Drifting

Chapter 3

Before Lara pitched face-first into the thick snow that coated the pavement, she felt the wind from the ambulance whip across the back of her legs, and the spray of the slush against her ankles. Then she was in cold white, her head ringing, something bony and heavy on top of her.

The rushing sound in her head could not drown out the terrible screeching crash and the dissonant tinkle of breaking glass.

She lay there and breathed a moment, struggling against the weight on her back with each inhalation, the snow in her hot mouth melting into the sour taste of panic against her tongue. After what seemed like a minute, maybe more than one, the weight on her back lifted and she turned, scrabbling back onto her elbows.

The ambulance's lights still flickered, washing the buildings all around them with a rotating pharos of blue and red, but the entire front end was bunched up like drawn-back sleeve. It had planted itself nose-first into the side of a brick townhouse. Vapor curled gently into the night, back-lit by the primary colored lights.

Gasping in silence, Lara followed the tire tracks back through the snow. If they'd stayed put on the curb where they'd been standing, she and Jesse both would have been crushed.

Somehow, Jesse had known where the careening vehicle was going to crash, and threw them both out of the way just in time.

She turned to look at him. He sat in the snow next to her, staring at the crashed ambulance with the same numb, agape look she was sure was plastered on her own face. He raised a shaking hand to his head and whipped off his cap, letting his black curls blow in the stiff arctic wind a moment, using it to wipe the snow and sweat from his face before replacing it. For a moment, Lara was sure she was going to vomit, but the feeling passed.

Finally, he turned to her. "Are you okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah. I think so." They joined hands and helped one another stand. Lara felt her legs and arms but didn't detect any injuries aside from a knee she'd managed to scrape through all that padding.

"Jesus." Jesse turned his attention on the ambulance. Low moans were barely distinguishable above the howl of the wind. Lara took his hand and they flopped their way through the snow towards the smoking vehicle.

As they closed the distance, Lara noted movement in the cab. Impossible, but there it was, a man in a navy blue paramedic's coat flailing his arm around the outside of the broken window, trying to yank the door handle.

"Are you okay?" Lara cried as they neared.

The paramedic had a split over his eyebrow where he'd been slapped by the airbag, but seemed otherwise unharmed. He was cursing a barrage of profanity, the likes of which Lara hadn't heard since middle school. He ended it with, "... and now everything's tits up! Help me with this goddamn door!"

Jesse wedged his gloved fingers underneath the handle and lifted, pulling back with all his might. The paramedic raised a foot and pushed on his side. With the scream of metal, the door burst open, throwing Jesse back. Lara was there to catch him, her supreme balance allowing her to absorb the impact and stay on her feet. The paramedic stumbled out of the cab into the drifts, and then pulled himself to his feet using the side of the wrecked conveyance. "Goddamn son of a bitch snow!" he roared, kicking some into a white cascade with his boot. "I am moving to Florida. This is it, I'm really doing it this time."

Lara stole around the back of the ambulance and pulled one of the doors open with all her strength. There was a woman on a gurney, elderly, moaning and trying to free herself from an IV. Another paramedic, a squatty blonde woman, was on the floor, rubbing her head.