"He's hardly breathing Doc" Roy gently laid Johnny down and grabbed the pocket knife to cut Dr Morton free.
Officer Baker made his way down to Vince Howard's house. Vince had called in about some suspicious characters at the fire station. After having called into the station before talking to Vince, everything seemed fine to him, but he knew Vince was a veteran police officer and deserved his respect to be taken seriously.
It was pouring rain and the wind had picked up. Further down the road power lines were down which meant the neighbourhood would be without electricity for some time. Officer Baker pulled into Vince's driveway and ran to his front door. Vince opened the door and ushered him in quickly.
"Hello Vince...ma am...I called into the fire station on the way here and spoke to one of the paramedics. He seemed fine and all was quiet at the station." Officer Baker gratefully accepted a cup of coffee from Mrs Howard.
"Which paramedic did you speak to?" asked Vince as he still had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.
"Um...he had dark hair, tall, slim, very friendly".
"That was Johnny Gage. Did you see anyone else?" Vince asked thinking Roy would have been not too far away.
"No...Like I said it all seemed quiet." Officer Baker looked at Vince not quite understanding why he was so concerned.
Roy ran from the bathroom to the dorm to get some oxygen. He noticed that the tank was almost empty. He also scanned the room for the mother and child; they were nowhere to be seen.
"Here's the oxygen...Doc it's almost empty...I'll need to get a new tank from the squad." Roy said with concern.
"Roy we need to move him into there and I need to properly check him out. I think I may need to put a chest tube in" Dr Morton knew this was serious, he had seen foaming blood in Johnny's mouth. They quickly moved Johnny to a bed.
Dr Morton listened to Johnny's lungs. "Diminished breaths in his right. Either the bullets nicked the lung or it's penetrated it. I need to put in a chest tube to help him breath." Dr Morton pulled out the necessary equipment. Roy gathered all the vitals and started an IV.
They heard banging on a cupboard door. Roy ran over to the cupboard and opened it. The mother and child looked up at Roy and sighed with relief. Roy was somewhat relieved that they were ok also.
"How is she?" Roy asked.
"She's alright, I think I'm going to take her home and put her in her own bed. Thank you for helping us. I hope your friend will be ok. I'll call the police as soon as I get home, that's if the phone is working" she held her daughter close and made their way out to their car parked out back. All she wanted to do was get away from the station. Roy reluctantly let them go, but he was worried the men may come back, so her leaving and getting safely home was a better option.
He ran back to Dr Morton and took a new set of vitals. Dr Morton inserted the chest tube and was pleased with what he heard once he listened to Johnny's lung. "It's better for now but we need to get that bullet out. Infection is Johnny's biggest enemy at the moment, without a spleen he'll need antibiotics. I don't have what he needs." Dr Morton continued to monitor Johnny's breathing.
"Rampart this is rescue 51...Rampart rescue 51..." Roy waited for a response.
"Resc..." the line went dead.
"Rampart do you read...Rampart this is Rescue 51 How do you read?" Roy checked the biophone "The battery's dead. We have a spare in the squad. I'll go get it and I'll call this in. I'll get despatch to arrange for a helicopter" Roy ran from the room.
"So everything seemed fine to you" asked Vince again, he was not convinced that the men at the station were on the up and up. "Did you at least see the men I was talking about?"
"No I was talking to...Johnny?...in the part where the fire engine is usually parked. How they would park it in there with that van parked there I don't know. It would be a tight squeeze."
"I guess they parked there after the engine left on a call" Vince said still thinking about the behaviour of the three men. They were definitely nervous and became even more so when he mentioned the van.
"Hang on this Johnny said that the van belonged to one of the fireman."
Vince looked at Baker frowning "What? It belonged to the men I called about. I questioned them about the bald tyre and they said they had had a flat and it was a spare. You sure Johnny said the van belonged to a fireman" asked Vince?
"Yes he definitely said it belonged to one of the engine crew...in fact he said he didn't know which one because he and his partner were not normally stationed there" said Baker.
"Something's not right...I think we need to go back there" said Vince with concern for his friends. A loud crack of thunder made them all jump and the rain was coming down so hard Officer Baker knew he wouldn't make it to his car without getting soaked.
"Maybe we should call this in first and get some reinforcements, although we're spread pretty thin with the entire cleanup." Officer Baker wasn't sure if just he and Vince would be able to help the people at the fire station without some help.
"What happened?" Dr Brackett asked Dixie.
"The line went dead" Dixie looked concerned because she knew how isolated squad 51 was.
"Who was it?" asked Dr Brackett seeing how concerned Dixie was.
"Squad 51...Kel they're really isolated up there. What if they need help." She asked?
"Mike's with them, he'll handle things. No doubt it was just the battery. We should hear from them soon" Dr Brackett was trying to convince Dixie as well as himself; that everything was going to be ok. His mouth twitched as an uneasy feeling cloaked him. He knew both he and Dixie would not feel relaxed until Johnny or Roy contacted them.
Roy ran back into the dorm "The squads been trashed Doc. The radio, our HT's, the tyres all destroyed or missing."
"What about the battery" but from the look on Roy's face he knew the news was not good.