of Drip was incredibly fascinated by watching his team put out the fire…the other part was sore, exhausted, and just wanted to be safely parked on his sleeping mat on base. Over and over, he had to blink the sleep from his eyes and refocus his attention on the current moment.
Eventually, Windlifter had come and hovered over him with the harness. It had taken every ounce of Drip's remaining strength to properly clip himself harness and to notify the helicopter that they were good to go. The flight back to base felt like it took place in slow motion, with each of Windlifter's rotor beats stretching into eternity. When they finally landed, Drip had discovered that his claw was so weak that he couldn't even undo the harness, so he had to wait for Maru to undo the clips. At first, that had clearly concerned the mechanic, but as the Maru checked over Drip's systems the tug relaxed.
"So, kid." Maru said with a toothy grin once he gave the battered smokejumper a good look over. "What did you learn from today's adventure?"
"That I'm a fighter." Drip grinned back…then he allowed his eyes to drift shut and savor the sleep gifted to vehicles that had faced a difficult mission and won.
End Note: I hoped you enjoyed this little Drip misadventure. But now that it is done, do you have prompt suggestions for the letter G?
