Brian Quinn stopped the vehicle behind the long line of cars and turned in his seat to survey the scene behind him.
"He won't stop bleeding man. I don't see any blood in his mouth so I don't think we punctured a lung, but it's pooling in the seat around his leg. I tried applying pressure but it's not working. We need to get off this road, Q, and get to the hospital."
Sal was clearly on the verge of panic as he held his best friend and brother against him in the back seat, trying desparately to keep him awake and slow the flow of blood at the same time.
"Murr, can you come over and try to get us out of here, I put the flashers on. Lay down on the horn, whatever you need to do"
Q kept talking as he climbed into the backseat and James moved over to the driver's side.
"A bone must have gotten an artery or something. Plus, remember they put him on those blood thinners years ago. We just need to keep him awake and get to the hospital."
Murr layed down on the horn, to no avail.
"This isn't working, I'm going to just try and move over and see what happens."
By this time Quinn had found a t-shirt on the floorboard.
"This is going to hurt, Joey. I'm sorry, man."
He worriedly noted the lack of reaction from his friend.
He untied and loosened the strings from the bloody shoe and as gently as possible, pulled the shoe from Joe's foot.
Joe screamed weakly and with the little strength he had left, tried to push Q away with his hands.
"Stop. Please just leave it alone."
Sal held on to his burden and easily restrained his arms.
"Joey, he has to, buddy. We have to try to stop the bleeding. Just hold on to me. It will be over soon."
After a few seconds, he felt Joe stop fighting and winced when the long fingers tightened on his arm, pinching the fine hairs.
"That's it bud, just hang on."
The amount of blood and severity of the break revealed after removing the shoe made Brian even more afraid for his friend.
"Murr, just hit the bastards if they won't move, we have to get him to a hospital. Now.".
"Hold on. We are going."
He felt the vehicle lurch forward and the horn blast, hoping they were going to make it to the exit ramp this time.
"Okay, Joey, get ready. It's going to hurt, man. Bad. But I have to tie this shirt around your ankle to slow down the bleeding. We have to make a tourniquet and I'm going to have to pull hard."
He watched Joe nod against Sal's chest and close his eyes in anticipation. Q thought to himself that although it was killing him to have to make his friend suffer even more than he was already doing, at least he had woken him up.
"Here we go"
He wrapped the shirt around Joe's ankle, tightening and tying both sides as he'd been taught while training to be a firefighter. He pulled tight one last time and could feel Joe trembling in pain as he emitted another weak scream. He decided not to try to do anything with the other break. It was bad as well, but not as bad as the ankle. In the back of his mind, Quinn thought Joey must have injured himself before the jump and just did not say anything. It should not have been that easy to cause these degree of breaks without the bones already being weak. He would ride his stubborn ass about that later. No amount of ratings or money is worth this, and Joe knows that.
But at the moment, he put his hands, wet and sticky with blood, on Joe's trembling shoulders. He talked in what he hoped was a soothing voice. Joe gazed up at him with pleading eyes,
tears born of pain streaking both cheeks, chest heaving.
"It's over, bud. Calm down. I think Murr's about got us out of here and pretty soon you'll have something to knock out the pain. Just slow down and breathe."
He looked over Joe's head to Sal's face.
Sal moved his free hand to Joe's shaking one.
"He's right man, we're almost there. We are on the exit ramp. Murr did it. Somehow. Just a few more minutes, bubba. We got this."
Joe weakly nodded against Sal's chest and closed his eyes.
"No, no. Don't do that, Joey. Keep your eyes open. We are almost there".
Quinn gently shook the shoulders under his hands and blue eyes slowly opened.
Murr fought hard to get to where they were now, running several cars off the road but amazingly not grazing anyone and not causing any fender benders in the proccess.
The ER hospital entrace was just up the road now.
He spoke loudly to the his friends in the backseat.
"I can see the hospital guys. Almost there, Joey! It will be over soon."