One Night


Warning: Gore


Sam had only ever been in one car accident before tonight. Her mother had been stopped at a red light on the way to drop Sam off at school when they had gotten rear ended. It had been jarring. An unexpected and unwelcome shove to the back that had made Sam's ten-year-old eyes fill with unshed tears. That accident felt like a gentle kiss to the cheek compared to this one.

It started with a graceful slow drift. Just when Sam fully understood she had no control, she didn't know. On the highway there hadn't been much of a need to brake, and as such she didn't feel the sheet of ice that had stolen her car from underneath her. She had been lulled into a trance-like state by the yellow divider line flicking in time with the soft breath of Danny sleeping against the passenger side window and the snores of Tucker sprawled across the backseat. Ambient music playing quietly to keep her company as they made their way through the mountain pass, and through a snowstorm, back to Amity Park from their botched camping trip.

But, as she neared a curve in the road and pressed her foot on the brake to slow, the car just continued to float along, drifting ever so slightly to the left as she steered to the right. Terror filled Sam, like a punch to the solar plexus, as she realized she was going in the wrong direction. Much in the same way one desperately attempts to silence a screaming child, Sam felt the need to grapple for any and all control and try to steer back on course; to overcompensate and overcorrect. Sam had done something very un-Sam-like. She had panicked.

When the car needed a feather like nudge and a steady hand combined with an ever-so-slight tap on the gas Sam had yanked the wheel and braked. Hard. And with the finesse of a krumper krumping on an ice rink, her car careened out of her control.

Everything happened so fast. There was no life flashing before her eyes. Instead there was a soft cry and a frantic five seconds of struggle as she fought her car like a bucking horse. Throughout this whole exchange only Tucker woke in the backseat in time to see Sam's pale face and the car weave drunkenly towards the ditch.

"Danny!" Sam cried, sensing things were about to go south. It was her impulse in life-threatening situations to turn to Danny. To rely on his intangibility to protect her vulnerable body from getting impaled or shot at or in this case get twisted along with the metal of her car, but his face was still serene and asleep and they were already tumbling off the shoulder down the bank.

Despite the fact that they were all in the car together, as they rolled down the bluff each of them felt utterly alone in their terror and helplessness. Danny awakened just in time to get knocked right back unconscious. Tucker was pummeled against the seat and the ceiling, respectively, in concert with the car's rolls - seatbelt ironically striking him against the cheek as if to say: The one time you take me off...

Sam had tried to cover her face as an airbag all but suffocated her. She felt as if she was inside a champagne bottle as someone vigorously shook it. Her small body got flung in every direction all at once and her seatbelt cut into her skin with the strain of keeping her in one place. She shut her eyes as the sound of screeching metal and blood screaming in her ears all but overwhelmed her. The crash was deafening. Her limbs jerked out of her own control as she prayed for it to end. And then, after what felt like hours and as if someone had clamped hands over her ears, eerie ringing silence.

Sam was certain what she had just been through was akin to surviving an avalanche. As she whited back in she was limp and disoriented. For a few seconds she tried to gather up some of the senses that had been ripped from her.

She stared forward, realizing she was hanging by her seatbelt. The car was on its roof. Or, at least, what was left of the roof. There wasn't much she recognized as her car anymore. Most of it was crumpled and ripped apart as if a bear had gotten ahold of it in a fit of rage. Snow was seeping through the open holes in the roof, mingling with the tips of her hanging hair. As she stared up at the ground she watched, captivated, as small flecks of blood started to pepper the white snow. She reached up, feeling slick blood pooling and spilling around the curve of the tip of her nose. It felt numb, but she was certain it was broken.

She was pinned by her leg underneath the steering wheel. As she moved to yank it out she was hit with a wave of intense agony and was easily dissuaded as she panted and ground her head back against the headrest until it passed. The sudden burst of pain sharpened her mind and, as a soft groan came from behind her, she remembered her two passengers.

"Tuck-" She tried to say, but it came out as a wheeze.

Her whole body complained as she turned to look to her right at Danny who was hanging, unconscious, like a marionette. He was held in by the lap and chest by his seatbelt. She couldn't see his face behind the veil of his dark hair, but there was a slowly growing pool of blood in the snow underneath them that was dripping from what had to be a head wound.

"Danny, wake up. C'mon." Sam managed out in a small whisper, trying to see if he was breathing. Her own breath fluttered out before her and dissipated like smoke before gaining any volume. She reached across to shake him, but he was unresponsive.

Shivering, she moved to attempt to see Tucker, but her neck wouldn't let her turn to look behind her seat. Instead she peered in the crooked rearview mirror.

"Oh god." Sam choked, seeing Tucker in a crumpled heap, lying on the roof of the car where he had finally fallen to rest after being tumbled about wildly. Unlike Danny and Sam, Tucker hadn't been using his seatbelt. He had jokingly told her to drive safe as he had unbuckled it so that he could lie more comfortably across the backseat. This was all her fault. Sam felt helpless tears start to form in her eyes as her teeth chattered, shock making her numb and giddy.

"T-Tucker." Her voice came out like a bad transmission radio, "Can you hear me? Talk to me. Please talk to me."

There was no noise except the soft music that was still - against all odds - playing through broken speakers. Sam felt a horrible laugh get pulled out of her as the sound of almost elevator music made this whole thing seem like a demented surreal dream. She felt her body trembling against the straps holding her aloft, shock making her dizzy as a wave of exhaustion suddenly battled through her.

She closed her eyes slowly for a moment, dangling weightless.

There was another loud disembodied groan and Sam blinked back awake, realizing that she had unintentionally passed out for god knows how long. She choked, tasting her own blood from where it had pooled in her nose and down her throat. For a long moment she nearly gagged before she spat it out against the snow below. It was still dark outside: nighttime. The only source of illumination was the glow of the dashboard that had yet to run out of battery. Sam listened for the motor, but it was dead. Hopefully the snow that had soaked every inch of her car while it toppled down the ravine would prevent any fires from starting. The pungent smell of gasoline would have battered her, but her nose was clogged with her own blood.

The stillness to her right told her without looking that Danny hadn't moved since she had last checked on him. She shook her head a few times as there was another pained noise from the backseat and she felt her heart pound.

"Tuck, you awake?" She called out again. Fear clenched at her windpipe as she peered into the rearview mirror. She saw his dark shape move a little at her voice. There was the soft chiming nose of different scattered camping supplies getting moved around from where they had fallen out of their bags.

"Yeah." Came the dazed reply.

Sam felt relief flood through her now that she wasn't alone; now that Tucker was alive.

"...Wish I wasn't, though." Tucker's voice added. It should have been humorous, but the statement was dead serious. Sam felt her heart sink.

"How bad?" She asked, peering into the mirror.

"Not sure." His answers were sharp, quick, "Broken ribs." An inhale. "Collarbone. Leg." Inhale. "Hit my head. Seatbelt hit my face."

There was a pained grunt and Sam suddenly saw Tucker's pale face peering back at her, a deep cut across his cheek. He was sitting on the roof of the car as she dangled upside down.

"What happened?" Tucker asked, holding his side with his good arm.

"I'm so sorry." Sam felt her voice crack in hysteria, tears slipping up from her eyes and falling into the snow above her. "The ice, and then the car just slipped, I couldn't-"

"Hey." Tucker interrupted, "We'll figure this out..."

Sam nodded, regretting it as her neck screamed.

"I can't feel my leg." She told Tucker. Everything below her waist was numb. She hoped it was from the freezing cold that had permeated into the car since the crash, "My nose is broken.. my neck hurts... but Danny-"

She broke off, craning her neck again, despite the pain, to try and get a closer look at him.

"He's not...?" Tucker asked dreadfully, assuming the worst by the way Sam had fallen silent.

Sam strained her eyes in the low light. His chest was moving almost imperceptibly in shallow breathes.

"He's breathing." Sam announced, "He's breathing." She repeated, almost to herself as a prayer.

Tucker was moving slowly along the crushed in roof of the car, avoiding sharp twisted metal and shrapnel as he did so. There was barely enough space for him to pick his way through, but soon enough his face was next to Sam's.

"You shouldn't be moving around." Sam told him half-heartedly, "We should try and stay still until help comes."

"You think help is coming?" Tucker asked her. The question made Sam fall silent. Of course help was coming. They were in the mountain pass, but people came through here all the time... right? It was midnight when they crashed so probably no one would come until morning, but someone would notice. Sam felt her mind spin as she realized that no- no one would notice. It was still snowing vigorously outside. The snow would cover up the tracks the car had made. The car itself was god knows how far down a ravine, out of immediate sight from the highway. Sam didn't even know what time it was anymore... maybe the snow had already covered them up, hiding them completely from sight in a freezing white blanket.

"No cell service." Tucker told her gravely, reading her thoughts as he too was coming to terms with their predicament, "Not for at least another mile."

"Our parents will notice we haven't come home." Sam told Tucker, teeth chattering as the snow melted in through the shattered windshield, "They'll search for us."

Tucker didn't say anything as he turned his full attention to Danny, but Sam knew exactly what he wanted to say. They had left a day early due to the oncoming snowstorm. No one expected them home for another day and a half. By then it would be too late. Sam came to the same conclusion Tucker did, and turned her attention to Danny. He was, after all, the only one of them that could not only turn them all intangible to escape the wreckage, but fly for help.

"He hit his head pretty bad." Tucker pulled back some of Danny's bangs and Sam saw a glimpse of a bright splash of green and red blood as well as the dark angry bruise that was spreading along his left right temple. Tucker tapped Danny's cheeks a few times, gathering snow from where he was crouched near the broken out window and flicking it into his face, but Danny didn't stir whatsoever. Tucker rooted around the strewn clothing and camping supplies and deflated airbag. He pulled out one of Danny's shirts from underneath a pile of snow and tied it tightly around his head to attempt to stem the bleed. As he did so he caught sight of Danny's right side, which was pressed up against the passenger side door.

"Shit." Tucker said softly.

Sam felt her heart start to sink.

"What?" She tried to look over at Tucker who was awkwardly sitting on the crushed -in roof above the middle console, in-between her and Danny.

"Nothing." Tucker said, his voice high pitched.

"What? Tell me. Tell me right now."

"Uhhh… Part of the door is…" Tucker pulled back, face pale, "Its kinda…" He made an impaling gesture into his side.

"Fuck, what do we do? This is all my fault." Sam felt her head hang, tears once again threatening to fall up off of her cheekbones.

"You couldn't have done anything. We hit ice. There was nothing you could do. It'll be fine." Tucker told her, "We're just trapped at the moment. But someone will.. maybe… come.. in like a day. Or two. Hopefully as long as they can still see us. And as long as we don't let the cold kill us. Or shock. Or bleed out…"

Sam was staring at Tucker with growing horror on her face.

"Or one of us could get free and walk until they have cellphone service." Tucker amended. Sam nodded at that.

"I don't know where my phone is." She told him, "Its probably halfway up the bluff."

"I have mine." Tucker pulled his PDA out of his pocket, "But the battery is low."

"Turn it off until we decide what to do." Sam whispered, closing her eyes. She ran her fingers underneath where the seatbelt was cutting into her breasts, making it difficult to breathe.

"I want out of this car." She felt the threads of panic start to worm through her, eating away at her composure. Her fingertips rested on the latch of her seatbelt. The urge to undo it nearly bowled her over.

Tucker had retreated back to the back of the car, his breathing harsh and pained. He gave a soft wheezing cough and Sam froze, glancing back up in the mirror again.

"You okay?"

"Don't undo that seatbelt." Tucker told her quietly after he regained his breath, ignoring her question, "Your leg is pinned. It'll only make it worse."

"Danny's going to lose all his blood if he stays upside down like that." Already the snow around Danny was stained bright red and green.

"We can't move him." Tucker rasped. Sam and Tucker had both watched enough of the medical channel and had read up on first aid to know that removing the part of the door that was impaling Danny's side would kill him in minutes.

"He can't help us, Tucker." Sam told him, "We have to save ourselves this time."


tbc...