The Boot

Chapter Twenty Eight

By GCS

DISCLAIMER: "Emergency!" and its characters © Mark VII Productions, Inc. and Universal Studios. All rights reserved. No infringement of any copyrights or trademarks is intended or should be inferred. This is a work of fiction. This story is only written for entertainment. No financial gain is being realized from it. The story, itself, is the property of the author.

When Johnny and Scotty entered the dayroom it was like walking into the silence in a library. Everyone seemed suspended in time…waiting to see what had happened in Cap's office…cups held in mid-air…the turning of pages of the newspaper stopped in the process…conversations dropped mid-sentence; it was so quiet it seemed as though everyone held their breath.

The 'behind closed doors' at a fire station was kind of an oxymoron…in a fire station it seemed that nothing was really done in private…word spread fast that someone had been called to the Cap's office and the door closed…and before long everyone had assembled to witness the results...hover by the closed door hoping to overhear some tidbit of the goings on inside, but not wanting to get caught in the act…or waiting as a unit in the dayroom for the inevitable return of the 'victim'.

Johnny stopped dead in his tracks as soon as he felt all eyes on him.

Scotty cleared his throat and winked at the assembled men and all the suspended activity resumed exactly where it had left off; the noise of the room echoing into the equipment bay and helping relax the young lineman. "Come on Boot, let's get something to drink." He pulled Johnny into the kitchen and over beside the cabinets.

Johnny still looked pale and skittish. Scotty could tell he was still on the edge. First, the heat exhaustion from the fire, and then the stress that enveloped him after, because of his actions at the fire and pending meeting with Cap; finally, the relief from knowing he wouldn't be washed out, had left him near collapse. The Boot kept his eyes on his shoes; one hand fidgeted with the seam of his pant leg while the other was shoved deeply into a pocket to keep it still. Scotty moved past Johnny to get a glass. He quickly filled it with milk knowing it was Johnny's drink of choice.

Johnny took the proffered glass and downed it in a few gulps. Before he was fully aware of it, the glass had been removed and refilled. Scotty held it back out to him. He took it and emptied it almost as fast, turned to the sink to wash it out and placed it in the rack to dry. He then looked to his friend who stood close by sipping his drink of choice. Johnny thought he'd never seen anyone drink as much coffee as Scotty did. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Scotty smiled.

"Uh…I'm kind of tired." Johnny said softly looking back at his shoes.

"You're gear is already beside your bunk." Scotty answered almost as soft. He didn't want to embarrass Johnny with the fact that he'd set up his bunkers for him. Johnny looked up with a raise eyebrow. "Well, you were kind of out of it after that fire." He shrugged and grinned broadly before taking another sip of coffee to mask his amusement at the red that grew from Johnny's neck and up onto his face.

Johnny stared at him for a few seconds before a crooked grin appeared on his reddened face and he chuckled. "Okay…thanks…I guess." Then he turned, nodded his head in his own amusement at the way Scotty tried to take care of him. Actually, it felt good to know someone had his back. "Nite." He called over his shoulder.

"Night Gage," Cody called to him which was followed by most of the guys in the room offering some kind of good wishes for a good night's sleep for the exhausted man.

Each step up the staircase to the dorms seemed to require more energy than should have been necessary, and with each step his feet seemed to become heavier and heavier. Johnny practically had to pull himself up the stairs. He gripped the railing tighter with each upward step…even his bones felt weary. When he finally reached the top, slid out of his uniform and lowered himself to his bunk he fell asleep before his head hit the pillow.

The rest of the crew followed him at different times, but after fighting fires like the ones they had today they were all tired and by ten o'clock the firehouse was eerily quiet.

Their respite didn't last long…at half past one the klaxons rang out jerking the men from their restful slumber and sending them once again into the streets of LA with lights flashing and sirens screaming. Johnny watched the lights streaming passed his window in a daze. He still felt groggy. The normal adrenalin rush that energized him on a call seemed to be missing tonight…replaced by a weary weightiness and dread at the heat he guessed they would soon be facing, but he knew they had a job to do no matter how tired they were or how many fires they'd fought; MVA's they'd worked or hoses they'd hauled…they would answer the call to duty and perform that duty as they'd been trained.

He struggled to sit taller and focus his energies on the call. He scrubbed his hands over his face and blinked the sleep from his eyes. He glanced over at Bill and noticed he seemed to be doing the same thing…trying to will away the sleep and prepare for the job.

The fire was BIG…it usually was when they called out all the equipment from 10's, but this…this was a monster! A fully involved two story market in an old strip mall had smoke pouring into the night sky like a ghostly shroud; in the front display windows the vibrant colors of fresh produce mixed with the orange glow of the flames threatening to devour everything in its path.

The second story windows remained blackened but Johnny couldn't be sure if that was because it was night and the lights were out or because they were blackened from the heavy smoke, but there was no time to ponder that thought. He and Bill were ordered to pull a line and enter the structure through the main entrance. As soon as they stepped inside they were blasted with unbelievable heat and rapid fire spread. Another team followed immediately behind them into the attack. Johnny couldn't be sure who the other team was. When a fireman is in full turnouts with SCBA the only thing that separates one man from another is the name stenciled on his back…unless you had worked with the men so long you recognized their movements. Still being new to the department, Johnny didn't have that knowledge of the other men in the battle beside him on that night.

Other teams set up an exterior defensive effort with the heavy stream appliances mounted atop the engines directing streams into the upper floor windows which easily caved under the strong water pressure.

Scotty busied himself with his gauges, but hesitated as he watched Bill and Johnny disappear into the thick smoke. 'Be safe guys…this is a bad boy…I hope your instincts are working tonight Boot, cause you're gonna need 'em'

Gary Cooper moved the ladder truck into position and extended her load high above the burning structure and one of her crew moved up the length of the ladder with his hose to establish an aerial defense. The stark white sections stood out against the darkened smoke filled night sky. As soon as the Chief felt they had an upper hand, men would be dispatched to the roof to ventilate. The crewmen at the base of the ladder waited at the ready with axes in hand to mount the outstretched bridge to the roof.

Additional stations continued arriving and joining the defensive. As their hoses were laid crisscrossing those from the original response teams, their heavy stream appliances were aimed at the structure crisscrossing the high powered streams dancing in the night sky. A dissonance of pumps and motors echoed into the streets making tune to a peculiar song of the battle against the destructive forces of the flames snaking up inside the building trying to reach its tendrils toward the heavens.

Shoots of water spread across the building's façade raining down in sheets over the men below who stood guard outside the entrance keeping a clear exit for those brave souls inside. While more teams found their way passed the front and into the heat of the interior others already face to face with the dragon grew weary in the fight…but refused to give up.

Johnny tapped Bill's shoulder and moved to take the nozzle for his turn at the lead. Sweat trickled down his neck and back soaking into his t-shirt making it stick to his overheated skin. The men were limited to hand gestures, shoulder taps and inadequate eye contact to communicate. The unbearable wall of intense heat made them keep their distance from moving further into the structure. Johnny danced the hose in a circular motion to extend the output over as much of an area as he could to push the flames down, but they continued to dance with delight at the ineffective spray hopping from one timber to the next and roasting the produce along the way. He was glad he had his SCBA mask on to block most of the smell of burnt fruit and vegetables, but the stench still seemed to seep in and make him nauseous.

Outside the Chief had deployed the roof attack and men began the trek up the outstretched ladders.

Scotty and the other engineers watched with a trained eye the entire scene while maintaining water pressure in a delicate balance of water and purpose.

Suddenly HT's around the battlefield squawked to life and orders to pull back rang out in tandem from the myriad of hand held and cab mounted radios. The roof team scrambled to the ladders leaving behind a wake of small holes they'd begun to create emitting smoke into the already darkened clouds. Shortly after they were called off a sagging portion of the roof collapsed bringing debris down hard onto the weakened second story floor and causing it to drop unwittingly onto the men below who hadn't had time to escape the structure.

Johnny saw it…felt it…sensed it coming…he quickly shut off the nozzle just as the call to evacuate started from the HT in his pocket. He turned and waved his arm at the other teams around him and Bill; then grabbed Bill's shoulder in urgency and pushed him toward the exit, but before either could move the ceiling above fell hard against their backs and pushed them to the floor under the weight of wall, water, furniture and wet insulation.

Scotty knew as soon as the hoses were shut off. He adjusted the pressure on the pumps and watched the door for his team. Instead of men running from the structure what he saw was a burst of debris and glass as the windows blew out in a gust of air pressure and littered the street with tiny shards of sparkling glass that disappeared beneath the river of water that had spread onto the street from the heavy onslaught and rushed toward the storm drains carrying dust, soot and now glass into the depths of the sewers below. He waited in anticipation and hope for his brothers to emerge…but his hopes were dashed in the split seconds that followed by the loud crashing noises from inside.

Johnny felt the pressure slam against his back pushing him into and down with Bill. Together the two men fell in a tangled heap of bodies and debris. Exhaustion mixed with pain filled him as he slipped into darkness.

Scotty called to his superior, "Cap! Gage and McDonald are still in there."

As Captain Jones' attention turned to the entrance two men stumbled supporting each other from its mouth and into the street collapsing into the arms of their brothers…but Cap knew it wasn't his men. Johnny was much taller than either of these two, and Bill much broader. No his men were still inside with the beast. He quickly raised his HT to his mouth and barked out orders for Tony and Joe to assemble a team to go in after the missing crewmen.

Tony, Joe, Dave Gotchalk and Jim Graves moved toward the structure and into the black hole that once opened into a brightly colored display area of fresh delicacies. The firefighting crews had reassembled and a resurgence of water poured onto the flames in an effort to hold the beast at bay until the missing men could be brought to safety.

Johnny struggled back to consciousness not knowing how long he'd been out and blinked his eyes to clear them. Everything appeared fuzzy and dark. He thought it might be the smoke and ash, but in fact he was a little dizzy too. He tried to push up, but the weight on his back prevented much movement. Bill tried to move as well. Johnny could feel Bill's legs beneath him, but he couldn't discern if Bill could get them out or not. He was just too exhausted and hot to think clearly, and with his mask on Bill wouldn't be able to understand his muffled speech if he asked.

Outside Jeff Swanson made his way back up the ladder and disappeared into the black smoke pouring from the opened roof. Word had spread quickly of who the missing men were. He aimed his spray into the cavernous hole in the center. 'Come on Gage…we've come too far in this to give into it. I'm doing my part up here…now you do yours and you and Bill get out of there.'

Johnny could feel the spray of water falling down on them and the cooling effects it had. He could hear muffled noises somewhere nearby. "Here!" He called. "Over here!" His strength diminished quickly, and he thought he heard Bill calling to their rescuers as well, but the darkness overtook him again before he could tell for sure.

"Over there!" Joe called to everyone. "I can see Bill." His words were muffled by his mask, but the others followed his pointing and could see their fallen crewmate buried from his waist down. He was conscious and trying to pull himself from the rubble. As they drew closer they could also see Johnny's gloved hand lying limply atop a crushed and partially burned melon.

The men made quick work of uncovering their brothers. Bill was helped to his feet and held between Gotchalk and Graves as Joe lifted Johnny's limp form over Tony's shoulders. Joe spotted Tony as they moved toward freedom from the shell of livelihood now a disheveled pile of smoking ruin.

Shouts of exhilarated relief could be heard as the rag tag group stumbled forth into the welcoming spray and across the attack zone to the safety of the rescue squad.

Bill sunk down onto the running board and Johnny was lowered onto a yellow blanket. Tony held him in a seated position as Joe removed his SCBA; then he was laid back and checked for broken bones. "I don't think anything is broken, but he's out cold. We had better get him on some oxygen and over to Rampart." Tony waved the ambulance attendants over with a stretcher. "I'll ride in with him. Bill are you okay? Maybe you should ride in with us and get checked out."

Bill stood slowly. "I'm okay, just a little tired and banged up." He stretched his right arm in a circular motion up and over his head and back down to his side. "Everything seems to be working." He looked over at Johnny. "I sure hope he's okay. He shoved me out of the way before I even realized what was happening."

"He probably has a concussion, and he already had heat exhaustion from the earlier fire. It's probably a combination of the two. Dr. Brackett will sort him out when we get him to Rampart." Tony reached over and gripped Bill's shoulder in reassurance before following Johnny's gurney into the ambulance. "I'll see you guys back at the barn."

The ambulance doors were closed and slapped twice to indicate their readiness to depart.

Across the expanse of red vehicles and hoses snaked through the puddles the victory was on the side of the Los Angeles County Fire Department on that fateful night. The produce store was a total loss, but the adjoining stores had been saved due to the division walls separating portions of the large structure from the fire that gutted the produce store. Those protective walls prevented significant vertical and horizontal fire spread to other uninvolved stores housed in the strip mall and allowed structural support to maintain the integrity of the adjoining storefronts when the roof collapsed down on Johnny and Bill.

No lives were lost and only one man suffered injury enough to be transported to the hospital.

The ambulance pulled away with lights flashing and sirens alerting anyone paying attention that they had an injured man onboard.