My friends and I were at a high school bonfire party out in the country on a Friday night. Chris had finally showed up with his new corvette that his father had bought him for his 16th birthday. He was one of the lucky ones who never done without and had gotten everything he asked for; you know one of those people who are born with a silver spoon in their mouths. He walked up to where I stood talking to Tyler and a couple other friends.


He nudged me on the arm and told me “Hey come see my new ride I got yesterday. It is so sweet!”

I laughed at him and said, “Okay! Just a minute. Come with me to get you a beer and let me refill mine first.”

Then I motioned for Tyler to come with us. Tyler and I refilled our beers and Chris grabbed one for himself. Then we walked over by Chris’s new ride. It was a brand-new 1981 Corvette convertible, crimson red color with white pin stripping. We walked around the car and checked it all out inside and outside from bumper to bumper.


Chris looked at me and said, “I bet it would beat that Mustang of yours.”

I laughed and replied “Yeah right! We will have to see about that one.”

Tyler jumped into the conversation and said, “Hey Chris lets go for a joy ride.”

Chris looked at Tyler and then back at me and asked me “You want to go? We can make room for three.”

I said, “Damn straight! Lets go!”


We all three got into the Corvette I was sitting on Tyler’s lap. We headed out of the long gravel driveway and hit the paved road. Chris drove pretty mellow on the country roads until we got to the highway. Then on the highway it was metal to metal and all balls to the wall. We were flying on the pavement like the wheels weren’t even touching it felt like car had wings. Chris had woven in and out of the small amount of traffic he drove around 120 mph. We all laughed hysterically hooted and hollered like a bunch of crazy idiots, just out to have the time of our lives with no cares in the world.


All of a sudden Chris yelled “Oh Fuck!”

Tyler and myself looked up quickly out the front windshield and we saw that there was a semi truck that had merged on to the highway in front of us.

Tyler yelled, “ Dude! Get over into the next lane. Now!”

Chris looked over his left shoulder and yelled back “I can’t get over there are to many cars.”

I yelled at Chris “Come on Dude! Cut someone off! Get over fast!”

There was a guardrail and huge cliffs on the right side of us, which made for no place to go.

Chris yelled “Tyler throw her on the floor and bend over her as far as you can get down because this isn’t going to be a fun ride.”


Chris tried to slow down and applied his brakes but there was no way to slow the car down that quick and at that high rate of speed. I quickly crawled down onto the floorboard and curled up like a fetus in the womb as tight as I could get under the dashboard covered my head with my arms to protect it. The adrenaline rushed through my body so fast I thought I would have a heart attack at 16 years old. Tyler bent down as low as he could and placed his body over the top of mine with his head covered by the dashboard and his arms.


The smell of burnt rubber about choked me to death as it made it way up through the floorboard. So many thoughts ran through my mind, the main one was that I didn’t want to die. I had no idea what happened above me all I heard was Chris as he cussed up a storm. I heard the high-pitched squealing sound of the brakes as they rubbed against the rotors. I heard the tires as they made a loud rubbing noise against the pavement underneath them. Tyler mumbled something but I could not understand what he said.  It was like time had gone in slow motion it almost stood still.


I heard a huge loud bang and then the car started to shake and move from side to side, it felt like I was on a really horrible scary roller coaster ride. The piercing sounds of scraping metal like nails on a chalkboard made my teeth want to grind together. Bone chilling sounds of ripping and cracking fiberglass made me cringe and my muscles tighten up. Suffocating smoke raged into the car and made me gag and cough I couldn’t breathe. Crunching roaring sounds of mental and fiberglass became affright in my soul. Screaming sounds of my friends stopped my heart with every sound they made. Squealing sounds of brakes and burning rubber of tires as they came to a stop. The hissing sound of air brakes as they were released.


We no longer moved time just stood still and waited for the next moment to take place. The noises and piercing sounds stopped there was a calmness an unexplainable silence like the calm after the storm. I could not move it felt like I was smashed into a small tin can. I could not hear my friends any longer. I was frightened by the thoughts of what had happened. I stayed still and listened for sounds of anything in the world beyond this tiny can I was crushed into. Silence became alarmingly piercing to my heart and brought cold chills through out my body.


I heard worried and alarmed voices as people screamed. I could not make out what they said they were to far in the distances. I had begun to have problems to breathe as the intense thick fog of burnt metal, ripped fiberglass, smoking hot brakes and burnt rubber consumed the air around me. I didn’t feel hurt but I couldn’t move to even start to tell if I was hurt or not. I waited wondered worried about what happened and what was going to happen next. Was I dead? Sure didn’t feel like I was dead, not like I would have known what it felt like to be dead anyway. Thinking oh my God that someone had to find us in this cavern of fiberglass and metal. Thoughts continued to rush though my mind like an avolance rips out the very earth within it path.  


The heart stopping bone-chilling sounds of sirens broke and engulfed the silence. A peace came over me that maybe someone knew where we were and that they would find us in this crushed darkness. I heard people scream and bark orders of what to do but I couldn’t hear the words spoken over the sounds of the sirens. They had to find us soon before it was too late for the three of us. I couldn’t breathe my heart pounded like it would jump out of my chest. My mind wouldn’t stop thinking about the many possibilities of the outcome of what happened. I thought I didn’t want to die I hadn’t lived my life yet.


Roaring sounds of a crane motor and clinking rattling of chains became an affright noise over the sirens. Scraping squealing sounds of metal and ripping cracking fiberglass consumed the silence around me in that tiny tin can. The car started to move as if it would begin to crush the can in more around me. I tried to open my eyes but the smoke brunt them and tears quickly rolled to the surface.

I wanted to yell “Stop moving the car. Stop it is going crush me.” my voice gasped and cracked I couldn’t make a sound.

I heard the many voices become clearer like the cavern had opened up. I still could not understand what they said my heart pounded so loud and my head throbbed, the noises of them pounded against my eardrums and made it hard to hear anything else.


Angry ragged sounds of saws cutting and ripping through the metal, and fiberglass. The smell of smoke and gasoline started to flow into the small area around me. The popping and breaking noises as things begin to be released. The voices consumed the closed silence around me I could almost understand what they yelled in the background. I felt Tyler’s body move upward which opened up a little of the space around me.

I heard the heart piercing sound of Tyler as he yelled out “There is someone else in the car. You have to get her out.” He repeated it over and over “There is someone else in the car. You have to get her out.”

His voice echoed through the air and in my head it was all I could hear repeated over and over. I thought they had to listen to him they had to find me and get me out.

A cold rough feeling hand touched my neck for a few minutes the touch sent soothing chills through out my body.

I heard a man's voice as he yelled out “I have a pulse! She is alive! Bring back the saws. We are going to have to cut her out. Hurry!”

The sound of his voice became like a peaceful heaven to me, as the thought came to my mind, they found me.

His serene gentle voice repeated to me “Honey hang on we are going to get you out.”

Thoughts rolled through my mind I was either dead and my spirit escaped the carcass enclosed in that tin can or I was alive soon to be out of this closed in darkness.


Roaring angry saws ripped and cut through the metal and fiberglass that made the enclosure that surrounded me. Voices yelled and barked out orders which made my head throb worst. I felt the air as it rushed around me as the space was opened up. I felt strong arms that pulled me slowly out of the tiny hidden spot under the dashboard.  

Gentle strong arms wrapped around me as they carried me away from the pile of rubbish to salvation. I moved and tried to look back but the man put his large rough hand on my head and forced my head to his shoulder.

He told me “Honey don’t look back. You don’t want to look back.”

He walked away from the crash as he cut through the thick fog of smoke that engulfed and consumed the air around us.

I opened my eyes and seen Tyler as he laid on a gurney he was alive but where was Chris. The gentle kind man laid me on a gurney and someone placed a mask over my face. Oh air! I could breathe. I wanted to inhale fast and take it all in as quickly as possible.

A voice told me “Breathe slow and easy.”

Tyler and myself were rushed to the hospital for treatment and testing. Chris had been decapitated and dismembered from the chest up. Tyler was paralyzed from the waist down. Myself I came out with bruises, a few broken bones and many cuts through out my body, I was the lucky one that night.