Page 7 of Bad Seed

Chapter 2

Brendan was finally out of the chaos, but the work was just beginning back at the wreck site. Roadblocks and orange traffic cones were up. Fire trucks were still on-site aiding in rescues. Ambulances were running hot, taking victims to the hospital, then coming back for more. Four ambulances from nearby Bowling Green soon arrived on the scene to help transport the injured. And in the middle of all that, highway patrol cars began to arrive.

The snow was falling heavier now, but the interior auxiliary lights were still working inside the bus, which aided the rescuers tending to those still trapped inside. Broken glass was everywhere.

The moving van was in a field, a good twenty-five yards beyond the highway, with the contents of the trailer strewn around it. Someone’s worldly possessions were in bits, just like the people being pulled out of the bus.

The driver of the van was sitting on the ground, dazed and bleeding, as a trio of firemen ran into the field to get him.

The screams from the tourists still trapped on the bus had gone from cries for help and shrieks of pain to a growing silence. It was the silence that worried the rescue workers most.

The police now had the two-lane highway completely blocked off to traffic from both directions, and highway patrolmen were manning the locations. Every police officer in Jubilee was at the scene, including Chief Sonny Warren, who was directing traffic for the ambulance drivers.

Wiley and Doug wound up inside the bus, helping the EMTs get people on stretchers out by sliding the stretchers along the framework of the overturned seats, using them like a stationary conveyor to get them to the rescuers waiting on the ground.

A couple of men from the rescue squad were near the front of the bus, trying to free a young woman trapped beneath a pair of seats that had been crushed down on top of her. She kept going in and out of consciousness, and the only thing she’d said since they began working with her was a repeated plea to find her baby.

When Wiley heard that, he realized she must be the mother of the little boy Brendan found.

Firemen were using a Jaws of Life to try and pry the crushed seats up enough to remove the trapped woman when she regained consciousness again, and the first person she locked eyes on was Wiley.

“Did you find my baby?” she asked.

“Can you tell me your name?”

“Lisa Hamilton. Have you found Davey?”

“Davey is your son, right?” Wiley said.

She reached for her head. Blood was everywhere. It scared her to think what might have happened to her son, and started to cry. “Yes. He’s three years old. He was sitting in my lap holding Fuzzy, his toy tiger. He is wearing a red plaid jacket and denim pants. He doesn’t have a hat. He’ll be cold.”

Wiley recognized the description. “Ma’am, he’s already been found, and he was sitting up and awake when they found him. He’s been taken to ER.”

Her eyes were tear-filled and wide with shock and panic. “You swear?”

“I swear. It was my brother who found him,” Wiley said.

“Thank God,” Lisa whispered, and passed out again.

A few minutes later, they had her freed, on a stretcher, and were carrying her to a waiting ambulance. She was the last passenger to be removed.

***

As the day waned, Wiley checked in with his wife, Linette, who was a nurse at the hospital.

“How’s it going, honey?” he asked.

“It’s a nightmare,” Linette said. “I’ve already agreed to work a double shift. The workload is crazy, so I won’t be home before sometime tomorrow.”

“I’m going to be really late, too,” Wiley said. “Dani has a thing she has to go to and won’t be home later. I’m going to call Brendan and get him to take Ava up to Mom’s. She can spend the night there.”

“Thank God for big families,” Linette said. “I love you. Be careful.”

“Love you more,” Wiley said, then made a quick call to Brendan. The phone rang a couple of times, and then Brendan picked up. “Hey, Brendan, I need a huge favor.”

“Name it,” Brendan said.

Wiley quickly explained the situation, and then asked the favor. “Can you please get Ava and take her up to Mom’s for me?”

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