As they stepped outside onto the porch, Ramirez noticed that the group across the street had gathered more spectators. Drifts ignored them as he loaded the stretcher into the back of the ambulance.
Loud voices from trailed across the street. “What the hell?”
“Are they carrying Tanya’s kid?”
“What’s going on?”
“Aw, shit!”
As they stepped up into the ambulance, Ramirez whispered, “Are your neighbors always so boisterous?”
“Yes,” The young woman said darkly. “When my lease is up in a couple months, Taylor and I are going to find somewhere else to be. Those guys are nothing but trouble!”
Ramirez laid the boy on their stretcher and belted him in. “Are you comfortable, Taylor?” Taylor nodded as he looked nervously around the interior of the ambulance. Drifts opened the door and stepped out. Before the EMT could close the back door a voice rang out.
“Aw, shit! It’s those same motherfuckers that jacked with me earlier!”
Ramirez’s head whipped around. He recognized that voice. Standing directly behind the ambulance’s open back door, amongst a group of angry young men facing Drifts, was their volatile patient from earlier that evening, Johnny Thompson.
Chapter Fourteen
Pucker Factor
“Johnny, what the hell are you doing?”
“This doesn’t concern you, Tanya,” Johnny snarled.
“The hell it doesn’t! They’re taking my baby to the hospital now!”
Johnny snarled, “Bitch, do I look like I give damn?”
Someone called from the porch, “Is it them, Johnny?”
Johnny turned favoring his injured hip and yelled, “Yeah it’s the exact same motherfuckers from earlier!”
“Ooooo!” the group hooted.
“Aw shit, them motherfuckers are in trouble now!”
“Yeah,” Johnny turned to grin at them. His smile did not touch his eyes. “You motherfuckers are in trouble now. You ain’t acting so tough now that I have my boys with me. Where are yours? Where are the motherfucking police punks when you really need them, huh?”
Tanya spoke her tone softer. “Johnny, really my boy is very sick. He needs to go to the hospital now. Please . . .”
“Bitch, he ain’t my baby! What the fuck do I care? Take him back inside, give him some motherfucking medicine, and put his skinny ass to bed!” He spun on the crew. “Now why don’t you motherfuckers step out here and pay the fucking piper, like men!”
Ramirez wordlessly met his eyes and stepped down from the rig beside his partner. He started to close the door behind him, but Johnny caught it and jabbed a finger at Justin. “What about that punk!”
It doesn’t concern him,” Ramirez said as he and Drifts closed ranks. “He’s just a paramedic student. He doesn’t need to be part of this.”
“The hell he doesn’t!” Johnny snarled. “His hands are just as dirty as yours!” Johnny glared at Justin. “Get your bitch-ass out here now!”
“No.” answered Ramirez.
“What?” snapped Johnny. His entourage looked between them with open shock.
“No.” the older medic said again, raising his voice.
Johnny demanded, “What did you say to me?”
“He didn’t stutter!” growled Drifts. “The answer is no!” He started to add a more colorful explanation, when Tanya decided to add her own valid point.
The distinct double-click of a chambered bullet brought all eyes swerving round to the young mother as she pointed a pistol right at Johnny.
The fat man swallowed then found his voice. It was shaky as he spoke. “Bitch, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“I don’t know what your trouble is with these men, but they are here to save my baby! And you’re stopping them! Now move on while you still can!”
Johnny looked around at his friends. Steeling himself he said, “Bitch, you ain’t the only one armed here.”
Tanya shrugged. “No, but I will make damn sure that you’re the first one to die if you push me!”
Beyond the scene, a school bus arrived. The children, young but wise in many ways, nervously entered the bus as they watched the scene unfold before them. Before Johnny could respond a car suddenly zoomed around the bus and screeched to halt directly between the ambulance and the house across the street.
“What the fuck is this?” Johnny and Drifts said at the exact same time. The two of them glanced at each other in a moment of uncomfortable solidarity.
The doors of the vehicle banged open and suddenly six men poured out carrying automatic weapons. Someone on the porch had time to shout, “Drive-by!” before all six men opened fired.
Ramirez tackled his partner to the ground and shielded Drifts with his body. Everyone on the porch scrambled for cover as they reached for their weapons. One took a slug to the stomach and fell to his knees. They fired back.
Beyond the firefight, the children inside the bus screamed as bullets rifled through the bus’s engine and front windows.
“Aw, hell no!” shouted Johnny as he and his buddies whipped out their pistols and fired at the rival gang’s back.
Caught unaware by the unexpected flank, the driver and another behind him fell to the ground in seconds. A third spun around and fired at Johnny and his crew.
One of Johnny’s entourage went down as he caught a bullet to his thigh. “Shit! They got my fucking leg!”
Someone on the porch shouted into the house, “Get out here and fucking help!” In response, several more gang members poured out of the front door firing wildly.
Justin and Tanya lay on top of Taylor as wild bullets struck Triple-Three again and again. The trio held onto each other screaming and crying.
Two more fell by the car in the street. “Andre!” shouted the last one. He tried to haul his companion into the car for cover, but screamed as bullet crashed into his side. He fell clumsily into the vehicles panting. The body of his friend collapsed to the ground forgotten. He shouted out at them gang members on the porch. “You fuckers are gonna pay! You started this tonight! But I’m sure as fuck am going to finish it!” He wheeled around the door roaring as he unloaded a full clip not on any gang members, but at the barbeque grill. Several slugs slammed into him, but not before he struck his mark.
A bullet punctured the tank of the grill with a deafening explosion.
Fire swept over the deck, blasting through all of the gang members, and hurling them like organic shrapnel. Window’s from the closest houses and vehicles, including Triple-Three, blew outward. Johnny and his remaining crew were knocked off their feet.
The ground before the burning house was littered with flaming bodies. The three questionably lucky ones who were furthest from the explosion lay on the ground moaning or outright screaming.
Ramirez pushed himself off the pavement. Beside him, Drifts shifted and sat up as well. The partners took in the scene with mounting horror. Drifts spoke over the ringing in his ears, “Holy fuck! Well this scene sure as hell isn’t safe!” The EMT stood up and helped Ramirez to his feet. “We need to move!”
Justin burst out of the ambulance. “Leo! Sam! Are you guys all right!”
Before either could answer Tanya screamed, “Taylor! Taylor! Baby, answer me! Help!”
Justin whirled around and Ramirez was right behind him in the box. Tanya looked up from her little boy. “He’s not breathing!”
Taylor stared up with wild eyes, his chest heaving, but no air was penetrating. Justin froze but Ramirez pushed past him as grabbed a syringe and a vial of epinephrine from the cabinet. He thrust it at Justin. “Draw this up!” Justin shook himself out of his momentary stupor and did as the veteran medic commanded.
“What’s going on!” Tanya screamed. “Why isn’t he breathing!”
Ramirez grabbed a laryngoscope and inserted into Taylor’s mouth. The child did not resist his efforts. His eyes were beginning to droop as he was about to pass out from oxygen deprivation. “He’s clamped down,” Ramirez answered her flatly. “The explosion threw his asthma attack over the edge. We’re going have to intubate.”
Tanya burst into tears, “Oh God! Oh God! Oh God, please save my baby!”
“Are you going to cric him?” asked Justin.
“Not yet. I’m going to try something, first.” Without looking up from Taylor’s mouth, Ramirez said, “Justin, get the Q-tips and squirt them with epi.”
Justin looked at him confused, “What?” He shook the question away. “Where are they?”
“Here!” Drifts climbed into the box from driver compartment. He reached over Ramirez and grabbed the long stemmed swabs. He held them out to Justin who wet them with epinephrine from the syringe. Drifts hand the saturated Q-tips to his partner, who took them and immediately swabbed the inside of Taylor’s throat.
There was a sudden wheeze as Taylor gasped.
“Hand me an ET tube!” Ramirez demanded as he held out his hand not looking away from the interior of Taylor’s throat.
“Here’s a size five,” said Justin as he thrust the endotrachial tube into the medic’s open hand.
Ramirez inserted the tube and inflated the cuff. “Bag.”
Drifts placed the Ambu bag on the ET tube and bagged while Justin listened to Taylor’s abdomen and lungs.
Justin sighed. “It’s good. His lungs are still diminished, but air is definitely coming in.”
“Oh thank God!” Tanya exclaimed. “Thank you Jesus!” She lay over Taylor’s legs.
Ramirez nodded. “We need to give him some epi 1:1000 Sub-Q, and bag in another albuterol treatment. Sam, help me secure this tube.” Together the partners quickly taped the tube down. Taylor’s eyes popped open as he looked around terrified. Ramirez smiled at him, “You gave us quite a scare. We had to put a tube into your throat to help you breath.” Taylor nodded. “I know you’re scared, but we will take care of you.”
Drifts looked at his partner. “Leo, we’re not out of the woods yet. While you were checking on the kid, I tried to start the rig’s engine. Triple-Three is dead, those fuckers.” He looked down at Taylor. “Sorry kid.”
Taylor shrugged.
“Those . . . idiots,” Drifts continued, with Taylor’s thumbs-up, “Shot up the engine. We’re not going anywhere. What’s worse is I think they got the radio relay as well. We’re stuck and cut off, in the middle of all this.”
“Oh shit,” whispered Tanya.
Ramirez glanced at his watch. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed since the first bullets flew. It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes. “Okay we need to move.” Ramirez looked at Tanya, “We can’t stay in here. A dozen runners can overtake an ambulance. Is your house secure?”
Tanya nodded. “I think so.”
“Good. We’re going to hole up in there while the situation blows up. We need to move! We don’t have much time!”
“Justin, you load up on supplies and carry them in, especially oxygen tanks. Taylor is going to need as much as we can offer.”
The paramedic student nodded and grabbed the medical bag as he ran out the side door. They could hear the metal clang as he grabbed more tanks of out the ambulance side compartment. “Sam, let’s take Taylor inside. Tanya, I take it you know how to use that thing, right?” Ramirez indicated the gun in her hand.
Tanya answered him with a determination that was both reassuring and terrifying, “Yes.”
“Good. Take point as we bring Taylor back into your house.”
She nodded, stepped down from the ambulance’s box, and looked around with wary eyes. Ramirez and Drifts were directly behind her as they unloaded Taylor on the stretcher. Ramirez squeezed the bag intermittently.
On the ground, Johnny and his remaining crew were sitting up groggily. Johnny shook his head. “What are you doing?”
They ignored him as they carried Taylor up the steps, passing Justin on his way back for another round of supplies. Distant crying drew Ramirez’s eyes. The veteran medic looked toward the school bus.
They brought Taylor into the living room and lowered the stretcher and placed against the far wall.
“Tanya?”
The young mother looked at Ramirez. “I want you to bag your son. I’m going to leave Justin in here to help. But we need to use your place as refuge for the moment.”