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With only a half hour left in their shift, they got the call for another accident. Grant prayed it wouldn’t be a difficult one. He was exhausted. All he wanted to do was grab a burger and veg out in front of the television. Even better if he could do that with Pepper on the couch beside him. He was hopeful she would accept the offer if he extended it.
Last night had ended better than he expected it to when he arrived. Her secret had loomed over their dinner, but as the evening wore on, the worry seemed to fade away and things returned to normal. After they’d eaten dinner, they snuggled on the couch together and watched a little TV before heading to the bedroom. He’d reluctantly left around ten, knowing he’d have to be up and at work by six the next morning.
Grant hadn’t gotten much sleep, but he would happily spend every evening that way. Tonight included. Reaching for his phone, he texted her about bringing takeout and a movie to her house when he got done. She replied back a moment later that it sounded fine, no war movies, and to let her know if he’d be late.
“Found them,” Mack pointed up ahead as he spied the lights of the ambulance. He pulled over just past the scene of the accident. A small blue car had gone off the road and rolled into the ditch, thankfully landing right side up. Naomi and Isaac were down by the car.
They grabbed their equipment and slid down the steep, grassy embankment to where the car had landed.
“What have we got?” Mack asked.
“The guy says he was on his way home when a deer ran out in front of him and he went off the road. We’ve cut off his seat belt and removed the deployed air bags, but he’s driving one of those tiny European compact cars and he’s not a small man, so we’re having some difficulty getting him out. One of his legs is pinned by the dashboard.”
“Are his injuries serious?” Grant followed up.
“I think that leg is broken. He’s got a laceration on his forehead that’s bleeding like crazy, and I think he knocked a tooth out. Nothing life threatening, but I’d like to get him out fast. We got the engine turned off, but there’s a little bit of smoke that’s worrying me because I can smell gas leaking.”
“We’re on it. Grant, go check him out. I’m going to get the hydraulic cutter. I’m worried about that gas leak. I want him out as quickly as we can.”
Nodding, Grant continued down to where the car was. It was one of those little Smart cars, at least, that’s what it started as. Right now, it looked like a crumpled ball of blue foil. As he got closer, he was able to see the man in the car was covered in blood. Head wounds were notorious for bleeding.
As he took another step, a rock slid beneath his boot. He fell to the ground, sliding down the embankment and hitting the back of his head on the case of equipment he’d carried with him. The hard whack of the metal against his head reverberated in his skull for a minute. His brain swam in the sea of confusion as darkness threatened to swallow him.
“Grant?” Isaac hovered over him, shining a flashlight into his eyes. “You okay?”
Blinking away the light, Grant winced and pushed himself up into a seated position. He touched the back of his head, but he wasn’t bleeding. There was just a knot rising up. “Yeah. I uh . . . slipped. I’ll be okay.”
Isaac helped him back up and returned to what he was doing. Grant dusted the grass off his pants, picked up his case, and headed back to do his job. He had work to do, no matter how badly his head was starting to pound.
The dashboard had collapsed in the rollover, pinning the man’s leg beneath it. They had almost no room to maneuver. They could cut away the side of the car, but there was no backseat and very little hatch space, just a steel cage that had managed to protect him but wasn’t so inclined to release him.
He picked up the radio at his hip, wincing as a bolt of pain shot through his skull. “Mack, bring the ram, too. That might work better than the wood blocks with the way the dash is sitting.”
“Is Roscoe okay?” the man in the car asked.
“Roscoe?” Grant turned to Naomi.
“Yes, Mr. Barker. We can see Roscoe in the back. He seems to be all right.”
Grant leaned over to see the small dog carrier in the back of the car. Inside was a little black-and-white Boston terrier. They needed to get the pup out of the car and out of the way so they could maneuver the driver’s removal.
Turning back to Isaac, he asked, “Will the back hatch open?”
Isaac went around and with a hard tug was able to jerk open the rear hatch window, then lower the bottom half, like the tailgate of a truck. Grant reached in and picked up the dog carrier. The dog wasn’t bleeding and didn’t exhibit any injuries, like favoring a paw. He was likely just shaken up from his bounce around the hatch when the car rolled. Grant said a few soft words to calm the little thing and sat his carrier a few feet away, well out of the work zone.
When he returned to the car, Isaac reached through the hatch and supported the back of the man’s seat as Grant pulled the lever to lower it backward.
“Does that take any of the pressure off your leg, Mr. Barker?” Naomi asked.
“Some, yeah.” Mr. Barker tried moving his leg and was able to shift it a little to the left. “It’s still pinned.”
Grant heard Mack yank the cord to start the hydraulic power unit. He turned to help him hook up the hoses and get ready to peel away the metal. Beside him was a tote bag full of two-by-fours that they used to prop doors and other heavy objects.
“I think if we can use the ram to push up the dash and hold it in place with the wood, we may be able to get his leg out. Then we can cut away the side and slip him out that way, or through the back of the car.”
Mack handed over the ram and the bag, and Grant rounded the car to try to open the other door. It opened about a foot before squealing to a stop, but it was enough for him to get in and kick it open further with his boot. From there, he could lean onto the floorboard and wedge the ram into place. The ram expanded to almost double its length, pushing the collapsed front of the vehicle back almost to where it had been before the accident. He wedged in pieces of wood to support the gap and hold it in place after they removed the ram.
Mack cut off the driver’s-side door and started peeling the rest of the side away like a tin of sardines. The sound of it grated against Grant’s already throbbing head like nails across a chalkboard. Naomi and Isaac moved the gurney into place.
