The Rescue

Chapter 14

It didn't take Sean and Michelle too long to react to seeing an Escalade SVU laying at the bottom of a cliff, among some boulders. Sean, especially, was afraid he would find the body of his friend Rick Thunder down there.

"Sean," Michelle looked distressed as she looked down, "We need to get down there... Rick -or somebody- may still be in that vehicle."

"I know...Okay, you go down, I'll join you in a sec," Sean told her, "I need to go back in the car and get my backpack first aid kit."

Michelle looked stunned, "Really? You need a backpack to hold your first aid items?"

"I Just keep the essentials," he explained, "you know, the usual emergency items: bandages, disinfectants, nonperishable food, bottled water, flashlights, a folded tarp, duct tape, rope..."

Michelle couldn't help grinning as he started going down the entire list.

"Okay, okay, I get it," Michelle said, "You're a hospital connected to a sporting goods store... just go, already...I'll check to see if there's anyone down there."

She went one way as he went another, back to the car.

As Michelle headed down the steep side of the cliff, Sean reached his car, tossed the spinner inside, and grabbed the backpack. It took some time for him to get down the ravine. As he made his way down, at one point time, he slid into a thorny brush before he made it safely to the bottom.

Approaching the wreckage,he noted that the overturned Escalade was nearly flattened on its ends. This had occurred when it had tumbled down the cliff, end on end on end. It was now resting on its side, at an angle, against several boulders, creating a tunnel underneath it.

"MICHELLE!" he yelled, looking about, "Where are you?"

"DOWN HERE...UNDER THE VEHICLE!" Michelle shouted from somewhere underneath the wreckage, "There's someone who needs help over here!"

Sean hastily rushed over to the sound of her voice. At last, he spotted Michelle. She was squatted down, underneath the tunneled vehicle and was waving him forward. Due to the shadow from the Escalade up above, Sean had to get out the flashlight from his backpack. Flipping it on, he used it to sweep the area before aiming his light at what looked like a man's leg sticking out.

Michelle was busy moving some rocks away from the still unidentified body in order to make more room for Sean.

"Is the guy breathing?" Sean kneeled down, trying to look around her. He could now make out the lower part of a man's body, his jeans torn and blood-splattered.

"Yes, but barely," Michelle said, as she moved aside so that Sean could get a better view. She looked hesitantly at Sean, "Is it..."

Sean maneuvered his body until he got a good look at the face of the injured person. He let out a relieved breath.

"It's Rick Thunder, alright."

Sean could see that Rick's eyes were closed, his breathing shallow, his lips cracked and bloody, but he was alive.

"I tried to feel his body for broken bones," Michelle announced, her voice sounding unusually downbeat, "but his body's a mess, Sean. I'm sure he must be in real pain. I've already ripped opened one of his pants leg because his calf was so swollen...and I think he probably has a broken fibula."

"Give me some more room so that I can take a better look," Sean stated as Michelle immediately moved aside.

After Sean crawled in further, he ripped opened Rick's shirt and using his flashlight, he saw the blue-purple discoloration on his chest and around his belly.

Michelle leaned in and scowled, "That's a lot of bruising there."

Sean solemnly nodded, "and unfortunately, the pattern of the bruise marks indicates that he may have some internal bleeding and perhaps even a broken pelvis."

"Sean, there's something else you should know," Michelle knelt by his side, "when I had checked him out, a drop of liquid had fallen on his cheek," she made a distasteful expression, "I think he had dragged himself underneath the cracked windshield wiper container in order to quench his thirst."

Sean nodded, "Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to survive and cleaner water is better than nothing, I guess. He then leaned into his friend's body and spoke in a slightly louder voice, "Rick...RICK! Can you hear me? RICK! It's Sean King."

At first there was no movement.

Michelle felt his pulse, "He's alive, but his pulse is weak. Try again."

"HEY! Come on, Buddy Boy," Sean patted him lightly on the cheek, "RICK! It's SEAN!"

For what seemed like eternity, Rick groaned and then moved his head as Michelle and Sean gave relieved looks. At least Rick was responsive. Rick slowly opened his eyes and squinted. He seemed to be struggling with focusing his eyes. When he seemed to get his bearings, he focused, and the first person he saw was Michelle.

"Ohhhh!" he murmured, letting out a moan of pain, "I'm dead...and my angel's here...take me away, Babes'."

Michelle smiled to reassure him, "Hi Rick. I'm Sean's friend, Michelle Maxwell. We're here to help you."

"Sean?!" Thunder turned his head the other way and his eyes became wide when he got a view of Sean.

"Sean" he groaned, "...just remember...I saw her first."

Sean smiled in relief. His old friend would be fine.

"I forgot how multi-talented you are, Rick," Sean said as he reached into his backpack, "you can compliment a woman and piss me off at the same time."

Michelle grinned.

From the backpack, Sean then pulled out for the water bottle. He unscrewed the top of it, lifted Rick's head and held the bottle to his lips. Reflexively, Rick opened his mouth and greedily sucked in the water.

"Easy, Rick, easy," Sean warned him, "you don't want to overdo it. If you vomit it back up, you'll be even more dehydrated." After a few gulps, Sean laid Rick back down and took the bottled water away.

While Sean had been quenching Rick's thirst, and cleaning the wounds, Michelle had gone to retrieve some padding from the car seats, and some hard plastic from the door panels. By the time she had arrived, Rick had lost consciousness again.

"We can use these items, along with your duct tape, to make a splint for Rick's leg," she suggested as she displayed the items she salvaged for him to see.

Once again, Sean was impressed with Michelle's quick thinking.

"That is an excellent idea," he quipped, "and if you rip out the dashboard, we can apply duct tape to it and build a brain!"

"Very funny," she said sarcastically, trying to hide a smile, "Keep talking like that and I'll be applying the duct tape to your mouth!"

He grinned, "We can talk kinky later, Michelle. Meanwhile, let's get to work."

Sean reached over to take the items. Upon contact with his hand, Michelle felt a shock go through her body at the contrast between the surrounding cool air and Sean's warm hand. That did not escape Sean's notice as they became lost in each other's eyes. He felt a tugging sensation in his chest as his hand lingered on hers longer than was necessary.

Forcing themselves to ignore the sensations, Sean, along with Michelle's help, worked as quickly as he could to stabilize Rick for travel by fashioning a splint for him. As Sean tore the last of the duct tape from its roll, he winced at the effort and clutched his side.

Michelle noted it immediately.

"Sean," she asked, looking concerned, "did you hurt yourself?"

"It's nothing, Michelle," he stated, "I scraped my side on some thorn bushes on my way down. It's nothing compared to rolling over and over again down a cliff in a vehicle."

That did nothing to stop Michelle from worrying, "Oh? Let me see, Sean," Without invitation, she reached over and ran her hand down the side of Sean's body where he had previously held onto.

"OOOOooo," at one spot he winced.

"When we get Rick back up," Michelle told him, "I want to take a look at your injury."

"It's minor," Sean insisted, "unless that is your way of wanting to see me shirtless."

Michelle quickly removed her hand and visibly rolled her eyes.

"Men can be so simple at times," she said with disdain.

"True, so what's your point?"

Michelle would have loved to continue the bantering, but Rick was in bad shape. He had stopped moaning, probably because he lacked the strength.

"I think we better get PI Rick out of here and into a hospital ASAP," she suggested.

"You're right," Sean said, his attention now focused on his friend, "We can use the tarp in my backpack and put it underneath him and drag him back up to the road."

"Okay," Michelle stated as she grabbed the backpack and rummaged through it, "Here it is. Let's do it."

It took quite a bit of maneuvering of Rick's body to get the tarp underneath his body without hurting him. At last it was done.

Every now and then, they could hear from up above the sounds of a few scattered cars drive by.

Michelle lifted her head, "Oh-oh," she stated, as she looked at Sean nervously.

"Oh, no you don't, Michelle..don't give me a NEW worried look!" Sean told her "I think we have enough to deal with as it is."

She tried to sound calm,"It might be nothing, so don't be mad, Sean...but it's about your car," she explained "I was so anxious to park it, I didn't set the parking brake on. I just left it parked on the curve. I thought we were only going to pick up that shiny item on the road. I didn't know we were going to find...well, PI Rick, of all people!"

"What?! You didn't put the parking brake on my car?" Sean sounded incredulous, "So you're saying that you left my car parked over a cliff to fend for itself on the blind side of a tight curve?"

"Oh, for gosh sake, Sean, it's not as if I had abandoned a child!" she countered, "all I need to do is go back up and-" she began but she stopped talking when she took a look up.

High above them, they heard the growl of a loud engine of a large vehicle on the road. And from the sound of it, it was not stopping which meant there was a possibility that Sean's car would be hit. And if it was, with Sean's car at the edge of a cliff and all...

The appearance of a motor home had rounded the curve too quickly. The driver had applied the brakes, but it was too late. There was a crushing sound as it smashed into the rear of Sean's car, launching his vehicle off the cliff...and it was headed right towards them.

Sean broke out in a sweat, "Michelle!" he stated, "Hurry! Help me get Rick out from under the car!"

They both rushed to pull the tarp with Rick's body on top of it, out from the wrecked vehicle. It was at that instant that Rick opened his eyes in time to see Sean and Michelle dragging him from the vehicle.

He smiled lazily at a hard-breathing Michelle, "Angel! You're still by my side!"

Rick could tell they were looking up above him and he also turned to see what caught their attention. His eyes became as big as saucers at the sight of the airborne vehicle, "What. The. Helllllllllllll..."

HIs screaming seemed to be drowned out as Sean's vehicle headed their way. Everything happened in a matter of seconds. Sean and Michelle pulled and dragged away Rick along with the tarp as fast as they could from the inevitable crash that was about to occur.

BOOOOM!

There was a sound like an earth-shattering thunderclap and all three watched as Sean's flying vehicle plowed into the damaged Escalade.

Ka-BOOM!

Then both vehicles exploded in a huge fire that struck the afternoon sky like a gigantic flaming ball...

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