Ben:
How had I not seen it? Or, for that matter, smelled it?
That didn't matter now. Hugo was destroyed. My old man was going to kill me. The one day he tells me to drive it so he could fix Sewee…
How had I not see?
I broke the waterline spitting, sputtering and cursing. My forehead, arms and chest burned like salt a wound. As to be expected, being blown up and all. I smelled the burning oil in the water but I heard no voices. "Hey? Everyone alright?" I called out. No one answered. "Hi!" I yelled. "Shelton?" I called. "Tory!" I screamed, remembering her being the closest to the burning outboard. I started to twist around in the water, looking frantically for floating bodies.
I heard sputtering and a scoff. "Tory?" I yelled. I started to swim in the direction of the sputtering.
"Nah Man! It's me!" Hi said gasping for air.
"Are you hurt?" I said reaching him. Putting a hand on his head, looking him in the eye.
"No. I think I'm good." He said looking a bit scared. No jokes, all serious. Man he must have been terrified.
I heard another set of violent coughing to my right. "Shelton ?"
"Yeah, I'm over here!" I swam from Hi to him.
A nasty cut was smeared across his face, but otherwise he looked alright. "are you alright?"
"Yeah." He chuckled. "Not dead yet." As he said it a scream of pain and terror erupted through the air. The scream was blood-curating and soul shattering. "Tory!" I yelled, but her scream just covered it all up. The screams turned to drowning cries of pain. My stomach flipped and my heart beat faster than it already was.
"Dude! She's over here!" Hi was already in motion, Shelton trailing behind. Stroking fast, I reached her before the two others. She continued to scream but tears rolled her face. "Tory?" I asked, "Hey calm down! What's wrong?" She let another sob loose but as she did one word became audible. Leg.
"Hey, you're going to be alright," I said trying to sooth her aching sobs. I grabbed her and started pulling toward shore which wasn't far but far enough to make me weak. Luckily we had blown near the marina and I only had to carry her about 300 feet to the marina check in building. I had sent Hi and Shelton ahead as they yelled call 911. Tory continued to sob uncontrollably, looking at her leg, I understood why. A massive third degree burn ran down the length her he thigh. I could still smell the burning flesh.
I reached the marina; I was met by three people carrying first aid kits. They threw a towel down and I laid her down, they rapped her thigh in fresh gauze and put a reflective solar blanket over the top of her body and head to keep her from going into shock. She continued to cry in pain while I held her head in my lap.
Her cries shook me. She never cried like this. She was never like this. She was normally strong with a really strong pain tolerance. She must have been in some serious pain to be crying this. Obviously. Her tears made me slightly angry at myself. I should have been the one in her place.
"Where are my other friends?" I asked the two men and the third women who sat on other sides of her.
"There being treated by the other women in the building. Let me look at that cut on your arm, its nasty." The women said reaching for my arm.
I jerked away. "No! Not until the ambulance takes care of her first!" I just put a hand on her forehead. For the first time she opened her eyes, pain was set deep in her deep green eyes.
Soon in the distance I heard sirens coming toward us and in blink the paramedics were pulling me away from her as her sobs of pain continued. The women paramedic pulled me away to look at my arm which was a lot worse than I had originally thought. It was deep and long, I must have been hit by shrapnel.
I hadn't really noticed until she poured iodine into the gash. Then all the pain came rushing in all at once.
Another ambulance arrived and walked out with Shelton and Hiram in tow. The put them in the back as the cops arrived to assess the scene. As they loaded Tory on the gurney into the ambulance, Bob, the manager of the marina ran out to tell me that he had called my father.
Great.
The para medics had given Tory a pain killer so she finally had stopped screaming but she was still crying. She stayed quiet in the ambulance as the ambulance sped us to the hospital. As soon as we arrived they took Tory in a different direction and the next three hours went by in a blur.
When they finally released me and the other numb-skulls, I started looking for Tory and her room but I couldn't find her anywhere. We finally found a lead but as we were about to enter a cop stopped us.
"Benjamin Blue?" The cop asked.
"Yeah," I grumbled. "I need to get in there, what do you need?"
"We need your statement." He said uncomfortably. I gave him my story but he didn't seem satisfied. "Did the boat have any extra equipment that didn't seem right to you that you noticed?"
I paused thinking the question was odd, "No…Why?" I said crossing my arms and furrowing my eyebrows, confused.
"We found explosives material on the boats motor, it seemed to be connected to the ignition and the outboard." The cop shifted. "The boat was rigged to blow."