Time Crunch

Each breath that Mills took sounded like a dying car. Blood seeped into the dirty ground as he used the debris and bones as a mattress.

Not able to understand his situation Mills tried to move and speak, but unable to he was only making frustrated grunts trying to get his best friend's attention.

Pain coerced through his body as he was hurt with cuts and bruises, yet he was fine compared to Mills. Frozen in place for a few seconds he tried to wrap his mind around what had just happened, and when he did understand he raced to his side. Forgetting all about why they were even running away in the first place Ed started to examine him slowly.

The problem was obvious, as a piece of rebar just smaller than a quarter in diameter was sticking out of the lower right part of Mill's abdomen. The entire pit they were in was unfinished, rusted tools, equipment, cones, and all the other debris were either lying around or stuck in the cement, it seemed as if they just tossed all their crap in during construction.

"Hey, man ... look." Ed was going to say something to comfort Mills and to the situation but before he could continue Mills let out a loud scream of pain. Even though he was in shock he still felt all of the searing burning pain.

"IT HURTS ... AGHH." Mills was trying to move and escape making Ed restrain him to prevent further damage.

"STOP, stop ... you are hurt, and stuck." Looking Mills in the eyes and explaining the situation made him stop struggling.

"Look, I learned that we shouldn't take objects out of people when they get stuck inside, so I am calling 008 and getting an ambulance out here fast." Ed was sure that Mills would survive if they did what was suggested, but it seems as if Mills disagrees as he began grunting and making noises unable to speak coherently. The rebar caused internal bleeding which is now messing with his throat making him gurgle and cough just to get some oxygen.

Quickly thinking Mills frantically pointed at a nearby skull and crossbones and then back at themselves making gross sounding noises the entire time. He seems to be getting paler even though he has a darker tan, he was soaked in blood but the bleeding stopped mostly for now. He then indicated to Ed he wanted his help in getting off of the rebar.

"What are you saying, are you crazy... " Ed did not finish his sentence as he tried to think why Mills didn't want to call the emergency services. Is he just so far in shock he is delusional or does he have a real reason.

A guttural noise reverberated out of Mill's throat, noticing this was him trying to communicate Ed's ears perked up and he tried to understand him. "Trust ... me ... death if cops ... come."

With much effort and spitting Mills said what he had to say. Ed sat there and pieced together his logic till he understood his implications. Mills was sure that this was a cover up, and if they got anyone in charge involved, they would disappear. There is no way so many children can burn to death and be covered up by cement without the powers at the top knowing and contributing to cover it up. Now Ed was on the same line of thinking, thanks to Mill's unnaturally observant suggestions.

"Damn ... what can we do?" Not sure if they were running out of time Ed looked around for anything to give him an idea. They couldn't just rip him off the rebar and get going. Ed had to find an optimal path out, something to plug his wound and a way to carry him easier to the exit. This seemed impossible, Ed's face was ashen white showing just how much confidence he's lost when he realized all he needed, but this didn't stop him from trying.

Reaffirming his resolve Ed got up and carefully yet hurridley looked for something to help. He needed something as thin as the rebar pipe but not connected to the floor, so he tried various tools and whatnot but not one of them was small enough.

That was until he looked lower on the floor. Looking at some of the bones free of concrete Ed saw how some were the exact diameter as the rebar. Even though he knew this might be wrong he picked up some of the bones and compared them to the metal spike in Eds abdomen.

One of them matched perfectly, now he needed something that will help him carry his friend. Looking around for something to help Ed stepped on a crunchy surface that gave way a fair bit. Looking down he noticed a dull blue with a lot of concrete covering something. It was a dirty tarp full of concrete and it was something that he needed.

Crunching and stomping on the tarp Ed made it flexible again dragging it back to to fall point. Mills wasn't looking well and Ed was worried. It looked like he was running out of time. There might be no way to find a safe exit, he just had to execute his plan now and run with Mills blind in the dark, also avoiding whoever was plopping.

"Hey Mills, buddy, your not gonna like what comes next." Placing the blue tarp next to his friend he got into a position to remove him from his iron prison.

"Agghhhhh." Even just shifting a little to position themselves to remove the rebar Mills hurt, a lot.

"Okay on the count of 5"

"1 ... 2." Ed moved in a quick jerking motion with all of his strength before he even finished saying two.

Instead of a huge scream a gurgling high pitched and quiet shriek left his mouth. He was paralyzed in pain gasping for breath as it was hard to find any oxygen, but Ed couldn't slow done, especially not now when he's bleeding a bunch. He quickly took the small bone and stuck it through Mill's open wound with great effort.

Mills screamed and struggled with a few gurgled stops leaving his mouth, but before no time Ed plugged Mill's wound and rolled him up like a taco in the blue tarp. He then used a steel pipe to secure both ends of the tarp with Mills inside. He picked him up and wore him like a cape while holding onto the steel pipe. He knew they had to be lucky today to survive, so Ed choose to go down one of the only 2 only ways to exit the pit they fell in. They seemed to be in the basement's basement and Ed knew he had to go up with Mills still on his back. Ed didn't know if he was physically fit enough but he was going to die of exhaustion trying to if so be.

While going down one of the hallways Ed saw makeshift stairs going up to the basement. He climbed the stairs with much effort to only find himself coming out of a rusted hatch in a janitors closet located in the basement.

"Call ... the police ... nearby, I'm dying." Mills was able to get out another sentence looking, he was looking for ways to get help sooner.

"Alright." With a simple confirmation Ed dialled 008 and got an operator on the phone while climbing the real basement's steps.

" Hello, yeah the emergencies my friend he's hurt, yeah, mmhmm, were located outside the building, he was impaled by a rusty rod, 10 minutes away, okay ...." Talking on the phone to the operator while dragging Mills up the steps made Ed exhausted. He felt light headed and he was sweaty, a headache was setting in as he tried to maintain his concentration.

Luckily these steps and the foundation has less water damage than the way they came from. The infrastructure was usable making Ed thankful he didn't waste time looking for a safe path.

It took about a few more minutes before they found familiar geometry, all they had to do after getting to the ground floor was follow the water damage. Rushing for the exist so they didn't get caught inside the building almost took Ed out. His muscles were giving away, he tasted lead in his mouth, he kept needing to spit out sticky fluid that wasn't mucus, it wasn't looking like he would last.

"Ed ... Were close ... so close." Hearing Mill's voice fade out gave Ed his last burst of energy to keep going, and after 2 minutes they were just that, outside. Dragging Mills with his last strength Ed made it to the street and collapsed, it was just in time to as 40 seconds later an ambulance came with its sirens blaring. During those 40 seconds Ed threw all the stuff down a well nearby. Before they had a complete visual site on them Ed also ripped the bone out of Mills and whipped it into the forest. Three police cars escorted the emergency vehicle making Ed nervous, especially with how close they cut it. Mills had also lost consciousness at this point as he had lost too much blood.

Rolling up and quickly exiting the vehicle with medical supplies and a gurney the paramedics went straight into action asking questions, which Ed answered them all. All until the police started asking questions where Ed found himself lying.

"So what were you two doing in there." One of the police officers who had been on the phone at the side the whole time had begun asking Ed questions.

"We weren't in there sir." Adamant about his answer and with almost no hints of lying Ed kept his story up.

"Are you sure than what happened to your buddy here, did he not get hurt inside." The police officer was using a sickly sweet tone of voice making Ed scared as he thought he was trying to find out if he had seen anything.

Ed pointed to a hill with a lot of trees surrounding it and gave the best excuse he could think of. "He fell."

"Uh huh." Is all the officer said as he walked away to keep calling whoever he was in contact with.

All Ed could think at this time was 'were dead'.