“I'm going to die,” Kerry whispered into the darkness that surrounded the sunken Jeep.
“No, you're not.” Sully sounded more certain than he felt. They had been hiding underneath the ruined 4x4 for what felt like eternity. Sully's muscles were aching from the effort it was taking him to keep Kerry's head above the water. The smaller man's arm was still handcuffed to the roll bars of the Jeep. The keys were long gone, lost somewhere in the swamp.
“I need to check if the people who ran us off the road are still out there,” Sully said. “I can't do that if I'm trying to hold you above the water. I need you stand up.”
“I can't,” Kerry breathed the words out with a groaning gasp.
“Kerry-.”
“I can't stand up. I'm trying to. I've been trying to. I can't feel my legs. Oh god, I can't feel my legs.” The other man was crying now, tears running down his cheeks and blending into the swamp water.
Sully felt his blood run cold in his veins. He'd been a first responder for all of his adult life. He'd seen his fair share of spinal injuries. If Kerry's back was broken and his spine was damaged, Sully would never be able to get him out of the Jeep and back onto land on his own.
Sully knew he needed to act soon, before he was too tired and weak to save himself or Kerry. He looked down at the other man. “If you can't keep your head above water, then I need you to hold your breath for me.”
“No. Please. Don't let me go. Don't let me drown here. Please.” Kerry was sobbing in earnest now.
“Kerry, I'm trying to save us. You're going to have to trust me. Do you trust me?”
“Don't let me die,” Kerry whispered as Sully let him go. His head sunk underneath the water. Sully took his own deep breath and swam back out from underneath the Jeep.
He surfaced to see the first few rays of daylight stretching across the horizon. The car that had run them off the road was gone. He figured that whoever was driving it assumed they had died in the wreck or drowned in the creek.
The Jeep wasn't quite sitting level in the water. The passenger's side was sitting roughly a foot and a half higher out of the water than the driver's side was. Sully knew he'd never be able to free Kerry from the roll bars before he drowned.
He had to flip the Jeep back over.
Sully grabbed hold of his ruined truck by the very same roll bars that were trapping Kerry under the water. With a silent prayer, Sully put every bit of his strength into lifting the passenger's side of the Jeep out of the water. His injured muscles strained with the effort as the Jeep started to move. The countless hours Sully had spent in the gym were finally paying off. The Jeep groaned loudly once and then it began to roll back over with Kerry's limp body flopping like a rag doll from the crumpled frame.
Sully fell to his knees as the Jeep landed back on four wheels. Kerry was dangling from the side with his arm bent at an impossible angle, but he was breathing and Sully considered that a victory as he half-crawled and half-swam to the Jeep.
Kerry was unconscious as Sully heaved him into the back seat of the soggy Jeep. There wasn't much he could do for him here. With a silent apology, Sully left Kerry laying broken in the creek and headed for land. It was going to take him hours to walk back to town to get help. He wasn't sure Kerry had hours.