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Forty-three miles per hour.
“WE’RE SLOWING!” I say.
“KEEP TALKING, BABY! I NEED TO KNOW YOU’RE SAFE!”
My left arm is numb, the nerves screaming from the blow. I can’t close my left hand into a fist, which means I’m down to steering with my right hand and have to lean my left forearm on the steering wheel for support. An already bad situation is now impossibly worse.
Forty-one miles per hour.
Lights flash behind me, red and blue, blinding me. I focus on the back of Drew’s SUV.
“THERE’S A TRUCK EMERGENCY RAMP UP AHEAD, LINDSAY. I’M AIMING US FOR IT. THE ROAD IS ABOUT TO DIP DOWN AND WE CAN’T KEEP GOING. THE RAMP GOES UP AND WE STOP FAST. GET READY.”
Get ready for what? I want to ask, but my mouth won’t make words right now.
Forty miles per hour.
Drew turns the SUV to the right and oh, God, it feels like he’s driving us right off the road, but then I see we’re on an incline, heading up, spraying gravel everywhere, the sound of brakes like metal shrieking, like the machines are screaming. How can we head up? I see blue sky. Nothing but blue. How can this—
BANG! POP!
White balloons smother me and that’s all I remember as I lurch forward, the seat belt cutting into my breasts, my neck snapping back and then I am on the pillows and the white fades, the sound fades—it all fades.
I fade.
Chapter 34
Someone is throwing rocks around against my skull. They need to stop. The pain is so bad I’m going to throw up. I start to gag, then take in a big breath. I can’t. Something’s covering my mouth. My throat spasms and I claw at the space in front of me, finding wetness and plastic and pain.
Drew.
Where’s Drew?
“MMMMMMMmmmmmmuuuhhhh,” I say, the sound like a Doppler effect, like the sound of my body dying as it’s flung across hundreds of yards. I push on the plastic and the wetness peels away, air filling my mouth like ice turned into open space. Cold needles poke my lungs.
I breathe.
“Lindsay!” Hot breath against my ear. A warm, strong hand on my shoulder. Fingers on my brow. I inhale again and still see nothing but white.
“Dooo?” I can’t say his name right.
“I’m here, baby. I’m here.” He paws at the white plastic and my eyes start to focus. It’s not all white. Smears of dark liquid cover the plastic as he peels it off my neck and chest. The scent of copper fills the air.
It’s blood.
My blood.
I breathe through my mouth. My nose won’t accept air. Blue and red lights flash in a pattern and suddenly, the air is full of noise. My mouth tastes like metal. The tip of my tongue runs along my top teeth. The end of one canine tooth feels jagged, like I chipped it.
Drew’s face spins, white splotches covering my vision and then black spots filling in. He shakes me. The spots fade and I see blue and red lights again.
And then it’s all just...gone.
For the next few minutes, I wake up and pass out, wake up and pass out. My body rumbles like it’s on a cart, then I’m in the air, doors closing, the distant sound of a siren filling my ears. Someone’s holding my hand. Then they’re not. The babble of voices and crackle of intercoms makes it hard for me to breathe. To sleep.
To make it all stop.
I feel a pinch in my arm and open my eyes. Everything is white. White curtains behind a doctor wearing white. The lights in the ceiling are bright white. My vision blurs to cotton. Warmth floods through my arm and I look down to find a tube feeding medicine in me.
