Page 66 of Wrecked By You

No. No. No. She can’t be dead. She can’t be dead.

The driver’s side was completely crushed. I could hear gas leaking. Would it blow up? I went to the other side and saw the windows cracked. She was knocked out. I could see Kyle halfway through the window, glass sticking through him. There was blood everywhere.

“Isla? Isla? Isla?” I called out, rushing to the other side. I could barely see her. Somehow, she was wedged in between the two front seats. I was fearing the worst, but then I heard her. She moaned.

There were sirens coming from behind me, and I heard people swooping in on the scene. “Damon! Damon!” McCrae’s voice was next to me.

“We’re here.” Canyon and Noah and my father were running toward us. My mother was there as well.

I focused on Isla. “We have to get her out. I can hear the gas. We have to get her out of this truck. Call the jaws of life!”

“I’ve got a saw!” Canyon turned and ran back to his vehicle.

“I’ve got some stuff too.” Noah took off after him.

McCrae called out, “Isla, can you hear me? Can you hear me?”

She moaned again.

I laid down on my stomach and tried to reach through the shattered glass to her. I gently touched her cheek, which was bleeding. There was blood all over her. “You’re hurt. Can you move?”

My father crouched down beside me, trying to remove some of the glass. “She has handcuffs on her hands. She can’t move.”

Suddenly, a firefighter named Darren Hanley shooed me off. “Out of the way. Let us work.”

“We need the jaws of life.” I stood, feeling frantic. I could see his men pulling out the fire hose. “We need the jaws of life!”

“You need to back up.”

“I’m not leaving.” Not when Isla was depending on me.

Darren pointed toward the other side of the vehicle. “Go to the road. You’re not authorized personnel.”

McCrae pushed back. “Dude, none of us are leaving. Back off.”

Canyon returned with the saw. He bent and started sawing at the metal in between the glass.

Darren yelled, “You’re not authorized to do that!”

I stood beside Canyon and ignored Darren. McCrae was helping him. My father and I were bracing the truck. He made two cuts and got the metal free. We did our best to keep it steady.

Noah hurried back to us. He took over for me.

I knelt and put my hand out to the cop who was there. “Give me the cuff keys,” I told him.

Reflexively, he gave me the keys.

Darren was yelling, “He’s not even on duty!”

I reached inside, the glass scraping me, and undid the cuffs. As gently as I could, I extracted her from the seats. I knew that we had to get her out.

An ambulance worker was yelling, “She’s not stabilized!”

We pulled her out, and though she was bloodied and bruised, she was breathing fine. Her eyes fluttered open. “Damon,” she moaned through swollen lips.

We worked together to place her on a gurney. The ambulance workers carried her toward the ambulance.

I kept up with them. “I’m not leaving her side.”