Amy Bechtel: In Fortune's Hand

The copter touched down near the wreckage and settled, blades whispering to a stop. Lupe opened the door and the night air swept in, full of the scent of juniper and sage. Jack and Lupe jumped out and began setting up lights; Darcy stopped Ria and said softly, “You up to this?”

Ria nodded, not trusting herself to speak, and stepped out into the night.

It was cold and bitter outside, with a high wind that cut through clothing and sent shadows bobbing before the emergency lights. Ria and Darcy ran to the crashed car, bearing cutters and jaws and the medical kit. The car had come to a rest half on its side, leaning against a screen of thorny bushes. Lupe had already scrambled up to the driver’s door to peer in.

“What do you see?” Darcy called.

“The woman’s dead. She matches the description of Mary Arden.”

“What about the children?”

“No sign. All I see is the woman. She’s wedged in tight.”

“You two start cutting her out,” Darcy said. “Ria and I’ll look for the kids.”

“Right.”

Darcy caught Ria’s arm, put a light into her hand, and pulled her away from the main body of the wreckage. They cast out away from the car, moving in slow, awkward circles. The rough ground, the steep slope, the cacti and thorny bushes all made the search difficult, and they found pieces of metal and glass scattered across a huge area. Behind them they heard the noise of the cutters and the jaws, as Jack and Lupe set about the task of extracting Mary Arden from the wreckage. Darcy moved fast, scanning everywhere, her movements controlled but urgent. Ria, following, tried to feel the urgency, but could not. No one could have survived this crash, and there was no need to hurry for the dead.

They found the little boy, Daniel, lying in the middle of a clump of bushes, his clothes snagged by thorns. Soft, Ria thought dazedly. The bushes looked soft, like pillows. Daniel was utterly motionless, a limp horizontal statue, stiff and cold. There was hardly a mark on him, but he was dead.

Ria pushed her way into the thorny clump, and she and Darcy lifted Daniel out of the bushes and laid him gently on the ground.

They stood still for a few seconds, looking down at the boy, listening to the soft mutter of voices on the radio, the whine of the jaws working on the car. Jack and Lupe were still struggling to extricate the dead woman; it did not sound as if things were going well.

“Come on,” Darcy said quietly. “We’ll come back for him later. There’s still a chance for the girl.”

Their circles grew wider and wider, but they found nothing. Ria stumbled on a half-buried shard of metal and fell against a cactus, impaling her arm with daggerlike inch-long thorns. Feeling nothing, she pulled her arm free, picked up her fallen light, and trudged on. Behind her, Darcy stopped, picking up the piece of metal to examine it. “Ria!” she called. “I think we’ve gone too far; we’d better circle back and start over. We must’ve missed her.”

“Pieces of metal flew this far,” Ria said. “We must still be in the range.”

“I don’t think so,” Darcy said. “I don’t think this debris is from the car.”

They were on a slope far below the main accident site; Ria looked up toward the site and shivered, realizing for the first time how far they had come. She crossed her arms in front of her, gazing at the faraway lights, which flashed between the windblown bushes like stars. She looked up at the real stars, then quickly looked away as Darcy shoved the piece of metal into her hands.

“Feel that. It’s metal, but it’s pliable. Just molds from one shape to the next. Sure as hell doesn’t look like it’s from a car.” Darcy paused, momentarily indecisive, then abruptly turned around. “Let’s start back. I’m sure we’ve gone too far.”

Ria slipped the piece of metal into her pocket and had just turned to follow Darcy when the radio’s alarm went off. Lupe’s voice followed it. “We’ve found the girl; she’s still alive. Come in fast.”

Ria froze for an instant, unbelieving, then began to run. Where could Jack and Lupe have found her? And how could she be alive? Ria stumbled and fell, landing heavily in the dirt, and the light in her hand shattered and went dark. Shaken, Ria looked up: the stars weaved and bobbed drunkenly above the desert floor. Ria pulled herself to her hands and knees, feeling sick and dizzy. The stars still moved in pulsing waves, like the sea. The cruel sea.

“Ria!” It was Darcy’s voice, echoing in her ears, Darcy tugging at her arm. “Are you OK? We have to move!”

“I’m OK. Just fell.” Ria leaned on Darcy and clambered to her feet. If she was careful to look only at the ground, she could move, and she let Darcy guide her in a quick jog to the copter. There a myriad of lights cast back the shadows, and she saw Lupe and Jack with a stretcher bearing a small form. The girl, Jenny, lay beneath the insulated blanket, not only alive but aware, her expression dazed and pained. Ria stared at her in astonishment. Impossible that Jenny should be alive, yet she was.

Ria joined the others as they lifted the girl into the copter and latched the stretcher in place. Ria’s movements were entirely automatic. She helped Darcy place the IV lines and warming units while Jack and Lupe fastened the last of the straps.

“Where’d you find her?” Darcy asked, clipping an IV bag to an overhead mount.

“In the car,” Lupe said breathlessly. “Wedged under her mother. We didn’t even see her till we got the woman out. Everybody ready?”

“Ready,” Darcy said.

“OK we’re off.” Lupe scrambled to the controls, and seconds later the copter lurched gently and lifted from the ground. Ria gasped and fell against the door, clinging to it. Jack, looking worried, reached for her to steady her, but before he could touch her she pulled away from him and jumped out of the copter to the ground.

“Ria!” Jack called. “What’s the matter? Lupe, wait—”

“What’s going on back there?” Lupe shouted.

“I’m staying,” Ria called out. She couldn’t go, she couldn’t, and they must not wait for her or argue with her, not with Jenny—“Leave me here. Go!”

There was confusion for a moment, voices calling back and forth; then the sound of the copter began to fade away. Ria lay face down on the ground, clutching at the dirt and grass, hanging on for dear life. The noise of the copter died completely away, leaving her all alone. She let herself cry then, tears sinking into the ground beneath her. She looked up once, but the stars were still there, glaring down at her horribly, and she flinched away from them and pressed her face into the dirt.

It was a long time before she realized that she was not alone after all. She heard soft footsteps in the sand and gravel nearby, and became aware of a dim light beyond her closed eyelids. Slowly she pushed herself up from the dirt and opened her eyes. The sky was dull gray, waiting for dawn; the stars had faded and vanished. Darcy was walking past her, carrying the dead boy. Ria sat up and watched as Darcy wrapped a blanket around his small body and laid him next to his mother. The corners of the blankets stirred and waved in the dawn breeze. Ria swallowed hard and looked away. Down the hill she saw a rabbit, darting back and forth in the scrub brush, and a lizard, sitting still atop a rock. The lizard made her think of Paul, running out of a fire with an armload of the creatures, and she turned back to Darcy, who had finished with the bodies and now came to sit at Ria’s side.

“How do you feel?” Darcy asked.

Ria stared at her blankly. “I don’t know,” she said. “Where are the others?”

“They took Jenny on to the hospital. Should be back for us soon.” Darcy gave Ria an appraising look, as if wondering if she’d be able to get off the ground.