Young Writers Society

Second Always Comes Last

Ambulance

(18)

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Fate will decide this soldiers death. Whether he lives or dies is dependant on a force greater than our own. We are merely aiding the course of death in its decision. We are merely presenting it an opportunity.

The wheels were clamped firmly on the shopping trolley. They would not turn off course. I had received the call from Shane. Oskar's fate was imminent.

Perhaps it was sad, watching one of our own go; riding away to the beautiful choice of demise. We had made Oskar one of us, and perhaps if he had become one of us on his own will it would have resulted in something different. Perhaps this soldier never would have fallen. Either way, he had us to thank. If now was the time for his death, then it would be just as miraculous as Sir’s had been. Death cannot be tossed around so easily, and if it is a gift given to you then it is far more precious than if it had found you itself. Oskar would be a soldier remembered. The media would eat him up. Oskar had a beautiful fate.

We heard the sirens first. That was the cue. The ambulance was on its way out, summoned to a medical emergency. However it too was in for a pleasant surprise. The emergency was closer than it expected.

I let my fists curl away from the grip on the trolley and pushed gently. It took the the hill, gaining at an incredible speed.

Toward the hospital, toward the light, toward the path of the impending ambulance, we watched Oskar ride to his death.

We were already concealed when they collided. The casket that was the harbinger of his fate and the vehicle that could possibly save him. As they collided Beauregard let out a glorified yelp of glee. Darny rubbed his fingers together gently, and I just started, my heart sinking deep into my chest. I couldn’t focus my mind to honour Oskar. I couldn’t bring myself to be happy for him. I couldn’t celebrate alongside him. Hutcheon’s phone-call was still haunting my mind.

We are not murderers.

Fate would change that.

We stripped out identities, stuffing the masks, plastic helmets and heavy cloaks into Darany’s backpack as the members of the ambulance scurried below us to pick through the debris of what they had just caused. We had left them more than one message.

‘He is certainly dead,’ Darany said softly as we started our walk back to headquarters. Nathaniel whistled.

‘Osky’s a trouper. He’s not dead quite yet! He will take a heroes last stand.’ He flicked his whitish hair backward so casually, glancing at the both of our silence with a fading smile which quickly folded into pinched lips of disgust.

‘You’d die far more easily, Darany. I bet it won’t even be majestic when you die. You’ll just fade out like nothing more than an old person.’ He continued to skip ahead, singing his words quite loudly now.

‘You never say anything much~ You’re words never even touch anyone’s ears Mr. Darany. No-one would notice much if you died~’

I decided to intervene and tried to touch on Beau’s interest while diverting the subject.

“It’s Oskar’s moment, isn’t it?” I ask him. “We don’t need to talk about Darany dying.”

Nathaniel shot me a stare that froze my blood. His saturated lips were grinning but his eyes were furious, his pupils had shrunk into bright pins inside their pale blue shell.

‘You are such a spoiler every time, Na-za-i. I don’t know who you think you are, but you shouldn’t try and take Cameron’s place. Your death will be boring too. Or maybe it will be ironic. Maybe a Nazi zombie will come and kill you.’

I roll my eyes, but the mention of the word ironic made my stomach turn. Was it ironic what had just happened? Not that that Oskar could have been potentially killed by that which was to save lives, but also that we had not killed Hutcheon’s coach. I had decided to fate Oskar to death on the premises that I was already a murderer. Yet we were not... but I still did it.

I still did it without hesitation. That wasn’t me. I would never kill anyone.

But had I?

The coach had died of a heart attack, and we had no way of knowing if Oskar had survived the unlikely collision... but with both instances, even if no-one died, did that still make me a murderer? As far as it was true to my heart, both of them were dead. And dead at my hands.

We were about halfway back when my phone rang. Shane again. But why?

“Commander?”

‘Nazza!!’ Daniels voice. His vocals were strained. ‘Shane, you know.. he... ah, when..’

“Slow down.”

‘I wan to to explain...’ Daniel started but his voice was barely comprehensible. ‘The ambulance hasn’t arrived yet. It’s been almost thirty minutes.’

“It wasn’t supposed to arrive, remember.” I contradict. “We called it out so it could take out Oskar.”

‘That’s not what we planned. The probability of it working were.... really.. slim.’ Whatever Daniel had been stressed about had now turned into a voice of elongated sorrow.

‘It... worked? You actually did it?’

“Yes.”

‘Oh god... you actually did it...’ He paused. ‘Just come. Just get here asap. Fast.’ The line ended. I shoved my phone back into my pocket and changed my direction. I began to sprint toward the school.

-

“Chen!?” The school felt so alien when it was empty. All the curtains drawn, all the windows darkened. Coming here on a holiday was not something I would usually do, but this was where Shane and Daniel had planned to call from...

“Shane!? Shane Chen!? Daniel?” My voice reaped no reply. I hurried back and straddled over the stone wall. It would be easier to run around the parameter... I hear a small siren and glance behind me down the long road. I can see an ambulance at the lights, undoubtedly a different one than the one that had caused our accident because this one is smaller, more like a rescue truck.

I hurried, racing the vehicle as I cut directly across the ground to the back field. There they were, two huddled boys at the far end by the construction and cricket pitches. The medic van was just crunching down the narrow drive behind the grass when Daniel waved me over. He had blood on his hands.

“What happened?”

Daniel galloped over to me as the medics unloaded their van. One yelled out toward him, but the rest hurried to the path obscured by the fence.

‘Shane wouldn’t let me do it...’ He wiped his hands on his clothing, then wiped the tears beneath his eyes. The blood smeared to his cheeks.

‘We needed to call an ambulance so the plan would work. However you can get in big trouble and big fines if you do it for nothing... so I was going to cause myself a minor wound, one that would only need a bandage, as long as it looked bad enough so calling an ambulance would be justified and we wouldn’t get fined.’

‘You two boys.’ A tangled bearded nurse approached us, ripping a pair of gloves from his fingers and fanning them out. ‘You guys were here? Present when the accident happened? We will need to ask you some questions.’

Daniel slumped to his knees at my feet, the nurse tried to help him up but she shrugged it off, still sobbing to me.

‘But I was scared and then Shane got worried about me and then he tried to snatch the iron edge away and think of a better solution.’

‘Then what happened?’ the medic had put on a consoling voice and was rubbing Swanson’s back despite the fact he wasn’t even talking to him. Daniel met my eyes.

‘He misjudged the force needed to pull away. He grabbed it too forcefully and it flew into his face. The sharp corner of the corrugation sliced right into his face.’