The Chase

 It was late fall, the trees bare bar the most stubborn of leaves which were now being battered by the forceful autumnal wind, the rain falling loudly on the roof of my car, the wipers working overdrive as I tried to see the winding road that lay ahead. It was the end of term and I like so many others making my way home for Christmas, though my journey was long and rarely done it was still a journey that I could recall turn by turn in the road. This year was different though, this time I had a secret to tell them, a secret similar to the one that had nearly destroyed us once before. The dog tags swinging gently on my neck to remind me of the choice I’d made. It was the one time of year I had no choice but to return and as I forced myself to breath in search of a calmness I could not find, I looked up in the rear view mirror to see the bright lights behind, ‘he’s going to fast’ I thought to myself, the lights fractured by the rain growing ever brighter. I could hear him now, the engine screaming as it gained on me, it was big and there was no where to go, it dawned on me that something had to be wrong, no one drove these roads like that. There was no way you could do that in the day and here we were battling a raging storm, I held my breath in a mental search to think of how I could get out of the way. The tree’s lined the road with a drop one side and a bank the other, there was no where I could pull over. The horn bust through my mind bringing me back to the now, he had seen me and wasn’t slowing down, I had to move and I had to move fast. As my foot pressed itself onto the pedal I felt my little car resist for a second before pulling away as fast as it dared, I pushed the pedal down harder trying to ignore the lights that were now barely a corner behind us, ‘there has to be somewhere’ I spoke to myself, trying to keep my voice as calm as I could. ‘No point in being any thing other then calm in a crisis kid, keep your head and the answer will come,’ Grandads words rang through my mind as if he was in the passenger seat. The relief swept over me from the words, the secrets and lies that had ruined the family, the one that had always stood calm and true had been him, above all else he was the one that we turned to the true head of the family.

Just as his voice rang in my ears the answer came to me, the back lanes leading into the forest lay half a mile ahead of the marker that I was gaining on, the horn behind me raged again as my foot flat to the floor pushed my reluctant engine to its max. I could make out the driver now in the rear view, could barely have been much older then I was, he was weaving his truck across the narrow road clearly desperate to pass me. The rain was still beating down and the road turning rapidly into a river as it flowed off the bank, I focused on the road battling with the wheel trying my hardest to keep control and get to the track entrance. As the road sped beneath the wheels the darkness seemed to close around us only our headlights piercing through and showing the way ahead, I could hear my heart beat in my ears, ‘this wasn’t going to end well’ I thought silently to myself, ‘what on earth were they running from?’ I could make out the break in the tree line ahead where the track lay and I indicated in vain hope that he would see and slow down just enough to let me in, as I fought the wheel to stay straight, bringing the car as slow as I could while staying as fast as I dared to make the corner. Just as I started to turn I saw the other headlights ahead and felt my heart skip a beat, tyres screeched past me as I threw my car into the track. I stopped and turned the engine off trying to catch my breath, but there was no time for that as I heard the squeal, there was no where for either of them to go. I was out the car and onto the road before I registered what I was doing.

I ran my hand over my short buzz cut already the water running off me, my tshirt soaked through, my legs involuntarily running down the road towards the lights. Everything had gone eerily quite, there was no engine sound any more, the darkness had once again claimed the road but there I was running towards where the sound had come from. As I turned the corner my mind went blank, these roads that I had known all my life, unrelenting and unforgiving if not driven carefully, the truck was gone but there on its side just over the edge of the bank stuck on some trees was the other car. I was there before I could tell you how I made my legs move, as I slid down the bank towards the car I could hear crying coming from the struck vehicle. As my hands made contact with the underside of the vehicle I could barely see the rain was seemingly coming down, it didn’t even register and I pulled myself up onto the side of the car. ‘Hi, are you ok?’ I shouted through the closed window, the young girl looked up, face red and puffy from crying, ‘help me’ she managed to stammer.

‘I’m going to call for help, and then we’ll see about getting you out, can you move?’ I asked, a calmness had come over me that I never knew existed. ‘Don’t leave me,’ she cried out, trying desperately to reach for her belt to release her from her sideways stop. ‘I’m not going anywhere, let me call for help, don’t move ok.’ My hand fumbled for my pocket, trying to find my phone and drawing a blank, then the vision of my phone in the passenger foot well in my car, it had flown off the seat when I had turned into the track. ‘My phones back in my car up the road, have you got one?’ She was still crying, rumbling for her belt, ‘he hit me,’ she said through the sobs. I looked at the car, the roof curved against the tree, the front end squashed in where the truck had continued there relentless escape. I pulled myself up a bit more, sliding on the slick wet side, trying to get the handle to release with no success. ‘I’m going to smash your back window, I need you to turn away and try and cover your face,’ I looked at her for some semblance of recognition of what I had said, as she looked at me and slowly nodded I moved myself further down the car trying to position myself to be able to break the window. I pealed my soaked tshirt off and wrapped it carefully around my hand, and as I raised myself up so I was crouched on my knees I looked down at the quiet face staring back up at me. ‘Turn away now,’ I said to her and as she did I brought my full force down on the corner of the window just as I was taught all those years ago. I felt it buckle but not break, so I did it again, and again it buckled the window moving but not giving in. ‘Jesus Bro is that all you’ve got’ Ben’s remark all I could hear as I had tried to hit him one day when he wasn’t concentrating, ‘at least if you are going to hit me make it count.’ So I focused on the window, my arm throbbing from the failed attempts, pulling my arm back I forced it down with everything I had, I knew it had worked as my face hit the side of the car where my arm had gone through.

I managed to wiggle inside the car carefully, without making it move to much, and crouch on the other door behind her, ‘hi I’m Adam,’ I managed to get out, voice still calm as I could make it, although now every bit of me was wet through and there was blood trickling down my arm as well. ‘He just hit me and drove off,’ she whispered, the crying had given way now and I feared shock was about to set in soon, ‘I know he did, what’s your name?’ I looked her over, she had a cut on her head that didn’t look too deep, I tried to look down at her legs but the airbag was obscuring the view down. ‘Sarah, my names Sarah, am I going to die?’ I just looked at her and tried my hardest to smile with out it looking like a crazy grimace by a soaked, muddy stranger who was now behind her, ‘not today I hope, can you move your legs Sarah?’ She looked down in surprise at the airbag as if she hadn’t even realised it had gone off, I could see it moving and she nodded, ‘that’s really good, ok do you have a phone with you?’ She looked over to the passenger seat slowly looking around her, taking in the fact that the car was on its side, ‘it was next to me, it must have flown off somewhere.’ I looked at her, I needed to get help but I also needed to get her out of here, there was no houses along this stretch and who knew when another car would come along, least alone whether they would see them in the dark, I glanced quickly for the phone trying to keep the rising panic at bay. ‘We’re going to try and get you out Sarah ok? Does anything hurt?’ I carefully moved so I could be in a better position to reach through into the front, ‘ok’ she whispered, ‘I don’t think anything is broken, but I hurt all over.’ I breathed a sigh of relief, at least that was something, I didn’t want her to be stuck in there any longer then she had to be. ‘I’m going to reach through and cut your belt, you need to brace yourself and you are going to fall sideways,’ I slowly started moving forward, just as I had got most of my weight to the front of the car I felt it shift, it wasn’t much but I froze. ‘Adam did you feel that, the car moved, Adam I need to get out,’ her voice rising as the panic started to set in, her movements becoming more frantic to release the belt, she had to calm down, this car was tipping forward. ‘Sarah please stop moving, I will get you out but I need you to work with me,’ I reached into my pocket and pulled out my penknife, unlike my phone it was exactly where it always was, as I flipped the blade open my fingers ran across the engraving on it, ‘Be brave in the face of fear’

As the blade slipped through the belt with some pressure I felt it release and Sarah slip sideways, as she did the car tipped even more, ‘move very slowly,’ I said quietly as I moved as carefully as I could back into the back, the rain started hitting my face through the broken window, relentless and cold I felt myself shiver as the adrenalin was fuelling me I had almost forgotten about the storm outside. The ground was becoming ever wetter, the water runner off the road and right down the bank where the car was perched now perilously against the tree as the earth had become water logged and was now starting to move. ‘Sarah I need you to climb into the back and out of the window,’ she had started to sob again, the movement of the car bringing their mind into clarity of the danger they were in. My hands gripped the broken edge of the window, I could feel the glass cutting into my hands as I pulled myself up as slowly as I dared whilst trying to move as quickly as I could. My strength flowing through my arms as I pulled myself out the window onto the edge of the car, I lay carefully along it, feeling it shift slightly with every breath I took, Sarah looked up at me, ‘give me your hand and put the other on the edge of the window,’ I said gently as I spread my ripped and blood stained tshirt over the window. She reached up and as I gently gripped her wrist in my hand I could feel her fear, the other hand tentatively gripped over the edge of the window, ‘I’m going to help pull you out, pull against me and the car.’ I focused on her as the driving rain beat against my back, the car tilting ever more forward, we had minutes before the ground potentially shifted under the front sending it further down the bank.

‘Ready?’ I asked, she nodded and I felt her brace against my wrist, I pulled as gently as I could trying desperately to get her out of the window, it was painfully slow as the car shifted beneath us I felt her falter. ‘Don’t give up Sarah, come on I’m right here,’ The tension went back on and as she used her feet to push herself up against the back seats she slowly appeared out the window, I could feel the calm coming back over me, we were going to be ok, she was nearly there. As she slowly emerged from the car I slid slowly towards the front to give her the space as I helped pull her out, my feet loosing their grip on the wing mirror they slipped over the wind screen, ‘Adam’ Sarah cried out as suddenly it was not me holding her but her me, I twisted my leg up and my foot found the wing mirror again, one push and I would be back on the side of the car. ‘I’m ok, I’m here,’ I tried to say calmly as I could, she was out and laying on the side of the car, ‘Sarah climb down off the side,’ I said as I stayed half on and half over the front of the car, if I pushed up it was going to move and then we’d both be going down the bank with it. I could feel my heart rate climbing as my hand slipped against the metal, the other getting sweatier but still firmly gripped by Sarah. ‘I can’t climb off, I’m not letting go of you,’ she said it so calmly and matter of fact I didn’t even begin to argue. I closed my eyes knowing that the ground was moving beneath us, the world fell silent, there was no more storm raging around us, the sound of the rain hitting us and the car had disappeared. My family now in front of my eyes, my mum standing quiet as she had always been, Grandad standing behind her hand on her shoulder smiling, but there he was my brother Ben in his uniform his hand outstretched. ‘I’m here for you Bro.’ As I opened my eyes barely a second passed, I took a breath ‘my car is up the road, keys and phone are in it, go home Sarah.’ It took all of my strength to push myself up trying to keep the car underneath me, ‘No Adam,’ tears flowing back down her cheeks again, ‘you said you wouldn’t leave me.’

I know what I said I thought, but he was here, my brother Ben was right here with me and for the first time since he had died I was as at peace as he was. ‘Its ok Sarah, I’ll be ok,’ and with one final push against the mirror I threw myself onto the side of the car against her pushing her easily off the wet side and onto the ground as the earth slipped away in front and the car tumbled down the bank, she was there safely on the edge merely meters from the road.

I lay frozen for a moment not knowing whether I could move, when I felt a hand on my shoulder, I looked up into the immortal face of my brother, the grin stretching from ear to ear, ‘good to see you again idiot, least you got out of Christmas dinner right.’ He laughed and with one easily and painless movement, I stood next to him, ‘so how the hell were you going to tell Mum you had joined the Corps?’ I laughed and looked down at the uniform and the dogtags still swinging from my neck, ‘I guess we’ll never know,’ and with that we turned in the night and walked away together for the first time in five years. As the rain continued to fall the two brothers impervious to it faded away.