Hard Times

Hard Times 2

The fall.
It felt like the first time you experience the big drop on a rollercoaster, your stomach lodging in the back of your throat, your heart stops and there's nothing you can do to stop it. Strapped in the carriage with no way off, your will not your own.

Connie's car tumbled down the hillside, from wheels to roof rolling sideways until it came to an abrupt halt against a unhealthy looking tree precariously growing on a rocky ledge.
Steam hissed from the crumpled bonnet of the once pristine vehicle. Now it was barely recognisable as a car at all with the roof caved in, clumps of mud and glass embedded in the dents.
A throbbing in her head, a sharp pain in her wrist. Connie began to surface from the depths of unconsciousness, dazed and disoriented with no idea where she was or how she got there. It was a toxic smell of burnt rubber from where the tires scrapped unnaturally across the road that brought her back into the present with a start.
She had no idea how long they'd been wedged there, time had become non-existent, her first and only thought was from her little girl, her world. "Grace..." Connie sobbed. "...Gracie...sweetheart!!" She called looking across at her, she was out cold resting on the passenger side door.
Reaching over with a shaking blood stained hand she touched the side of Grace's neck. "Gracie..." she tried again, dred building inside, chilling her to the bone. "...Grace!"
Repositioning her fingers again and again, Connie searched desperately for a pulse.
It was there but weak, very weak.
She didn't know what to do, all her training, all her knowledge, gone.
Looking helplessly around her, at a loss and completely terrified. Panic set in.
Help.
She needed help.

To Be Continued.....