The Chronicles of Medic Bob

Race Against The Storm

Individual Summary: As a wild storm rips through Murwillumbah, Bob soon discovers he has a problem: the boys have gone for a walk on the trails, and are now nowhere to be seen. The problem just gets bigger when - an hour later - Dec sprints into the camp; covered in blood, dirt, and screaming that Ant has been badly injured......

*****

The sound of the thunder overhead echoed the turmoil of worry inside everyone's stomachs. A wild storm had appeared suddenly out of nowhere and the weather had gone from sunshine one minute, to dark clouds that gushed with rain and ominous rumbling the next.

It wouldn't have been so bad, normally - given that everyone was normally finished with their duties for the filming of the show by this time of the day, and everyone was either at the motel, or back at the camp.

This time, though, they had a problem.

Ant and Dec had decided to take advantage of the great weather and had gone for a walk along one of the public trails nearby.

That had been almost an hour ago, and everyone was starting to get beyond worried.

It was now at a point where a small group of them had organised a search party - just as the storm was really reaching a climax with noise and rain-power - and they were just moments away from heading out on the trails to search for their wayward boys.

They had spent the last ten minutes scouring a map of the area, debating on which of the trails the boys had headed, and had finally settled on a roughly five-kilometre round trail that started and ended about two hundred metres from the set.

"Right, let's go!" Chris now yelled over the racket of the storm, and everyone clambered into the two four-wheel drives and they set off down the track.

They only got about a hundred metres down the road before Chris let out a loud exclamation and slammed on the brakes of his car. Bob instinctively grabbed onto the dashboard as the tires skidded along the dirt and gravel and his eyes caught sight of what had caused the sudden need to stop.

It looked like something out of a horror film: through the gentle mist and the heavily pouring rain, with thunder cracking over their heads and the trees being blown in every possible direction, a shadowy figure had emerged from the jungle that sprawled off to the side of the track - soaking wet and covered in mud and another sinister stain coating their hands and the front of their clothes in seemingly random patches.

A deep gash stood out starkly through the rain as it trickled more blood down the figure's face and down the side of their neck, and they seemed to be shaking - though with shock or the cold, Bob couldn't be sure.

As the figure continued to stumble towards the car, their features became suddenly much more recognisable: there was no mistaking the sandy hair that was clinging to their forehead, or the frightened and desperate hazel eyes that flashed in the shimmer of the headlights, and especially not the very familiar yell that somehow managed to reach their ears over the howl of the storm as they raised their arms and waved frantically to get their attention.

Chris immediately shut the engine off as he and Bob leapt out of the car, not bothering with locking the doors as they walked quickly over to the shaking figure.

Without wasting any time, Bob reached out and put a hand each on Dec's soaking wet shoulders, prompting him to look up at him.

"Declan? Are you alright? What's happened?" the medic asked calmly, making sure to speak clearly and not to frighten the younger man further.

Now that he was touching him, Bob could feel him trembling under his hands, and his gaze turned concerned as his eyes took in his appearance.

"Bob, I need your help" came the whimpering reply, a single frightened tear dripping down from his eyes and mixing with the many droplets of rain on his cheek.