novelxo Chapter 8: Ambulance Chaser
The ambulance screeched round the corner into Maynard Street. Sirens pronounced its imminent arrival, just before the blue lights showed in the mirrors of the cars. So they hastily pulled in to let it pass, but the drivers found their path blocked again when they tried to pull out. For this time there was car in hot pursuit; of the medical emergency on wheels. The driver of this second carriage held the road with an uncanny skill, never more than a heart beat away from the lead vehicle. He reached for the other radio, the one on the dashboard. Next to it sat the photo card, proclaiming him to be Mr G. Harvester. This radio didn’t pick up the normal commercial stations, but was tuned to the emergency frequencies. Frequencies set aside purely for their exclusive use.
The speaker crackled, and out came a voice. “Got a critical three o two on rout to St. James. Our E.T.A. is ten minutes, please have a trauma team ready over.” The driver left the channel open, and lit the cigarette already between his lips thinking quickly. “This one might make it”, he calculated the potential profits for tonight. “One in Bethnal green, two on the strand. And this one if he turns out to be good one, not a bad haul.”
He thought back to the accident. A bike squashed underneath a four by four, very nasty. And when he got there, the patient was all the way across the road. He must have been flung about thirty feet at least. He couldn’t get too close, but from the glimpses he did get, chap looked in a bad way. But then these cases always did, and all that leather and the helmet didn’t help. “Give me a pedestrian any day, easier to spot diagnose.”
The ambulance turned into Hogarth rise, and over the radio came a new message. “We’re losing him, I think his hearts stopped” “Well use the defibrillator.” What luck their radio had been jammed on some how. Now he would get a blow-by-blow update. “Clear, not yet” “Well try again” “O.K. he’s back” “Keep him stable we’re nearly there.” “If he needed that he must be in a bad way”, mused the driver as he chased his blue flashing prey.
He recalled again the start of this chase, the driver was sobbing. She was still sat in her car as the trolley wheeled past. He couldn’t see the face too well, as there was too much padding and he was strapped down. Then he recalled, all the limbs were there but there was a lot of padding on the right leg. It was soaked in blood. How long could he last losing that much? “Done the blood match” “Yes A B negative, I’ve got the drip going.” So he was bleeding like a stuck pig, or they’d not need that. The driver still weighed up the odds on his prey reaching hospital, alive or not.
What they could do with technology these days. There was that woman who died five times on the journey, and still made it there alive. She didn’t last long though of course, but he didn’t go inside. That was somebody else’s job.
The ambulance was in to the home strait now, as it tore down Mornington crescent. He had to move quickly to keep up. Then screeching to a halt the doors of the ambulance flew open, and he stopped just in time to be a respectful distance away. The doctors rushed out then. As he waited tensely he heard the words over the jammed radio. “Too late”, and a slower team emerged and shut the door. “Off to the mortuary then.”
Their pursuer, who still sat a short distance away, wasn’t staring at the departing Ambulance. He was looking at the pale figure floating in mid air, where the vehicle had just been. It sat up and looked bemused. It was only then that the driver pulled forward, and raised the small for hire sign on his dashboard. As he drew near to the confused figure, he wound down the window. “You look like you could do with a ride mate, hop in.” And opening the door, he beckoned the spectral figure in, which was now standing mere inches from the floor. The recently passed on slid unsteadily across the seat, as the driver continued. “So where we off to, you got after life insurance?” Glancing at the figures neck he noticed the glowing cross. “Up there then” and he set off.
The driver immediately began the type of patter; heard from the front of every black cab. “Of course there are a few policies you can buy in to. But yours is pretty standard round here. Though the other week I got a Buddhist. That was a short trip. Maternity hospitals only round the corner.′ “Is this it?” enquired his fare. “No some choose to walk, wander the earth for ever. I don’t see the point to it my self, and of course there’s those who don’t believe. They just fade away, but I pity the bad ones. I don’t pick them up. They’ve got their own special ride, all the way down”, and he shuddered.
“So got your fare?” Searching his pockets, the passenger found two coins to his surprise. Which he held up. “Cheers just drop them in here” proffering his gloves hand. “Any change?” asked the man in the back. “Only if you’re a Cyclops, thought not.” Slowly the car faded into a wall, until only the number plate glowed faintly Reaper 1. Then it was gone.