Life Is What You Make Of It 3
Life Is What You Make Of It
by DLC
This story is FICTION, people. I do not know the boy bands written about, mentioned, or otherwise heretofore alluded to, or their sexual preferences. So there. If you're under 18, don't worry... there's enough content here for even the underage to enjoy... but chappies with sex in, I'll put the usual disclaimers in, for you to avoid. If you don't like or are not allowed to read sexual material, may I suggest you leave now. All praise, compliments, and fan mail are welcome and personally read, flames ignored. Otherwise, enjoy the story!
Chapter Three
Marty looked up to the sound of a beeping horn, and blinked to clear his vision. "Oooog. My HEAD." He groaned, and then slowly checked to make sure he had all his body parts where he expected them to be. Feeling extremely disoriented, the young man leaned back and winced as he heard the sounds of sirens approaching.
"Holy God... it looks like Armageddon happened here!" Marty heard one of the EMT workers exclaim as the doors to the ambulance opened.
"Over here...." Marty called, fighting to get back onto his feet. When the bus came around the corner, Marty had instinctively jumped out of the driver's side mere moments before the speeding bus nailed the Matrix on it's passenger side. Marty?s rather abrupt dive-landing on the tarmac caused him to crack his head on the guardrail of the meridian, and he was STILL seeing stars. But thankfully other than that, Marty considered himself pretty lucky.
"Geez, mister. Are you alright?" The EMT asked as he came over to examine Marty?s bleeding head and injured arm. Marty just groaned, as the EMT began applying some pressure to the cut on Marty's head.
"We've got injured over here, too!" Another EMT called, trying to look into the tipped-over bus. The EMT treating Marty glanced at him. "Can you walk?"
Marty nodded. "I'm fine, I'm fine. Just give me a minute to catch my breath. Go. Go help the people on that big bus over there."
The EMT nodded. "Okay, but I want to have you brought in to be examined... that's some bump you?ve got there!"
Marty winced, and agreed. Taking a minute to lean against the ambulance, he started to look around as other EMT, police, and fire trucks came to the accident scene. The other *Nsync tour vehicles stayed at a respectful distance away from the action, and Marty wasn?t too surprised. That overturned bus didn't look good at all. He had to hand it to his uncle, the new modifications worked. The car automatically sent a distress message to 911, the minute the first impact happened.
After the police took Marty's statement, Marty borrowed a cell phone, and called his uncle. "Hey, uncle Chuck. Yeah, it's me. Saw it on the news, huh? No, no I'm okay. Really. EMTs want me brought in for observation, I hit my head diving out of the car just before the bus hit it. Yeah, the car's a complete wreck. Sorry about that. Good news is, your early warning system kicked in by accident, broadcast an S.O.S. on the emergency band right after the first car hit me. Yeah, I know... I was surprised it went off, too. Look, they?re finally getting into the bus now, I wanna see if I can help the EMTs. Yeah, I'll see you at the hospital. Bye," Marty said, handing the phone back to the fire chief. "So... you guys need a hand, here? I do have training, I'm certified EMT, just like you."
After getting the ok, Marty was hoisted into the turned-over bus, with some help from people on hand. Marty winced as he crouched in the overturned bus, and his migraine wasn't causing the pain. Everything around him was flickering and sparking. "You might wanna get some fire boys in here, it looks like we might have some electrical problems. I think the driver's dead, poor bastard." Marty reported on the radio. "What else can you see in there?" the fire chief squawked over the speaker.
Marty coughed. "Lots of smoke, and sparks. And unconscious bodies, I can't tell how bad. There's five up near the front, counting the driver. I'm going to see if I can bring one of these people awake."
"We've got units on the way, but we can't do anything until the people are out of there." The fire chief confirmed.
"Understood, chief. Tell the EMT boys they're gonna need a chopper and a harnass, to get them outta here. I really can't think of any other way to get them out in a hurry."
Marty clipped the borrowed handset back on his shirt, and rolled one of the bodies onto his back. Marty gasped. "Good lord... Justin."
Justin moaned. "Justin... Justin, come on. Wake up. Can you hear me?" Marty said urgently, fishing out some smelling salts and waving them under Justin's bloody nose. Justin gasped, and his eyes flew open.
"I'm glad to see you're no worse for wear, than I was." Marty said, reassuringly. Justin blinked, confused. "Who...?"
"Don't worry about that, right now. I?m the guy your driver hit. You need to get up though, we?ve gotta get outta here before this whole bus blows. I figure we?ve got maybe 5 or 10 minutes, and that?s if there's some fire extinguishers in here. Can you move?" As Justin nodded, Marty confirmed that he was successful in bringing Justin around.
"The... the bathroom." Justin croaked, coughing on the smoke.
"What about the bathroom?" Marty asked, sounding worried.
"L...Lance. He was... he was in the bathroom, when the bus crashed." Justin explained, as Marty helped him to his feet. Marty noticed a sunroof latch, and got an idea. "Justin, do you think you can help me slide them through that thing, there?"
Justin glanced over, and saw where Marty was pointing. "I... yeah... I think I can do that. My shoulder is killing me, but we can try it."
"There's a sunroof-like thing, over here on what was the ceiling. An escape hatch. We're going to try and pop it and push the survivors out through the hole. Stand back." Marty explained over the radio.
Justin swore, as he fiddled with the release latch. "It?s stuck!"
"Never rains but it pours. Okay, on the count of three," Marty instructed. Giving a wicked look at Justin, he wrapped his hands around Justin?s and yelled, "Three!"
The combined strength worked. The hatch popped open, and the two young men breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, that'll give us a little fresh air to breathe. But we've still got unconscious people to get out, yet. And I think this bus?s fuel tank could go at any minute. Okay, let's get the big boys out first. Where'd you last see J.C.?"
Justin pointed, and Marty quickly found the insensate singer. "Okay, you stay put and I'll carry him over. I need you to guide him out through the hole, feet first. Understand?"
Justin nodded, and grabbed J.C.'s feet as they came near to him. Carefully feeding J.C. through the hole, the EMTs outside successfully got him on the gurney underneath, and began carrying him away from the bus.
"I take it then, that the twin sacks of potatoes near the couch, would be Joey and Chris." Marty quipped, looking up as J.C. was being taken away.
Justin blinked, and then stifled a laugh. "Yeah, that's them alright. Chris is lighter, I'll take him." So saying, Justin crawled over and began gently moving Chris towards the hatch.
"Sure, leave the lost Corleone brother to ME to lug about..." Marty chuckled. A small fire began to flare up, and Marty grimaced. "Damn, we're running out of time! Okay, I've got Joey, is Chris almost out?"
Justin nodded. "Good, you take care of them for a minute, I'm going to get the driver over here." Marty explained. So saying, Marty grunted and tied the driver to the harnass that had lowered him down. With a slight tug on the line, the driver's body was hauled up. Marty grabbed an extinguisher, and doused the small fire that was beginning to grow.
"Now what?" Justin asked.
Marty pointed to the hatch. "Now, you get the hell out of here. Go on, I'll go get Lance. Bathroom, right?"
"Bu.. but..." Justin protested.
"Justin. You've been an invaluable help, and it means a lot to me. But this place is starting to crash around our ears. Now GO. I'll be okay." Marty said reassuringly, placing a hand on Justin?s shoulder. Justin for his part, had been pretending the smoke wasn?t bothering him, and Marty knew it.
"We're reading heat spikes, in there... what's going on?" the fire chief asked, over the radio.
"Oh, just a small case of hotfoot or two. Justin's coming out, and I need you to pipe in an axe. There's still one more person, he's trapped in the bathroom. Over."
"Copy that, ready to receive, Marty. Got your axe, too."
"Marty...?" Justin asked, overhearing his name for the first time.
Marty cocked his head, in the cramped space. "Yeah?"
Justin leaned in, and gave Marty a kiss. "Good luck."
Marty blinked, as Justin's lips matched his own. Justin pulled away first, and then giving one more concerned look, climbed out of the escape hatch head first. Justin refused to look back, and hoped that his new friend, and his best friend, would both come out alive.
Marty coughed as the axe was slid in. Kicking the escape hatch closed after Justin with his foot, he coughed as the small fires started up again. He knew the odds were getting tight, but he wasn't about to give up now, when he was needed the most. Seeing how the fires were starting up again, he realized his odds of going out that way would have been problematic at best anyway. Best to have it closed so that Justin didn't try going back in after them.
Marty turned off his radio, and made his way slowly to the bathroom. Grunting from the smoke, Marty began whacking at the door to break the lock. On the fourth attempt, he heard a satisfying snap, and the door swung open.
There lay Lance, and Marty shook his head. Dropping the axe, he climbed over the doorway, and made his way over to Lance. Marty raised his eyebrows, at Lance?s pants and underwear being around his ankles. Leaning against the door with his feet, Marty pulled Lance out of the bathroom, and gave himself enough room to pick up the axe again and swing it at the ceiling to make another opening. The air was clearer in the rear of the bus, which made Marty?s work easier. The bus was starting to catch fire in the front, and the heat was becoming noticeable to Marty.
Marty smiled as he saw daylight coming through the hole he was making. "A few more whacks, oughta do it." He thought to himself.
Outside the bus, the fire chief was frantically trying to raise Marty on the radio. Justin was huddling up at an ambulance, being treated. Justin wasn?t sure what it was about Marty, but Justin somehow sensed that Marty had an idea how to survive this. Turning to the other ambulances, he was happy to see Chris and Joey coming around, arguing from their stretchers over who needed their heads examined more.
Just then, the front of the bus exploded. "NOBODY could survive that..." the fire chief gasped. Justin whipped his head back towards the bus, and gasped as a hole cracked open near the rear.
Out came Lance through the smoke, still unconscious. Justin jumped up and gasped as an equally disheveled Marty worked his way free of the burning bus, and collapsed on the ground near the bus.
Marty crawled to his hands and knees, bleeding and sweating from the exertion of climbing out the makeshift escape hole. He grabbed Lance's shoulders, and calling upon reserves of strength even Justin couldn?t believe the young hero had, Marty lifted Lance to a position close to standing, and walked him away from the exploding bus.
Everyone stood there in complete shock, at the sight. "Holy Mary mother of God..." the EMT who had initially treated Marty breathed.
Marty winced, and slowly made their way to the stunned emergency personnel. As Lance was taken off Marty's hands, Marty stumbled over to the ambulance Lance was being put on, and collapsed to his knees, at last.
For a moment, nobody knew what to do. They simply watched Marty as he heaved several breaths of fresh air, the sounds of explosions behind him as the rest of the bus burned.
Only Justin was close enough to hear Marty mutter softly to himself, as he turned his head to look back at the burning bus. "And the rest.... is silence." Justin jumped over to catch Marty, as he finally collapsed to the ground, completely exhausted.
Surprise!!! Finally came out with another chapter! I know a lot of you wondered what happened to me lately, and I have two words for you: electrical fire. My house caught fire a few months ago, and I never had the chance to finish work on this and several other projects, until now. I want to thank all my fans who have NOT given me up for lost, and I also want to stress to readers, that this ongoing adventure story is brought to you by the letters Q, U. E, R, and by your local Nifty archive, please donate to the kind folks there! I do!
On a personal note, does anyone know of somebody who wants to get rid of a car for cheap to nothing? I'm looking for an inexpensive used car to own, and anybody who is interested, email me please! -DLC.