OK Number 53 - The Oil

"Ee! Ahaa, well done guys, well done, winners! Winners, aha, yes!"

Naoto surfed atop a crowd, giddy and likely already smashed as the Rebellion team celebrated its success like mad. It seemed putting all their eggs in the Naoto basket was going to pay off, and their recovery to the lead of the WDC, which still had eluded them since 2014, was firmly back on.

It also meant a lot for Naoto, Tohdoh acknowledged. He had the skill to lead the team, he just needed the confidence, and for all Tohdoh's best efforts, few things compared to a win to seal the deal. Especially given the herculean recovery he had had to go through, to be winning again was simply immense.

But the crowd was thinning now, with most of the fans and journalists returning home as the engineers cleared up the cars, the equipment, and, if one was being honest, the mess from the party. Tohdoh, deep in thought, moved to a quiet corner to think over how things had gone wrong.

As he pulled out a cigarette, Tohdoh sighed, before moving a lighter up to his mouth to meet the Marlboro tab, now wedged in place in his mouth. He lit the end, before taking a huge suck through the filter, filling up his lungs to capacity before slowly releasing it. It helped cool him down, slow his thinking, order it somewhat, as he tried to piece together where it had gone wrong.

He wasn't cross because he hadn't won. Tohdoh had frequently been the beneficiary of team orders, and he knew that had he not run out of fuel, he would have been told to surrender the position to Naoto, and he would have been happy to. After having benefited from it so many times, it would have been incredibly disrespectful to not return the favour, and he would have been honoured to do it. However, he had run out of petrol. Instead of finishing first and second, with Tohdoh serving as a points buffer between Naoto in first and the chasing pack, in having to retire, people chasing the leading Rebellions had all been bumped up one place, and Naoto's points gain over them would have been blunted.

Given that Naoto had to go some ways to catch Xingke and Gino, Naoto needed to pick up as many points over them as he could, and that he had let Naoto down enraged Tohdoh. As he pulled the cigarette out from between his lips, holding it at a perched angle with his elbow buried into his torso as his lungs reached empty and he stood, deep in thought.

However, before he could take another drag, he heard someone in the other area ask where Tohdoh was, before mumbled speech, before a pause, before Tohdoh was greeted by Kaname Ohgi, manned with a clipboard and quite a bit of enthusiasm.

"Having fun out there?" Tohdoh asked, quietly eager to ensure his frustration was not spoiling the joy Naoto was hopefully experiencing. It was still a great day for the team, and they didn't deserve Tohdoh spoiling it for until at least seven hours after the victory high had fizzled out. Nodding, Ohgi smiled.

"It's our first one since Abu Dhabi last year, and it's the first in three years for Naoto, who's just after having spent two years building his legs back up, it's so heartwarming. Other teams are coming in and congratulating him. He's had a long road, he deserves this."

Tohdoh nodded. "Yes, he does."

He then moved his cigarette back up to his face to take another puff, however he didn't get the opportunity to complete the action, as another engineer rushed around the corner, from the main area away from the tyres Tohdoh and Ohgi were talking behind, trying to hurry over, practically sprinting with important technical information for Ohgi.

Then things started happening very quickly.

The engineer running in to deliver the news only realised too late the pair were closer to the obscuring tyre barrier than he expected, however he was moving too fast, and in too confined a space, to avoid ploughing into the back of Ohgi.

Tohdoh's eyes only widened once her realised too late what was happening, as Ohgi was knocked forward by the impact. Not having seen the engineer coming, he had had no way to brace, and so fell forward, right into the centre of Tohdoh's torso.

With the combined weight of Ohgi and the momentum transferred in the shunt, Tohdoh, without having had a chance to prepare, could only be the next domino in the set, being shunted backwards.

Catching his heel off the back of a resting tyre, Tohdoh felt his body fall backwards and down towards the ground. Desperate to try and avoid banging his back and head off the paved garage floor, he desperately reached forwards, looking for a groove in a nearby tyre, or the top of a work desk, to hold on to and break his fall. He seemed safe once his hand found purchase against a rolling cabinet, however it proved not to be the case, as it was not heavy enough to hold back his momentum, instead joining him in cratering towards the ground, tipping over at the wheels and falling on top of him.

As the surface of the steel cabinet left the horizontal plane and shifted more vertically, the oils and liquids and oxidisers spilled out off the surface of the lid and down towards Tohdoh, spilling all over him, his face, his clothes, and down the side of the floor, seeping out to the side.

However, Tohdoh had forgotten one thing; his cigarette.

As he tried to push the big wheeled drawer off his body, he raised his arm to his chest to try and lift it away from him. However, as he tried to push against the heavy steel cabinet, Tohdoh's vision burst, rapidly flooding from foggy and fuzzy from the mechanical fluids which had spilled off the desk and into his face to orange and blazing colour, stunningly bright, like staring into the sun and about as painful.

Tohdoh rolled to the side, coughing, before feeling the searing tickle, deep in his nerves, flow down his neck and chest. He wasn't in pain, which conversely scared him even more. He tried to flail from his prone position, however his body seemed to stop cooperating, as he slowly seemed to lose his vision, feeling a deep scare in his stomach, as he couldn't move, and he watched his entire view grow rapidly engulfed by flames, before the edges grew dark, and Tohdoh lost consciousness, his last distinct sensation being the growing struggle to breathe.

"It's such crap, how do you not put enough fuel in the car? How is that a mistake we make in 2019? I mean, come on…"

Kallen stood just at the fencing between the pit wall and the pit lane itself, where people would drive down for pit stops, facing out towards the track proper and towards her engineer, who was trying to explain how she had gone from claiming twenty five points to going to jail, not passing go, and not collecting two hundred dollars. He sighed, before trying to start again, as Kallen, still in her race outfit of layered Nomex, fiddled with her gloves absentmindedly.

"It's very marginal. We don't want to put in more than you need, because it's dead weight, you won't use it, and all it'll ever do is just slow you down. We had a wet… pretty much wet everything until the race began. We could only do our maths based on the numbers we had available, which was wet running, where you use a bit less fuel. We tried to compensate for that and leave a bit of margin, but I guess we didn't leave enough. I'm really sorry."

"Well sorry doesn't get me the twenty-five points but… ach, sure look it's done and over now."

Kallen sighed, before she heard Gino shout out from behind them. She turned, and looked on as he nodded at her.

"Me and a few of the lads are going down to Budapest for an hour to pick up some stuff from the meat market, do ye fancy anything?

"Look at you, trying to be cultured." Kallen smirked. "You're in a good mood for someone who didn't finish. Sure, if you can get some salami that'd be fantastic. Nothing hot, it's already boiling in this suit. Can't wait to have a shower."

"Also…" Gino smiled, before pausing and reaching down into his backpack, pulling out a glass bottle and throwing it across. She caught it, as he nodded. "Whiskey. They thought you could do with some cheering up."

"Cheers." Kallen smiled, holding onto the neck of the bottle and pointing its bottom end towards Gino as a nod of thanks.

"I think I might get one while-" Kallen began, however whatever she may have said next was drowned out by noise, so much noise, almost a bang, causing her to recoil and drop the whiskey. She quickly recovered, looking up with darting eyes, scanning for the source down the pitlane.

However, there was little need to be quite so vigilant, as the source made itself readily apparent; the Rebellion pit garage, just maybe twenty meters down the way to Kallens right, was spewing black smoke, belching it like it had the runs.

Kallen jumped to alertness, as she tried to see what was happening. Fire, certainly, as there was scarcely smoke without it, and a great deal of fire at that, given the volume, the density, the rate at which the smoke was being forced out, displaced by more smoke.

Gasping, Kallen leaned over the railings, trying to see what was happening, and what was being done. She watched the engineers from the garages either side of the smoking one were moving in with fire extinguishers to combat the fire, which Kallen realised was in the Rebellion garage. Her brother might have chosen his own path, but he could well be in danger, and no matter how far he went to reject her, there was only so far Kallen was willing to separate herself.

"Does anyone have fireproof-" she began, trying to call for some help, however three things quickly dawned on her. Most of the mechanics had changed out of their fireproof gear, hell, most of the people had. Second, the fire brigade called to supervise the race had left once it had ended.

Third, because she was so hung up on finding out why she had been so hung up on finding out why she had been underfuelled, she was one of the only people to have not yet changed out of their fireproof race overalls. The only thing missing was her balaclava, which was just on the desk behind her.

She was the only one who could do anything about the people stuck in the fiery garage. She was the only one with fire resistant clothes on, the only one who could help.

She swore, and not thinking a moment more, grabbed the balaclava, before vaulting the steel railing. Sliding it on over her head, Kallen took a deep breath, ignored the shouts to back away, and ran head first into the inky smoke, punctuated only with the dry blaze.

To her surprise, her surroundings were not totally imperceptible; the smoke was thick, and black, but it was more a filter than a blindfold. That having been said, her eyes immediately began to sting, and she became aware that she could not take a breath, and needed to hurry. She rushed through the garage, immediately coming across someone who had been knocked back in whatever had caused the bang. She immediately pulled him up and made her way out, following the flow of smoke from high to low pressure gas zones, from blackened smoke and carbon to the clear air.

Or, at least, the clearer air.

The man Kallen was escorting, who had not taken a breath in almost a minute, grew heavier and heavier, as his consciousness drained, to the point where Kallen had to take his arm up and over her shoulder, bearing his weight through her back and thighs. She moved to the open, clear space just beyond the assembly of the other teams, armed with their own fire extinguishers brought for the event, making their own attempts to tackle the fire in lieu of the presence of a fire department as of yet, and laid the middle aged Japanese technician down, back against the wall. He nodded appreciatively, before Kallen urgently inquired further.

"Is there anyone else in there?"

"A few others, I think, we were all closing up and then a big fire just-"

"Is my brother still in there?"

"I'm… I'm not sure, I think he was in the back last I saw."

Kallen nodded and left him to be taken care of by the doctors on the scene, before, in spite of another round of shouted instructions to get away from the fire, she plunging back into the vibrant dark.

Once she was engulfed, she at least had a bit of experience with which to better deal with the heat, the lack of oxygen, and the toxic gases. She entered this time armed with a cloth to cover her mouth and nose, filtering her breaths to some extent, and was able to more quickly move through the garage and cover more ground. However, just as she saw and tried to aid another struggling mechanic, she spotted Naoto, who was trying to resuscitate another engineer, unconscious on the ground.

Still holding on to the first one, Kallen made her way over to the just-about conscious Naoto, and simply yelled "What are you doing? Go, get out of here! You're not in fireproofs!"

"I need to get him out!" Naoto replied sharply. "I can't carry him, my legs, I need to get him awake!"

Swearing, Kallen moved over to the man, laid prone on the ground, wrapped her arms around his stomach and, though she struggled, carried him over her shoulder. Holding her breath moreso to ensure her body didn't flop like a vertically stood fish than for healthy inhalation, Kallen finally stood up into a fully vertical stance, before shouting with her last bit of air "Naoto, get that guy behind me, and follow me through!"

Kallen, as she navigated her way to the front of the garage, thanked her blessings that the first engineer had at least been mobile, and Naoto would only have to escort him as opposed to carry him with his leg, still not all the way back. The group of four reached the clear air, and Kallen almost collapsed under the dead weight of the unconscious man, who could well have done with a bit of trimming down, however this was hardly the time for such comments. She deposited him at the edge of the smoke, where he was scooped up by paramedics for first aid. Naoto and the first engineer followed moments after, with Naoto collapsing completely once he cleared the smoke, though fortunately the engineer was pulled out of the smoky area. Kallen rushed immediately towards Naoto, grabbing and righting him by his lapels, trying to see what condition her brother was in. However, as soon as Naoto was sat upright and cognisant of where he was and who he was facing, he waved his hand and began to splutter.

"Don't- don't worry about me, where's Tohdoh?" he shouted, eyes practically bulging, which almost made Kallen drop him. Naoto, not satisfied with Kallen's brief pause, turned his head to the growing crowd.

"Where's Tohdoh? Is Tohdoh out here? Anyone? Has someone seen Tohdoh?" he screamed, eyes ablaze in panic, before realising that he had not joined the growing crowd outside the garage. At this point, he shook his head, and, not being in fireproof overalls himself having changed out of them to celebrate, then continued "Someone! Please, please go and see! Doesn't anyone have fireproofs…"

Naoto suddenly appreciated the reality of the situation, and turned immediately back to Kallen, eyes pleading, as he asked, not reducing his volume by a decibel from shouting as loud as his lungs could accomplish after inhaling two minutes of smoke, "I'm fine, I'm alright, but you've got flameproof clothes. Please, can you please go in and look? I haven't seen him, and he was close to where the fire started, and I'm really worried. I'm sorry for doing this to you, but please, he could be dying, please!"

Kallen hesitated, uncertain and uncharacteristically indecisive in this moment of crisis, before Naoto raised his arms to Kallen's lapel, reversing the dynamic, and, short of breath, pleaded.

"Please! Please, please help my friend! I'm scared he's- please, help! Please help him!"

Kallen had only seen that face on Naoto once, some ten years previously, when their parents had told him that they would no longer be welcome in their home. Naoto had to break the news to Kallen, and visibly did not have the heart to at first. He looked so helpless, so unbearably unable to do anything about it, and Kallen, though not knowing what the problem was, could see it. She had tried to comfort him, pulling him in for a hug, at which point he did break down into convulsive, ugly tears, before telling her they would have to look for a new place to live.

This was a very serious face, one of desperation and of pleading. There was nothing Kallen could do ten years ago. There was something she could do this time.

Nodding, she grabbed her cloth and ignoring what was now several loud and targeted attempts to try and stop her from re-entering, she plunged into the dark for a third time.

It had at least dissipated somewhat with the efforts of the other teams to try and extinguish the fire, however it could hardly be described as the Sardinian coast in terms of air clarity. With Naoto's vague directions, she moved to the back, following the wall around to the left, before seeing a large pile of tyres. She followed the pile, before seeing a cabinet on its side, with a pair of legs poking out from underneath. Fearing the worst, Kallen tried to raise the cabinet from its position laid on its largest side by area and rotate it onto its side. She could barely do it, in large part thanks to her having built up her fitness. If she was only as fit as she had been as she had been last year, it would not have budged, however, with her thighs and biceps working in tandem, was able to torque the cabinet off of the body, which it emerged was Tohdoh, who had been trapped under its mass, which even Kallen had struggled to lift from above. Kallen tried to reach through the plastic and wrenches which had slid off the workbench, clearing them away to reach Tohdoh, who laid face down, and only identifiable by his distinctive jacket.

As she finally cleared the paraphernalia off of Tohdoh, she tried to turn him over, back onto his back however, as she tried to grab onto his shoulder, her hand slipped away, unable to find purchase or friction. She shook her head, confused, before doubling over to cough. The smoke was still toxic, and she could not afford to wait around, and so she bent back down, anchoring Tohdoh between her bent forearms.

Having now realised Tohdoh, for whatever reason, was both too hot and too slippery to carry, she was left with no other choice than to take off her stained, slippery gloves and try to drag him barehanded. Sure enough, while he previously he had begun to slip through her arms, slicked with some greasing liquid, this time she was in a good enough position to lever him into a seated position. However, without fireproof gloves, her hand suddenly stung viciously, a sharp pain that stabbed at the centre of her palm and wrist like a series of rusted daggers jotting in and out with the speed of engine cylinders. She felt her fingers spasm in pain, and she almost dropped Tohdoh had it not been for her other hand quickly grabbing into the wrist of the other arm, keeping the link intact. She felt the hand which was clutching into her wrist similarly get scorched like a forest fire of otherworldly pain, immediate and all consuming, however Kallen couldn't rest here, she needed to get out.

And get out with Tohdoh in tow.

Grabbing ahold of him sent her arms into a searing pain, almost jerking her focus out of the moment entirely in how sudden the tendrils of pain shot through her tendons.

But she did grab ahold, and kept him in her grip.

Her breaths grew heavier, and each one gave slightly less energy. Her concentration was only kept aloft by the dagger of pain rising though her arm, which continually forced her to clench her teeth and roar in miserable agony, and yet it kept her awake, kept her at least a little bit engaged in what was happening. The room grew darker, with Kallen's mind and mental capacity shrivelling to the maintenance of just one thought; must get out.

However, the path was not, in spite of how long it seemed, infinite, and Kallen's view finally cleared, before she moved to a few meters clear of the smoke and laid Tohdoh down. Naoto, finally seeing Tohdoh be brought out by Kallen, immediately ran over to help in any way that he could. As Kallen gathered her breath, she issued quick instructions.

"Help me get him onto his back, he's slippery. Three, two-"

The one was silent, but Kallen and Naoto both pulled him up and around, finally facing his chest towards the sky, before they both gasped and recoiled.

"His face-"

Tohdoh was caked in oils all over the front of his clothing, or at least, he had been; there was only trace amounts left, but it was surely as thick as if he had swum in it at one point, because most of it had burned away.

Burned onto him. Burned into him.

Tohdoh's clothing was not fully burned though, though some of it was, with infrequent patches and holes burnt into the fabric, with black and white boils and charred skin filling the gap.

However, while it was almost a blessing that this much of him had covering, his face had had no such protection. The liquid, whatever it had been, had clearly fallen first onto his face, and the fire had responded in kind, charring his forehead and nose down to the layer of bone, with hard, white bumpiness disturbingly visible.

Kallen just stared down, staring blankly, with what was now a dissociative, unfocused gaze down, trying to make sense of Tohdoh's condition, before he was put onto a stretcher by medical staff. Even then, she stared into the slightly blackened space Tohdoh had just lay, alongside Naoto.

She suddenly felt her head and legs grow faint, and she could only muster the faint complaint of "Oh… bugger…", as her vision faded.

And then Kallen passed out.

~G1ll3s