Guilty Conscience
“Is this a police, fire, or medical emergency?” Leal heard the operator ask.
She focused on the car wreckage ahead while slowing her car to a crawl. She had a determined heart for a rabbit and had to help if she could. She couldn’t resist her nature. Summoning the will to remain calm, she proceeded and hoped she was tough enough for whatever happened next.
Spring was on the horizon. The last light of the day fled as the scene was bathed in burnt iridescence. Seeing the damaged car at the edge of the dark tree line was becoming increasingly difficult. Luckily, only one vehicle was involved, impacting an unforgiving tree.
Leal stopped her car on the gravelly shoulder and stepped out, listening carefully with her long ears for any cries for help or otherwise. It was eerily silent despite the crickets chirping in the woods alongside the road. The breeze blew through the budding tree branches and whispered in isolation. She had to see if anyone was alive and forgot that she was still on the phone.
“Hello, is anyone there?” The operator called out after the momentary silence.
“Yes, I’m here. There’s been a car accident.” Leal saw there was no movement either, no struggling and the resilient tree wretched the front of the little – rather old – silver car. The accident showed low hopes that anyone would walk away from this one uninjured. “It’s bad, someone went off the road and hit a tree head-on.” Her heart was thumping audibly, her breath shallow with tension, and then panic crept into her nerves. Leal ignored the warm air tickling the corners of her scruffy black and white fur, and her short purple-dyed hair flicked with the wind as she apprehensively kept a keen eye trained on the car. There was only the stillness of post-disaster or possibly even death.
“OK, what’s your location? We can use your phone or tracking chip if you provide an ID number.” The operator inquired.
Leal didn’t want to disclose any of her personal information and omitted it. There were no road signs north along the lonely highway, then she looked southward in the direction she came and found a distant but readable mile marker. “Mile 110 on Falcon Road.”
“Thank you, please stay on the line while I send medical and fire responders.” The operator advised.
She took wide steps through the tall grass up to the driver’s side door, her nose wiggling at the smell of the thick pungent odor of oil permeating the air. Any small spark felt like it would ignite a fire and that would certainly turn things from bad to worse too quickly to handle. The windshield was a dense web of cracks but had remained intact and glass hadn’t sprayed everywhere. The door window displayed fewer cracks and she could see through it.
Slumped unnaturally in the seat was a girl. Leal had to guess she was a white sheep or possibly a rabbit similar to herself, who was younger than her. Whatever her genealogy was had made her appear rather different, and the hybrid combination of sheep and rabbit was possible.
“There’s a female sheep or rabbit in the driver seat, she’s still breathing, I think,” Leal informed the operator on the phone line, and after watching for a moment, the body huffed laboriously for air, shifting her head and showing blood running from her forehead to stain the white fuzz of her nose. “She’s hurt bad.”
“Please remain calm, help is on the way. What’s your name, miss?”
She took a breath to calm herself before she answered. “Leal Rhinelander.” She told the operator, then regretted the decision, she didn’t want to get stuck answering questions. She didn’t know why she had just admitted her real name either. She felt externally compelled to do so and it was uncharacteristic of her.
The back seat of the car had a few of the girl’s belongings, a bag of clothes, and a couple of boxes, and it wasn’t much at all. Most of it was scattered into disarray. There was no one else inside. It appeared this girl was going somewhere or moving and she was alone.
A soft buzz whirred, then there was a light on the floor below the passenger’s seat. It was the girl’s phone and someone was attempting to call her. Leal adjusted her grip on her own phone, keeping it to her ear, and jogged around to the other side of the car.
A siren was becoming audible in the distance, and Leal felt a wave of relief as someone was finally coming to help. No one else but her could have stopped to call the emergency services. Traffic was uncommon on the long wooded road that served as a slower alternate route between two big cities. Even on a busy day, the road was a leisurely drive. No cars had since passed after she had stopped. She looked through the passenger window and found the phone lying on the floor, and on its cracked screen, she made out the word ‘Mum’.
The emergency operator surprised her when she spoke next. “OK Miss Rhinelander, an officer is almost to your location, don’t touch anything and wait for instructions.”
“Thank you.” She was indeed grateful but was planning to ignore her advice entirely, Leal could sense trouble.
She then thrust her elbow into the weakened glass of the passenger side window. It broke easily, and she listened for the operator on the line to take notice of the sound, but nothing was said. Leal carefully reached her arm through and unlocked the car with a push of a button and a click. There was a sulfuric electrical odor that touched her nose, likely from an exposed torn wire, and likely one of many throughout the damage.
Pulling the door open with a harsh creak, she reached down to the floor and found the phone displaying a message saying that one call had been missed. Next to the phone was a brown purse, and behind that was an empty bottle of cream liquor. To Leal’s concern, she wondered how much of an accident this was, there was evidence stacked against the girl, and it seemed anyone wouldn’t be so foolish as to drink and drive. She had done just that.
With a quick judgment call, she grabbed the empty bottle, and with all of her might, threw it as far as she could into the dark woods. She then took the purse and the phone to keep safe while the paramedics did their duty and closed the door before the blaring lights of the police car were visible down the road. She looked through the broken window, wishing she could be more helpful to the white sheep-bunny girl. She felt sorry for her, she had never encountered someone this hurt before.
“Hold on honey, help is on the way.” The girl didn’t respond to Leal’s voice and remained slack in the car seat, struggling for air. She could be drowning in her own blood for all Leal knew, and she couldn’t do anything more about it despite absolutely wanting to.
She looked at her phone and saw that the call with the emergency operator had ended somehow, perhaps she had accidentally ended it when she hit the window. It didn’t matter anymore, she had done her part. The police car came to a halt on the shoulder of the road at a safe distance away, and Leal tucked the broken phone away to hide inside the girl’s purse. She knew how things might look if she was caught with someone else’s belongings when the police officer arrived at the scene.
The officer was a fit beta-male deer, a whitetail with a full rack of antlers. His silhouette stood tall against the bright lights of his squad car and the red and blue flashers that danced their colors all around. Leal backed off from the vehicle as the officer rushed up to inspect it for himself.
“She’s still alive!” Leal yelled out over the top of the crashed car.
“Miss, please return to your vehicle.” Leal stepped away and did as he said, but stopped when her nose twitched, it detected something dangerous in the air. The officer radioed his dispatcher the details of the situation, and Leal interrupted him with a shout.
“Fire!” An orange flame rose out of the mangled engine block. “FIRE!!!” She then screamed and the officer grabbed and yanked at the driver’s door. It opened with only some difficulty and the officer very carefully reached in and cradled the girl in his arms.
“Miss! Get in your car and back away!” The officer yelled as the flames grew, and spread, and the burning oil filled the scene with a dark greasy smoke and there was no extinguishing it.
Leal wisely withdrew through the grass, seated herself into her exotic black electric car, and threw it into reverse. The tires spun briefly before she was in motion, then backed away until she felt she was far enough from any harm.
The girl was pulled from the wreckage just in time before the rest of the car began to be engulfed. In a matter of a single minute, the little silver car became a roaring unsalvageable bonfire. The girl had been carried to safety behind the squad car, shielding her from the fire. With clenched fists around the steering wheel, Leal’s nerves shivered with discomfort and shock, anxiety gnawing at her emotional armor, and she was near failing herself.
All she could hear was her heavy breathing and the pounding of her heart inside the quiet car interior. The girl’s purse still rested on her shoulder, and Leal was grateful it had been retrieved, grateful the doors had been unlocked before the fire started, and grateful the girl wasn’t burned to death.
Another thought to her dismay had been that she caused the electrical spark when she unlocked the doors. She didn’t know what to feel guilty about, she merely acted with very little forethought and impulsively did what she thought was right. She wondered if the girl would survive the night, she could’ve easily sustained life-threatening injuries, and it bothered her to think someone would be fine one moment and at death’s door the next. Mortality was a thread as is.
Mind spinning, her anxiety had become uncontrollable. She wished she was home where it was calm, safe, and comfortable. The large green satchel bag with a red medical cross on it that sat in her passenger seat was used as her purse. Inside it was something she desperately needed to help her relax. She grabbed her smoke vapor pen with a cartridge of a rather potent cannabis extract. She just wanted to take one good puff to at least ease her jitters and calm her racing thoughts. She needed to take it, it was her only medicine, the only kind that worked for her anyway. About to draw on the pen, her thoughts were instantly interrupted when the fuel tank of the silver sedan finally ignited in a heavy plume of flames.
The car then became a bright beacon for the medical helicopter that appeared over the treetops a moment later. Leafless spring trees swayed in the winds of the helicopter’s main rotor blade while it landed far behind the cop’s car.
The emergency personnel quickly jumped out with a stretcher in their paws to secure the girl and transport her to the nearest hospital. They moved her to the stretcher and strapped her in, communicating in their medical jargon, radioed ahead to the hospital, and frantically rushed to save her life. When the helicopter began to lift off, it then dawned on Leal that she had something that she would need to return. She put the vape pen back in her bag without using it and got out of her car. She walked up to the officer who was now laying down road flares and talking on his radio to what she guessed was a fire rescue team. The fire was dying down a little once the fuel burned up, and the tree choked and smoldered in retribution for the collision.
“Sir!?” Leal yelled over the thumping of the helicopter’s blades as it ascended. It disappeared over the trees and began its hasty route towards Heatherwood City. The officer struck another flare and dropped it to the asphalt before he gave Leal his attention. “Which hospital are they taking her to?” Leal questioned.
The officer scratched his head once. “Not sure, but they’ll likely take her to Heatherwood General, it’s the nearest one with a helipad. I can confirm that if you want?” The officer wasn’t wrong, it was the best bet, any other hospital would be further across the city and out of range.
“No, that’s alright. Thank you for coming when you did.” The officer nodded without expression and went back to his duties securing the crash site.
The siren of the fire truck had finally come in the distance with more flashing lights, and Leal needed to get moving if she was going to get to the hospital to return what was likely the only thing this girl had left. She was appreciative that she was able to retrieve her purse, her phone, her identification, money, and other important things everyone doesn’t go anywhere without.
