The Rescue - Nicholas Sparks [9]
A doe, fully grown, facing the oncoming headlights, frozen by uncertainty.
They were going too fast to stop, but instinct prevailed and Denise slammed on the brakes. She heard the screeching of tires, felt the tires lose their grip on the rain-slicked surface, felt the momentum forcing the car forward. Still, the doe did not move. Denise could see its eyes, two yellow marbles, gleaming in the darkness. She was going to hit it. Denise heard herself scream as she turned the wheel hard, the front tires sliding, then somehow responding. The car began to move diagonally across the road, missing the deer by a foot. Too late to matter, the deer finally broke from its trance and darted away safely, without looking back.
But the turn had been too much for the car. She felt the wheels leave the surface of the asphalt, felt the whump as the car slammed to the earth again. The old shocks groaned violently with the bounce, a broken trampoline. The cypress trees were less than thirty feet off the highway. Frantically Denise turned the wheel again, but the car rocketed forward as if she’d done nothing. Her eyes went wide and she drew a harsh breath. It seemed as if everything were moving in slow motion, then at full speed, then slow motion again. The outcome, she suddenly realized, was foregone, though the realization lasted only a split second. At that moment she blasted into the tree; heard the twisting of metal and shattering of glass as the front of the car exploded toward her. Because the seat belt was across her lap and not over her shoulder, her head shot forward, slamming into the steering wheel. A sharp, searing pain in her forehead . . .
Then there was nothing.
Chapter 3
“Hey, lady, are you all right?”
With the sound of the stranger’s voice, the world came back slowly, vaguely, as if she were swimming toward the surface in a cloudy pool of water. Denise couldn’t feel any pain, but on her tongue was the salty-bitter taste of blood. She still didn’t realize what had happened, and her hand traveled absently to her forehead as she struggled to force her eyes open.
“Don’t move . . . I’m gonna call an ambulance. . . .”
The words barely registered; they meant nothing to her. Everything was blurry, moving in and out of focus, including sound. Slowly, instinctively, she turned her head toward the shaded figure in the corner of her eyes.
A man . . . dark hair . . . yellow raincoat . . . turning away . . .
The side window had shattered, and she felt the rain blowing in the car. A strange hissing sound was coming from the darkness as steam escaped from the radiator. Her vision was returning slowly, starting with the images closest to her. Shards of glass were in her lap, on her pants . . . blood on the steering wheel in front of her . . .
So much blood . . .
Nothing made sense. Her mind was weaving through unfamiliar images, one right after another. . . .
She closed her eyes and felt pain for the first time . . . opened them. Forced herself to concentrate. Steering wheel . . . the car . . . she was in the car . . . dark outside . . .
“Oh God!”
With a rush, it all came back. The curve . . . the deer . . . swerving out of control. She turned in her seat. Squinting through the blood in her eyes, she focused on the backseat—Kyle wasn’t in the car. His safety seat was open, as was the back door on his side of the car.
Kyle?
Through the window she shouted for the figure who’d awakened her . . . if there had been a figure. She wasn’t quite sure whether he had been just a hallucination.
But he was there, and he turned. Denise blinked . . . he was making his way toward her. A moan escaped her lips.
Later she’d remember that she wasn’t frightened right away, not the way she should have been. She knew Kyle was okay; it didn’t even register that he might not be. He’d been strapped in—she was sure of it—and there wasn’t any damage in the back. The back door was already open . . . even