Written in 53 minutes. Not super happy with this being this short, the logistics of it all were more difficult than I thought, lol. See you tomorrow 🙂

---

Wednesday, October 1, 2024

Belle Forest Drive

Elizabeth paced back and forth along the small stretch of road, stopping every few seconds to peer down the embankment. She could only see a few feet in front of her face, and the crushed shrubbery where the car had broken through before the trees and bushes made it impossible. She could hear the water of the creek, angrier and more rapid than where they’d crossed the road a few miles away.

She turned back to Spinelli who’d remained at Chase’s car, his hand clutching the police radio like a lifeline. She couldn’t make out the static from here —

Elizabeth turned back to the view down the embankment. “Come on, come on,” she muttered. How long had they been there? Was the creek still rising? Did they need more help? With two people to pull from the car, maybe three wasn’t enough—

The cord tied to the car tightened — as if someone was pulling on it, and Elizabeth turned to call to Spinelli. “They’re coming up! How much longer until help gets here?”

“Chopper has an ETA of maybe five minutes—” Spinelli’s voice lifted to be heard over the rain. “Vehicles another twenty — they had to come from another town—can you see them? Is anyone hurt?”

“I don’t—” Elizabeth stepped off the road, onto the grass, but it was difficult to keep her balance with the broken and crushed bushes, and she nearly went down — but then she was able to see some movement—

Chase came first, stumbling, barely able to keep his grip, blood on his face — when he’d reached Elizabeth, she took his arm and pulled him onto solid ground, handing him over to Spinelli who had rushed over.

Jason and Dante were a few feet behind him, both of them coming up backwards, taking turns dragging someone—Kristina, Elizabeth realized, who was on the ground, being tugged up.

When they’d reached the same solid ground, Jason lifted Kristina into his arms to carry her a few more feet, then laid her out on the road — letting her arms fall limply to her side not so gently.

Elizabeth looked back, expecting to see Sam coming up behind them — but there was no one else, and now the cord had gone slack, laying against the ground.

“Where’s—” she started to say, but caught Jason’s expression, and swallowed the rest of her question. She looked back to the crash path, then went back at Kristina, laying pale and seemingly lifeless in the street.

What is that? Is that your phone?

Damn it—let go—

Elizabeth swallowed hard, then let her training kick in. It didn’t matter what Kristina had done — she was a nurse, and her job was to heal.

And if Kristina died here, the truth might die with her.

Webber House: Living Room

For what felt like the thousandth time, Jake dragged Danny away from the door. “You heard your aunt. Stay here—”

“She said there was an accident!” Danny shrugged Jake off. “If you won’t drive me, I’ll walk!”

“In the rain? With the whole city flooding? Sure. And then my parents will kill me for letting you drown,” Jake shot back. “We’re staying right here until we hear something—”

“We should go.”

Jake stopped, turned to Aiden with confusion. “What?”

“To the hospital.” Aiden seemed a bit surprised at first that he’d spoken, but kept going. “You’d have to tie us down if it was our mom, Jake. You know it. We can at least try.”

Danny seemed surprised by Aiden’s support, then turned back to Jake. “You know he’s right. You’d never stay here if this was you.”

Jake grimaced, scrubbed his hands down his face. “Damn it. Damn it.” Because of course he’d have already been halfway to the hospital. And even Cameron wouldn’t have argued that.

But he’d heard Sam’s side of the conversation, he’d heard the terror in her voice, the shaking —

Maybe he just wanted to stay here a little longer, to stay inside the bubble where his brother’s mother wasn’t in mortal, maybe fatal danger. To keep hope alive. Wasn’t that his job? To protect his little brother from anything that could hurt him?

But he couldn’t stop this, could he? Couldn’t go back in time and stop any of it.

“All right. All right.” Jake scooped up the key. “But if Dad or my mom asks, make it clear that I tried to stop you.”

Belle Forest Drive

Jason crouched next to Elizabeth as she knelt by Kristina, carefully assessing the younger woman’s injuries — checking her arms and legs for broken bones.

“I’m not seeing anything obvious,” Elizabeth told him, “but the head injury looks serious, and she’s been unconscious for at least ten minutes.”

“Chopper’s incoming!” Spinelli called from the car, but by the time he’d completed the statement, they could hear the blades rotating as it started a descent twenty feet from them. Chase and Dante barely acknowledged, still arguing at the foot of the car.

“I’m going with her to the hospital,” Elizabeth told Jason. She reached for his hand, and he brought it to his mouth. “The only thing keeping Dante from going back down there is Chase right now, and he needs to go with me.  He needs stitches on that cut. You have to stop him. Because if there was a chance — you’d have already taken it.”

“I know. I wanted to stay, to look—but the car—” Jason stopped, collected himself. “I’m telling myself that the car is in the creek, and she’s…she’s with it somehow. Maybe on the roof. Maybe Kristina was ejected as they rolled down the hill—”

They both knew that wasn’t likely. That Kristina’s injuries would be more visible if she’d been forced out of the car. But the alternative? The prospect of telling Danny what might have happened to his mother?

Better to cling to any hope, no matter how small.

“Get him in the car, get to the hospital when you can,” Elizabeth said, as he pulled her to the feet. She squeezed his hand one more time, then went to talk to the paramedic that had come with the chopper.

Several miles away, down the road and across the creek, Sonny, Alexis, and Diane were in Sonny’s car, desperate for any kind of update.  The radio in Sonny’s hand crackled, and Alexis leaned forward, nearly snatching it out his hand.

“I’m here. Did you find them? Did you find the girls?” Sonny demanded.

Spinelli’s voice was broken up but most of the words were still audible. “Came up — chopper here—going to GH—”

“Hospital. They’ve got them,” Diane told Alexis. “See? I told you. We’ll meet them there. Tell him we’ll meet them at the hospital,” she told Sonny.

“Both of them?” Alexis demanded. “Tell me they have both—” she reached for the radio as Sonny put the car in reverse and began to turn the car around. “Spinelli! Do you have both of them?”

“….chopper only took three…we’re on our way back…”

Alexis relaxed slightly, leaned back against the passenger seat, holding the radio against her chest. “They’ve got them. Okay. Okay. Thank God.”

General Hospital: Emergency Room

Molly paced the waiting area, bitting at her nail as she waited for TJ to come back with news — any kind of news. How badly hurt was Sam? Had Danny been overreacting? Maybe it wasn’t that serious—

A door opened, and TJ appeared. She rushed over to him. “Well? Was it them—”

“All I know is that a chopper is bringing in three people from Belle Forest Drive,” TJ told her. He touched her arm. “They radioed in that two are injured, one seriously. Elizabeth is with them.”

“Elizabeth?” Molly frowned, shook her head. “No, that doesn’t—Elizabeth wouldn’t be with Sam. But—” Who was the other injury? “When we will know?”

“I’m going up to the roof now,” TJ said. “They should be here in ten minutes. We’ll know by then.”

← Flash Fiction: You’re Not Sorry – Part 99 |