Accidents
For some reason, there were lots of accidents happening on the remote island I was now working at. I had recently been sent by an agency that regulated the transportation system [don’t ask where, hell if I know] to work for this newer place that had been built; at the hand of several very wealthy and influential families who owned the property. Though why they’d want to own a island out in the middle of no where was beyond me. For this particular place wasn’t all that great, there were way too many people making it no different than a true city on the mainland. It was too crowed and hardly much in the way of a retreat.
“What a fucking waste of money.” I growled at my partner who was handling the car with practiced ease. I had barely met the guy since he had already been assigned to the place a couple of days ago. I on the other hand, was a few days late, I was lucky to even have a job, or so they told me when I showed up. Anyway, my partner was a quiet type, not much to him really.
The real problem was the way people on the island seemed to be behaving. Like complete and utter fools, acting like they owned the road. There were ramming fights in order to shove other cars off of the road. People passing recklessly without regard to the flow of traffic. In no time, I was confused since nothing made sense and my attempts to get my partner to answer my questions as to what was going on were obviously wasted as he kept saying, nothing’s wrong, like a God damn mantra.
“Just pull the damn car over.” I insisted when we came to a huge wreck involving some buses and cars. My partner did as asked only for one of the other cars to ram the car we were in. “Shit!” A dizzy moment as the car spun and then we were off on the side of the road and a tanker carrying gasoline tipped over, sliding along the road, the back end barely missing the front of our car. I waited for the screech of metal and the sparks to cause an explosion and then sighed with relief when it came to a halt and nothing of the sort happened.
“Bloody hell! What’s the matter with everyone!?” I exited the car and looked to my partner who had gotten out of the car to chat with the others, all of them behaving as if nothing had happened. What the? What is wrong with everyone? I thought as I went from car to car, steering people away from the tanker that was now leaking gas.
But it seemed as if they just couldn’t see what was happening, other than perhaps one small little boy who was staring at everything. He seemed to be in a daze as he looked at the tanker, it was as if he was trying to shake off something in order to grasp what he was actually seeing. I went over and knelt down in front of him, taking his shoulders in my hands as I tried to talk to him. But I got no reply, making me wonder if he was in shock. That is until he finally turned to look at me.
“Did you need any help?” I asked him.
“I’m not a child!” He responded smartly, his blue eyes staring into mine. I let go.
“Of course not.” A response that got a tiny little shy smile back in return.
The moment was interrupted as if I could see what was going on behind me, a cigarette butt being casually tossed aside, sailing through the air on a downward arch towards… the pavement glistening in the sun from the spilled gasoline, a realization that other than perhaps the small boy, I could do nothing to get away in time.
I moved forward, grabbing him, pulling him close and then turning so that my back faced the inevitable explosion, shielding him from it even though it seemed impossible. As if in slow motion, everyone was knocked off of their feet as the tanker went up in a ball of flame, flames that had no heat. I somehow managed to land so that boy was unharmed but when I attempted to get back up, I couldn’t get any further than my knees as a sharp pain in my left shoulder stopped me.
Dizzy from whatever was hurting me, I looked down to the sight of blood running down the front of my shirt and reaching over with my right hand to open it showed the end of a Phillips screwdriver sticking out of my shoulder from behind. What the hell? I felt sick. The blast had happened so fast… I hadn’t even felt or realized that I had been impaled.
