As The Siren Wails - Lights & Sirens Book 1

Chapter One

                                                                     Part One

                                                                       Hayden

     Have you ever had a day that you just wanted to start over before it was even half way over?                Yeah, me too.

     I'm not one to complain or knock the job but it really was the worst shift ever.

     The day started at seven-fifteen in the morning with an emergency call from a nursing home that went from bad to worse in less than five minutes. The patient crashed the moment we got into the room and the nursing home staff wasn't helpful in the least. They got in the way while my partner was trying to put in a line and then managed to pull the line out three minutes later when we transferred the patient to the stretcher. I had to bark at the nurse that stood and stared when I asked her to initiate CPR. She acted like she'd never seen a dead body before so I just took over and left my partner to grab his own stuff.

     Again... Not helpful in the least.

     Once that call was over we got dispatched out to an accident, which normally doesn't bother me but the weather took a quick turn for the worse and the sky opened up half an hour before. The moment I got by the car I managed to catch my pants on the edge of the bumper and ripped my side pocket, resulting in a sizable hole. I finally got all my crap picked up and stuffed in my other side pocket and went to help the other crew and my partner. The lady in the passenger side of the second car involved was a slight bitch and kept yelling at us when we tried to help her. She was saying we weren't treating her properly and we were judging her. Of course my partner didn't see the need for a paramedic in the back so he passed it on to me, the BLS provider. Her constant yelling and complaining caused a massive headache halfway to the hospital and I silently cursed Donnie, my partner.

     We had a nice two-hour break where there were no calls or transports to deal with. I managed to get a warm meal and be lazy for a few minutes on the couch in the dayroom. Just as I was drifting off to sleep the tones went off again. This time we were sure another crew was up but to our surprise we were called on the air for the call. So much for my nap.

     The moment we called on the air our dispatcher informed us it was going to be a standby for a structure fire in the city. We heard another crew call on as well and heard the same information given to them. Donnie and I exchanged glances and groaned. The last thing we wanted was a standby with that crew but we knew better than to complain.

     The fire was an old house turned into apartments on upper Union Street and there was already every bit of manpower the fire department had on staff today on scene. To make a long story short, we sat on scene for close to four hours before we were told to go back into service by the fire chief on scene. The other crew had to stay until the fire department was done on scene, and personally I didn't care, Donnie and I were worn from the stressful day already. Relieved and a bit waterlogged from the rain, we jumped in the truck and headed back to the station.

     I had about three and a half hours of pillow time when the tones went off and ripped me from an incredible dream. Peeking at the time on my cellphone I groaned and rolled over. The damage was done and I was wide-awake. I heard the crew call on for the call and heard the dispatch information. I had about ten minutes of silence after that to stare at the underside of the top bunk then all hell broke loose.

     Five calls dropped in the city all at once. Every truck was called on the air and sent in opposite directions it seemed. Andy, our dispatcher, was never a mean guy but when the crews got confused as to which call they were assigned he quickly fixed the situation in a tone they could learn from.