Talk to Me
| Chapter 3 TWO WEEKS LATER Kris had volunteered to work her 2 days off so one of her co-workers could go on his honeymoon. And she took a double shift another day for the same reason. She wasn’t the only one filling in. Several others took on extra shifts. On the whole the entire squadron, and even the entire citywide rescue team, was a pretty loyal and helping group. At the end of 12 straight days and the down-slope of a 16-hour shift, Kris was glad this was her last shift. She had come in at 8am and it was now going on 10:30pm. She had just over an hour to go before she would have 2 days to do nothing but rest. She was dreaming about how she was going to lounge around all day when the tones went off signaling a call. First the tones for the firehouse, the tones for rescue, then finally, the tones for the police. A car accident. All this registered subconsciously as she grabbed her gear and got in the truck. On the way to the scene she heard over the radio that there was a major wreck off of I-4 involving an 18-wheeler and a smaller car, make still undetermined due to excessive body damage. ‘Oh, God’ she thought, ‘that doesn’t sound promising.’ The fire trucks were already there and had the jaws-of-life out. Then a call came over the radio directly to Kris’s rescue team. “Rescue 98, this is Fire 076, redirect back to Squad House. Rescue 87 en-route to scene.” “What?” Each person in the rescue truck said at once. Kris took the mic. “Fire 076, this is Rescue 98. Our 20 is less than 2 miles. ETA under 2 minutes. What’s the ETA of Rescue 87?” Kris knew that the squad house for 87 was located further away from where the wreck was. Maybe they were out finishing another call when this one went out and they managed to get there sooner. “Rescue 98, repeat redirect to Squad House. Rescue 87 en-route ETA 10 minutes.” “What the Hell is going on?” Kris was about to pick up the mic when she heard another voice come through the speaker. This time addressing her specifically and unofficially. “Kris, please. You don’t want to be here. Let 87 cover it, ok. Trust me on this.” It was one of the fire chiefs she knew as James. The ambulance was at that moment already pulling up to the scene and several men came running up to them. One of them was James. “Kris, just go. Ok. Please.” “James what’s going on. Why don’t you want us working this call?” “Not ‘us’, just you.” He saw she wouldn’t be deterred so easily, especially since 87 was still no where in sight. It would take them at least 5 more minutes to reach here. “Damn Kris. Why are you always so stubborn. You can’t work this one. You can’t because, well, because Kris, it’s Evie.” Kris didn’t say a word. She just sat back in her seat with her eyes straight ahead. “Kris? Kris? Damn it girl. Kelly, take her back to the squad house. Someone stay with her until we get details. She is not to be left alone, do you understand me?” They all nodded, all that is except Kristyne. “Who is her Lieutenant?” Not waiting for an answer, “She or he needs to be called. You guys know what to do. I’ll call from the hospital.” Then to Kris, “Kris, we’ll make sure she’s ok, you hear me? Just, let us do the work. If I know anything that girl is just as stubborn as you are. She won’t give up and neither will we.” As quickly as he had run up to the ambulance he ran back to supervise the situation. Somewhere down the road they could hear the sirens of 87 approaching. They included everyone but Kris. She hadn’t heard anything after Evie’s name. Back at the squad house everyone treated Kris like the patient. Which in fact she was, she had gone into shock. They wanted to take her home but she refused to move until she heard from James, or someone on the team, what exactly had happened and how Evie was doing. ‘God, please not her; not Evie.’ Kris silently prayed. ‘She’s more than just my best friend, she’s more like a sister to me. I know I’ve leaned on her a lot lately. But, see, that’s how it is between us. We are there for each other. I’m just now finally beginning to deal with David and my parents. I don’t think I can handle this too.' She sat there with silent tears rolling down her cheeks. ‘When will my life just return to some semblance of normalcy and stop being like a soap opera?’ Shortly after 3:30am James called 98 from the hospital. Evie had been involved in a serious accident where the 18-wheeler had failed to stop at an intersection when his direction turned red. Evie’s car slammed into the middle set of tires at 55mph, jumped in the air, landed on it’s side and rolled to the median turning over completely 4 times before settling on its hood. Evie had sustained a concussion, neck injury, a broken nose, broken left collar bone, 5 broken ribs, a compound fracture of the right femur, a shattered right ankle, punctured lung, and multiple lacerations, as well as glass and shrapnel in her face and upper torso. Most of the injuries, on their own were painful, but not life threatening. Even the punctured lung was critical, not fatal. The neck injury and concussion were another story. Preliminary CT showed no fracture on her C-spine, which was a good sign. There was, however, swelling which makes smaller fractures harder to detect. They would have to continue to scan, but their hopes were good for no paralysis. The worst news was that Evie had remained unconscious. The longer she remained so, the worse her prognosis would be.
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