The homeless man watched the tall man until he was no longer visible (which, given the combination of the rain and the night and the tall man's black clothing, was not long), then immediately turned and ran toward where the totaled car lay.
Based on the smell and the large growing puddle visible under the car, gas was indeed spilling out. The homeless man saw smoke rising from the bent hood of the car, and knew that it might not be long before it went up in flames. He would have to be very careful.
The vehicle was laying on the driver's side. The driver, a handsome man of about thirty with brown hair, had evidently neglected to buckle his seat belt, and he had come partially out of the car through the broken driver's side window. Because of this, his body had been pinned to the ground by the vehicle. He was completely still, and his eyes were wide open, staring up at the sky without blinking. He was laying in the ever-growing gas puddle. The homeless man knew immediately that nothing could be done for him.
He got on top of the car (the top in this case being the passenger's side). The passenger's side door had already been smashed in during the accident and the window was broken, but to the homeless man's surprise, he was able to get it open. The attractive woman in the passenger's seat was badly bloody and bruised on her right side; her hair was matted with blood. Bits of glass decorated her dress as well as her head.
She was alive, but was coughing and was having a difficult time breathing. He guessed that her ribs were broken and may have punctured at least one of her lungs. She seemed to be barely conscious.
"Hold on, ma'am, I'll get you out!" Taking hold of her right hand to keep her from falling, he reached across her lap with his other hand and unbuckled her seat belt. Then he pulled her out by her right arm and lifted her over his shoulder. As he did so, he noticed blood pouring down his rain poncho; she had been hurt much worse than he originally thought. He would have to proceed cautiously.
A moment later he had gotten her away from the car and laid her on the ground. Noticing that her dress had hiked up several inches, he discreetly reached down and fixed it. As he did so, she opened her eyes and looked around, still breathing in an abnormally rapid fashion and looking confused and terrified at the same time.
"You been in an accident, lady. I pull you out of the car. Don' worry, help will be here any minute now," said the homeless man. The red and blue lights seemed to be taking forever to reach where they were.
She looked over at the wreck, then pointed with her finger. "Help..."
"Ma'am, I can't help him, nobody can help him, and that thing's about to blow."
"...help..her..." she finished with difficulty. Then she passed out.
"What? Her? Could you say that again?" shouted the homeless man. He looked at the wreck again. "Son of a bitch!"
He once again ran toward the car and got on top of the passenger's side, only this time he opened the rear door; this took a few tries.
There was an unconscious young girl in the back seat. She had blond hair and appeared to be about seven or eight years old. He had not seen her before due to this door's window being intact and it being dark inside the car. Thankfully, she was a great deal smaller and lighter than her mother; he was able to get her out with much less difficulty. He carried her in his arms.
Less than a few seconds after he had gotten a safe distance away and laid the girl down next to her mother, the car exploded; the force of it nearly knocked him down, and he felt a wave of intense heat.
After staring at the fire for a moment before the rain started to extinguish it, he turned back to the two people on the ground. From what he could tell, the girl had no serious injuries and was going to be fine. The same could not be said for her mother. He took off his rain poncho and covered them with it. Then he took off his pack, unzipped one of the compartments, and took out a white cloth. Going over to where the mother and child lay, he pressed the cloth against the mother's head injury in hopes of stopping the bleeding.
A few minutes later, the girl woke up. "Mommy? Daddy? What's going on? Why am I wet?"
"Sssh," he shushed, still holding hold the cloth to the woman's head. "You safe now, child. The ambulance be here shortly."
In addition to the burning gas, the homeless man though he could also smell something else— something very unpleasant to think about. I best keep her distracted for a while before she know it's her daddy who cookin' over there, he thought.
"My friends call me Calvin," he said. "What's your name, honey?"
"Buffy," the little girl replied. "Buffy Summers."
Author's Note
I did not intend to take this long to tell what happened at the wreck; it sort of wrote itself. My intention is that next chapter will summarize several events that happened afterward, then I will skip forward to Buffy being in high school in her new timeline.
Feedback is, of course, always very appreciated, whether it be positive or constructively critical.
