Nick Carter never saw the truck coming, but he felt its impact. As it crashed into the back of the van, he was thrown forward, his seat belt cutting sharply across his middle for the second time that morning. Before he could catch his breath, his body slammed back against his seat as the van suddenly pitched forward. Then they were freefalling. His stomach dropped like it did whenever he rode the new Tower of Terror ride at Disney World, except this was no theme park attraction.
It was over before he could scream, but he knew they weren’t out of danger yet. Instead, they were in the river.
Water was pouring in through the side door, which had been left open. Nick could see it rising rapidly outside his window as the van started to sink. Up until then, he had been sitting silent and still, in a state of shock after the accident, but as a surge of adrenaline kicked in, he sprang into action. In a panic, he unhooked his seatbelt, prepared to launch himself between the two seats in front of him and escape through the open door. But then he remembered Brian.
He looked over at his best friend, sitting beside him in the back seat. Brian was slumped against his window, still unconscious. But he was breathing. He wasn’t dead. Nick knew he could never leave Brian behind to drown.
“Bri?” He reached out to gently shake Brian’s shoulder. Something inside him pulled uncomfortably when he leaned over, but he ignored the pain. “C’mon, man, you gotta wake up!” He was confident in his own swimming abilities, but he didn’t know if he was strong enough to get both himself and Brian safely out of the van and up to the surface. Still, he had to try. Already, he could feel the van tilting toward one side, as water flooded the interior. His feet were wet and freezing. He picked them up, crouching on the back seat. He unbuckled Brian’s seatbelt and gave him a light shake again, but there was still no response. If the cold water creeping up his pant legs wasn’t enough to shock him awake, Nick didn’t know what would. Like Kevin, he was worried Brian was hurt badly.
You weren’t supposed to move someone who’d been in an accident, Nick knew. He had seen how carefully the paramedics had pulled Howie, Kevin, and AJ out of the van, using backboards and neck braces to keep them from moving around too much and injuring themselves further. He didn’t have that kind of equipment down here, but there wasn’t time to wait for the experts. The van was half-flooded already. In a matter of seconds, they would be underwater.
He pulled Brian to his side, hooking his left arm around his best friend’s body as he used his right hand to pull himself forward, struggling against the force of the freezing water that was flowing in. Just before it hit his face, he took a deep breath and held it as he fought his way between the two middle seats, his heart pounding with barely-controlled panic. He could hardly see where he was going in the murky, fast-moving water, but he knew the way out was to his right, so he headed in that direction, hauling Brian with him.
Once he cleared the door, Nick felt much less claustrophobic. His legs were finally free to kick so he could propel them both to the surface. Soon his head would be above water, and he could breathe again.
But his sense of relief was short-lived. Brian was stuck on something. Nick turned back, his eyes stinging as he tried to see what it was. It took him a few seconds to find that, somehow, one of Brian’s feet had gotten wedged beneath the seat. Try as he might to tug him free, Brian wouldn’t budge.
Nick’s chest was burning from lack of oxygen and the exertion of his efforts. Finally, desperate for air, he was forced to let go of Brian and swim for the surface himself. Despite being a certified scuba diver, it was much more difficult than Nick had thought it would be. He kicked as hard as he could, but the cold water was already affecting his coordination, making his limbs feel heavy and weak. His waterlogged clothing weighed him down; he wished he’d thought to remove his puffy coat before it got wet. But just when he thought he couldn’t hold his breath a second longer, Nick felt a rush of icy cold air, as his head burst out of the water.
He bobbed on the surface for a few seconds, sucking in frantic lungfuls of fresh air. “Nick!” he heard Denise shout from somewhere above him. His survival instinct urged him to swim toward the sound of her voice, but he fought against it.
“Brian’s still down there!” he shouted back. He took one more deep breath and held it as he prepared to go under again. But before he could dive, a strong arm encircled his waist, pulling him back.
“C’mon, kid, I’ve got you!” he heard his rescuer shout, but Nick fought against him.
“No, wait!” he cried, as he felt himself being wrangled toward the shore, away from the sunken van where Brian was still trapped. “We’ve gotta get Brian! Brian’s stuck!”
“The divers are on their way; they’ll get him out,” said the man’s voice in his ear. “Now let me do my job and get you out of here first.”
There was no use continuing to put up a fight; Nick was simply too tired, and the man too strong. He stopped trying to resist and swam alongside him to the shore. A high embankment separated them from the rescue workers waiting on the riverbank above, but someone shouted, “Here, Shep! Grab this!” and tossed a rope down to them. The paramedic, Shep, tied the rope around Nick’s waist. Nick clung to it with numb fingers as he was hauled out of the river, then collapsed on the grassy bank, gasping for breath and trembling all over.
Someone removed his wet coat and wrapped him in a blanket. “We need to get you dried off and warmed up, sweetheart,” said a soft voice in his ear. “Can you stand up and walk with me?”
Nick looked up blearily and recognized the curly-haired woman, Carol, who had helped Kevin, Howie, and AJ earlier. He nodded, climbing shakily to his feet, and she shuffled him over to a waiting ambulance to get checked out.
It was warm in the back of the ambulance, but Nick couldn’t stop shivering. “W-where’s everybody else?” he asked through chattering teeth, as Carol slipped a blood pressure cuff around his arm.
“Already on their way to the hospital,” she replied, inflating the cuff until it was tight. “Don’t worry; they’re in excellent hands.” She paused to listen, pressing her stethoscope to the inside of his elbow. Then she smiled and added, “I work in the ER at County General. My friends there will take good care of your friends.”
Nick nodded again, but it wasn’t the others he was worried about. “What about Brian?” he wondered.
Carol gave him another reassuring smile as she removed the blood pressure cuff. “As soon as I finish checking your vitals, I’ll find out what’s going on, okay? I’m sure the rescue divers will be here soon. Just try to relax and stay calm.”
Nick snorted - like that was going to happen. His heart was still racing, and he didn’t see it slowing down anytime soon, not until he knew Brian was safe.
“What’s your name?” asked the nurse, taking his hand and turning it palm up. She pressed two fingers firmly over his wrist to feel his pulse.
“Nick... Nick Carter.”
Carol continued to fuss over him for a few more minutes, taking his temperature and listening to his chest with her stethoscope. “You’re a pretty lucky guy, Nick. Everything looks okay,” she said, shining a light into his eyes. “Are you in any pain?”
There had been an ache in his belly just after the accident, probably from the seat belt, but it wasn’t bothering him any more. Now Nick just felt numb with cold and exhaustion. “No,” he whispered.
Carol gave him a lingering look, but she seemed satisfied enough with his answer. “All right,” she said, straightening up. “I’m going to go see how those divers are doing. You just sit tight, and I’ll be back soon.” She patted his shoulder and climbed out of the back of the ambulance, shutting the door behind her.
As soon as she was gone, Nick stood up and pressed his face to the small window. It was hard to tell what was happening, but he could see a boat with flashing lights in the water. For what felt like forever, he stared out the window, barely remembering to breathe, until he finally saw the boat start moving toward the riverbank. His breath caught in his throat as he watched a team of rescue workers carry a stretcher off the boat and onto the shore, rushing toward the ambulance with it. Nick’s heart lifted with hope.
The ambulance door opened, and Carol climbed inside. “Nick, I need you to take a seat - and buckle up, while you’re at it,” she said, motioning to a seat off to one side. “We’re going to take you and Brian to the hospital, but you’ll need to stay out of the way while we work.”
“So he’s alive?” Nick asked eagerly, as he sat down and fastened the seatbelt.
Carol didn’t answer. He understood why a second later, when Brian was lifted into the back of the ambulance. Once Nick got a good look at his best friend, his heart sank again. Beneath the straps that held him onto a backboard, Brian’s body was lifeless and still. The two paramedics who scrambled in alongside the stretcher had started CPR: Shep, the one who had pulled Nick out of the river, was pushing repeatedly on Brian’s chest, while the other placed an oxygen mask over Brian’s face and squeezed the bag attached to it every few seconds. Nick knew what that meant. Without a heartbeat and unable to breathe on his own, Brian was basically dead.
Nick buried his face in his hands, not wanting to watch, though he couldn’t help but peek between his fingers to see what was happening. The nurse, Carol, quickly cut off Brian’s wet clothes. She wiped off his upper body with a towel and attached electrodes to his bare chest, working around Shep’s hands as they continued to pump it. Then she switched on a small monitor, which showed a green line that spiked with each compression.
“Let’s pause and check his rhythm,” she said, and Shep stopped pumping. Nick held his breath as all eyes turned to the heart monitor, but the green line immediately flattened, and Nick felt his lungs deflate. “Asystole,” said Carol. “Resume compressions.”
As Shep started pumping Brian’s chest again, the ambulance’s engine suddenly roared to life. Nick could hear the wailing siren and see the flicker of strobe lights reflecting against the window glass as they raced away from the scene. He clutched the edge of his seat and hoped it would be a short ride to the hospital.
Carol inserted an IV into Brian’s arm and injected it with a syringe of something. “One amp of epi in,” she said. Nick watched the heart monitor hopefully, waiting for something to happen, but there was no change.
“He’s dead, isn’t he?” he whispered, hot tears stinging his eyes. He didn’t even bother to wipe them away.
Shep shook his head, his strong arms still pumping vigorously. “There’s a saying we have in the medical community,” he replied, panting slightly from the physical effort he was putting forth. “‘You’re not dead until you’re warm and dead.’ If you’re gonna drown, kid, do it in cold water - mild hypothermia actually helps in these kinds of situations. I’ve seen drowning victims brought back after being down a lot longer than your friend here has. So no, he’s not dead until we say he’s dead. Right, Hathaway?”
Carol hesitated. “His condition is very serious,” she said neutrally, apparently not wanting to give Nick false hope by agreeing with Shep.
Still, Nick felt somewhat encouraged. If anyone could survive something like this, it was Brian. He was one of the strongest people Nick knew - small in stature, but scrappy as hell. In a fight for his life, he would bet on Brian to win.
“C’mon, Frick,” he begged, forcing himself to look at Brian’s blank, ashen face. The sight of it chilled him to the bone, and he began to shiver again. “Come back to me, bro.”
There was no response, no sign that his best friend in the whole world was still alive, but Nick wasn’t ready to give up hope. He knew what Brian would do in his situation, were their roles reversed: Brian would pray. Nick had never been particularly religious, but in that moment of desperation, he was willing to try anything. As the ambulance sped toward the hospital, he squeezed his eyes shut, clasped his hands together, and silently prayed for God to make a miracle happen there.
***
