by Jayne Blue
“Blame. You owe us. We’re love facilitators.” G-Man said.
“Ooh, can we get that printed up on cards?” Jessie said and the two of them kept joking, making sure that Craddock was truly calm again.
His temper was under control that much was true but the exchange with Sunny and Zeke had him rattled. He wasn’t worried about himself, he could be the bad guy, it was his job, but he knew Cassidy didn’t want any part of gossip or innuendo.
She was intensely private and that was something he loved about her. She didn’t post selfies every five minutes nor seek attention because of her looks. She got it, nothing to be done about that, because she was gorgeous. The fact that she never made duck faces at a camera or flirt with fighters was another way she stood out in his mind.
He climbed into his bus with many questions in his mind on what he should do. Tell Cassidy about the latest exchange with Zeke and Sunny? Or let it slide? He climbed into their little home on wheels and Dylan was up front, he liked to be “co-pilot” sometimes and Ted was patient enough to answer his questions and give him navigational jobs.
Cassidy was buried in a course on her laptop as always. She had spent most of this stop taking three tests. It was a small crowd relative to other towns they had been in, so on that score, it was good timing. Even with all the craziness that the MMA world brought, she never wavered in her own plans and goals. He was very relieved she had not been in the gym for that last exchange with Zeke and decided to forget about it for now. She didn’t need that aggravation as she finished her tests today.
“This is your co-pilot speaking,” Dylan slid the little glass open, and was very serious.
“The captain advises everyone to be in seats with seatbelts due to rough weather ahead.” Dylan adopted his best airline pilot voice.
“Seriously?” Craddock had hoped to stretch out.
“Don’t argue with the co-pilot, he’s right. Ted warned me earlier too that if I needed the wifi it could be spotty. He says there is a thunderstorm on the radar.” Cassidy said.
“Fine. Belted it in it is.” Craddock leaned over and kissed Cassidy who had barely looked up when he did. She was immersed in her social work stuff. He found her adorable.
“Do we need more shirts?”
“Got about fifty left, love.” Dylan had counted them as usual.
“I’ll order some more. We’re going to need them in Denver.” Dylan and Cassidy had taken care of so much more than he had expected on this tour and it filled his heart. They were a three-person team.
Denver was a big MMA expo the last stop before G-Man’s parade rolled into L.A. for his big title shot.
It was a huge event; Craddock was excited for it but also glad the tour was about finished.
It was all getting very real; G-Man was getting very close to the biggest fight of his career.
Over the last few weeks, Craddock had really started to see the wisdom of Meyer Thompson’s plan to put them on the road. G-Man stayed lose and with his friends and more specifically out of L.A., which if Sunny was any indication, was full of snakes, and potential pitfalls. They all also had been able to see the influence they could have on kids and their sport.
Craddock looked over at Cassidy, who had flipped shut her computer and stretched out in her chair.
“How did the tests go?”
“Good.”
“A plus good?” He knew she was upset if she did not get the best grades possible. He had learned not to give her trouble about it either. It was best to give her Type A personality room to obsess about each question.
They drove on to the highway as the sun set. As predicted, the skies also darkened with clouds. It looked like the co-pilot was balls on accurate about everyone being belted in.
Cassidy closed the laptop and reached out a hand to him, they entwined fingers and before long, they had both dozed off.
Cassidy
Usually when you jerked away in a dream you woke up to find out it was just a dream. It was your mind fooling you into believing you had tripped on a curb or even fallen out of bed. But this time it was real.
Cassidy was upside down, in the dark, something sticky running into her eye. A terrible burning was making her eyes water. What was happening? Where was she?
The bus, they were in the bus. What the hell?
Her first thought was Dylan.
“Dylan!” If she was scared and disoriented, he must be worse. They had obviously been in some sort of crash. The bus was on its side; her side was suspended mid-air. Craddock! Where was he?
“Cass you okay? Talk to me.” It was Craddock below her, his voice instantly helping her stave off panic.
She felt his arms on her now but did not have any idea how to get out of her seat. Craddock was trying to free her.
“Dylan is Dylan okay? He has to be terrified. What happened?” She felt her heart beat faster and faster. The desire to get out of the bus was strong. She worried that she now smelled gas.
“It’s okay. We can’t help him until we get out.”
“How the fuck are we going to get out. I have no idea where the door is?” She was trying not to panic.
“Are you hurt? Can you move?” Craddock was standing on what was probably the side of the bus.
“I can move.” She had been trying to get out of her seat since she had come to.
“What the..? Honey, you're bleeding. I need to get you out of this mess. I’m going to slice the seatbelt okay?”
“I’m not sure how to land?”
“I’ll catch you.” Craddock had somehow found a knife, eased it to the fabric of the seatbelt, and began to saw through it.
“It feels like it’s about to..”
The seatbelt gave way where Craddock had been cutting. She landed on his shoulders but his strong arms prevented her from crashing any further.
“I’ve got you. I’ve got you.” Cassidy felt Craddock hug her tight. One hurdle down. They were out of the seats.
“Where’s the door?”
“Over here,” the door was now above them. “It’s jammed. I’m going to push it open, hoist you and out and then I’ll be right behind you.” They scrambled and carefully stood on the side of the overturned bus. She breathed in a bit of air that was less tinged then inside the vehicle. She also looked around to figure out what could have happened.
As her eyes adjusted, her mouth flew open. They were in the midst of a horrific pile-up. She saw flames and black smoke all around them. The heat was rising from what she only could assume were other vehicles, on fire.
“We need to get Dylan.” Craddock was focused on the next rescue, not the scene.
“He was in front right? With Ted?” She was trying piece together the moments the lead up to the situation they were now confusingly in. Dylan had been on the passenger side, and they hoped they could help him climb out of that door. Ted too.
“Yep.” They ran to the front of the bus and there was Dylan.
“Wake up Ted, wake up!” He had undone his own seatbelt. Ted was still strapped in and not conscious.
“Dylan.” Craddock yelled to him but Dylan did not hear him, or was too focused on Ted.
“Dylan Flynn!” This time Cassidy got his attention. The front windshield was shattered.
“Cassidy! Crad! What do I do? Ted won’t wake up!”
“You need to get out and we’ll help him. You need to do it soon. I’m going to kick some of glass away, close your eyes.” They had a hole big enough to get out of in the front windshield.
Craddock helped Dylan navigate out of the front window. An explosion in the distance knocked her forward and sent a surge of panic through her.
“Craddock we need to hurry, TED!” If fire hit their bus and their fuel tank, it would be a death trap. Could Craddock pull him out and carry him?
“He’s waking up! Good news!” Dylan yelled and she watched as Craddock struggled to help a dazed Ted out the same way he did Dylan.
“Hurry, Craddock.” She smelled
gas and it seemed very close.
They were going to have to jump to get off the bus.
“Don’t worry Dylan, it’s not that far.”
“I’m scared!” Dylan said.
“I’ll go first.” Cassidy leaped off the bus and made it in one piece.
“I did it, its fine. I’m down here.” She called out.
“Here goes nothing!” Dylan said when he landed. She helped him up and gave him a quick look from head to toe. Nothing seemed broken. How he was not having a meltdown now but did when he lost a ticket stub was another Dylan Mystery but she was glad he was keeping it together.
“You did it! Does anything hurt?” She asked him.
“My throat stings.”
“There’s smoke, this is a really big crash Dylan. The main thing is you stay with me okay. We can’t get separated.”
“Will Craddock be able to help Ted jump?”
“I think so.”
Craddock was still up there and Cassidy could not see a thing. It was taking too long, and based on the fires, they did not have time to waste. This gas tank on wheels could be next. In addition, the smoke and heat was starting to overwhelm the air.
“Craddock come on!” There was no answer. What she could see is a line of flame from another vehicle getting closer and closer.
“He better hurry. I’m getting really scared.” Dylan voiced the same fear she had.
“Hold my hand and don’t let go. When they get clear of the bus we’re going to have to run fast.”
Finally, Craddock and Ted appeared above them on the bus. Ted looked okay and was standing up on his own.
“We need to go. The gas tank!” She called to them.
Craddock and Ted saw the line of flames she was pointing to and they jumped down off the bus. Craddock grabbed her hand and Dylan’s. The three held on to each other and ran as fast as they could away from the bus to the berm of the highway with Ted right behind them.
“We need to keep going over the guard rail if the bus explodes we’re too close!” Ted yelled.
The rail was an easy leap for Craddock, Dylan and Ted but Cassidy was a foot shorter.
“Keep running.” Craddock ordered Dylan and Ted. He stopped and swooped Cassidy up in his arms. He caught up with Ted and Dylan while carrying Cassidy.
“We need to get down!” Ted yelled and they all dove into the drainage ditch as a wave of heat and sound rolled over them.
The Fighting Flynn mobile was rocked by three explosions and they hunkered down as far as they could.
“Oh my god. Oh my god.” Cassidy found herself repeating.
Craddock put an arm around her and an arm around his big brother.
“She’s bleeding.” Dylan noticed now.
“Where?” She asked and slowly it dawned on her that her face was wet.
“Oh Jesus it looks worse than I thought.” Craddock said and his expression did not paint a pretty picture.
“What?”
Craddock put her face in his hands and felt for the source.
“Ow!” It was a deep cut in the fleshy part of her eyelid that was now looking gruesome, if she was judging by the looks that all three men were giving her.
“It’s nothing. Faces bleed,” she said.
“This is a major pile-up one after another and another. By the looks of it, our bus got off easy. I saw one of the crashes and was able to break a little before we jack-knifed,” Ted said.
“What about G-Man’s and Zeke?” Cassidy asked.
“G-Man was ahead of us. Up there. Zeke’s bus might be better off. They were behind us.” The direction Ted pointed up ahead led to the source of most of the smoke and flames. Somewhere up there were G-Man, Jessie, and Coach Boggs. They needed to find them.
“We need to go.” Craddock said.
“We can try.” So, they made their way along the ditch beside the highway. The three still holding fast to each other. Craddock was giving her worried glances.
There were least a dozen cars and trucks rammed into each other. Each one looking more and more like an accordion. Something had stopped abruptly at a high speed and caused this mess. Cassidy was coughing and Dylan rubbed his eye with his free hand. They were not going to be able to get too much closer.
That is when they heard someone yelling for help.
It sounded like Jessie but a Jessie in serious trouble.
They got to G-Man’s bus and found Jessie outside it trying to get back in to the flaming vehicle, Coach Boggs restraining him.
“He’s in there Coach we need to get him.”
“There’s going to be another explosion.” Coach explained to Jessie, who was full of soot and blood, and looked worse than any of the people on Craddock’s bus.
“Jessie, are you okay?” Craddock asked.
“I’m okay I need to get back in there. G-Man is trapped. I need help getting him out.”
“We need to wait for the paramedics,” Boggs tried to talk reason into Jessie.
“Fuck that, we’re going in. Lead the way.” Craddock said and Jessie broke free of Coach Boggs. Jessie and Craddock were going to try to go back in to the G-Man’s bus.
Cassidy screamed, “Didn’t you just see what happened to our bus?” She grabbed Craddock’s arm.
“G-Man wouldn’t leave me in there,” Craddock said.
“Or me. Let’s go.” Cassidy whipped around and there was Zeke.
“You’re fucking insane. You need to wait until the ambulances get here,” she said.
“G-Man can’t wait. It looked bad.” Jessie said.
With that, the three men climbed into the charred and mangled vehicle intent to bring G-Man out. She stood there with Dylan and Ted for what seemed like forever. She heard screaming all around her and held tighter to Dylan’s hand.
She did not want to think what had happened to the G-Man’s bus driver; the front of the bus looked destroyed, unrecognizable.
She was vaguely aware of Coach Roy and Mace Alois helping other drivers from their vehicles. Sunny was somewhere right? She had to be.
Finally, the sirens got closer and closer. Emergency workers began to arrive and they ordered her and Dylan back.
“There are four maybe five men still in that bus.” She cried and this time Dylan took the lead with her and wrapped her in a bear hug.
“It’s going to blow!” The rescue workers were saying and scrambling.
“But you need to go in there!” She was begging now.
“No one is going in there.”
“Craddock!” She yelled.
There he was with Zeke, carrying an unconscious Jessie, but no G-Man. The Fire crews yelled at the three of them.
“Get out of there!” Zeke jumped down and Craddock lowered Jessie. The rescue crews swooped in on all three. Cassidy waited another nervous second as Craddock leaped clear of the bus. Fire crews were now spraying foam all over the area.
Craddock scanned what was left of the mangled highway.
“Crad, we’re here!” Dylan yelled and he saw them. He ran toward them as paramedics worked on Jessie.
“G-Man?” She asked.
Craddock shook his head 'no', and then buried it in her shoulder. Dylan came up around and swallowed his brother in an embrace.
No what? Where was G-Man? Sirens wailed all around them.
Chapter Seven
Craddock
A fighter’s funeral should be as epic as his life. Meyer Thompson made sure that G-Man’s was that and more. They started services inside the GWG in Grand City.
Then a procession drove through the streets of Irish Town. Dozens of fighters lined up to pay their respect. Craddock had never seen his town look so good and sad at the same time.
Grand City Mayor Brick Cooper was even there. Every television station too. G-Man was a hometown boy who died too soon just as he was about to make his dream of winning a title come true.
Craddock kept flashing to the scene inside the bus. Jessie had shown them the way, him and Zeke, to wh
ere he said G-Man had been trapped. He was trapped all right, but he was dead.
G-Man’s head was at an unnatural angle. Part of the bus had pinned him, but he had also suffered a neck fracture. It was clear to both Zeke and Craddock right away.
That was not the worst, though. The worst part was dragging Jessie from the death trap that was getting hotter by the second. He did not want to go, could not believe that G-Man was already gone.
Zeke and Craddock both wrestled the best wrestler at the GWG out of the bus. Jessie was yelling the entire time. He was unable to believe there was no way to save G-Man. Authorities said he probably died in the initial impact. Jessie could not take it and eventually the smoke and fumes he’d gulped into his lungs had knocked him out.
“It was my fault it was my fault,” Jessie had insisted.
Later, after they had all returned to Grand City, for a break, for a funeral, and to decide what to do next, Jessie was wrecked. Gutted.
“I had my seatbelt on. I was in my seat. We all were. G-Man was closest to the fridge so I asked him to grab me a fucking water. He unbuckled for a second and that’s when we hit. A fucking water.”
In the days that followed, the highway disaster authorities said a drunk, wrong-way driver had gotten turned around in the storm and had caused the pile-up. G-Man’s driver was killed instantly. G-Man probably a second later.
Every person in Craddock’s bus survived because of the seatbelts. Ted had braked hard and jack knifed but they had all survived. Cassidy was the only one with an injury when they figured her laptop went flying and smashed into her eye. Craddock tried not to think about what could have happened to her. He could not stop reaching out and touching her over the last few days. Just to be sure she was there and safe. He cringed each time he saw stitches. She scoffed at him that it was only four but still. It was a torn flesh and blood reminder of how close he had come to losing her and Dylan.
Zeke’s bus got off lightly. They were at the end of the pile up so they all walked away with minor bumps and bruises.
The contender who would never get his shot died.
They now lined the streets of Irish Town to honor G-Man.
Craddock, Cassidy and Dylan paid respects to the Gullich family. He had sisters, brothers, cousins, not to mention his parents, all devastated by the death of the giant they’d grown up with.
