BREE AND JJ WERE SITTING IN THE AMBULANCE THEY STOLE FROM RICKY. They were waiting for a call from the detention center to let them know that it was time to go pick up John B when a police vehicle began pulling up beside them. Bree muttered, "Shit."
"Just act cool. Act normal," he told her, leaning back in his seat and resting his head on his knuckle in his attempt to look like an actual EMT. He was falling miserably.
The officer pulled up beside them, and his window was open just like there's. They sat there awkwardly for a second before he spoke up, causing both of them to wince because they were hoping that he would just stay silent. "Hmm. I hate when it's slow like this, you know?"
"Tell me about it, man," the blonde boy responded, and Bree just looked out the other window and tried to hide her face in case the officer recognized them.
"Hey, what happened to Ricky?" he questioned with raised eyebrows, and it seemed like JJ's cousin was known around there. "He bang out?"
The Maybank boy started to stutter for a second, so the Callaway girl was forced to lean over him and answer the man for him before he blew their cover. "Something like that."
"One three Eddie. We got an unknown at KC Detention," a voice on their radio informed them, and they breathed out a sigh in relief when they realized that it was time to go get John B.
"Uh, yeah, ten-four. I'll be right there. Thank you so much. Over," JJ spoke into the radio, and both he and the girl furrowed their eyebrows at each other when he thanked the woman on the other end, Why was he being so weird? He then turned back to the officer. "Duty calls. I'll see you later, Officer. Uh, you have a good night, though, okay?"
They were about to leave, free of the questioning from the police officer when he said something that made them both freeze. "Hold up. I got nothing to do. I'll pace you." They just shrugged at each other and kept going.
"It's straight ahead to the transfer bay," the man in the booth informed them once they reached the detention center. The officer that paced them had left them there to collect their 'patient.'
"Copy that. Thank you, sir," the blonde boy responded, and they kept driving. Once they reached the loading bay, he did not get out of the vehicle. He just called to the people behind him. "All right, load him up."
The brunette girl slapped him on the arm, and he looked offended and confused when he did. "We're supposed to load the patient, idiot. Have you never seen any medical movie or TV show ever?"
"I don't watch boring movies," he responded annoyedly.
She rolled her eyes at him in frustration. "Oh, my God. They're not boring. For example, Grey's Anatomy is amazing."
"You gonna get your patient here?" asked a female voice from behind them, and that was when she realized how long they had been talking and not attending to their patient.
When the blonde boy did not say anything back, Bree called, "Yeah, we're coming." So, they climbed out and walked toward the back of the vehicle to pick up their 'patient.'
"Am I gonna get my patient?" he muttered with a sigh as if it were so crazy that he would not. It was not that crazy, but she did not need to know that. "My patient... Of course I am."
"Where's Ricky?" the woman questioned once they stepped out of the ambulance that they had stolen from JJ's cousin, who she was now speaking of.
The Maybank boy stammered out, "Ricky?"
"Uh, food poisoning," Bree piped in when she realized that he was really close to blowing their cover. She did not know what was up with him. He was usually so great at lying. "You know, uh, Ming Dynasty off of Highway? Them egg rolls, dude. Now, they'll get you."
"They'll get you good. Uh, so where's the patient at?" JJ asked her, trying to get them back on topic so that they could get out of there as soon as possible before anyone figured out that they were not actually EMTs and that they were trying to break their friend out of jail.
The door opened, and a guard wheeled out a man in a wheelchair, causing the two teenagers to whip their heads at each other. "Patient fell out. No LOC, but he's orthostatic. Stage lymphoma. He's been in and out of chemo for the last three months."
It was not John B.
"Uh, is that the only patient tonight there, ma'am?" JJ questioned after examining the patient like he was trying to see the degree of his sickness when he really knew nothing about anything. Bree was still so shocked that they did not think of the fact that someone else at the center might require transport to the hospital. The plan was falling apart.
The woman furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and slight suspicion. "Why? You wanna take more than one tonight?"
"I mean, I would if I had to. That's what I'm trying to say. I was just thinking that I was called in because my patient had appendicitis," the Maybank boy explained, and Bree glared at him because of how obvious he was being. "No? Okay."
"This is our only patient. Where did you say you work?" she quizzed skeptically.
The blonde boy answered quickly, perhaps a little too quickly, but it is what it is. "Dare County, ma'am."
"I worked over there," she informed them, and they tensed up in the slightest so that she could not see that they reacted to that. "Never seen you."
"Well, that's 'cause, you know, I just moved up in the ranks so fast," Bree lied, with a small and slightly cocky smile to sell the story.
The Maybank boy knew that the longer that they stayed there, the more likely they were to get caught, even if they did not have John B. So, he spoke up to get them moving. "Look, I would love to sit and chat, but we gotta get moving, all right? We gotta get our patient to the hospital."
"JJ, is that you?" the inmate in the wheelchair mumbled out, causing both teenagers to freeze. The Callaway girl whipped her head around at an angle so that the woman could not see the confused and angry expression on her face.
"He's delusional as shit," JJ told them, and they seemed to buy it, at least until he started struggling to unlock the back. "Um...We just got different rigs up in New Bern. Uh, that's not gonna work. I think it's... There it is. Ah, there you go." He finally got the doors open after many glares from his partner, and the phone started ringing. Knowing that that meant that they needed to go, he helped Bree pushthe man up the ramp and into the vehicle. "All right, um... There you go. All right, let's get him on up there."Let's go. Get in there."
Both teenagers were about to climb in the back when the woman stopped them and asked, "Where's your driver?"
"I told you. Egg rolls," the blonde boy reminded her.
She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, and Bree was praying that she just thought they were new to the job and were just a little bit nervous. "Who's gonna drive to the hospital if you two are taking care of your patient?"
"Well, they told us that the officer could drive," the Callaway girl told her, hoping that that was not the worst answer in the world. JJ seemed to think it worked enough, though, so she went with it.
The officer poked his head out from behind them in the vehicle and shook it, shutting down their idea. "No, he's an inmate. I gotta be in the back."
"Wait, hold on, officer. You're saying that you're gonna be responsible for us not taking care of our patient. Is that what you're telling me? Because look at him." The blonde boy gestured to their patient behind them. "He's weak, feeble, and pale and shit. And we gotta do medical stuff on him, or else we're gonna lose him, okay? You don't want that on your hands."
"This didn't happen," the man said to the woman, giving in before hopping out the back and making his way to the front.
The Maybank boy clapped his hands together as he and Bree pulled the back closed and sat down next to the man on the stretcher. "All right, let's go."
They started moving, but about five minutes on the road, a voice came on the radio, speaking to the man driving the ambulance. The teens furrowed their eyebrows at each other, trying to listen in, but they could not make out whatever the person was saying.
"Officer, everything good up there?" JJ called, but the man just closed the window between the driving seats and the back of the ambulance. "Officer."
"Shit. They know," the brunette girl mumbled to herself, running a hand through her hair once she realized that they had been caught.
The Maybank boy whipped out his phone and started texting Kiara frantically while the girl beside him tapped her foot nervously. "Damn it. Come on, Kie. I need a miracle."
She stood up and tried to open the door and see if they could just make a jump for it, but there were three police cars pulling up behind them. So, even if they did make it, they would have to face those officers.
"Fuck!" she yelled, kicking one of the walls. It hurt like hell, but she did not really care because she was about to get busted for stealing a ambulance, impersonating an EMT, trying to break someone out of jail, almost actually busting a different person out of jail, and even more shit. She slid down on the wall and pulled her knees up to her chest.
"Hey," the blonde boy said over the sirens as he sat down next to her. He put a comforting arm around her, and he felt so fucking bad. "I am so so sorry that I roped you into this. It was such a stupid fucking idea."
She grabbed his chin and forced him to look up at her. "Hey, I thought it was good too. If we go down, then we go down together." They stood up together after he nodded and started pacing back and forth. All of a sudden, the vehicle slammed to a stop, sending them both flying into one of the walls hard, and it hurt. Bree was surprised that her nose did not crack.
They heard Kie's voice coming from in front of the ambulance, and they grinned at each other. She gestured to the door and pushed it open since the cars behind them were distracted with the almost wreck. "Come on, come on, come on."
They sprinted into the woods and around the block, and they laughed out loud when they saw Kie's car waiting for them across the street. They ran toward the car and dove into the backseat as soon as Pope opened it.
"Go! Go! Go!" the blonde boy ordered as soon as they were inside and the door was closed.
"Okay," the Carrera girl breathed out before slamming on the gas and flooring it out of the scene. As they drove, she groaned, "I'm seriously not even gonna ask."
JJ rolled his eyes as he and the girl beside him panted hard, not believing that they just made it out of that situation. "Look, we busted the wrong guy out of jail. Sue us. At least we was trying."
"Why are you always doing such stupid shit?" the raven-haired girl exclaimed, fighting the urge to just slam her head against the steering wheel as hard as she could over and over and over again. " And you had to drag Bree into it?"
"Well, I'm gonna end up in jail anyway, so... so why does it matter?" he muttered in response, looking down at his lap.
They all looked at him with pitying expressions, Bree still breathing so hard that she could not even tak. Pope asked, "You okay, man?"
"Yeah. Just a doozy of a day."