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I’m not even sure if my goal was just to destabilize him or to kill him. Despite how frustrating and untrustworthy he is, it still seems wrong to maim him or disable him by crashing a car on purpose. I’m angry at myself for extending any empathy towards this person. Even in the middle of a perfect storm, I can’t help but consider the other person. It has to be my worst trait, and it’s showing now more than ever.
When I lift my head from being bent over, the headlights are causing the snow around us to swirl like we’re flying through spacetime. I’m sure that I would find it beautiful if I wasn’t so terrified.
The spinning grows faster and impossible to control until the car finally veers off the side of the road. Only a split second later, I feel the full impact of the crash. It’s nothing like the accident with my car and the river guard rail. This time, the shock of pain and the rush of adrenaline have sent me into an animalistic fight for survival. I feel like an animal in a cage in the middle of a fire.
The noise of the car smashing into the railing is three times more horrifying than it was with my car. The tremendous, uncontrollable speed sends us through the rail and down a steep ditch with sharp rocks at the bottom.
I briefly glace over at the man, who seems desperate to get the car under some kind of control with no luck. Even he has an expression of pure terror and panic, which creates a hopelessness in me that shakes me to my core. If even he feels like this beyond our reach, we’re more than fucked.
Just when I open my mouth to say something, we meet the bottom of the ditch.
My head is sent into what remains of the windshield ridden with bullets, and I see a bright flash before I feel a tremendous, intense shock of electrifying pain shoot through my head and down my spine. It’s nowhere near painless as I had hoped it would be. I’m ready to beg the universe for mercy for whatever it was that I’ve done whatever it is that has warranted such an intense, horrifying punishment.
Then, nothing.
6
Saint
What the fuck is wrong with this woman?
I literally saved her from being stranded on the side of the road for what could have been hours. Sure, there were some mishaps along the way, but she wouldn’t have been injured if she hadn’t chosen to pull this stupid shit. She’s probably watched too many movies and decided to be the brave, unstoppable protagonist. Now, she might as well have shot us both in the head with a sawed-off shotgun.
The car is fucked, that’s for sure. I was fine with the prospect of scratching it, even taking a few hits if it meant I could get home sooner. I hadn’t planned to get into such an intense wreck. If I had any idea that this car was going to be thrown through a guard rail in the middle of nowhere, I would have prepared better.
Why does she want to die so badly?
We hadn’t even gotten that far down the road before she decided to be a hero and throw us off of it. Vadik is still tailing us whether I can see him or not, and the snow is falling so densely that I wouldn’t be able to until he was less than fifty feet from us.
The only positive thing in this situation is that Vadik will probably crash from his high and be incapable of hurting us. He won’t be able to control his movements at all until he gets another fix, and the process of cutting and inhaling crystals in the middle of a snowstorm would be difficult, to say the least.
He’ll see the wreck, but maybe I can still get us to safety.
I’ve only been in one other situation like this, and I was able to keep myself hidden by burying myself deep in the woods. I had to commit to taking that route until I reached the next town over, but it kept me from getting killed. If the person pursuing us is overcome by fatigue before we are, we still have a chance.
I consider just leaving the girl since she wants to run away from me so badly, but I know that Vadik will at least search the car for anything valuable before he gives up. He’d find her and harm her for sure. I could be petty and vindictive if I wanted to be, but I can’t. It doesn’t feel right. No matter how stupid she might be under pressure, she’s still a person. She’s stupidandhelpless, and I’d never be able to overcome my guilt if she ended up dying. She didn’t join the bratva life. This isn’t what she wanted.
She just wanted to go home to her normal house and her normal life. She thought I’d be able to deliver her there with the promise of keeping her safe, and I failed. It’s at least my responsibility to make sure she’s okay.
When I look over at her, she’s splayed across the dashboard with a bright red smear marking the point of impact. A head wound is the last thing I need to be dealing with, but she looks like she’s light enough for me to carry a short distance.
The bleeding is an issue for both of us, however. We could be attracting wild animals to us, practically signaling to them that we’re injured and weaponless, ready to succumb to our injuries and be devoured. If dying in a crash wasn’t bad enough, being ripped apart by animals sounds like torture.
I need to rest, to stop the bleeding on my own preexisting injury, but I have no time. The blood loss id beginning to affect me, and my vision swirls and wavers as I stumble out of the car over to the passenger’s side. At first, I’m certain that the door won’t even open from the way it’s crumpled inward, but to my surprise and relief, it does.
When I shake her, she feels totally lifeless, not even groaning unconsciously. I know she isn’t dead – I can still see her breath in the air.
Her neck could be fucked up from smashing into the windshield, so I need to be extra careful. Goddamn it, I couldn’t have chosen a worse day to get shot in the arm.
I move her slightly forward until she’s far enough from the back of the seat for me to scoop her up. She’s even lighter than I thought she’d be, so I adjust her neck and begin to traverse the uneven terrain of the ditch that leads to the forest.
Periodically, I’ll stop in my tracks to listen for the sound of a vehicle, but so far I haven’t been able to pick up on anything.
Even though we’re getting further into the cover of the woods, I can see a trail of bright red blood forming behind me in the snow. I knew that this would be an issue, but now I’m growing weaker by the minute.
After about twenty minutes of trudging through the snow, I find a large tree with a wide span of densely packed evergreen branches. The ground is almost all dirt and brush.
With the pitch black around me, I feel around under the tree to make sure there aren’t any animals nearby before I begin to lay the woman down on the ground.
