Chapter 12: Crashed

As Joe approached the spot where Artemis said contact had been lost, the detective's heart sank. He was far enough away from Central City that the road was pretty much empty. There were skid marks on the pavement indicative of an accident. On one side, there was a sheer rock and the other, a steep incline leading down towards the city below. It looked like whatever caused the skid marks had gone over the side.

Cisco was already waiting for Joe. He wasn't certain how he'd beat the older man to the spot, but he'd been standing there for a few minutes pondering the evidence he was seeing. He'd also been thinking about everything that had happened. At the moment, Cisco hated himself more than anyone else in the world. He wished he could just step up and tell Barry off, that it was Cisco's power. He was too scared and now Dr. Wells was dying, stuck in house arrest with everyone thinking he was a liar. It tore Cisco up. As Joe approached the young engineer stood straighter, having been slouching against the car. "Yo, Joe, what's up?" Cisco called out as Joe approached him.

"Harrison went out on a motorcycle ride last night and didn't come back," Joe informed Cisco. "This is around where his tracker and phone died."

"How did you figure that out?"

"Got it from the computer that runs the security system at his house," Joe declared. "Before you geek out and start asking me a ton of questions about it, let's find Harrison first." Joe started towards the spot where the motorcycle had gone off the road.

"Wait, are you saying these skid marks are from Dr. Wells's wheelchair?" Cisco frowned at the skid marks.

"No. Harrison has a modified motorcycle he can ride. He went out last night on it and never came back." Joe stepped carefully, afraid he'd miss something.

"Cool," Cisco said. "But also not cool since it looks like he crashed." Sighing, Cisco followed the skid marks to the edge. "Looks like he went over this way." Carefully, Cisco started down the slope. "All the rain last night isn't going to make this easy."

"Yeah, well, you can thank Mark Mardon for that," Joe added. He followed Cisco, eyes peeled for anything. "Harrison!"

Cisco managed to get ahead of Joe. Moving faster and more easily, he approached an outcropping of tree and rock. It looked like something heavy had scraped across the rock. As Cisco looked around his eyes fell on a dark blob mixed in with the debris. Glancing over his shoulder towards Joe, Cisco scrambled over the debris and picked up the hard item.

"His helmet," Joe declared. "I recognize it."

"He must have smashed his head pretty hard," Cisco noted, examining the damage to the outside of it. "Looks like he took it off himself though. The strap is undone, not torn or anything." Finished examining the helmet, Cisco passed it off to Joe. While the detective was examining the helmet, Cisco moved ahead.

"The motorcycle was dragged over this outcropping," Cisco mused, trying to make sense of the scratches and damage to the rocks and ground. He paused at the top, gazing down. "Oh god. Joe!" Without waiting to see if he was being followed, Cisco raced down the incline, headed towards a toppled tree. He could see detritus and debris built up around some of the heavier branches of the tree. It looked like the tree had been blown over in one of the storms.

Fear built up in Cisco's chest as he rushed to the pile of dead leaves, branches, and dirt. As he knelt and frantically cleared the rubbish he gasped when his hand came into contact with another. Fighting his instinct to pull back, Cisco cleared the hand, it was cold to the touch, and followed the arm to the rest of the body. Dr. Wells's face was covered in scratches and bruises. His skin was pale and cool to the touch.

"Joe!"

"I'm calling EMS," Joe answered, seeing the body that was cleared. "See if you can find a pulse."

"Right." Pressing a trembling finger to Harrison's throat, Cisco tried to focus. He didn't know what to think. Everything had been chaos since the singularity. Dr. Wells had fought one battle after another to prove himself to them. Now, they'd turned on him, and he was still protecting Cisco's secret.

"Dr. Wells," Cisco called out, praying that a pulse would thrum beneath his fingers. With his free hand he cleared away more of the debris. "Oh man, did you wipe out or what." He was still on the motorcycle. One leg was strapped to the side Cisco could see. It looked like the tree had pinned Harrison to the ground on top of his other leg. "Joe, he's pinned!" Hesitantly, he pushed at the tree.

A gasp broke Cisco's concentration as Dr. Wells took a few gasping breaths. His eyes blinked, focused on Cisco, and then closed again. "Dr. Wells? Can you hear me?"

"Hey, EMS is enroute. Looks like another storm is headed our way," Joe said, coming up next to Cisco. "He okay?"

"I don't know. He gasped for air, and then he sort of passed out again. Joe, he's cold. Really cold and he's pinned under this tree." Hopefully Joe would have a better idea of what they should do to help the older scientist.

"Right. Okay, we have to get this tree off of him and get his clothes off," Joe began as he examined his best friend. "Before you ask, yes. I said get his clothes off. He's hypothermic and his clothes are soaking wet. We need to get his body temp back up. First, the tree though."

Moving down some, Joe put a shoulder against the tree. "Don't look at me like that. I do know a thing or two," Joe shot at Cisco. "I took a wilderness survival course. Towards the end of it, one of the guys was so cold he couldn't move. We ended up having to strip him and take turns getting in a sleeping bag with him. Shared body heat and all that stuff."

"Okay. But, I'm not even sure Dr. Wells is alive."

"He's not dead until he's warm and dead," Joe retorted. "Go up to my SUV. There's a sleeping bag and firestarter kit in the back. I'll see if I can get this tree shifted."

"Right." Nodding, Cisco raced up the slope. A few moments later he was slipping and sliding back down as the clouds over head grew darker. "Here's the stuff you asked for."

"Thanks," Joe said. "But it's no use. I can't get the tree to budge." Leaning back, Joe wiped sweat away from his face. "We're going to have to wait for EMS. I hope they get here in time." It was already starting to drizzle. Cisco looked around and a thought floated into his head.

"I think I can move it," Cisco began. "But, Joe, please promise me you won't tell anyone about this." His eyes were big and serious, making it difficult for Joe to read much more than Cisco's seriousness.

"Alright." Joe nodded and then allowed Cisco to push him back, away from the tree. "What are you going to do?"

"Hit it with a vibratory blast that will hopefully be strong enough to blast the tree off but not hurt Dr. Wells," Cisco stated. Joe made a sort of confused garbling noise but didn't speak. He just watched Cisco.