There was silence in the smoking ambulance, which was lying on its side at the end of the hill.
"Sam?! Sam are you ok?!"
There was a slight groan from the side of the ambulance. The wall on Sam's side had caved in, trapping her from getting out.
Tom climbed out the left door on top, running round and peering through the smashed windscreen. He could make out the pale figure in the darkness, she was grimacing and had her eyes squeezed tightly shut.
"Sam, can you get out?"
"No… my arm is stuck, go, get some help."
Tom ran to the top of the slope as fast as he could anxiously, not wanting to leave her, before spotting Jeff, who was completely unaware and busy treating a patient.
"JEFF! Help me please! It's Sam, she's stuck, we need the fire crew!"
Hearing the shouts, Jeff and the fire team came running, following Tom to the lump of neon yellow metal lying mauled at the bottom.
"Jesus Tom, how did you manage to survive that with a few cuts and bruises? You need to get that seen to mate."
Jeff asked the young man, nodding at the deep red gash across the side of his face.
"Oh, it's nothing. Just please, get Sam out!"
"I didn't know you two were so close, I mean, you've only been here two days…"
"We're not, well, we are but… I don't know."
They finally reached the hissing vehicle. Glancing through the window, Tom could see Sam's face trying to bear the pain with little success. Her arm was by her side, trapped in between the heavy metal of the door and the side of the dashboard.
"Sam! You're going to be okay… the fire crew will cut you out and then we'll take you to hospital."
The team immediately got to work, blue sparks flying as the metal was torn away. As soon as the door was gone, Tom slowly lifted her out and set Sam on her feet. She cradled her arm and her eyes leaked droplets of sheer pain. There were quite a few lacerations embellishing her face.
"Here, let me look at that…"
"No Tom, it's fine. It's just twisted."
"Sam, it's obviously not twisted, Sam you're in pain, just let me have a look please!"
Sam reluctantly moved towards Tom, and didn't pull back when he gently took her arm in his hands.
"Sam, take off your jacket."
"Why?"
"Well, it's clearly broken, and I need to fix it. Come back to Jeff's ambulance, I can treat you there."
Sam shrugged off her jacket with some help from Tom, wincing in pain, and followed him to the motorway, her arm in Tom's large hands. They sat down on the step of the ambulance and Tom retrieved a medical bag from the side. Giving her a morphine injection, he reset the bone and used about half of the bandage supplies, winding them round her arm extremely tightly, also attaching a sling so the arm wouldn't move. He took a cotton wool bud and softly stroked her face, cleaning away the blood.
"I think we should go back to the ED and get your arm seen to, it's pretty badly broken…"
"No, it's fine, I can carry on. There are people who need us here. Now, let me treat your face."
Tom grinned at her kindness and courage, smiling as she stitched his head, even though it hurt a lot. He resolved to ask her out when they got back to the ED.
"Let's go Doctor Tom."
Holding her bandaged arm and a red medical kit, Sam ran over to the nearest car. Dixie knelt beside it, trying to treat a man inside.
"Sam! Umm… I think maybe Jeffery will need your help, this man is stable." Dixie urgently hinted as Sam approached.
"No, Jeff has Tom and this man certainly does not sound stable." She noticed the heavy breathing sounds coming from the interior of the smashed car.
"What happened to your face? And your arm?"
"Oh it's nothing to worry about, just a minor incident. Stop trying to change the subject. We need to get this patient out."
"Okay, I'm sorry. This is Alan Nicholls, 47. His car collided with another; he is very breathless so he's on oxygen, GCS 5, BP 90 over 50. He has suspected internal bleeding and head injuries."
