Fastened

It took the entire force of the seven ton truck to knock some sense into Olivia, yet it took a mere nudge from its front cab to send Quinns Toyota careering from the highway. Olivia thought nothing of herself in the instant the car began its long tumble and as she felt her leg snap, like a fragile twig under a heavy footstep, she couldn’t bring herself to scream, in case hers was more harrowing; therefore seeming more important, than that passing Quinns lips. The curse words she had been able to make out initially were now jumbling fervently together in no particular order and what could have been construed as full, comprehensible sentences before were now long strings of words forcing their way from him in rapid succession. She felt his hand grab ahold of hers for a split second, but it had gone again before she’d managed to offer a reassuring squeeze or try to hold him tighter. And as she counted the fifth complete roll of the car, she heard his forehead smack hard against the steering wheel before catching a glimpse; out of the corner of her eye, of his body being tossed from the car.

Her realisation of what had happened coincided with the airbag bursting forth from the dashboard, and her scream of ‘Quinn’ was lost amongst the taut fabric, whilst her attempts at doing anything more than simply being were thwarted by the seventh; and final, roll of the car. Tears she hadn’t been aware of crying were already rolling steadily down her cheeks, dripping from her chin to her collarbone, and violent, uncontrollable sobs were jerking through her body; giving her the appearance of a hospital patient being shocked, or so she imagined.
The thought of hospital was good but fleeting, Olivia had one concern and one concern only, Quinn Sawyer.

The pain she felt as she wriggled in the seat was excruciating and like nothing she’d ever felt before. It ripped without sympathy through each of her vertebrae from the base to the very tip of her spine and washed a burning sensation across every inch of her skin. Skin which with each tiny movement, was being pierced by shards of shattered glass. Skin which felt so shredded and raw, she wished she could rip it from her bones if only to feel relief for a second or two.

Her shaking fingers quickly sought out the buckle of her seatbelt and as the light click reached her ears and she felt the sash loosen around her chest, she realised a little too late that she was suspended upside down. Her body fell like a ragdoll, face colliding with the roof of the Toyota and her limbs twisting and tangling amongst themselves, and a small whimper escaped her lips as her left leg smacked painfully against the dashboard. She’d found the culprit of the horrific cracking sound just minutes before.

Crawling from a car after an accident was something she’d seen more than a handful of times on television and in movies but she was quick to realise that whilst television and movies had made crawling from a wrecked car seem like a breeze. In reality, it was anything but.

Not once had she seen hands slip and slide amongst the tiny pieces of windscreen and window that covered every centimetre of ground you would have to crawl through, and she couldn’t note a single instance where someone had had to squeeze themselves through a gap formed from contorted metal, that was no more than an eighth their size. Every part of her body caught on every rough or sharp edge that it could find and with each step forward, she had to stop herself from jumping a dozen back in agony.

The smell of petrol and burning rubber hung thick in the air, and was second only to the metallic stench of blood tickling at her nostrils. It was overwhelming and had her stomach churning repeatedly, but she daren’t look for the source. The smallest flash of vibrant red would undoubtedly have her paralysed and she needed to find Quinn. She had to save Quinn.

The grass was parched underfoot; something she wouldn’t have noticed had her pumps not been flung from her feet , and the sun was now almost directly overhead signalling the middle of the day. She attempted to climb from her crouched position to upright, but the second she put any weight on her left leg she fell heavily back to the floor with a thud. Scrabbling on hands and knees whilst trying to avoid the long grass whipping around her and slicing at her face, she began to call out his name. Quiet at first, her voice barely having recovered from the screaming and shouting of a few minutes ago, but becoming louder and more desperate with each ‘Quinn’ that passed without an answer and each metre she crossed growing closer to where she thought he would be.

Everything was silent bar her screams, and everything felt a bazillion miles away.

“Qui...” He looked as though he’d been in the ring with Muhammad Ali. He looked as though the truck had hit him; and him alone, face on.

A loud, uncontrollable wretch forced it’s way passed Olivias tonsils without so much as a nudge of warning and she found herself spraying vomit across the field; and Quinns shoes, before she’d had a chance to turn away. The bone protruding from the shin of his left leg was too much on its own, butnthe bloody wound that appeared to run the length of his entire right ribcage had pushed her over the edge and sent her stomach into convulsions.

“Another pair of shoes you’ve ruined Blake?”

His voice was only a touch above a whisper and it strained Olivias ears just as much to hear it as it did his throat to say it., but it was there. Quinn had spoken and Olivia had heard it.

She caught clumps of mud and grass in her hands and beneath her fingernails as she scrambled towards him quickly, and she could feel her bare knees growing evermore dusty and dirty as she rushed to be at his side. His hand was gripped tightly in hers before she even gave a thought to the pain it might cause and though he visibly winced and his sharp intake was nothing short of dramatic, he let her lace her fingers with his own and even offered a soft rub of his thumb against hers.

He coughed feebly and Olivia had to avert her eyes as she caught sight of fresh blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth. His lips were already twice, maybe three times the size they normally were and she could just about make out the outline of his nose spread across his cheek, and his blue eyes that she so adored had been forced closed by large purple bruises that she swore were growing darker by the second. But she knew the exact glint that would be dancing between them if this wasn’t the case and the thought; for a split second, brought a smile to her face.

Olivia couldn’t think of the words to say; in fact she was pretty certain there were none, an exclamation of how happy she was in the split second he’d spoken , seemed wholly inappropriate, and anything else fell a little short of what she was feeling.

Quinn was struggling with his words as well, but for different reasons entirely. The pain coursing through every inch of his body occupied each and every thought in his head and the effort it was taking to simply keep breathing, was deeming concentrating on anything else utterly futile.

Olivia pulled her hand from his and let her fingertips graze the vibrant blue of his t-shirt slowly. He flinched a little as she traced the line of his collarbone gently before letting her hand rest in the centre of his chest. The need to crawl into a ball and fall asleep was overriding every sensible idea in her head and the weight of her eyelids hanging low over her gray/blue eyes was almost as overwhelming as the intense aching washing over her entire body. In that minute, unconsciousness was to her what heroin had been a few months previous. That minute was the first time she’d craved anything more than brown.

To feel the rise and fall of Quinns body as she laid her head on his chest, forced the breath she’d been holding in from between her lips and she planted the softest of kisses where her hand had been. The taste of his cologne lingered briefly on her lips after she’d done so, and she prayed for the scent to remain in her every thought of him; and of that moment.

“Are you kids okay?”

She drug her eyes skyward lazily and caught sight of a flash of plaid and denim, a large greying beard that had the appearance; and she imagined the touch, of a garden broom and a brow furrowed in deep concern. The mans movements were growing evermore uncontrollable with each running stride toward them and she was more than a little surprised when he didn’t fall and tumble down the hill after them. “My god I didn’t see you! You came from nowhere, you...”

His words trailed the instant his eyes fell toward the ground and discovered Quinns body tangled in the long grass, and a loud, sharp intake of breath filled his lungs and broke the eerie silence that had returned. Even though Olivia was having difficulty focusing her eyes on anything, she could make out the nervous fidgeting of a guilty man and even though she couldn’t remember the exact happenings of the five, ten...maybe even fifteen minutes before, her irrational side reared its head and she found herself clenching and unclenching her fists.

“Get the fuck away from us” She scathed, her eyes narrowing as he moved a hesitant step closer and she pulled herself upright. “Get the fuck away from him. Don’t you think you’ve done enough, don’t you think you’ve...”

“Olivi...”

“I’ve called nine one one” The man nodded visibly shaking, “I’ve called for an ambulance and they promised they’d be here as soon as they can, any minute they said, any...”

“What do you want, a fucking medal? You wouldn’t have needed to call the fucking paramedics if you’d been watching where you were...”

“Olivia”

“If you’d been paying attention to the fucking road we wouldn’t all be in this...”

“Olivia!”

Quinns voice was raw and broken, but not half as much as his body.

It had cracked completely on the last ‘ia’ and both Olivia and the man watched in horror as a bubble of blood burst from his mouth followed by vibrant scarlet liquid cascading from his lips and down his chin. Any skin visible beneath and around the bruises was turning deathly pale before their eyes and Olivia screamed a scream to curl toes and turn stomachs, as his entire body began jerking violently. She clawed and grabbed frantically at him, clamping a hand on either side of his head in an attempt to steady him; if only for a moment, before throwing herself across him and straddling his hips with a leg at either side. She screeched his name over and over as his body rose and fell beneath her and his protruding hip bones collided awkwardly with her thighs with each convulsion that racked through him, head to toe.

After a minute or so ‘Quinn’ was completely unrecognisable, but still Olivia screamed it.

After five minutes or so Quinn was completely motionless, but still Olivia pleaded.