āUgh, mother fuckerāstupid sidewalk.ā Harry found himself waylaid in his running as he stepped on a piece of gum he tried to avoid too late. Now every step he takes is going to be sticky and uncomfortable.
Even if it was night time and there was no one else to see it, heās going to look like an idiot trying to scrape the nasty thing off one foot with the other. And when he does, he doesn't think to use to wall of the building next to him for balance and ends up tipping over, his wind milling arms doing nothing to stop his fall.
And now he looks like even more of an idiot.
Great. Just his luck really. His luck is a thing of legends. People and things know about his kind of luck.
It was just as well though because he was about to stop to rub a stitch in his side. Heād been running for about an hour and a half already in the empty city night and his acid buildup was now too painful to ignore. It was late in the evening anyway and he knew his mother and step-father expected him home soon with him being only 17 years young.
Harry had ended up about a fourth of the way across the highway bridge overlooking the huge lake that contributed to most of the cities plumbing system. The street lights lit up his hair and back when he bent down to touch his toes in an attempt to work out the kink in his side.
He had forgot his water bottle on the counter in his hurry to get his run done before it got too dark, but he wasn't all that parched. His breathing was as steady as it was going to be after running almost 2 hours, but it was nowhere near any cause of concern to whip his inhaler out. He was left with his thoughts now that he didn't have the sound of his footfalls, heartbeat, and breathing occupying his hearing.
He doesn't mean to get into these contemplative moods where he thinks about how his life could be sort of overwhelming at best and unbearable at worst, but when he goes on his nightly jogs in the city when the lights are out and there isn't any loud traffic or rude people to constantly bump into on their way to their nine to five or ten to six and the shops are closing down and the pollution in the air seems to decrease and the city takes on this numbness, this quietness, and well Harry canāt be blamed when his thoughts decide to run away from his brain.
Finished stretching, he makes the quick decision to jog the last leg of the run across the rest of the bridge and around the block to take a shortcut he knew on his way home. He stands up slowly, hands on his hips, wary of his still smarting side and gets ready to run.
He hears the car before he sees it. Harry spots it coming around the corner of the block. Itās not totally unusual for cars to still be driving at this time of the night but Harryās still slightly disappointed that the magic and solidarity of the night has been broken.
Heās actually pouting until the car, a pickup truck, comes closer and heās sees that the truck seems to be swerving in between the lanes. He canāt really see the driver through the tinted windows this far away to tell if itās a woman or a man but he knows that that kind of swerving is a sign of a drunk driver. Harry slowly drops his arms to his side as he sees the car come onto the bridge heās on.
Heās getting ready to take his phone out to call law enforcement but he doesn't even get that far when his eyes are torn from dialing the emergency number and his head shoots up in shock because he knows from the terrible bang sound, the driver has crashed into the guard rails. Horrified, itās not until he hears the loud splash that his lifeguard instincts come into play. Yea he was a lifeguard and a damn good one too.
Harry thinks about how even this is his life as heās running. When Harry looks back on his young 17 years of life, he feels as if he always seems to be in the right place at the right time or the wrong place at the wrong time depending on the situation. Itās whatever. And itās not as if he plans it or even that he seems to be particularly lucky.
Itās just heās a lifeguard so that means saving lives is his job. Itās not his fault that things just sort of happen around him and heās well equipped to handle it. Well most of the time heās able to handle it. And thereās a reason why there are lifeguards. Water can be dangerous if you donāt know how to control it. People can be dangerous to themselves if there wasn't anyone to save them.
Heart pounding, he continues dialing the emergency and sprinting to where the car plummeted into the lake. Without preamble, he barks into his phone his name and location before he sets the phone down near where the car hit the rail, not hanging up, but ignoring the dispatcher asking for more information. He knows he doesnāt have much time. The driver, he fears, is most likely drunk and unable to help themselves. He probably has a few minutes at best to save whoever it is.
He hurriedly takes off his shirt, shoes, and socks, keeping on his jogging shorts after emptying the pocketsāhis Ā inhaler, keys, wallet, and a stick of gum hitting the pavement, and without further ado, he dives into the water after the fallen truck. The lake is deep enough that diving in wonāt cause an injury but surely jumping in while in a heavy truck while drunk is sure to cause problems.
ām-MOTher f-fuh--ā The water is freezing cold when he jumps in, despite the nice, warm weather they had that day. He comes up to the surface and he struggles with his body wanting to cringe up and stay stationery, but his adrenaline wins over and he continues to where he sees the top of the car finally sink below the water. Harry takes several quick breaths and then his deepest breath to trick his body into thinking it had more oxygen than it does, and he too sinks below to make the daring rescue.
The water is dark but the flickering lights of the car pave his way. The car is about seven meters below the water already, but from what he can see through the windows, the water has only filled a little more than 3 quarters of the car, enough for the quickly sobering, but panicking, male driver to take his last breath before he too is submerged fully in the water.
Harry tries the driverās door first but the door refuses to open outward because of the difference in pressures. He sees that the driver has spotted him but when he sees that Harry canāt open the door any more than he can, his panicking seems to get worse and Harry knows heāll be useless in this rescue and soon to be dead if he canāt get him out on time.
The only other way to get him out is through the window, but the driverās window is too small for the heavy set driver to climb out. Thankfully, the water pressure was so great that it was cracking the windshield window and Harry knew that would be the mode of exit.
Quickly, because he was losing air fast, he swam to the front of the car and kicked the weakening window. Luckily, the driver saw what Harry was doing and covered his face. Then, when he saw that the window was fully broken, he swam towards the teenager who held his arm out towards him to pull him out. Heād taken off his seat belt long ago, so it was only a matter of grabbing his rescuerās large hand and getting pulled out of the quickly sinking truck and then kicking up towards the top.
Harry grabbed the man under his arms and around his chest and kicked as hard as he could with the man smart enough to help. They were in a disadvantage in the first place because they had nothing to kick off of. It didnāt seem like that much distance when he was looking down into the water, but now being under the surface made the distance between them and sweet air much greater. The space seemed to be getting longer and longer the more they kicked and they were quickly tiring and losing air.
Their attempts and desperation to live paid off in the end. When their heads broke the surface of the water the still panicking driver quickly grabbed onto Harry who was fighting to get oxygen into his lungs. It made him sink unexpectedly and drink a mouthful of water while the driver still had an iron grip around his shoulders. Harry placed his hands on the violent manās elbows and pushed up and away from the driver and broke the surface of the water again.
Yet again, Harry tried to catch his breath but with a few feet away from the victim turned attacker who was struggling to stay afloat and flailing in his panic. Harry had to roughly cough out most of the water that got into his lungs and force his body to calm down so that he could continue rescuing the driver. He didnāt try to approach the man again until he stopped panicking. It would not do to get both of them killed.
āExcuse me sir. Sir! Calm down. I am a lifeguard. My nameās Harry. You need to calm down so that we can get to a safe area. Can you hear me? Are you ok?ā The man seemed to calm down a little and nod frantically when it was appropriate so Harry took that as a sign to approach him.
Without his lifeguard tube he knew it would be very difficult to carry a man bigger than himself all the way to land by himself but Harry knew he had no choice, but hopefully the man could aid him in kicking.
Harry didnāt suspect a head, neck, or spinal injury and now that the man had calmed down a bit, he seemed to be keeping afloat so Harry knew he could swim, but he was obviously getting tired and the shore was a bit far away and he didnāt know how strong of a swimmer the man was and he didnāt have time to find out.
Harry instructed the man to turn his back towards him and Harry sort of supported him on his side and held him across the manās chest with one arm so that the man swam backwards and Harry kicked sideward slightly under the man. They struggled to shore that way where Harry, now that his mind wasnāt focused solely on keeping alive, could see the lights of a rescue team.
Three of the rescuers with suitable equipment swam out to meet him the rest of the way to relieve him of the heavy man and not a moment too late. Harryās chest felt like it was closing up, his breathing was getting worse by the second, and he was starting to see spots in his vision.
The third rescuer who was only there for support and to relieve anyone if they got tired noticed Harryās struggle even though Harry tried his hardest to hide it. He didnāt want to give them the extra burden. The older lady swam back towards him and used her tube to keep both of them afloat. āThanks.ā Harry quietly whispered, beyond exhausted, to his rescuer as that was all he could do in a breathless hoarse voice. The woman smiled kindly at him and continued to help him to shore.
An ambulance treated them after everyone was safely on shore. The man, whose name he learned was Paul, seemed to be okay if only shaken up and tired and still fighting off the alcohol in his system. Harry on the other hand was extremely exhausted now that the adrenaline has run its course and sucked him of all he was worth. His rescuer quickly handed him off to another EMT who had to apply a nebulizer, or breathing treatment, to Harry who was starting to wheeze. Badly.
It was like he had to pull every breath he took by a tether rope from a quickly depleting well of oxygen. His throat seemed too small to catch in the air he could force in, too dry so that every breath he did take felt like a punch in the trachea, and his heart pounding too fast as if he just toted a fully grown man across a large body of water. Oh wait.
The EMT had Harry sit in the ambulance van and help position the ready prepared nebulizer between his lips and Harry has time enough to think āMumās going to kill meā, but thatās when he blacks out.
Edited July 6 2013 @10:09
*note to @hereliesyourfic: I'm taking a leap of faith cuz I've never done this (submitted a story) but I wanted to try. Please give me your full honest opinion! I may have a few other questions for you too because you sound like you know what you're doing :) -fangirlposition
Hi there! So this was really clever! I enjoyed the simple, occasional spurts of comedy among all the drama! It was witty, and you have some great vocabulary going on! Description was great and balanced and I was definitely surprised when the story took on such a plot twist and suddenly there was an emergency on Harry's hands! Watch for your verb tenses, sometimes you switch, and perhaps work on appropriate lengths for your sentences! I noticed just a few were run-on and a few were a bit short. You had characterization going on that I quite liked, and you set up the introduction very well! Overall, this was really good! Keep at it, and if, despite my delayed response, you have questions, I'm happy to try my hand at answering them!
