A day which had started out like any other, the mundane drag from bed at the constant ringing of an alarm clock. Jon, swiping his hand across his features with a melancholic demeanor as he tossed his duvet haphazardly and climbed to his feet. The hardwood flooring of his studio apartment carried the chill of the winter air as he wandered into the kitchen to start brewing a cup of coffee.
Wiping away the haze in his eyes, he’d scour the countertop for his phone to check the time. A bit past five in the morning, no wonder he’d felt so exhausted from the night before. Cramming before his exams later in the week, an acceptance letter to the University of Michigan. He felt himself so close to the prosperity of his career, the apex of his goals to become a physician’s assistant. No, he wasn’t narcissistic enough to bother with the grueling task of becoming a physician, it was close enough for him to be satisfied with.
The idle chirping of birds accompanied the brewing coffee as he proceeded towards the bathroom. Allowing the processes to continue on their own, he’d find himself in front of the mirror with a blank expression paired with the green eyes. Jon was certainly white in complexion, but carried some decent facial tone. Brown hair, curling at the ends, fell to his neck - to be found exceptionally obnoxious to comb over in the morning. His body wasn’t in the peak of physical fitness - he was toned, but the abs were hidden and he wasn’t exceptionally ripped on his physique. “You’re almost through it, you got this.” He offered himself some advice, patting the sink with some morning good-vibes. Hopping into the shower as his coffee continued to fill the pot.
Wrapping up his morning routine, a cup of coffee, some toast and a protein bar on his stomach. He’d be fleeting from his apartment, dressed for work and bag in hand, the essentials of study material, a change of scrubs and other personal items. The crisp morning air stung his cheeks as he stepped out of his apartment and onto the street. Careful of the ice that tended to accompany the sidewalks, placing his items into the back of his vehicle, a 2021 Toyota Corolla - functional, handy on the longer trips with its autonomic lane correct and great mileage. The ambient noises of the city waking up around him. He’d climb into the driver’s seat, beginning off to work.
“Cloudy skies today with a high chance of snow, we’re expecting about thirteen to fourteen inches over the course of the evening. Avoid traveling if you can.” The weatherman chirped in his ear as Jonathon drove towards his work, a sullen face accompanied the sigh.
“Avoid traveling,” He grumbled, coming to a stoplight and watching the light traffic. “I’ll keep that in mind and tell people not to call 911. Won’t stop them though..” Stretching out, coffee in his canteen and a chuckle escaping him. “Hello, yes?” Mimicked in a half-assed accent, accelerating as his light had turned green.
“I’ve been having back pain for six weeks now and I figure now at three in the morning it’d be a good time to call 911.” He’d huff, having just that call if not a few shifts prior.
His station was comfortable, housing the modified F350 with an auto-loading function and a pneumatic cot. His EMT partner for the day was one of his old time friends, William. Going through the morning routine of checking out their equipment, the vehicle’s integrity.
William was native to Michigan, knowing the weather like the back of his hand. Standing about roughly six feet, a bit on the larger side in terms of his weight. Black hair that he’d tend to wear in a short ponytail. The black scrubs the company had offered did some justice to his overall stature.
“Did you hear about the storm?” Will’s voice offered, not looking up from the first-in bag in his hands, medical supplies strewn about as he checked expirations.
“Oh, yeah, supposed to get absolutely peppered with snow. I heard thirteen over the radio, coming into work?”
“You know meteorologists toss numbers around like they’ve got any idea what’s coming.”
The two of them chuckled, Jon signing off on his narcotics as he stuffed the med-bag back into a locked compartment. Pocketing the key, Jon began to make his way from the garage. The previous crew remained, watching T.V. in the recliners after their shift had left them exhausted. Not particularly minding the extra company, he’d take his bag back into his sleeping quarters and set up the material for his tests onto his desk. Settling in for now, glancing towards the county and dispatch radios, their unimportant chatter filled his ears as he began to work.
A few hours had passed by, the storm rolling to full effect as Jon’s occasional rise from his paperwork to peer outside into the flurry of snow and ice. The howling winds drowned out by the noise of the television behind him, the previous crew and his current partner chatting about their favorite episode of Critical Role, Jon’s lips curled into a bit of a smile. He knew a thing or two about Dungeons and Dragons but never found the time to get into it. Spending some of his free time playing a few MMORPGs for their Player v Player combat. He was naturally competitive, so it came to fit his personality nicely.
“I’m telling you, Matt’s voice acting? Incredible. Honestly, it makes me wish I practiced more.” Will coughed back a laugh, slapping his leg.
“Dude’s got a pretty big range of voices!” One of the women had offered. “He’s cemented his voice acting career, I’d be surprised if he could find a place that wouldn’t hire him.”
“Practice makes perfect, yeah? Give it a shot, y’never know.” Jon had commented, walking towards the recliner and couch, setting his hand down and joining in on the conversation.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The day continued on, the previous crew had left whilst Jon and Will continued. Running the occasional emergency call between their lunch and dinner. Throughout the day, the snowstorm had turned into an absolute mess of a blizzard, whipping snow and blinding sleets. The county tones had dropped in their station, filling the hallways and primary room with the distinctive ringing and clicking of the attention grabbing alerts. Jon, turning his head on a swivel towards the radio, awaiting his dispatch information.
“Fire and Rescue, you’re requested priority one to a full arrest. I repeat, fire and rescue you are requested priority one for a full arrest. CPR in progress.”
“Fuck.” He immediately deflated, William arriving in the room shortly after the call out, throwing his scrub shirt back over his frame.
Coordinated Chaos, is how Jonathon would have done his best to describe the scene before him with the naked geriatric gentleman in front of him. Surrounded by police, firefighters and his partner at the head of the patient with the supraglottic airway device providing adequate oxygenation. He’d stare towards the leadstrips printing out in front of him, returning the patient into a sinus tachycardia after a positive pulse check. Jon climbed to his feet, waving his left hand and beginning the process of moving the unstable patient into his ambulance. It was a process not to disturb the vascular access site in his tibia. The mess of lead wires, defibrillation pads stacked ontop of a patient as he was being manhandled onto a backboard and carried through rising snow.
“Careful, keep him as level as you can. We don’t want to put any further strain on his heart. Here, hand me those straps.”
A complicated process of reviving an individual who had been presumed deceased, exhausting his medication supply of epinephrine. They were to transport this patient to the closest hospital which was twelve minutes from where the ambulance crew was. A firefighter, Nickolas, accompanied them in the rig for the transport in case the patient was to re-arrest during transport. Jon knew him for a while, they had been on many calls with one another and he knew if there was anyone he’d want to be on his truck - it’d be him. A fifty year old vet with centuries in the fire service.
“Careful pulling out of here, Will - this snow is deep.”
“Yeah, I got you. Don’t worry Junebug, we’ll get there safe and sound.”
It wasn’t exactly reassuring, a maelstrom of snow and ice separated by sheet metal and insulation of his vehicle as they were making track down what he had hoped was the road.
The road was no longer.
The ambulance began to skid towards the side, “Shit!” Will had yelled from the front as Nick did his best to brace against the airway seat. Jon, unbuckled against his better advice tried to hold onto the nest of seatbelts as the vehicle continued on without control as the sense of gravity flipping on him as Jon lifted from his seat, as did Nick - both had made eye contact before the consuming noise of plastic, glass and metal crunching into something that was beyond his line of sight. Jonathan came headfirst with the metal bar that resided above where the cot rested within the back of the ambulance. A sickening clap filled his ears with the hollow resonance of the metal, a sweeping blanket of black subsumed his vision.
Unconscious. . .
Jon erupted from his stupor with a deep breath, the stinging sensation of frigid winds holding his cheeks - the dried blood against his forehead and the screaming headache. “Concussion..” His lips furled, sourly against the thudding pain as he carefully inspected his own cervical spine stability - focusing in on his pain to ensure he wasn’t going to paralyze himself, or the hope, at least, before standing. The ambulance was resting on its right side and there was silence within the cabin. Nick had been violently thrown against the door and did not appear to be breathing, his head positioned in an abnormal way that reminded Jon of an internal decapitation. The original patient had re-arrested during the accident but this was no longer his concern. His survival was key to him walking away from this incident. “Will!”
He screamed from the cabin, crawling uncomfortably from the rolled vehicle after dropping one of the doors and examining where he was.. Backroads, likely - snow and flurried ice continued to objectively blind him from any landmarks. Carefully trailing himself towards the front of the vehicle, he’d see his partner, unconscious - but breathing. “Oh, God.”
Will did not appear to be fairing as well as he had hoped, the airbag deployed and burned the side of his features. Jon stumbled towards the rear of the vehicle again in an attempt to get ahold of the radio in the back, falling into the snow and scrambling back to a mobile position. He’d grab hold of the county radio and dispatch, “Medic 10, calling assistance. We’ve rolled over, position unknown. Please respond.”
Silence.
“Medic 10, calling assistance! Vehicle disabled, fatalities on scene. Requesting intercept, please respond.”
. . . The winds of the snowstorm blowing about him, offering some response to his pleas.
“I’m not fucking dying out here, neither are you Will, hang in there.” He’d grip Nick’s lifeless body and attempted to pull him from the space of the cabinets, the mobile radios were behind him. The size of the man made it quite difficult to peel him away, eventually finding some success and opening up the cabinet. Reaching inside, it was at this point he had noticed the rather deep laceration on his arm that spilled into his grip. Holding firmly onto the radio as he unplugged it from its port, stumbling back out of the tilted ambulance.
“Medic 10, requesting assistance. Vehicle disabled, fatalities on scene. Please respond.”
Jonathon gave it his best, stepping down the road and beginning to wander from the vehicle for some kind of signal that could break through. His equipment, damaged, his partner in a critical condition and his patient and trusted firefighter deceased. Jonathon felt truly helpless in that moment, throwing the radio down into the snow after multiple attempts.
“Fuck! God, fucking damn it! Fuck!” His aimless screams reached no one, there wasn’t a soul in his reach that could help him now. . So he thought.
As if the eye of the storm had opened up within the blizzard, the snow cleared out in an eight foot diameter around him. The scattering of flakes was blinding for that moment as someone stood within the center, an oddity could be noted within his gaze - finding it difficult to pin his attention upon the cloaked figure. Jon would’ve guessed it. not to be any taller than five and a half feet tall.
“You are without hope. Struggling in your finale. . I believe it is now that we can make a deal. One that would be of interest to the both of us.” Her voice, oddly feminine with the essence of confidence behind it. It sounded with an accent that Jon failed to place, his fingertips curling into fists as he stared at what could only have been a traumatic injury showing itself. The concussion prepared him for a hallucination before the seizure, truly, his finale in the blizzard. . But, the silence between the two of them only deepened as Jon had refused to respond.
The figure’s gloved fingertips pressed together, as she had waited patiently. “I can not interact with this world for much longer. I can save your friend, should we find a compromise.”
“Yes! Please, I need help - he’s trapped in the ambulance back.. there. .” Jonathan had turned, pointing behind him as he had found only a wall of white. Glancing around in a bit of a rushed panic as he found himself completely isolated in an eye, pinning a fixated look towards the hooded figure, she removed her hood, lowering it upon her shoulders.
The figure, straight out of what he had assumed was one of his games - an Elf, her sharpened ears piercing through the snowy threads of hair that fell beyond her shoulders. A resonance of beauty that was alien to him, smooth complexion and a pair of amethyst eyes that pierced him to the very core of his being. His soul felt the tinge of a confusion he hadn’t felt before. An interaction from an entity beyond him. The woman’s form around her, appearing to shift uncomfortably underneath the light as if she had a gravitational lensing effect upon her body, deflecting and distorting some of the light that had interacted with her.
“My name is Uriya -- let us come to a reasonable agreement, Mister White.” The Elf’s lips curled into something of an amused smile.