Author's Note: Yeah, it's been 2 years since I posted a new chapter for this story for which I deeply apologize. Life has been tough. I lost my writing mojo for a while but have since gotten it back! :D This story will continue from here on out! Thanks for adding me to alerts and favorites!
Chapter 9
June Darby released a pent up sigh of relief as the walking cast finally came off of her leg. Dr. Ray had just given her a clean bill of health, for which the woman was immensely grateful. June felt confident enough to return to work that evening. After a quick bite to eat at home, she donned her work uniform and returned to Jasper County Hospital for her evening shift.
"Hey Roger! Ready to roll?"
The young man smiled as he handed in paperwork to their supervisor and nodded.
"Absolutely! I was considering taking some vacation time...one month with Lydia and Peterson was about all I could take." The young man replied with a grimace as he grabbed the keys for their ambulance that they were told had finally been repaired.
June glanced at her watch, clasped to her left wrist, before jumping into the back of 117. It was nearly 7 pm. She was glad Jack was out with some of his school friends. Raf and Miko, she believed, were their names. She'd met them a couple of times when they stopped at their house to meet up with Jack.
The paramedic duo buckled in and put the lights and sirens on. They sped away as dispatch gave them their first assignment of the night. Another car crash, just outside the city limits. An illegal street race had occurred and there was a report of a wounded young man. His car had been forced off of the road by a red Aston Martin. Unfortunately, none of the eye witnesses were able to remember the license plate of the offending vehicle. The muscle car spun out over the guardrail and down into a small ravine.
June was amazed that it wasn't a casualty call. She never liked loading up victims into black body bags. That was another thing she hated about the job but never complained. If anything, June learned to respect the dead and treated them as if they were still living patients sometimes. It made the scene and the situation less morbid. At first, her partner Roger thought it odd, the way she fussed over the dead. It was a trait the young man eventually began to admire and respect.
Thankfully, the victim up ahead was still alive and breathing.
Once their ambulance reached the site of the crash, both the police and a tow truck were already waiting on scene. A couple of arrests had been made it looked like and one of the officers' was documenting an eyewitness statement. Yellow caution tape was already splayed over the gap in the guardrail where the car had broken through. June got out of the ambulance cautiously and approached one of the uniformed officers.
"So, what have we got?"
"A young male victim, age 22, is still trapped within the vehicle. He is conscious and has been making complaints." The officer responded with a slight eye-roll.
"What kind of complaints?"
"HEY! WHAT IS TAKING SO DAMN LONG?! HELLO?!"
The shouts of the young man in question pierced the air in a shrill whine. June cracked a small grin at the irritated policeman and gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder before moving towards the edge of the steep hill. She looked down to see a car, completely flipped upside down. The vehicle itself was in need of serious repair but it wasn't as mangled as June thought it would be. The young man managed to crawl halfway out of the driver's side window but it looked like his leg was stuck.
"WE WILL BE RIGHT THERE! HOLD ON!"
"FOR HOW MUCH LONGER?! NEXT YEAR?!" The man huffed angrily as he cradled a broken arm against his chest.
June turned around and locked eyes with the police officer from before and smirked with an eye roll of her own.
"So...do we need the jaws of life on this one?" Roger asked as he jogged up beside her, leaving the gurney a few feet away.
"I don't know. We need to get down there to assess the situation before we can attempt to move him. He is umm...very vocal."
"HEY! WHERE'D YOU GO?! HELLLOOOOO!"
"At least we know his lungs are in perfect working order," Roger lightly joked as he peered over the edge himself.
Roger and June were both given harnesses by their fellow rescue crew. Once the safety harnesses were secured, the fire team attached hiking rope and began to lower the two paramedics down the precarious ledge. In just a few minutes, both pairs of boots touched the bottom of the small ravine. Unclipping the rope from their harnesses, June and Roger swiftly took in the scene before them.
"Let's make sure this car is stable before we try to pull him out."
June knew from experience that looks could be very deceiving. The trashed muscle car appeared to be solid and unmoving but all of that could quickly change depending on the current weather.
Speaking of which, June groaned as a light rain began to fall. Before long, the light rain turned into a heavy downpour. The paramedics had to act fast, or risk losing their firm footing. Roger gently flashed a penlight in the man's eyes and deduced that the street racer had a mild concussion. The broken arm was bent at a ridiculous angle and was already swollen and bruised.
June got down on her belly, uncaring, that her once pristine uniform was now covered with mud, and reached inside with a flashlight to assess the man's leg. Part of his foot was pinned beneath the headrest. Using a strong hand, she asked the injured racer a serious question.
"Is your leg injured?!"
"NO! I'm just-argh-stuck!"
Thankfully the man had sustained minimal injury. June crawled partway into the car and managed to yank his foot out of his shoe since the shoe itself wouldn't budge.
"HEY! MY SHOE!"
June crawled out and glared at the offending racer.
"Your shoe is jammed in the wreckage. It's not as important as your life!" The paramedic scolded as she aided her partner in securing a safety harness around the victim. Once he was secure, they gave the team topside the signal to haul their patient up to solid ground.
Half an hour later, both paramedics were safely secured in their ambulance with the patient. Roger began driving back to the hospital, while June splinted the young man's arm in the aft of the vehicle. She was more than happy to inject the whining man with a strong sedative to shut him up. His complaining about every little thing was grating on her last nerve.
As June began to buckle into her usual spot in the aft cabin right next to the patient, she groaned when some of the mud from her clothes dirtied up the bucket seat. Just as they rolled to a stop at a red light, June could have sworn she felt the ambulance shudder. Almost as if in disgust…
The young woman shook her head with a wry smile. What was she thinking? Their ambulance wasn't sentient. It wasn't alive! It sure as hell didn't care if she got mud all over it. Right?
As they rolled back into the ambulance bay, Dr. Ray was waiting for them with a deep frown...no...a grimace. In one hand he held a bucket full of disinfectant and a sponge. In the other, a fresh uniform for June to change into.
Huh...that was odd...It was almost as if the Doc KNEW...but that was impossible, wasn't it?
June sighed as she rolled the sedated man out of the ambulance and into the ER, passing by Dr. Ray. After reassuring the police officer that was assigned to watch the illegal street racer, that his prisoner wasn't about to run off anytime soon, she returned to the ambulance bay where Dr. Ray was already cleaning out the ambulance interior.
"Umm...thanks, Dr. Ray. I'm sorry about the mess but…"
"Epp-epp-epp...no thanks needed. I needed something to do."
"How did you know our ambulance was so dirty or that I needed a fresh change of clothes?" June asked suspiciously.
The doctor didn't even pause in his cleaning task. Without looking up at her he answered her nonchalantly.
"Roger called it in."
"Oh. Okay."
She took the proffered clean clothing that Dr. Ray provided and thanked him again. She rushed into the nearest restroom and quickly changed. She grabbed a plastic bag and put her soiled uniform in it and was surprised to see Roger waiting for her in the hallway.
"Hey partner, what's up?"
"You have a phone call in Stan's office."
That was odd. No one ever called her at work. Especially using her supervisor's phone…
"Alright, thanks Roger. I'll meet you in the breakroom in 10 minutes."
Her partner silently nodded in acceptance and returned to the ambulance bay to assist Dr. Ray. Meanwhile, June made it to the phone in her supervisor's office and picked it up, pressing it firmly to her ear.
"Hello?"
"..."
"Hello? Is anyone there?"
"..."
June began to get a horrible feeling and felt her stomach start to twist into knots. Adrenaline pumped through her veins and for a moment, she found a spark of courage.
"Demetri, if this is your idea of a joke, I'm not impressed! Stay away from me and my son. Or I'm calling the cops. You got that?"
"..."
When the mysterious caller chose to remain silent, June's anxiety spiked again.
"What the hell? WHO IS THIS?!"
"-CLICK-"
The phone call ended as the unidentified caller hung up.
June pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it with wide eyes. That terrible feeling persisted and she felt in her gut that she needed to make sure her son was safe. Pulling out her cell phone, June called Jack's number and waited while it rang three times before being answered.
"Hey mom, you okay?"
"Jack, are you safe?"
"Yeah mom, w-why? Is something wrong?"
June breathed a sigh of relief as her paranoia slowly melted away.
"No honey, everything is fine."
"When are you getting off of work?"
"I'm done with work in four hours. Don't wait up for me, okay?"
She ended the call with her son and shook her head as though coming out of a daze. She met up with Roger in the break room and sat down with a cup of coffee, all the while unable to forget about the silent, mystery caller….
"Hey mom, you okay?"
"Jack, are you safe?"
"Yeah mom, w-why? Is something wrong?"
"No honey, everything is fine. Forget I called."
"When are you getting off of work?"
"I'm done with work in four hours. Don't wait up for me, okay?"
-CLICK-
Megatron chuckled darkly as Soundwave finished replaying the phone call between mother and son.
"Excellent work, Soundwave! Send Knock-Out to terminate the human femme."
Soundwave nodded silently and relayed the order. Knock-Out grinned wickedly when the order came through on his com-link. He'd just finished toying with a few human racers and was on his way back to base when his order was received.
The scarlet speedster accelerated in eager anticipation, heading into the heart of Jasper City. It had been a long time since his liege entrusted him with such an important assignment. He was not going to let Lord Megatron down.
-4 Hours Later-
June Darby felt exhausted as her shift finally ended at the hospital. She said farewell and good-night to both Roger and Dr. Ray, and began to make her way out the employee exit at the back of the building. She still felt on edge after the creepy phone call at work but politely declined Roger's offer to walk her to her car in the employee parking lot. In all honesty, June was frightened but she knew if she didn't confront her fears head-on, her anxiety and paranoia would only get worse.
When June Darby was about three steps away from reaching the bottom of the stairs, she winced and squinted her eyes, raising a hand up to shield her face as a car's high beams flashed in her direction.
"What the…"
The loud revving and throaty growl of a sport's car reverberated in the poorly illuminated back parking lot. Frozen to the spot in complete fear, the young mother shook her head in denial when the sports car took off like a rocket, heading right for her.
All June Darby could do was scream…
That's when the unthinkable happened. Just as she was cowering away from the speeding vehicle, the grating sound of metal hitting metal filled her ears. She dared to look up and when she did, she couldn't believe her eyes as both the sports car…
...and her ambulance…
Both stood up.
TO BE CONTINUED!
Author's Note: Yeah, I know that events aren't happening in order like they did in the actual Prime TV series. I'm aware that Starscream was in charge during Speed Metal when Meggy was still on life support and nearly dead. I might mix things up to make the story flow a bit easier. Sorry for the cliff hanger! Please don't hate me… *Runs and hides*