As the car veered onto the highway, the scene changed dramatically. The once-busy thoroughfare was now a ghost of its former self, lined with abandoned vehicles and overgrown vegetation. Ethan navigated carefully, his eyes constantly moving between the road and the rearview mirror.

Milana, seated beside him, kept a vigilant watch. "It's like the world just stopped," she remarked, her voice a mixture of awe and sadness.

Lily, in the backseat, pressed her face against the window, her eyes wide as she took in the desolate landscape. "It's so quiet," she whispered, a hint of fear in her voice.

They drove in silence for about thirty minutes, the only sound being the hum of the car's engine and the occasional rustling of leaves in the breeze. Suddenly, Ethan slowed the car to a stop. Ahead, a mass of twisted metal and shattered glass blocked the highway. The remnants of a catastrophic crash sprawled before them, a chilling result of the chaos that had ensued during the outbreak.

Milana leaned forward, her eyes scanning the wreckage. "We can't get through this," she said, her voice tense.

Ethan surveyed the scene, his brow furrowed in thought. "We'll have to find another way around," he decided, reaching for the gear shift.

That's when they heard it — a faint, desperate cry for help, piercing the calm of the morning.

Ethan's hands clenched the steering wheel tighter, his mind racing with paranoia. What was that? The cry seemed to echo from the nearby mangled cars, a place where unknown danger could easily be lurking. He glanced at Lily, sitting in the passenger seat. Her wide, innocent eyes met his, filled with a mix of fear and empathy.

"Should we... should we see if they need help?" Lily's voice was small, yet her concern was evident.

Ethan hesitated, weighing the risks. He couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right. "I don't know, Lily. It could be dangerous," he said, his voice laced with worry.

"But what if someone is really hurt?" Lily's voice quivered slightly, her own experiences of needing help not long forgotten. "What if they need someone, just like I needed someone?"

Her words struck a chord in Ethan. He remembered the day he found Lily, scared and alone. How could he ignore another cry for help now? With a deep breath, he slowly shifted the car into park and unbuckled his seatbelt.

"Okay, I'll check it out. But you guys stay here where it's safe, okay?" Ethan said, trying to mask his anxiety with a tone of reassurance.

Lily nodded, her small hands gripping the edge of her seat. "Be careful, Ethan."

Milana and Lily watched as Ethan got out and cautiously approached the mangled cars. The voice grew louder, more urgent. "Help me, please!"

Ethan located the source — a man trapped inside an overturned car, his leg pinned under the dashboard. Blood stained his clothes, and pain etched his features.

Milana, after an initial hesitation, was unable to stay put and decided to follow Ethan out, with Lily close behind. "Ethan, what do we do?" she asked, her voice laced with panic.

Ethan turned and saw them standing there. His first instinct was to reprimand them for not listening, for following him into what could have been a dangerous situation. He opened his mouth, ready to express his concern for their safety, but the urgency of the moment overtook him.

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This was not the time for lectures. He turned back to the injured man, pushing his frustration aside. "We need to try and free his leg," he said, focusing on the task at hand, his voice steady despite the adrenaline surging through him.

Milana nodded, her eyes scanning the area for something to pry the dashboard off the man's leg. Lily stood a safe distance away, her eyes wide with fear but filled with a desire to help.

Ethan and Milana worked together, trying to leverage the dashboard with a piece of metal they found nearby. The man groaned in pain, his face contorted.

"Just hang on, we're trying to get you out," Ethan reassured him, pushing against the metal with all his strength.

The dashboard began to give way, creaking under the pressure. Milana, using another piece of metal, wedged it in further, creating enough space for the man to pull his leg free.

With a final effort, they managed to free the man's leg. He cried out in relief and pain, collapsing back against the seat.

As they carefully extracted the man from the twisted wreckage, a harsh reality dawned upon them. Once the pressure on the man's leg was relieved, it became alarmingly clear that his injury was critical. The leg, mangled and bleeding profusely, was a horrible sight, far worse than anything they had encountered before. The sudden rush of blood indicated a significant injury, possibly to a major artery.

Milana's face blanched at the sight. "We need to stop the bleeding, now!" she exclaimed, her voice shaking with urgency.

Ethan, his own face paling, nodded in agreement. "Lily, stay back," he called out, his voice firm yet calm to avoid alarming the young girl.

Lily, who had followed them at a distance, stopped in her tracks, her eyes wide with shock and fear. She watched, helpless, as Ethan sprang into action.

Ethan quickly ran back to their car and started rummaging through it, quickly retrieving their makeshift medical kit. He ran back with it and handed Milana a clean cloth, which she immediately pressed against the wound, applying pressure in an attempt to stem the flow of blood.

The injured man, his face contorted in pain, let out a groan. "It hurts," he gasped, his voice weak.

"We know, just hang on," Ethan replied, his voice steady but filled with concern. He looked around, assessing their surroundings for any sign of danger while Milana tended to the man.

Milana, her hands stained with blood, worked with a focused intensity. "We need to make a tourniquet," she said, her voice strained. She tore a strip of fabric from a nearby piece of clothing and, with Ethan's help, tied it tightly above the wound.

The man's breathing was labored, and his face was ashen. Ethan and Milana exchanged worried glances. The severity of the injury was beyond their basic medical knowledge, and the situation was deteriorating rapidly.

The urgency of the situation escalated as Ethan and Milana noticed the tourniquet becoming quickly stained with blood, the crimson hue spreading rapidly across the fabric. Despite their best efforts to stem the bleeding, more blood gushed out, forming a small, growing pool on the car floor. Panic and helplessness gripped them as they realized the seriousness of the man's condition.

Milana's hands, trembling and slick with blood, tried desperately to tighten the tourniquet, but the blood seemed unstoppable. Ethan, equally frantic, searched the medical kit for anything else that might help, but their supplies were rudimentary at best.

The man's groans of pain gradually subsided into weak, labored breaths. His eyes, once filled with pain and fear, began to glaze over, a haunting resignation settling in them. Milana and Ethan exchanged a look of dread; they both understood what was happening but still refused to voice it.

Lily, sensing the shift in the atmosphere, stepped forward tentatively, her small voice breaking the tense silence. "Is he going to be okay?" she asked, innocently.

Before either could answer, a chilling stillness filled the car. The man's chest had stopped heaving, his breaths ceasing altogether. Ethan reached over, checking for a pulse, his own heart sinking as he found none.

Ethan withdrew his hand, a heavy silence enveloping them with the unspoken truth: the man was gone.