Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 91434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
I try to move off Jennifer, but my body feels like it’s dead weight, and I hear Brock. “Baby, are you okay?”
After trying to answer him with words and forcing my eyes to open, I groan. “Everleigh,” he sobs, “please answer me.”
My left side feels like it is being crushed as I try to take a deep breath, but the pain rips through me. I groan softly, trying to push away the pain away as I fight to open my eyes. “We got this door open!” I hear someone shouting, but I’m not sure if it’s right beside me or far away.
“Fuck,” another voice yells, “let’s get him out!”
“Everleigh?” Brock mumbles from beside me, or at least I think he’s beside me. “Everleigh, are you okay?”
“Hmm,” I hear mumbled, “my head.” I finally pant out, “It hurts.”
“Guys, how is Jennifer?” Charlie asks from the front seat.
“I think she’s on top of me,” Autumn says. “I can’t move.”
“Brock, are you okay?” Charlie asks as I blink my eyes more and more to make sure I don’t close them for too long. I try to turn my head, but I’m not able to.
“Foot is stuck. It feels like something is in my leg.” His voice is pained, and I want to touch him, but I feel squished on both sides.
It sounds like a saw is working near us, and then the sounds of crunching metal make me wince again. I want to lift my hands to my ears to stop the pain. “We got a door off!” someone shouts. “Fuck, I think he’s DOA.” DOA, my head screams. Does that mean someone is dead? “We need more hands.” I can hear more and more people’s voices as I try to look around, and finally, my eyes spot Brock, who is the one pushing me into Jennifer.
“Brock,” I say, and his head turns to mine. Blood is running down his face. The bright light now feels like it’s being shined into my face, so I close my eyes.
“Everleigh,” Brock says to the man.
“We have to get you out first and then get her,” the man states, and then I hear him roar out in pain from beside me, and I want to help him. It’s a howling sound I don’t think I will ever forget. “We need a paramedic here.”
“His foot is jammed,” someone announces. “If we pull him out, it’ll rip through his whole thigh.”
“We need to get the driver out.” I hear more footsteps from the other side of the truck.
“What a fucking mess,” another voice adds. “Three-car accident. One man struck on the side of the road.”
“How many in this car?” a woman asks as I hear shouting coming from far away, and then the sound of more sirens fills the night. Red lights flashing cut into the darkness of the truck for a couple of seconds, but I don’t have time to look around before it’s dark again.
“We have three in the back and two in the front.” That doesn’t sound right. How are there three in the back? I wonder if Jennifer or Autumn fell onto the floorboard.
The sound of metal clunking feels like it’s right outside my door. I wince as my head throbs. “We got you,” I hear right after the sound of clunking is done. The weight on my side is gone, and when I open my eyes, I see they got Brock out. “We got him out.”
I feel hands touching me. “We’re going to get you out.” I hear the soft voice and look at the man dressed in a firefighter uniform. “We got you.”
“I don’t think I can move,” I say as he puts a white plastic thing around my neck.
“I’ll carry you.” He puts one hand under my knees as he tries and pulls me away from Jennifer.
“My friend Jennifer. She must be stuck somewhere,” I say as he moves an inch at a time. My leg suddenly cries out in pain, but I push it away from me. “She’s in here. We are six people in the truck.” My eyes get heavy as the light shines on my face, making me close them as I feel like I’m floating on air now.
“She said there were six in the truck,” the man reports, and I try to open my eyes. “Where is the other person?”
“There are only three people back here,” a man says softly, and I want to open my eyes to tell him it’s a mistake, but right before the darkness takes me away again, the man says, “Unless she’s under…”
“Turn left at the stop sign,” the GPS tells me, and I come out of the memory of the night that changed not only my life but everyone’s life irrevocably. It's not that I need the GPS at this point, but it’s been on since I started driving, just to tell me how far away I was.