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There was nothing, and then there was a roar of fire. The pain consuming me was unlike anything I had ever felt. It was my left leg. Something in it had shattered.
I was told that athletes know the moment a career-ending injury has occurred. I used to wonder what that felt like. I didn’t have to wonder anymore. Because in that moment, I knew this was the end.
Chapter 9
Quin
“Oh my God! What just happened? Why isn’t he getting up? Lou, what’s going on? Lou?” I asked turning to him.
With his face painted in the school colors, Lou stared at the field with his mouth hanging open. Like everyone else, he was speechless.
I turned back to see medics running onto the field. Cage flopped around in so much pain they could barely get to him. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. This was a nightmare.
In a few moments a paramedic was pushing a stretcher to Cage. It took two men to get him onto it. Tears rolled down my cheeks watching it. I was in shock. I didn’t know what I could do to help, but I had to do something.
“I need to go to him,” I told Lou.
“Yeah. Of course. Where do we go?”
“I don’t know. The locker room?”
“Lead the way,” he said ushering me on.
As I headed to the stairs I realized there was one problem, I had no idea where I was going. Not only was this my first time at the university’s stadium, this was the first stadium I had ever visited. I could barely navigate us to the bathroom.
Despite that, we descended the stairs from the upper deck and wandered around the concession stands.
“Excuse me, how do I get to the locker rooms,” I asked one of the security guards.
“It’s off-limits to visitors,” the burly man replied.
“But, my friend’s injured. I need to go see him.”
“Off limits,” he repeated before looking away.
It took almost an hour to circle the stadium and realize where the entrance to the lower levels was. We got there in time to see an ambulance pull away with its lights flashing.
“You think that was Cage?” I asked Lou.
“I would guess,” he said sympathetically.
“They’re probably taking him to the closest hospital, right?”
“That would make sense.”
“We need to get a ride to the hospital.”
“I’m on it,” Lou said whipping out his phone and arranging a ride.
Between the congestion around the stadium and the traffic, it took another hour before we got to the emergency room. I was going insane with worry by then. Dropped off at the main doors, I rushed in with Lou in tow.
“I’m looking for Cage Rucker’s room. He was just brought in. He was probably wearing football clothes,” I told the stout woman behind the desk.
“I saw him come in. I think they took him for an MRI.”
“Great. Where do I find that?”
“It’s going to take a while before he’s assigned a room.”
