Erin lifted the child into her arms, who was decidedly not a twin. Carver was going to lose consciousness soon.
“I failed last time. Not this time,” Carver mumbled.
Kevin dropped down next to her and pointed at the child Erin was holding. Erin nodded and the two of them did their best to clip the limp child into the harness and safety belt. Another thing Erin was happy she had done relatively recently. Erin tugged twice on the rope.
“Roger, rope up!” Kwon yelled. They saw Kwon’s head stick out over the opening. The line went taut, and the child moved with slow, jerking movements upward. Kevin and Erin guided his legs to keep his feet down so his head could pass through the opening.
“Next one.” Carver pushed the other kid toward them and laid down in the gasoline, going under.
Erin passed the kid to Kevin and dove after Carver, mentally cursing him again with as many four-letter words that she could think of. He’d aspirate by breathing in gasoline. Or he’d vomit and his gag reflex would be so depressed, he’d choke to death.
“Here’s the next harness. Gas meter says something is displacing 5000 PPM, and we have less than 20 percent oxygen up here,” Kwon warned them. Those words had a sobering effect because the vapor was able to displace oxygen in the open air. Inside the tank, the vapor likely pushed the oxygen under 17 percent, the suffocation limit of the human body.
Decision time. Carver would be harder to move than the kids since he weighed almost three times their weight. He would die if they didn’t help him now.
There was only one thing to do. Erin tapped Kevin on the side and pointed at her mask and then at Carver. Kevin understood, and Erin knelt down in the gasoline next to Carver.
Taking five deep breaths, Erin removed her mask and fit it over Carver’s face. Her SCBA beeped again as it made a new seal on his face. She began humming her best air management song,The Itsy Bitsy Spider.
The itsy bitsy spider went up the waterspout.
She stood back up, bracing Carver with one leg against the wall so she could help harness the other kid. Kevin pulled the rope twice when Erin had trouble finding it with her eyes stinging from the vapor. The kid rose slowly.
Kevin tapped his mask, and Erin shook her head. She was already buddy breathing for Carver, sharing her air with him. They had proven on multiple occasions that she had the best air reserve. Help would come.
Down came the rain and washed the spider out.
Kevin tried again. He pointed at her harness rope. They could have Kwon belay her out of the tank, leaving Kevin to handle Carver.
The problem was that would leave Kevin without a partner. The ladder on top was narrow. It would take an unknown amount of time to get Erin out, drop another person down, get Carver out, and then another person.
Kwon’s voice was amplified with a bullhorn. Her first words echoed down the tank, hurting their ears. By the second word, she’d modulated her tone. “We are sending down a harness. Do you want us to pull you out? One pull for no, two pulls for yes.”
Erin tugged her line once. She wondered how long she’d been down here. The gasoline was stinging her exposed skin. How many times would she need to take a decontamination shower? Several? Infinite?
It was at least three minutes. Her record still stood at five minutes, but that involved standing still and not resisting gasoline fumes.
“We are sending down another harness for Carver,” Kwon announced.
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain.
Her lungs started to send her the warning signal. She suppressed it. Instead, she envisioned what was going outside. More help would be deploying with ambulances for the kids. Other firefighters would support the lines to winch them out again. It would take at least three to five minutes per person. They’d evac Carver, then Kevin, then Erin.
It was quiet without the noise of her own breaths. Every gasp Carver took under the mask echoed through the tank. The air hunger was gnawing at her now.
And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.
Help would be here soon. She could always pull her line twice to get out before she passed out.
Except Carver needed to get out first.
Her vision started to swim. She desperately, desperately, desperately needed to inhale. Every muscle was screaming with lack of oxygen and she needed to breathe… but she couldn’t.
A hand grabbed her shoulder, framed oddly by the shadows and her unreliable sight. She squinted again at whatever Phantasm interacted with her.
Kevin ripped off his mask and sealed it to her face. His SCBA beeped, and Erin instinctively gasped. She took multiple deep breaths and blessed oxygen entered her starving lungs, banishing the carbon dioxide poison.
Though Kevin’s gift of air was generous, he was exposing himself to the toxic vapors, even with his mouth tightly shut. Their fishbowl game taught her that he’d be in good shape for about two minutes at best. They could carefully pass the air back and forth, but it had never been Erin’s way to let her teammates deliberately endanger themselves when she was better suited.
