LEAP BEFORE YOU LOOK
by ardavenport
- - - Part 3
There was plenty of smoke. But it could have been worse. They had three engines and a truck company on the fire. The building was empty. As they rolled in, Officer Vince Howard told them that they'd busted groups of winos, who built fires inside to keep warm, before. So, it was a good bet that was how this fire got started, but it looked like whoever might have started it had run off. Engine Eighty-Six hadn't found anyone inside.
In full gear, his breath loud in his air mask, Roy advanced with the hose down the smoke blackened corridor, Johnny carrying it behind him. The air was hot and acrid.
"Aaaah!"
Suddenly appearing out of the dark, there was a man in front of him. A shabby older man in dark clothes, a hat and clutching a bottle of wine as if it might protect him. He coughed, his pale eyes wide and terrified in the firelight and Roy just barely missed knocking him over with a spray of water.
"Johnny! We got a victim in here!"
Something rumbled above.
Roy automatically huddled as soon as he felt the weight from above, trying to protect his body. But something landed on his left leg, heavy and hot enough to feel the heat even through his boots.
"Roy!"
The weight was gone and then he was being drenched in a stinging water stream.
"Roy!"
Johnny pulled him upright. His leg hurt. There would be quite a bruise, but he was sure it wasn't broken or burned.
The man was still there, still terrified. Coughing harder, the bottle still clutched in his hand. He suddenly ducked away down the corridor he had appeared from.
"Johnny! Go after him! I'm fine!"
Roy saw Johnny looking at him, firelight reflected on his face mask. He looked to where the man had been and then back at Roy.
Johnny grabbed his arm, put it over his shoulder and lifted.
"Come on!"
Roy didn't really have a choice as he limped with his partner down the narrow hallway, dark and unlit, even by the fire; there was light at the end. Roy saw outlines of metal shelves in waving firelight. The old man's silhoette ahead of them collapsed.
Getting to the end of the corridor, Johnny went right past him.
"Johnny!"
There was a wall ahead of them, then a heavy door swinging open. And total blackness ahead.
"Get inside, quick!" Roy went down on his hands and knees; his left leg throbbed with the pain, but adrenaline let hm crawl forward a few steps and then flip over so he could see behind him without falling backwards onto his air tank.
A second later, Johnny's silhoette appeared, with the old man, blocking the only light coming in. Then the heavy door closed. It was completely black.
Roy pushed his mask off.
"Johnny, what is this –?"
The explosion outside drowned him out even through the thick walls and Roy dove down to protect his body again.
But nothing happened. At least not to them in whatever pitch dark sanctuary they were in. But outside. . . .
Roy peeked upward, though he couldn't see a thing. "Roof collapse."
The old man coughed in the darkness.
"Hey." He heard Johnny's voice, unmuffled by his mask. "Breath into this. Come on."
The air reeked of smoke, but it was nowhere near as bad it was outside.
"Johnny, how did you know about this place?"
"Well, the old guy had to be hiding someplace safe in here all this time. . . " cough-cough. ". . . he must sleep here or something. Must've woken up, panicked and tried to get out."
Roy could hear more rumbling, crashing outside, but not near or over them this time. They were safe for the moment. Except the air was clostrophobically warm and felt like it was getting hotter.
"Is this some kind of walk in freezer or something do you think?"
Roy heard a thick, flemmy cough on the floor. "Yeah. Got my bead roll here and the door fixed so I can," cough ,"come and go when I please." Cough-cough. "No one bothering me." Cough.
"Hey, put this back on."
Roy knew they couldn't go now. He tugged at a strap of the heavy tank on his back. It was getting hotter.
"How much air do you think we have?"
"I don't know." Johnny paused and Roy heard the old man breathing into his partner's mask. "But I'll bet it's still a lot more air than we would've had out there."
...oo\\oo\\oo\\ ...oo\\oo\\oo\\ ...oo\\oo\\oo\\
His knees weak, Johnny slid down to the floor, leaning against one of the white supports of the table.
He would have killed Roy. He would have killed them all.
He felt sick, like he couldn't breath and he just sat there for a long time, staring at the blueness. If it hadn't been for that guy Sam . . . .
He heard the door hiss open. Footsteps.
Al knealt down beside him. His badly matched outfit and metalic gold tie just as untouched as they had been when he went with Roy and Sam into the fire.
"I would have killed them." Johnny's throat tightened, choking his words into a near whisper. He wiped his face.
"Well, that's what Sam was there to fix. You would've seen the old man, thought about your uncle and tried to just get Roy out. You wouldn't have meant to kill anyone. It would have been just a choice."
"Well, it would have been the wrong choice! And I would have killed Roy."
Johnny had to stop and take a deep breath before continuing. "I would've done what you're never supposed to do. I would've left that old wino behind because I thought Roy was the one who should make it instead. And you know what." He looked up at Al. "Even if we'd made it, Roy would never have forgiven me for leaving a victim behind." He shook his head. "Never."
Al laid his hand on his shoulder.
"Well, you would have meant well. But you won't remember any of it after you leap back, anyway."
Johnny wiped his face. "Huh? What?" He squinted back to Al. "What you mean. I could I not remember?"
"I don't know." Al looked genuinely puzzled. "We haven't really figured out how that part of it works yet."
Al and everything around him faded into bright white. . . .
. . . . and total black.
"Johnny." Roy's voice.
"Yeeeaaahhhh. . . . " It was so hot. He was soaked with sweat under his turnouts and air tank. The air was thick. . . .
. . . . fading into a gray square, a black outline wearing a fire helmet. A muffled voice.
"Hey! They're alive!"
. . . . fading into more voices and men shouting and hands and dark shapes passing by above, fading into . . . .
"Johnny?"
"Yeeeaaahh . . . ."
. . . . Sky. The air had gone cool. It felt good on his face.
He took a deep breath. . . . .
. . . .coughed into an oxygen mask. He lifted his head, trying to see. There were red flashing lights, white street lights and a haze of smoke above them. But no yellow fire glow.
"Hey. Just lie down." A hand pressed him back down and held his wrist. There was an IV in his arm, the bag lying on his chest. His head lay on something passably softer than the pavement under the rest of him.
Who? Johnny blinked up at a familiar face. It was . . . . . Al?
No. It was Ernie Brown. Squad Forty-Five.
"What?" He tried to look around. Was the fire out? Ernie pushed him back down again.
'Hey, Gage, just lie still. Ambulance is almost here."
"Johnny?"
He turned his head toward Roy's voice. An oxygen mask in one hand, he sat on the back bumper of a squad. One boot was off.
"Hey. Next time, let me help sharing the oxygen with the victim."
The victim . . . . Johnny didn't see him. Ernie pressed him down again. "He got the first ambulane out with Tom and Nick Salvietti from Eighty-Six with a broken kneecap and a concussion. He's going to be fine, Gage. But he keeps asking for his bottle."
He let his head drop and stared up at the sky covered with a film of lingering slightly less black smoke. There was a siren coming.
They got the victim out alive. He and Roy and that old man got out alive. Johnny guessed he must have blacked out. Had to be the heat. Everything was a weird jumble of noise, shadows and then masks being torn off smudged faces looking down at him. Did Captain Stanley cry?
The ambulance rolled up. The attendants, Hal and a new guy, came around with the gurney. Johnny held onto the IV bag while Ernie helped them lift him and the O2. Then Roy limped to the ambulance with them and Hal helped him in before loading the gurney. Ernie climbed in last. The doors slammed shut and the ambulance took off.
Johnny coughed a couple of time, but he didn't feel too bad at all. No burns, no scrapes. He wasn't even dizzy from the heat. And they all got out alive. Not bad at all.
"How's your leg?" Johnny gestured to Roy with his free hand, sitting on the bench next to Ernie. There was a bandge on the side of his leg and a big bruise
"Oh, it's fine. But Cap wanted me to have it checked out anyway." Roy grinned. "I think he just wanted to get us out of there before anything else happened to us."
Roy and Ernie both braced themselves as the ambulance took a turn.
"Yeah, you're both going to be fine. And I think your captain's going to put you in for a commendaton." Ernie pointed at him.
"Commendation? I'm going to put him in for the Medal of Valor for getting us out of there. I swear it's never been that close, Ernie." Roy gave a quick rundown of what happened. By the time he was done, they were nearly at Rampart.
Ernie sucked in his breath as if stung. "I'd say you are two real lucky firmen." The ambulance slowed, stopped and backed up. Ernie got up when it stopped again. The doors opened.
Doctor Mike Mortor was waiting. All business and no bedside manner, he was not Johnny's favorite medico, but he wasn't complaining. They were alive. It was almost twenty minutes and the end of the IV before Morton was satisfied that his blood pressure and vitals were back to normal. But Johnny completely forgot about uncle's funeral until Roy, in socks, carrying his boots and no longer limping, came in to see him.
Uncle John . . . . Johnny was just glad he hadn't killed someone else when he ran his car off the road. He was not looking forward to the trip, especially after being up most of the night, too. He got along fine with his family, but he never understood why his father always made excuses for his uncle.
Oh well.
Johnny hopped off the table, eager to leave the hospital. Captain Stanley had sent Marco to pick them up in the squad.
He would have Roy with him for the trip.
...\\oo\\oo\\oo END oo/oo/oo/...
Disclaimer: All E! characters belong to Mark VII Productions, Inc., Universal Studios and whoever else owns the 1970's TV show Emergency! All Quantum Leap characters and settings belong to Belisarius Productions and/or Universal and/or whoever else owns them. I am just playing in their sandbox.