The One You Fear (16 page)

‘Alison.’

‘My name’s Sam.’ He placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder while trying to think. His body was on overdrive. As a cardiothoracic surgeon he was used to dealing with emergency situations, but nothing like this. He looked left, then right down the line. No trains. But he would have to be quick. ‘Is that your mum down there?’

Alison nodded, sniffling. ‘She said she wants to die. I didn’t know she was going to drive on there. Please, help.’

‘It’s going to be okay,’ he promised, hurriedly picking his way through the broken fence. Alison began to follow but he gestured at her to stop. ‘You’ll be safer staying here.’

‘Jessica’s in the back,’ she sobbed.

‘Right,’ he replied, turning back to the car. Now he looked more closely, he could see something in the back seat. ‘Just wait there. Everything will be okay, I promise.’

Alison nodded, but already Sam was scrambling down the bank, his hands brushing against stinging nettles as he tried to keep his balance. He raced onto the track and up to the car. Now he, too, was in the impact zone for any approaching train. He would have to act quickly. He pulled at the door handle.

Locked.

‘Open the door,’ he shouted at the woman inside. She appeared slightly older than him: maybe late thirties. She looked utterly vacant, staring straight ahead at the track, not even acknowledging his presence. He banged on the glass. Without her co-operation, this could end very badly. ‘Open the door, please.’

He peered through the back window. There were two young children in the rear, a boy and a girl about a year old, strapped into booster seats. The child nearest to him met his gaze. They’d both been crying; their reddened faces were tear-stained, but they seemed calm now.

Sam looked back at the woman. Then he noticed the handcuffs attached to the steering wheel. What the hell? This hadn’t been a spur of the moment suicide attempt; this was well planned. It would make things so much harder. ‘Christ.’

He looked down the track, which turned off at an angle a few hundred metres ahead. This was no longer just a matter of coaxing her out of the car. Blood was pulsing in his head as his heart raced. He thrust his hand into his pocket for his mobile, but it wasn’t there. It was in his jacket, on the front seat of his car.

‘So stupid,’ he said, chastising himself for not picking it up at the time. There was no time to go back.

He tried to push the car, straining until his body felt like it was about to explode with the effort. But the handbrake was on, and his feet slid on the stones between the tracks, denying him any grip. The vehicle just rocked back and forwards. Sam turned back to the woman. ‘I know how you must be feeling,’ he pleaded, ‘but you don’t want to kill your children, do you?’

She never flinched.

‘Look,’ Sam shouted, throwing another nervous glance down the track. ‘Any minute a train could come, and we’ll all be dead. Your daughter up there,’ he said, pointing to Alison, ‘you don’t want her to see this, do you? What will she do without you, without her brothers and sisters?’

Nothing.

Sam looked at the two children, then at the window. There was no other way.

He searched between the rails and found a sharp-edged stone, about the size of a tennis ball. ‘Close your eyes,’ he ordered, already hammering on the bottom right-hand corner of the passenger front window. He increased the force, until cracks appeared. After four more hits the window shattered but, being safety glass, held itself in place. The children in the back seat began crying, shocked and scared by the drama. ‘Close your eyes,’ Sam shouted again, as he elbowed away the glass as gently as he could. Cubes of glass flew onto the front seat, some hitting the woman, who remained wide-eyed and motionless. Finally, the way was clear for Sam to reach the inside door handle. Undoing the lock, he ripped open the passenger door and grabbed for the handbrake. Once more, he tried to push the car, straining with the effort. ‘For God’s sake, please move.’ This time the car did move forward a little, but the wheels were jammed in between the tracks, and there was no way it could be pushed any further.

Another glance down the line – still no train.

He needed to try something different. Stay calm, stay focussed. He reached back in the car and thrust the spare passenger seat forward, giving him access to the children.

‘Come on,’ he said, undoing the children’s seat belts with shaking hands. He grabbed at the little boy. ‘Come with me.’ He pulled him close to his chest and placed him carefully on the grass bank, just a couple of metres away. Rushing back to the car, he brought out the little girl. Then, as carefully as possible, he scooped up the two children, one under each arm. They were heavier than he expected, weighing him down as he fought his way up the embankment. The steep incline was hard going, but this was the safest place. He passed the children to Alison, peeling them away from him as they clung onto his shirt. ‘Look after your brother and sister.’

And that’s when he heard the ominous hiss, reverberating across the overhead power lines.

A train was approaching.

‘My mum, please help my mum!’ Alison screamed.

He slid back down towards the car, burning his hands against the dry scrubland, momentum slamming him into the car’s side. Still no train. But the hiss was getting louder.

His chest felt volcanic and he struggled to catch his breath. The woman was still silent, still staring dead ahead. ‘The keys to the handcuffs,’ he gasped. ‘Where are the keys?’

No answer.

‘The keys!’ he shouted. ‘Tell me where they are.’

He thrust his hands into her coat pockets and then the rest of her clothing, desperately searching every possible place where the keys might be. There was no reaction from her, even when he forced his hands into her tight jeans pockets. The keys were nowhere.

What was he going to do now? Maybe he should have told Alison to retrieve his mobile phone. He looked up at her, watching from the top with the children in her arms.

And then the train appeared around the top of the bend, travelling fast. A horn blared and the emergency brakes screeched. ‘Please, God, no,’ Sam cried, stepping back from the car as the train sped towards them. ‘Look away!’ he shouted to Alison, through the deafening scream of the brakes. ‘Don’t look!’ The horn blared again, but the train didn’t seem to slow. Sam tried to push the car again, in one last desperate effort.

It was still held fast.

‘Please, help Jessica!’ Alison screamed hysterically from the top of the embankment. ‘She’s in the back! Jessica’s in the back!’

Sam looked up at her, then back towards the car. What did she mean? Then a sickening realisation hit him.

The boot.

He thrust his head in the car, scrambling to find the boot release lever. As with his vehicle, it was on the far side, near the accelerator pedal. He threw himself across the still motionless woman and strained to reach the lever, pulling it upwards, knowing that any second the train would hit. Hauling himself out of the car he rushed to the back. The train was bearing down on them, brakes still screeching, no more than a hundred metres away. He had only seconds before impact. He threw open the boot. A newborn baby, wrapped in a pure white shawl, looked up at him with watery blue eyes. He grabbed it as a thunderous noise enveloped him, instinctively sprinting off to his left and diving for cover, shielding the baby from the impact as he hit the ground.

And then everything went black.

###

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Praise for Someone to Save You:

"Seriously, my co-workers were laughing at me as I came back from a break this morning because I was still staring at my phone (with Kindle app) as I walked down the hall back to my desk. I just could not stop reading. Very suspenseful, so much so, that I'm sorry I've finished it." (five stars, Amazon.com)

"An excellent read which I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend to all lovers of thrillers." (four stars, Amazon.co.uk)

"...fast-paced and intricately plotted...the lead character Sam Becker is a likable, convincing protagonist." (five stars, Amazon.co.uk)

"what a read!!! loved it from start to finish, enough suspense and twists to make me a very happy reader." (five stars, Amazon.co.uk)

"This book kicks off with high drama & engaged me from the start. It went at a decent pace and I felt excited by the idea of it, which is a great feeling to get at the start of a book." (four stars, Amazon.co.uk)

"I knocked through this one pretty quickly and enjoyed it all the way." (four stars, Amazon.co.uk)

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