THE COLOUR OF LOVE (Wattpadprize14)Completed

Chapter 48 - Grid Lock

A couple of miles down the road a haulage truck ran a red light and slammed into the side of the ambulance forcing it off the road into the wall of a building. The crunch of metal as the two vehicles collided resounded through the air causing people to stop and stare in horror as the truck smashed into the driver’s door wedging the ambulance driver between his seat and the steering wheel.  The driver’s body was thrown sideways whiplashing his neck and smashing his head through the broken window. Bystanders gasped and held their breath. A woman started screaming hysterically at the scene before her. Shards of metal and pieces of broken glass flew into the air, raining down on the people nearby. Plumes of smoke began filtering up from one of the vehicle’s engines. 

Breaks squealed as cars skidded to a stop and people rushed out to assist the injured driver, when another car suddenly slammed into the back of  the haulage truck, followed by three more cars smashing into the back of the truck, causing further mayhem. People helping, where thrown sideways by the impact of other vehicles hitting the cars they were trying to rescue the passengers from. They lay in the road, bleeding and unconscious. Bystanders ran out into the road waving at the oncoming traffic to prevent more cars from being involved. The smell of burning rubber and fuel fumes filled the air. People were shouting and screaming and there was chaos everywhere. Parts from the damaged vehicles lay strewn across the intersection. The truck and cars completely blocked the roads and traffic was backing up for over a mile. The dreaded gridlock was inevitable.

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Inside the ambulance, the gurney Cherrie was strapped into fell sideways, only stopped from hitting the floor by Cole’s instant reflexes. Medical equipment fell out of the drawers that were dislodged by the impact. The paramedic, that had been monitoring Cherrie’s condition, lay unconscious on the floor, after sustaining a gash on his forehead that was bleeding into his eyes. Equipment flew out the open lockers, landing on the occupants. 

Cherrie’s eyes rolled back into her head as she went into cardiac arrest. Blood began seeping through the bandages covering her damaged hip. She had already lost far too much blood from the earlier incident and her skin took on a pale, bluish tinge. Cole scrambled around the floor of the ambulance on his knees, ignoring his serious injuries, till he found the oxygen mask that had come off, and hurriedly placed it back over Cherrie’s mouth and nose. There was no hissing sound of oxygen being released and he frantically looked around to see how he could activate the flow. He saw the switch the paramedic had used earlier and flicked it back on. With a sigh of relief he heard the sound of the oxygen rushing into the mask, enabling Cherrie to breathe effortlessly.

Cole realised that Cheri was still attached to the heart monitor but there was no activity on the screen, just a flat line and a continuous buzzing. He panicked and desperately started thumping her chest, trying to get her heart started again. He heard a beep and looked up at the monitor. Little lines were jumping up where there was once a flat line. Cole’s relief was immense and he felt an overwhelming desire to cry.  He wasn’t dreaming anymore, she was real. She did exist, but somehow he wished he could turn the clock back to his dreams, just to feel her breathing against his body, alive and well. For a moment he wondered if perhaps he was dreaming again, maybe this was a nightmare and he would wake up soon.

In the distance Cole heard sirens and people shouting and the strangest noise that he could not place. Feeling dazed and dizzy, he shook his head to try and stay alert and noticed droplets of blood dripping onto his hands. As he stared down at Cherrie’s pale lifeless face a faded memory slipped back into his mind and for the briefest moment, Sarah’s face appeared, just as he remembered her lying on their bathroom floor.

 ~~~ 

All the roads in the intersection were blocked, and cars were backed up for miles. Police on motorbikes inched their way through the bedlam, arriving at the horrific scene. They quickly regained control of the situation and cleared the bystanders sufficiently to allow an air rescue team of paramedics to be lowered from the helicopter that hovered above. 

The air rescue team, with the help of the police set to work prying the doors of the ambulance open. Cole breathed a sigh of relief as the team carefully, but with the speed of practise removed Cherrie first re-assuring Cole she was breathing and her heart was still beating. Her unresponsive body was strapped to a spine board and placed in a basket that was hauled into the helicopter which immediately flew to a nearby hospital. Cole and the paramedic were airlifted a short time later to the same hospital, after receiving treatment from the air rescue team.

Unfortunately, it was too late to save the ambulance driver, who died from his injuries. The bystanders who had attempted to rescue the driver were quickly treated at the scene and airlifted in another helicopter to the hospital. The truck driver had sustained minor injuries, and after being given the all clear by the paramedics, was helped into the back seat of a motorist’s car, while waiting for the helicopter to return. 

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The drivers of the cars, which had piled up against each other behind the truck, were painstakingly cut out of their vehicles by the fire brigade men, who had been ferried to the scene on the back of police motorbikes. The grid lock and congestion had made it impossible for any ambulance or fire engine to squeeze through the traffic. The only possible solution had been to ferry the rescue crew and their equipment on the back of the bikes. 

The police now had the major task of trying to re-route the traffic around the accident scene, using a small slip road, in the hopes of trying to alleviate some of the dreadful congestion that appeared to be causing a serious gridlock.  

Two fire engines that were trying to get to the accident scene to ensure there was no risk of fire, as they had received reports of smoke filtering out of one of the vehicles, waited impatiently in the traffic jam.

 Eventually one of the fire engines made it through to the scene; just in time to witness the ambulance explode into a ball of fire. Pieces of metal hurtled through the air, narrowly missing the fire crew who were already disembarking from the vehicle, racing to connect hoses in order to douse the flames.