Maybe the car won’t explode while I’m trying to rescue the child that I have no idea whether it exists or not.
I pulled on the door handle to the backseat, it wouldn’t budge. Leaning forward, I cupped my hands around my eyes and pressed them against the window, attempting to see inside. I wasn’t about to climb in through the driver’s side and get myself stuck when it could be nothing.
The people at the roadside screamed at me to get away from the car, but I didn’t care. If there was a baby in there, I wasn’t about to let that child burn to death while I stood back and watched.
My eyes caught the baby toys first, soft toys, things that you hang for them to reach out for and play with. Then I saw the bottles on the floor, obviously thrown around by the car as it had rolled, milk spilled and dripping.
Movement.
“Shit!” I cursed, not wasting a single second more. Throwing myself into the driver’s seat, I urgently twisted my body through the center of the front seats, the space small and cramped. I took in a deep breath and choked on the smoky air that had begun to enter the vehicle, but I pushed my body forward, landing with a thump on the back seat and knocking my eye against the handle of the baby capsule.
Tears welled up, and I looked down to find the most beautiful green eyes staring back up at me. She wasn’t crying, just staring at me with a mixture of surprise and fear. She didn’t look to be injured, not a scratch or bruise on her precious skin. I fiddled with the clip of the belt but it was stuck, it wouldn’t let me press the button down to release the safety harness that she was in. I could tell that it was an older car seat, it looked worn and ragged, and I could even see the way the belt was frayed in places. No way in hell a baby should be riding in this thing. Car seats had expiry dates for a reason.
I continued to press down as hard as I could on the button, but nothing would get it to unclick. There must have been something jammed underneath it. I tugged at the belts, coughing and trying to cover my mouth. I could feel my body temperature heating up and sweat beading on my brow as I struggled with the seatbelt and panic began to set in.
What if I couldn’t get her out?
Did I walk away and leave this precious innocent life in here while I escaped?
Tears pooled as I yanked harder. “Please!” I screamed. “Come undone, please!” The little girl’s bottom lip poked out as she tried to hold back tears. Her tiny whimpers made me cry harder, tears streaming down my face, my lungs crying out for fresh air. “I’m sorry, baby, I don’t know—”
“Damn it, Sky!” Eagle cursed as he leaped into the car and leaned over the front seat, pocket knife in his hand. “Sorry baby girl,” he said tenderly as he tugged on the strap and made enough room to stick the knife through. He sawed back and forth a few times, and then the strap just seemed to disintegrate and come apart.
I didn’t wait for him to do the other, managing to maneuver the baby out the one side as she now kicked and screamed, and coughed on the thick dirty air that almost filled half the car.
“Give her to me, and get the fuck out,” Eagle ordered, holding out his arms. I didn’t think twice, I threw the child at him, and he pushed himself back out the driver’s door while I squeezed back through the gap, not even bothering to find my footing, but instead just pulling myself out using my hands.
Rolling out the door, I scampered on my hands and knees across the grass and to the roadside, where I rolled onto my back and inhaled the fresh air. It was cold and beautiful, but it also made me cough so much that I ended up moving to the side and vomiting up the cheeseburger and fries from lunch.
There was a hand on my back as I expelled the food from my stomach, acid scorching my throat, noting that I’d probably inhaled a shit load more smoke than I realized.
The beautiful sound of sirens filled the hazy air around us, followed by a symphony of heavy pounding boots against the asphalt, gruff men throwing orders around, people collectively crying and sighing in relief and the spray of foam from heavy hoses.
They drenched the car, as they attempted to put out the fire that had begun to rage and take over the motor just as I’d dived out the door. I couldn’t move, my body ached in places I never knew could even feel pain, and my lungs felt like someone had filled them with tar.
Even with vomit a foot from my face in the grass, I couldn’t find the energy to lift my head or turn my body away from the foul smell, just content to lay there and know that everyone was okay and that at the moment I could breathe.
A few minutes later, a soft shushing sound and some gentle pressure against my back were enough to pique my curiosity. I looked over my shoulder to see Eagle sitting on the grass beside me, his hand rubbing up and down my spine as he rocked the baby in his arms back and forth. She was so tiny that she fit right in the crook of his elbow, her tiny little diaper-clad butt sitting in his palm.
An EMT was crouched beside him, carefully checking Eagle’s vitals, then the baby’s. He carefully placed an oxygen mask on the baby’s face, and made sure she was breathing properly before making a beeline for me. “I’m sorry,” I told the young man whose badge read, Toby. “I puked, don’t stand in it.” My voice sounded like I’d smoked three packs of cigarettes a day for the last twenty years. It was scratchy and raw, and it still hurt every time I breathed in.
Toby just grinned. “Don’t you worry, I’ve dealt with much worse. As long as you aren’t puking on me, we’re good.”
“I make no promises,” I told him honestly, knowing that the coughing was still coming in waves and making me dry heave. He laughed but continued his work, asking me questions and checking me out thoroughly.
I looked up at Eagle as I lay on my back with Toby taking my blood pressure, administering oxygen and writing a whole lot of shit down on some chart.
“Don’t you ever do that to me again,” Eagle said, wiping his forehead and leaving a black smudge. His eyes moved to me from the baby in his arms, who he’d refused to let go of yet, even though now he knew she was doing much better and the mother was conscious.
“Do what?” I asked through the oxygen mask, closing my eyes and wishing the sun would go away so I could get some sleep. Now the adrenaline was wearing off, I was suddenly fucking exhausted.
Eagle reached out, his fingers brushed across my face, flicking away the stray hairs that lingered there too long, but that I’d been too lazy to reach up and move myself. “Dive into a fucking burning vehicle without telling me,” he said, his voice quiet and soft.
Did I not tell him that I was going to go and rescue the child that I had no idea was in the car?I guess not. Not that I think he would have noticed, given he was staring at the wreck of that car like it held the answers to the universe.
“You were out of it,” I told him, blinking against the sunlight before I focused in on his face again. “You wouldn’t have heard me.”
“Like fuck I wouldn’t have,” he growled, his body freezing when the baby in his arms stirred a little. When she buried in closer to his side, he hit me with a hard glare. “Everything was fine, you were beside me. I heard you say there was a baby. I was telling myself to go…” he shook his head, seeming frustrated with the way he’d clammed up out there. “It wasn’t until some guy shoved my shoulder and said you were fucking inside that car that I moved.”