Where's Johnny?                           By  Sage Rory      Cap walked into the kitchen where Roy was pouring himself a cup of coffee. "Where's Johnny?" Cap asked him.      Roy scratched his chin and shook his head lightly.  "I haven't seen him yet."      "Well he better get a move on, or he's going to be late," Cap replied.      "Ah Cap, you know he'll make it," Roy said without much concern.      "Oh I know he will make it.  He just likes to make it look like he is going to be late, just to torment me," answered the Cap with a big smile on his face.  Roy laughed, and nodded in mock agreement.      "Gooood Morning," cried out Johnny as he raced into the room straight to the coffeepot.  In seemingly one motion, he poured himself a cup, and helped himself to the last doughnut; which was only a second earlier in Chet's hand, on its way to Chet's mouth.      "Hey, Cap, Johnny just stole my doughnut," complained Chet.      "Fight your own battles," Cap replied on his way out the door.      "Ooo wanit back," Johnny asked with his mouth full of half the doughnut.  He offered the other half, back to Chet, which was now in three pieces.  Chet rolled his eyes at him, and walked away.  Roy took one of the pieces, while Johnny stuffed the remaining two into his mouth.      "Doughnut stealer," Chet muttered loudly to himself.      "Oh come on Chet, what was it, your fourth?" Johnny asked.      "My third!" Chet shouted.      "Oh, well, excuse me.  It's not like…," started Johnny as he was interrupted by the alarm.      "Squad 51, respond to an unknown type rescue at 414 Oakwood Drive...414 Oakwood Drive...cross street William...time out eight oh four" cracked the dispatcher through the speaker.                                              ~*~*~*~*~*~      Johnny and Roy drove to a nice and rather expensive looking house, with their sirens blaring.  As they drove into the circular driveway, Johnny noticed an elderly man scowling at him from a house across the way.  As Roy and Johnny quickly grabbed their equipment out of the squad's compartment, the man shouted at them.      "We don't allow that kind of racket in THIS neighborhood," he said, referring to their siren.  "This is a nice peaceful neighborhood."      "Yes sir," answered Roy.      "We have an ordinance about that sort of thing," shouted the man.  Roy replied patiently with another "Yes sir."       Still the man continued.  "Don't let it happen again," he yelled at them as they started to the front door of the large house.      "Yes sir," Roy replied, one last time.      On the way to the house, John tapped Roy with the biophone.  "Yes sir...yes sir...yes sir..."      "Stuff a sock in it," Roy hissed at him.      A woman waited impatiently for them at the door.  "Don't mind him," she said as they entered.  "He's always a grouch."      "That's all right," answered Johnny.      "What's the problem?" asked Roy while looking around.      "It's my son," she explained in an annoyed tone.  "He's stuck in the chimney."      She led them into a large living room with a brick fireplace that took up much of one wall.       "He's ah..." stammered John.      "In the fireplace, and up the chimney," she told him.      "How old is he?" Roy asked.      "He's four," she said, ringing her hands but remaining calm.      "Four huh," Roy said to himself as he lay on his back with his head in the fireplace.  "I see him.  What's he got with him?  It looks like..."      "It's his blanket, you know...his blanket," she said.      Roy slowly tried to slide his way up into the chimney.  "Nope, can't do it," he told Johnny as he backed out.      Johnny smiled at him, and gave him a light kick with his foot.  "Let's see if I fit."      Roy nudged him back as they traded places.  "Don't get stuck," Roy whispered as he passed.  Johnny just grinned back.      "OK, let's see here," he said as he laid down on his back to see up the chimney.  "Yeah, I think I can fit."  He slowly slid his way up into the chimney until he was standing.  Roy lay back down by Johnny's feet.      "Careful not to step on me," Roy told him as he adjusted his feet a bit too close.  "Can you reach him at all?"     "No, I'm going to have to shimmy up a bit.  Give me a boost so I can..."  As Johnny lifted his foot, Roy grabbed hold of it and shoved him upward as hard as he could, more to protect his head than provide the requested boost.      "Easy!" Johnny complained.  "I just need to get my knees up a bit."  There was much bumping and thumping as Johnny struggled to inch his way up to the child.  For a moment he rested and looked back down at Roy who was smiling a bit at his struggle.  "You may want to move you know...if I slip..."  Johnny's voice trailed off as he again began his struggle.  With a soft cough, he rested again.  "Hey up there!  Can you hear me?" he asked the boy.      "Yes," came a soft voice from above him.      "What are you doing?" he asked.  "Looking for Santa Claus?"      "No," came the answer.  "I'm hiding."      "Well what are you hiding from?"      "My brother," he said.  "He was going to take it away!"      "Take what away?"      "My blanket," he answered as if it were obvious.      "Oh, I see," Johnny, said.  "This blanket is your...blanket, and your brother was going to take it away from you."      "Yeah, he's at school now, but I can't get down."       The boy kicked his feet in an effort to free himself once again, but the blanket jammed between him and the sides of the chimney held him firm.  "I'm stuck," he said, and started to cry.      "It's OK...It's OK...I'll get you out," John told him in a very soothing voice.  "We just have to loosen this blanket a bit."  Johnny reached up and managed to grab a corner of the large blanket.  For a second, he lost his grip and slid down a bit.  By now he was getting sweaty, so he was able to hold on better.  He inched his way up as close to the boy as he could, and again pulled gently on the blanket.   "You're snug as a bug in a rug up here, aren't you?"      "Yeah," answered the boy with laughter now in his voice.      "You aren't hurt at all, are you?" Johnny asked concerned now about how snugly the child was being held.  "You can breath all right?" he continued questioningly.      "Yeah, just stuck," he replied as he began to kick his feet.      "Wait!" cried Johnny.  "You are kicking me.  I am right here you know."      "Sorry," giggled the boy.      "Yeah, how do you like this," he said giving his bare foot a tickle.      The boy squealed with laughter, "Don't you do it!"      "All right," Johnny said.  "What we are going to do now is, I'm going to pull the blanket loose.  Then I'm going to hold you up and try to get your blanket past me and down to my partner, Roy.  Then all you got to do is sit on me and I'll slide us both down."      "I'll fall without the blanket," the child informed him.      "No, it's OK," Johnny told him, "I'll hold you up."      "Are you sure," he whined.      "Yeah!" John laughed.  "It'll be all right."  John wedged himself against the sides of the chimney to free up his arms.  He gave the blanket a hard yank.  It came loose, and the child slid down to him.  He slowly tried to guide the blanket past him and down to Roy.  After a bit he found it was no good.  The blanket was too big, and there was not enough room to get it past him.  "Look, let's try it the other way.  Stand up on my shoulder if you can.  Then we will push it up over you."  The child carefully stood up on his shoulder.  Together they pushed the entire blanket up over their heads, blocking out the light that came down from the top of the chimney.      "It's daaark," the child said in a spooky voice.       "You aren't afraid of the dark are you?" asked John.      "Not with my blanket," he replied.      "Clever boy," John told him.  He then started his slide down the chimney.  After a short distance, he stopped.      "What are you waiting for?" called Roy up.  John wiggled a bit, then a bit more.      "Ah, Roy?" John called back.      "What?" Roy asked.      "I'm stuck!" came the answer.      Roy reached into the drug box and pulled out a tube.  "You are stuck. Well don't worry.  I'll radio for a couple of engines and another squad; we should have you out of there by tomorrow."      "Very funny," said Johnny un amused.  "I'm just sticky.  Send up some vaseline or something, would ya?"      "And how are you going to reach it?" Roy asked looking up into the chimney.  Johnny and the child were still pretty far up.  "Hold on.  Don't go anywhere.  I have an idea."      "Don't go anywhere," muttered John.  The child pressed his face against Johnny's under the dark of the blanket.  "Don't laugh," he told him.  The boy started to giggle.  "Stop that.  It's not funny."  Still the child laughed.  John blew a raspberry on his face, letting him know he was being teased.  They heard a couple of thumps against the side of the chimney below them.  John looked down and saw something coming up toward him.  It was a tube of vaseline taped to a broom that Roy had managed to angle up into the chimney.      "Can you reach it?" asked Roy from below.      "A little higher Roy," answered Johnny even though he could reach it easily.  "Higher...A little higher.  Just a bit more."      "Look, I can't get it any farther," Roy, told him struggling.      "Oh, OK," John said,  "I can reach it then."      "You're mean," the boy informed him.      "He was mean first," John whined.  He pulled the vaseline free of the broomstick, and struggled to get some on to his knees and back.       "I can do it," the child said as he struggled to reach.      "Not too much," John told him as he gave him the tube.  The boy laughed as he globed the vaseline on to John's back and smeared it around.  John managed to push himself up enough to get some of the vaseline between him and the chimney, and after a bit, he felt himself free.  "You ready?" he asked.  With much screeching of the medal sides, the two slid slowly down to the bottom.  John let out a sigh of relief, and leaned back against the inside of the fireplace.  He took a minute to rest and catch his breath.       "Got to go," called the boy behind him as he darted out of the room leaving his blanket. Picking it up and handing it to the mother Roy asked, "What is this, a full size?"      "Queen," she laughed.      Still resting in the fireplace John murmured, "I'll bet he is going to be an insurance salesman when he grows up."  Roy and the woman laughed as the boy raced back into the room and grabbed his blanket.       "You about ready?" Roy asked his partner.      John crawled to the drug box and closed it up, first placing the vaseline inside.  Roy grabbed the rest of the gear, and they left with many thanks from the mother and child.  While they walked to their squad, they noticed the grumpy man still standing in his yard, and glaring at them.  Johnny gave him a big smile and waved while Roy pretended not to see him.  They got into the squad and Roy started up its engine.  Looking the opposite direction, Johnny reached over and flipped on the siren switch.  Roy quickly turned it back off.      "JOHNNY!" Roy said in disbelief, trying not to laugh.      "Oh what's he gonna to do," John told him.      Roy could feel the man's eyes, burrowing into his head, but he refused to look at him, and drove quickly.  "I can't believe you did that!"      "I can't believe that blanket," John responded.  "Did you ever have a security blanket, Roy?"      "No!" he told him firmly.      "I did." John confessed.      "You did?"      "Well not one like that," John told him.  "It was just a little baby blanket I dragged around with me till I was about two.  I remember they cut a piece off of it for me to stuff in my pocket when they thought I was getting to old for it."      For a couple of moments the squad was quiet.  Then Roy revealed, "I had a bear."      "What was its name?" John asked after a few more moments of silence.      "Bogey."      "Mine was blanky."      "Your bear?" Roy asked.      "No!" John corrected him.  "My blanket."         "You named your blanket?" cried Roy laughing.      "You named your bear!"      "Well of course you name a bear.  That's normal.  Who names a blanket?"      "Anyone with a blanket names a blanket," John declared.      "I have several blankets, and not one of them has a name."      "Not any blanket, just a security blanket."      "No one names a blanket."      "I bet you ten dollars that kids blanket had a name," Johnny said offering his hand to shake on the deal.  Roy ignored it, and the squad grew silent again.  After a few moments, Roy offered his hand to John. He smiled and took Roy's hand in his, believing it was offered for the bet.       "We never mention this conversation to anyone," Roy said seriously.  John's smile left his face, and he too grew serious. "Deal," John agreed shaking Roy's hand.                                                         ~*~*~*~*~*~      Roy and John returned to the station.  Johnny went straight into the locker room to change his greasy shirt.       "What happened to you?" Chet asked jumping in front of him.      John narrowed his eyes and told him, "Never you mind."  Chet shrugged and went straight to Roy.  Before he could speak, Roy shook his head no at him and went into the kitchen.  He started to pull out a chair, but was interrupted by Cap.      "Got a minute Roy?" Cap asked him.  It was a question, but this was no request.  It was an order.  Cap looked very unhappy.  "Where's Johnny?"  Roy started to answer, but was cut short.  "Get him," Cap told him bluntly.  Roy ran out of the office shouting for his partner.  The two collided each other head on, at the back of the squad.      "What, for cryin...," started John.      "Caps office, now!" Roy told him.  They both proceeded to the office, wondering what was up.  When they arrived, Cap was sitting with his head in his hands, but leaned back and put his feet on his desk as they walked in.      "I just received a complaint about a squad running its siren, unnecessarily.  I'm told it was done solely to agitate a Mr. Simms of 416 Oakwood Drive," Cap informed them coldly.      "Well he...I didn't do it," Roy said defending himself.      "John?" Cap said questioningly.      John could only reply, "I can't believe he called."      "You better believe it," Cap told him.  "I spent FIFTEEN minutes on the phone with that man...FIFTEEN MINUTES.  I have far better things to do than to spend my mornings being lectured to by some...  If either of you ever does it again, I'm going to put you both on kitchen duty for a month...and you can clean the latrine on top of that.  GOT IT?"      "Yeah, sure Cap.  It won't happen again," John assured him.  When Caps gaze moved to Roy, he strongly nodded his agreement.      "All right," Cap said starting to relax and smile.  "Now, tell me the whole story, and make it good."     Before Roy and John could begin, the alarm sounded.      "Station 51 respond to a school fire at the corner of Wendbrook and Blain...corner of Wendbrook and Blain...time out ten thirty-five," came the voice from the speaker.                                                ~*~*~*~*~*~*~      Both the squad and the engine raced as fast as they could to the school.  Everyone was extra tense, knowing there could be several kids involved.  Johnny thought it might be a false alarm, some kid pulling a prank, but he didn't say it out loud.  He didn't want to jinx it.  As they neared the school, all could see it was for real.  Kids were running everywhere.  Teachers were calling out their room numbers, but none of the kids seemed to hear.  There seemed to be no organization to the mad scene.  Smoke was pouring out of one end of the long rectangular building.  Cap noticed what seemed to be one good thing; due to the amount of kids running around, he figured most had already gotten out.  He ordered the hoses to be brought in, and called for backup.  He was informed backup would take a while, due to another fire in the next district.  Just as he was about to join his men on the hoses, he was grabbed by the arm.  The man who grabbed him was the principal of the school.      "There are still some in the basement," he cried.      "In the basement?" Cap asked.      "We were having a tornado drill, and...," stammered the man.      "How do you get into the basement," asked the Cap.      "You can't," he yelled, fully panicked.  "There are just the two stair wells...one on either side.  When the fire started, we managed to get most of the kids up the other stairwell, but it spread across...then the roof gave...they're both blocked now.  We can hear the kids screaming, but we can't get them out."      "Is there any other way into the basement?  What about at the other end of the school?" Cap asked.  It sounded like a stupid question, but he knew when people panicked, sometimes they forgot the obvious.      "No! Just the...," started the principal again.  He was interrupted by one of the older students, who was listening.      "There's a trapdoor in the stage," he informed them.  "I don't know where it goes, but it has to go down...don't it?"      "Where does the trap door go?" Cap asked the principal.      "Trapdoor?" he said, obviously having no idea.      "In the stage," prompted Cap trying to jar his memory.      "We don't use the stage," he told him.  "That was for the high school.  We are an elementary school now."      "Well," said the Cap exasperatedly, "where is the stage?"      "In the gym," he answered.      "Where is the gym?" Cap asked trying not to shout at him.      The student, watching the scene, decided to intervene.  "It's at the other end of the school.  I'll show you."  The boy took off at a trot.  Cap followed him, shouting for John and Roy to get their gear and some ropes.  He yelled for the boy to stop until they could catch up.  When they did catch up, Johnny told him the guys really needed some more help at the other end.  The fire was still well out of hand.  Cap headed back as Roy and John followed the boy.         "Have you been through the trapdoor?" Roy asked him.      "No, we just see it during gym.  Sometimes we sit on the stage."      Both John and Roy turned pale.      "Roy, that could just be some storage area," John whispered.      Roy picked up his handy talky.  "Cap, this door may not be anything.  How soon before we could get through on your end?"      "Forget it Roy.  This whole thing is starting to collapse down here.  The trapdoor is you best bet."     Roy, John and the boy ran to the far end of the school.  At least they were as far from the fire as they could be.  Soon they were on the stage, examining the trapdoor.       "It's locked," John said as he pulled his entry tool off of his turnout coat.  He used the small sharp end to chip away at the wood around the lock.  Hurriedly, he broke away the lock and pulled open the door.  The inside was dark.  John lay down on his stomach, trying to see.  When his eyes adjusted, he saw a floor below him.  He looked up at his partner and shook his head.  "Wait," he said, and lowered himself down inside.  After banging on the floor a couple times with his hammer, he informed his friend that it was plaster.  Roy looked around for anything to aid them in trying to break through.  He noticed a flagpole at one corner of the stage and quickly removed the flag, handing it to the boy who had helped them.      "You better get out of here," Roy told him.      "I'm OK for now," the boy disagreed.      "What's your name?" Roy asked.      "Bryan."      "Well Bryan, you could do us a really big favor.  Go to our squad.  It's the little one.  Open up the rear compartment.  It isn't locked.  There are some shovels and a crowbar in there.  Bring them to us as fast as you can.  Can you do that?"      "Sure," answered Bryan as he started to race away.      "Bryan!" Roy shouted after him.  "If the fire is anywhere near here, you keep away.  Got it?"      "Yeah," came a faint reply.          Roy turned the flagpole upside down, and handed it to John who was still chipping away with his hammer.  The sharp end at the top of the flagpole did a far better job than either of them could have hoped for.  Both held their breath to see what, if anything, they hit on the other side of the plaster, but after a short time, they broke through.  The smell of smoke came up at them through the hole they had made.  Both worked hard to make the hole into an opening they could work through.       "Big enough," John told Roy.  "Get the ropes."      "We need an anchor, Roy said looking around for something to tie on to.      "No time," John said.  "Just tie it on to the hook of the safety belt."  Roy did what John told him, as John cut off a section of rope from the other end.  He made a lasso with one end, and tied the other end around his waist.  Then he put on the safety belt.  "OK, lower me down.  Make sure you give me plenty of slack.  Two yanks, and you pull me up."      "OK."      "Roy, it may take me some time to find them so don't...,"  Roy nodded his understanding, and slowly lowered John through the stage and floor, into the basement below.  Once at the bottom, John removed his belt, and started calling out to the children.  He still didn't know if they were alone, if there were any teachers, or how many people they were going to have to deal with.  His first calls received no response, so he headed through the basement, toward the fire.       Everything one could imagine being in a school basement was there. Old chairs were stacked against the walls of the hallway, along with discarded bleachers.  John passed rooms full of broken desks, portable chalkboards, audio visual equipment, crumpled maps, seasonal gym equipment, and so on.  He figured he better walk all the way to the fire, before heading back to Roy.  He knew kids might not answer him, and he wanted to be sure to get everybody.  A little past the halfway mark, he found a group of ten kids.  John was surprised at how small they were.  The boy who had helped them was about ten, but these were all kindergartners.  "Where is you teacher?" he asked them calmly.  A couple of them replied by pointing toward the fire.  "OK, I want all of you to pull your shirts up over your noses.  Can you all do that?  Show me how you do that."  Some of the kids followed his instructions right away.  Others he had to help.  He got all of them to lie down on the floor, and he continued toward the fire.  On the way, he found some more kids, and then some more.  These he ordered to start walking back toward the other end of the school.  He told them when they came to some other kids, to stop.  As he went, the smoke increased until he could not see.  He could tell the fire was still blazing, and getting closer as it worked to consume the building.  He let out a few shouts, and hearing nothing, headed back.  He knew he had to work fast if he was going to get all of these kids out through the hole under the stage.  Once he reached the children, he carefully gathered them together, and herded them quickly down the hall.  He knew he was taking too long, and Roy would be anxious.  What he didn't know, was that a storm front was heading their way, and the wind from it was helping the fire spread quickly in his direction.       Roy could feel the wind picking up and blowing through the door of the gym. Bryan had returned with the shovels and some pulleys, Cap had sent along, and had left the door open.  It banged repeated against the outside wall of the school.  After rigging the ropes with the pulleys, Roy wanted to go look for Johnny, but there was no one to lower him down.  Help had still not arrived.  He had radioed Cap that they had gotten through to the basement, and Cap had informed him that they were doing everything they could to get the fire under control.  Roy was delighted when two hard yanks on the rope nearly pulled him off his feet.  He pulled on the rope until he saw his partner standing up through the stage door.       "Here's one," he said. "They are all going to have to come up with me."  He removed the lasso from around the little girl he had brought up with him.  "This is good as a safety harness in case they fight me, but they're all so little, they'll just slip out of it on their own."      "How many?" Roy asked.      "I don't know, just don't stop moving," John answered him.      Roy lowered and raised Johnny many times, until they had removed over twenty children.  By then the fire was very near as it began eating its way through the far wall of the gym.  Below the gym, the fire was burning even closer.  The smoke was thick, making it impossible for Johnny to see.  The next few of trips down, he grabbed two at a time. One girl struggled and bit his hand, just before blacking out from the smoke.  Other children were unconscious as he scooped them off the floor.  Help had finally arrived, and members of two other squads worked to revive them.  Once the fire broke through the gym wall, it moved very quickly.  The varnish on the wooden floor and the bleachers, proved a good fuel.  That, accompanied by the wide-open space, soon had the entire gym in flames around Roy.       "I think that's it, let me feel around one more time," John told him.      "Fast."  Roy lowered John down, and waited for the yank.      "Out!" shouted Cap from behind him.      Roy was startled, but nodded his understanding, and pointed down.  The noise from the fire was making it very difficult to hear.      "The roof is going Roy," shouted Cap after removing his mask for a second.  He finished by pointing toward the doors.  Roy felt two pulls on the rope in his hands, and started pulling up as fast as he could.       Down below, John heard a loud bang.  He shouted up to Roy to drop him back down.  He knew he didn't have time to go all of the way up and back down again.  He shouted again, but to no avail.  Roy could not hear him.  He grabbed his knife, and cut the rope to his safety belt.  He fell farther than he thought, but got up, and headed toward the loud sound he had heard.  He ran smack into a large closet.  There he found a boy, who was trying to hide from the fire.  The area was engulfed in flames.  Parts of the ceiling were crashing down around him.  He picked up the boy, and tried to make his way back to the hole, but soon realized they were trapped.  Rather than standing still, John felt better if he were moving.  He felt his way along the hall with his shoulder.  He was startled, and lost his balance when he felt himself fall seemingly into the wall.  There, in the brick wall, was laundry shoot that led up to the boy's locker room above.  The roof of the locker room had collapsed, so when Johnny looked up through the shoot, he could just make out a bit of sky.  It was far too small for him, but the boy would fit just fine.  He removed his turnout coat, and wrapped it around him.  He also took of his air mask, and placed it on the boy's face.  There wasn't much air left, but he felt it was better than nothing.       "When you hear someone, bang the helmet on the tank," he told the boy while demonstrating.  He placed the helmet on the boy's head inside, and pulled down the door.  He didn't know if the boy understood, but it was the best he could do.  He sat down on the floor, and told himself to breathe deeply, but he couldn't do it.      Roy had been screaming for John for some time.  He had turned around for help, but Cap had disappeared.  Everyone had gotten out when told.  That is everyone but him and Johnny.  Chet showed up through the smoke, and grabbed Roy by the arm.  Roy flipped off his mask and shouted, "Lower me down!"  Chet shook his head no, and continued to pull at Roy's arm.  "Johnny's still down there...the rope...I lost him!"  Roy felt himself being lifted by arms stronger than Chet's.  He struggled to free himself, but could not.  He turned to find himself facing Cap.  "Johnny's still...," he screamed.       "He's not there anymore Roy.  He's not there.  Come on."  Roy again tried to pull free, but only succeeded in turning back around.  Flames were jumping out of their hole; the hole that less than half an hour before, they had made together.  Chet and Cap half carried and half-dragged Roy out.  Roy alternated between screaming out Johnny's name, and screaming at them to let him go find him.  Within a minute of getting Roy out, the entire roof of the gym collapsed.  After that, Roy became silent.  Cap put him into the passenger side of the engine, not wanting him behind the wheel, or sitting where his friend should be sitting.  After ordering him to stay, Cap went back to the hoses.      The wind from the storm front had made it impossible to save the school, but now the flames were threatening several nearby homes.  Three engines worked on the fire.  The storm finally hit, helping them greatly in their job.  The rain came down by the bucket, saturating everything in its path.  The fire soon faded, but the storm was just beginning.  Several firemen walked through the rubble of the school, overturning bits of debris; to make sure the fire was put completely out.  Thunder and lightening filled the sky as Roy heard a call for one of the engines to respond to another fire started by a lightening bolt.  It seemed impossible to him that it was not yet noon.  He was bothered when he saw Mike, Marco, and Chet gathering up their hoses.  He left the engine, and walked toward them.      "What are you doing?" he shouted at them.      "We're bringing the hoses in," Chet answered without looking at him.        "Never mind that," he ordered them, "we have to find Johnny!"       Chet struggled to choke back tears.  "Roy...we can't...,"  Thunder blocked out his words.      "What!" Roy yelled at him.      "We can't find him in this," Chet shouted back.  Roy stood in disbelief at the three figures that stood staring at the ground before him.      "What are you guys doing!" shouted Cap as he walked up.      "Roy wants us to...," Mike started to explain.  Before he could finish, Cap nodded and started to guide Roy back to the engine.      "No!"  Roy pulled away and headed toward the schools remains.  Cap shook his head, and went after him.      "Mike," Cap said calling for support.  "Roy, you're going to the hospital."      "There is nothing wrong with me.  I'm fine."      "You're going," Cap told him firmly but calmly.      Roy spun around to face him, full of anger.  "What is the matter with you guys?  We can't just leave him!"      "I am ordering you to go to the hospital.  Do you understand?"  Roy glared at him and Mike.  He shook violently, partly due to anger, partly to cold.... partly to shock.  After several moments, Roy headed for the squad.      "Marco," shouted Cap.  "Take him in."                                                               ~*~*~*~*~*~      Roy jumped out and headed into the hospital before Marco could finish parking.  Once inside, Marco looked around for Roy, and eventually found him in the break room.  Dixie spotted Marco standing in the hall, shivering and soaking wet.  She grabbed a blanket off a gurney, and went to put it around him.  They had gradually received the children from the fire, but most of them had already been treated and released.      "Marco, are you all right?" she asked.      Marco shook and leaned his head against the wall.  "No...I don't think any of us are all right."      "What happened," she asked as she saw Roy sitting on the couch in the break room, also soaking wet.  She walked back a few paces, and picked up another blanket.  Dr. Bracket entered the hall from one of the examining rooms.         "What is going on?" he asked Dix.      "I don't know yet," she whispered back to him.       "Marco...are you hurt?" Bracket asked him.      "No," he replied.  Dixie motioned Bracket into the break room.      "Roy?" he asked.  "Are you hurt?"      "I'M fine," he told them.  "It's Johnny who's dead!"      Dixie gasped.  "Where is he?"      "He's in the fire," Roy said getting up and crossing the room to pour a cup of coffee.  He was still shaking violently, making it impossible.  He put the pot down and clutched the counter.  "I wanted to go get him...but they wouldn't let me."      "ROY!" Marco shouted from the doorway.      Bracket gave him a nudge.  "It won't help Marco," he whispered.  Marco nodded and leaned back against the wall, with his head in his hands.  "We need to calm him down," Bracket said quietly to Dix.  She nodded and left the room.      "There you go, dope me up," Roy said to Bracket.  "That will help."  Dix returned shortly with a needle, and Bracket reached to take it.      "I'll do it," she told him.  As she walked toward him, Roy backed away.      "No."      "It will make you feel better," she told him soothingly as she reached for him.      "NO!" he shouted.  "Nothing's going to make me feel better.  Will you all stop staring at me like I'm some alien?  You are the ones standing around doing nothing!  What's the matter with you people?"      "Give it to me," Bracket told Dix as he walked into the room.     "No...fine...here," Roy said taking off his coat and raising his arm toward Dix.  "Put me to sleep...just make sure you give me enough to put me to sleep forever."      Dixie glanced over at Bracket.  He shrugged, and indicated for her to go ahead.  When she was finished, Roy sat down on the couch.      "Let's get him a room," Bracket told her.                                                           ~*~*~*~*~*~      Station 51 was silent except for the sound of the weather report on the TV.  Cap noticed the rain outside had slowed to a drizzle, but the man on the TV said a second, and worse front was on its way.  All citizens were advised to find shelter, and stay off the roads.  Cap rose from the couch and walked to the outside door of the kitchen.  At the moment, the weather wasn't too bad.       "What do you think?" he asked Mike and Chet.  "Do you guys want to go have a quick look around?"  Without answering, they headed for the door.  They drove back to the school.  The sun was beginning to set, and more black clouds were visible in the distance.  A light rain continued.  When they arrived, all three just sat for a moment, looking at the ruin.  Mike was the first to move.  He got out, and headed toward the area where the gym was.  The roof and the floor had collapsed, leaving both to lie on the floor of the basement.  Mike carefully climbed down to the bottom, followed by the other two.  They half-heartedly moved some things around, but they had no idea where to begin.      "We're never going to find him...," Chet whispered to himself.  He jumped at a loud crash, and turned to find Mike had accidentally knocked over a roof beam that had been leaning precariously.  A few moments later, all three heard a muffled tapping.       "What's that?" Cap asked the other two.  Mike shrugged, and walked around with his ears cocked, trying to pinpoint the noise.       "Johnny?!" Chet shouted.  Cap looked at him hard.  Chet turned away and looked at the floor, kicking at pieces of blackened wood with his foot.       "Cap!" Mike shouted, and indicated for him to come over to the wall.  He had found the laundry shoot, and the tapping was coming from inside.  Cap told himself it must be a loose cable banging around.  Both men struggled to raise the little door.  Their eyes grew round as they recognized the turnout coat and air tank; however, they also realized the figure inside the coat, was far too small to be John.  The coat moved, and they watched as the helmet appeared from beneath it, and was banged against the tank.  Cap reached in and pulled out the very dirty, very wet, and very cold little boy.  As he did so, a cigarette lighter fell to the floor.  The three looked at each other, but said nothing.  They carried the boy out to the engine, leaving the lighter untouched.  Cap would tell the investigator about it later.                                                                   ~*~*~*~*~*~ At the hospital, Cap looked around for Marco.  "Dix," he called as he saw her come out of one of the rooms.  "How's Roy?"       "He's sleeping," she informed him.      "Is he all right?"      She looked down for a minute, and softly shook her head.  "I don't know, you?"  Cap could not respond.  "How did it happen?" she asked.      "I don't know?  They were getting a bunch of kids out of the basement, and I guess the rope broke.  There just wasn't any time left to do anything else.  I had to drag him out of there.  The whole basement was gone, and he wanted us to drop him down in it...There was nothing we could do."      "Where did this last one come from?" she asked about the boy.      "Didn't Chet tell you?  We found him in the wall, in a laundry shoot.  John must have--"      "No chance he--" Dix said questioningly.      "No way.  There's just no way."  Dix nodded, and the two grew quiet. "Have you seen Marco?" Cap asked her.      "I think he went back to the station with the squad."      "I'll see you later then, Dix."      "Yeah," she said absent-mindedly, "later."                                                          ~*~*~*~*~*~      Roy awoke with a bad headache.  The day before felt like a bad dream, but he found himself lying in a hospital bed.  Dr. Bracket and Dr. Early were standing nearby, talking quietly to each other.       "How are you feeling Roy?" Bracket asked him when he realized he was awake.      "Sorry," Roy told him.      "It's not a problem," Bracket reassured him.  "Just forget about it.  How do you feel?"      "I don't know.  My head hurts a bit."  Bracket felt around Roy's throat, then let out a deep sigh.  He really didn't know what to say to him.  He liked Johnny too, but Roy and he were tight.  Bracket couldn't imagine what the events of the day before had been like.  Roy and the other firemen faced it everyday.  "Do you know if they found him yet?" Roy asked him cautiously.       "It's really bad out there.  Another front moved in late yesterday, and it's just not stopping...They'll get him out as soon as they can."      "I know," Roy said quietly.  "I did it."      "Did what?"      "I killed him.  I dropped him.  I tied the rope to his belt, and it gave.  I never checked it.  I hauled him up and down over twenty times, and I never checked it."      "Roy, the two of you saved thirty-one kids.  Most of them are home right now in their own beds.  I know you; you did your best.  Don't look for a reason to blame yourself.  You don't deserve it."      "I just," said Roy shaking his head.  "If I had just--"      Bracket sat down and looked him in the eye.  "You know better than that…don't you?!"      "Yes," Roy agreed reluctantly      "I'm going to let you go in a couple of hours," Bracket told him on his way out the door, "but I want you to take it easy for today.  Go home and rest.  Okay?"      "Yeah," Roy agreed.  Today he was off.  It was tomorrow he worried about.                                                         ~*~*~*~*~*~      Joanne wanted him to take some time off; but Roy knew if he waited, going back to work would only get harder.  He wondered if Bracket had told them what he had said about killing Johnny.  He would have told Cap for sure.  When he walked into the kitchen, he noticed everyone trying not to stare at him.  The storm had stopped early that morning, but Roy was afraid to ask if they would be going to the school to help look that day.  He knew they could, so long as they stayed available.  Although he wanted to go, he didn't want to insist on it.  They were watching him, and he felt they had seen him out of control enough, a couple days before.  He really didn't want to have to work with Bryce, and he got his wish.  Johnny's replacement was a young man named Thomas, that none of them had ever met before.  He looked green, but he was better than facing Bryce.  The morning went by quickly as Roy, with and without the engine, went on several short runs.  People were starting to go about their business after the long storm, but the roads were not ready for them.  The afternoon slowed down greatly as cleanup crews put the area back in order.  Roy was afraid to look for any signs that they were going to the school, so he sat by himself on the couch, staring at his feet.  Around three thirty, Cap told them they were going.  Thomas was going to see the darkest side of his job from the start.      Several off duty fireman had volunteered to search through the rubble for Gage.  Station 51 joined them in their search.  They had started at the laundry shoot in the hall, and worked their way out in both directions.  They had been looking since eight o'clock that morning, but they had yet to find anything.  They all knew about the child, and some of them speculated out loud what they would have done in Johnny's place.  They took turns telling stories they knew about him, exaggerating greatly on his bravery and skill.  Each story was more glamorous than the one before it.  It was clear, all agreed Johnny was a hero.  The men from 51 listened to these stories, but none participated. They worked quietly, and stayed near each other, except for Roy.  The bigger the stories got, the guiltier Roy felt.  In his mind they all knew he had messed up, and it had cost his partner his life.  He blocked out their voices by trying to figure out exactly where he would have gone.  He hadn't given up.  The boy they found proved that.  He wanted to find him and put him someplace nice, in the mountains he had decided.  There was a lake there that was special to Johnny.  Roy felt it was the perfect place, and that he owed it to him to get him there.  Roy was startled when Cap came up behind him and patted him on the shoulder.       "He cut it," Cap told him holding up Johnny's open lock blade.  Roy was stunned and confused at the sight of it.  He had borrowed it many times.      "You found him?" Roy asked.      "No...they found his knife...under where the stage was.  It's open Roy, don't you see?  He cut it...It wasn't your fault...He CUT it!"      Roy took the knife as what the Cap told him sank in.  He knew Cap expected him to feel a little better, but it didn't make any difference.  It wasn't his fault, but he was still dead.      They continued to work, and it started to grow dark.  Station 51 had not received any more runs, and they were glad for it.  They wanted to get it over with.  Most of the school had been searched, and they were nearing the end where the fire had started.  Several feared he had been missed in the search, and they would have to start over.  They felt there was no way he could have gone this far.  Some of the members of 51 started to search a small laundry room that had been used to wash gym towels when the school was a high school.  Most of the basement ceiling was still intact in this part of the school, but parts of the first floor had fallen through here and there.       Chet moved some of the rubble to the sorted pile and froze in his tracks.  "Cap!" he shouted into the hall.  "I found him."  Roy and Cap went into the laundry room, where Chet and Mike were working.  They could see one of Johnny's boots, sticking out from under a large pile of debris.       "Marco," Cap shouted into the hall, "get Dryer."      "I'll do it," Roy told him quietly.  "I should do it."      "You don't have to Roy," Cap said.  Roy ignored him and sat down by Johnny's foot.  He gently started to remove the boot.       "I need some air," Chet said as he pushed his way out of the room.      "Let's get him uncovered Mike," Cap said.  Out of the corner of his eye, he was watching Roy.  Roy shook his head as he felt Johnny's foot for a pulse. "What?" Cap asked him.      "It doesn't feel right." Roy answered.  Cap wished Roy had waited for Dryer.  He stopped working on the pile, and kneeled next to Roy.      "What do you mean?" he asked.      "I don't know, it just doesn't feel right," he said rubbing John's foot.  "Something's not right."       "Look," Cap told him, pointing at all the rubble on top of Johnny.  "LOOK...do you feel a pulse!"      "No," Roy admitted.      "He's gone Roy...He's gone."  Marco arrived with Dryer in tow.  "Move," Cap told him while pulling him out of Dryers way.  He pushed him into the hall, but didn't say anymore.  He was close to loosing it himself, and he didn't think he could go back in.       Suddenly there was a great deal of noise.  Cap and Roy reentered to find Mike and Marco unburying Johnny at high speed.  Dryer was on his knees with a stethoscope around his neck, trying to peer under the rubble.      "Stop!" Dryer yelled at them.  "Slow down.  We don't know what's holding this stuff up."  They continued to move away the debris, but much more carefully.      "He has a pulse," Mike said as he worked.      "What?" Cap shouted dropping to his knees beside Dryer.  Neither of them could figure it out.  There was a little space around Johnny's foot, but it was to dark to see into.  He stood up and began helping Mike and Marco.  Roy took his place, and picked up John's foot.  It was ice cold.      "Johnny?" Roy said.  "Can you hear me?"  Roy rubbed John's foot, but it remained limp in his hand.  Dryer handed Roy his stethoscope, so he could hear the pulse for himself.       "Chet!" Cap called out.  "CHET!"  After a minute, Chet showed in the hallway, but did not come in.       "Yeah Cap?" he said.      "Get the biophone, the drug box...get everything, throw it into a stokes, and get it down here fast.  Find someone to help you."  Chet stood still looking confused.       "He's alive," Mike informed him.  Chet bolted away, as fast as he could move.      Roy and Dryer started feeling around for John's other leg, trying to figure out exactly which way he was laying.       "STOP!" screamed Roy.  "It's going to fall!"  A large window frame tottered dangerously back and forth.  It had been part of the principal's office from the floor above, but was now like several small jagged guillotines.  Roy pushed some of the debris near him aside, and found Johnny had crawled under a steel washbasin frame, and pulled a tumbling mat over himself.  He lifted one end of the mat carefully to examine the situation further, and felt himself grow sick.      "Some of the glass in the frame is sticking into him," he told the rest shakily.      "Can you break it off?" Chet asked him knowing the glass should not come out until they reached the hospital.      "No," he told him.  He grabbed the biophone, and set it up.      "Rampart, this is Squad 51....do you read?"      "Squad 51 go ahead," came Dix's familiar voice.      "We have a victim here...look, we found Johnny.  He's pinned under a window frame.  There's some glass in the frame that has pierced through ah....a foam mat, and has penetrated into the right lower quadrant of his chest, I can't tell how deep.  We can't pull him out without slicing him open, and we can't get any vitals until we get him out."      "Roy, this is Dr. Bracket, can you break the glass at the window frame?"      "No, the whole frame is resting on a metal stand, and Johnny is underneath it.  I can't reach far enough under to break the glass without moving him.  If I move him... We're going to have to lift the frame off, right?"      "Come again Roy?"      "We are going to have to lift the whole frame up, so the glass comes straight out of him...right?"      "Roy, I can't--," Dix flipped off the mouthpiece at Rampart.      "He wants you to tell him to do it," she told Bracket.     "Dix--,"      "He wants you to tell him to do it," she repeated.      Bracket turned the mouthpiece back on.  "Is there any other way of getting him out?"      "No."      Bracket stared hard at Dixie, and tapped the counter repeatedly with his finger.  "Then you're going to have to do it."  Roy nodded at the biophone.  He prepared the stokes and all of his equipment.  Chet made sure the ambulance was there, and ready.  Pulling glass out at the scene was very dangerous, and they all knew it.  The glass could do more damage coming out than it did going in.      Several men grabbed a hold of the large window frame and lifted.  "Keep it straight," Roy told them.  Once the glass was clear of the mat, Roy dragged him out, mat and all.  When they lifted it off of him, they found he was in far better shape than could ever seem possible.  Aside from the damage the window frame had done, his worst injury seemed to be his eyes, which were swollen shut.         "Where's his shirt?" Chet wondered aloud.  He was wearing his T-shirt, but his uniform shirt was gone.  Roy was too busy to think about it.  He cut away the T-shirt, and applied think pads to the lacerations caused by the window frame.  With Dryer, they quickly took his vitals.      "Rampart… respiration seven, BP seventy over thirty."      "Get some blankets on him," he told Chet.      "Does he need an airway?" Cap asked.  Dryer checked his mouth and watched John's chest rise and fall.      "It's burnt, and a bit swollen, but he is breathing pretty good.....slow, but good."      "Get some oxygen on him anyway," Roy told Cap.      "You got it," he said, placing the mask over Johnny's mouth.      "He's so cold," Chet said to anyone.      "I know," Roy answered him, pulling another blanket over his partner.   "........he'll be all right.  He's not that bad."  Chet let out a short laugh of doubt; he looked pretty bad to him.      They loaded him into the stokes, then into the ambulance.  Roy went along.  Throughout everything, Thomas was merely a bystander.  He felt absolutely useless as he watched the rest of Station 51 work together like a well-oiled machine.  Cap clapped him on the back and smiled at him.  "How about that," he told him.  "You get to drive the squad on your very first day!" continue