The radio buzzed for a moment, cutting away from the Top Hits of Today. The stern voice of a news anchor took its place.
"Breaking News" They said, "Fifteen dead and twelve wounded in what is being called the greatest domestic disaster in Burmire history. An explosion at precisely 2:13pm on this Wednesday, the 23rd of October, in a pediatric office in downtown Burmire."
Tyler broke his attention from the road to turn up the radio. He brought the volume to an unreasonable level, as though he was trying to hear it harder than normal. The anchor continued.
"The dead have not been identified at this time, but efforts are ongoing to uncover the bodies from the rubble left by the collapsed building."
Tyler glanced from the road, to the radio, and back to the road on repeat. He watched the words, 97.3 - Pro FM as though they were the eyes of the person speaking. His half divided attention glancing to the words expectantly.
"The building was home to the Dr. Cordero Pediatric Office, as well as an adjacent --"
Dr. Cordero's..., Tyler thought, That's where they were today... For her yearly physical... At 2:30.
Tyler's eyes broke from the road almost entirely. He looked at the radio, his head slumping as he thought. His eyes blurred. His hearing faded, until the words from the radio were nothing more than a boiling gurgle of nonsense.
Maybe they were running late, he thought, Maybe... No, Tracy was never late... She hated being late... She hated it.
Tyler's head craned downward. His hands slipped from the wheel. The booming gurgles from the radio muffled screeching tires and blaring horns. Had it not been for the front end of his Chevy Impala crushing like a tin can against the concrete wall of a pharmacy, Tyler may not have noticed the blood curdling cries of woman in the parking lot.
His forehead rubbed off a bloodied chunk of skin on the wheel as he slid himself to one side. His airbag lay deflated, draped down his steering wheel like a wet plastic shopping bag. A pin size hole leaked warm air on his knee. He lifted himself back up, blinking in long, drawn out briefs of darkness. His dizzied vision getting worse as he straightened himself in his seat. Shrieking lapping at his right ear in waves like a rock at the edge of a rippling lake.
Tyler looked ahead through a gaping hole where the windshield once was. His vision flashing in and out between long blinks of darkness. He looked out at the wall, splattered in red. The straining body of a young boy, coughing blood, eyes wide, body crushed between jagged metal and solid concrete.
Tyler fought against his aching body to stare at the boy. A child that he had doomed to a painful end. The end of the boys life, and his own alike. Their eyes met for a brief moment. They both stared, the boy begging for it to end, Tyler stuck without ability to do... anything.
The boys eyes faded to emptiness. Tyler weakened, and slipped into unwanted sleep.
ΔΙΑΒΑΖΕΙΣ
Can't Forget
ΤρόμουJust months after being released on parole, Tyler, still coping with the death of his wife and daughter, is forced to revisit the day that they were killed on its one-year anniversary.
