by Ami LeCoeur
What the…? A bright flash of white grabbed my attention, drawing it back to the darkening road in front of me.
I tapped the brake, glancing back up into the rearview mirror, wanting to catch sight of the mirage again. I could have sworn there was someone in the middle of the road.
“What’s that?” came Maria’s startled voice beside me.
“Someone’s in the road,” I took my foot off the gas to slow down as I edged off the narrow roadway. “I think it might have been a woman, holding a child.”
“A woman? Where’s her car?”
The road was desolate and empty—stretching out for miles with nothing along either side except rows of trees and orchards.
I hit the brakes, finding a place where it was wide enough to turn around. Swinging into a u-turn, I mumbled, almost to myself, “I’m going back. I think she’s in trouble.”
My eyes swept the road in front of me, searching for the woman I was now certain I’d seen. I looked for a car or any other indication of why someone would be on this deserted road alone. This empty, desolate highway, so close to dark. Then, miraculously, I saw it, tire tracks burned through the grass leading up the dirt embankment next to the shoulder.
“Oh damn, it looks like they went off the road.” I pointed toward the tracks.
Seconds later, I saw the figure in the headlights again, running in our direction. But it was a man, not a woman. A man in a sleeveless shirt, with a small child pressed to his chest.
“Lock your door,” I told Maria as the car rolled to a stop. “We don’t want to be ambushed out here if this is a set-up.”
She fumbled with the automatic lock for a moment, then I heard the click. She rolled her window down about an inch as the man ran up to her side of the vehicle.
“Thank you, thank you. I couldn’t get anyone to stop,” he panted, leaning heavily against Maria’s closed door. “I tried, but no one stopped, they just kept going,” he rambled.
His breath came in deep rasps, and he seemed nearly incoherent, sobbing into the child’s shoulder as he repeated the same thing again. He said something about swerving to miss an animal in the road, but by then I was already out of the car and heading for the trunk to grab a flashlight and some tools.
“Stay here, watch Emily,” I called out to Maria as I shut the trunk and headed up the embankment.
###
“Get me out!” the anguished scream pierced the darkness. “Please, someone! Get me out of here!”
I turned towards the hysterical woman’s voice, running in that direction without even thinking.
“Somebody! Anybody! Help me, please!” she yelled again.
The darkness around me was nearly complete, so I pulled out the flashlight I’d grabbed from the trunk.
I smelled it before I saw it. Gasoline. I froze for a moment, as the acrid smell of something burning filled my nostrils. Then the sound of someone coughing and… screams.
Screams of terror and pain.
Chapter 16 — Maria
I glanced over the short embankment, and could just barely see the car wedged in beyond a row of the trees, lying on its side. I saw Thompson’s flashlight heading in that direction, weaving through the trees.
One bar on the phone. Come on, answer, I prayed.
“911. What is your emergency?” came the response.
“I’m on Old Woman Springs Road, a car has gone off the road. It’s lying on its side.”
“Tell me exactly where you are.”
“We were headed east from Centerville on Old Woman Springs. I don’t know for sure what the next side road is. Let me see if my GPS is working.”
“Is everyone okay?” came Emily’s soft question.
“I don’t know, honey,” I told her, looking for the GPS indicator on the phone.
“It looks like we are 1.7 miles from Pepper Street.” I relayed the information to the dispatcher.
“Pepper Street?”
“I’m sorry, Popper Street.” I’d been trying to watch what was happening, but it was hard to see much in the darkness with no moon. I could see Thompson talking to the man with the child, and I heard the woman still yelling.
“How many people are in the vehicle?”
“I think there were three,” I told the dispatcher. “I’m not sure. There is a man with a young child, they’re outside the car, and I can hear a woman calling for help. She’s still inside the car.”
“Was anyone thrown from the vehicle? Are there any obvious injuries?”
“I don’t think anyone was thrown out.” Thompson had moved to the toppled car and I heard his deep, resonating voice reassuring the woman that everything would be okay.
“If anyone is injured, do not move them until the emergency vehicle gets there. Keep them stationary.”
Yeah, right. The man was wandering around, babbling and hugging the child, and I was stuck here in the car—how could I stop anyone from moving around, even if I wanted to?
Cars and trucks whizzed by us, no one paying heed to the flashers. I looked out the window and saw Thompson standing midway between the accident vehicle and the roadway, moving his head as though he was scanning the area. Suddenly he turned, and within a couple of steps, he was out of my sight again.
Chapter 17 — Thompson
Bright lights. The growling sound of engines approaching. Vehicles. Big vehicles… trucks or tanks, or… shit… I look around me, disoriented by the darkness, unsure if I should give aid to the victims or wait for reinforcements.
I hear a heavy jake-brake, but the transport isn’t stopping. I’m not sure if I should be sorry or relieved. Who is that? I wonder, Friendly, or…? I need to find my men, and I run back towards my vehicle.
But the screaming continues and I know I have to take care of these people. I can’t just leave them. Right now, I’m their only hope, if I leave they might die. And then that would be more blood on my hands, as surely as if I’d leveled my rifle and shot them point blank.
I’m sick to death of this needless dying. The torture of women and children, of innocents caught in the middle of a war they don’t understand and can’t protect themselves from.
And now this, an IED meant for us, for soldiers and fighters… except it’s taken out a civilian vehicle. An innocent family.
I push myself to run back to the overturned truck, remembering the smell of gasoline and the anguished cries of the injured.
I’m praying I can get them all out in time.
I can’t afford to wait for my men to get back from their recon.
There isn’t time.
There’s never enough time…
“Please! Somebody help!” came the screeching cries of a woman in pain.
But… something’s wrong… there is no truck. It’s a Toyota RAV. Lying on its side, up against a tree. The wrong kind of tree for this area. I look around, reorienting myself and realize the terrain is totally wrong for Afghanistan.
The woman’s cries scream my brain back to reality... bringing me back from the worst day of my life. I found myself crouched beside the overturned car, half hidden, as if seeking shelter, and I stopped, suddenly remembering where I am.
The running man.
With the child.
The overturned car.
With a woman still inside.
In my stupor, I’d managed to scramble back through bushes and shrubs, as I made my way from the road and my flashback incident.
Shaking, I realized I was back in the present—and there was still an injured passenger who needed to be taken care of.
During the accident, the RAV had turned onto its side, sliding into a tall, thick oak. Now it sat there, the top wedged securely against the curved trunk of the tree.
In the front seat, the woman screamed hysterically as she reached an arm out the window, flailing, as if to grab my hand.
I peered through the front window, moving around the side, and looking in through the back. Smoke was thick inside the vehicle but flashing my l
ight, it appeared the car was empty except for the injured woman, pinned by the dash. I stepped next to the passenger door, leaning in to comfort the woman as she grabbed frantically for my arm. In her panic, she refused to let go of me. Her nails dug into the flesh of my wrist, threatening to pierce a vein.
“Please!” she sobbed, coughing as she tried to catch her breath. “Get me out of here! The smoke… it’s choking me. I can smell the gas, please, I don’t want to die. Get me out!”
At the mention of gas, I shivered. I remembered, this time in full consciousness, the incident with the Afghan family. We’d been lucky that day, I’d gotten two of the family out by the time my men had finally shown up, and they’d helped remove the other four. It had been close, but even with the encroaching fire, we’d managed to get everyone out with a minimum of injury.
But they’d been scared. Just as scared as this woman. I knew it wouldn’t do any good trying to convince her that exploding cars are mostly Hollywood stunts. There was, after all, always a real possibility, a chance, that dripping gasoline would catch on fire.
I ran as quickly back to my car as I could, wondering where the fuck the emergency vehicles were. I was stunned to see the driver still wandering around the road, holding the child and babbling to himself.
“We need to get the child inside so she can stay safe and warm until help arrives. And I need you to help me free the woman in your car.”
The man said nothing, just kept hugging the girl in his arms, crying and babbling. I pulled open the door of my vehicle. Turning, I located the man again, still pacing and mumbling.
“Put her in the backseat with my daughter,” I said. When he didn’t move, I practically pulled the little girl from his arms. Maria’s busy on the phone with 911. She nods at me
“What’s your name,” I asked the man.
“Daniel,” he said as I set the little girl on the backseat.
“And your girl, what’s her name?”
“Shelley.”
I looked at the girl. She seemed a couple years younger than Emily, sucking her thumb and trying not to cry. “Shelley, this is Emily. Emily is my daughter. She’s going to keep you company while your dad helps me, okay?”
“Mmm, hm,” the little girl said, her fingers picking lint from her sweater.
I looked over at Emily who was sitting wide-eyed and looking a little afraid. I cupped her cheek and gave her a little wink. She smiled at me. I didn’t have much time to spend comforting or reassuring her. I had to trust that she would understand. We needed to get the woman out. Now.
“Daniel, help me over here,” I said as I headed back to the trunk of my vehicle. I grabbed the emergency fire extinguisher I always carried. I’d left the crowbar down at the car, but I picked up my knife and stuck it in my pocket.
“Let’s go,” I said and started running, praying the man was following me, but I didn’t take the time to check over my shoulder.
###
“I’m here. Don’t worry. You’ll be okay,” I told the woman in my most soothing voice. Calm. Control. Do what needs doing.
The driver’s door had become the relative floor of the vehicle, and there was no way I could enter there. I’d have to go in through the passenger’s side or the back. I was concerned about taking out the front window. It was obvious the dash was preventing the woman from moving, and I needed to assess the extent of her injuries before I tried anything heroic.
“Hey, what’s your name?” I asked the woman, as much to distract her as for information.
“Alice,” she said.
“Nice. Well, this is quite a wonderland you’re part of tonight,” I smiled, hoping my attempts at humor would soothe her sobs. “Tell me, Alice, does your neck hurt?”
The woman shook her head no.
“Good. I can see you’re pinned by the dash. Can you remove your seatbelt?”
“It won’t,” she sobbed. “I’ve been trying.” She cried out as my hands pressed against her ribs and I fumbled with the catch. “See?” she sobbed again. “I told you.”
“Do you have a sweater or scarf?”
She shook her head.
“No problem,” I said, pulling my t-shirt over my head. “I want you to put this over your head and face. I need to break some glass to get you out of there. Nothing to worry about,” I assured her when her eyes got big. “This is tempered glass so it shouldn’t break into shards, just into chunks. But I still want you to be safe, you understand?”
She nodded and buried her face in my shirt, coughing with the smoke.
I reached into the car, pressing her head against her knees.
She coughed again and then cried out in fear when I used the crowbar to break the side window glass directly behind her.
Luckily it broke fairly easily, and I was able to clear it out with little fuss.
“Okay,” I told Alice, “I need my shirt back, please. That is, if you’re finished with it.” I smiled.
“Oh, I’m sorry, here,” she thrust it at me and I slipped it back on. The air inside the vehicle was still pretty smoky, but outside it was getting cooler. I wasn’t feeling cold, yet, but I’d become uncomfortable in the short time it had taken to remove the window glass.
I scrambled in through the now open window, intending to unlatch the seatbelt from the backseat. But no amount of tugging would get it to release. She was stuck, and in pain, and even with the broken windows, the smoke inside was getting thicker as she continued coughing.
Leaving the victim in the car until help arrived was not really an option. I needed to get her out.
Chapter 18 — Maria
I glanced in the rear view mirror. The child sitting next to Emily was young, about six or seven, quiet. Scared but quiet. Perhaps in shock.
“Are you okay, Shelley?” I asked, watching for any indication of pain or injuries. “Are you hurt?”
She looked up at me, tears drying in trails down her cheeks, trails through dried blood. I watched as Emily leaned over and whispered to her, “Everything will be okay.”
“There’s a six- or seven-year-old child. She looks like maybe she got a bloody nose,” I was back to reporting to the emergency dispatcher.
“And how many people are there?” the dispatcher asked again.
“I told you—I think there are three people. They’re getting the woman out of the car right now.”
It was dark, but now I could see Thompson and Daniel standing by the overturned car. Thompson’s broad shoulders towered above the vehicle. I watched him leveraging the crowbar against the door, trying to open it from the outside. Daniel stood there, helplessly watching. Then he moved next to Thompson, pushing down against the crowbar.
Seconds later, I heard the crash of glass again. Thompson had used the tool to break more windows.
For the briefest moment, I was back in my parents’ car, hearing the sound of tearing metal and breaking glass as we were thrown through the air the night of the accident that took my legs.
And my mother’s life.
And changed everything... forever.
I closed my eyes, shaking. Maria, you’re fine. It’s over. You’re okay. I reminded myself that I was here with Thompson and Emily. And Shelley. Breathe. I forced my eyes open, quickly checking the rear view mirror to make sure the girls were okay. Then I turned back towards the overturned car.
Chapter 19 — Thompson
Inside the overturned vehicle, the smoke was getting thicker. I covered the woman with a blanket I’d found in the back. “I’m going to get you more air,” I told her as I covered her face. She nodded, still crying but at least not screaming anymore.
I began busting through the glass in the back of the vehicle and the smoke billowed out, giving us some extra breathing room at least. Then I placed the crowbar against the dash and shoved my foot at the same time, prying the restraint away from her leg. Metal creaked and gave a little, but not enough.
“Daniel, I need your help,” I yelled to the man. “Walk around the c
ar and look for fire. Use the fire extinguisher on anything you see. We’ve got to find the source of this smoke. It’s going to take longer than I’d like for me to free Alice’s leg from the dash.”
Thank Jesus, the man looked directly at me and appeared clear-headed for a moment. He reached down and picked up the fire extinguisher and walked away. A few seconds later, I heard the blast of the CO2. A second later, I heard it again.
With no time to celebrate the removal of the fire threat, I pushed against the dash with my foot and the crowbar again. I yelled in triumph as the mental loosened a little more. I yelled louder when the woman’s leg finally became unpinned.
“I’m going to unbuckle you and let you fall onto me,” I told the woman. “You sure your neck is okay? How about your back? Are you injured anywhere else?”
“No, I don’t think so, but my leg though, it hurts like hell. I think it’s gotta be broken.”
I crawled beneath where she hung from her seat and positioned myself to more easily catch her when I cut through her seatbelt. “I’m going to cut the belt now.” The woman raised her hands over her head and braced them against the roof of the car, but still came crashing down when I cut her free.
She shrieked in pain, then began to sob and curse. I didn’t even try to quiet her, I’d have been cursing too. I did my best to hold on to her waist and press her up towards the open window.
“Grab ahold of the window frame if you can,” I told her. Then I began to wiggle myself out from under her while she stabilized herself.
When I was halfway out, I yelled for Daniel to come help. He reappeared and before I could stop him, the idiot grabbed Alice’s arm, dragging her off balance and forcing her to put weight onto her injured leg. She screamed and began cursing again, this time swinging her arm at his head.
