You tightened the makeshift tourniquet around your thigh and felt the rush of hot blood slow. It wouldn't last, but it would have to do for now.
Biting the knife between your teeth, you turned your attention to the door and slammed your shoulder against it until it cracked open enough for you to spill out onto the pavement below. Your injured arm took a good amount of the impact, earning a guttural "fuck" as you spit the knife onto the ground. You lay there, eyes shut tight against the white hot pain in your arm and thigh, until the ringing in your ears cleared enough to hear the screams of people running through the street around you.
There wasn't much time now, considering the rising smell of gasoline and the amount of blood you'd already lost from the hole in your thigh. But you couldn't think about that now. You had to move quickly if there was going to be any chance of staying conscious long enough to help anyone.
You grabbed for the knife, and ground yourself in the feel of the cold metal against your palm. Vision blurring with tears, you forced your legs through the tight opening and out onto the street, cringing through the pain as you clawed your way to a standing position. You leaned on the door for support, dizzy and disoriented, until a transformer fell with an explosion of sparks up the road. The sound snapped the world back into focus and suddenly time felt like it was moving too fast.
It really was do or die now.
And the later… the whole 'dying' part?
That was a very real possibility.
'Shit. Shit, shit, shit, SHIT!'
You took a cautious step with your injured leg and it held, so you took another, and another, until you were limping as fast as your could towards the next closest car. You were pretty sure the adrenaline was the only thing keeping you from feeling the full extent of your injuries, but you didn't have time to think about what would happen when it ran out.
Staggering around the hood of the car to the driver's door, you noticed a woman struggling with an airbag that failed to fully retract after she crashed into a light pole. You wretched her door open as far as it would go and stabbed into the bag with your knife, fully deflating it.
"Are you hurt? Can you get out?"
The woman calmed down enough to fumble with her seatbelt, until finally it gave and clicked open.
"I- I think I'm ok. I can move, but my head hurts."
You could see the blood trickling down a small cut on her brow, mixing with her tears. You're pretty sure the look of terror on her face mirrored your own, but you needed to stay calm, for her sake.
"You need to get away from this intersection, it's not safe here," you had to pause to spit blood out of your mouth, "Take as many people as you can find, and get to cover far away from here!"
The woman was shaking as she climbed out of the driver's seat to stand in front of you, but she nodded in understanding and stumbled across the street to a couple sitting on the sidewalk. After a moment, she got them to follow her down the road.
You sighed in relief, and turned to a van that had collided with a convertible in the intersection, when you noticed an older man cradling a small girl. He was helping a teenage boy out of the back seat.
"Hey," you croaked, trying to yell loud enough for them to hear, "Hey! Do you need any help?"
The older man holding the girl turned to you, and with a shout confirmed that they were ok. You waved your arms frantically when he began to turn away again, shouting at them to run, to get to cover south, down the street. You pointed towards the fuel truck up the road that continued to leak gasoline, and when he noticed, the older man grabbed the kid from the back of the van by his arm and all but dragged him away and out of danger.
Turning back to the road in front of you, your eyes widened in terror. The gasoline leaking from the overturned truck was pouring out faster than you thought. And it was surging closer and closer to the downed transformer. If it hit those sparks...
'Oh fuck.'
You thought you had more time!
Looking to the fuel truck, the front compartment was completely caved in, an unrecognizable mass of shattered metal tipped on its side. The impact wouldn't have been survivable; even if you could make it there, you knew the driver would be dead. The only vehicle left was the overturned convertible at the other end of the intersection. Everyone else had already made their way south, far enough now that you knew they'd have a chance, even if it blew.
'Just make it to the car Em, just make it to the car and get them to safety and you'll be ok. Everyone will be ok. We're all gonna make it; it's just one more car. This is nothing, just a normal Wednesday.'
You started towards the convertible, but a surge of pain tore through your right leg and brought you to your knees. A scream of agony was ripped from your throat as you crashed to the asphalt, the pain in your thigh worse than anything you've ever felt.
But as quickly as it came, the feeling faded, leaving the right side of your body throbbing and numb. You dropped the knife you didn't realize you were still holding and with shaking hands, reached down to tighten the makeshift bandage around your leg, crying out as you felt the open flesh shift under the thin fabric. Blood washed over your hands. But the fog of pain cleared and you staggered back up, shaking and panting. What felt like an eternity had only lasted seconds; seconds that you didn't have. You needed to get to that convertible now.
With a sudden confidence you didn't know you had, you surged forward, ignoring your leg, and how the blood on your hands seemed unnaturally dark.
In the back of your mind you knew something was wrong, 'blood shouldn't be that dark. It was black. Why was it so black?' But you didn't have time to care. You didn't have time to think.
You made it to the overturned convertible and collapsed next to the driver's door, which had clearly been smashed in on itself during impact with the truck. You could see that driver had managed to detach himself from his seat, but now he lay just behind the door, unconscious but breathing.
Your stomach dropped. The opening from the window was so small. He wasn't going to fit. You wouldn't be able to get him out.
'No, no no no, oh fuck…' You could feel the panic rising in your throat.
You reached in and gently shook his shoulder, calling out to him.
"Sir, can you hear me? Please, wake up," you shook him a little harder now, the fear of being so close to the leaking fuel was draining your confidence.
"Please, please you have to wake up! We have to get out of here!"
The man stirred slightly, groaning, and you shook him even harder, until his eyes opened in a sudden panic and he thrashed against your grip.
"Hey, hey, it's ok! I'm trying to help you, but I need you to get out of the car. Can you make it through the window?" Your voice shook.
He looked up at you and struggled to turn onto his stomach. "Here, grab my hand," you reached in again and took his hand in yours, sitting back on your heels and pulling as hard as you could while he crawled up to the window.
Only one shoulder made it through.
"I can't fit! The opening is too small, I'm not gonna make it!" The panic in his voice did little to help your own.
"You can do this, come on! Try to shift your body a little more!"
But no matter how much you pulled, the space between the asphalt and the door just wasn't enough. Suddenly another wave of white hot pain hit you. You cried out in agony and fell back, the man's hand slipping from yours. A small explosion of sparks erupted from the transformer, and it was the man in the cars turn to scream.
Then your heart stopped, and the world went quiet.
You saw the man, pinned inside the convertible. Saw his tears, the fear in his eyes. You turned your head towards the transformer. The gasoline was inching closer, too close.
You were out of time.
'Do or die, right?'
Your senses came rushing back, slamming into your body like a jolt to your heart.
One beat.
You turned back to the man, and got to your feet. You felt no pain.
Two beats.
You reached under the edge of the window, trying to make purchase with your blood soaked hands on the door.
Three beats.
You lifted. Your muscles felt like they were being ripped from your bones. Your scream rose in volume until it was the only thing you could hear.
The car shuddered, and then it rose. The man tried to squeeze through but he still didn't fit.
No. It wasn't going to end like this.
Strength like nothing you've ever felt surged through you, and with one final scream you lifted the car completely off the man and launched it a few feet away, where it crashed into the street with a sickening metallic crunch.
You were frozen in place. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw the man still lying on the ground, unharmed but in shock.
"Go. Now." You couldn't even recognize your own voice.
He tripped as he stood, but ran down the street as fast as he could.
Your consciousness slipped dangerously and you collapsed, but you didn't feel the impact. You didn't feel anything at all really. You watched from the ground in a daze as gasoline spilled around the transformer.
Do and die, I suppose.
But you gave those people a chance to live. You were content with that. It was enough.
You saw the transformer spark to life, saw the fire catch, saw it it grow.
Saw it freeze.
Since when was fire so red?
The last thing you saw, before your eyes closed for good, was a woman with her arms stretched towards that too-red fire, and a shadow in the shape of a shield blocking you from the flames.