Ride

Chapter 5- Come Back to Me!

"Oh, Fudge..." he murmured softly as the tears in his eyes began to fall.

"I'll be right back!" he called to the unconscious tween, just in case she could hear him, speeding off to grab his phone to dial a number that he never ever wanted to dial.

"Nine-one-one. What's your emergency?"

"I need help!" Lightning babbled, sobs escaping from him. "It's my sister!" Trying and failing to stay calm, he blurted the words out as he told the operator what had happened and gave them information like their names and location. "She's unconscious! She's not moving! There's blood everywhere, bones sticking out! You gotta hurry!"

"All right", the operator told him evenly. "The most important thing for you to do is remain calm. (Yeah right! he thought. You stay calm after that!) An ambulance is already on its way. Now, is your sister breathing at all?"

"I... I don't know", he admitted. "I gotta check."

He listened carefully to see if he could hear breathing. It was a very difficult thing to do when it was competing with all of the noises around him: howling winds, roaring thunder, crashing rain. He was sure that the weather had gotten worse since Fudge's initial fall. It was pretty hard, but he was confident that he could hear nothing coming from Fudge.

"No!" he cried, horrified. "No she's not!"

"Stay calm", the operator repeated. "I need you to try and calm yourself down and pay very close attention to me."

Then, after, following the operator's instructions, Lightning had cleared Fudge's airway of the blood that was in her mouth and she still wasn't breathing, it was, "Okay. Now, you're going to have to administer CPR. Do you know how to do that?"

"Ye- yeah." Something else Doc had taught him, thank Chrysler. He could hear Doc's voice in his head, saying something he'd said while they were going through the CPR part of the first aid course. He'd called out to Lightning, "Pay attention, rookie! You might need this one day!" Now, Lightning would forever be grateful that he had paid attention to Doc.

"Thirty chest compressions followed by two breaths to the mouth", the operator reminded him. "Count them out loud. Don't stop until I tell you to stop or the paramedics arrive and take over. You may break a couple of ribs, but don't worry about it. Just keep going."

"All right..."

McQueen didn't hesitate to obey the operator's instructions, counting thirty chest compressions out loud. He tried to ignore the rain beating down on him and focused on the task in front of him. He had no idea if this CPR was going to work, but, still, he had to try. Fudge was his little sister. He had to try and save her and he was willing to try just about anything to do it.

Lightning continued to give her CPR, but to no avail. Even so, he kept going, blocking out what he believed to be the worst of the storm. He could tell that he was breaking a couple of Fudge's ribs, but he paid no mind to that either. His mouth said the numbers one to thirty over and over again, only stopping to give her mouth to mouth in between each round of counting. Though, his mind only said, Gone! She's gone! Gone, gone, gone! It's all my fault! Why did I let her talk me into those last few laps?! I should've said no! I should've told her we were going home! I should've... I should've... But you didn't! he scolded himself. Now, because of you, Fudge is dead! It's all your fault! He was crying harder than he could ever remember crying in all his adult life. Part of him felt, for many different reasons, like this was even worse than Doc's death. First of all, Doc had been unwell for a very long time. To some extent, he- well, everyone, really- had been prepared for it. Fudge, on the other tyre, had been in a freak accident. She had been taken from them with no warning.