There was a crunch as the driver slammed the vehicle into gear, and a jolt as the ambulance began to hurtle down the busy midnight streets.
"Ten-four, we are en-route to scene." -the young male driver replied to a static-laden transmission over the wireless. The back of the ambulance rocked from side to side, instruments clacking in their receptacles and lockers as the driver weaved in and out of traffic.
"Try not to get us killed, will ya!?" -shouted a voice from the back. That voice belonged to the nurse: Lauren, or 'L' as the driver often called her. She was young, younger than most nurses, but despite that she had seen countless patients in the back of this very ambulance.
"Don't worry, L, just a few more minutes!" -came the carefree reply as the vehicle weaved to the side once more, the suspension whining. Lauren didn't know the name of the driver, even though they had been a crew for over three years now. She'd just never bothered to ask. Theirs was not the only siren wailing in the night, several others were converging on the crash. Fire trucks, police cars and ambulances would all be there. The idea of the flashing lights, confusion and chaos sent a shiver down Lauren's spine. She wrapped her hands around herself, pulling the bright yellow jacket she wore even tighter.
"I see it now, get ready back there!"
In just a few moments the ambulance screeched to a sudden halt, almost throwing Lauren off from the small plastic seat she was sitting on. As soon as she regained her balance she stood up to a low crouch and pushed against the doors. Cool air rushed in as the double doors opened, and a smell of burning gasoline, rubber, flesh and blood washed over her. She stepped down, her boots clacking on the cracked asphalt, and began to pull out the stretcher. The driver rounded the vehicle's side, appearing to help her.
It was a three-car pileup with a fourth vehicle crashed into the trees nearby, apparently having tried to avoid the bigger accident in the middle of the road. The asphalt was still slick with recent rain, and now reflected the orange embers dancing up in the smoke-tarnished sky above.
Lauren surveyed the scene, they were the second vehicle to arrive, with the first being a fire engine, whose crew was already working on putting out the blaze. The three cars were horribly mangled and engulfed by flames, ensuring no survivors there. The fourth car in the woods, however, showed signs of hope. Lauren nodded towards the fourth wreck, and the driver hurried to assist her in carrying the stretcher to the bent wreck in the treeline.
As Lauren and the driver approached, a wheezing voice echoed from the wreck. The car had crashed into a tree, sending the seatbeltless driver through the windshield. His right arm was horrible bent and twisted and his face was covered in deep cuts and bruises. Lauren and the driver set up the stretcher next to the car, then approached the driver.
"H-help...!" -was the driver's desperate cry, barely audible over the roaring flames and the distant sirens.
"Don't worry..." Lauren said, smiling her warm reassuring smile at the man. "...you'll be just fine."
The gears of the ambulance gave a familiar crunch as the driver sent the vehicle hurtling down the road once more. He and Lauren had fastened the crash victim, a middle-aged, slightly overweight man, onto the stretchers and onto the back of the ambulance. Lauren sat next to the man, surveying his wounds and appearance. The man was bleeding badly, both from cuts to his face, lips, arms and shoulders, and he was likely bleeding internally due to fractured ribs and two broken legs. Lauren raised herself over the man's head, looking into his dull eyes, and the man looked back, pleading for help. Lauren smiled again, reassuring and warm, then reached for a needle in her jacket pocket. She injected the painkiller into the man's arm, then gave him another shot to each leg. The localized effect of the painkiller should help him last long enough.
Lauren leaned over the man's face once more, his eyes were now closed and his face was taut with pain. Lauren could see the muscles of the man's face grinding his teeth as he was hanging on. She leaned in a little closer, pressing her lips over the man's. The man's eyes shot open and he coughed and sputtered in surprise.
"No, I'm breathing, no!"
Lauren withdrew, the coppery taste of blood in her mouth, and smiled once more, the shushed at the man, placing a finger over his cracked and bloody lips.
"Shh, don't worry, it's going to be all right."
The man looked bewildered, his eyes shooting from side to side as he tried to understand what was happening. He tried to raise his hands, but found them both securely strapped in place. The mere effort of trying to move his right hand caused him to gasp in pain, a gasp that Lauren returned in a much softer voice. She stood straight, as straight as she could in the cramped ambulance, and let her jacket fall off. Beneath she wore a tight pure-white tube top and nothing more. She reached into her hair, releasing the hairpin that kept her fiery-red hair in check and let it fall around her face like a stream of blood. The sirens had fallen silent and the engine had calmed down, slowing to a steady background hum.
"Am I... dead?" -the man demanded, confused.
"No, my love, not yet." -Lauren replied, as she extracted a pair of sharp scissors from a strap on the wall. She took the cool metal blades to the man's shredded and blood-soaked clothes, cutting and peeling them off his broken flesh, revealing new wounds and bruises as she went. The man's face was pale and frozen in an expression of horror, whereas his body was bloodied and hairy, his overweight form bulging slightly under the tight straps.
After finishing with his clothes, Lauren stepped back, leaning against the wall, and undid her belt, allowing her trousers to fall to the pool of blood collecting on the floor of the ambulance. The skin of her legs and thighs was pale as porcelain and underneath she wore a tiny pair of undies, pure white, with a tiny red cross stitched over her most sensitive place. The man was speechless, his head bobbing as the ambulance hit a bump on the road, and his eyes wild as they engorged on Lauren's shapely body.