| As Nikie sat at her desk, watching the weather on the tv, her mind drifted back. She remembered sitting at this desk during the bad winter storm. The weather man had said, "one to three inches of snow." As usual he was a little off with his predictions. Nikie smiled to herself, as she drove her old truck through the now two foot of snow, into the parking lot. Everyone was surprised to see her walk into the office. A snow emergency had been declared when there was only a foot of snow on the ground. Now there was two foot of snow, and it was still snowing. Nikie told them that her old truck was used to snow, she had left early, and took only main roads. She thought she would be needed. Once over their surprise, they seemed to be glad she was there. Nikie went right to work so the other dispatcher could get some rest. Linda had been working for twelve hours already, and was glad to finally be relieved of duty. Linda told Nikie that for the first couple of hours she had been real busy. There had been many auto accidents. But once the snow emergency had been declared, it was real quiet. The ambulance crew went back to their card game. Linda went to the break room to get some sleep, and Nikie sat down and looked over the log books. It was two hours later when the phone finally rang. When it is time for a baby to be born, the weather conditions do not matter. At least to the baby they don't. Nikie called on the radio to the officer that had the snowmobile with a sled. She gave him the address and the reason he was to go there. He responded that he was on his way, but she could tell by his voice that he was not real happy about this call. She smiled as she told him that the ambulance would be waiting on the main road. The crew, however, were all smiles when they left. This was their favorite type of call. With the labor pains only two minutes apart, Nikie thought there was a good chance the crew would do the delivery. Forty-five minutes later, Nikie heard on the radio,"It's a boy!" Then the ambulance crew gave her information to be relayed to the hospital. The bad storm was preventing the hospital from hearing the ambulance on the radio. She was also to call the father and advise him. The sled only had room for one person on it, so the father had been left at home. Nikie made both calls, then got herself a cup of coffee. She settled down to wait fot the crew to return. She knew the storm would make their trip a long one. It was, indeed, twice the usual amount of time before the crew returned to the office. They had to brag and joke for the next hour. Two police officers came in for a hot cup of coffee. They joined the joking and fun. Several hours later, Nikie sat alone in the office. The ambulance crew had retired to their quarters to rest. The officers had gone to the Chief's house for an impromptu meeting he had called, relating to the storm. The snow had finally stopped There was about three foot of snow on the ground. Road crews were finally making some headway clearing the main roads. It would still be a while before any of the secondary roads were plowed. Not being a tv watcher, Nikie had long ago turned it off, and was quietly reading a book. The sudden ring of the phone made her jump. As she reached for the phone, a feeling of dread came over her.She had no time for her feelings, she was at work. The call was from the alarm company. They advised her of an entry alarm going off at a sporting goods warehouse. Nikie called the Chief's house and gave him this information. He said he would send two officers to check it out. The warehouse was on a main road, but it was on the other side of town. Normally there would be a police car on duty in that area. But with the bad storm, this was not the case tonight. It took the two man car a few minutes to get to the warehouse. One officer went to check the front of the building, and the other officer went to check the back of the building. "Front door secure", Mark said over the radio to Nikie. "Affirmative" Nikie responded over the radio. "Back door is open and ....." Steve's voice said over the radio. As he said"and". Nikie heard what sounded like a hammer hitting wood, come over his radio. Just before he stopped talking in mid sentence. Nikie called him on the radio, but he did not answer. But Mark said, "Shots fired, need backup!" Nikie was already calling the Chief on the phone. When he answered the phone, Nikie said, "Shots fired, need backup, possible officer down!" She only waited long enough for him to say, "En route", then she hung up the phone, and was back on the radio. All calls on the radio to Steve went unanswered. Mark said he had made it around the building far enough, to see Steve was laying on the ground. But he could not reach Steve. Gun fire coming out the back door prevented Mark from reaching his partner. Nikie pushed the alarm button for the ambulance crew. She told them to head that way, but advised them that they were not to get to close, until it was safe for them to do so. As they headed out the door, Linda walked back into the office. Linda was now well rested. It only took her a minute to understand what was going on. Immediately Linda sat down in the chair next to Nikie. Words between the two women were not needed. As Nikie handled the police radio, Linda took over the ambulance radio. Nikie handed Linda the roll-a-dex, containing phone numbers of all officers, ambulance personal, and fire department personal. "I called the Chief", was all Nikie said. Without a word, Linda started to make the necessary calls. All on duty officers, plus the Chief, were on location. More officers were on the way. The subjects inside the building would not talk to the officers. They would not let anyone come near the officer that was on the ground. They would only respond to any verbal, or movement, from outside the building with gunfire. |
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| music: Sad |
