Saving Ant and Sarha

Escaping and Car Accidents

Later that night, Ant and Sarha waited in their bed until Kathleen had fallen asleep for at least an hour. They were fully dressed, shoes and all. Sarha had shoved their suitcases out of the window earlier. She quietly got up and tiptoed towards the exit. Here came the hard part.

She stacked a few boxes, one on top of the other. She stepped on one cautiously, making sure it could hold her and Ant before climbing onto the next, Ant following her. They repeated this process until they were leveled with the window. Sarha opened it quietly and looked back one more time at the basement.

"You go first." she whispered to Ant. Ant wiggled his way through the opening. Once he got out he reached his hand down so he could help pull Sarha out. When they were both out, each grabbed their suitcase and began running.

********

At the Donnelly house, Anne was in her room, reading. Alph was at work and Dec was asleep in his room. She got up and decided to check on him. Earlier when Stephen was leaving, she was surprised to learn that Dec had opened up to him. That was a good thing. She had asked Stephen if he wanted to stay for dinner but he said he had to get home, he had to babysit his little sister.

As she reached Dec's room, she heard him speaking and thrashing. She opened the door and realized he was having a nightmare. She knelt down beside his bed and shook him gently.

"Dec, wake up." After a couple of seconds, he did.

"Whaz goin' on?" he slurred.

"You were having a bad dream." She watched as her son's eyes darkened as he remembered his dream. She sat down next to him on the bed and put her arm around him.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked, rubbing his back. Dec's eyes started to water.

"I can't do it."

"What?"

"Be away from them." he said wiping his eyes. "I just can't." Anne smoothed back his hair.

"I know you miss them." she said softly. "I miss them too."

"Do you think they're okay?" Dec wondered aloud, looking up at his mother. Not knowing the answer, Anne simply hugged her child.

********

Ant and Sarha were wandering the streets aimlessly. Ant hadn't realized it would be so hard to find a taxi in the suburbs. He was about to give up when he saw a payphone. He smiled to himself and told Sarha to stay put. He was about to call the Donnellys when she realized their phone number was buried in his suitcase. He didn't want to waste any time looking for it so he instead called the number for the taxi service.

He ordered a cab and he and Sarha sat on their suitcases as they waited for it. Fifteen minutes later, it came. Ant stood up and walked over to it, holding the door open for Sarha and putting his suitcase inside before he himself got in. He recited the address they wanted to go to and buckled his seatbelt, telling Sarha to do the same.

The taxi driver, an old man with gray hair and glasses, turned around in bewilderment.

"Is it just you two?" he asked and Sarha nodded. "Where are your parents? You're not running away from home, are you?"

"No." she shook her head. "We're going back home to our parents."

The old man gave her and Ant a funny look before peeling away from the curb.

"So why are you going so late?" he questioned, looking at them through the rearview mirror. Ant shrugged.

"I dunno." the man left it at that. The rest of the ride was spent in silence.

********

Over an hour later, they were still in the taxi. Ant and Sarha had fallen asleep, both tired from staying awake well past their bedtime. They couldn't go to sleep because they had to wait for Kathleen to fall asleep.

The taxi driver, John, looked in the rearview mirror at the two sleeping kids just as he pulled up to an intersection at the stoplight. However, when the light turned green and he started driving again, he failed to notice the truck on the right side of him run the red light, crashing into Ant and Sarha's side of the car.

The force of the collision caused the little car to roll over several times, landing on its side, breaking glass and inflating the airbag. John's head made contact with the cement ground not a moment later, effectively knocking him out and causing blood to pour out of his forehead.

********

John opened his eyes, wincing at the pain in his head. It took him a while to realize where he was. He turned around saw the two kids pressed against the door on his side. Ant was dangling over Sarha, his seatbelt restricting him from being directly on top of her. He had a huge gash on the right side of his head, little bits of glass sticking out of it. His right arm and right leg were twisted in impossible angles, his left ankle was trapped between the side of the driver seat and the armrest. The seatbelt was pulling back his collar, revealing a huge bump on his shoulder which was already starting to swell.

Sarha's head was against the window. The left side of her head had a bump which was also starting to bruise. He reached his arm back and felt their necks, sighing in relief when he felt a thump. Ant's pulse was a little weak but it was still there. Sarha's pulse was strong, meaning she was just unconscious.

John unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed toward the passenger door and pressed his whole body against it as hard as he could, satisfied when it opened with a "pop." He quickly climbed out and tried pulling on the back doors. Unfortunately the door was pushed in. He would need the jaws of life to open it. He patted down his pockets in search for his phone, pulling it out and dialling 9-9-9.

"Dispatcher, what's your emergency?"

"Yes, we need an ambulance. There was a car accident." he said urgently. Suddenly he remembered the other and ran to the driver's side, opening the door. The driver's unconscious body flopped over. John could smell the booze on his breath. He remembered he was still on the call and put the phone back to his ear. "A man crashed into my cab, he was drunk. I have two kids trapped in the backseat. One is hurt really badly and the other one is unconscious but she has a huge bump on her head." he said frantically.

"Are you hurt, sir?" 

"I'm fine, aside from a little head injury and a possible wrist sprain." he replied.

"Okay, we want to get you checked out. Do you know how old the kids are?"

"I believe they are nine and thirteen." he remembered asking them their age and names before they fell asleep.

"Okay. What's your address?"

"I don't know. It's too dark to read the signs." he said panicking.

"That's fine, just give us a minute to track your location."  he nodded. 

"Okay there's an ambulance ten minutes out." the dispatcher informed him.

"Can't they get here faster?"

"They're trying to get there as fast as they can." she informed him. "Just try to get that back door open so you can get those kids out. I'll stay on the phone with you."

"Thank you."

"No problem. That's our job."