Whoa, it's been more than a week since I have updated. It was Christmas, I had people over, and can you forgive me? I also wanted to make sure I had got this chapter right, as it's a pretty important one…
Cheers again for all the great reviews!
You guys deserve some kind of reward for, well, sticking with me! ;) I'll put it on my little userpage, for some reason, I can't put the link in here, but I know they work on my page. Go check it out! Clickie on my name!
Fine-Tuning the Future
Chapter 5
Getting up from where he had subconsciously fallen, Marty stood awestruck for seconds that felt like minutes.
People from the road were already milling about and running to the wreckage.
An old man who could have been his next-door neighbour, or lived on the other side of the block, hobbled over to Marty and shook him awake.
"Did you see it? What happened? Do you know the people in the cars?"
His questions, however, went unanswered, as Marty pulled away from his feeble grip and walked briskly to the cars that were lying all over the road.
There was a smoke tower rising from the centre, and Marty could see the damage, even from where he stood next to the pavement and peering through the misty rain.
The engines were hanging from the bonnets, and the bonnets themselves had almost been folded in half from the force at which they had been subjected.
The silver car that had spun out of control was crushed and its bodywork on the left side had been smashed in, the door hung open at an angle and swung silently.
Marty saw the blood that was splashed all over the windscreen and he felt inclined to investigate, but thankfully someone rushed over before he had a chance to move.
"Someone, call nine, one, one! There's a man hurt here! Real bad!" a young woman yelled over the hissing vehicles and the thundering rain bouncing from them.
"What about the other car?" someone else replied.
Marty watched the whole thing play out in front of him like an episode of a hospital soap. He had never thought he'd have to be an actor in one for once.
It was as if the entire street had arrived to help out, and eventually someone actually came up behind him and shoved him out onto the road, though Marty had no idea whether it was a deliberate action or not.
"Someone help us over here by the red car!" another shout rang through the noise, there was a shrill reply, but Marty never heard it, as he was already running to the truck that was half scattered across the road.
"Hey kid, you live here?" a man shouted at him.
"Yeah, just over there!" Marty yelled back, almost losing his voice. He waved his hand to where he thought his house sat, as his gaze was concentrated on the truck and the people gathered around it.
"You know these people too?" the man said in response. He tugged at the door on the passenger's side, which was caught under the car.
The whole thing was leaning on its side, the driver's door facing the dark sky above.
"I don't think so!" Marty yelled back, but to be honest, he couldn't see the two inside the truck at all. They were just dark shadows amongst the torn seats.
The man trying to pry open the passenger's door waved over some more people.
"We need to roll her back over!" he shouted.
"No, no, don't do that, there are still people in here. I can get one out I think…" Marty said, squinting through the sheet of rain in front of him.
He leapt clumsily onto the side of the truck. The whole thing creaked under his weight as he slid over towards the door. He used the roof bars to keep himself steady, but every once in a while he lost his grip.
His hand was centimetres from the door, when it flew open and almost hit him across the shoulder. A dark figure tumbled out and landed on his feet.
"You?" Marty exclaimed. He slipped from the car and almost threw himself at the person half crouching on the ground.
"Hey! What the Hell are you doing?" a voice yelled, but Marty ignored them, he was scuffling with the person who had climbed out of the truck. He was putting up a poor fight, and Marty easily over powered him.
"Hey, McFly! Give it a rest!" came a plea, though it was a muffled one, as Marty had his hands clasped firmly around the speaker's throat.
Marty reluctantly let go, but before the other could sit up, he drove his knee into his stomach, pinning him to the ground.
"Needles, you are such a son of a BITCH!" Marty yelled at him, his fist rose and hung there. There was silence all around now, and even the vehicles had stopped hissing and spitting.
"Son," the man that had addressed him before approached Marty and grabbed his shoulder.
Marty flinched and looked up.
"If you aren't going to co-operate, you can go home. I'd prefer it if everyone helped out. This kid needs to recover, not get a beating off a stupid teenager, and leave grudges behind, right now. There's still another person in that truck, and none of us can do this on our own." He said with a stern tone.
Marty got up and held out his hand to Needles, who took it.
"Who else is in the car, Needles?" Marty asked through his teeth.
"Well, y'see…"
Marty growled and grabbed the collar of his shirt, ignoring the bruising across Needles' collar bone.
"I'll ask again, who is in that car?" Marty raised his voice, but tried to keep it calm.
"Your chick, that's who," Needles said in reply, just as loudly.
"You are so asking for it!" Marty yelled, but he released his grip on Needles and shoved him back.
He climbed back onto the truck and despite slipping off a few times, managed to get a good position on the side, hooking his foot under the door handle.
He peered into the front of the car and could make out Jennifer now, at first dismissing her for a shadow in the background.
He didn't want to risk clambering into the car in case he got stuck in there, and he resisted the urge to just crawl in there to get her.
"Jennifer?" he croaked.
There was no response. At first Marty despaired that she was gone for good, but he shouted out to the people on the road.
"She's out cold!" He thought it best if he kept them all up to date with the situation he had found himself in.
He ventured into the car, balancing himself by easing himself down slowly, grabbing hold of anything that hung or was suspended.
"Jennifer?" he called again, but it was barely more than a whisper.
He climbed a bit further before the whole vehicle creaked and groaned. Marty thought that maybe the thing was threatening to tip over.
Marty paused, frozen where he was. After a few seconds, he moved again, shifting his weight to another part of the car. It complained again, but not as loudly.
Breathing slowly, he finally managed to end up as close to the unconscious Jennifer as the car's position would allow.
Marty called her name again, and this time, she stirred and he almost cried out with partial shock and relief.
There was a fair amount of blood across the dashboard, and he could make out a cut across her eyebrow. What he hadn't noticed was that her legs were trapped where the front of the car had been shoved back. Her lower legs were caught in the space where they had rested.
"Oh Jennifer, what the Hell were you doing in here…?" Marty said, he was asking himself the question more than directing it at Jennifer.
Jennifer moved again, and her eyes snapped open. Her head swivelled to face him, but he didn't think she was actually looking at him.
"Jen?" he asked.
She displayed a look of momentary confusion before she began coughing. It increased and got louder and louder.
"Whoa! We need someone in here, right now!" Marty yelled, but his eyes stayed fixated on Jennifer.
She bent over and covered her mouth with her hand, and when she moved her hand away, there was blood, and a lot if it.
"Oh no, no…" Marty denied.
"Marty?" Jennifer wheezed. She looked at him with a desperate expression, and then she saw all the blood.
Marty was no medical expert, but he knew a situation when he saw one, and sure enough, as if to answer his mental prayer, he heard the songs of sirens approaching.
He grabbed her hand and squeezed it tightly. He smiled at her, but it was only a flash and it wasn't genuine.
"You're gonna be fine, Jen, they'll take you off in the ambulance and you'll be better before you can say time machine," he assured her.
She laughed as he said "time machine," and then she turned to face him as best she could.
"Marty, will you be there too?" she whispered.
"All the way," he promised.
The rumbling outside stopped and there were clicks of doors and the footsteps of more people sounding around the street.
"Can you get outta there, kid?" the man Marty had encountered before asked.
Jennifer gave him a forlorn look before coughing quietly.
"Don't go…" she muttered.
Unfortunately, Marty ended up being hauled out and thrown on the ground.
"Let the professionals take over now, kiddo," said a particularly assertive medic.
A team was assembled, and within minutes, the car was stripped of all excess metal, the door was ripped away and the interior was cut out.
The civilians from the street were all pushed back, and some of them struggled against the temporary barricade provided by the forces.
Marty glared at Needles, and had sudden thought. Jennifer had tried to tell him there was something wrong, that Needles was stalking her. He hadn't listened to her, hiding behind his own stupid issues. If he had listened, he could have helped avert what had happened.
"What I'd give for the DeLorean right now…" he heard himself saying, and the man next to him looked startled.
"A DeLorean? They wouldn't survive hitting road kill in one of those things," he commented.
"Yeah, well, not the DeLorean I knew…" Marty muttered. The man shook his head and disappeared into the crowd.
Marty could now just see Jennifer's blue jacket, though by now it was splattered with blood. His stomach twisted uncomfortably and he pushed past the human blockades and approached Jennifer.
"You taking her to A and E?" he asked blankly.
"Yeah, now kid, move it! I told you once already!" the same medic answered.
"No, it's all OK, I'm her…friend, she wants me to come with her," Marty replied, trying to move a little closer.
There was a smash of metal and Marty saw that the other car was getting some attention. A young man was pulled out, the type that usually tore around the neighbour hood loudly.
Both Jennifer and the young man were loaded onto stretchers.
"Let's get those doors open!" the medic shouted, and a couple of drivers opened the back doors to both of the ambulances.
Marty made a move to get into one of them, but he was pushed aside.
"No kids allowed, adults only this time," the medic said with a sneer.
"What? But I'm the only one who knows her!" Marty protested desperately.
"Sorry kid, but I think you'd only get in the way," the medic replied, this time solemnly. He gave Marty a quick shrug and slammed the doors when Jennifer was safely inside.
"I should go with you! I know where she lives! I have her details!" Marty shouted again, this time running to the front of the ambulance.
The driver wound down his window and leaned out.
"You know her details? Well, so does he,"
He jerked a thumb back to where the wreckage was. A low slung brown car came crawling into sight, and Marty knew who was behind the wheel.
"I think her own father can handle the situation from here on," the driver said kindly, but with a hint of sarcasm.
"Get that one out the way, we're headin' out!" the other man in the front said, and the window slid up again.
The sirens blared and the lights flashed. The ambulances took off with Jennifer's father's car in hot pursuit.
Marty walked into the middle of the road, the smoking wrecks smouldering behind him.
"Sorry Jennifer…" he managed to murmur before walking slowly back to the house and locking the door.