Fireproof

I came to sometime later, still in the same painful position I had passed out in. I could feel the bus moving beneath me ever so slightly but I had no idea what was going on. I heard Mick talking and then heard the voice of a female who appeared just in my line of site. On the verge of death or not, the girl was absolutely beautiful and I would have given anything to be able to sit up and get a good look at her had I not been in the situation I was currently in. She was with the fire department according to the t-shirt she was wearing and the thick yellow pants that were the typical attire for firemen. She disappeared from my line of view and her voice faded off as she moved away from me.

I must have faded out again because the next thing I knew, I was being pulled up the steps and lifted onto the shoulder of the girl. I winced and grunted in pain as she slowly lifted me from the floor of the bus and slowly started to walk with me. I honestly had no idea how she was supporting my dead weight because I was about twice her size, but she was doing it. I managed to lift my head a little bit and all I could see through the smashed windshield of the bus was water below and it was only then that I was able to realize the bus was dangerously slanted over the side of the bridge we had been about to cross before whatever happened had happened.

“Parker, you’ve got the get out of there. It’s not safe anymore and it’s not going to last long. We’ve got to move the bucket.” A voice said over the radio clipped to the suspenders of her overalls.

The girl never answered as she took small steady steps up the slanted bus. I could tell she was struggling and the last thing I wanted was her getting hurt or killed trying to save me. I probably wasn’t going to make it anyway, so there was no use in her risking her own life to save me.

“L-leave me. Save yourself pl-please.” I managed to say.

She kept going.

“I am saving myself. And you’re coming with me. If I leave you, I’m staying too.”

I didn’t have the energy to argue with her and I could barely breathe as it was. She took two more steps up the slanted bus but that was as far as we got. There was a loud noise coming from somewhere and I suddenly became weightless as I was lifted from her shoulders while the bus fell from the bridge. My beaten body collided with the smashed windshield of the bus as it hit the water and that was the final straw for me for the time being. My world went black yet again, only this time, I wasn’t wondering if this was death or not, but I was hoping that the girl would be alright.

“…open your eyes for me, Nikki? Squeeze my hand if….”

“…been in a wreck and are on your way….”

I continued to fade in and out for what seemed like forever. I felt like I had lost all sense of reality because I had no idea what was going on even though I had some kind of an idea. I was in the back of an ambulance one second and then I was being wheeled into the emergency room as the two people around me suddenly multiplied to ten, each of who were doing something different to me and adding to the pain and miserableness I was already feeling. I would have thought being in so much pain already that I wouldn’t be able to feel any new pain that was added but of course that was not the case. I felt my wet clothes being cut off, two huge iv’s being shoved into veins on both hands, the god awful catheter being shoved into my junk, and a thermometer being shoved up my ass because I guess I was still too out of it to hold it under my tongue. The last two things were a little much on top of everything else that had happened today and now being naked, exposed, and violated. I gave back in to the darkness, wondering if the girl had made it out alive or not..

I awoke sometime later, the world around me a little bit clearer than it had been the last few times I had opened my eyes. There was no chaos surrounding me anymore and even though I was still very much in pain, it wasn’t as bad as it had been not long ago. There was a thick ass tube down my throat and coming out of my mouth which was not a pleasant feeling at all, but I fought the urge to panic, knowing that wouldn’t do me any good anyway. My eyes landed on Tommy who was standing beside my bed with one arm in a sling and his other hand resting lightly in mine. I would have smiled if I could have, but I didn’t have the energy at the moment. I realized he was unaware that I was now awake because he was talking to the doctor on the other side of my bed. I forced myself to gently squeeze Tommy’s hand and let him know that I was alive.

“Sixx! Thank god you’re alive, man. Don’t ever fucking scare me like that again, dude.”

My heart broke as he turned away from me with tear filled eyes and ran a hand through his hair.

“Hey, welcome back, Nikki. You’ve had a rough day today, man. I’m Dr. Martin and I’m the one that did your surgery earlier. You had some internal bleeding that we went in and fixed. You’ve got a long road ahead of you but I think you’re going to be fine. You’re still intubated from the surgery because your heart wanted to give out on you but we got it beating again. I think we can probably take that tube out now too for the time being as long as you remain stable. I want you to do me a favor right quick. I want you to push on my hands with your feet for me. Can you do that?”

I did as he asked.

“Alright, that’s great. Like I said, you’ve got a long road ahead of you, buddy. Our orthopedic doctor is going to come visit you in the morning and see about getting you in to surgery tomorrow or the next day to repair the rest of the damage. You have three broken ribs, four fractured vertebrae in your back, a broken hip, and a messed up knee. I’m going to get respiratory in hear to get that tube out and I’ll come check on you again before I leave for the night, alright?”

I nodded as the doctor walked out and I turned back to Tommy, giving him a thumbs up. Five minutes later I had the tube out of my throat and I made my first attempt at talking since I had asked to be left behind on the bus.

“Everybody okay?” I asked.

“For the most part, yes. We all made it out except Jason. I’m sorry, man.”

“I figured. What about the girl?”

“She’s going to be okay. She’s in the next room. We got lucky as fuck today.”

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her.”

“I know. She was bad ass out there today.”

We fell silent as we bought thought back on how lucky we had been today. I couldn’t get the image of the girl out of my head and I wished I had been able to go check on her and thank her for what she had done. I was a long way from getting out of this bed though. I looked down at my bared chest as the pain continued to set in, the site of which didn’t help my pain any. I was cut down the center of my chest and stomach from my nipples down to almost my dick. I must have literally been wide open on the operating table. I also had two burn marks in the perfect shape of the paddles I had been shocked with to get my heart going again.

“Fuck me.” I mumbled.

“Thirty-five staples. You’re going to have fun getting those out.”

“No shit.”

“Get some rest, okay? You need it. I’m gonna go check on the girl and return the jacket she put on me and I’ll be back during the next visiting time to check on you.”

“You should get some rest too.”

“I will. I’ll see you later.”

He turned to walk out of the room but I felt like I needed to say one more thing.

“Hey, Tommy.”

“What’s up?”

“That was way too close for comfort today. I love you, bro.”

“I love you too, man. Get some sleep.”

I took a minute to take in everything that had happened to me today and how lucky I had gotten. I had previously been convinced that girls were out to see just how far down they could drag me but this girl today had been an angel. Today had been way too close of a call for me since I quit shooting heroin and that only made me want to get better and live life a little more.