Shift

CHAPTER ONE

There was a burst of shattering glass and snapping bones before an unsettling silence fell upon the couple that, only a moment before, had been unable to contain their elation. 

Jack Parker lay shocked and motionless despite his conscious state, his only movement coming from the quick gasps of air that filled his lungs.  He blinked hard, dazed and unaware of how he ended up on the side of the road.  Dust coated the clothes that had shredded from his slide through the loose gravel.  He thought his heart may rupture from the rapid beats that vibrated down to his toes, and it only worsened when his thoughts shifted to Emma. 

Panic set in, and soon, the fear that had paralyzed him morphed into an adrenaline-fueled need to find his wife.

Jack lifted his head and groaned, his shaking hands barely providing enough support to lift his body off the ground.  He turned back to his vehicle, a red Mazda 3 hatchback, though it was now just a smashed hunk of metal with a pair of glaring white lights.  He squinted to focus his vision, straining to see the passenger seat.

She wasn't there.

“Emma!” Jack cried.  He stood for a moment, his breathing frantic and his eyes desperate to find any sign of her.  The moon was waning and would have provided sufficient lighting on such a clear night, but the Mazda's headlights made it nearly impossible to see outside its beams.

Jack shouted for Emma once again, and headed into the darkness.  His eyes hadn't adjusted during the quick transition and the surrounding area looked like nothing more than blurred patches of gray and black.  Soon, the jagged points of gravel beneath his feet turned into the soft padding of grass, which grew denser and denser the further he traveled from the road.  This is too far.  She couldn't have been thrown this far.

Jack was moments away from turning his search into a different direction when his dilated pupils revealed a small figure sprawled out in the ditch just off the road. Emma.  How did she land so far away?

He was by her side in an instant and though the details of her injuries were hidden from him under the night sky, the outline of her contorted limbs was enough to keep Jack from touching her.

“Emma?  Honey, are you with me?”

Nothing.

Knelt beside her, he pressed his fingers to her neck, desperate for a pulse. He breathed a quick sigh of relief: it was there, but only just.  He felt a warm stream of liquid under his fingertips and fought off a panic that terrified him.  His years working in the medical field helped him abandon the terror that would otherwise paralyze him. 

“Emma, if you can hear me, we've been in an accident.  I'm going to call nine-one-one and get you to the hospital.”  Jack searched himself in a brisk movement, remembering he had set his cell phone on the center console of the Mazda.  He spared only a moment cursing beneath his breath before sprinting towards the vehicle.

The impact of the crash had rendered both side doors useless; the once sleek red metal was now smashed inwards making it impossible to open either.  Jack managed to yank a back door open, though its damage too was well beyond repair.  The interior of the vehicle was almost as bad as the exterior: the airbags were deflated against the obliterated steering wheel and dash, but the dust that had exploded from them coated every surface.  The contents of Emma's purse lay scattered on the floor and bits of glass were everywhere.

Jack shuffled through the wreckage, at last, finding his cell phone beneath the passenger’s seat.  As soon as it was in his hands, he was calling 9-1-1 and running back to Emma's side.  In the short time it took Jack to lift his cell phone to his ear, the faint light from its screen revealed that Emma's injuries were much more horrific than he first perceived.