*Sorry about the long wait in between chapters on this one, I had a bit of writers block, but I finally am making progress on it and have an idea on how to wrap it up (endings have never been my forte, hehe)
"Roy's with the mayor, who has been shot, as well as those we have found so far. As for why we are down here, we were just adding a guy who was guarding two prisoners to our makeshift jail cell." Jim answered both questions, "We think we have a way out of here, but let's not talk about it here where our friends might over hear us." The others nodded and followed Jim and Jon back to where Roy and the others were.
Once Roy and Johnny had greeted each other joyfully and gone back to keeping an eye on the mayor, Jim and Jon told Pete and Ponch their plan. "So all that's left is to find the janitor for this plan to be a success?" Ponch asked. "Not quite, I mean once everyone is safe at Rampart, the yes, but a far as getting in up and running, yes." Jon said to his partner. "We need to speed this up." Pete said, "With our disappearance we must have those "rioters" stirred up, and I don't know what we can expect of them."
"So we're splitting up again?" Jim asked. "Yes, only this time, let's stick with our partners, at least having them on the same floor wise. Baker and Ponch, you will finish up this floor before joining us on the fifth floor." Pete answered. All the officers nodded, then headed off to do their task, knowing that they were running out of time to do so.
Jim quickly showed Ponch where he had left off, before going upstairs with Pete. The last remaining door for Ponch went quickly, though he didn't quite dare go in the ladies room he knocked and listened for an answer. In the men's room, he found the janitor hiding in a stall. He said, "Hey dude, you're safe. I'm with the CHP." "Thank goodness." Said the older man, "I was beginning to wonder if the whole world had gone crazy. Jessie is the name, and yours?"
"Oh excuse me, it's Ponch." Ponch said, "Sir you wouldn't happen to have the key to the roof with you by any chance." "Course I do, never without a key, you can never tell when you will need it." "Great! For now, come with me to the mayor's office. Once we are sure we have everyone we will move out." Once Ponch arrived back at the mayor's office, Jon was there waiting for him having finished his rooms. When Ponch confided in Jon he hadn't actually gone in the ladies room, Jon had him take Nicole to look, which she found clear.
Once they were sure everyone was settled and the two paramedics had everything under control, they headed to the fifth floor, taking the key to the roof with them. Pete and Jim had found a few more people, a girl named Kairi who was visiting her mother at work, her mother Jane, a city official named Mikey and his gopher Felicity. They had kept them in the room Kairi and Jane had been in when they found them.
As the four of them were about to round a corner in the hall, Pete shot out his arm, blocking the others from moving. He held his finger up to his lips and peered quietly around the corner. Two of the rioters were standing in front of a door in the middle of the hall. Pete motioned for the others to follow him back into another room and waited for the last one to enter and close the door.
Once that was accomplished, he whispered to them what he had seen. "Great, why did they have to be in the center of the hall? How are we supposed to take them out quietly?" Ponch asked. The others didn't answer, for they were wondering the same thing. Finally Pete said, "Okay, here's what we are going to do. Two of us will keep an eye on them, while the other two take the four people we have found already to the roof. Once that is accomplished, they will go and get the paramedics and the other people and move them all to the roof."
"If by that time," he continued, "They haven't moved from that area we will have to take a chance on getting them, maybe tricking them somehow to come around the corner one at a time or both together. Baker and I'll stand guard while you two get going on my other list." He would rather have kept Jim with him, but the younger man didn't have the years on the force that him and Jon had, so he wasn't sure if his patience could hold out. He knew Ponch's temper wouldn't be a good thing if something went down, so he went with his best bet at getting the two men quietly.
Once Jim and Ponch had left to do as Pete said, Jon asked, "Are we really going to wait or are you just wanting them out of the picture so we can get them." Pete smiled and said, "I figure you and I can handle things with our experience. Once we hear the door to the stairs close, we will make our move."
They waited for what seemed like forever, before they heard the soft sounds of the door closing. Pete nodded at Jon and they went into action. Jon disguised his voice to sound as close to the "rioter" that they had taken care of earlier and said, "Hey guys, a little help?" with a bit of sarcasm thrown in. To Pete's ears, and apparently to the "rioters" ears, he got it pretty dang on, for the two men rounded the corner… where they were instantly knocked out by Pete and Jon.
Once they had them bound and gagged, they made their way to the door they had been guarding, taking their time to check the doors in between them and it. Inside they found several officials, one with a wound on his arm from a knife, huddled inside. They introduced themselves as Barry, Ronnie, Oliver, Phil and Regina. Oliver was the one with the wounded arm and they were careful with him as they led him towards the stairwells. Jim and Ponch arrived just then and they took the two prisoners down to their temporary jail cell and gathered the fireman's equipment that was left.
Once the officials were on the roof, Pete and Jon checked the last few rooms and found them empty. Pete turned to the janitor and asked, "These stairs lock when the door is closed, correct?" "Correct." he replied. Pete nodded and then as soon as the last of the emergency crew and the civilians were on the roof, he closed the door.
Then he got everyone's attention and said, "Listen everyone. We need things to run smoothly if we are all going to get out of this. Rampart Hospital is going to send us a helicopter. It has room for 5 people each ride. I will be assigning rides to everyone, the injured will be the first to go. That means mayor Orion and Oliver will be on the first flight along with Roy to care for them. Since the mayor is in the stokes, May, Jane and Kairi will also be taking this flight."
"All the flights after the first one, will also be taking some of the paramedics equipment with them, to ensure the rioters don't get their hands on it. Second flight will be Liz, Agnes, Whitney, Lily and Emily. Third flight will be Nancy, Jessie, Seamus, Dmitri and Lucas. Fourth flight will be Nicole, Regina, Neal, August and Felicity. Fifth flight will be Carson, Mikey, Barry, Ronnie and Phil, and the last flight will be myself and the remaining emergency crew."
"After the first flight even starts coming in, this is going to get dangerous. We can't be sure that everyone will get out safely, but we will get you out of here. This will get scary, but we should be relatively safe up here on the roof. You must not panic, that will not help you or any of the others. It will take roughly 5 minutes for the helicopter to fly here and 5 minutes back with time on each end for unloading and loading. These trips will take about 15 minutes I say and could even be longer, so the last group won't be leaving for over an hour. We need to be ready to sit tight. If another helicopter is freed up and sent to help, the next group will take that flight, if it's smaller than the other we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, if it's bigger, I will be reassigning people, but don't get your hopes up on a second chopper."
Looking around he saw the determined, though terrified faces looking to him and he said, "Is everyone ready?" He waited until they all nodded, before saying, "Okay Roy call for the chopper."