The Vanishing of Brandyn Taylor

Scared for my life

I kicked my leg back and forth as hard as I could, hoping to free it from whatever unseen monster had grabbed my ankle. I screamed a high pitched shriek of fear, and yet another as I felt myself crashing towards the ground. I landed on my side, letting out a big "oooofffff" of air from the impact. Pain seared through my hip, and I continued kicking my legs around wildly. Suddenly my ankle was free, and I scrambled away a little distance, using my hands and feet to propel myself along. I twisted myself over into a sitting position, and raised my upper body, looking over to see whatever it was I had just escaped from, still convinced I would discover some monster in the dark.

"Oh my god, Rachel! Are you ok? What's wrong?"

I saw Rach' laying on the floor next to the car, she looked almost lifeless. In the dark I couldn't tell if she was an odd colour, but I could tell something wasn't right.  I knew she wouldn't mess about like this trying to scare me, she knew I was afraid of the dark and would already be out of my wits. One arm was stretched out above her head, I assumed the one that grabbed me, the other was clutching at one side of her ribs. She wasn't talking. I scrambled over to her, able to see a little by the light from inside the car.

"Rach', can you talk? What's wrong?"

She said nothing. But her eyes were pleading with me to help her. She looked even more afraid than I felt. The steering wheel must have hit her harder than we thought, and I began thinking what sort of injuries you could sustain from being hit in the chest like that, none of which I knew any of the treatment for.

"Shit. Shit, shit, shit." I cried out. I had absolutely no idea what to do to help her. I'd seen films where they do things like stick pens in people's throats to help them breathe, but she was breathing, even though it was fast and shallow breathing. I couldn't remember how you re-inflate a lung but I seemed to remember that involved sticking things somewhere, probably between some ribs or something. There was a few flaws here though: 1. I didn't have a pen. 2. I had no idea what was wrong and 3. I had no idea how to fix what was wrong.
I had to get her help, that much I was sure of.

"Rach, I'm not going to leave you honey but I need to check out the car, I'll just walk round it and I'll. be back I promise. Hang on ok?"

I figured if the car wasn't too badly damaged I could put Rachel on the back seat and drive, to somewhere. We had to come across a building or something. Not that I knew much about driving. I'd had a few lessons some years back but never really stuck with it for long. It would be a better option than me walking out of here to go for help, that could take hours. I stood up, and trying to push my fear to the back of my mind, I walked around the car, looking to see what the damage seemed to be, and avoiding looking deeper into the woods at all costs. The car actually didn't look too bad at all. It was dented here and there but there was no fuel leaking that I could see, and no steam coming from the engine. I kneeled back down next to Rachel.

"I'm gonna get you out of here Rach' I promise. I just need to get you in the back of the car. Do you think we can manage that between us? I know this isn't going to be easy hun, and it's probably gonna hurt a bit, but it's the only way to get you to help quickly. I'll drive until we get phone signal, or come across a building or something."

I really didn't know what else to do, and much as I didn't want to cause my friend any pain, I had to move her.

"I'm going to try and sit you up, and I'll kneel behind you to keep you sitting up. Then, when you're ready, I'll put my arms through yours from behind you and help you stand. Just nod if that's ok?"

Rachel nodded twice, and took hold of my hand. I smiled at her, knowing she must be scared and in pain.

"Ok honey, let's get you in the car. Hang on, if you can't breathe should I lay you down on the back, or should you sit up? I can't remember what to do. Where do you want to go hun, nod for back seat or blink twice for front." Right at this point in time I was really wishing that I had taken that first Aid course in the day centre.
Rachel nodded at me. I just hoped laying her down wouldn't make her worse.