Page 90 of Branded

I lay on my stomach to look through the window, that is still intact, and everything in my body starts to buzz with fear and anger.

I can see her, twisted around with her torso laid over the center console, but slightly hanging as the seat belt has her pinned in the seat, completely upside down.

“Fuck! Sawyer!” I pound my fist on the glass window but the metal begins to groan and hiss from the movement.

“Christ, it’s going to go any second!” Graham yells out.

The driver’s side of her car is completely crushed in, pressing up against the left side of her body. The center console has totally encased the latch for the seat belt. The belt itself is pulling tight over her chest, keeping most of her body pressed tightly into the seat. It’s trapping her upside down. She couldn’t move even if she were conscious.

The rain and thunder set the scene like it’s straight out of a movie. Lights and voices are everywhere around us now, as the rest of my crew makes their way carefully to where we are. The embankment is steep. One misstep and we will end up at the bottom.

“Talk to me, Black,” Graham shouts over the pounding rain.

“I need to get her out. That guardrail can only hold so much weight and this car is going to go any second. I need to cut her from the belt and help her out.”

Everyone who is able descends upon us, trying to secure the car in place, but the added movement on the mud under the slick roof of the car starts making the car slide forward, adding tension to the piece of metal holding it in place. The metal begins to creak and crunch as it moves.

“Get back!” I wave them back up the hill. “Don’t come down here.”

“Go back up!” Graham shouts back.

“I have to break the window,” I tell him. He is the only one down here with me now. “I’d have to tug on the door too much to get it open and I don’t want to jostle it around.” I take off my helmet and jacket, leaving it in the mud.

“Isaac, you don’t have long.”

“I won’t let this car go with her in it. We are getting her out first. If nothing else, you make sure you get her out first, okay? Even if it means I’m in the car if something happens. She comes out first.”

“Isaac…”

“Look at me!” I nearly scream, grabbing the front of his helmet. “She comes out first. Okay?”

“Not a chance I’m leaving here without both of you in tow. No exceptions.”

I nod once and lie back down on my stomach, pulling the bright orange window punch from the utility belt around my waist. I give the window a tap, to see if I notice any twitch or movement from her hand, but I do not.

God, if you take her away from me… I’ll never forgive you.

“Busting now!” I communicate with Graham before giving the window a firm stab with the pointed end of the punch, causing the window to shatter into a million pieces.

I toss the tool back out behind me, and use my gloved hand to move the glass out of the way, before sliding the front half of my body into the window of the car.

It’s never easy to keep your bearings inside of an overturned car, and unfortunately, this isn’t my first time inside of one. It’s confusing at first and feels so foreign for something you’ve been inside of so many times.

The airbags have deployed, causing the white, fire suppressant dust to cover the dark interior of her vehicle.

I carefully roll over to my back, and slide my body underneath what is left of the steering column when the metal begins to groan again. I freeze, closing my eyes and holding stock-still until the sound stops.

When I open my eyes, a sight I never hope to see again greets me.

Sawyer face is swollen, covered in blood, coming from somewhere I can’t pinpoint yet. She nearly doesn’t even look like herself.

“Baby? Sawyer?” I slip my glove off then reach up and touch her face, sliding my fingers down the column of her neck and holding there, praying I feel the beating rhythm of her pulse. “Come on, baby. Come on.”

Thump. Thump. Thump.

There has never been a better feeling.

“She’s alive!” I call out to Graham, and I hear him relay the message up the embankment.

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