Gareth reached the edge just as Jeremy was descending. He saw the crushed remains of a white truck, a bright orange rock on top of it, and multiple cars surrounding it, drivers and their passengers in various conditions. From what he could tell, there would be very few survivors, possibly none.

He started down after Jeremy, trying to be as careful as possible with the ten-foot climb. When he finally reached the bottom, he witnessed Jeremy attempting to pry open a car door to save someone who was crying out.

Gareth’s stomach lurched when he noticed the person was missing an arm and half their face. As he looked around, he noticed much worse. One unlucky person hadn’t had their seatbelt on when their car fell nose-first into the crater. Gareth couldn’t tell if it was a man or woman. His stomach emptied at the sight.

The person – it was a man, Gareth noticed after he was able to focus – Jeremy was trying to save screamed in pain as the door swung open.

“Make it stop! Please, god!”

“Gareth, get over here and help me!”

Damn it, why am I doing this? I could be on my way home right now and just have this be something I hear about in the news tomorrow. So why, damn it?

Gareth ran over.

“What do you need me to do?”

“He’s bleeding out and his seatbelt’s stuck. I can’t get him out on my own, and not from this side. The only other door that will open is stuck against the wall and I won’t fit, but you should be able to. Take my multitool, climb in, and do what you can to get the seatbelt off.”

Gareth looked at the tool the was placed in his hand, then at the ajar passenger door.

“…there’s someone else in there.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Jeremy looked him in the eye.

“I know. But we can’t do anything for them. All we can do is save one person. I can only do it if you help me, so I need you to be strong and climb in there.”

He tried to swallow, but found his mouth was completely dry. He moved to the door.

“This is awful and goes against everything I just said. I don’t know why I’m doing this.”

Jeremy mirthlessly chuckled as he tried to tie off the man’s missing arm.

“It’s because you’re a good person. I’m counting on you to do what you can.”

Gareth squeezed in, trying to ignore the wetness he felt on his back and the squishing under his feet. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath that he immediately regretted, and pushed himself the rest of the way in. He opened his eyes and found himself staring directly at the half of the man’s face that was missing and nearly vomited again. Instead, he looked down toward the seatbelt and got to work.

It was crushed, the metal likely bent, making it impossible to simply unbuckle it and be done. He looked at the multitool, trying to determine what the best one would be.

He carries this on him at work? I thought he said he had no weapons.

He flipped out the little scissors on it and got to work.

Alright, it’s not really a weapon, there isn’t even a knife on it. But it can still certainly be used.

He slowly cut through the fabric.

At least it’s working. It probably won’t be for nothing.

A few minutes passed as the blades worked their way down.

Three-quarters of the way. Almost there.

The scissors snipped through the last bit and the seatbelt came away.

“Good job! Now I’m going to try to lift him out, and I’ll need you to get his legs, alright?”

“Okay.”

Jeremy reached under the man’s arms and started pulling him out. As he did, Gareth tried to center himself, and looked out toward the object that had crashed. A large, orange, glowing material. He had no clue what it was. As he was looking, he noticed something about three inches large come off of it and start rolling along the ground.

Then he realized it wasn’t rolling, it was crawling. Then jumping. Flying.

Some kind of bug. What is that?

A bright orange thing, the same color as the rock.

It was headed straight for Jeremy.

“Hey, be careful!”

As he yelled out, the bug reached Jeremy and landed on his neck.

“What the fuck is this? Get it off!”

It began to burrow in, Jeremy clawing at his neck.

Another one came off and jumped onto the man they were trying to save, crawling into the stump of his arm.

Gareth made himself as small as he could and hid.