Refill

Chapter 1-2

“A-Anthony,” he bit out.

There was radio chatter around them, sirens blaring and people shouting over top of them. Through the radio, he heard of a woman trapped in her car, barely alive. Her name was Naomi; they were going to have to break open the car to get her out. Even then, if they couldn’t do it fast enough, she would die.

“We’re going to get you to a hospital, Anthony,” Gabriel said.

“My friend—” Anthony spat out. “My friend—where’s my friend? Is he—”

Gabriel pushed Anthony back down, flat against the concrete. How Anthony was even still able to move was beyond anything Gabriel had ever seen from wreckage this bad.

“I don’t know. When I find out, I’ll tell you. Just try to take it easy, okay?” Gabriel needed to work.

Once Anthony was ready to be moved, Gabriel waved over a team with their stretcher to get him loaded up into the ambulance. The woman still wasn’t free, but they couldn’t wait around. Another ambulance would be on the way, and Gabriel would make sure Anthony made it to the hospital. He could pat himself for a job well done only once they’d made it; Anthony would need intense supervision on the drive. Gabriel had seen too many victims succumb to injury or other for lack of the proper care.

He wasn’t about to let that happen, but something stopped him before he could join the crew in the ambulance. It was just a pause, staring as another team wheeled away a stretcher—not with a man on it, but a body bag. He knew the woman wasn’t even out of the car, but she also wasn’t dead. He’d heard it over the radio chattering in his ear. Which meant that could be none other than the second, unidentified male at the scene. Gabriel swallowed down the lump in his throat and looked over the ambulance; they were loading Anthony into the back. It must have been Anthony’s friend.

Gabriel stepped over to the car, just for a moment. He had to see the rest of the wreckage, and what he saw was impossible. The way the car had crumbled in the accident, there was metal bent right towards the driver’s seat. Close enough to the seat that there was no way it wouldn’t have killed Anthony on impact, but he was alive. He might not be alive for long, if they didn’t get him to the hospital, but he was alive. The longer Gabriel looked at that car, the more he couldn’t fathom how it was possible. He was no expert, but he knew that the metal was bent in deep enough to have pierced Anthony’s chest. Metal to the chest usually resulted in death.

Anthony didn’t have any chest cavity trauma. Gabriel hadn’t seen any.

“Gabriel, get a move on!” Someone shouted. “He’s not doing too hot—he needs fluids. Let’s go!”

Gabriel jolted back into himself and turned towards the ambulance. He jogged, trying to make up for lost time, and then climbed up into the back. They slammed the doors shut, and the ambulance was moving before Gabriel had even sat down to get to work. He was the only one on the team qualified to do an IV, and Anthony was in desperate need of it. He’d been bleeding out on that concrete, and if not for how fast that’d call had come, he’d probably be dead.

“His name is Anthony Crawford, age twenty-nine.” One of the EMTs had his wallet and his phone. The only two personal effects he seemed to have, and the phone was broken.

Anthony had severe head trauma. He had a broken leg, a dislocated shoulder, and a shattered orbital bone. There was extreme bruising. With Gabriel’s experience, he’d decided that internal bleeding was a high probability. That didn’t even account for the external bleeding, with the number of cuts he’d received. The head trauma had been the worst, from where his face had hit the wheel and the back of his skull had rammed back into the seat.

Against all of those odds, Gabriel would make sure Anthony made it to the hospital. After that, his job was done. He could pat himself on the back. If he were to hear, several days later perhaps, that Anthony had died in surgery, at least he would know that he’d done everything he could. There would still be guilt, but it was nowhere near a level Gabriel imagined doctors and nurses and surgeons must have felt when they lost patients. Gabriel saw patients for a few hours, at most. Hospital staff could see them for days. Weeks.

Gabriel might just go back to see this one. Something about Anthony was strange. He’d survived that accident when there was no possible way to survive. They’d found him just lying on the road, perfectly still and straight, like he’d been placed. And there was that strange man Gabriel swore that he saw. When they’d gotten the call, they’d just assumed that one of the people involved in the accident had called. But that wouldn’t have been possible. The only one who could have made the call was the woman, and the voice had clearly belonged to a man.

The man was gone. Gabriel was sure no one else had seen him. If Gabriel brought him up, he risked his team thinking he was crazy. He didn’t need that. Maybe he’d just imagined it, too. Seeing a man at the scene of an accident? Weren’t there stories about that? People thinking they’d seen another figure because it was the only way to explain whatever had happened. Whatever had happened was nothing short of a miracle, and that miracle meant that Anthony was going to survive.

The hospital was expecting them, and they’d be expecting the woman the moment she arrived. Anthony was dying. Actively. Anyone who’d been in that emergency room first who wasn’t dying was suddenly less important as they rushed Anthony inside. He was alive only because they’d kept him alive, but that didn’t mean his future was bright. They had to see him now. Gabriel stayed behind to tell the hospital staff all they needed to know about Anthony’s condition. That was the end of Gabriel’s involvement. Still, as they took Anthony off down the hall, he couldn’t help but watch. The noise of the hospital drowned out as Anthony disappeared down the hall. Would he be okay? Gabriel could only sigh.

Gabriel never checked on patients he admitted. It was tedious and cumbersome and generally not his business. Once they made it to the hospital alive, he was done. Anthony, though.

I just might come back for him. The situation was too strange to do anything else.

Gabriel finished up the paperwork before he went about his way. Maybe a miracle had taken place.

Unfortunately, there were other things to do. Now that their patient had been delivered, they needed to clean the ambulance. There was blood, used needles, and discarded bandages. He knew a few of the nurses in the emergency room; if he was really that curious about Anthony, he was sure they’d give him some updates, if he were to ask. It wasn’t important enough to deal with immediately. The mess in the ambulance was. They needed to exchange linens, too. Anthony had left quite a mess.

* * * *

After thirteen long hours, Gabriel finally clocked out. His plan had been to go straight home for a nice long sleep, which would probably last no longer than a few hours, when he was inevitably called back into shift. He had a day off, soon, but it was not soon enough. On his way towards his car, however, his plan evaporated. A few of his friends—EMTs who worked with him—were all waiting out beside his car. It wasn’t a particularly nice car, but sitting on it still wasn’t appropriate.

He meant to shoo them away, but April moved first to smack down his hand before it even went up. She gave him that little smirk she always gave when something was about to happen. Whether that was being told they were five hours from freedom or turning on sirens just for the fun of it, something was about to happen. April was the one who drove; she had a knack for it, but Gabriel always wished she’d eased up. Her type of driving turned cocky, quickly, and then it turned into an accident.

“We’re going out, Gabe,” she said with a wink. She was all tan skin and red lips, a veritable movie star with stick-straight brown hair.

“Don’t call me that.” Gabriel batted her hand away. “I really need to get home.”

“Always so stiff and formal. Come on, ease up,” Henry chimed in. Henry had platinum blond hair and brown eyes; he’d been Gabriel’s colleague for the longest, though Gabriel hesitated to call them friends. They were convenient acquaintances. They didn’t meet outside of work, save for spontaneous outings, like this. “You look stressed,” Henry continued. “It’ll be good to get a drink or two in your liver.”

Gabriel sighed. As much as he didn’t agree with that statement, it had a good ring about it.

“We’re not all taking my car,” came Gabriel’s hesitant agreement.

April and Henry high-fived; Gabriel swore he’d see them kiss, one day, and chuckled at the idea. They went off to their cars, no carpooling today, and Gabriel climbed into his. Come Saturday, maybe he’d finally get to settle down for some relaxation. He might even take a bath. It’d been awhile since he’d sunk down in the tub and just forgotten a few things. Alcohol did the same thing much faster; it just offered less relaxation. Gabriel had been told he was a rowdy drunk; not that he could remember.

He drove to the bar in silence; it was some little hovel he could never remember the name of, but his body knew how to get there, so he let it. He talked big about safe driving for someone who dozed off on autopilot while staring straight down the road, but it was late. There was no one else on the road save for him and his friends-by-association.

Gabriel arrived at a dead bar with a half-empty parking lot about five minutes after his colleagues. He was slow to drive and even slower to get out of his vehicle, stopping first to check his phone. Then, he made his way inside.

By the time Gabriel arrived at their table, Henry had already ordered the first round of drinks. Henry wasn’t, by any means, a tall man. He was around average height, in his mid-twenties, and liked to boast he found time for the gym seven days a week. Everyone knew it was a lie, but they humored him. Henry was pleasantly strong, after all. He was made of lean muscle and pale skin.

April’s tan came straight out of a bottle, because she was too proud for tanning beds. She had straw-like brown hair and sparkling green eyes, red lips in spite of everything. She was short, but if she had been the one boasting about the gym, everyone would have believed her. She looked like one might expect a miniature bodybuilder to look. If hard pressed, she may have just been able to pick Henry right off the floor, despite the head difference in height.

Then, there was Sara. Sara didn’t talk much. She was quiet and preferred glasses to contacts. She always wore her dark hair pulled back tightly into a bun. She was of medium height, medium build, and medium everything. Sara rode the averages better than anyone else ever had. Her skin was dark, her eyes were dark, but she always wore blindingly bright clothes. Yellows, oranges; her clothes were vivid where Gabriel had always found her a bit dull. In truth, he found all of them a bit dull.