Another Fishing Trip

The sun was getting ready to set on the horizon as a fuming John Gage drove down the road. An equally grumpy Chet Kelly sat in the passenger seat while his partner of six years sat in the back. Roy had had enough of his partner for a while and needed a break from his chattering. John knew why he had traded places with Chet and just to spite him he was trying not to say a word.

There were miles to go before they hoped to find a place they could sleep for the night and they were tired. Once again he had talked his buddies into what was supposed to be the fishing trip of a life time and here they were going home days earlier than they had planned and without the cooler full of fish to share with their friends back at the station and their families. Cap would be happy but he would be the only one.

Chet was making yet another attempt to find some kind of a radio station on the truck's radio but was getting nothing more than static. The silence and the lack of anything other than cloned sage brush on both sides of the road were getting to all of them.

"Look guys, I'm sorry," John finally broke the silence. "I just wanted to make up for the last time I brought you guys out here to go fishing. You have to admit that my information about the fishing being better this time was right."

"Well Gage, I'll give that one to you. I just want to know where you got your information because whoever told you also told the entire western United States," Kelly snapped back. "I mean, I've never seen so many people fishing around a lake in my life. And that stream we went to the next day wasn't a whole lot better."

"At least we caught some fish this time around," John tried to defend himself but of what he wasn't sure yet.

"No Gage, we didn't catch any fish, we tangled in someone else's line and they felt sorry for us and let us have the fish," Chet offered as his interpretation to the events.

"I have to agree with Kelly," Roy rubbed at the bandage on his ear. "You know what I don't get is why was that group of people just catching fish and then throwing them back. I mean if they had their limit then why didn't they move on and let someone else catch some fish, why did they have to throw them back and then let their kids throw rocks all around them so that no one else could catch any fish?"

There were more than a few folks in that area that weren't too keen on sharing their natural resources with the out of state visitors.

"And that other group of guys," Kelly added his frustration. "They kept saying the fish were too small. What were they trying for, trophies that they can mount on their wall? Whatever happed to eating them?"

"That little creek we found downstream sure looked like it would have been great fishing. You could actually see the fish from the bank and they were HUGE. Johnny rattled on. "If it weren't for those kids jumping in and out of the water all the time we could have caught enough fish to eat with plenty to take home."

"I got the feeling that those boys have eaten so many fish that they would rather not have another for a while," Roy answered with a smile on his face as both Chet and John saw the light in their friend's words.

"How would it be to grow up within biking distance from a place like that?" Chet responded to Roy's enlightenment. "A great fishing hole with a place to swim. Man the only thing missing there was a rope swing hanging from one of those old cottonwood trees where they could swing out and drop into the water. A great place to get away to, once your chores were done."

"I bet most of the boys that were there were there instead of doing their chores," Johnny added. He knew he would have been at their age but he wasn't about to admit it out loud.

"I don't know." Roy was about to show them the rescue working father's vision of what they'd seen. "That's a lot of deep and fast moving water and those boys were playing kind of recklessly. I'm not sure I'd want my kids around there without more adult supervision. I sure wouldn't want to end up burying one of my kids because they drown while they were joking around."

"Yeah, you got a point there. We already know what kind of emergency response program they have in this area from the last time we came here." John was able to see his partners point far too well.

"Well, at least once the kids went home for dinner we got a few bites." Johnny turned the conversation back to a vacationing note while he continued to try and convince his friends that this trip wasn't all bad. "If they would have allowed us to camp there I'm sure we'd have caught our limit this morning before the kids arrived to scare the fish away."

"I think you're right, we did manage to catch enough for dinner before we had to leave the area for the night, too bad the only thing you caught was that huge bull frog, or was it a toad?" Chet giggled at the memory for the green catch and its four legs hanging from John's line, not to mention the look on John's face. Roy quietly joined the laughter from the back of the rover as Chet continued on. "You should have kissed it to find out before you set it free again."

John shifted his jaw, grinding his teeth against each other for a moment and then turned to the phantom at his side with his classic crocked grin. "Na, I'm good, Ashley is enough for me. I'm so sorry that I didn't think about that and offer you the chance since you're between girlfriends at the moment and all."

Both John and Roy were enjoying the fact that Chet didn't have a comeback and John watched his nemesis's flustered face maybe a millisecond longer than he should have since he was driving.

"GAGE, LOOK OUT!" Chet screamed while pointing through the windshield, but John had already seen it through his peripheral vision and was starting to react. A truck headed in the opposite direction had drifted into their lane and was coming right at them.

John swerved out of the path of the oncoming truck at the same time he laid into the car horn. After hitting something on the side of the road that lifted the passenger side tire John was driving on two wheels for a moment throwing an un seat belted Roy across the back of the rover and causing him to hit his head on the other side, while the other driver, startled by the sound of the car horn also swerved in his attempt to get back in his lane.

The two cars narrowly missed colliding but the truck has turned so sharply that it started to roll. While John was getting his rover back on all four tires the truck they had just missed hitting head on tumbled down the road behind him. Chet had a hand on the now unconscious Roy holding him against the side of the truck behind John to keep him from bouncing around more and getting hurt worse. While John was bringing his truck to a stop Chet counted as the other truck rolled three times down the road in the opposite direction before coming to rest on at an odd angle at the side of the road.

When John finally got his truck stopped he had to take a couple of deep breaths before he was able to turn to Chet. "Are you hurt?"

"No," Chet spoke quickly, "but Roy is."

John quickly turned around then undid his seatbelt and kneeled on the seat facing the back as he started to evaluate Roy. He was quick to notice the hold Chet was still maintaining as he had a hold of Roy's neck with his fingers spread out to support Roy's head and upper back. The next thing he noticed was the blood dripping down the side of his face and into his eyes.

Quickly John checked a pulse and sighed in relief at the feel of the strength and healthy speed of it. He then moved his practiced hands over his partner's body finding the small laceration on his forehead along with a lump swelling underneath it. All else felt the way the bones were supposed to, to his touch and Roy was just starting to move and moan a little in the beginning stages of coming around.

Chet was just reaching in his direction with a gauze pad from the now open first aid kit and Johnny carefully applied it to the wound that was already starting to slow its bleeding.

That was when they heard the whoosh sound of flames springing forth under the hood of the other truck pulling Johnny's instant and full attention in that direction.

Chet quickly unhooked the fire extinguisher from under the passenger seat and was starting to get out of the car when Johnny stopped him. "I better go, he might need a medic. You stay with Roy. He's starting to come around so keep him calm and don't move him."

As John ran toward the second car he worked with the extinguisher in his hands to get it ready to attack the fire. In truth Chet could have and would have done every bit as good as he could do but there was a victim involved. Since the fire extinguisher would only do so much against the fire and with gasoline all over the road and pooling around the truck there was going to be a need to move the victim. The risks of doing more harm while moving him were great so Johnny felt he needed to be the one to evaluate his injuries first.

He was sure Roy was going to be alright and Chet knew enough first aid to take care of him while he dealt with the other patient. In fact since they were out of state and therefore uncertified and without all of their equipment and the drug boxes, Chet could do just as much for his partner as he could.

The same could probably be said for the guy in the other truck but John was still a paramedic and chose to act like one, including leaving his partner to help the civilian first.

It took the entire contents of John's small fire extinguisher to extinguish the flames that were coming out from under the rumpled truck hood but once the flames were no longer visible the hood was still too bent up to get open without a crow bar of some kind and there were sparks still coming from the battery. With large quantities of gas flowing from the ruptured gas tank and seeping into the road and a large area of dried brush and piled tumble weeds next to where the truck now lay, there was a very big fire in the making and any one of the sparks coming from under the hood of the truck would be all that was needed to start one.

If the guy in the truck were still alive he needed to be moved quickly for his own safety. If he wasn't he still should be moved so that his family would have a body to say good-bye to, but in that case John wouldn't have to be quite so careful in moving him.

Before Johnny could even touch the guy, he knew he was still alive by the spurting bright red blood coming from his thigh. He also knew they were in big trouble.