CCT to EMT
Author's Note: I received a lot of very kind emails after publishing Hit and Run. Some told me they were glad to see me back. Unfortunately, I'm not back. I'm still blocked, but I have been finishing up stories that were in various stages of development when I lost the urge to write.
This one is shorter than usual, but I think the character development sets the stage for the ending. I'll keep plugging away when I can, but until then, I do appreciate all of the heartfelt concern. Hope you enjoy this one.
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"ETA one minute!" the driver called out.
Ryan Ellis was 25 and had been an EMT for just seven months, while the other man he was teamed with had been on the job for six years. Neither of them had ever dealt with the aftermath of an Amber Alert gone wrong, but they were now less than a minute away from a vehicle carrying a young boy and his father, a man who'd lost custody of his child two years earlier.
"Stand by!" they heard the driver holler, meaning he was braking for the accident scene.
The moment the vehicle stopped he yelled out, "Clear!"
The two EMTS, or rather one EMT and a paramedic, jumped out.
Ryan saw three potential patients. A man of maybe 35 or 40 who'd been ejected from the vehicle, what looked to be a pedestrian who'd been struck by the car--possibly when it flipped--and a boy who appeared to somehow be pinned under the vehicle.
"I'll take the pedestrian. You get the kid under the car!" Ryan's partner called out after the other man assessed the situation for all of two seconds which was more than he needed.
"Roger that," Ryan replied.
He grabbed his bag, ran to the car, then knelt down. Unable to get a clear view, he laid flat on the pavement and then saw the boy.
"It's gonna be okay," the EMT told him when he realized the boy was conscious.
"I can't move," the boy, who looked to be maybe nine or ten, weakly called out.
"That's okay. We'll get you out of here. I promise!"
Ryan had gone to college for a semester after being discharged from the Air Force where he did a four-year stint. It took less than six months for him to realize that sitting in a classroom wasn't for him. Or rather it wasn't worth it if it meant a lifetime of sitting in some cubicle after he got a degree.
He'd been a Combat Controller for nearly all of his enlistment, and had been on one 90-day deployment to Afghanistan. Things had largely wound down by then, but the word 'almost' meant 'not completely.'
During a routine patrol, his team was ambushed. Fortunately, the enemy only had a few AK-47s, so there was no machine gun or RPG fire. The ensuing firefight was brief but incredibly intense. It lasted less than a minute but that seemed to go on for a lot longer as the team put out just over 200 rounds while killing the three attackers. No team member was hurt, and that was the first, last, and only combat Airman First Class Ellis had ever seen.
He made sergeant just before leaving active duty and decided to use the GI Bill and go to college. His heart wasn't really in it, but it would buy him time to figure what he wanted to do, and with any luck, he'd make up for a lot of lost time where women were concerned.
Academically, it was a lot easier than he'd expected it to be. Then again, it was a community college and he was taking four intro courses that could later be applied to almost any major.
Socially, however, it was a kind of sexual Mecca. That was basically true for most young men but especially so for a guy as good looking as him. He and his roommate took turns, or as often as not, shared their small one-room apartment with whatever girl or girls they met that evening who later came home with them.
Like school, that too, got boring after the first four months or so. With the exception of those times he'd been deployed, he'd had decent luck with women while in the Air Force, and this sudden burst of nearly non-stop sex had been a welcome relief. He didn't know what he wanted where either academics or women were concerned, but he knew he didn't want much more of mindless sex, and that's all he'd had. He wasn't complaining. He'd enjoyed every young woman he'd made love to. It was more that just having sex wasn't enough.
The decision to change course, literally and figuratively, came shortly after he attended a job fare on campus just before the Winter Break of that first semester. Jobs were plentiful, and he had a part-time gig of his own, but these were more careers than jobs. He hadn't been thinking about a career because he honestly had no idea where to even look when he began walking around and stopping in at various booths. One in particular caught his attention.
"You interested in being an EMT or a paramedic?" a man of about 35 and dressed in a white shirt with black pants asked, a bright, shiny red and white emergency vehicle parked maybe 15 feet behind him.
"I dunno," Ryan told him honestly, as that was also something he'd never thought about.
"Do you like action?" the other man asked with a smile. "You know, high intensity, get your heart rate into high gear kind of action?"
Ryan recalled the firefight and how he'd never felt more alive as he and the other members of his team pumped out two magazines each toward the source of enemy fire. When it was over, he'd been on an adrenalin high for a couple more hours and found himself secretly hoping to experience that feeling again--only without AK-47 rounds being fired back at him.
"Yeah. I guess maybe I am," he told the man who introduced himself as Dave, his right hand held out.
Ryan was young, healthy, and fit, and while he knew COVID was extremely dangerous for certain groups of people, he also knew he wasn't one of them. COVID preyed on those with pre-existing conditions called 'co-morbidities' like morbid obesity, diabetes, asthma, the elderly, and those with compromised immune systems.
Those concerns aside, Ryan shook the man's hand then asked Dave how long he'd been an EMT.
"Twelve years and counting," he proudly old the younger man. "Technically, I was an EMT for five years and have been a paramedic the last seven. And the best part is I still love it."
He smiled then said, "Like the saying goes, 'Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life'."
Before Ryan could ask a question, Dave said, "How about you? What are you looking to do after college?"
Ryan thought for a moment and realized he had no idea.
"I'm not sure. I'm just finishing my first semester and really have no idea."
"You look a little older than most of the other freshmen. You former military?"
"I am," Ryan replied before giving a very short summary of his past.
"Ah, okay. Air Force but a CCT. That tells me a lot."
