A.N.: Sorry it's been so long since I last posted an update. I got married and moved in and all that fun stuff. So here is the long awaited next chapter!!
Disclaimer: I don't own Jimmy Neutron. We can't all be perfect. ;)
Cindy lay in bed in her dark room. She had run through the nightly checklist: door locked, windows shut, lights off, ready for bed. She sighed deeply relaxing her body and began drifting off into blissful rest.
She was about to crossover the threshold of unconsciousness when her room was suddenly filled with a blinding light quickly followed by a shockwave that shook the house. A picture of her and Libby on her bedside table fell to the floor the glass shattering. Cindy sat straight up, completely awake and alarmed.
"Neutron…" she muttered menacingly under her breath scowling at her curtains.
She ripped off the covers and stomped around her bed, careful to avoid any broken glass, to the window and threw open the curtains, swearing silently about failed experiments and alien invaders.
It was apparent where the source of the shockwave had come from. The clubhouse that made up the entrance to Jimmy's lab was partially collapsed; the rest was leaning threateningly to one side. Smoke curled forebodingly out of the wreckage. Orange light flickered, reflecting off parts of the wreckage.
Cindy gasped, "Jimmy! Oh my god!" What did you do?!"
She grabbed a hoodie and flip-flops, jumped down the stairs, skidding on the hall carpet and into the front door. She yanked on the handle, cursing when it didn't budge.
"Stupid door…stupid locks" Cindy muttered unbolting the door.
She flung it open and sprinted across the street. The chilly night air made her legs, not covered by her shorts, goose pimple. Cindy ran to the backyard and stood in front of the clubhouse where she had stood only a few hours before. The door hung limply open. She pushed it aside stepping through. She stepped gingerly over pieces of wreckage making her way to the stairs to the lab. She moved broken wood and metal scraps out of the way heading down the stairs. She immediately regretted heading down the to the lab without a light. She paused half way down considering going back to find one.
Something in the darkness below fell with a crash followed by a soft sound, almost like a death rattle. That sound made up Cindy's mind for her and she descended the rest of the stairs rather quickly. She stepped through the damaged lab entrance into a cloud of dust and smoke. She waved her hand trying to see into the darkness but couldn't tell if it really made a difference.
"Jimmy!" she shouted, "Jimmy!"
She inhaled sharply sucking in dust and started hacking. "Where…"cough cough "where are you!" she carefully started moving into the room. She stubbed her toe on something hard and cursed out loud. This time she attempted to step over it only to run her knee into a flat slab. "Dang it" she reached out blindly to move the object but found it to heavy to move. Using her hands Cindy carefully found her way around cautiously raising and lowering one foot at a time looking for steady points on which to stand.
"Jimmy!! Jimmy!!"
'Crap crap crap!' she thought, 'where is he?'
"Jimmy!! Please answer me!!"
'What if he's still in the house' she thought suddenly. 'But he would be out here to investigate too, wouldn't he?' She froze with her foot in the air praying that she would hear Jimmy's voice coming from above or footsteps or something.
Silence was her only answer. Silence. Still, deep, menacing. Something across from her crashed to the floor. She jumped at the noise and wiped a grubby hand across her check.
'Why is my face wet?' she asked herself. She hadn't realized that she had been crying. She reached up again to wipe the tears away. As she brushed them away she felt a little stab in her chest releasing a fountain from her eyes. Her breaths came in broken sobs which turned into heart wrenching wails. Cindy could hardly stand. She reached out to brace her falling body. Swallowing and gasping she started shouting again for Jimmy, stumbling forward.
'I…I just have…' sob 'to keep…looking' she mentally attempted to steel herself.
"Jimm-maaaay!!!" she wailed. She stumbled forward. Cindy yelled again and was surprised to hear her voice continue wailing out to him after she had stopped. Confused she slowly closed her mouth. She sniffled trying to clear her head of the confusion but still her voice continued.
'How am I doing that? I must be really far gone'
The sound continued to grow louder till it filled the room around her with an almost throbbing noise. Cindy realized that the sound was not coming from her. It was coming from outside. 'Sirens'. Cindy started yelling again, this time for help while she tried to move back to the lab door. Cindy's calls were lost in the sounds, her head throbbed from the noise and the stress from the night, as she stepped down she lost her balance and tripped falling onto something cold and hard. She braced herself with her hands on the littered ground, her knee collided into something; a sharp pain went up her leg. She winced looking down to see what it was but unable to see anything in the dark room.
Cindy hung her head, her body starting to heave preparing for a new bout of sobs. Lights flashed out of the corner of her eye. She whipped her head up and saw lights glancing off of torn metal sheets and dust covered stairs. She opened her mouth to yell out telling them her position, pushing all the air from her lungs out but nothing came out. Confused she tried again this time she readied her whole body as leverage to send a sound out. Before she could the lights descended and flashed around the room, as they scanned back and forth she thought she caught a glimpse of pale skin and brown hair. She inhaled sharply breathing in the dust. Hacking she slowly stood up, pain piercing anew in her leg she hobbled toward where she thought she had seen him. Light flashed over the spot again, this time highlighting an arm. A rush of adrenaline rushed through her system. She staggered over to a pile of wood, wires and metal propped on one side of the room as if flung there carelessly. The stabbing in Cindy's chest grew more painful as she came closer to the limp form. Though it took seconds it seemed to take years for her to reach him.
Cindy reached Jimmy's limp body pulling off as much of the debris as she could. The lights came closer and closer illuminating more of the room. Jimmy was covered in dirt; blood seeped out of wounds on face, chest and arms. He was pinned down by a large chunk of what could have been his lab table. Cindy reached out to touch his arm.
"Jimmy," she whispered, "Jimmy!"
The people holding the lights finally descended all the way into the rubble.
"I have person down here!" one shouted.
"Make that two" medical professionals rushed around Cindy.
"We've got one unconscious" the first one called out. He gently grabbed Cindy's upper arm and started moving her back away from Jimmy. The stabbing pain in her chest got worse as she was being pulled away, Cindy started screaming and kicking out in protest, now that she had finally found him, there was no way she was leaving him there to die.
"Please ma'am, calm down." The paramedic holding her arm tried to consol her. He moved her far enough away that two more paramedics could come in and asses the situation and tend to the pinned body.
"Ma'am, ma'am, can you tell me what happened here?" the paramedic moved into her line of sight, blocking Jimmy from view.
"I…I …I" she stuttered.
"Ma'am, can you tell me what happened? Were you here?"
"No," she chocked out, "I… I don't know. I don't know what happened"
"We've got broken ribs and a possible concussion," the paramedic attending Jimmy shouted over his shoulder.
"Jimmy," Cindy yelled out struggling to get back to his side. The paramedic talking to her held onto her fast.
"Were you here when it happened?" he attempted to probe for more answers. Cindy looked at him confused as to why he was still hanging onto her, why he wouldn't let her go.
'Why are you asking me these questions?' she thought.
"Ma'am, were you here?" he asked again.
"No!" she yelled at him this time. 'Why couldn't he understand?'
"Ma'am, can you tell me your name?"
"C-Cindy," she answered her voice dropped off as the paramedics prepared to brace Jimmy's mid section. They discarded Goddard, who had been cradled in his arms, to the side and lifted the heavy metal chunk off of his legs. "Legs aren't broken, some bleeding though. His right arm is broken". "We need a board down here" the second paramedic yelled up the stairs.
Cindy lost the little composure she had been able to hold onto. Her body started heaving, her voice crying out and then being drowned by the torrent of tears that seemed to come out of every orifice. She doubled over reaching out to the ground before she collided head first into it. She could feel the gentle yet firm hands of the paramedic trying to brace her and soothe her, but she wasn't sure what he was saying to her over her sobs. Between the sobs and heaves Cindy managed to decipher two words, "Get out". Realizing that they were probably talking about her and that she was blocking the exit for the one injured boy, she knew she had to move out of the way. Cindy tried to stop the overwhelming throws of emotion now racking her body by taking deep breaths, but all she managed were a few sharp breaths that came in ragged bursts. She tried to stand up to open up her lungs for more air but the small action of righting her body felt like she was bending her spine backwards and she fell back into the crumpled position.
The paramedics lifted Jimmy gingerly onto the board, strapped him in and began to carry him outside. Cindy gawked at the site as they passed almost over her head. She had seen many of Jimmy's filed experiments and some that had horrible consequences, but never something this bad.
'What happened down here Jimmy?' she found herself asking the same question she had been asked, 'What was worth this risk?'
"Cindy, can you walk on your own, we need to get you out of here. Cindy?" the paramedic gently shook her bringing her focus back in. She nodded slightly. She had stopped the uncontrollable sobbing and was down to sucking in ragged breaths and releasing small crying sighs. Cindy cautiously stood and stepped forward faltering. The paramedic reached out to steady here and help her up the stairs. Cindy winced with every step, the wounds on her legs pulsating with a new pain, she had forgotten about the physical damage she had sustained when the emotions came out.
Outside, Cindy was blinded by the lights that seemed to come from all around her. As her eyes adjusted she saw that the source of the light was from multiple headlights and house lights all around the backyard. She was led to the back of an open ambulance and onto a bed as paramedics attended her leg. Cindy strained to look out the sides of the ambulance trying to locate Jimmy. She heard voices around here, some most likely directed at her, but she was too concerned with another than to answer questions about herself.
"Ow!" Cindy reflexed away from the medic in front of her.
"I said it might hurt a little," he answered her reaction with a smirk.
"Yea…" Cindy answered absently still trying to locate Jimmy.
"Are you looking for your friend?" he asked here as he continued cleaning out her wound. Cindy ignored his question leaning forward and side to side to find just a glimpse of auburn hair. The paramedic sighed, "Look, if I go find out about your friend will you hold still?"
She looked down at him noticing the dirt covered and blood soaked wipes around he knees a fresh bandage near by. She nodded and he turned and exited the ambulance disappearing around the side of the vehicle. Cindy held as still as she could mentally hastening his return. Finally he returned and went right back to dressing her wounds.
"They just left for the hospital. I guess it doesn't look good, but it could have been much worse. They think it must have been some kind of explosion that caved the structure in, but they aren't sure how all the metal and shrapnel ended up on the side of the room like that." He sighed as he finished the wound on one leg and moved to attend to the other one.
"The other paramedics said that he had a broken rib or two, possibly a fractured bone in his arm and leg. He has some bad wounds and is unconscious. They won't know more till they examine him fully at the hospital. Which is exactly where you are going," he finished standing up. "I bandaged your leg, but you are probably going to need stitches, and you need to be checked out just in case."
Cindy opened her mouth to protest but the paramedic jumped out of the back and closed the doors behind him before she could say anything. Cindy laid down on the gurney as the drivers got in and left the rubble in the Neutrons yard behind.