Her heart leaping into her throat, she swerved right. The car left the road and flew across a ditch.
When her headlights flashed across a telephone pole, she turned the steering wheel sharply to the right before the car crashed into the pole, crushing the driver’s door into her side.
Her head bounced against the window, hard enough to crack the glass and pain shot through her shoulder and ribs. Smoke rose from the engine, and the acrid scent of gasoline filled her nostrils.
Her mind numb from hitting her head, she tried to focus. Smoke...gasoline...
A baby’s cry pierced her brain fog. “My baby!” she cried, struggling to get out of her seat.
The seatbelt held her tightly trapped in her seat. She fought with the button, her hand shaking so badly it fumbled several times before she located the button.
The baby’s cries grew louder as the smoke filtered into the interior of the car.
“I’m coming,” she called out, pushing harder on the button until it finally clicked and released the buckle. Shoving the belt over her lap, she turned in her seat and tried to raise her left arm to brace against the steering wheel.
Pain knifed through her arm. She cried out and clutched the arm with her other hand. Her fingers connected with warm, thick liquid. She tried again to move the arm, but the pain was so bad she almost passed out.
She had to get the baby out of the car. Smoke could mean there was a fire. It might only be a matter of moments before the fire found the gasoline...
She turned and, with her good hand, clawed her way over the console and fell into the back seat, bouncing against the baby’s car seat.
The baby screamed and coughed, the smoke getting thicker, making it hard to see.
She straightened as best she could. With her good hand, she fought with the buckles on the car seat safety straps, the smoke making her eyes burn and her throat ache.
When she couldn’t get the buckle to release with just one hand, she tried to release the car seat from where it was anchored to the backseat.
Just as she thought they’d die in the car, the back door on the baby’s side of the car was yanked open.
“There’s a baby back here,” a man’s voice called out. “And a woman.”
The man quickly released the safety restraints on the car seat and snatched the baby out, handing it to the man behind him. Then he released the seatbelt holding the car seat in place and pulled it out. Then he hooked his hands beneath her arms and dragged her across the seat and out into the open air.
The pain in her shoulder was so intense she must have blacked out. When she came to, she was being carried up an embankment. “My baby!” she cried, reaching back with her good arm.
“It's okay. We need to get you away from the car before it?—”
An explosion blasted the air.
The man holding her pitched forward.
She hit the ground, and her world went black.
* * *
She woke to bright lights shining down on her and a woman in scrubs typing on the keyboard of a mobile data-collection device like the ones used in hospital rooms.
“My baby?” she croaked, her voice not sounding anything like herself.
“Your baby is doing fine,” the nurse answered. “Just a little cough from smoke inhalation, but she will make a full recovery. You, on the other hand, need to take it easy. You suffered a concussion, a dislocated shoulder and broken ribs. I’ll let the doctor know you’re awake. I’m sure you’ll want to hear what he has to say.”
Forcing words past her scratching throat, she asked. “Where am I?”
“Nebraska Medical Center. The ambulance brought you to the closest trauma center from your accident.”
She briefly closed her eyes, avoiding the harsh lights. “How long?” She looked up at the nurse.
“How long have you been out?” The woman’s eyebrows rose, and she blinked. “Two days.”
