Just an Ashley Love story

Christine’s POV
We pull up to where everyone was. I run out of the truck to the guys, I almost couldn’t bring myself to look in the ditch. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath and looked.

You can tell the car rolled at least once, there were paint scratches from another car along the driver side. And the front end is smashed where it collided with the other side of the ditch.

“Holy shit.” I said under my breath. I willed the tears back. There is not time for crying, Ash needs me. CC heard me, and saw me struggling. He ran up and squeezed me into a hug.

“We’ll find him Christine, don’t worry. Ash is strong, he’ll be ok, plus he has you to think about.”

I know he’s right, I give him a weak smile.

“Alright guys, let’s get the horses off the trailer, and mount up. I want him found before nightfall.”

As soon as I said that the sun went behind a cloud, I looked up, “Shit.” The cloud was black as night, and I could smell the rain in the air. The breeze cooled quickly.

“Put your rain coats on, this doesn’t look good.”

They all groaned knowing how chilly it gets, and they all worried for ash. My heart dropped. He was in a tank and shorts when he left. He isn’t dressed for the rain, and that worries me. Hypothermia can kick in like this.

One of the officers walked up to me. “We’ll have a search party on foot as well, by the looks of the footprints we were able to find he walked straight back. As soon as his tracks hit the woods we lose them in the leaf litter. You guys ride ahead on horseback. We’ll be on the radios, channel 4.”

“Alright, let’s mount up!”

Mark, Angel, Chris, DJ and I got up in the saddles, we checked one final time that we had everything, Jinxx ran up to angel telling her to be careful and gave her a quick kiss. My heart broke. Oh god I hope he’s ok.

We took off at a gallop as the search party behind us got moving hearing them call,

“ASHLEY!!”

Ashley’s POV
I woke up, cold. I can’t move. It’s raining now and its dark, I can’t tell if its night, or just cloudy. I’m so cold I start shivering, making the pain worse. I’m still laying on my side in the dirt. I tried to call out but my throat is so dry nothing comes out. Darkness closes in again, I welcome it this time, at least I can’t feel the pain when I’m out.

Christines POV
We’ve been searching for hours, its pouring rain and the sun, or what you can see of it, is setting. How could he have possibly gone this far, we had to be at least 4 miles back. We came up to the edge of where the wooded area meets another highway. “DJ, Mark, Ride along the Highway, if you see anything let me know, when you’re done, hit the trail and head back to the truck. It’s getting colder, and it’s getting late. Wrangler and Gunner are getting to old to be out here in this for this long. Sweat scrape them good, and use the coolers in the tack area to cover them with before you trailer them up.”

“Angel, Chris, spread out about a football field’s length from each other and let’s start heading back, slow, use the spotlight flashlights and search every inch. We need to find him.” My voice caught as tears threatened to fall. I swallowed hard.

Chris looked at me, “We’ll find him Jersey, don’t worry.”

Angel walked up on Cobalt, leaned over and hugged me. A few stray tears escaped down my cheeks. I miss him, and I’m so worried that we’ll get there too late.

I waited for them to get themselves in position. They flashed their lights my way signaling that they were ready to go. We hadn’t even moved the horses two feet when a flare shot up off to my left. Without a word we all bolted in that direction. Jake came across the radio “We found him, he’s in bad shape.”

I pushed poor Patch as fast as he could go. Angel and Chris weren’t far behind. I heard the Med-Evac before I saw it, when it came into view it stopped and shone its light. The trees were too thick for it to land so it was gunna have to send down a basket.

I slid to a halt near the search party, and dismounted. I walked slowly through the crowd. I was afraid to see the condition he was in. Paramedics involved in the search party were already working on him. He was pale, covered in mud and completely unconscious. His face was bruised and swollen. It hurt to look at him. “Ashley,” I breathed out, the tears finally fell, I collapsed to my knees. Juliet ran over, wrapped her arms around me and rocked me, telling me things are ok now, that Ash would be ok.

Ashley’s POV
I woke up but I couldn’t open my eyes, the pain is unbearable. And I’m so cold. I can’t even shiver anymore. Again I tried to cry out for help but nothing came out. Maybe a groan. I don’t want to give up, I don’t want to give in. Pictures of Christine run through my head, and tears fall. I cry silently into the dirt. I never got the chance. She’ll never really know how I feel. I’m so sorry.

“Guys over here, I think I heard something.”

Was that Jake? I tried to move, tried to yell out but nothing. I force my voice out, and still nothing, I groan.

“Oh My God Ashley. Its ok man, we’re here now.”

That sounded like Andy. Then I heard CC, “Jake call over the radio, let them know we found him, Jinxx Pop the flare.”

I see the light from the flare go up against my eyelids, then I heard Jake, “We found him, he’s in bad shape.”

People started to crowd around, I could tell by all the voices, and then I heard something rumbling in the ground. An earthquake? No … hoof beats! My heart fluttered. I knew that means Christine was here. I struggled and fought my body to do something. I wanted to open my eyes and look at her face, but, nothing. The rumbling stopped. It took a moment then I heard her, barely, “Ashley,” she said in a breath. She sounded like she was in pain. I just want to hold her. Tell her everything will be ok. Darkness started closing in. I wasn’t ready for it, I didn’t care about the pain anymore, I didn’t care how cold I was. I just wanted to see her. I fought a losing battle, darkness finally won.

Notes

**Med-Evac is the hellicopter used for transporting patients from accident scenes, etc.