Chapter Five
Terry seriously didn't want to go to work, but when all hands were called in, everyone went. He knew what he was headed into would be gut-wrenching, so he was glad he had the memory of Dan in his bed to take with him.
He reached the ambulance bay at the station in under ten minutes. It wasn't like it took that long. He lived just a few blocks from the fire station they shared with the Cade Creek Fire Department. Jonny Bozeman was already making sure they had extra supplies, which they most likely would need. Jamie Kent and the new paramedic who started that week were stocking up on supplies in the ambulance next to theirs.
"You guys ready?"
Jonny nodded before closing the back doors. "Let's head out."
He climbed into the driver's seat and started the ambulance up. Jonny climbed into the passenger seat. Terry waited until Jamie and the new guy had climbed in their ambulance before pulling out.
"How far out on Old Toad Road is the accident scene?"
Jonny glanced down at the communication monitor built into the dashboard. He pressed a couple of buttons until a GPS map of the area came into view. "It looks to be about seven miles out."
"Okay, that's not too bad." They could get there fairly quickly. "Did Agnes give you any idea of the injured count?"
"All I know is that it was a four-car accident."
Terry grimaced. Four cars. That meant there could be a lot of injuries. He prayed no one was killed or that it wasn’t someone he knew. That was the hard part about living in a small town. He knew just about everyone.
Terry glanced in the rearview mirror when he saw light flash out of the corner of his eye. He frowned when he realized Jamie was flashing his headlights on and off. He had no idea why the man hadn't called them through the radio.
"Find out what Jamie wants."
Jonny gave him a strange look, but picked up the radio mic and keyed it a couple of times. "CCP47, this is CCP94, come back."
The radio made a crackling noise.
Jonny frowned and spoke into the mic again. "CCP47, this is CCP94, come back." When the radio crackled again, Jonny frowned. "I think something is wrong with Jamie's radio."
"Maybe that's why he's flashing his lights at us."
"We can ask him about it when we get to the scene," Jonny replied. "We don't have time to stop now."
Terry agreed. If people were hurt and injured, their first duty was to get to the accident scene. Busted radios were a secondary concern. Terry tapped his brakes a couple of times, hoping Jamie would get the message, then continued driving.
They arrived on scene five minutes later. Terry could immediately see that they were in for a long night. He stared for a moment, his heart aching for those involved. It was obvious from the mangled wreckage that people weren't going to walk away from this one.
Someone had parked the emergency response vehicles, so the headlights shone on the crash, giving emergency personnel more ability to see what they were doing. Blue and red lights flashed through the darkness.
Sheriff John Riley stood talking with Chief Helmond and one of his deputies. Terry could see the grimaces on their faces from where he sat, and it didn't bode well for the people involved in the accident.
Terry parked as close to the accident as he could get in the ambulance then turned the engine off. He jumped out of the ambulance and ran to the back. Jonny was already there, pulling out their triage bags.
Jonny held one out to him. Terry grabbed it then hurried toward the crushed-up cars. He stopped at the first accident victim he came to. It was a young man, maybe twenty years old. He was lying on the pavement. He had a gash on his forehead and a crap ton of bruises and abrasions.
Terry did a quick assessment of the man's injuries, treated his minor injuries, then covered him with a thermal blanket and moved on to the next victim. While the head gash was concerning, it wasn't life-threatening. Others could be worse off.
He ran over to where Jamie was working on just such a person. There was a lot of blood, but the broken bone sticking out of the guy's leg explained that easily enough. Terry helped Jamie get the patient stabilized then moved to the ambulance.
"Yancy, can you drive a few of these guys in?" Terry called out to the deputy. "There's too many to take in the ambulance."
"Don't they all need to be transported by ambulance?" Yancy asked.
Terry shook his head. "Most of these guys just need to be checked over by the doctor. Stitches at the most. We need to get the more severely injured victims to the hospital."
"Yeah, I can do that."
