She jumped out of the Jeep and what she saw stunned and confused her. A little girl, maybe six years old, stood beside a teenage boy who sat on the ground, gripping his shoulder with one hand and grimacing in pain. He had a gash on his head and his arm hung at an unnatural angle. The little girl was sobbing, tears running down her cheeks. Her eyes were wide and frightened.
Shelby knelt beside them. She ran her hands over the little girl’s head, shoulders and arms. “What happened here?” she asked them.
“The bus,” the boy said, turning his head to point down the hill. Halfway down, a hundred feet at least, that big yellow bus was balanced very tentatively, the back end up against a huge tree, the front end pointing downward. If one thing shifted, that bus could head down the hill like a torpedo, hitting every tree and bump in its path before crashing at the bottom, a long way down.
“Holy God,” Shelby muttered. She bent to the boy, who grimaced in pain again. “Are there kids on the bus?” she asked.
“It’s full o’ kids,” he groaned. “When it slid off the road, we started to get out the back emergency door.” Tears ran down his cheeks from the pain. “I only got Mindy out before the thing shifted and slid farther.” He groaned. “I took a dive.”
“And crawled up the hill?” she asked.
He nodded. “If they try to get out, it could go. My arm. It’s outta the socket. You gotta pull it hard. Get it back in.”
“Hang on, buddy,” she said. “Just hang on.” She walked over to the edge of the hill, framed her mouth with her hands and yelled as loud as she could. “Don’t move! I’m getting help!” She helped the boy to his feet, then took the little girl’s hand. She opened the back door of the Jeep for them.
He struggled to get in. “Can’t you do this arm?” he asked. “All you have to do is—”
“We’re only a couple of minutes from town, just hang on and let a doctor do it. You can make it. Work with me here,” she said. Through some slipping and sliding, she got them into the Jeep. She punched the odometer to zero to record the exact distance to the scene. As she headed the rest of the way to town, she asked a couple of questions. “You have any idea how many kids are on the bus?”
“I don’t know exactly. Some didn’t go today because of weather,” he said. “About twenty. Mostly the little ones.”
“Do you know how it happened?”
“Ice,” he said simply. “We fishtailed. I thought she had it, but then the back end of the bus slid down the hill. Lucky we weren’t crushed, me and Mindy. We were coming out the back.”
“Do you know if anyone else is hurt in the bus?”
“I didn’t see anything after it started down the hill.”
“Mindy? You okay, honey? Anything hurt?”
“My knees,” she cried. “I want my mommy!” Tears ran down her chafed cheeks.
“How long ago?” Shelby asked the boy.
“Not too long. You came along right away.”
“Sheer luck,” she said. “I’m so glad I did.” As she neared town, there was sand sprinkled on the road. But what she saw panicked her—parents waiting inside their cars for the bus to bring their children. At least they were inside the cars and might assume the bus was running late because of weather. She hoped they’d take no notice of her hauling kids into the clinic at the other end of the block. She pulled up in front. “Stay right here while I get the doctor. You have to give me sixty seconds. Can you do that?”
“Yeah,” the boy said. “Hurry.”
Shelby ran into the clinic. As she entered, Cameron came out of the office and Mel came from the kitchen. Shelby tried to keep her voice calm. “I’ve got two kids in my Jeep. A little girl about six, scratched up, a boy about sixteen, gash on his head and dislocated shoulder. The school bus went off the road. Four point six miles west of town. Twenty kids are trapped in a bus that’s balanced against a tree and could slip down the mountain any second.”
“Jesus,” Mel said. “Let’s get the kids in here,” she said, heading for the door.
Shelby grabbed the sleeve of her sweater. “Listen, there are parents waiting at the bus stop. If they figure out there’s an accident, they’re going to rush out there, maybe attempt a rescue, maybe cause that bus to dislodge and crash down the hill.”
Mel looked at Shelby calmly. “Call 911. Then call Jack and tell him about the accident and where to go—tell him about the parents. He’ll know what to do. Then call Connie at the corner store and tell her we have an emergency. Ask her to walk down here, calmly, as if nothing’s wrong. We’ll take care of the kids in your Jeep and the minute they’re stable, we’ll have Connie stay here and head out to the scene. Got that?”