Absolution(34)

“Are you okay?” he demanded, turning Callum over.

“Oh shit.” Callum rolled away and vomited, his body bucking with the effort. Jack grimaced, giving him a moment to catch his breath. Callum ran a trembling hand across his mouth and squinted up at him. “Man, my head. Feels like it’s been run over by a semi.”

“I bet.”

Jack glanced around them, the moonlight turning everything ghostly. It was cold and it was dark and they were in a field beside River Road. There were no streetlights along this stretch of road and there was no one around, not another soul. His heart sank.

Turning his attention back to his car, he caught his breath. He traced the trajectory of the car backwards to the road via the telltale gouges in the soft ground, visible even in the moonlight. The car had apparently slid across the road, through a fence and over a culvert, coming to rest against the side of a tree. Jack remembered the almighty jolt and a chill crawled up his spine. The car was a mess of mangled metal and broken glass, Callum and Ally’s side taking the brunt of the impact.

“Holy shit,” Callum breathed, following Jack’s gaze.

“Where’s the other car?”

Jack laboriously got to his feet, scoping out the tree line. He couldn’t see it anywhere. He took a couple of steps towards the road and suddenly spied it on the opposite side of the road, on its side, half-buried in the trees. Callum was by his side, leaning forward, bracing himself on his knees.

“I’ll go,” Callum panted. “You stay with Ally.”

“But you – “

“I’m okay, just stay with her.”

Before Jack could say anything more, Callum stumbled across the grass towards the road. Jack watched for a few moments to make sure he wasn’t going to collapse again, then turned back to the car. He crawled in the open door, the mere movement sending a stabbing pain through his shoulder that stopped him in his tracks. He breathed through it and pushed on, crawling through the car until he had positioned himself next to Ally. She looked so helpless. He brushed trembling fingers across her cheek and took her hands in his, sniffing back tears.

A jolt of fear stabbed at his heart. He sniffed again, a sickly-sweet smell catching in his throat. Horrified, he sniffed a third time, wishing it away.

No. No!

Gas.

His heart raced.

The possibilities played out in his mind as he fought hard to breathe. Searching the car desperately, he spied Callum’s jacket, now strewn haphazardly behind the steering wheel. He reached over for it, ignoring the pain it caused him. He rolled it up as best he could and reached up, tying it carefully around Ally’s neck in a makeshift neck brace, just in case. He had seen that on TV once – a towel used as a neck brace for a swimmer who had dived head-first into shallow water. Callum was right, they needed to be careful, there was no knowing what damage had occurred internally, or where.

“You’re gonna be fine,” he mumbled, more to himself than to Ally. His voice boomed in the silence as he reached up to find the seatbelt release button at Ally’s waist.

“I’m sorry babe,” he whispered. “I gotta get you out of here. Just hang in there, okay? I love you. We can do this. It’s gonna be alright, I promise.”

The smell of gas was getting stronger, making him sick with fear. He turned and tried the door behind the driver’s door, looking for the fastest and easiest way out. Pushing against it with all his strength, it gave way a little. He put his back into it, pushing it all the way open with a screech of metal. He crawled back to Ally, stretching his legs straight out beneath her. He reached up to release her seat belt and she landed on top of him, the weight of her temporarily forcing the air out of his lungs. Recovering quickly, he crossed her arms over her chest and started backing out of the car, her upper body sprawled on top of him, her legs trailing behind.

“See? That wasn’t so bad was it?” he grunted, moving them backwards. He glanced behind him, easing her out through the door, desperately pushing it open further to allow them passage. The smell of gas soaked the air. “Hang in there, okay? Nearly there.”

He dragged them both free of the car and across the grass, his shoulder screaming in pain, his teeth clamped tight. His head swam and at one point he thought he might pass out, but he didn’t stop. Ally’s head lay cushioned on his thighs, her neck still wrapped in Callum’s jacket. He glanced up fearfully at the car, half-expecting it to explode into flames at any moment.